Jared Yates Sexton

Jared Yates Sexton has become one of my favorite political writers and I did enjoy this overall but I think the structure was not very helpful. While I appreciated that he took a very long view of world history and how this moment has both been built up from past events and also looks like many other moments, his whirlwind tour of the Western History Cannon starting at the Roman Empire was just a bit too whirlwind. The research and connections he makes are all very interesting but there were places where he jumped around in time and made connections I wasn't really seeing. I think it might have been stronger with less pre-20th century and more of the synthesis of it he was exploring. The last few chapters were great and thoughtful and I could have enjoyed those being the longer and in depth parts.… (more)

So enjoyable to read, yet so frustrating in its prescriptive conclusion: secular humanism. Having recently read two well-written but totally different books (Miracle in the Andes and a tech book) that messed with my emotions in the same way (situation bad, but we can make it, solution: trust in man, not God), this book's encouraging intent has the exact opposite effect on me -- makes me want to run to my Bible for a bit of truth and sanity. So, fellow evangelicals, this book misrepresents our faith, confounding Biblical faith with a range of counterfeits who name the name of Christ, BUT this book is sooo good that I still very much recommend it --but, not to sound snooty, for the educated reader, since he breaths out historical and economic names, theories, events in the same way we evangelicals breath out scripture, naturally, and for those not familiar with history, they just be annoyed at having to reference check as they read. For me, the book is a delight, well-analyzed, just leading to the worst possible conclusion.… (more)