When I set out to write a book about the natural history of breasts, I knew I'd have to answer some awkward questions about my book topic. At a...
Continue »
[This may be a bit 'off center'. I am recommending this book under the category of the "best book I have read in the past decade", so, of necessity, this is not a formal review, per se; it is simply my statement as to why this was the best book, for me, of the past 10 years.]
01. It is written by a social scientist who writes exceptionally well. Finding books in this category that are a joy to read not only for excellent scholarship, but for exquisite readability is something that does not happen very often.
02. It is presented as social science with a particularly good balance as between the demands of a purely academic treatise and the much lower standards generally accepted for books classified as 'current affairs'. In short, there is sufficiently-precise enough data in the end notes to allow the reader to easily locate and determine on his own whether or not the author is correctly citing his sources. At the same time, there is enough commentary in those end notes to allow the expansion of ancillary ideas which otherwise would have been obtrusive if included in the in-line body of that topic.
03. And finally, that which is most important to me in my personal choice, I reduce to last in this list because there are certainly many who will not agree with me that Mr. Berman correctly describes in an appropriate tone with proper balance the evidence of the decline of our country. Not only does he correctly describe the problems with our governmental. economic, educational and social institutions, he correctly points out that the problems are much more fundamentally personal, familial and individual. For many of we smug Americans, it is probably difficult enough to see sacrosanct institutions laid bare, how much more difficult to be able to accept seeing ourselves so accurately described for the flabby bodies and flabby minds that we have become.
04. So many of the reviews of Mr. Berman's book lash out at him as a 'Europhile', acting as if he has nothing better to do with his life than 'knock down America'. Anyone taking the time to read this book will find an intelligent mind energized by an abundant appreciation for America. As so starkly contrasted with the then-contemporary quote of our Secretary of Defense, indicating that he no longer needed 'the old Europe', this author, it will be seen, took the opposite approach. He held the light up to let us see ourselves in the mirror primarily because he yet had a strong love of what 'the Old America' had stood for in his experience in times past.
05. It is inevitable that any work of this type will lose some of its value with the passing of the years. I decided to re-read it some half-decade after it was written -- after the passing out of the last administration, and after a year of the new -- and while I am happy to say that the analysis and commentary seem still as vibrant, that also, sadly, means that there is no evidence that we, as Americans, have taken any steps to slow the coming of our Dark Age. So, my recommendation stands: this was, and might still be, the most important book for the last decade -- or the next.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
J. Terry Corbet has commented on (1) product.
Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire by Morris Berman
J. Terry Corbet, January 1, 2010
[This may be a bit 'off center'. I am recommending this book under the category of the "best book I have read in the past decade", so, of necessity, this is not a formal review, per se; it is simply my statement as to why this was the best book, for me, of the past 10 years.]01. It is written by a social scientist who writes exceptionally well. Finding books in this category that are a joy to read not only for excellent scholarship, but for exquisite readability is something that does not happen very often.
02. It is presented as social science with a particularly good balance as between the demands of a purely academic treatise and the much lower standards generally accepted for books classified as 'current affairs'. In short, there is sufficiently-precise enough data in the end notes to allow the reader to easily locate and determine on his own whether or not the author is correctly citing his sources. At the same time, there is enough commentary in those end notes to allow the expansion of ancillary ideas which otherwise would have been obtrusive if included in the in-line body of that topic.
03. And finally, that which is most important to me in my personal choice, I reduce to last in this list because there are certainly many who will not agree with me that Mr. Berman correctly describes in an appropriate tone with proper balance the evidence of the decline of our country. Not only does he correctly describe the problems with our governmental. economic, educational and social institutions, he correctly points out that the problems are much more fundamentally personal, familial and individual. For many of we smug Americans, it is probably difficult enough to see sacrosanct institutions laid bare, how much more difficult to be able to accept seeing ourselves so accurately described for the flabby bodies and flabby minds that we have become.
04. So many of the reviews of Mr. Berman's book lash out at him as a 'Europhile', acting as if he has nothing better to do with his life than 'knock down America'. Anyone taking the time to read this book will find an intelligent mind energized by an abundant appreciation for America. As so starkly contrasted with the then-contemporary quote of our Secretary of Defense, indicating that he no longer needed 'the old Europe', this author, it will be seen, took the opposite approach. He held the light up to let us see ourselves in the mirror primarily because he yet had a strong love of what 'the Old America' had stood for in his experience in times past.
05. It is inevitable that any work of this type will lose some of its value with the passing of the years. I decided to re-read it some half-decade after it was written -- after the passing out of the last administration, and after a year of the new -- and while I am happy to say that the analysis and commentary seem still as vibrant, that also, sadly, means that there is no evidence that we, as Americans, have taken any steps to slow the coming of our Dark Age. So, my recommendation stands: this was, and might still be, the most important book for the last decade -- or the next.
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)