- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; 2004 First Edition edition (2 Feb 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007140967
- ISBN-13: 978-0007140961
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 233,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product 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
Tim Adams, Observer
'Wheen has a Swiftian relish for exposing the cant that attends the 'new rationality''
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
85 of 88 people found the following review helpful
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.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
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.
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
Format:Paperback
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?
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant Expose of the Silly Aspects of Modern Life
I had to stop reading this book on the Tube as I was laughing so much at times that people must have thought I was mad! Read more
Published 28 days ago by Kate Hopkins
Interesting read but some factual mistakes?
I was reading this and liking it a lot as it attacked commonly believed nonsense like the myth of free markets, postmodernism and other silly stuff. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Charles
A venomous snake bite to snake oil sellers.
The Dark Ages prevail. It never ceases to amaze me how millions continue to demonstrate the complete inability to process situations, events, and general quackery with rationale... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Snaggletooth
Satire passed off as a scholastic work.
I bought this book after listening to Wheen speak at the Melbourne writer's festival and I was interested to learn more. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Exmatelote
I now review this book
Well yes it's a very good book but I think hilarious isn't really the right word. Didn't make me laugh but there were many interesting and illuminating facts and opinions. Read more
Published 15 months ago by hot boi
An entertaining way to become sharply informed.
Francis Wheen's wide-ranging book is astonishingly well informed on subjects from American politics to astrology, and from homeopathy to postmodernism. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Dr. P. M. Stoneman
Just more conventionalised attacks on supposedly evil opponents
Wheen wrote for Private Eye; he probably reads better when anonymous - this book isn't very impressive, starting with the title - he clearly doesn't even know who 'Mumbo Jumbo' was... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Rerevisionist
Moron rule
I thought his a wonderful book, and entirely apt in our era of populist, trite, stupid 'democracy'.
Published on 19 April 2010 by Dr. John Lalor
One and a half cheers, or maybe two
Francis Wheen's light-footed skewering of humbug of all kinds, and his hearty championship of reason, science, liberty and equality, is hugely enjoyable - until he gets started on... Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2010 by Caroline Galwey
Mumbo Jumbo
Having read this myself I bought a copy for my daughter and son-in-law hoping to 'educate' them. Very good on exposing the daft things we believe in.
Published on 24 Dec 2009 by David A. Greenhalgh
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Ancient History & Civilisation
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Ireland
- Books > History > Cultural History
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects
- Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Literary Studies
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > International Relations
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Political Science & Ideology > Political Science
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Cultural Studies > History of Ideas
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
