Category Archives: Non-Fiction

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

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According to 1491, as many as 90 million people lived in the Western Hemisphere before the arrival of Columbus. The vast majority of these people died from diseases brought from Europe by the various explorers, traders and conquerors who visited North, Central and South America starting in 1492.

Taking into account recent research, Mann argues that Indian societies were larger, older, more complex and more technologically sophisticated than previously believed. They also had much more effect on the environment, building major cities and transforming much of the countryside for agricultural purposes (even the Amazon basin). The Indians of the Western Hemisphere did not “live lightly on the land”.

In fact, according to Mann, the New World that European settlers eventually encountered, with its dense forests, huge herds of bison and vast flocks of passenger pigeons, was a recent development. The catastrophic effects of disease on Indian populations resulted in certain parts of nature running wild, certain species experiencing explosive growth after the Indians could no longer manage their environment, as they had done for thousands of years before Columbus.  (3/15/11)

Moral Clarity: a Guide for Grown-Up Idealists by Susan Neiman

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Abraham did the right thing when he argued with God about God’s intention to kill everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah (not when he agreed to sacrifice his son Isaac). By standing up for his ethical ideals in opposition to the demands of his religion, Abraham foreshadowed the values of the Enlightenment.

Neiman believes that we should adopt certain key Enlightenment values, in opposition to cultural trends on both the right and the left (but mostly the right). She focuses on happiness, reason, reverence and hope. She contends that Enlightenment thinkers understood the limitations of reason. They also realized that progress is not inevitable. But thinkers like Kant showed the way to a universalist morality that favors reason over tradition, knowledge over superstition, and hope over fear.  (12/26/10)

Death of the Liberal Class by Chris Hedges

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Hedges argues that there is a power elite that controls the corporations, which completely control the economy, government and media. The power elite has instituted a permanent war economy that will shortly lead to financial and ecological catastrophe. This process began with the government’s use of propaganda to suppress opposition to World War I. Political liberals might have stopped the ascension of the power elite if they had stayed true to principles of peace and justice.

But the “liberal class” no longer speaks truth to power. Liberals in government, academia and the media may call for reform, but they are powerless to change anything, having been bought off by their corporate masters. There is nothing for reasonable people to do but retreat into small self-sustaining communities (similar to the monasteries of the Dark Ages) and/or perform acts of rebellion that are likely to have little effect on the status quo.

Given the thesis of this book, it hardly seems worth pointing out that it is repetitious and strangely organized, with sections that aren’t always related to the chapter headings. It also focuses almost completely on the United States, except for one brief section on working conditions in China. Hedges may be right that we are heading for catastrophe as a nation and a planet, but those are different propositions. His principal argument concerns the failure of political liberals to stop the corporate takeover of the United States. He seems to think that global climate change might have been avoided if corporations had less power in the United States, but that doesn’t follow.

Death of the Liberal Class is written with such force, that it is surprising to read on the dust jacket that the author is a columnist for a political website, writes for numerous publications (including Harper’s, the New York Review of Books, Granta and Mother Jones), and lives in Princeton. This makes him sound, accurately or not, like a member of the liberal class that he excoriates with such passion in this book.  (12/20/10)

A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy by Jonathan Israel

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Israel argues that the Enlightenment was composed of two separate tendencies, a Radical Enlightenment based on the philosophies of Spinoza and Bayle, and a Moderate Enlightenment, partly based on the philosophy of John Locke. The Radical Enlightenment was dedicated to ideals of equality, democracy and universal education. The thinkers of the Radical Enlightenment strongly favored reason and science over religion. They believed that current institutions, both political and religious, including all traces of monarchy and aristocracy, would and should be swept away in a worldwide cultural and political revolution, once the common people had become sufficiently educated.

Israel believes that it was the thinkers of the Radical Enlightenment, such as Diderot, d’Holbach and Thomas Paine, whose ideas gave rise to the revolutions of the late 18th century, in particular the French Revolution. He characterizes the thinkers of the Moderate Enlightenment, such as Rousseau and Kant, as being much more conservative and anti-democratic.

Although Israel’s thesis is convincing, and the book is informative, his prose is repetitious and convoluted. He insists on inserting French phrases that could just as well be translated and includes the same lists of names (Diderot, Helvetius and D’Holbach, for example) over and over again. A Revolution of the Mind is important but not a pleasure to read.  (11/11/10)

Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey by Roger Scruton

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In 31 chapters, Scruton provides a wide-ranging but relatively detailed account of Western philosophy since Descartes.  He seems to have read everything important in the philosophical literature. His account is enlivened by fairly frequent humor and sarcasm. Scruton’s treatment of positions he disagrees with seems even-handed until the last few chapters, when his language becomes obscure and his political conservatism becomes more apparent. The book concludes with an informative 98-page study guide.  (10/27/10)