Review: The Great Unraveling | by Ben
On my trip to California this week, I managed to read a library copy of Paul Krugman's 2003 book "The Great Unraveling", a collection of his columns for the New York Times and other publications. Paul's is a professor of economics who has become more prominent in the national scene for his straight talk about the problems of the Bush administration.
I enjoyed the book, but by the end, I felt like I'd heard the same message fifty times. This is mainly due to most of the content being short three page essays, with a lot of common establishing material. The columns are grouped by topic, with each chapter presenting a selection of writing in chronological order. This sometimes was quite interesting; the series of columns on the California energy crisis started with speculation that the shortage was a result of market manipulation, then continued with confirmation of that theory over the next two entries. On other issues, like the president's social security plan, it just felt like the same point being made.
Krugman is quite approachable. There's economics in this book, but nothing too complex for someone literate in the business page. If you know a conservative whose primary interest is business, there's plenty of ammunition here to show him or her that Bush's economic policies have been really bad news. The best part of the book is the introduction,
The best part of the book was the introduction, titled "A Revolutionary Power", where Krugman uses research material collected by Henry Kissinger (!!!) in the 1950s about revolutionary France to show similarities in the modern right-wing movement, especially in how they deny reality and disdain our government's tradition.
Alas, the book ends with the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, so we don't get any of Paul's commentary on the economic costs of the war or any notes on the 2004 campaign or the defeat of Bush's Social Security plan. In all, it was a worthwhile, but depressing read. Over and over, the book shows just how entrenched the Bush's cronyism is, and how they keep making decisions that benefit personal friends, selling them to America using whatever argument seems convenient.