The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself
By:
Lawrence E. Harrison
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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Description:
Which cultural values, beliefs, and attitudes best promote democracy, social justice, and prosperity? How can we use the forces that shape cultural change, such as religion, education, and political leadership, to promote these values in the Third World--and for underachieving minorities in the First World? In this book, Lawrence E. Harrison offers intriguing answers to these questions, in a valuable follow-up to his acclaimed Culture Matters.
Drawing on a three-year research project that explored the cultural values of dozens of nations--from Botswana, Sweden, and India to China, Egypt, and Chile--Harrison offers a provocative look at values around the globe, revealing how each nation's culture has propelled or retarded their political and economic progress. The book presents 25 factors that operate very differently in cultures prone to progress and those that resist it, including one's influence over destiny, the importance attached to education, the extent to which people identify with and trust others, and the role of women in society. Harrison pulls no punches, and many of his findings are controversial.
Contradicting the arguments of multiculturalists, this book contends that when it comes to promoting human progress, some cultures are clearly more effective than others. It convincingly shows which values, beliefs, and attitudes work and how we can foster them.
"Harrison takes up the question that is at the center of politics today: Can we self-consciously change cultures so they encourage development and modernization?"
--David Brooks, New York Times
"I can think of no better entrance to the topic, both for what it teaches and the way it invites and prepares the reader to continue. A gateway study."
--David S. Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great Book on Culture and Politics - This is a great book, especially for those who have read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (as one reviewer already pointed out). It provides an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the issue as to why some countries are essentially predisposed towards dominating others.
The funny thing, and somewhat contrary to the title of the book, is that it is not exactly liberal friendly (at least in the context of its normal usage). The premise of the book is essentially that culture does matter but some cultures lend themselves, by virtue of their values and ideals, towards cultural stances that do not promote democracy, human rights, or economic development. I reiterate, which some negative reviewers have complained about, is that this book is not liberal in the traditional sense so that those with a cultural relativism stance are bound to take issue with Harrison's views. I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great book! - This is a book that's great for people interested in cultural issues. It's based on sound economic facts and makes a good case as how culture can influence a country's fate.
Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Too simplistic - While Mr. Harrison makes some extremely valid arguments in this book , I wish he had also explored why the Anglo-protestant culture , which he holds up as"best in class" went about enslaving the world and what impact this has had on various countries , whom they enslaved.
Perhaps some of the progress those Anglo-protestant societies have made, is due to the fact that they exploited other countries and other peoples and not so much their work ethic as Mr. Harrison seems to suggest
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
A Companion Read To GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL - If you like books that offer explanations for humankind's big questions, this book attemps such. Depending on how much stock you put in Harrison's well-conceived and sufficiently supported (in my opinion) thoery, it can be construed to either add to or take precedence over Diamond's GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL. I think together these books help to explain the world's current political situation (mess). Unlike Diamond's "geography is fate" analysis, much can be accomplished politically to correct Harrison's "culture is fate" explanation. Culture relativists, hackneyed liberals, and Bushian neo-cons will all take offense - that in itself may be sufficient reason to read it. The writing and editing could have been better, but because there were many contributors this is somewhat excusable.
Customer Review: 3 out of 5
Our burden - Harrison's mind strikes me as one still anchored in colonialism, albeit, a new, hip, updated version. It would do us all well to first read Rudyard Kipling's poem, The White Man's Burden (1899) before we dive into Mr. Harrison's book; the real purpose of which, I suspect, is to save the dark-skinned "Half-devil and half-child" heathens from themselves.
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