It might seem strange for Abbeville Press, a major art, design, an illustrated book publisher, to release a book—a very detailed, densely argued book—on the looming danger of the national debt. But in a major departure for the house, in September Abbeville will publish Full Faith and Credit: The National Debt, Taxes, Spending, and the Bankrupting of America by Alan Alexrod (with cartoons by Michael Ramirez), which claims that the national debt “is terrorism in a different form.”
Abbeville is releasing a 10,000-copy first printing of the book. Publisher Robert Abrams, who is championing Full Faith and Credit, said, the book’s message reflects his “passionate concerns about the future of my kids and their kids” over the national debt. “People might think it's funny that an illustrated book publisher would do this,” he said. “But it’s personal to me. The book paints quite a dark view of where the country is headed if it doesn’t address the national debt,” he said
In sections entitled “The Tyranny of Good Intentions,” “Spending Too Much at the Civilian Pork Barrel" and “What Taxes Cost Us,” Axelrod makes the case that a combination of big government (both the federal bureaucracy and elected officials), big private and corporate organizations, and big corporate media, essentially create and profit from, the conditions that enable ever-increasing levels of public debt.
Although he acknowledged that the book paints a gloomy picture, Abrams said the title is “not about finger pointing” but, rather, an attempt to "get out the facts."
To promote the book, Abbeville has brought in the Pinkston Group, an independent publicity company that often works on public policy campaigns. Abrams said the author, Axelrod, has already done more than five hours of radio appearances promoting the book. In publishing Full Faith and Credit, Abbeville has used some techniques one would expect from an illustrated publisher. In addition to the Ramirez cartoons, the book has a variety of sharp looking charts and graphs.
“As a publisher and concerned citizen, I haven’t seen this conversation [about the national debt] raised as it should be by the press,” Abrams said. “I do a lot of books for narrow markets. I hope this book finds a bigger one. The issues are critical to the country.”
