"In this wonderful new book, Ruth Braunstein reminds us that budgets are, inherently, moral documents. This book shows how the seemingly banal issue of taxes is actually vital to the articulation of the priorities and values of our society. At a time when many are seeking to cut taxes, regulations, and societal investments, Braunstein shows us why we must reconsider this from a moral and ethical perspective."-- Rev. Jim Wallis, Georgetown University "With stunning analytic insight and gripping evidence, Ruth Braunstein transforms our understandings of the US tax system. My Tax Dollars turns seemingly dull financial ledgers into compelling cultural and social documents. A major contribution to economic and cultural sociology, the book will fascinate readers beyond the academy."-- Viviana A.

Zelizer, author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy " My Tax Dollars hits the intellectual jackpot. Alongside colorful portraits of tax propagandists, enthusiasts, resisters, and the ordinary Americans who dutifully, if grudgingly, file returns every April, Ruth Braunstein shows that our views of taxes are really about what we believe we owe each other as citizens. The surprise is not that in a fractured political landscape, those beliefs conflict. The surprise is that all parties to the debate, progressives as much as conservatives, venerate the individual 'taxpayer,' who contributes only to get something back--a decidedly contractual idiom that forecloses a more solidary understanding of citizenship. A stunningly original book."-- Francesca Polletta, author of Inventing the Ties that Bind: Imagined Relationships in Moral and Political Life "The book is a masterclass on weaving together different kinds of sources, from Supreme Court decisions to ethnography to fiction books to Johnny Cash lyrics. Bringing together an extraordinary range of evidence, Braunstein examines how and why taxation is viewed as sacred, profane, or mundane."-- Vanessa Williamson, Brookings Institution "This book is at once a sophisticated theoretical work, a really novel empirical treatment about a very controversial social fact, and remarkably well written.

I am confident it will become a standard text in economic and cultural sociology."-- Jeffrey Alexander, Yale University.