Top 10 Books of 2006
Top Ten Books of 2006
The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth by Benjamin M. Friedman
This book is uplifting in its promise that economic growth is an integral part of a nation’s moral development, but damning in its indictment of the US economy and how the US government (led most recently by President Bush’s economic planning – or lack thereof – but having its roots farther back than this administration) is handicapping the country’s collective future.
Friedman has four recommendations, but doubts whether we have the political will to carry them out: “(1) Economize on government spending apart from programs for the retired elderly. (2) Raise Taxes. (3) Restructure Social Security and Medicare. (4) Increase what America saves, so that the country can finance both the adequate capital formation and a chronic government deficit.” (pg. 414)
Many of the recommendations Reed Hundt makes in dealing with the changes the US must make to meet the competitive threat China represents have to do with a national health care plan, an essential component to allowing people to have the freedom to pursue new entrepreneurial ventures. If Hundt is right and this would be a critical reform, the US will not have the money to make the required changes, and the cycle of economic malaise may only intensify.
Friedman’s thesis is interesting not only in its application to the US, but the future of countries such as China. While Friedman is very careful to show that economic growth and democracy need not be synonymous, it is promising to understand that among the motives which will guide China into its future, an enlightened sense of morality which develops in concert with its economic system maturing is likely.
In China’s Shadow by Reed Hundt
I hope to have a lengthy review of this book published in the near future, so my comments here will be kept to a minimum. Hundt, a former FCC chairman, Intel board member and McKinsey adviser, has written a book which argues for changes to the US system of laws and government policy in order to maintain our global competitiveness in the future. I found this book a breath of fresh air, a respite from all of the books which focus on how China is a threat and how this threat essentially requires a form of protectionism in order for the US to maintain its economic position.
Up From Eden: a Transpersonal View of Human Evolution by Ken Wilber
This book may be my absolute favorite from 2006. It is one of Wilber’s older works (an expanded version of his Atman Project), but is an absolute essential to anyone wanting to understand his thought process. Wilber looks at evolution’s story and shows how our psychological and sociological development has impacted our spiritual development as human beings have evolved. Of particular importance is his treatment of the myth that older ages were less violent and hence, that we come from a past to which we should seek to return. Among his criticisms of post-modernity, this particular aspect is most devastating.
The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer
Packer’s contribution to the debate over the war in Iraq is unique. He manages to pull together the run-up to the war by interviewing the thinkers who believed it was a good idea (people as diverse as Hitchens and Kanan Makiya), and then following the story as Iraq dissolved into the quagmire it now is. That he does this without being mean-spirited is no small thing, and his book is the better for it. I would strongly recommend this particular book as a resource for understanding what happened to justify, plan, execute and follow-up on our invasion of Iraq.
The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West by Niall Ferguson
Worthy of all the praise and accolades it has and will continue to receive, Ferguson’s book focuses on three factors which he believes were the predominant characteristic of the twentieth century. Respectively these were ethnic conflict, economic volatility, and empires in decline. His analysis follows the trajectory of most of his earlier work, which argues that empire – or as his British colloquialisms would call it – colonialism – had benefit both to the powers that be and the natives as well. This is not to say that he speaks of every native people in degrading terms, but that the rightly points to the civil societies many colonial powers left behind them. If Ferguson’s is right about the three primary characteristics of conflict, the next 100 years are going to be ugly.
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works and How It’s Transforming the American Company by Charles Fishman
Finding balance on the question of whether Wal-Mart is a social good or evil is not easy. Fishman’s book manages to avoid trite simplicity and explores how it might actually be a bit of both. I found his exploration of how Wal-Mart creates so much extra stress on the market system of supply and demand that the system actually becomes inefficient in its distribution and allocation of material. My extended review of the book can be read at Asia Times here.
The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History by Robert Conquest
Conquest, the world’s preeminent historian on Russia from Lenin on, and the first western author to write in-depth about the level of destruction wrought in the Ukraine by Stalin’s efforts at dekulakization, stepped outside his body of work and wrote an absolutely magnificent analysis of the impact postmodernity is having on our ability to understand history. Conquest recognizes the same narcissism coloring modern liberal thinking as Ken Wilber does in his novel Boomeritis.
American Mania: When More is Not Enough by Peter C. Whybrow, M.D.
This book bothered me deeply. It is a searing indictment of the American culture, but manages to accomplish this without an appeal to the traditional navel-gazing about how much “we” have that “they” do not. Rather than falling into this trap, Whybrow argues that our pursuit of more is indicative of the fundamental underpinnings of the free market coming unglued. He relies heavily on Adam Smith’s cautions about the nature of market forces to be balanced against society’s shared goals, and argues that this interplay is no longer healthy. What troubles me most is that I sense the fundamentals (deficits, public and private debt, unfunded entitlements, R&D investment, etc) are weakening at precisely the same time as are the intangibles (missing vision, working harder to stay put, insecurity, etc.). This could be the perfect storm that might make the Great Depression look mild in comparison.
The Psychological Roots of Religious Belief: Searching for Angels and the Parent-God by M.D. Faber
Faber’s research touches on something I have long suspected: that religious belief owes much to the initial actually synaptic neurological pathways established between infant and caregiver. In later life, our religious impulses to turn to God for answering our prayers owes its self-sensibility to the unconscious fact that our needs were met in a similar fashion by a seemingly omniscient and omnipresent benevolent giver who just so happened to be our parents.
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
A number of reviewers from prestigious newspapers, periodicals and journals have already commented on what they see as the merits and missteps of Dawkins’ book; however, many of them have not wrestled with several of the critical insights in his work. To resort to the ambiguous but doubtlessly effective (at least as measured by persuading people not to be bothered with Dawkins) charge that his analysis is angry, is to be unwilling to meet Dawkins on the grounds of his arguments. It should be said that, in the interests of fairness, Dawkins is surprisingly willing not to resort to similar vagaries. While a portion of his book does deal with fundamentalism and its various confused pulpiteers such as Dobson, Falwell and their ilk, this is only a small section of his book. That he is willing to bear the responsibility for pointing out what these people actually believe, their hopes for reshaping American culture, and how their beliefs impact hard science should not mean that we relegate Dawkins to the same heap of exasperation we do fundamentalists. My full review of Dawkins’ book can be read here.
previous post: Updated End-of-Year 2006 Bookshelf
next post: Appreciating Hitchens
Leave a Reply
About MysteriousFaith
“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
Themes
Now Reading
Search
Favorites
Personal Writing
Theology
Categories
Meta Data