A welcome update of Rousseau-vian ideals of duty, responsibility, and reciprocity.
An appeal to use the occasion of the pandemic to recast our view of rights and obligations.
“Moments of crisis are also moments of opportunity,” writes Shafik, the director of the London School of Economics. Challenges abound, from climate change to the economic meltdown that has followed the spread of Covid-19. The social contract of yore was a kind of social superego: In exchange for paying taxes, serving in the military, sitting on juries, and the like, the state would deliver certain services, such as defense, roads, and education. To some extent, the state thus charged is necessarily a welfare state. However, writes the author, a welfare state does not exist only to redistribute wealth, as critics of democratic socialism charge, but instead to serve as a kind of “piggy bank” that helps mitigate challenges as they arise. No one knows when they’ll get sick or how long they’ll be able to work, which leads to a system wherein the young and old pay less into it than do those in their most productive years, drawing benefits and then paying for them before drawing benefits again. Some states are better than others at all this. Ultra-capitalist Singapore, Shafik writes, is more socially equitable than “nominally communist China,” which has no mechanism for taxing the estates of the wealthy. The author also advances the important argument that a new social contract must be formally stated rather than just “moral suasion.” In such a scenario, “those who lose their jobs have an obligation, if they are physically and mentally able to do so, to retrain if necessary and return to work as soon as possible.” More than anything else, a social contract that includes provisions for equal pay for equal work, the right to health care, and other such things requires willing participation, but it is “ultimately about increasing the accountability of our political systems.”
A welcome update of Rousseau-vian ideals of duty, responsibility, and reciprocity.Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-691-20445-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.
A potent series of “notes” paints a multidimensional picture of Blackness in America.
Throughout the book, which mixes memoir, history, literary theory, and art, Sharpe—the chair of Black studies at York University in Toronto and author of the acclaimed book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being—writes about everything from her family history to the everyday trauma of American racism. Although most of the notes feature the author’s original writing, she also includes materials like photographs, copies of letters she received, responses to a Twitter-based crowdsourcing request, and definitions of terms collected from colleagues and friends (“preliminary entries toward a dictionary of untranslatable blackness”). These diverse pieces coalesce into a multifaceted examination of the ways in which the White gaze distorts Blackness and perpetuates racist violence. Sharpe’s critique is not limited to White individuals, however. She includes, for example, a disappointing encounter with a fellow Black female scholar as well as critical analysis of Barack Obama’s choice to sing “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in a hate crime at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. With distinct lyricism and a firm but tender tone, Sharpe executes every element of this book flawlessly. Most impressive is the collagelike structure, which seamlessly moves among an extraordinary variety of forms and topics. For example, a photograph of the author’s mother in a Halloween costume transitions easily into an introduction to Roland Barthes’ work Camera Lucida, which then connects just as smoothly to a memory of watching a White visitor struggle with the reality presented by the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. “Something about this encounter, something about seeing her struggle…feels appropriate to the weight of this history,” writes the author. It is a testament to Sharpe’s artistry that this incredibly complex text flows so naturally.
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780374604486
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.
Immersion journalism in the form of a graphic narrative following a Syrian family on their immigration to America.
Originally published as a 22-part series in the New York Times that garnered a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, the story of the Aldabaan family—first in exile in Jordan and then in New Haven, Connecticut—holds together well as a full-length book. Halpern and Sloan, who spent more than three years with the Aldabaans, movingly explore the family’s significant obstacles, paying special attention to teenage son Naji, whose desire for the ideal of the American dream was the strongest. While not minimizing the harshness of the repression that led them to journey to the U.S.—or the challenges they encountered after they arrived—the focus on the day-by-day adjustment of a typical teenager makes the narrative refreshingly tangible and free of political polemic. Still, the family arrived at New York’s JFK airport during extraordinarily political times: Nov. 8, 2016, the day that Donald Trump was elected. The plan had been for the entire extended family to move, but some had traveled while others awaited approval, a process that was hampered by Trump’s travel ban. The Aldabaans encountered the daunting odds that many immigrants face: find shelter and employment, become self-sustaining quickly, learn English, and adjust to a new culture and climate (Naji learned to shovel snow, which he had never seen). They also received anonymous death threats, and Naji wanted to buy a gun for protection. He asked himself, “Was this the great future you were talking about back in Jordan?” Yet with the assistance of selfless volunteers and a community of fellow immigrants, the Aldabaans persevered. The epilogue provides explanatory context and where-are-they-now accounts, and Sloan’s streamlined, uncluttered illustrations nicely complement the text, consistently emphasizing the humanity of each person.
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-30559-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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