How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered The World

Book Description

A big bestseller in the UK and right on about the U.S.: Francis Wheen's delightful "assault on all things irrational, inexplicable, dumb-headed and phony" (The Financial Times)

What characterizes our era? Cults, quacks, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of mumbo-jumbo, that's what. In How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World Francis Wheen brilliantly laments the extraordinary rise of superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria. From Middle Eastern fundamentalism to the rise of lotteries, astrology to mysticism, poststructuralism to the Third Way, Wheen shows that there has been a pervasive erosion of Enlightenment values, which have been displaced by nonsense. And no country has a more vivid parade of the bogus and bizarre than the one founded to embody Enlightenment values: the U.S.A. In turn comic, indignant, outraged and just plain baffled by the idiocy of it all, How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World is a masterful depiction of the absurdity of our times and a plea that we might just think a little more and believe a little less.

Customer Reviews:

Cutting through the foolishness.......2007-08-07

How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World isn't your book if you're a true believer in the common wisdom of the moment. Wheen has done his homework and has exposed the nonsense that poses as conventional truth.
We often accept various experts version of things without really checking their facts or track records. Wheen has checked and make considerable fun of much of what we take for granted.

Meade Fischer

"You know-nothing-know-it-all!".......2007-07-06

I rarely abandon books, no matter how mediocre they may be, but I ended up putting down "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World" -- the tone was very, very Smug and Condescending, that the author was the One True Genius and whatnot, which got irritating, and his occasional political snide comments (of the expected "anyone who disagrees with me is OBVIOUSLY an idiot" type -- which is irritating even when you AGREE; sometimes I did -- not a fan of Thatcher myself), but the thing that just made me give up was when he wrote about a book that was:
a) Dangerous
b) Kook Literature
c) Deadly Serious
d) Almost along the lines of The Turner Diaries in being a Nutjob Bible
and, finally,
e) clearly RAW's The Illuminatus Trilogy!, though not mentioned.

If there were an "F", it would be "Not at all a joke/satire."

It's kinda one of those things where I can take Know-It-All Pomposity, at least KINDA, if it's clear that they do, well, indeed Know It All. But... man, bush league errors like that? I flipped all around the book for some sort of sign he was going to, y'know, wink. Or something. But... yeah. After making sure that he really did think that The Illuminatus Trilogy was a Dangerous Text For People Who Want To Blow Up The World With Fertilizer Bombs And U-Hauls, it kinda, erm, made everything he said kinda suspect and his tone downright untakeable.

Excellent in parts but has serious flaws.......2006-09-02

There is no doubt that, despite the huge advances which have been brought by reason and science, an alarming number of people, many of them highly educated, have turned away from reason in favour of new age nonsense or the most simplistic forms of old-established religions. Although Francis Wheen's book has some very serious flaws, it does provoke a great deal of thought about why.

Let's get the negative comment out of the way first. Francis Wheen was a journalist on The Guardian, the main left-wing/liberal newspaper in the UK. In certain parts of the book he allows his left/liberal prejudices an inappropriate degree of latitude given the sort of book this is advertised as being.

The book completely fails to make any distinction whatsoever between mainstream views which the author does not happen to agree with and the genuine 24-carat nonsense which the title, dust jacket, and advertising claim it to be about. Almost everyone to the right of Michael Moore in the States or Roy Hattersley in the UK - including New Democrats such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, and New Labour figures like Tony Blair - is presented as irrational. Sometimes Wheen can give chapter and verse to justify this, but at other times he is just venting his own irrational prejudices.

For example, the entire first chapter of the book is a left-liberal polemic against Thatcherism and Reaganism, during which he attacks Nobel prizewinning academics like Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek in similar terms to those which he uses to dismiss the views of the American presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

My problem with this is not that Wheen disagrees with Friedman and Hayek - I don't share all their views myself. My problem is that, in a book which is supposed to be about the flight from rationality, he writes about rational people who arrived at their views by scientific sifting of the evidence on subjects which they have studied far more intensively than he has, as if they were in the same league as the nutters, fraudsters and snake oil salesmen of whom his criticisms are much more justified.

At a risk of labouring the point, Friedman's study of the economic causes of the Great Depression which won him the Nobel Prize, and his speech in 1967 correctly predicting that the Phillips Curve relationship between unemployment and inflation which had worked for the previous century was about to collapse, are recognised as brilliant by many economists including plenty of left-wing or Keynsian views.

Friedman had previously said that "we are all Keynsians now" and one of the world's leading economists, who was a prominent Keynsian, meant it as a complement to Milton Friedman when he said in response "we are all monetarists now." My first economics tutor, a left-wing Keynsian, once qualified a critique of Friedman - the rest of which Francis Wheen would almost certainly have agreed with - by emphasising that although he was about to strongly disagree with some of Friedman's views he considered him a brilliant economist who richly deserved his Nobel prize.

The point I am making is not whether Friedman is right or wrong, it is that he has no place in a book on the flight from reason. For Francis Wheen to write of Friedman and Hayek in the same way as he writes of anti-rational religious fanatics like William Jennings Bryan does not enhance his case. I would make exactly the same criticisms if a right-wing author were to write a book like this one, start it with a first chapter accusing all left-wingers of being irrational, and include equivalent misplaced criticism of the late John Kenneth Galbraith.

I am not sure why Francis Wheen does not present any distinction between views that a rational person could hold but he doesn't, and views which could only be held by someone seriously adrift from reality. I hope it is because he did not think it necessary.

I came very close to throwing this book in the bin towards the end of the first chapter, which gave me the impression that I can been conned into wasting money on a bog-standard left-wing denunciation of all views to the right of Michael Moore and Roy Hattersley rather than the critique of new age irrationalism promised on the cover.

However, I am glad I persevered, because after the first chapter Mr Wheen starts to cover a much wider range of subjects, present a more balanced approach and produce evidence to back up his views which I found significantly more convincing. From chapter 2 onwards he does make a serious attempt to chart some of the irrational views which have emerged or re-emerged over the past 20 years on both left and right. Subjects covered by the book include fundamentalist attempts to prevent the teaching of evolution, management gobbledegook, astrology, academic fads like "deconstructionism," flying saucers and Alien abduction, and quack medicinal ideas such as Homeopathy.

An example of one of the many good sections in the book is that which considers the development and influence of "The X files". Apparently this TV programme is frequently quoted as a source by American university students, and when their tutors point out that it is fiction they reply "Yes, but it's based on fact." The programme's creator, Chris Carter, is quoted as saying that he originally intended that the programme would have episodes that exposed hoaxes and that "I wanted Agent Scully to be right as much as agent Mulder." But going with the paranormal explanation every time got better ratings.

As Richard Dawkins pointed out, if you had a detective series which had a white suspect and a black one every time, and the black person always turned out to be the guilty party, if would be totally unacceptable, and you could not excuse by saying this was just entertainment and that result produced better ratings.

If Scooby-Doo, a humorous cartoon show, can be a big hit with children when the "supernatural" events always get exposed as a hoax, why can't the X files ? Are the people who make that show less talented than the creators of Scooby Doo ? Do the adults who watch it have critical faculties which are less developed than the children who watch Scooby Doo ? I have to wonder.

Taken as a whole I would recommend this book to anyone interested in trying to understand why so many people have turned away from reason. Readers from Howard Dean or Gordon Brown and leftwards will enjoy the beginning of the book, readers from Al Gore or Tony Blair and rightwards will lose nothing but a boost to your blood pressure by starting at Chapter Two.

Disappointing.......2006-04-26

I had high hopes for this volume- but like many other reviewers, I was dimayed by the author's profound ignorance or economics, and even more profound ignorance of history. He has the British Left's rabid hatred of Maggie Thatcher, and consequently he is blind to the tremendous economic resurgence of Great Britain under her leadership. Similarly, his analysis of fiscal policies under Reagan consists mainly of reciting old charges of "voodoo economics", and so he blames tax cuts for deficits- instead of actually looking at the record, and discovering that US tax receipts actually increased after the '84 tax reform.

The remainder of the book consists in large part of assorted bits of nonsense found in government and academia, most of it of little consequence. There are some gems buried in their as well, but the bulk of the book is so taken with the author's personal predjudices and ignorance that I can't recommend it.

Entertaining, informative, opinionated, cynical.......2005-12-13

This is a good read, even though I write as someone more likely to use the word "Enlightenment" in a Buddhist context, rather than in reference to the revolution of "pure reason" inspired by the likes of Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton over two hundred years ago. Unfortunately Francis Wheen appears to believe that the two world views are mutually exclusive and that only truth derived from rationalism and scientific progress is the way forward. Surely there is room for both?! Possibly the author would dismiss this last suggestion as "post-modern relativism".

Still, Wheen makes a lot of good points and fires at a wide range of mostly easy targets in the modern world. His analysis of the emotional hysteria surrounding the death of Princess Diana is interesting and his cynical attacks on all things remotely "new age" are occasionally funny and insightful. Likewise the observations of various political and economic hypocrisies are well informed. However, he sometimes seems on the virge of dismissing all human feeling and failing as "Mumbo-Jumbo". By the end of this rambling book there is very little that has escaped criticism.

Amongst other things, this is an entertaining and informed overview of 25 years of social, political, and economic history. I will be re-reading sections of it but Wheen appears to be inhabiting a rather depressing intellectual world here. Many people have willingly embraced "non-rational" ideas and points of view because they have felt let down or alienated by the dehumanizing attitude of rationality and scientific progress that Wheen appears to worship.

Average customer rating:

an american classic way up the list
WOW
I really enjoyed this book
Remember "old school?" It's alive and well!
Jes' Wonderful

Mumbo Jumbo
Ishmael Reed
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0684824779

Book Description

The Classic Freewheeling Look at Race Relations Through the Ages

Mumbo Jumbo is Ishmael Reed's brilliantly satiric deconstruction of Western civilization, a racy and uproarious commentary on our society. In it, Reed, one of our preeminent African-American authors, mixes portraits of historical figures and fictional characters with sound bites on subjects ranging from ragtime to Greek philosophy. Cited by literary critic Harold Bloom as one of the five hundred most significant books in the Western canon, Mumbo Jumbo is a trenchant and often biting look at black-white relations throughout history, from a keen observer of our culture.

Customer Reviews:

an american classic way up the list.......2007-05-14

let's forget all the talk about this being a crazy, unreadable, book. like james joyce's ulysses and vladimir nabokov's pale fire it requires some work, after all it is a book written for literate adults.

harold bloom referred to mumbo jumbo as one of the five hundred most significant books in the western canon, henry louis gates jr devoted most of a book of african american criticism on mumbo jumbo and thomas pynchon halted the flow of gravity's rainbow to allude to mumbo jumbo.

on one level mumbo jumbo masquerades as a scholastic tome, complete with bibliography. on another level it's a movie script, the story begins, then the credits are given. it's a treatise on the black aesthetic. where many writers turn to greek and roman mythology, reed includes haitian and egyptian mythology.

papa labas, a senior citizen, as a character choice more than pays lip service to respecting and honoring our elders as casting him as the lead, picks up the tradition of the black detective from chester himes' police detectives which continues with the freelance detectives of walter mosley.

compare jes grew with the beginnings of hip hop, break dancing. i'm not claiming that reed inspired hip hop, but they function as one and the same. james baldwin was attributed with naming the black neighborhood, the ghetto. in one of his later essays baldwin asked, well, what should we call them, hoods? and that's what we call them now, the hoods. a bit of jes grew there.

the book is less than 250 pages, including the bibliography. buy it, read it, keep it, talk about it, if necessary find a class where it's taught. or just keep it in sight, you never know who's been overwhelmed by mumbo jumbo.

WOW.......2006-11-24

This is a brilliant jazz piece all about Jes Grew and the past and future history of the world. The way Reed writes is totally inspired, interesting and full of insights. There's some interesting ancient historical material in it too. In spite of Reed's idiotic misreading of Set the elder god, this is is a delicious book. While it's a novel, it's a lot better than that. It's music.

I really enjoyed this book.......2006-07-14

Relax. It's not as difficult to follow as some reviews make it out to be. I found it a real page-turner. Ishmael Reed always has a great sense of humor, and he always has something to say to piss somebody off (including YOU)...

His writing style will STILL be viewed as experimental, lo these 34 years after this book was published-- yet conservative literary critic Harold Bloom included this book in his 500 essential books of the Western Canon.

I'm waiting for the Tarantino big-screen adaptation...

Remember "old school?" It's alive and well!.......2005-08-20

Ishmael Reed has continued to inform young and old folks how not to "forget" where it all belongs. This work melts the '60's and '70's to the new millenium. It's all about "where it REALLY is!" Don't ever forget from whence you come and where you are GOING!

Jes' Wonderful.......2005-03-26

It's a wonderful book. And to think that we're occupying Haiti again. Powerful stuff goes on there, but the book is about us, here.

Average customer rating:

Entertaining rather than enlightening
Master Debunker
Disappointing
Entertaining curmudgeon
Entertaining, informative, opinionated, cynical

How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World
Francis Wheen
Manufacturer: HarperPerennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

History of Ideas | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0007140975

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining rather than enlightening.......2007-05-27

This is a sometimes-wonderful but ultimately frustrating book. Wonderful, because it brings together so many hilarious examples of crackpot thinking; frustrating because it fails to tie these examples together into any sort of unified thesis. Wheen adopts a scattergun approach, taking fire at neoliberalism, management theory, dotcom mania, postmodernism, new age religion, Islamic fundamentalism, self-help literature, UFO sightings, the Diana cult and more besides. "How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World" might more accurately be entitled "How Things that Really Annoy Francis Wheen Conquered the World". The tenuous thread which Wheen attempts to weave between these disparate phenomena is that they represent a betrayal of the Enlightenment and a retreat from reason and rational thought into ... well, mumbo-jumbo. Okay, but irrational thinking is hardly unique to our age and if we are to accept that there is something more pervasive or different about it today then we need to address two questions: first, what are the connections between all these different forms of mumbo-jumbo (apart from the fact that they are all really silly); and second, why are they flourishing today? Wheen fails to address these questions. Instead he relates a litany of human idiocy which is certainly amusing and sometimes even disturbing but which in the end doesn't really go anywhere. I had hoped for a concluding chapter which would draw the threads together and present a cogent argument as to what all this meant, but it was not to be. The final chapter in fact epitomised what is wrong with this book, lumping together a critique of the dotcom boom and the Enron saga with an excoriation of the political left's response to 9/11 and its supposed anti-Americanism. Maybe I'm missing something but I really don't get the connection between the criminal activities of Lay and Skilling and the intellectual failings of Chomsky and Moore. If there is a connection I would like Wheen to actually explain it. It does not suffice for him to simply laud the Enlightenment again and castigate those who "wish to consign us all to a life in darkness". For all his commitment to the Enlightenment, Wheen ultimately entertains rather than enlightens his readers. The book is superbly researched and delightfully written, and most of his targets deserve all the derision which is heaped upon them. It is worth reading for these reasons alone. But don't expect to emerge any the wiser.

Master Debunker.......2006-11-12

Francis Wheen is indeed a master debunker: erudite, passionate, lacerating and logical. Just about the only book I can compare his "How Mumbo Jumbo..." to is Peter Swirski's recent "From Lowbrow to Nobrow", which is eqaully fearful and exacting in debunking all kinds of myths and sloppy thinking in cultural and literary studies. Wheen's targets are as varied as, in most cases, politically charged: politicians, businessmen, tycoons, policy makers, cultural gurus, and plain old fashioned idiots. Particularly enjoyable is Wheen's dry British tone which, however, never prevents him from skewering the particularly offensive examples of Mumbo Jumbo with a rhetorical flourish.
Like Swirski's book, Wheen's contains a tremendous amount of information, often of rare nature. Being a picky reader myself, I did find one marginal inaccuracy: the rest of the book, as far as I can tell is a perfect ten on accuracy meter. Both writers are funny in the same undercutting way, and refreshingly politically incorrect when it comes to any number of political (Wheen) or cultural (Swirski) sacred cows. One are in which "Mumbo Jumbo" and "From Lowbrow to Nobrow" overlap is postmodernism and deconstruction: here I can only say that if you enjoyed Wheen, you'll enjoy Swirski even more.
All in all, a feast for all those whose hearts beat faster with each new issue of the Skeptical Inquirer.

Disappointing.......2006-04-28

Entertaining curmudgeon.......2005-12-20

Not bad. Not excellent, but an enjoyable read, overall.

Criticisms:

He wasted a lot of space with aimless ranting about the patently absurd (such as astrology, UFO's, etc. - you either don't need a warning or one won't work on you anyway) and seems to have almost a personal bone to pick with several people, with no sources cited in support(e.g. Noam Chomsky).

The overall structure appeared to be a "cite-cobbling" approach and could have used a bit more direction/focus. Each chapter sort of meandered from story to story; no overall cohesiveness.

Nitpicky detail: How the hell can you have a "long Blitzkrieg"?? Sorry, but it's been bugging me since I saw the phrasing.

Otherwise, it appears to have been nicely cited and edited. Give it a whirl. Or leave it on your coffee table to get people arguing over it when you're bored.

Entertaining, informative, opinionated, cynical.......2005-12-13

Management Mumbo-Jumbo: A Skeptic's Dictionary

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Management Mumbo-Jumbo: A Skeptic's Dictionary
Adrian Furnham
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Running Meetings & Presentations | Skills | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Slang & Idioms | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1403987025

Book Description

Bestselling author and psychologist Adrian Furnham takes a critical and challenging view of the jargon and current fads in management contained in manifestos, mantras and mission statements and shows how these often obscure and mystify. In this latest book he turns his skeptical attention to such topics as atmospherics, blame culture, compulsory training, fundamentalist gurus, integrity tests, networming, personality of organizations, and uncertainty avoidance.

Average customer rating:

Intelligent fun for kids of all ages
Very different children's book

Mumbo Jumbo

Manufacturer: Callaway Children's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0935112499

Amazon.com

"When dragons choke,
They sneeze out smoke
And cough up sparks--
It's not a joke.

If flu affects
Your local dragon,
Be sure to drive
A fireproof wagon."

New Yorker cover artist Michael Roberts's Mumbo Jumbo is breathtaking, not only for its lavish cut-out art but also for the sublimely macabre verses. Roberts, who first wowed readers with his Jungle ABC, is back, this time to set some spines tingling with bats, yetis, imps, and bloody bones. Older readers will fall over laughing at the sly humor in rhymes about spiders' Web sites, cranky vampires, and a stressed knight too tired after saving damsels and slaying dragons all day to be "a disco diva or for Saturday knight fever." Children will giggle on a different level, felling a delicious chill at the thought of eyeball stew and ghosts playing hide and seek. Every reader will do a double take at Roberts's remarkable, wildly colorful illustrations. Repetitive themes--dozens of skulls leaning menacingly forward, frantically leaping frogs, wildly dancing imps--pack a memorable visual punch. Each letter of the alphabet--that's right, this is also an ABC book--inspires a witty verse and full-page illustration. The very smallest reader will delight in identifying the featured, ghost-guarded letter and matching it with its corresponding picture. (Ages 3 and older) --Emilie Coulter

Book Description

Wizards, skeletons, spells, sorcerers, and dragons &Mac222;ll this second lavishly produced children's book by acclaimed New Yorker-cover artist Michael Roberts. In verse and in cutout collages, Roberts takes children on a mystical journey through the alphabet from "Abracadabra" to "Zombies."

For each letter in the alphabet, Roberts composes a full-page image created with scissors and colored paper. Across from each image, Roberts contributes a poem, ranging from the epigrammatic to the mini-epic. The poem for the letter Y goes like this:
I met a yeti
in Tibet.
Took him home
to be a pet.
Ate my friends
and family.
Think he's saving
me for tea.

Then there's the one about Mabel the witch, the sneezing dragon, Pumpkin Man, and eyeball stew....

Mumbo Jumbo tickles and chills older kids with its witty verse and helps younger children learn the alphabet by matching up letters and pictures.

Customer Reviews:

Intelligent fun for kids of all ages.......2001-02-18

There are only a couple of books that completely intrigue my four month old son, and this is one of them. The pictures are fascinating to look at, bold and bright and witty. The accompanying poems are equally witty and enjoy a great variety of rhythm and style. We can go through the entire book without a single lapse of attention. I'm sure that when he's a little bit older, with a bit more comprehension on his side, my child will giggle and much as I do over these verses. A great introduction to the wonderful world of poetry, and a book that recognizes the intelligence of children - equally appealing to adults, as well.

Very different children's book.......2000-12-18

We got this for my son's birthday. Our friend (who was giving the present) was worried that we might find it a little to "dark" but she really liked it. We love it. It is perfect for little boys. Very different and wonderfully illustrated. A fun alternative way to learn ABC's

Collins Book Bus: Mumbo Jumbo's Football

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Collins Book Bus: Mumbo Jumbo's Football

Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Readers | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0003139123

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Collins Book Bus: Mumbo Jumbo's Shoes

Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Readers | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0003139115

Concrete Language: Intercultural Communication In Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior And Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo (Cross Cultural Communication, V. 2)

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Concrete Language: Intercultural Communication In Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior And Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo (Cross Cultural Communication, V. 2)
Sami Ludwig
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 3631496877

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

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How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions
Francis Wheen
Manufacturer: FOURTH ESTATE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLNHJQ

Medical Mumbo-jumbo: Traditional Healers Protecting Their Status (Stevens Lectures for the Laity, 1990)

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Medical Mumbo-jumbo: Traditional Healers Protecting Their Status (Stevens Lectures for the Laity, 1990)
HRH Princess The Princess Royal Anne
Manufacturer: Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Alternative Medicine | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

History | Special Topics | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1853151424

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