Sunday, April 18, 2010

After The Hangover by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

As a blogger for Thomas Nelson's blogger program, booksneeze.com, I had the opportunity to review the new release: After the Hangover by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. Written from a politically conservative perspective, this book chronicles the history and timeline of political conservatism: is high points and low points, in contrast to political liberalism.

This heavily detailed book discusses many of the main politicians and commentators of conservative political ideas. The ironies of the modern political movement are also expressed by Tyrrell. For example, modern liberalism- which is more related to socialism, bears little resemblance, if any to the original liberalism of American history. In contrast, modern conservatism is portrayed as the true descendent of the original ideals of liberalism in early American political history. His philosophies are clear, in which he promotes the ideas of objective truth and objective reality and rejects the philosophical world view of relativity by the liberal movement. This book portrays the dynamic relationship between the politicians and the commentators in American politics, as well as the transformation of political parties and the ideas of liberalism. Very little actual historical background is provided, as the author assumes that the reader most likely is well informed. When key players are introduced, minimal background is offered. Although, this is not a downside, this book may not be appreciated by readers with minimal background in political theory and the issues of liberalism vs. conservatism. I would reccomend this book for any strongly opinionated reader with a significant interest in politics and political ideas. The ideas expressed in this review are my own.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Will The World End in 2012 by Ramond C. Hundley

As a blogger for booksneeze.com, I recently had the opportunity to review a brief guide to the end of the world: Will the World End in 2012? published by Thomas Nelson publishers. In light of the dozens of the popular genre of end of the world scenario movies, most notably the recently released "2010" as well as others such as "Deep Impact" and "Knowing", this book certainly could not have had better timing.

Nevertheless, after reading this brief synopisis of disaster/ end of the world theories I was left wanting to know more information about the science (if applicable) behind the theories presented. Yet the inclusion of some of these far fetched theories such as the collision of planet x, aligment with the galactic plane, Nostradamus theries, and magnetic reversal as well the plethora of so called "religious" predictions, served to only reduce the credability- if any- of the scientific plausability of these theories. In the end, it almost appeared as if the author was grasping at straws to come up with at least some plausible remaining options for the end of the world.

The only accomplishment I see, of this book, would be to foster an aura of paranoia- which is the last thing that the conspiracy theorists and other readers of this book really need to fuel their minds. Even though Hundley disagrees with many of these theories, simply the acknowledgement and mention of some of these far fetched theories gives sufficient voice for their plausability in the minds of many supersticious readers. In sum, this book is not to be considered a scientifc or academic piece of work. Written for the casual reader, or the layman, this book is very simply written, and in my opinion serves as fuel for those who already lean towards paranoia and supersticion.

The strong point of this book is its objectivity and sensitivity, which would be a herculean effort for anyone else to maintain in light of some of the overly ridiculous and silly end of the world ideas/ "theories" presented. Furthermore, Hundley acknoweldges, albeit, via the usage of scare tactics and paranoia, the important role of faith and biblical message of salvation and Jesus' return. He is to be commended for this. Overall, it is with caution, that I reccomend this book as a very basic introduction to the vast array of conspiracy/ religious/ quasi- scientific end of the world theories.

I recieved this book for free as a part of the blogger program and am in no way required to give a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.