Blithely reporting on the many quirks in dress (Norwegian dirndls), food (an odiferous Icelandic fish specialty) and...
A shrewd look at Nordic life.
From Denmark, where he has been living for the past 10 years, British journalist Booth (Eat, Pray, Eat, 2011, etc.) set out on a jaunt through Scandinavia to investigate questions that mystified him: Why are the Danes, Finns, Swedes, Icelanders and Norwegians considered to be so “brilliant and progressive?” What accounts for the alleged Scandinavian miracle of economic and social equality? Are Danes really the happiest people in the world? In this bright, witty cultural critique, Booth concludes that Scandinavia’s success is no myth. Despite “historical skeletons” in some countries’ closets, irresponsible financial decisions that led to Iceland’s bankruptcy, virulent right-wing constituencies, and homogeneity that results in societies “a little too safe and dull, and insular,” Scandinavia, the author believes, truly is an “enviably rich, peaceful, harmonious, and progressive place.” In Denmark, paying the highest taxes in the world (72 percent in total) is seen as a contribution to the social good. Oil has made Norway the richest country—outpacing even Saudi Arabia—and sound fiscal stewardship funds generous social programs. In Finland, high status for teachers results in the best students competing for places in education programs and, consequently, excellent schools nationwide. Booth sees high-quality, free education as “the bedrock of Nordic exceptionalism.” Though he celebrates the region’s achievements, Booth is clear about the challenges ahead: in Denmark, fostering initiative in a society that extols thrift, caution and “sacred, ordinary mediocrity”; in Norway, maintaining “incentive to work, study, and innovate” in a society where one-third of working-age Norwegians “do nothing at all…proportionally the largest number in Europe.”
Blithely reporting on the many quirks in dress (Norwegian dirndls), food (an odiferous Icelandic fish specialty) and excessive drinking (everywhere) that he encountered on his journeys, Booth offers an affectionate, observant, engaging look at Scandinavia, where trust, modesty and equality proudly prevail.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-06196-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Picador
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Daniels emerges as a force to be reckoned with—and not someone to cross. Of interest to politics junkies but with plenty of...
A lively, candid memoir from person-in-the-news Daniels.
The author is a household name for just one reason, as she allows—adding, though, that “my life is a lot more interesting than an encounter with Donald Trump.” So it is, and not without considerable effort on her part. Daniels—not her real name, but one, she points out, that she owns, unlike the majority of porn stars—grew up on the wrong side of town, the product of a broken home with few prospects, but she is just as clearly a person of real intelligence and considerable business know-how. Those attributes were not the reason that Trump called her on a fateful night more than a decade ago, but she put them to work, so much so that in some preliminary conversation, he proclaimed—by her account, his talk is blustery and insistent—that “our businesses are kind of a lot alike, but different.” The talk led to what “may have been the least impressive sex I’d ever had, but clearly, he didn’t share that opinion.” The details are deeply unpleasant, but Daniels adds nuance to the record: She doesn’t find it creepy that Trump likened her to his daughter, and she reckons that as a reality show host, he had a few points in his favor even if he failed to deliver on a promise to get her on The Apprentice. The author’s 15 minutes arrived a dozen years later, when she was exposed as the recipient of campaign hush money. Her account of succeeding events is fast-paced and full of sharp asides pointing to the general sleaziness of most of the players and the ugliness of politics, especially the Trumpian kind, which makes the porn industry look squeaky-clean by comparison.
Daniels emerges as a force to be reckoned with—and not someone to cross. Of interest to politics junkies but with plenty of lessons on taking charge of one’s own life.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-20556-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2018
A sleek, vital history that effectively shows how, “from the outset, inequality was enforced with the whip, the gun, and the...
A concise, alternate history of the United States “about how people across the hemisphere wove together antislavery, anticolonial, pro-freedom, and pro-working-class movements against tremendous obstacles.”
In the latest in the publisher’s ReVisioning American History series, Ortiz (History/Univ. of Florida; Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920, 2005, etc.) examines U.S. history through the lens of African-American and Latinx activists. Much of the American history taught in schools is limited to white America, leaving out the impact of non-European immigrants and indigenous peoples. The author corrects that error in a thorough look at the debt of gratitude we owe to the Haitian Revolution, the Mexican War of Independence, and the Cuban War of Independence, all struggles that helped lead to social democracy. Ortiz shows the history of the workers for what it really was: a fatal intertwining of slavery, racial capitalism, and imperialism. He states that the American Revolution began as a war of independence and became a war to preserve slavery. Thus, slavery is the foundation of American prosperity. With the end of slavery, imperialist America exported segregation laws and labor discrimination abroad. As we moved into Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, we stole their land for American corporations and used the Army to enforce draconian labor laws. This continued in the South and in California. The rise of agriculture could not have succeeded without cheap labor. Mexican workers were often preferred because, if they demanded rights, they could just be deported. Convict labor worked even better. The author points out the only way success has been gained is by organizing; a great example was the “Day without Immigrants” in 2006. Of course, as Ortiz rightly notes, much more work is necessary, especially since Jim Crow and Juan Crow are resurging as each political gain is met with “legal” countermeasures.
A sleek, vital history that effectively shows how, “from the outset, inequality was enforced with the whip, the gun, and the United States Constitution.”Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8070-1310-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
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