A remarkably exhaustive account of one of the 20th century’s—and perhaps the 21st century’s as well—most impactful...
A book offers a comprehensive tour of the history of socialism.
In the last U.S. presidential election, Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate, openly described himself as a socialist, sparking controversy over the contemporary meaning of the term. Bryson (The Economics of Henry George, 2011, etc.) slowly unravels the developmental spool of socialism, tracing its origin and ascendancy, its theoretical repudiation and practical collapse with the demise of the Soviet Union, and a kind of resurgent reinterpretation in contemporary America. The book divides into three main sections—in the first, a philosophical history of socialism is supplied that traces its moral core back to biblical theology, ancient Greek thought, and idealistic utopianism. With Marx, that utopianism takes on the patina of science and becomes a revolutionary attempt to eliminate private property as well as an entire class of people. Bryson also examines the view of Adam Smith and ably illuminates the moral core of it, a defense of human liberty. In the second section, the author limns the rise of socialism as it took root in Eastern and Western Europe, China, and, of course, the Soviet Union. The treatment of the Soviet experiment in communism is a highlight of the book and demonstrates that a “second economy” necessarily emerged, an underground free market of exchange demanded by the system’s resounding failures to meet its citizens’ needs. The last section details the insinuation of socialist ideas into the U.S., a nation in many ways inoculated against an unabashed embrace of them. As in Western Europe, socialism in America doesn’t necessarily mean the end of free markets but rather the establishment of a welfare state and aggressive redistribution of income and property. The scope of Bryson’s treatment is dizzying, the erudition nearly unbelievable, and his scholarly rigor impressive. But even in a book that reaches nearly 850 pages, one can still expect some depth to be sacrificed on the altar of thoroughness. For example, Hegel’s ontology of history, a crucial philosophical influence for Marx, is given only a handful of quick paragraphs. In the main, however, this is a magisterial work, encyclopedic and astute.
A remarkably exhaustive account of one of the 20th century’s—and perhaps the 21st century’s as well—most impactful ideologies.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5144-1460-6
Page Count: 944
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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