| The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 80815
Category: Book
Author: Lawrence E. Harrison
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 019533180X
Dewey Decimal Number: 338
EAN: 9780195331806
ASIN: 019533180X
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Which cultural values, beliefs, and attitudes best promote democracy, social justice, and prosperity? How can we use the forces that shape cultural change, such as religion, education, and political leadership, to promote these values in the Third World--and for underachieving minorities in the First World? In this book, Lawrence E. Harrison offers intriguing answers to these questions, in a valuable follow-up to his acclaimed Culture Matters.
Drawing on a three-year research project that explored the cultural values of dozens of nations--from Botswana, Sweden, and India to China, Egypt, and Chile--Harrison offers a provocative look at values around the globe, revealing how each nation's culture has propelled or retarded their political and economic progress. The book presents 25 factors that operate very differently in cultures prone to progress and those that resist it, including one's influence over destiny, the importance attached to education, the extent to which people identify with and trust others, and the role of women in society. Harrison pulls no punches, and many of his findings are controversial.
Contradicting the arguments of multiculturalists, this book contends that when it comes to promoting human progress, some cultures are clearly more effective than others. It convincingly shows which values, beliefs, and attitudes work and how we can foster them.
"Harrison takes up the question that is at the center of politics today: Can we self-consciously change cultures so they encourage development and modernization?"
--David Brooks, New York Times
"I can think of no better entrance to the topic, both for what it teaches and the way it invites and prepares the reader to continue. A gateway study."
--David S. Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Too simplistic July 6, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
While Mr. Harrison makes some extremely valid arguments in this book , I wish he had also explored why the Anglo-protestant culture , which he holds up as"best in class" went about enslaving the world and what impact this has had on various countries , whom they enslaved.
Perhaps some of the progress those Anglo-protestant societies have made, is due to the fact that they exploited other countries and other peoples and not so much their work ethic as Mr. Harrison seems to suggest
A Companion Read To GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL August 27, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you like books that offer explanations for humankind's big questions, this book attemps such. Depending on how much stock you put in Harrison's well-conceived and sufficiently supported (in my opinion) thoery, it can be construed to either add to or take precedence over Diamond's GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL. I think together these books help to explain the world's current political situation (mess). Unlike Diamond's "geography is fate" analysis, much can be accomplished politically to correct Harrison's "culture is fate" explanation. Culture relativists, hackneyed liberals, and Bushian neo-cons will all take offense - that in itself may be sufficient reason to read it. The writing and editing could have been better, but because there were many contributors this is somewhat excusable.
 Our burden July 14, 2007
4 out of 12 found this review helpful
Harrison's mind strikes me as one still anchored in colonialism, albeit, a new, hip, updated version. It would do us all well to first read Rudyard Kipling's poem, The White Man's Burden (1899) before we dive into Mr. Harrison's book; the real purpose of which, I suspect, is to save the dark-skinned "Half-devil and half-child" heathens from themselves.
 Reality is the cure for ideology. November 11, 2006
29 out of 31 found this review helpful
I must say that reading this book was a quantum leap from the last several political books that I've read, which were written by pundits. This book is a bit dry at times, but it contains real reasearch about reality.
The "take home lesson" I got out of reading this book is:
First, "Freedom and Democracy" isn't for every nation because a nation, or culture, must have certain values internalized before freedom or democracy can work. This is a rebuke to ideologues on the "right" who think that we can superimpose our style of government on any nation out there.
However, this book is also a stinging rebuttal of the leftist who believes that John Lennon's "Imagine" expressed the ideal for humanity. "Imagine no religion..." No, we really can't afford to "imagine no religion" because it seems that decentralized Christianity (Protestantism) gave the world the most "progressive" culture that has even been. And, we can't "Imagine no possessions" because it is the possibility of home ownership that gives people a stake in their society.
Finally, this book delivers a body blow to "multiculturalism". Some cultures are sick, and this book explains how they can get better.
I could go on, but my point is that an exhaustive study has been completed that ties culture to "progress", and it's probably not what anyone who is narcissistically attached to a particular political ideology wants to hear. However, it is in this book, which I would recommend to anyone interested in politics and culture.
Foreign Policy Makers Must Read! August 14, 2006
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Professor Harrison's book is a well researched, timely and necessary study of why some cultures do better than others and how outside forces may or may not affect change when desired. The cases described within are necessary background for decisions being made today,and I sincerely hope our policymakers will study them. This book is a perfect complement to the Jared Diamond thesis and one should not be read without the other. A pivotal book for our times.
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