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[books 2014] Monoculture
Mar. 8th, 2014 08:38 pm11. Monoculture: How One Story is Changing Everything by FS Michaels
Someone in my book club mentioned this and from the write-up on Amazon and other places on The Interwebs it sounded like the sort of thing I had to have Right! Now! So I ordered it, and it only sat here for a few weeks before I found the time and ....
I have rarely been so disappointed in a book.
Seriously, there's people that don't know this stuff? There has to be a book about it?
Granted, I have a long academic and then general interest in culture and how it works and looking at world views (I come from an academic discipline where the basic texts have titles such as "The Elizabethan World Picture").
The book tells us about how we no longer live in the age ruled by scientific, enlightenment thinking but the dominant world picture is economic. Again, I've worked in two of the areas that have become more monetized over the last 20 years, ie education and medicine, so the debate about it is no stranger to me, but I've seen every argument and point in here in numerous newspaper articles over the years.
Maybe it would be a good book for young people who haven't figured this stuff out yet.
My major beef was that a lot of the historical examples are so generalised as to be misleading, or are just plain wrong. Unfortunately I can't find my notes and I finished it two weeks ago so I can't remember, and certainly can't be bothered to look them up.
The author also seems to have this rose-tinted view of how great things were in the not-so-distant past. Which leads me to believe they must be a white, straight male.
That aside, it's not a bad book, it's just telling me stuff I already know in not the most engaging manner.
If anyone still wants it, I'm not keeping this one!
Someone in my book club mentioned this and from the write-up on Amazon and other places on The Interwebs it sounded like the sort of thing I had to have Right! Now! So I ordered it, and it only sat here for a few weeks before I found the time and ....
I have rarely been so disappointed in a book.
Seriously, there's people that don't know this stuff? There has to be a book about it?
Granted, I have a long academic and then general interest in culture and how it works and looking at world views (I come from an academic discipline where the basic texts have titles such as "The Elizabethan World Picture").
The book tells us about how we no longer live in the age ruled by scientific, enlightenment thinking but the dominant world picture is economic. Again, I've worked in two of the areas that have become more monetized over the last 20 years, ie education and medicine, so the debate about it is no stranger to me, but I've seen every argument and point in here in numerous newspaper articles over the years.
Maybe it would be a good book for young people who haven't figured this stuff out yet.
My major beef was that a lot of the historical examples are so generalised as to be misleading, or are just plain wrong. Unfortunately I can't find my notes and I finished it two weeks ago so I can't remember, and certainly can't be bothered to look them up.
The author also seems to have this rose-tinted view of how great things were in the not-so-distant past. Which leads me to believe they must be a white, straight male.
That aside, it's not a bad book, it's just telling me stuff I already know in not the most engaging manner.
If anyone still wants it, I'm not keeping this one!
