Summer Reading With a Twist

Key

We rated our four books using a 0-5 scale, with 5 as the best:
•Clarity of writing: Gladwellian prose
•Soundness of logic: Surowieckian reason
•General prescience: Friedmanian foresight

Most of us take it for granted that we'll be able to cope even as the world fills up with more people consuming more goods at a faster pace. In what University of Toronto professor Thomas Homer-Dixon dubs "technohubrism," Westerners consistently believe that our can-do ingenuity and technological advancements will get us to a solution. But that may no longer be the case. Using examples of everything from car engines to tax forms, Homer-Dixon demonstrates that society today faces "more complex, urgent, and unpredictable circumstances" than in the past, forcing us to "make more sophisticated decisions in less time." The disturbing message: "The complexity and speed of operation of today's vital economic, social, and ecological systems exceed the human brain's grasp."

In his 400 pages, Homer-Dixon is omnivorous in his approach to research, visiting experts in psychology, economics, biology, and ecology, and looking at urban planning, global warming, and the spread of disease as examples in which we are falling behind the pace of change. Yet he is not entirely pessimistic, acknowledging the ability of the human mind to react to a crisis, as pilots did from the cockpit of United flight 232 in 1989 when they figured out a way to land the crippled jet. A chat with Donald Stuss, one of the world's authorities on the frontal lobe, explains how the brain processes change and develops solutions. There is hope for us, Homer-Dixon cautions, but "the hour is late."

To get out of this trap, we must abandon our naive belief that technology always comes to the rescue. Homer-Dixon may be a Cassandra, but today's harried business readers will find much in this far-reaching tome to give them pause. That is, if they can find the time to open the book at all.

•Gladwellian prose: 4
•Surowieckian reason: 4
•Friedmanian foresight: 5

Nation of Rebels [ HarperBusiness, 2005 ] By Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter

Beware, rebel, even if you do have a cause: Philosophy professors Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter are on to you. In a sweeping critique of the history of the counterculture movement, the authors assert that the ideas we call rebellious, "be they artistic, political, or cultural," are not only impotent against the mainstream society they villainize, they're so efficiently co-opted that they often have the opposite of their intended effect.

That makes Nation of Rebels something of a polemic, a rebellion against our idea of rebellion. The authors excoriate our entire rebel canon, systematically dismantling the myopia and hypocrisy they ascribe to everything from Marxism and feminism to Fight Club and the Sex Pistols. First, they say, a full-scale rebellion could never really work. If everyone actually dropped acid and listened to Hendrix, we'd have no society, no doctors or politicians or cooks (or is it that the medicine, speeches, and food might be more creative?) "We must distinguish," the authors say, "between dissent and deviance." And most "alternative" thinking so quickly becomes a part of the mainstream consumer culture that it loses whatever effect it was supposed to have. As the Sex Pistols climbed the charts, they note, safety pins began to command premium prices. As for hippies, they quickly became "less of a threat to the established order than a marketing opportunity."

The authors do seem more comfortable criticizing existing forms of rebellion than with offering a model that could actually work. But for readers inquisitive enough to wade through the book's skepticism, the reward is a deep and rich history of the counterculture movement in America.

•Gladwellian prose: 4
•Surowieckian reason: 3
•Friedmanian foresight: 3