politics

Book review – Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

10-minute read
keywords: degrowth, economics

I have been promising/threatening for a while to cover degrowth, and thanks to a United States Society for Ecological Economics book club, now I will. In Less is More, economic anthropologist Jason Hickel identifies capitalism as the cause of our problems—the sort of criticism that makes many people really uncomfortable. Fortunately, he is an eloquent and charismatic spokesman who patiently but firmly walks you through the history of capitalism, exposes flaws of proposed fixes, and then lays out a litany of sensible solutions. It quickly confirms that sinking feeling most of us will have: that the economy is not working for us. What is perhaps eye-opening is that this is not by accident, but by design.

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Book review – The Flaws That Kill Our Democracy

6-minute read

Sometimes a review sets off a small chain reaction. Not long after posting my review of Can Democracy Work? the author of Beasts and Gods send me a review copy of her book. That review was followed by a message from bioinformatician and former Belgian Pirate Party member Klaas Mensaert. Would I be interested in reviewing his book The Flaws That Kill Our Democracy? As I was already in the middle of a large two-part review on democracy, another perspective seemed very welcome.

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Book review – In Defence of Democracy

9-minute read

This review is one half of a two-parter. Not long after posting my review of Can Democracy Work? I received an email from Dr Roslyn Fuller: since I had mentioned her book In Defence of Democracy, would I be interested in reviewing it? This seemed like a great opportunity to also finally read Against Democracy, which has been sitting on my shelves for a while now. Two books, two opposing viewpoints, two reviews, back-to-back.

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Book review – Against Democracy

9-minute read

This review is one half of a two-parter. Against Democracy has been sitting on my shelves for a while now. After I recently received a review copy of Roslyn Fuller’s book In Defence of Democracy, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally read it. Two books, two opposing viewpoints, two reviews, back-to-back.

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Book review – Beasts and Gods: How Democracy Changed its Meaning and Lost its Purpose

7-minute read

Not long after posting my review of Can Democracy Work? I received an email from Dr Roslyn Fuller: since I had mentioned her book In Defence of Democracy, would I be interested in reviewing it? And so, a parcel arrived at Inquisitive Biologist HQ my living room with two books, with Beasts and Gods providing valuable background reading to In Defence of Democracy.

Many people feel disenchanted with politics, but can you really articulate why? Bar a select few politically engaged individuals I know (I am not one of them), most of us remain stuck in conspiratorial grumblings at the pub about corrupt politicians. Published in 2015, Beasts and Gods lays bare how modern democracies are invariably broken, examines democracy in ancient Athens, and asks what we can learn from them.

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Book review – Cold Rush: The Astonishing True Story of the New Quest for the Polar North

Cold Rush is one of those books that invites a facepalm and a groan of: “humans… sigh”. The Arctic turns out to be particularly sensitive to climate change – the extent of sea ice cover has been hitting record-lows in the last decade, polar bears are moving into new areas as their habitat disappears, Greenland’s glaciers are melting in record-tempo, and scientists are publicly worrying we will see the North Pole free of ice within decades. You would think that we would be concerned. Instead, the nations around the Arctic rub their hands in glee: “Look at all these business opportunities: new shipping routes, newly accessible oil, gas, and mineral reserves… oh boy, we are going to make so much money!”

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Book review – Can Democracy Work? A Short History of a Radical Idea, from Ancient Athens to Our World

If the will of the people can put a loose cannon like Donald Trump in charge of the USA, or lead to the ongoing car crash that is the Brexit, asking whether democracy can work seems like a timely question. But to think that our times signify an unprecedented crisis is to ignore its long history. Professor of Politics and Liberal Studies James Miller here provides an excellent introduction to the long and spotty track record of democratic governance, showing that it continues to be an ongoing experiment.

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Book review – Anti-Science and the Assault on Democracy: Defending Reason in a Free Society

Long-term readers of this blog will be aware that the proliferation of pseudoscience and anti-scientific sentiments disturb me deeply. As someone with a scientific training, my concerns are foremost academic. But as the contributors to this edited collection wish to show, these anti-intellectual trends also impact democracy. This is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than in the USA and Anti-Science and the Assault on Democracy is therefore appropriately US-centric. It is also rather academic and scholarly in tone, more so than other works aimed at a general audience.

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Book review – The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money

Here is another book in the category “reading outside of my usual fields of interest”. When I spotted this title in the last Princeton catalogue it immediately piqued my interest. Surely, as an unabashed cheerleader of science, why would I oppose education, the gateway to science? Economist Bryan Caplan has written a provocative book that will not make him many friends. But before you discard this book as abject nonsense, give the man a chance and hear him out. He makes a cogent argument, supported by both common-sense observations and a solid analysis.

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