Not a defense of Trumpian politics but a measured explanation of why the American populace was so receptive to both Donald...
A scholar pits nationalism against globalism and finds the former preferable.
Where so many political analysts have seen the rise of Donald Trump and the Brexit decision as irrational offenses against the democratic process, former Knesset member Tamir (President/Shenkar Coll. of Engineering and Design; Liberal Nationalism, 1995, etc.) maintains otherwise. “The crystallization of the vulnerable into an identity group went unnoticed until the liberal progressive camp started losing one election after another,” she writes. “This wasn’t, as many assumed, a moment of democratic crisis but of democratic victory…because certain social trends that had previously been silenced suddenly got a voice.” The author laments the impression that too often that voice has been extremist and xenophobic, but she believes that those ill-served by liberal multiculturalism and the factionalism of identity politics have made a rational choice in their own best interests rather than been swayed by demagoguery. She convincingly argues that globalism benefits the rich, who already have wealth and power and resources, while undermining the many. So, why nationalism? Because it provides a cultural identity, makes one a part of something bigger than oneself, and confers a kind of immortality in the form of continuity. Because it provides a unifying narrative as well as a system of public education that reinforces the shared values of the unifying narrative. Addressing the times when academic institutions sought to “remake the national narrative,” the author writes, “national unity was eroded and pluralism replaced the ‘melting pot’ policy.” She continues, “the newly established harmony turned into cacophony.” Tamir castigates extremists on both the left and right, arguing that compromises reflecting the majority voice, without demonizing minorities, is the only path forward. She believes that political discourse must “move beyond the patronizing ways in which the masses are perceived.” Yet she makes it possible to appreciate her comparatively calm call to reason without becoming persuaded that the resurgence of nationalism is where reason lies.
Not a defense of Trumpian politics but a measured explanation of why the American populace was so receptive to both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-691-19010-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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
PERSPECTIVES
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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