An engaging, practical guide to the psychological dynamics of electoral politics.
An insightful look at politicians through a psychological lens.
As a syndicated columnist for the Boston Globe and a frequent national television and radio guest, Wish is known for being able to explain cutting-edge psychological concepts to mass audiences. He’s also served as a political consultant, most notably on future Sen. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Romney seemed to Republican insiders to be a sure winner, as he was articulate, handsome, and unflappable; however, Wish saw that Romney seemed “too perfect” and thus failed to personally connect with voters. According to the author, voters aren’t driven by policy or polish but by emotion; for example, President George W. Bush’s numerous gaffes made him more likable to voters, who were drawn to his perceived authenticity. Using a blend of psychological theory and absorbing political anecdotes, Wish analyzes the “7 deadly sins” that are most often committed by politicians who fail to apply psychological know-how to voter outreach. Although the “sins,” such as being “too cerebral,” are morally neutral, their corresponding values, such as empathy and decisiveness, resonate with voters who are driven by “survival instincts” and “anger, enthusiasm, and anxiety,” Wish says. President Donald Trump commits some of Wish’s “sins,” but his success is due to his ability to tap into his supporters’ emotions. The author’s psychological insights will appeal to political junkies as well as anyone in a leadership position. His analysis of “the science of first impressions,” in-depth breakdowns (with charts) of body posture and “power poses,” and emphasis on the importance of storytelling have wide applicability. A gendered analysis is noticeably missing, however, which is surprising given contemporary conversations about misogyny and the failed presidential bids of several women candidates, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. For example, how do men respond to women who deploy “power poses”? And more importantly, how can women candidates use contemporary psychology to break political glass ceilings?
An engaging, practical guide to the psychological dynamics of electoral politics.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0729-3
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A clearly delineated guide to finally eradicate poverty in America.
A thoughtful program for eradicating poverty from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted.
“America’s poverty is not for lack of resources,” writes Desmond. “We lack something else.” That something else is compassion, in part, but it’s also the lack of a social system that insists that everyone pull their weight—and that includes the corporations and wealthy individuals who, the IRS estimates, get away without paying upward of $1 trillion per year. Desmond, who grew up in modest circumstances and suffered poverty in young adulthood, points to the deleterious effects of being poor—among countless others, the precarity of health care and housing (with no meaningful controls on rent), lack of transportation, the constant threat of losing one’s job due to illness, and the need to care for dependent children. It does not help, Desmond adds, that so few working people are represented by unions or that Black Americans, even those who have followed the “three rules” (graduate from high school, get a full-time job, wait until marriage to have children), are far likelier to be poor than their White compatriots. Furthermore, so many full-time jobs are being recast as contracted, fire-at-will gigs, “not a break from the norm as much as an extension of it, a continuation of corporations finding new ways to limit their obligations to workers.” By Desmond’s reckoning, besides amending these conditions, it would not take a miracle to eliminate poverty: about $177 billion, which would help end hunger and homelessness and “make immense headway in driving down the many agonizing correlates of poverty, like violence, sickness, and despair.” These are matters requiring systemic reform, which will in turn require Americans to elect officials who will enact that reform. And all of us, the author urges, must become “poverty abolitionists…refusing to live as unwitting enemies of the poor.” Fortune 500 CEOs won’t like Desmond’s message for rewriting the social contract—which is precisely the point.
A clearly delineated guide to finally eradicate poverty in America.Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593239919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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