How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World - Francis Wheen

If I were to recommend one book that everyone should read, it would have to be this one. The core lesson at the heart of the book, that enlightenment values are becoming increasily unfashionable, seems to be becoming more and more salient with each passing day. Despite the importance of the message, this is certainly not a po faced read. Each chapter is full of hilarious examples of delusion gone to excessive levels and with many witty asides added by mister Wheen himself. There are many standout chapters, but probably the most pertinate are the ones detailing how self proclaimed members of the left and the intelligencia are now championing obscurantism and empty anti ...  Read the complete review

I suppose for most of us there eventually comes a time when we decide that the world is going to the dogs. We shake our heads wearily and insist on telling anyone who will listen (those who haven't quickly scarpered) that things were far better 'in our day'. It's a natural feeling to have, especially when age begins to solidify our attitudes and our joints, but in journalist Francis Wheen's 'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World' that feeling is taken further. Wheen suggests that despite having had the "humane values of the Enlightenment" at our backs for two and a half centuries we moderns are steadily betraying and abandoning these values and replacing them ...  Read the complete review