Genre: Nonfiction—Philosophy & Politics
Completed: 13 April 2011
Summary & Review:
Conservative pundit Michael Barone examines the various trends of Hardening and Softening that took place in America during the twentieth century. America at the dawn of the century was a Hard place, and in Barone’s estimation, perhaps excessively so. Then with the rise of Big Government, Big Labor, and Big Business, areas of Softness began to emerge. Softness arose in criminal justice, welfare, the military, education, and business. In turn, Barone examines what this softness did to these various areas of American life and shows that attempting to create a Soft America was in no one’s best interest. A Hard America, where there is competition, self-governance, personal responsibility, and consequences to actions is vital, innovative, prosperous, and simply a better country in which to live.
I really liked the concept of this book. An examination of what certain policies do to individuals and society in general is important to helping us understand what works and what doesn't. Barone, however, did not present this analysis with much depth. He rarely cited figures or specifics, but rather examined broad trends and often was not very emphatic about the consequences of Softening or the benefits of Hardening. Maybe Charles Murray will pick up this topic and give it a little more heft.
In the end though, I agree with Barone’s conclusion: “A Harder America, it turns out, is a safer, friendlier, more helpful and self-disciplined society. The advocates of Softness wanted to make things easier on ordinary people, to save them from hardship, and to some extent they did. But excessive softness, in the private or the public sector, turns out to create habits of the heart which make the economy less productive and creative and life nastier and more brutish.”
Rating: 6.0
So thus is the first review of yours I've read... Do you recommend reading this book? Have you read another that dies in fact provide more depth regarding the topic? I like the review!
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ReplyDeleteThis book was okay, but I think there are much better ones that kind of show how a more competitive world is, in fact, a better one. The best example on my blog would be Charles Murray's "What it Means to be a Libertarian." The review is here: http://mgabasahon.blogspot.com/2011/01/one-with-what-it-means-to-be.html
and the summary of it is here: http://mgabasahon.blogspot.com/2011/01/arguments-summed-up-what-it-means-to-be.html