The Assault on Reason: How the Politics of Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision-Making
Author: Al Gor
A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degration of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason.
At the time George W. Bush ordered American forces to invade Iraq, 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio, when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush television ads that played to fears of terrorism.
We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern is this administration's disinterest in the process by which the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based reasoning-first among them an embrace of open inquiry in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions.
How did we get here? How much damage has been done to the functioning of our democracy and its role as steward of our security? Never has there been a worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment. As The Assault on Reason shows us, we have precious little time to waste.
Gore's larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason's enemies, to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future. Drawing on a life's work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking.
The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
This book shows a fiery, throw-caution-to-the winds Al Gore, who . . . has decided to lay it all on the line with a blistering assessment of the Bush administration and the state of public discourse in America.
Boston Globe
Gore's faith in human nature is braver and sharper than (the cynics). . . . This book isn't about him; it's about the republic whose freedoms depend on increasing reasoned debate and reducing intimidating noise.
The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
… for all its sharply voiced opinions, The Assault on Reason turns out to be less a partisan, election-cycle harangue than a fiercely argued brief about the current Bush White House that is grounded in copiously footnoted citations from newspaper articles, Congressional testimony and commission reports — a brief that is as powerful in making its points about the implications of this administration's policies as the author's 2006 book, An Inconvenient Truth, was in making its points about the fallout of global warming.
Publishers Weekly
As scathing as it is meticulous, Gore's treatise on reason juggernauts its way through the Bush administration, never even needing to include the controversial nature of Bush's presidential elections. He identifies the growing concentration of power in the executive branch virtually ignored by mainstream media. Drawing on the great political philosophers of history and his lengthy career in government, Gore contends that the loss of a genuine public forum in the age of radio and television has led to the decay of democracy. He delivers a serious critique of the United States tempered by hope and faith in the restoration of checks and balances. The articulated venom of Gore's words can be heard in Patton's voice as he narrates. He reads with an intensity that makes this already engaging prose compelling. Patton maintains a distinct smooth and edgy voice, but maintains a cadence that reminds listeners of Gore's own speaking mannerisms. In quoting historical figures, Patton's voice is distinct but not haughty or pompous. The combination of Patton's performance and Gore's words make this an impressive audiobook. Simultaneous release with the Penguin Press hardcover. (June)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationForeign Affairs
Of all the vice presidents who have not later made it to the Oval Office on their own, Gore is beyond any doubt the most successful. It is not just that his 2000 bid for the presidency gained a solid plurality of the national popular vote and that the result in Florida was so narrow and controversial. Gore stands alone as the only former U.S. president or vice president ever to win an Oscar, and no former vice president can match Gore's literary output in either quantity or impact. The Assault on Reason is vintage Gore: tightly reasoned but passionate, partisan but not demagogic, sweeping and ambitious but closely researched and solidly grounded in particular issues and facts. Above all, it is earnest. Gore believes that the modern conservative movement represents a systematic attack on the role of reasoned debate in policy and public life by an alliance of economic special interests, religious fundamentalists, and other enemies of justice and truth. The Assault on Reason will strike many readers as a well-timed, well-aimed jeremiad. Others, looking back on U.S. political history, will wonder whether the deceit, chicanery, and polarization of politics today is really as unprecedented as Gore would have us believe.<
Library Journal
When 30-second sound bites preempt reasoning, reasons Gore, we're all in trouble. A manifesto for reintroducing sense into public discussion. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Go to: Becoming a Resonant Leader or Liberty of Conscience
Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
Author: Edward J Larson
In the bestselling tradition of John Adams and 1776
...a riveting story of our Founding Fathers
Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Larson's masterful account revisits the wild ride that was the 1800 presidential election—an election so convulsive and so momentous that Thomas Jefferson would later dub it "America's second revolution." This was America's first true presidential campaign, giving birth to our two-party system and indelibly etching the lines of partisanship that have shaped American politics ever since. Once warm friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson faced off as the heads of their two still-forming parties flanked by the brilliant tacticians Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who settled their own differences in a duel.
Drawing on unprecedented, meticulous research of the day to day unfolding drama, Larson vividly recreates the mounting tension as each state voted and the lead passed back and forth. The outcome remained shrouded in doubt long after the voting ended, and as Inauguration Day approached, Congress met in closed session to resolve the crisis. In its first great electoral challenge, our fragile experiment in constitutional democracy hung in the balance.
The New York Times - Gil Troy
Democratic dialogue demands engagement; popular politics require passion. It is impossible to achieve both the broad participation Americans seek and the quiet contemplation they desire. As long as elections remain free and contested, they will often be "magnificent catastrophes" with partisans scurrying for advantage, campaigns lurching out of control, conscientious citizens becoming both involved and appalled. A master storyteller, Larson illustrates these conclusions through a gripping narrative rather than an explicit analysis…his dramatic tale offers fascinating modern parallels…
Publishers Weekly
John Dossett lends a melodious and erudite tone to this book about the most disastrous presidential election in American history: the 1800 contest between incumbent John Adams and his polymath v-p, populist Thomas Jefferson. Dossett's Jefferson speaks with a slow, suave Virginia drawl, his elegant voice bathing in the rich words that flowed from the founder's pen. His Adams sounds blunt, curmudgeonly and judgmental-as Larson often portrays him. The abridgment narrows the focus of the 1800 election to a horse race between these two very different men, who saw their friendship torn asunder and, many years after the election, pieced together again. Despite the abridgment's careful editing, the audio still has to contend with the weighty and unexciting technical details of backroom politicking and electioneering that shaped the ballot's outcome. But there's plenty to maintain the listener's interest-including slave rebellions, sexual scandals, backstabbing and festering hatred between Alexander Hamilton and the scheming Aaron Burr. History lovers will enjoy this dramatic rendition of one of America's most turbulent political moments. Simultaneous release with the Free Press hardcover (Reviews, May 21). (Oct.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationDonna L. Davey - Library Journal
Larson (history, Pepperdine Univ.; Summer of the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who can bring history alive. His account of the pivotal election that resulted in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and fellow Republican Aaron Burr-competing to replace President John Adams, who was running for reelection-is a well-researched page-turner useful especially for general readers. Punctuated liberally with quotes from diaries and letters and from the era's rollicking and opinionated press, this is an absorbing account of what was effectively America's first presidential campaign. Larson captures the personalities of Jefferson, Adams, Burr, fellow contender Charles C. Pinckney, and Alexander Hamilton and the conflicting ideologies driving their partisanship (e.g., Federalist Hamilton ultimately worked behind the scenes for Federalist Pinckney over Federalist Adams), which solidified our two-party system. Larson shows Burr and Hamilton adeptly spinning their angles by using the day's highly politicized newspapers, thus reinforcing long-standing political partisanship. The election was thrown to the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives to break the electoral tie. Finally, after 36 ballots, Jefferson, a Republican, was elected when Federalist electors in two states ceased to vote. Larson takes a subject both complex and resonant and produces a fine read. Recommended for public and undergraduate library collections.
Kirkus Reviews
Pulitzer Prize-winner Larson (Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory, 2004, etc.) vividly recounts America's first overtly partisan election. In 1799, the single man capable of papering over the young republic's widening political divisions died in retirement at Mount Vernon. There had been no open campaign to succeed Washington in 1796 when the electoral provisions of the untested Constitution uncomfortably yoked Federalist President John Adams to Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, the acknowledged leader of the opposition Republicans. Now, the two prepared to face off in what became, and remains, the most vituperative and dramatic of all U.S. elections. Through newspapers, letters and speeches, Republicans hammered Federalists for offenses amounting to a betrayal of the revolution: their sponsorship of the Alien and Sedition Acts, their support of a standing army, their too-friendly disposition toward organized religion and their dangerous sympathies for monarchy. In turn, Federalists, badly split over Adams's leadership, assailed Republicans for their godlessness and blind devotion to liberty at the expense of the public order and national defense, issues brought into high relief by the bloody excesses of the French Revolution. The colorful cast of Founders included Madison, Jay, Pinckney, Monroe and Samuel Adams; the behind-the-scenes machinations of High Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton and Republican organizer Aaron Burr were especially dramatic. Larson (History/Univ. of Georgia and Pepperdine Univ.) does justice to them all and demonstrates his storytelling mastery by lucidly recounting the political histories and procedures unique to each state and deftlydelineating the issues that dominated the national debate. Astonishingly, the hard-fought, bitterly personal campaign resulted in an Electoral College tie between Jefferson and running-mate Burr, whose maddening refusal to defer to the Sage of Monticello encouraged Federalist mischief. It required 35 Congressional ballots before Jefferson finally prevailed. Smartly conceived, beautifully wrought campaign history, bound to entertain and inform. Agent: B.G. Dilworth/BG Dilworth Agency Inc.
Table of Contents:
Preface ixIntroduction: Independence Day, July 4, 1776 1
From Friends to Rivals 5
Crossing the Bar 37
"Electioneering Has Already Begun" 67
Burr v. Hamilton 87
Caucuses and Calumny 112
A New Kind of Campaign 138
For God and Party 164
Insurrection 190
Thunderstruck 213
The Tie 241
Epilogue: Inauguration Day, March 4, 1801 271
Notes 277
Index 315
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