Pinker is passionate in his tepidity, and contemptuous of anyone daring to criticize the present world order. What “Marxist professors” and racist Trump supporters have in common is that they just don’t know (or want to admit) how good they have it. Criticism of liberal capitalism is thus the provenance of hysterical populists on both the Left and the Right. Systemic critique, ideologies, and “big ideas” are downright dangerous. For Pinker, modern capitalist democracy has basically gotten things right, and activism should at most consist of pushing for minor improvements, mitigating bad symptoms around the edges. This preening tome professes a pragmatic and quantitative approach to the world’s problems. Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now is a manual for liberal self-congratulation. Review of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Viking, 2018).
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As the leading Federalist in Virginia, he rivaled his cousin Thomas Jefferson in influence. As Chief Justice of the United States-the longest-serving in history-he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts. From the nation's founding in 1776 and for the next forty years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. No member of America's Founding Generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall, and no one did more to preserve the delicate unity of the fledgling United States. "The remarkable story of John Marshall who, as chief justice, statesman, and diplomat, played a pivotal role in the founding of the United States. A portrait of the influential chief justice, statesman, and diplomat illuminates his pivotal role in the establishment of the Constitution and Supreme Court and recounts his work as an advisor to multiple presidents. |