Illuminating, if sometimes a chore to read, and a welcome aid to understanding the evolution of Paul’s offbeat ideas.
A breezy and generally admiring though not hagiographic look at the quixotic fixture at the far-right extreme of the last couple of presidential elections.
Reason editor Doherty (Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment, 2009, etc.) would seem to share Ron Paul’s libertarian leanings, though he professes some amusement and bewilderment at Paul’s tactics, if not his message. Paul, for instance, has often spoken of terrorist activities as the blowback attendant in our messing around in other countries’ business, to which Doherty responds, presumably channeling Joe Six-Pack, “Whoa—a history lesson, recognizing consequences to our actions, an empathetic approach to what the rest of the world would think?” The rhetorical trick gets a little old, but it’s clear that Doherty cares greatly about capturing what Paul’s supporters think about him and his ideas and, moreover, that he cares about representing them fairly. Much of the narrative is thus given over to fan notes, as against the words of the supposedly elite media. Not that the fan base is huge to begin with: “Paul’s rigorous hewing to a vision of government that almost every part of America’s learned political, academic, and media elites considers silly was only the start of his problems with the American electorate.” Doherty offers considerable insight into some aspects of Paul’s ongoing presidential campaigns. The chances of his ever being elected, after all, are vanishingly small, but one desired effect might be the opportunity to influence the choice of vice president, as he might have in 2008. Yet Paul, a maverick if nothing else, keeps his own counsel, insisting, for instance, on giving lessons in Austrian economic theory and demanding the abolition of the Federal Reserve rather than sharpening crowd-pleasing attacks on America’s foreign wars and the ill-advised war on drugs at home.
Illuminating, if sometimes a chore to read, and a welcome aid to understanding the evolution of Paul’s offbeat ideas.Pub Date: May 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-211479-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Broadside Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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