A thoughtful beginning, though only a sketch. The banality of evil is on full display, so conspiracy-minded readers may find...
An attempt at comparative whistleblower-ology, limning similarities in the short but memorable career of Karen Silkwood and the ongoing, unfolding story of Edward Snowden.
Silkwood biographer Rashke (Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk and America’s Open-Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals, 2013, etc.) opens on a promising note, briefly reviewing the contributions of anti-corruption fighter Frank Serpico, big tobacco bête noire Jeffrey Wigand, and Pentagon leaker Daniel Ellsberg before proceeding to ignore them. Five cases do not a comprehensive sample make, still less two, and there are as many differences as similarities in the Silkwood and Snowden trajectories—foremost among them the fact that Snowden is still alive, though “he risks going to prison for a very long time, if he isn’t assassinated.” Moreover, the assassins, Rashke suggests, will be government agents, directly employed, as opposed to the private goons—perhaps—who did in Silkwood nearly 40 years ago. Still, there are some interesting overlaps, including the motivations each whistleblower may have had, boiling down to the personal and understandable ones of disillusionment and anger at official malfeasance. Interestingly, Rashke notes, fully half of potential whistleblowers never step forward, perhaps because, as Silkwood and Snowden discovered, they would be vilified for doing so. Though brief, this book sometimes seems labored, and readers will be forgiven for suspecting that it is simply an occasion for the author to rehearse his previous work on Silkwood, who undeniably merits a refresher in our collective memory. Rashke does well to remind readers that she did accomplish something in her death, namely, a bit of relief for would-be future whistleblowers under the terms of a federal energy law of 1974. That doesn’t quite cover Snowden, though, the significance of whose story may, like Silkwood’s, take 40 years to appreciate.
A thoughtful beginning, though only a sketch. The banality of evil is on full display, so conspiracy-minded readers may find it of interest.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-883285-68-5
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Delphinium
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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