"Americans, we Europeans need you back...not only in our interest, but in yours as well."

Great societies, this book holds, are marked by essential core values: the social contract that enhances its citizens' lives; an honest and enlightened economy; a vital public realm; and a recognition that the world is an interdependent place, one best governed under international law. With the triumph of conservatism in America, each of these values has withered. Rampant materialism, corporate corruption, the failure of government regulation, an unquestioning faith in American exceptionalism, and a conviction that Americans must go it alone are all in the saddle.

We are not going in the right direction. To turn us around—to secure health services and decent work for all Americans, to build faith in the economy, to close the gap between rich and poor, to restore, in short, the American dream—America needs to reclaim these values. It could not do better in that task than to renew its historic philosophical partnership with today's Europe, which has chosen a better compass.