His entry begins:My reading has been fairly eclectic lately. I just finished one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. It is a the history of “the Great Migration,” the roughly seventy-five year period when freed slaves and their descendants moved from the rural South to the urban North. I have no idea why it was on my shelf, I think I bought it when I was preparing to interview Taylor Branch on my radio show, but that’s a guess. Really, I have no idea. In any case, it sounds like it would be boring, but it is extraordinary. First of all, the writing is incredibly beautiful. When she starts, you think she’s going to romanticize poverty and rural living, but she doesn’t. It is brutal and lovely, infuriating and heartbreaking, and it is one of those rare books that says to me: “You think you know things. You think you know history, you think you know what other people went through, you think you know where you came from, but you know nothing. Nothing at all.” It’s long, but...[read on]About Adam Smith’s Pluralism, from the publisher:
In this thought-provoking study, Jack Russell Weinstein suggests the foundations of liberalism can be found in the writings of AdamLearn more about the book and author at Jack Russell Weinstein's website and blog.Smith (1723–1790), a pioneer of modern economic theory and a major figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. While offering an interpretive methodology for approaching Smith’s two major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations, Weinstein argues against the libertarian interpretation of Smith, emphasizing his philosophies of education and rationality. Weinstein also demonstrates that Smith should be recognized for a prescient theory of pluralism that prefigures current theories of cultural diversity.
The Page 99 Test: Adam Smith's Pluralism.
Writers Read: Jack Russell Weinstein.
--Marshal Zeringue
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