Obama White House of lacking any strategic vision for the Middle East and abandoning diplomacy and economic engagement in favor of shortsighted, tactical maneuvers driven by domestic politics and opinion polls. He charges the administration with preferring the advice of the military and intelligence agencies over its own foreign policy experts, a misguided approach that has bewildered our friends in the region and needlessly antagonized our enemies. He fleshes out his indictment with chapters devoted to Afghanistan, where talks with the Taliban were never seriously considered; Pakistan, where we failed to develop any strategy to end that country’s double-dealing; Iran, where sanctions and blustering war talk bid fair to turn that nation into a version of North Korea; and Iraq, where our withdrawal has done little to lessen sectarian animosities that threaten to reignite. Nasr blasts the administration’s failure to capitalize on the genuine opportunity offered by the Arab Spring, where we’ve cheered from the sidelines the fall of dictators with no real plan to help assure that what follows will be an improvement. The author insists he’s writing more in sorrow than in anger, fearful that this broadside will be employed as a “political bludgeon,” but it’s likely that critics—and, perhaps, especially supporters who expected the wielding of “smart power” under Obama— will happily seize on this picture of a foreign policy in disarray. An informed, smoothly argued brief that will surely rattle windows at the White House.
Englishman cannot possibly live twenty-four hours with a Frenchman who commands.” For sheer strange reading, there are ambassador Sir Thomas Roe’s depictions of Eastern courts in “The Mogul’s Birthday” and John Bell’s elaborate “Hunting with the Emperor K’Ang Hsi,” recording a long day of killing everything from hares to tigers. Plenty of shipwrecks, from the Arctic to Virginia, round out the adventures. O’Brian’s fans and armchair travelers will naturally gravitate to this eclectic work.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT And Why It Still Matters Pagden, Anthony Random House (528 pp.) $32.00 | Apr. 23, 2013 978-1-4000-6068-9 978-0-679-64531-3 e-book
Pagden (Political Science and History/UCLA; Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West, 2008, etc.) demonstrates the breadth and depth of his knowledge and his impeccable research of the period we refer to as the Enlightenment. Lest readers are daunted in trying to follow the deep thoughts of the great writers of the 18th century, the author gently explains each outlook, theory and proposal. This was the century of philosophy, but it was also the century when the science of man—i.e., social sciences—came into being. It was Gottfried Leibniz’s “best of all possible worlds.” Seeking to define men and their relationships with nature, and especially with each other, led to this scientific revolution; it was an intellectual process, a philosophical project and a social movement. The figures of the period were a combination of skeptics, epicureans and stoics seeking to build a cosmopolitan world of diverse people with common interests. Pagden impressively illustrates the significant discussions that took place as these scientists, historians and other intellectuals tried to fathom man’s nature and subject dogma to reason. Many readers will wonder at what they would give to be present at Baron d’Holbach’s Paris dinner table with Hume, Diderot, Rousseau, D’Alembert and even Ben Franklin as they discussed religion and a nature-centered universe. These storied men of letters dutifully studied the ages of man in his journey from the beginnings of agriculture to the right of property and division of lands. Pagden serves as a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide through this “particular intellectual and cultural movement.” A book that should be on every thinking person’s shelf— the perfect primer for anyone interested in the development of Western civilization. (8-page photo insert)
A BOOK OF VOYAGES
O’Brian, Patrick—Ed. Norton (368 pp.) $25.95 | May 20, 2013 978-0-393-08958-5
A curiously engrossing collection of travel writings from the 17th and 18th centuries, collected by the deceased author of the Aubrey/Maturin series. The writings, grouped in a somewhat forced fashion by travels pleasant, unpleasant or exotic, preserve their antiquated spelling and stylistic flourishes, providing readers both challenge and hilarity. The purpose of the collection is to inform and edify, as well as entertain and titillate, yet some extracts are so fantastic—such as the description of the queen’s jewel-laden outfit in “The Nabob’s Lady” (1745) or the decision by the starving crew in “The Distresses of the Unfortunate Crew of the Ship Anne and Mary in the Year 1759” to cast lots to eat one passenger in order to support the rest—that they stretch credulity. Lady Craven’s percolating letters to her second husband, the Margrave of Anspach, recording her extensive travels from Vienna to the relatively unknown Crimea, form a marvelous account of provincial and courtly mores, as well as a reflection of her egotism. Dr. Gemelli-Careri’s descriptions of carnival in Venice (“Travels Through Europe,” 1686) are ironical and pedantic. Philip Thicknesse gives some precious “General Hints to Strangers Who Travel Through France”—e.g., “Never let a Frenchman with whom you live, or with whom you travel, be master. An 60
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15 march 2013
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nonfiction
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kirkus.com
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