How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World - Softcover
What characterizes our era? Cults, quacks, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of mumbo-jumbo, that's what. In How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, Francis Wheen brilliantly laments the extraordinary rise of superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria. From Middle Eastern fundamentalism to the rise of lotteries, astrology to mysticism, poststructuralism to the Third Way, Wheen shows that there has been a pervasive erosion of
Enlightenment values, which have been displaced by nonsense. And no country has a more vivid parade of the bogus and bizarre than the one founded to embody Enlightenment values: the USA. In turn comic, indignant, outraged, and just plain baffled by the idiocy of it all, How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World is a masterful depiction of the absurdity of our times and a plea that we might just think a little more and believe a little less.
Enlightenment values, which have been displaced by nonsense. And no country has a more vivid parade of the bogus and bizarre than the one founded to embody Enlightenment values: the USA. In turn comic, indignant, outraged, and just plain baffled by the idiocy of it all, How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World is a masterful depiction of the absurdity of our times and a plea that we might just think a little more and believe a little less.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Francis Wheen is deputy editor of Private Eye, the editor of Lord Gnome's Literary Companion, the author of Karl Marx: A Life and a columnist in the London Guardian. He has been a contributor to Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. He has appeared on Booknotes on C-SPAN and on National Public Radio.
Review:
"[A] very well-written rant against all the baloney that people seem increasingly to believe." -- The Boston Globe
"[S]avagely amusing...this angry, energetic, disappointed, witty, learned book is entertainingly contentious." -- Toronto Globe & Mail
"[S]avagely amusing...this angry, energetic, disappointed, witty, learned book is entertainingly contentious." -- Toronto Globe & Mail
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHarperPerennial
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 0007140975
- ISBN 13 9780007140978
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages368
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 11.64
Shipping:
US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World
Published by
Harper Collins Publishers
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 368. Seller Inventory # 264206081
Buy New
US$ 11.64
Convert currency
Seller Image
How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World : A Short History of Modern Delusions
Published by
HarperPerennial
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Softcover
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 2429937-n
Buy New
US$ 13.21
Convert currency
Stock Image
How MumboJumbo Conquered the World A Short History of Modern Delusions
Published by
HarperCollins Publishers
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
PAP
Quantity: 15
Seller:
Rating
Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # VC-9780007140978
Buy New
US$ 16.14
Convert currency
Stock Image
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World
Published by
Harper Collins Publishers
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 368. Seller Inventory # 3641822
Buy New
US$ 9.80
Convert currency
Seller Image
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World (Paperback)
Published by
HarperCollins Publishers, London
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. An entertaining, impassioned polemic on the retreat of reason in the late 20th century. An intellectual call to arms, Francis Wheens Sunday Times bestseller is one of 2004s most talked about books. In 1979 two events occurred that would shape the next twenty-five years. In Britain, an era of weary consensualist politics was displaced by the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, whose ambition was to reassert 'Victorian values'. In Iran, the fundamentalist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini set out to restore a regime that had last existed almost 1,300 years ago. Between them they succeeded in bringing the twentieth century to a premature close. By 1989, Francis Fukuyama was declaring that we had now reached the End of History.What colonised the space recently vacated by notions of history, progress and reason? Cults, quackery, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of mumbo-jumbo. Modernity was challenged by a gruesome alliance of pre-modernists and post-modernists, medieval theocrats and New Age mystics. It was as if the Enlightenment had never happened.Francis Wheen, winner of the George Orwell prize, evokes the key personalities of the post-political era including Princess Diana and Deepak Chopra, Osama Bin-Laden and Nancy Reagan's astrologer while charting the extraordinary rise in superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria over the past quarter of a century. From UFO scares to dotcom mania, his hilarious and gloriously impassioned polemic describes a period in the world's history when everything began to stop making sense. An entertaining, impassioned polemic on the retreat of reason in the late 20th century. An intellectual call to arms, Francis Wheens Sunday Times bestseller is one of 2004s most talked about books. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780007140978
Buy New
US$ 18.29
Convert currency
Stock Image
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions
Published by
Harper Perennial
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Paperback
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780007140978-GDR
Buy New
US$ 14.57
Convert currency
Stock Image
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World
Published by
HarperPerennial
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Softcover
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. In. Seller Inventory # ria9780007140978_new
Buy New
US$ 13.99
Convert currency
Stock Image
How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions
Published by
HarperPerennial
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Paperback
Quantity: 2
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 368 pages. 7.80x5.04x0.98 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0007140975
Buy New
US$ 14.12
Convert currency
Stock Image
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions
Published by
HarperCollins Publishers
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Paperback / softback
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. An entertaining, impassioned polemic on the retreat of reason in the late 20th century. An intellectual call to arms, Francis Wheen's Sunday Times bestseller is one of 2004's most talked about books. Seller Inventory # B9780007140978
Buy New
US$ 16.49
Convert currency
Stock Image
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions
Published by
Harper Perennial
(2004)
ISBN 10: 0007140975
ISBN 13: 9780007140978
New
Softcover
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # YB86IHJPFS
Buy New
US$ 20.69
Convert currency