An intensely intriguing if seemingly unreachable vision of a new future for the world.
A complex, multipart agenda for a future in which humans retain their humanity.
Harvey kicks off his latest book, a follow-up to 2019’s impressive Utopia in the Anthropocene, with a seemingly simple question: What does it mean to be a human on planet Earth? The question, which every society in human history has faced, has become incredibly complicated in the present era by both an ever-worsening climate crisis and the hyperaccelerated technological development that Harvey describes as “the biggest psychological experiment in human history…unregulated, unsupervised and unfolding before our very eyes.” He naturally sees these two vectors as inherently opposed to each other, with climate change leading to large portions of the global South soon becoming uninhabitable for humans, and the technological change leading to a merging of human and machine (“humachination”) that will usher in a new dystopian era the author refers to as the Technocene. Harvey draws on his own background as both an entrepreneur and an organizational psychologist (“the technology of being human, so to speak”) in order to provide alternatives to what he describes as the “fusion of lightly regulated technology and free market capitalism.” In a series of topic-oriented and well-researched chapters, he puts forward a practical vision for steps we can take to avoid the Technocene, from implementing antimonopoly legislation and reforestation policies to restructuring livestock farming, which uses three-quarters of the world’s farmland while providing less than 20% of the world’s caloric consumption (and a sixth of its carbon emissions).
The main strength of Harvey’s book is its comparative lack of naïveté. He’s aware of both the seeming outlandishness of his propositions and the essentially unbeatable corporate, governmental, and social forces arrayed against their implementation. This renders his book far more of a thought-provoking treatise than an actual plan for action. His suggestion of the one solution to the threats of humachination, for instance, is a “permanent moratorium on all advanced AI,” which he readily concedes may require that “all computer programming will have to be confined to relatively simple, highly transparent usages.” Since this kind of adaptation could only be brought about by the physical destruction of all human civilization in something like a catastrophic asteroid strike, and since societies will absolutely never adopt it willingly under any circumstances imaginable, this change and the bulk of Harvey’s other projections quickly begin to feel very utopian indeed. “Egalitarianism can be a tough discipline,” he writes in the understatement of the century, “in that it involves the constant containment of selfish desires.” And it’s in his stout opposition to those selfish desires that Harvey achieves his book’s most stirring narrative thread. At its heart, this book is less about the mechanics of reimagining political, social, scientific, and organizational institutions and more about reimagining “the psychology of the Ecocene, a state in which ecological and egalitarian values become the bedrock of everyday lived experience.” Quite apart from his book’s formidable research grounding, it’s Harvey’s faith in the improvability of humankind, particularly at this dark moment in history, that feels both quixotic and inspiring. Like any good utopian dream.
An intensely intriguing if seemingly unreachable vision of a new future for the world.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798990015616
Page Count: 434
Publisher: Steady State Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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 familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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