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Taxation and Resentment: Race, Party, and Class in American Tax Attitudes

Andrea Campbell

Culture, humanities & social science

Taxation and Resentment: Race, Party, and Class in American Tax Attitudes

By Andrea Campbell, the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science

Princeton University Press · 2025

Most Americans want the rich to pay more to fund government, yet favor regressive over progressive taxes. Why this policy-preference gap? In this book, Campbell describes how convoluted tax code confuses the public about who pays and who benefits, so tax preferences do not turn on principles, interests, or even party. Instead, race and racism play large roles, and tax skepticism among Americans of all stripes helps the rich and anti-tax forces undermine progressivity.

From Summer 2025 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News). Cover image via Google Books.