3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An impressive look at some causes that should never have been lost, August 21, 2009
This review is from: With Good Intentions?: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America (Hardcover)
Bill Kauffman is undoubtedly one of the better political and especially cultural writers active today, because he can illustrate so clearly and accessibly aspects of history that are of considerable interest but are very rarely considered by people today.
My first acquaintance with Kauffman was
Look Homeward America, which looked at people who defied (and defy) that traditional "liberal" and "conservative" labels but nonetheless were able to articulate an anarchistic, anti-war, localist vision as an alternative to the globalist ideal that is almost uniform in the world today. I have also read some of his articles in "Counterpunch", and looked forward to reading "With Good Intentions?: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America" when I found it was available in my local library.
Although I did not feel that "With Good Intentions?: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America" was special first time around, a recent second reading makes me confirm to myself that I am dealing with a quite special writer who knows American history in a detail few professional historians do. Kauffman's aim in "With Good Intentions?: Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America" is to show as a fallacy that some changes in the last 100 years of American history really are progress.
The first chapter on child labour laws sets an excellent tone. I do admit there are horrors in the industrial world, but nonetheless feel that Kauffman has an extremely valid point in that children could be helped by having practice working at a younger age, especially in cases where people are able to work at home without violent threats as often found in today's "sweatshops". The last two, which deal with the wasteful highway programs that have honestly been a pet hate of mine ever since Jeff Kennett planned CityLink in 1993, and with military spending, which I have never been sympathetic to since reading
Socialist Worker's criticism of John Howard's military buildup in the late 1990s. In both cases, Kauffman shows very clearly how much community has been lost by the radical changes brought about by Washington's vast investment in roads and defence. At times, Kauffman is quite explicit, for instance when he shows how tens of thousands of people were made homeless by the major highway projects and how many families were detroyed during World War II and after by the drafting of husbands into the armed forces. Both of these are facts that are very seldom discussed even by critics of road building or military spending.
The other three chapters are not quite so good but still they contain a lot of interesting arguments. The one about women's suffrage seems more interesting after reading Hans Hoppe, but it is interesting to note how even some radicals like Emma Goldman did not see woman's suffrage as a worthy goal. The other two chapters both deal with school education and here personal experience of how I have learned much of what I do undoubtedly makes me feel Kauffman is undoubtedly largely correct in his view that school consolidation is not effective.
All in all, this is a very impressive read that will both show another side to key issues in American history and offer a refreshing perspective thereon.
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