How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions: Amazon.co.uk: Francis Wheen: Books

Review

'A brilliant, eccentric book.' Observer Book of the Year

‘Wheen has a Swiftian relish for exposing the cant that attends the 'new rationality'…bullshit's enema number one.' Tim Adams, Observer

'Hugely enjoyable…delightful reading.'
Ferdinand Mount, Sunday Times

'Lightly and often hilariously told as it is, this book does make it clear that respect for truth and reason is retreating and mumbo-jumbo has a new confidence everywhere…This amusing, intelligent and elegantly argued book is as good a demonstration of the values it defends as could be imagined.'
Philip Hensher, Spectator

‘This book is a manifesto for rescuing the greatest philosophical movement of the past millennium. You have a choice: either read it or, pre-emptively shred your brain in anticipation of the coming darkness.' Independent on Sunday

'Such an entertaining writer. Wheen is, one senses, a good man to go tiger-hunting with; it is no less fun to watch him shooting fish in a barrel.' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

'Very funny…a brilliant satiric essay.'
Will Cohu, Daily Telegraph

'If Wheen's book succeeds in starting to shift the balance between reason and sentimentality, between lavish prompts of the heart and the colder ones of the brain, between rigorous analysis and twaddled cloaked in obscurity, then I think the ghost of Jefferson will have every right, every reason, to be proud of him.'
David McKie, Guardian

'This book is a well-informed polemic that most enjoyably challenges you to think. Wheen cuts a Jonathan Swift-like swathe through the morass of tosh, hogwash, and it could be added, bullshit that threatens to clog our minds.'
Peter Lewis, Daily Mail

Francis Wheen is the intelligent sceptic's intelligent sceptic, and How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered The World casts a cold eye on fads in government, management and health that have swept the Anglo-Saxon world in the past 20 years. The urge to believe is unstoppable in most of mankind. The abundance of stupidity in this book is enough to make you pine for Ian Paisley.' Jeremy Paxman, Mail on Sunday

'One of the best reads you are likely to read this winter, full of spark and fine writing.
FT

Francis Wheen also writes about Samuel Huntington in the Independent magazine's 'Heroes & Villains' column. His piece on 'mad theories making a come back and politicians helping' ran in the Sunday Times News Review.

Review

'A brilliant, eccentric book.' Observer Book of the Year 'Wheen has a Swiftian relish for exposing the cant that attends the 'new rationality'!bullshit's enema number one.' Tim Adams, Observer 'Hugely enjoyable!delightful reading.' Ferdinand Mount, Sunday Times 'Lightly and often hilariously told as it is, this book does make it clear that respect for truth and reason is retreating and mumbo-jumbo has a new confidence everywhere!This amusing, intelligent and elegantly argued book is as good a demonstration of the values it defends as could be imagined.' Philip Hensher, Spectator 'This book is a manifesto for rescuing the greatest philosophical movement of the past millennium. You have a choice: either read it or, pre-emptively shred your brain in anticipation of the coming darkness.' Independent on Sunday 'This book is a manifesto for rescuing the greatest philosophical movement of the past millennium. You have a choice: either read it or, pre-emptively shred your brain in anticipation of the coming darkness.' Independent on Sunday 'Such an entertaining writer. Wheen is, one senses, a good man to go tiger-hunting with; it is no less fun to watch him shooting fish in a barrel.' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph 'Very funny!a brilliant satiric essay.' Will Cohu, Daily Telegraph 'If Wheen's book succeeds in starting to shift the balance between reason and sentimentality, between lavish prompts of the heart and the colder ones of the brain, between rigorous analysis and twaddled cloaked in obscurity, then I think the ghost of Jefferson will have every right, every reason, to be proud of him.' David McKie, Guardian 'This book is a well-informed polemic that most enjoyably challenges you to think. Wheen cuts a Jonathan Swift-like swathe through the morass of tosh, hogwash, and it could be added, bullshit that threatens to clog our minds.' Peter Lewis, Daily Mail Francis Wheen is the intelligent sceptic's intelligent sceptic, and How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered The World casts a cold eye on fads in government, management and health that have swept the Anglo-Saxon world in the past 20 years. The urge to believe is unstoppable in most of mankind. The abundance of stupidity in this book is enough to make you pine for Ian Paisley.' Jeremy Paxman, Mail on Sunday 'One of the best reads you are likely to read this winter, full of spark and fine writing. FT Francis Wheen also writes about Samuel Huntington in the Independent magazine's 'Heroes & Villains' column. His piece on 'mad theories making a come back and politicians helping' ran in the Sunday Times News Review.

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85 of 88 people found the following review helpful

A small voice of reason 17 Mar 2004

By Timothy De Ferrars

Format:Hardcover

From the first page this book promises a great deal: Francis Wheen sets out to show how society, both Western and Islamic, has determinedly squandered the benefits of the Enlightenment and has developed an astonishing hostility towards contemporary science and rational thought.

Wheen paints a picture that is both amusing and chilling: our citizens and leaders are in the thrall of hocus and spin; educated people consume with gusto the diet of drivel served up in the media; an entire nation loses its grip after the death of a Sloaney princess; and post-modernists conjure with words to question the reality of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide.

This would have been a better book if Wheen had built on its early momentum and resisted the lure of diatribe, but there is such a surfeit of material to support his thesis, and so much nonsense routinely peddled by famous people who should have known better, that he seems unable to stop. The result is erudite and funny, but in the end this is a string of good journalism, rather than the serious manifesto that it might have been.

I recommend this book, and I hope that Wheen will soon produce another edition that not only updates us on the progress of this human ship of fools (which seems daily to surpass itself in its vainglorious stupidity) but also lingers more on the questions why, and what needs to be done.

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

A much better book than its title suggests 15 Jan 2010

By The Navigator

Format:Paperback

The title and the unhelpful "hilarious" quote from Paxman on the cover suggests this is all laugh a line, "news quiz" level of frippery.

Well it ain't. It's a fierce and cogent defence of enlightenment values and should be mandatory reading for this dim-witted age.

To be fair to Paxman - it is also hilarious, it's just that's not the point of this splendid work.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

More funny than informative. 12 Jan 2008

By Iphidaimos

I thought long and hard about this review before making up my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing since it appealed to my nihilistic nature, but it left me somewhat disappointed. It pokes fun at all the right targets - lefties without any discernable critical faculty, self-serving politicians, the relious dingbats, heartless big business, philosophers with all the common sense of a dead whelk and vacant-minded new agers - but somehow it seemed to miss the bulls eye. I suppose because it fails to offer any answers. Yes, mankind is superstitious, ill-educated and, for the most part, incapable of original thought, but the question remains - what can be done about it? My own feeling is that the answer is nothing, but if you're going to write a book on the subject then some sort of conclusion should be attempted. All we get is a sort of advertisement of Mr. Wheen's availability as an after-dinner speaker. I kept thinking about Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long in his novel "Time Enough for Love" - the story of an immortal who spends much of his time getting as far away from his fellow man as possible. Anyone want to sign up for the first colony on Mars?

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