' Time To Start Thinking is not only a wonderful tapestry of the current state of America, it provides a deeply insightful narrative of the origins of our current economic and political malaise. Ed Luce is a brilliant reporter who has spoken to everyone: CEOs and members of the cabinet, lobbyists and small town mayors, recent MBAs and unemployed teachers. In his acutely observed, often witty and very humane portraits he succeeds in converting the abstractions of economics and bringing them to life. This is is a book that will transform the way you think of America.' Liaquat Ahamed, author of Lords of Finance: 1929, The Great Depression and the Bankers Who Broke the World 'This book should be read by anyone who has an interest in the future of America, from perplexed bystanders in Europe to panicking policy makers in the White House. It is an eye opening account of a great nation grappling with the probability but not the inevitability of decline, beautifully and clearly written by a veteran observer who dissects his complicated subject with a mixture of insight, empathy and wit. Luce avoids the twin traps of adulation or revulsion that stunt so many books about America. Time to Start Thinking is a welcome and timely invitation to do just that.

' Matt Frei, Washington Correspondent for Channel 4 'In a tradition stretching back to Tocqueville, sympathetic foreigners are often the keenest observers of American life. Edward Luce is one such person. He paints a highly disturbing picture of the state of American society, and of the total failure of American elites to come to grips with the real problems facing the country. It rises far above the current political rhetoric by its measured reliance on facts rather than canned ideological posturing to reach its conclusions.' Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and The Origins of Political Order.