In an excellent investigation, with clear and relevant examples, Michel Desmurget shatters the myth of a beautiful and prosperous America where everyone can succeed as long as they are hardworking and courageous. Taking the opposite view of the current dominant discourse on the virtues of the Anglo-Saxon liberal model, the author writes a disconcerting antithesis, based on American researchers, sociologists and journalists who have studied the failures of the American model and who, for the most part, recommend surprisingly European solutions (universal social security, introduction of a minimum wage indexed to inflation, federalized education, etc.).