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AMERICA, COMPROMISED

Name: AMERICA, COMPROMISED
Author: Lawrence Lessig
ISBN: 978-0-226-31653-6

by Lawrence Lessig ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 22, 2018

The diagnosis rings truer than the cures.

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A Harvard law professor presents the case that America has become structurally compromised with a pervasiveness that transcends individual corruption.

In a book based on a series of lectures, Lessig (Republic Lost: 2.0, 2015), co-founder of Creative Commons, focuses on how the country’s institutions are no longer serving the purposes for which they were designed. They have succumbed to third-party interests: wealthy, corporate, market forces, all of which have vested interests in helping the rich get richer. “My belief is that we have allowed core institutions of America’s economic, social, and political life to become corrupted,” writes the author. “Not by evil souls, but by good souls. Not through crime, but through compromise.” In our current situation, wealth exerts its influence wherever such influence can manifest itself, from campaign financing that restricts the choices of candidates from which average Americans can choose to academic research funded for the benefit of those doing the funding. Lessig also shows how pharmaceutical companies have compromised the profession of psychiatry, promoting the dubious concept of “chemical imbalance” that can be balanced by prescription, and how market forces and technological disruption have transformed media in general and journalism in particular, catering to the appetite for junk food where democracy demands nourishment. The author is more convincing in his case against “institutional corruption” than in finding the solution. As he writes in the chapter on the media, where he suggests that journalism might better become more transparently partisan, some readers might think his proposal “seems just nuts.” Similarly, his borrowing of a proposal for “deliberative polling”—leaving discussions of issues and nominations in the hands of 1,000 or so randomly selected yet representative participants—isn’t likely to be adopted any time soon. Yet the book has value in showing how much that ails America isn’t illegal or even unethical but systemic.

The diagnosis rings truer than the cures.

Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-226-31653-6

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Univ. of Chicago

Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO STEAL A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
by Lawrence Lessig & Matthew Seligman

- BOOK REVIEW
THEY DON'T REPRESENT US
by Lawrence Lessig

- BOOK REVIEW
REPUBLIC, LOST
by Lawrence Lessig

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.