Why so many
books?
To the average
speech student, nurtured on a steady diet of
newspapers, newsmagazines and evening news
broadcasts, the steady emphasis on books in
www.freespeaker.org, The Free Speaker, and
previous publications, may be disconcerting. How
recent can the information in a book be, one might
ask? Why some of these books are (gasp!) over a
year old; why spend the time and effort to read a
book? In a questionnaire one student advised:
"remove book reviews." For this student, and for
others who might agree, I offer the next best thing
to following advice: an explanation of why we're
not following it.
It has been the
goal of this monthly newsletter to do something
different, to make a contribution that does not
duplicate news and analysis easily available from
other sources.
The stories that
fill the news certainly seem factual, and by and
large they surely are, yet beliefs, theories, and
ideology are there, too. Theories guide
journalists' views of what is newsworthy, and
provide the framework for them to interpret the
meaning of the reported facts and events. Facts do
not interpret themselves. Students&emdash;as well
as reporters, newscasters and
politicians&emdash;each hold their own theories of
how society works and visions of how it should
work. These theories are often vague and imprecise
and tend rarely to be challenged, particularly as
one grows older.
Where do these
theories and visions come from? Most often from
books. Few have had their views challenged or
altered by magazine articles or newscasts. Only in
books does an author have the space and format to
present his arguments in their strongest form. When
you read a book you enter the author's world and
can examine firsthand his vision of society. Books
occupy a unique place in our systems of education,
communications, and public policy. And an ignorance
of current books is indispensable.
Why indispensable?
One academic magazine put the answer this way:
"First, because books have always had an enormous
and very direct impact on changes in public policy
in this country. From Harriet Beecher Stowe's
Uncle Tom's Cabin, which Abraham Lincoln
credited with starting the Civil War, to Ralph
Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed, which killed
the Chevrolet Corvair and created the
government-mandated auto safety industry… from
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which brought
us government regulation of the meat industry, to
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which brought
us government stewardship over the
environment."
In recent years,
books like Charles Murray's Losing Ground
(1984) have set a new agenda for welfare reform,
influencing scholars and policy-makers everywhere
on the political spectrum. Economist Thomas
Sowell's many books have influenced scholars and
laymen alike. His A Conflict of Visions
(1987), invites readers to reexamine the way
conflicting policy issues are understood and
communicated. Leon Louw and Francis Kendall's
The Solution (1986), is widely read in South
Africa. Louw and Kendall's powerful proposal for
decentralized democratic institutions, and their
report on the distant but successful
entrepreneurial past of South African blacks, has
offered a positive agenda to build a new
future&emdash;a future without apartheid and
without bloody revolution.
John Rawls'
influential A Theory of Justice (1971), was
followed in 1974 by fellow Harvard philosopher
Robert Nozicks's Anarchy, State and Utopia
(1974), which brought classical liberal political
philosophy into the mainstream of academic debate.
Friedrich Hayek shared the Nobel Prize in economics
that same year, and Hayek's influential
Constitution of Liberty and his more
advanced trilogy Law, Legislation and
Liberty have had an enormous impact at the
higher reaches of academia. At Oxford University in
England and at other top political philosophy
departments, Hayek's work is the "in thing,"
attracting the brightest young scholars and
generating a steady stream of books, journal
articles, and dissertations.
Among the younger
scholars influenced by Hayek is [was!] John
Gray of Oxford University. Gray's books Mill on
Liberty, A Defense, Hayek: On Liberty
(1984), and Liberalism (1986) have in turn
influenced others, including Harvard's (now at
Princeton) Stephen Macedo, whose book The New
Right v. the Constitution (1986), is reviewed
in this issue (page 10). University of Chicago's
Richard Epstein is widely acknowledged as one of
the most brilliant legal theorists of our time. His
book Takings (1986) argues for a
reinterpretation of the "takings clause" of the
U.S. Constitution.
These ideas
percolate through academia. It has often been
observed, for example, that the legal principles
currently enforced in the courts are those taught
in the law schools a generation before. Thus the
legal concepts that now persuade and inspire top
law students can be expected to surface in court
judgements in the coming years. Epstein's book, and
others, such as Bernard Siegan's Economic Liberties
and the Constitution (1980), may give students that
glimpse into the future.
P.T. Bauer, of the
London School of Economics, published Dissent on
Development in 1971. Bauer's empirical and
theoretical evidence argued that foreign aid was
severely impairing Third World development (by
strengthening the "ruling elites" of third world
countries). His ideas were long rejected,
especially by those whose careers or profits
depended on continued transfer payments to Third
World governments.
Twenty-five years
later, Bauer's continued research and writing,
along with the stunning growth of the free-market
economies of the Pacific Rim, have changed the
views of most development economists. Bauer's sharp
criticism of government planning in the Third World
has not become commonplace.
No
(intellectual) pain, no (intellectual)
gain!
The above books
are not easy reading&emdash;all require time and
concentration to work through. And none are without
their critics, so students should invest time
uncovering their weaknesses as well as
understanding their strengths. All these books are
far above the general reading level of high school
students (and many college students). They are
introduced and discussed in this publication
because we are convinced that speech and debate
students are very different from their peers. Many
have poured hours into developing research skills
far beyond the average high school or college
student. Speech and debate students put their
knowledge, ideas, and convictions on the line
regularly, and this active participation in the
learning process gives them an edge that will last
a lifetime.
Highly tuned
minds, like top performance engines, require a
higher-octane fuel. Books are that fuel.
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