Books

To heal our broken world, the thought that we just haven't got any ideas, or need to wait for technological innovation, is profoundly destructive. We aren't awaiting anything, we have the tools and thinking we need to progress as a species to a better place of equality and ecological compatibility. We have a surfeit of solutions and ideas, but which ones are we going to implement is our current challenge. I am toying with evoking Lennon the intro to the book I am writing: This book will save the world, if you want it What I mean to say is...

What a wonderful book this is. I watched the documentary series many years ago and had always intended to read the book on which it was based. Finally I picked it up for a dollar at our local charity book festival. The book was amazing, so much deeper than the documentaries. So many things which were illuminating to understand, the spread of agriculture, of language, of writing, of modern humans, of so many things which are part of our global civilisation, are outlined in this book. One of the things which vexed me a little was that he repeatedly says...

It is with some annoyance that I see cigarettes feature so prominently on the paperback covers of this book. Smoking is a wonderful example of the nihilistic, destructive, stupid side of contrarianism. It does this book no justice because it is one of the most positive, constructive books I have read in a long time. The book takes the forms of one side of a conversation with a young contrarian, with Hitchens providing advice on navigating life for such a young person. (There are many books in this vein, starting I believe with Letters to a Young Poet in the...

Nature or nurture? It is obvious to most people with even a brief understanding of the science that we are a complex combination of the two. Pinker sets out the evidence here that nature is far more compelling than most of us realise and it is difficult not to agree with him. What really stood out for me from the book was the political implications of the discussion. On one side if we are largely creatures of nature, genetically determined, then intellectual attempts to change as are somewhat futile. We would agree with the right that people are primarily motivated...

Reading such vast works is both incredibly stimulating, but in some ways frustrating. As enjoyable as they are to read, the details slip away so quickly and one is just left with impressions. The main theme of this book is that we have been taught world history from a Western centred perspective. The central narrative of this is that since the Ancient Greeks, the West has been on a triumphant march to its domination of the world in almost every sphere. Ponting dismantles this view, showing that for much of this time, especially between the end of the Roman Empire...

I've always been attracted to the freedom and responsibility of the individual inherent in anarchism as a political philosophy. It was my readings of Noam Chomsky and interviews he'd given on anarchism that first made me identify as an anarchist. Still, as someone who considers themself as a democrat might never have heard of the demos in Athens, I wasn't really aware of the history of anarchism and the thinkers who had contributed to it over time.

When I sit on the train watching people reading crime and fantasy novels, I despair at how stupid most non-fiction is, and then I remember George Orwell's 1984. This is a towering work of fiction, whilst I love the Lord of the Rings which won a number of polls of best fiction book of the 20th century, 1984 would be my choice. I remember talking to a female friend who saw it as a love story, whereas I hardly noticed that aspect of the book, this is part of Orwell's genius, to write on so many levels that different readers...

Joseph Stiglitz went from academia on to some of the most powerful positions in the world possible for an economist, from advisor to the Clinton government to chief economist at the World Bank, he also picked up the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics along the way. Stellar credentials indeed, yet I have heard reports that at meetings of the major world economic institutions, he is forced to stand behind the barriers along with the protestors, barriers which make sure the economic tyranny is not threatened by an outbreak of social democracy. His crime is to look at economics from a...

This book looked really interesting from the first time I heard about it, and with Noam Chomsky recommending it on the cover (Along with Rev Tim Costello and Natasha Stott Despoja) I kept trawling the library for it until it finally came in. I must say the first few pages really rocked my world, particularly about the disjunct between the union and social justice facets of the left. From then on it got into what the book is about, that we have given economics far too central a position in the political and social life of our culture. It makes...

This book was released with enough hype that I had heard about it for a while before I had any idea what it was about, therefore I assumed it was a stupid novel or something. I'm not sure how I came about to know what it was really about and read it, but I was very glad I did. This book talks about what is behind the facade of trends and brands in our modern world, how they are created and sustained both in the factories of impoverished countries, and the soulless designer offices of the PR world. Like all...