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Title: The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself
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Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
List Price: $28.00
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| The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself by Oxford University Press, USA A Companion Read To GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL | | If you like books that offer explanations for humankind's big questions, this book attemps such. Depending on how much stock you put in Harrison's well-conceived and sufficiently supported (in my opinion) thoery, it can be construed to either add to or take precedence over Diamond's GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL. I think together these books help to explain the world's current political situation (mess). Unlike Diamond's "geography is fate" analysis, much can be accomplished politically to correct Harrison's "culture is fate" explanation. Culture relativists, hackneyed liberals, and Bushian neo-cons will all take offense - that in itself may be sufficient reason to read it. The writing and editing could have been better, but because there were many contributors this is somewhat excusable. | | The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself by Oxford University Press, USA Our burden | | Harrison's mind strikes me as one still anchored in colonialism, albeit, a new, hip, updated version. It would do us all well to first read Rudyard Kipling's poem, The White Man's Burden (1899) before we dive into Mr. Harrison's book; the real purpose of which, I suspect, is to save the dark-skinned "Half-devil and half-child" heathens from themselves. | | The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself by Oxford University Press, USA Reality is the cure for ideology. | I must say that reading this book was a quantum leap from the last several political books that I've read, which were written by pundits. This book is a bit dry at times, but it contains real reasearch about reality.
The "take home lesson" I got out of reading this book is:
First, "Freedom and Democracy" isn't for every nation because a nation, or culture, must have certain values internalized before freedom or democracy can work. This is a rebuke to ideologues on the "right" who think that we can superimpose our style of government on any nation out there.
However, this book is also a stinging rebuttal of the leftist who believes that John Lennon's "Imagine" expressed the ideal for humanity. "Imagine no religion..." No, we really can't afford to "imagine no religion" because it seems that decentralized Christianity (Protestantism) gave the world the most "progressive" culture that has even been. And, we can't "Imagine no possessions" because it is the possibility of home ownership that gives people a stake in their society.
Finally, this book delivers a body blow to "multiculturalism". Some cultures are sick, and this book explains how they can get better.
I could go on, but my point is that an exhaustive study has been completed that ties culture to "progress", and it's probably not what anyone who is narcissistically attached to a particular political ideology wants to hear. However, it is in this book, which I would recommend to anyone interested in politics and culture. | | The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself by Oxford University Press, USA Foreign Policy Makers Must Read! | | Professor Harrison's book is a well researched, timely and necessary study of why some cultures do better than others and how outside forces may or may not affect change when desired. The cases described within are necessary background for decisions being made today,and I sincerely hope our policymakers will study them. This book is a perfect complement to the Jared Diamond thesis and one should not be read without the other. A pivotal book for our times. | | The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself by Oxford University Press, USA For political scientists and sociologists, not economists | I found this book to be too diffuse in its coverage to be of much use to me. It tries to cover 25 cultural factors for many situations and is generally lacking in quantitative analysis. I found it hard to see how the various cultural factors are related, and what their importance is in specific situations. Thus I believe that political scientists and sociologists will find the book of greater value than economists. Perhaps it tries to do too much at one time.
The Spring 2006 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives has a symposium of articles on cultural economics, and I found David Landes' article on the development of China and Europe over the last millennium, and the economic analysis of a few cultural factors like "trust" by Guiso et al to be of greater interest to me as an economist because of their specific and quantitative nature. Since Kahneman and Tversky did their pioneering work, a whole new field of cultural or psychological economics has been opened and it may take many years before we have a comprehensive economics based on people as they are and not on "economic man." Certainly "culture matters", but it is too soon for an economic synthesis of the field. | | The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself by Oxford University Press, USA Product Description | Which cultural values, beliefs, and attitudes best promote democracy, social justice, and prosperity? How can we use the forces that shape cultural change, such as religion, child-rearing practices, education, and political leadership, to promote these values in the Third World--and for
underachieving minorities in the First World? In this book, Lawrence E. Harrison offers intriguing answers to these questions, in a valuable follow-up to his acclaimed Culture Matters.
Drawing on a three-year research project that explored the cultural values of dozens of nations--from Botswana, Sweden, and India to China, Egypt, and Chile--Harrison offers a provocative look at values around the globe, revealing how each nation's culture has propelled or retarded their
political and economic progress. The book presents 25 factors that operate very differently in cultures prone to progress and those that resist it, including one's influence over destiny, the importance attached to education, the extent to which people identify with and trust others, and the role of
women in society. Harrison pulls no punches, and many of his findings will be controversial. He argues, for example, that Protestantism, Confucianism, and Judaism have been more successful in promoting progress than Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Islam.
Harrison rejects the Bush administration's doctrine that "the values of freedom are right and true for every person, in every society." Thus nations like Iraq and Afghanistan--where illiteracy, particularly among women, and mistrust are high and traditions of cooperation and compromise are
scant--are likely to resist democracy.
Most important, the book outlines a series of practical guidelines that developing nations and lagging minority groups can use to enhance their political, social, and economic well-being.
Contradicting the arguments of multiculturalists, this book contends that when it comes to promoting human progress, some cultures are clearly more effective than others. It convincingly shows which values, beliefs, and attitudes work and how we can foster them. |
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