A cosmic straw man is vanquished in the fight against dangerous ideals such as social justice and equality. This is not the place to look for original ideas or honest analysis. Presumably, Sowell’s (Migrations and Cultures, 1996, etc.) goal is to entertain those who share his convictions rather than convince open-minded readers, and this audience will be pleased. “Cosmic justice” is presented as a fundamental departure from the “traditional” conception of justice, which Sowell claims has the “characteristic of a process,” rather than of a particular outcome. He conveniently forgets to mention that this “tradition” dates back only to the emergence of liberal-democratic states and that contrasting notions of procedural vs. substantive justice remain the subject of lively debate. Admitting legitimate disagreement over even something as slippery as justice would soften the blows he aims at those who think inequality and any associated oppression raises concerns a just society should address, and Sowell is not one to temper a political argument simply to maintain intellectual integrity. He is not straightforwardly defending inequality, of course, but rather is pursuing the familiar strategy of attacking measures that could alleviate it. Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, boldly asserts that those who believe equality should be pursued through public policy “assume that politicizing inequality is free of costs and dangers.” No names are mentioned, and it is indeed hard to imagine that anyone would believe there are no costs or dangers. By stating the issue in terms of extremes, however, he ducks the real issue—the challenge of weighing costs and benefits—and avoids the need for incorporating any subtlety into his discussion. Confronted with such disingenuous blather, readers may find Sowell’s criticism of others applies well to Sowell himself: “To explain the levels of dogmatism and resistance to facts found in too many writings . . . it is necessary to explore what purposes are served by these visions.”
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-684-86462-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Badger (American Studies/Univ. of Alabama) restores an important, forgotten chapter in African-American musical history. Europe was one of the pioneering composers, bandleaders, and musical factotums in turn-of-the-century America. Raised in Washington, D.C., he was exposed to a rich musical life in church, home, and public concerts. Around 1903, he left the capital for New York City (where his older brother was established as a theatrical pianist) and was soon working as a bandleader, arranger, and composer. Europe was a born organizer, helping to found a black theatrical fraternity known humorously as ``The Frogs'' and then, in 1910, the famous Clef Club, the first union of African-American musicians. In 1914, he joined forces with Vernon and Irene Castle, who were just beginning to perform the new black-influenced dances for high society. He introduced them to W.C. Handy's ``Memphis Blues,'' suggesting they create a new dance to accompany its changing meters; the result was the fox-trot, the popular dance team's most enduring legacy. During WW I, Europe was a machine- gunner with the 369th Regiment, an all-black company that fought as part of the French army (because the Americans feared integrating their ranks). Ironically, after surviving front-line duty, Europe was knifed by a disgruntled band member in 1919; he died at age 39. Europe, like Handy, his near-contemporary, hoped to mold a black concert music, drawing on 19th-century European roots, that would ``uplift his race.'' Although elements of ragtime and jazz crept into his music, he favored the sentimental parlor style of playing and singing that was the rage in late Victorian days. His musical legacy has been more or less forgotten, although without his pioneering work the success of Paul Whiteman's orchestra in the 1920s (and Duke Ellington's in the '30s) surely couldn't have occurred. Will appeal to fans of early jazz, African-American history, and 20th-century culture. (30 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-506044-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
A dense examination of the complexity of lesbian identity. Card (Philosophy/Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; Feminist Ethics, not reviewed) introduces Lesbian Choices as the result of learning ``to speak with [her] own voice as a lesbian feminist philosopher with a certain set of histories.'' While the subject of this volume is highly personal to Card and is born from her identity as ``a semi-rural white-anglo woman, a woman-lover, and a survivor of domestic abuse,'' her book is by no means a memoir. It is in fact ruthlessly academic and may prove difficult for the general reader. Card explores lesbian culture, ethics, and friendship and expands this more personal construction of identity onto a broader societal panorama through her discussion of lesbians in the military, closeting, and homophobia. Card is at her most insightful in a chapter that explores sexual agency; she observes there that in patriarchal society lesbians are more likely to actively choose their sexuality while heterosexual women are less conscious of the decision they make vis-Ö-vis their sexual preference. She offers a lesbian ``genealogy'' from ancient Greek and Roman Amazons to 19th- century ``passionate friends'' as a means of grounding this choice historically; she also references the lives and work of writers Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf, among others, as examples of an early awareness, though not explicit, of lesbian possibility. Card is delicate and brave when speaking out about lesbian battering and stalking and female incest, giving voice to what some feminists want left unspoken. Her breaking the silence around mother-daughter incest is especially important in that much of the writing on this is found in personal narratives and is left out of academic and clinical literature. A learned inquiry into lesbianism, more useful to Card's colleagues in academia than to popular readers.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-231-08008-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
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