An intriguing assessment of the effectiveness of a variety of global parenting customs.
A close examination of parenting practices across the globe.
At some point, all parents wonder if they are raising their children the “right” way. In this well-researched analysis of parenting tactics, the LeVines (co-authors: Literacy and Mothering: How Women's Schooling Changes the Lives of the World's Children, 2012, etc.) compare and contrast how parents from different cultures and ethnic groups—from Japan and China to Kenya and Central America—take care of their children. The authors studied the way women are treated in various cultures and discovered that differences are evident from the first moments of pregnancy. For instance, members of the Gusii tribe in Kenya believe it is wrong to announce the pregnancy, as it might draw ill will from the other women in the tribe. Compare that to the attitude in the United States, where the possibility of a child is usually announced as soon as possible. Hindus and Buddhists in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal believe menstruation and birth are sources of pollution and take actions to prevent the contamination of others, while fathers in Central and South America are present throughout the entire pregnancy and birth. Once the child is born, breast-feeding is the norm, but there are vast differences in sleep habits and regarding how to talk to the infant or show signs of affection. The authors also examine a child’s access to toys, interactions with his siblings, the possibility of going to school and/or having chores or work to do, and the role each parent plays in the child’s early development. Overall, as many parents have grown to understand, the research shows that there is no one “right” way to parent, as every culture has its own traditions, but readers will learn helpful ideas from other countries, picking and choosing those that make the most sense for their individual situations.
An intriguing assessment of the effectiveness of a variety of global parenting customs.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61039-723-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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
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
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