A wide-ranging appeal for a saner way of living.
With a background that spans science, philosophy and humanitarian service, Robinson has the ability to grasp some of the country’s most pressing problems, filter them through observant, objective eyes and make recommendations for ways to set things right. Robinson focuses on America’s materialism as a root cause of malaise, which is hardly new territory, but he expands the palette to include a discussion of our changing workplace, the growth and importance of nonprofits (the “third sector”), our consumptive attitude toward energy and the weakness of political leaders who focus more on raising money for re-election than on serving their constituents. Robinson acknowledges widespread societal unrest but, with a hint of cockeyed optimism, writes that “suffering is not all bad, because it tells us that something is wrong, and if we just listen, it will direct our lives in new ways.” The most intriguing, provocative section of Robinson’s book is the final chapter, in which the author details “ten remedies” that could move the United States forward in a radically new direction. His first remedy, “Sing a New Song: Craft a singable national anthem,” seems a bit trivial, if only because it lobbies for replacing “The Star-Spangled Banner” with a tune that “would have all of America singing not only better, but all together.” This, writes Robinson, might lead to Americans “cooperating on even more things, such as sane driving or going to school meetings.” Subsequent remedies are to be taken more seriously. The author proposes, for example, a “high-exemption flat tax,” changing the gross domestic product (GDP) to the “GDWB” (gross domestic well-being), taxing waste and not work, imposing public funding of political campaigns and living by the rules of a “civil economy” that brings equity to inequality. Robinson writes well and thoughtfully; his impassioned argument has spiritual overtones that can be inspirational at times, even if some of his ideas stretch the boundary of realism. In an era when both the U.S. and the world are witnessing unprecedented upheaval, Robinson’s innovative, thoughtful treatise may be on to something.
Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-1466338838
Page Count: 254
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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