How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions by Fran

Description: FREE SHIPPING UK WIDE How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen 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. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description 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 Reagans 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 worlds history when everything began to stop making sense. Notes From UFO scares to dotcom mania, this hilarious and impassioned polemic describes a period in the worlds history when everything began to stop making sense. It was a Sunday Times bestseller in hardback. Author Biography Francis Wheen is a prolific freelance journalist and broadcaster, and has worked for the New Statesman, Independent, Mirror, Gay News, Today, New Socialist and Tatler. Having presented News-Stand on BBC Radio 4 for a number of years, Francis has appeared often on ITVs What the Papers Say and more recently on BBC2s Have I Got News For You. He is now the writer of Wheens World a regular column appearing in the Guardian – for which he was voted Columnist of the Year.His previous books include The Sixties (1982), Television (1985), The Battle for London (1985), Tom Driberg (1990) which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Award, and the bestselling How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World (2004). Karl Marx was published by Fourth Estate in 2000 and was shortlisted for numerous awards including the WH Smith Literary Award; the Samuel Johnson Prize; the Orwell Prize; the Silver Pen Award; and the Marsh Award.Francis Wheen lives in Essex. Review Wheen has a Swiftian relish for exposing the cant that attends the new rationality...bullshits enema number one. Tim Adams, Observer Hugely enjoyable...delightful reading. Ferdinand Mount, Sunday Times Lightly and often hilariously told as it is, this book does make it clear that respect for truth and reason is retreating and mumbo-jumbo has a new confidence everywhere...This amusing, intelligent and elegantly argued book is as good a demonstration of the values it defends as could be imagined. Philip Hensher, Spectator This book is a manifesto for rescuing the greatest philosophical movement of the past millennium. You have a choice: either read it or, pre-emptively shred your brain in anticipation of the coming darkness. Independent on Sunday This book is a manifesto for rescuing the greatest philosophical movement of the past millennium. You have a choice: either read it or, pre-emptively shred your brain in anticipation of the coming darkness. Independent on Sunday Such an entertaining writer. Wheen is, one senses, a good man to go tiger-hunting with; it is no less fun to watch him shooting fish in a barrel. Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph Very funny...a brilliant satiric essay. Will Cohu, Daily Telegraph If Wheens book succeeds in starting to shift the balance between reason and sentimentality, between lavish prompts of the heart and the colder ones of the brain, between rigorous analysis and twaddled cloaked in obscurity, then I think the ghost of Jefferson will have every right, every reason, to be proud of him. David McKie, Guardian This book is a well-informed polemic that most enjoyably challenges you to think. Wheen cuts a Jonathan Swift-like swathe through the morass of tosh, hogwash, and it could be added, bullshit that threatens to clog our minds. Peter Lewis, Daily Mail Francis Wheen is the intelligent sceptics intelligent sceptic, and How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered The World casts a cold eye on fads in government, management and health that have swept the Anglo-Saxon world in the past 20 years. The urge to believe is unstoppable in most of mankind. The abundance of stupidity in this book is enough to make you pine for Ian Paisley. Jeremy Paxman, Mail on Sunday One of the best reads you are likely to read this winter, full of spark and fine writing. FT Francis Wheen also writes about Samuel Huntington in the Independent magazines Heroes & Villains column. His piece on mad theories making a come back and politicians helping ran in the Sunday Times News Review. Long Description 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 Reagans 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 worlds history when everything began to stop making sense. Review Quote A brilliant, eccentric book. Observer Book of the Year Wheen has a Swiftian relish for exposing the cant that attends the new rationality…bullshits enema number one. Tim Adams, Observer Hugely enjoyable…delightful reading.Ferdinand Mount, Sunday Times Lightly and often hilariously told as it is, this book does make it clear that respect for truth and reason is retreating and mumbo-jumbo has a new confidence everywhere…This amusing, intelligent and elegantly argued book is as good a demonstration of the values it defends as could be imagined.Philip Hensher, Spectator This book is a manifesto for rescuing the greatest philosophical movement of the past millennium. You have a choice: either read it or, pre-emptively shred your brain in anticipation of the coming darkness. Independent on Sunday Feature * Consumer advertising campaign. * A Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback. * Has now sold over 65,000 copies in paperback. * Named as a Book of the Year in the Guardian, Observer and Daily Telegraph. * Includes fascinating PS section with an exclusive interview with Francis Wheen and a new essay on the book Description for Sales People 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 Reagans 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 worlds history when everything began to stop making sense. Key title * Consumer advertising campaign. * A Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback. * Has now sold over 65,000 copies in paperback. * Named as a Book of the Year in the Guardian, Observer and Daily Telegraph. * Includes fascinating PS section with an exclusive interview with Francis Wheen and a new essay on the book Details ISBN0007140975 Author Francis Wheen Pages 368 Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Year 2004 ISBN-10 0007140975 ISBN-13 9780007140978 Format Paperback Imprint HarperPerennial Subtitle A Short History of Modern Delusions Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom Media Book Language English DEWEY 909.82 Short Title How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World UK Release Date 2004-10-04 Publication Date 2004-10-04 Alternative 9780007382071 Audience General AU Release Date 2004-09-28 NZ Release Date 2004-11-18 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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