With something to ponder on every page, a bracing exhortation to do right by the people of centuries to come.
Scottish ethicist and Oxford professor MacAskill urges that those alive today consider the lingering effects of their carbon-footprint–deepening actions.
“Future people count. There could be a lot of them. We can make their lives go better,” writes the author in a combination of thought experiment and reader-friendly white paper. His future is “big,” extending millions of years out, which is perhaps touchingly optimistic given the long-standing habit of mammalian species to disappear after a million years or so. The bigness of that future is what has prompted MacAskill to propound “longtermism,” with its challenging guiding idea that we owe it to people we will never see and whom we may or may not have propagated (the choice for childlessness figures in the argument) to improve their chances of survival. The author identifies a daunting array of modern threats. One is climate change; another is the ever present threat of nuclear war, heightened after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Optimistic again, MacAskill suggests that there are ways we can choose peace and avert the worst effects of climate change by “decarbonizing,” which he calls a “proof of concept for longtermism…against which other potential actions can be compared.” There are other, less obvious threats that worry the author. For example, what might happen if the artificial intelligence of the present is programmed in such a way that it promotes “bad-value lock-in” and thereby makes inevitable a perpetual fascist world government in the future? Throughout, MacAskill brings expansive ideas. He examines the process of history-shifting “value change” by considering changing attitudes toward human slavery. On a more personal scale, he advocates vegetarianism, and he observes that not having children may mean an absence of kids with good values who “can be change makers who help create a better future.”
With something to ponder on every page, a bracing exhortation to do right by the people of centuries to come.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5416-1862-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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