A lively but uneven study of human society.
A nonfiction book argues that humans are essentially tribalistic, contending that their modern departure from their origins sparked their ruination.
For most of their history, humans lived in small tribes, social arrangements that dominated their existence for hundreds of thousands of years. According to Stewart, those tribes promoted solidarity, loyalty, and commitment. Within a group, members could expect to be “known, loved and trusted.” Over time, the weaker tribes were eliminated by dint of natural selection, leaving groups of generally equivalent power. This equality made peace a much more attractive option than war, produced neighborliness, and promoted the cultivation of negotiation skills. In fact, the tribal impulse is a deeply natural one, and “gang conventions” are “hard-wired into our brainstem”: “For most of us, our identity is derived from our relationships with other people. We are gangsters.” In this refreshingly irreverent meditation, the author examines tribalism wherever he finds it—ants, street gangs, even bacteria—in order to rediscover what has been lost in “our experiment with notional freedom, enlightenment,” and an atomized society. Stewart makes some original and thought-provoking arguments. For example, he claims that street gangs are likely right to reject a “bourgeois conformist” lifestyle and refuse to pay taxes or “cringe before petty government officials.” Unfortunately, the more conventional arguments he forwards regarding humans’ natural sociability and the destructive effects of excessive individualism are very familiar. This is not the typical academic study—Stewart’s eclectic, freewheeling style is closer to Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle (1967) than to anything found in scholarly literature. This can make for rollicking good fun. But ultimately, the book fails to provide a systematic analysis. Moreover, the volume often turns hotly polemical, taking shots at both “fascist social dreamers” who push diversity and “subversive libertarians” while complaining about “feminist anti-natal screeching.” With so many examinations of this rich subject available to readers, Stewart’s work may struggle to find an audience.
A lively but uneven study of human society.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9798866075683
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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