February 1, 2010
WHY WE HATE US by Dick Meyer
by Dick Meyer, author of Why We Hate Us: American Discontent and the New Millennium (Three Rivers Press, 2009).
Since publishing Why We Hate Us: American Discontent and the New Millennium, the single question I have been asked the most is, “Will Barack Obama lead Americans to hate us less?”
The answer, I am sorry to report, is “no.”
The basic argument of my book is that Americans have developed a broad, enduring distaste and suspicion toward the main institutions and directions of our public culture. This holds true for politics, government, journalism, business, entertainment, marketing, law and even the clergy. Increasingly, Americans feel alienated from their culture and susceptible to its coarseness and toxicity. Keep reading →
January 21, 2010
We are happy to send a free copy of one of the books featured on this blog to the first 10 comment posters.
Post a comment to any essay and then email us indicating your book request (must be one of the books featured on this blog). Please be sure to include your full school mailing address.
January 19, 2010
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
A few years ago, in a conversation with my husband’s oldest brother, I said that I thought the only solution to illegal immigration was to help create jobs in the handful of countries that send about four in every five undocumented immigrants to the U.S.
My husband’s brother, assuming I was talking about U.S. foreign aid, got very angry. He reached for his pant pocket and yanked out his wallet. He slapped it down on the picnic table. “This is my money!” he told me. No one, he said, was going to use his hard-earned cash to help a bunch of people in another country he didn’t even know. Keep reading →
January 5, 2010
LOST TO THE WEST by Lars Brownworth
by Lars Brownworth, author of Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Crown, 2009).
There are few words as controversial—or as misunderstood—as ‘crusade’. Those who doubt that need only remember nine years ago when President George W. Bush casually used it to describe the War on Terror. The ensuing firestorm caused frantic verbal backpedaling, and resulted in the President spending the next seven years repeatedly explaining that he was not waging a war against Islam.
Yet for all the disbelief and outrage, most people today know only a few basic ‘facts’ about the Crusades. They are largely regarded as an exercise in hypocrisy, an unprovoked assault into the Middle East by an expansionist West. Goaded on by the Pope, the knights of Europe sewed crosses onto their shirts and smashed their way into Jerusalem, committing horrendous atrocities in the name of a supposedly peaceful religion. The shocking events traumatized the Islamic world, poisoning relations and leading many Muslims to conclude that the West—and Christianity in particular—was out to destroy them. The chance for peaceful co-existence was lost, and it has been war ever since.
Like so many popularly accepted storylines, this one depends on a short view of history. Keep reading →
December 18, 2009
HIGH by Brian O'Dea
Brian O’Dea, author of HIGH: Confessions of an International Drug Smuggler (Other Press 2009), responds to comments posted to his “Legalize All Drugs Now!” essay from September 23rd, 2009.
I was interviewed recently by a young reporter who grew up in the midst of the so called “drug war”. As far as she was concerned, it is perfectly alright for our government to wage a war against the weakest of our citizens, even though her entire premise for it being acceptable was built on a foundation of lies, untruths, omissions, and a complete disregarding of the facts. Numbers issued by the DEA have notoriously distorted the facts for years (a simple example is found in their excessive valuation of the drugs they seize), and even only recently, under extreme pressure from LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition –LEAP.CC) have they changed a blatant lie on their home page regarding marijuana.
At any rate, I digress, let’s return to the interview. Keep reading →
December 14, 2009
The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley
by Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why and a contributor to TIME Magazine.
One of the strange things about influenza pandemics is that they happen in slow motion, giving us time to reflect.
Looking back, it’s clear that one major challenge was (and will be) striking the elusive balance between reasonable mobilization and overreaction. We want people to wash their hands and stay home when they are sick; we don’t want people to stone buses carrying a sick passenger from another country.
How do we dial up—or down—our response to a pandemic in real time? It might help to shape public warnings and communication according to how the brain actually works. Keep reading →
September 30, 2009
The Second World by Parag Khanna
Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: How Emerging Powers Are Redefining Global Competition in the Twenty-first Century, delivered a fascinating talk at this past summer’s TED Conference.
At the crux of his speech, and the book, is a rejection of the notion of a borderless world ruled only by First World powers, and a re-examination of other growing hot spots and spheres of influence that we ignore at our peril.
Do we live in a borderless world? If not, is creating a borderless world a noble goal, for that matter, even attainable?
You may view the video by clicking here, and then share your thoughts with us by posting a comment.
To the visit the author’s website, click here. You may also follow Parag via Twitter @paragkhanna.
September 25, 2009
The Age of Empathy by Dr. Frans De Waal
World-renown primatologist Dr. Frans De Waal’s new book, The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society, draws upon decades of research and study, considering such fundamental questions as: Do we have an instinct for compassion? Or is everything we do motivated simply by innate self-interest?
The book has received a lot of interest; most recently, the Wall Street Journal published an interesting review accompanied by compelling video and images, and the Los Angeles Times pondered the book’s central argument in light of all of the recent negative events (i.e. the War on Terror, the financial meltdown, the ongoing unrest in the Middle East) triggered by humans at the dawn of this still very new century.
You can read an excerpt here, and visit the author’s website for more information.
So what do you think of this newest chapter in the nature versus nurture debate? Is empathy really hardwired? If so, what does that mean for us?
