A nihilistically hilarious commentary on the corporate world.
Jackson presents a satirical guidebook for prospective oligarchs on how to exploit politicians, capitalism, and the American public.
“Money is how we, as a species, determine our worth,” the author writes in the opening pages of this manual for the aspiring oligarch. “We are not measured by the strength of our character, our integrity, or our altruism.” The author blends humorous insights on 21st-century capitalism with a tongue-in-cheek history of economic exploitation from Crassus of Rome (who created his own private army) to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, whose interests in space exploration, the author asserts, stem from their desire to “escape the hellscape they created.” Another oligarch, Mali’s Mansa Musa, gave so much of his wealth away in the 14th century, Jackson writes, that it devalued the price of gold, teaching future oligarchs a key lesson “to never give away anything you own.” Readers learn how Henry J. Heinz used his influence with President Teddy Roosevelt to pass food regulations that eliminated competition, and how Sanford Dole convinced President Grover Cleveland to annex Hawaii by military force. While informative, the book’s strength lies in its humor and biting satirical commentary. In a particularly effective joke, a chapter ends abruptly with a pop-up ad (“Want to keep reading?”) that offers readers the rest of the book for a discounted price if they “SUBSCRIBE NOW.” Other hilarious gags include missing citations that have been sold off to corporate advertisers (endnote 2, for example, was sold to “Starkist Brand Tuna: Overfish’d ’til it’s delisch’”) and a who’s who–styled appendix of “The Great Exploiters of Earth.” The author’s engaging, wickedly smart writing style is accompanied by a wealth of visual aids, from photographs with humorous captions to original political cartoons, such as one drawing of the “Welcome” gate at a McMansion replete with barbed wire, cameras, guard dogs, and prison towers. This follow-up volume to Jackson’s previous publication, So You Want To Be a Dictator (2022), will leave readers longing for more guidebooks in the series.
A nihilistically hilarious commentary on the corporate world.Pub Date: Dec. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9798218310257
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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