Tag Archives: social criticism

Brave New World Revisited

Posted on July 24, 2018 by

Brave New World Revisited© 1958 Aldhous Huxley144 pages Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1931)  transported readers to a deeply creepy nightmare-vision of the future, in which man had disappeared as an independent being, instead becoming the raw materials for a new, … Continue reading →

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Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination Of Your Child

Posted on August 18, 2017 by

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination Of Your Child© 2010 Anthony Esolen256 pages In the spirit of The Screwtape Letters comes this, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination Of Your Child.  Anthony Esolen opens by observing that the western world … Continue reading →

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Affluenza

Posted on February 13, 2017 by

Affluenza: the All-Consuming Epidemic© 2001, 2004, 2014  John de Graaf, David Wann, Thomas Naylor288 pages In getting and spending, we lay waste to all our powers — so sayeth the poet. Originally published in 2001, Affluenza is a critique of consumerism, … Continue reading →

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Out of the Ashes

Posted on February 9, 2017 by

Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture© 2017 Anthony Esolen256 pages Some things, like a Roman bridge, can last for millennia through the virtue of their design, the simplicity of their use, and the inherent strength of their materials. Other … Continue reading →

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Seeing like a State

Posted on October 9, 2014 by

Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed© 1999 James Scott464 pages             Seeing like a State scrutinizes the organizational approach of state governments and other large institutions from the … Continue reading →

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The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer

Posted on October 3, 2014 by

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer© 2010 Joel Salatin300 pages Joel Salatin is crazy and glad to be so;  in print and in media like Food, Inc and Fresh, he gleefully rejects what the late 20th century produced as conventional … Continue reading →

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The Small Mart Revolution

Posted on July 16, 2014 by

The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition© 2007 Michael Shuman285 pages Independence has long ceased to be the American credo, supplanted by another: efficiency. Throughout the 20th century, small businesses supporting towns and families were devoured … Continue reading →

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Posted on July 8, 2014 by

Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly© 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe          500 pages Written as an indignant response to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, Uncle Tom’s Cabin shook the American landscape in the mid-19th century as few other novels … Continue reading →

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The World Until Yesterday

Posted on June 19, 2014 by

The World Until Yesterday© 2012 Jared Diamond481 pages             Earth has been the province of mankind for hundreds of thousands of years, and for most of the time he has transversed it in small tribal groups, … Continue reading →

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Power, Inc

Posted on June 18, 2014 by

Power, Inc: the Epic Rivalry between Government and Big Business© 2013 David Rothkopf448 pages      Historians of western civilization are used to viewing its late medieval and early modern period through the lens of a church versus state battle; the … Continue reading →

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