A timely accompaniment to James Gleick’s Faster (1999), this is a stimulating cautionary report for the digital age.
A philosopher and cultural critic ponders the durability of our fast-tracked, multitasked modern world.
Taylor (Religion and Public Life/Columbia Univ.; Recovering Place: Reflections on Stone Hill, 2014, etc.) probes the time-crunch phenomenon as the rapid acceleration of life nears what he calls its “tipping point.” He identifies the obvious culprit, high-speed technology, which, while enhancing methods and opportunities for communication and information sharing, forces society to compress more into seemingly evaporating parcels of time. While acknowledging the influences of the Protestant Reformation, Industrial Revolution, 19th-century communication inventions (telegraph, telephone), and the evolution of currency and consumer credit as primary instigators of these contemporary changes, it’s their increasingly aggressive pace that most concerns him. With substantiated conviction, Taylor considers whether the fragmenting cultural effects of all of this digital distraction will eventually become an irreversible trend (“the world that speed continues to create is unsustainable”). Emblematic of today’s accelerated lifestyle is the rise of global financial markets and enhanced human-machine interfacing technology like Google Glass, which, while ultramodern and efficient, are also major contributors to this speed-reliant conundrum. Taylor determines that we’ve become not only accustomed to—but addicted to—this time boom, yet he contends that technology can only go as far as real life will allow. He cites instances where leisure time is not even enjoyable for some without access to the “new new thing,” whether it be email, text messaging, or dipping into social media websites for the quick-fix hit of status updates and news factoids. Though he acknowledges that a collective powering-down may prove an overly ambitious goal for modern society, Taylor’s observant thought process inspires and promotes the kind of dramatic cultural change necessary to unplug and reflect.
A timely accompaniment to James Gleick’s Faster (1999), this is a stimulating cautionary report for the digital age.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-300-20647-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If that promise of clarity is what awaits us all, then death doesn’t seem so awful, and that is a great gift from Sacks. A...
Valediction from the late neurologist and writer Sacks (On the Move: A Life, 2015, etc.).
In this set of four short essays, much-forwarded opinion pieces from the New York Times, the author ponders illness, specifically the metastatic cancer that spread from eye to liver and in doing so foreclosed any possibility of treatment. His brief reflections on that unfortunate development give way to, yes, gratitude as he examines the good things that he has experienced over what, in the end, turned out to be a rather long life after all, lasting 82 years. To be sure, Sacks has regrets about leaving the world, not least of them not being around to see “a thousand…breakthroughs in the physical and biological sciences,” as well as the night sky sprinkled with stars and the yellow legal pads on which he worked sprinkled with words. Sacks works a few familiar tropes and elaborates others. Charmingly, he reflects on his habit since childhood of associating each year of his life with the element of corresponding atomic weight on the periodic table; given polonium’s “intense, murderous radioactivity,” then perhaps 84 isn’t all that it’s cut out to be. There are some glaring repetitions here, unfortunate given the intense brevity of this book, such as his twice citing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s call to revel in “intercourse with the world”—no, not that kind. Yet his thoughts overall—while not as soul-stirringly inspirational as the similar reflections of Randy Pausch or as bent on chasing down the story as Christopher Hitchens’ last book—are shaped into an austere beauty, as when Sacks writes of being able in his final moments to “see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts.”
If that promise of clarity is what awaits us all, then death doesn’t seem so awful, and that is a great gift from Sacks. A fitting, lovely farewell.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-451-49293-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.
A history of the right to vote in America.
Since the nation’s founding, many Americans have been uneasy about democracy. Law and policy expert Waldman (The Second Amendment: A Biography, 2014, etc.), president of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, offers a compelling—and disheartening—history of voting in America, from provisions of the Constitution to current debates about voting rights and campaign financing. In the Colonies, only white male property holders could vote and did so in public, by voice. With bribery and intimidation rampant, few made the effort. After the Revolution, many states eliminated property requirements so that men over 21 who had served in the militia could vote. But leaving voting rules to the states disturbed some lawmakers, inciting a clash between those who wanted to restrict voting and those “who sought greater democracy.” That clash fueled future debates about allowing freed slaves, immigrants, and, eventually, women to vote. In 1878, one leading intellectual railed against universal suffrage, fearing rule by “an ignorant proletariat and a half-taught plutocracy.” Voting corruption persisted in the 19th century, when adoption of the secret ballot “made it easier to stuff the ballot box” by adding “as many new votes as proved necessary.” Southern states enacted disenfranchising measures, undermining the 15th Amendment. Waldman traces the campaign for women’s suffrage; the Supreme Court’s dismal record on voting issues (including Citizens United); and the contentious fight to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which “became a touchstone of consensus between Democrats and Republicans” and was reauthorized four times before the Supreme Court “eviscerated it in 2013.” Despite increased access to voting, over the years, turnout has fallen precipitously, and “entrenched groups, fearing change, have…tried to reduce the opportunity for political participation and power.” Waldman urges citizens to find a way to celebrate democracy and reinvigorate political engagement for all.
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1648-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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