AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: The Progress Paradox : How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse by GREGG EASTERBROOK ISBN: 0-679-46303-8 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3.94 (36 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: EEEAAASSSSTTTTTEEEERRRRBBBRRRROOOKKK!!!!
Comment: Darn you Easterbrook!
Darn you!

You have written an awesome book, perhaps one of my favorites, but you did what you should not have done. You did what CS Lewis did in Mere Christianity by trying to offer a "proof" of God, and what David Shenk did in a book called Data Smog: You tainted your greatest wisdom with a bleeding heart.

You offer an amazing theory; one totally correct and very capable of changing a person's life. You say that we have it great and that we're miserable. You tell us many reasons why we might be miserable, and you tell us that this should not be so.

But did you stop there? No! You then tell us your personal religion and your personal politics. You tell what we must do as decent people. You push on us a whole score of things we may not believe in, and in so doing wear down at the thing you wanted us most to see. We the diverse citizens of the United States are your target audience, and you probably manage to alienate at least 50% of us.

No one book can save all of the world. Maybe you can save it in two or three.

I ask that you republish this book minus 100 pages. The main point alone is sufficient to topple despair.

Rating: 4
Summary: Very nice, "even-handed" look at America today.
Comment: I want to focus on the phrase "even-handed" ..... using a well-researched array of facts, Easterbrook comments on how well American society is doing (1st half of the book), while also pointing out what he feels are shortcomings of our wealthy nation (2nd half). Today's societial debates are often made in shades of black (Gloom and Doom) and white (All is Well). Easterbrook provides a fact-based look at why he thinks things are a shade of gray ... society's made tremendous progress, but we shouldn't feel satisfied. His arguments for a national health-care system (historically a progressive idea, although a view held by some conservatives) are well-thought out, don't use the usual rhetoric, and overall, IMO, comprise the most interesting chapter in the book.

Seconding other opinions ... the book is not difficult reading, and occasionally rather humerous. Overall, a unique perspective on things and worth a read from the open-minded.

Rating: 4
Summary: Ignores the Reality of Inherent Unsatisfactoriness
Comment: 2500 years ago, Siddhartha enunciated the law of Dukkha,
having realized how unsatisfactoriness is inherent in all
sensory experience. Yet, as this book evidences, we
still like to believe there is such a thing as happiness
based purely on sensory gratification. If this book
had shown a little more insight into the sociobiological
necessity of insatiable craving for species survival,
it might have been more than just an interesting read.
Perhaps a dialog with Barbara Ehrenreich of 'Nickel and
Dimed' would help to educate the author a little about
the realities of actual life and work.

Similar Books:

	Title: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz ISBN: 0060005688 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.95
	Title: The Here and Now: A Novel by Gregg Easterbrook ISBN: 0312286473 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.95
	Title: The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness by Virginia Postrel ISBN: 0060186321 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95
	Title: Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 by Charles Murray ISBN: 006019247X Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95
	Title: Tuesday Morning Quarterback : Haiku and Other Whimsical Observations to Help You by Gregg Easterbrook ISBN: 0789306514 Publisher: Universe Books Pub. Date: 15 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95