How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions - Softcover

Wheen, Francis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 158648348X ISBN 13: 9781586483487

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2005

Synopsis

In 1979 two events occurred that would shape the next twenty-five years. In America and Britain, an era of weary consensus was displaced by the arrival of a political marriage of fiery idealists: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher transformed politics with a combination of breezy charm and assertive "Victorian values." In Iran, the fundamentalist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini set out to restore a regime that had last existed almost 1,300 years ago. Between them they succeeded in bringing the twentieth century to a premature close. By 1989, Francis Fukuyama was declaring that we had now reached the End of History. What colonized the space recently vacated by notions of history, progress and reason? Cults, quackery, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of idiocy, the proof of which was to be found in every state, every work-place, and every library. In Idiot Proof , columnist Francis Wheen brilliantly evokes the key personalities of the post-political era,including Princess Diana and Deepak Chopra, Osama bin Laden and Nancy Reagan's astrologer,while lamenting the extraordinary rise in superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria over the past quarter of a century. In turn comic, indignant, outraged and just plain baffled by the idiocy of it all, Idiot Proof is a masterful depiction of the daftness of our times and a plea that we might just think a little more and believe a little less.

About this title

Product Description:

How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World A savagely witty account of the last quarter century, when despite a great leap forward in technology there has been a huge, regressive collapse in our ability to think straightso that everything has begun to stop making sense Full description

Review:

'Wheen wears his considerable learning about Marx's career with the lapidary lightness of a fine columnist, and can be as witty and quotable as his subject.' Terry Eagleton, Observer

'Has such a passionate energy and commitment that made me cheer as I read it ... Wheen's study is great fun, a bravura performance – well done yourself, I want to tell him.' Tom Paulin, Guardian

'Unmitigated delight.' Niall Ferguson, Mail on Sunday

‘I’ll read anything by Francis Wheen, and my trust was not misplaced: The simple elegance of the writing and Wheen’s ability to winkle humour out of the most unpromising subject, results in a book which is far more pleasurable than anyone had the right to expect.’ Nick Hornby, Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 158648348X
• ISBN 13: 9781586483487
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 340