Advocates a return to moral universalism as a panacea for an erosion of values.
A moral philosopher’s “plea to recognize that the worst evil may lie in the denial of evil.”
Neiman, the director of an international public think tank called the Einstein Forum, continues the probing cultural critique begun in her Learning From the Germans (2019) and Left Is Not Woke (2023). Appalled by President Trump’s “ideas that are destructive enough to warrant the word evil,” she proposes a return to “universalism.” In the wake of Hannah Arendt’s conception of fascist evil as a “failure to think,” she argues that “not malice but vacancy marks the worst form of evil.” In seven ruminative chapters, she pinpoints some of the causes for the current state of affairs in the United States: market fundamentalism and its focus on the accumulation of wealth as well as the elevation of power over law. At the same time, Neiman also excoriates the adherents of “identitarian” politics or wokeness: “We must face the consequences of the liberal/left hesitation to use moral language.” The author effectively challenges American self-boosterism (“every survey of wealthy countries shows the U.S. behind on any measure of well-being”) and convincingly defends Enlightenment thought. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was, she points out, that of a benevolent God, not that of the capitalist market regulating itself. But her attack on wokeness mirrors all too familiar right-wing talking points, neglecting the fact that competence—which she claims should be “the first criterion for appointments”—is more difficult to attain for disadvantaged members of society. Similarly, support for transgender rights might be less the product of niche tribalism than the desire to allow the pursuit of happiness for everyone. Neiman movingly evokes Albert Einstein’s democratic socialism as a model for moral renewal today but does not reveal how her readers, numbed by daily government spin, might go about implementing it.
Advocates a return to moral universalism as a panacea for an erosion of values.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781324131045
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
Welcome reading for anyone concerned with real rigged elections.
Tired of the lies about the 2020 election? Buckle up: Trump is just warming up, and his allies may be getting craftier.
“This is not a book about January 6, 2021. It is a book about January 6, 2025,” write legal scholars Lessig and Seligman. We are lucky, Lessig suggests, that John Eastman and his fellow plotters “picked the dumbest possible strategy for pursuing what we feared they were trying to accomplish”: namely, trying to convince Mike Pence that he had the constitutional authority to refuse to certify the results by which Joe Biden won the presidency. One might argue that the second dumbest strategy was to send an army of fascist goons to the Capitol to try to enforce Eastman’s argument. However, Lessig and Seligman argue, there are holes in the Constitution wide enough to drive a burning dumpster through, and they might allow an interested party to falsely claim victory in a closely contested race and win the election. The authors presume that any such gaming-the-system effort will come from MAGA Republicans, though they add that a Democrat could easily use the same tactics. Readers may need a law degree to follow some of the arguments, but others are quite accessible. One argument that Lessig has been mounting for some time, for instance, is that the winner-take-all method employed by most states for electoral votes needs to be replaced with an apportionment system so that the Electoral College count will align with the popular vote. On that score, the authors warn, the prospect of rogue electors—or more, rogue governors who control those electors—is very real, and numerous other threats could enable someone smarter than the last bunch to mount “a cataclysmic attack on our democracy.”
Welcome reading for anyone concerned with real rigged elections.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780300270792
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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