A slim but persuasive consideration of the popularity and wrongheadedness of Malthusian population theory.
Dees rebuts the famous population theory of Thomas Malthus in this nonfiction book.
Since his influential 1798 work Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Malthus has been synonymous with the concept of overpopulation. Malthus’ theory—that population grows exponentially while resources grow linearly, leading to inevitable shortages of those resources—has remained an influential concept in the fields of history and economics, used to contextualize everything from the collapse of the Roman Empire to the long-term viability of welfare programs like Social Security. In this short work, the author argues that Malthus’ theories are constructed on faulty logic: not only are they insufficient for explaining historical trends, Dees writes, but they are potentially dangerous if used to predict how trends might change in the future. The author sets out to answer the question, “[W]hy has such a patently absurd, easily refutable, plagiarized thesis become the standard, all but unique analytical tool in demographic historiography, with wide application in social policy today as well?” By looking at the original context in which Malthus was working and thinking, as well as evidence from across multiple eras, Dees reveals the underlying prejudices and misconceptions that Malthusian theory propagates. The author writes with directness and no shortage of attitude; the reader gets a healthy sense of Dees’ distaste for his subject and can’t help but partake in it. “Although Malthus may have been a master theologian-propagandist-apologist-plagiarist for the ruling elite,” deadpans the author, “he understood little about the workings of the system he was defending. His dogma claims that surplus population…is caused by the poor having too many babies. This is false.” This is an academic work rather than one for the general reader, but even those who don’t consider themselves Malthusian scholars will likely find much of Dees’ evidence to be revelatory, especially when it comes to the notion of overpopulation. Those worried about the coming demographic apocalypse can rest easier.
A slim but persuasive consideration of the popularity and wrongheadedness of Malthusian population theory.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781737481096
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Commons Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A somber, sage book about art-making that deserves a readership beyond Cave’s fan base.
The Australian alt-rock icon talks at length about the relationship between faith, death, and art.
Like many touring musicians stalled during the pandemic, Cave pursued an autobiographical book project while in quarantine. But rather than write a standard memoir, he instead consented to a book of extensive interviews with U.K. arts journalist O’Hagan, photography critic for the Guardian and a feature writer for the Observer. Cave chose this approach in order to avoid standard rock-star patter and to address grittier, more essential matters. On that front, he has plenty of material to work with. Much of the book focuses on his 15-year-old son Arthur, who died from an accidental fall off a cliff in 2015. The loss fueled Cave’s 2019 album, Ghosteen, but Cave sees the connection between life and art as indirect, involving improvisation, uncertainty, and no small amount of thinking about religion. “The loss of my son is a condition; not a theme,” he tells O’Hagan. Loss is a constant in these conversations—during the period when they were recorded, Cave’s mother also died, as did his former band mate Anita Lane. Yet despite that, this is a lively, engrossing book energized by Cave’s relentless candor—and sometimes counterintuitive thinking—about his work and his demons. His well-documented past heroin addiction, he says, “fed into my need for a conservative and well-ordered life.” Grief, he suggests, is surprisingly clarifying: “We become different. We become better.” Throughout, he talks about the challenges and joys of songwriting and improvisation (mostly around Carnage, the 2021 album he recorded with band mate Warren Ellis during this period) and about the comfort he gets answering questions from fans and strangers on his website. O’Hagan knows Cave’s work well, but he avoids fussy discographical queries and instead pushes Cave toward philosophical elaborations, which he’s generally game for.
A somber, sage book about art-making that deserves a readership beyond Cave’s fan base.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-374-60737-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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