A fascinating perspective on challenging subject matter.
A writer and academic explores how math can be used to understand and critique the world of politics.
“Math is a clarifying way of looking at the world,” Volić writes in his introduction; by introducing readers to this specific perspective, he hopes to lead them to a new view on the contentious topic of politics. The author explains that, for him, democracy is “a piece of civic infrastructure that runs on mathematics.” That idea forms the backbone of a university class he teaches on the topic that regularly outrages students as they realize the counterintuitive nature of many long-standing political systems. With this book, Volić aims to bring that classroom experience to a wider audience. He structures his detailed examination of math and politics by first analyzing voting, then issues of representation, finally providing an explanation of how all of his ideas came together using concrete examples of civic infrastructure, both historical and contemporary. Volić walks readers through the ins and outs of simple majorities and pluralities and lays out the basics of mathematic theorems—the pinnacles of mathematical knowledge—noting the difficulty of translating notions like the “best” voting system into mathematic language. Early on, Volić brings out one of his most salient and important arguments, detailing how many “convenient numbers” used in the world’s democracies are largely unjustified. His primary example is membership in the House of Representatives being fixed at 435 seats, but there are several other examples that similarly become infuriating when looked at objectively. The author provides numerous examples, from Eurovision protocols to the 2010 Oakland, California mayoral race, to illustrate the instant runoff system, which here receives ample attention and detailed explanations, forming a cornerstone of Volić’s recommendations. From there, the author moves on to perhaps the most enraging political processes of them all, discussing gerrymandering and the electoral college, walking readers through the fine points of everything wrong with a system that works against fair representation. (He also offers several examples of proportional representation in other countries outside the U.S.)
Volić’s book is rich with ideas and explanations, and he writes with an enthusiasm for his subject that is infectious. It’s easy to imagine the author in front of a classroom, leading the students to lightbulb-moment realizations while being humorous and approachable. His writing is calibrated to speak to the greatest number of people, not just college-level students or academics. Volić’s humor, in particular, renders even the most complicated sections accessible. “The rest of this chapter will be exasperating. Irritating,” he writes at one point; he even puts a winking spin on his footnotes, proclaiming, “If you don’t know what MAGA is, you’ve either spent the last seven or so years in a well or you’re reading this 150 years from the time it was written.” Despite the passionate prose, the numerous tables, laws, and theorems can start to blur together—the subject remains complicated and academic at its core. Happily, there is just enough of Volić’s voice—and his own story as an immigrant from Bosnia Herzegovina—to keep even the most math-averse reader pushing through the difficult sections, eager to hear more of his ideas.
A fascinating perspective on challenging subject matter.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780691248806
Page Count: 408
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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