An iconoclastic collection of 12 critical and biographical estimates of leading writers—Rousseau, Shelley, Marx, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Sartre, Russell, and others—with a final chapter commenting more briefly on figures such as Orwell, Mailer, Baldwin, and Chomsky. Johnson, past editor of the New Statesman and the Spectator, has written numerous historical studies (e.g., A History of the Jews, 1987, and Modern Times, 1983), some of them with a distinctly conservative cast. His aim now is to examine his subjects' morals and private lives as indicators of the value of their advice on how society should conduct itself. As portrayed here, most modern intellectual idols are made of dusty clay: Marx was dirty; Shelley and Tolstoy mistreated their families; Hemingway drank; Sartre and Russell were vague thinkers, with little more to their program than a wish to side with youth and the left. On the whole, Johnson gives us a gallery of spoiled, irresponsible, untrustworthy egoists, whose thinking, in his view, was often as careless as their lives. Their deepest and most persistent failing was that they valued concepts more than people, doctrine more than human relations. Ultimately, Johnson finds them, as a class, indirectly responsible for the sacrifice of millions of innocent people in the interest of misguided schemes for the betterment of humanity. The question of why these intellectuals were so influential remains unanswered here, however. An outspoken study, then, founded upon the belief that traditional values and virtues are the most reliable guides to private conduct and public policy—and that the opinions of intellectuals are often dangerous.
Pub Date: March 15, 1989
ISBN: 0061253170
Page Count: -
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1989
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
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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