An unconvincing appeal to increase our collective birth-rate.
While the author’s mission is noble—encouraging individuals to parent two or more children—much of the book’s content is dubious and contradictory. The Cato Institute's Caplan (Economics/George Mason Univ.) begins by speculating that it’s selfish not to have children: “To deny the gift of life to a child who would have made your life better is a tragic missed opportunity.” The author, himself a father of three, seems unduly worried that would-be parents are talking themselves out of having children or expanding their families because they are either uninformed or focusing too much on the negative aspects of parenting. Yet, he neglects to mention postpartum depression, which affects up to 20 percent of new mothers and is often regarded as a convincing argument against pregnancy. Caplan plies readers with a variety of statistics, some of which are of questionable values—e.g., he cites a study that finds individuals with children are “5.6 percentage points less likely to be very happy” than those without children. His argument loses further muster when he states: “Last week, we left our seven-year-olds home alone for the first time; before long, they’ll be babysitting their little brother.” The author’s most implausible suggestion, however, might be his belief that parents should offer their adult children financial support to produce grandchildren in the form of early retirement gifts. Inconsistent and unpersuasive.
Pub Date: April 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-465-01867-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
An inspired look at how ideas are disseminated by the media and at how new concepts can be injected into the mainstream, altering views about critical social issues. The ``datasphere,'' says culture critic Rushkoff (Cyberia, not reviewed), is the new territory of human development, a region as ``open as the globe was five hundred years ago.'' Discounting fears that new media will remain the province of corporations and governments, Rushkoff maintains that they're too complex and chaotic to be controlled by any one force. In fact, he asserts, the media replicates much like biological forms and can be manipulated to hasten our evolution. This book is a guide to empowerment through media activism; it shows how progressive notions are ``injected'' into the media—often with careful premeditation—via television programs like ``The Simpsons'' or through the recreation of events like the Rodney King beating on programs like ``L.A. Law.'' Rushkoff interviews young meta-media theorists who develop ``designer viruses'' such as the ``Smart Drugs'' public relations campaign (which works to legalize drugs the FDA forbids) in order to ``infect'' public thinking. And he shows how attempts to control the media can backfire, as happened in the 1992 Republican presidential campaign. The book has its problems: A helter-skelter style sometimes undermines the rigor of otherwise persuasive arguments, and Rushkoff is so enthusiastic about the positive power of everything from daytime talk shows to MTV that he barely acknowledges their negative effects. A more critical perspective— or an examination of the media activism of the Christian right or other cultural forces—would have given his study a critical edge it lacks. But this book will convince many that the counterculture is alive and well—and more widely dispersed than ever. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-345-38276-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The 1992 recipient of the Soldier of the Year award, who saw a brilliant Army career crumble when he decided to come out of the closet, breathlessly recaptures the events surrounding his sensational gesture. Zuniga comes from a family with deep roots in the US military; he clearly has great respect for the Army as an institution, with the exception of its ruling on homosexuals. His home life of military-style discipline is described affectionately and fairly, as is his successful career as an Army journalist. Boot camp at Fort Hood is seen as a period of exultant self-discovery. He did not find it difficult to maintain a clandestine gay lifestyle inside the Army, he says—in fact, most of his friends there were gay. We get interesting behind-the-lines scenes of the Gulf War, in which he served as a medic; he seems to stress his bonding relations with straight men as if to prove that sexual orientation did not interfere with duty. A turning point suddenly arrived when the predicament of a lesbian supply technician (sexually harassed and then dishonorably discharged at the harasser's instigation) aroused Zuniga's guilt at not announcing his own homosexuality. Transferred to San Francisco's Presidio barracks, he felt his double life ready to overtake him. He made his announcement on April 24, 1993, just four months after President Clinton's reiterated promise to lift the ban on gays in the armed services. Zuniga is a bit too taken with his own heroism here: ``I risked it not to become a Nelson Mandela or Andrei Sakharovtype figure in gay history,'' he says unironically, ``but because Silence truly does equal Death.'' That he did not, unlike those men, spend years in confinement for his actions does not, alas, seem to have occurred to him. Honest and emotionally charged, but marred by childish and clichÇd political rhetoric.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-88814-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
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