Friday, August 23, 2002 Catching Up By Diana Hsieh @ 12:19 PM Yeah, yeah, I know that I've been gone from the blogging scene for far too long. I've been busy trying to realistically map out my projects for the next year in MS Project, preparing for the start of graduate school (in philosophy at CU Boulder), and so on. Later today, I'm flying out to Vegas for the weekend for Front Sight's Ambassador Program. Today, I've been trying to catch up with my overdue book reviews. Here are three -- with more to come (hopefully) next week. A Life of One's Own by David Kelley A Life of One's Own had been gathering dust on my bookshelf for a while when I finally decided to read it this spring. Much to my surprise and delight, it turned out to be my favorite book by David Kelley so far. Perhaps the most useful and interesting aspect of the book was the wealth of historical data about the emergence of the welfare state, particularly concerning the safety net provided by private "friendly societies" and charities at the time. Using that data, Kelley makes an excellent case that the federal government's welfare programs usurped and undermined work already underway in the private sector. Kelley also does an excellent job parsing and refuting the various arguments for the welfare state, some of which I had never actually conceptually distinguished until reading this book. My only criticism is that sometimes the theoretical discussions were in need of some further examples and explanation. In short, A Life of One's Own is a book that every libertarian -- and every supporter of the welfare state -- ought to read. Time Management for Unmanageable People by Ann McGee-Cooper Looking at the trees, Time Management for Unmanageable People was a jargon-laden, philosophically confused waste of time. But the forest wasn't so bad. The basic premise, that time management advice is too often useless and even harmful when applied to creatively disorganized people, seems sound. The book primarily functions as an alternative guide to time management for the creatively disorganized, discussing both why traditional techniques fail and suggesting some alternative methods. Unfortunately, both the theory and practice of the book tended to be shallow at best. So the primary virtue of this book certainly lies in its basic approach to the subject of time management: individual people need to find methods of time management that suit their unique strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses. A History of Freedom by J. Rufus Fears I bought the 18 tape / 36 lecture set A History of Freedom expecting a survey of the critical ideas and moments in the history of freedom. I was more than disappointed in a number of ways. First, Fears routinely focuses on the significant political institutions and leaders in history, while ignoring the critical ideas that shaped those institutions and leaders. (So, for example, there is no discussion of either the Enlightenment or Judaism.) Although I disagree with that approach to history, it was tolerable. Second, and much more seriously, Fears' understanding of freedom was nothing short of a bizarre conglomeration of contradictory ideas. Everything from freedom to do as one pleases, collective self-determination, positive rights to goods, and Christian freedom from this earthly life were included in his conception of freedom. (It's as if anything ever called freedom counted as freedom for Fears.) But the strangeness did not end there. He treated Adam Smith as some sort of totalitarian, Marxism as scientific, and FDR as a great hero of freedom. Additionally, unlike Alan Kors' tapes on the Enlightenment, Fears provided few references or facts to back up his claims, which I'm sure were often wrong. Oh, and one last dig: Fears speaks like a cross between a southern James T. Kirk and Troy McClure from The Simpsons. In short, these lectures were a waste of time and money. Link / Noodles / Trackback

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