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A review by davehershey
The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani
3.0
This is a fantastic little book about the death of objective truth in our culture. Kakutani offers a critique of postmodern relativism, showing us how the loss of belief in truth has come about and affects how we live. I agree with what she says and wish more people would read this book.
Therein lies why I gave it 3 and not 4 or 5 stars. I doubt anyone who is already a fan of Trump is going to read this, and even if they did I doubt they'd be convinced. Thus, Kakutani is preaching to the choir. Those of us who hate what the rise of Trump has revealed will relish this book; it will make us feel good about ourselves. But what's the way forward? How do we even begin to fix things? There's not much here on that point.
Along with that, in preaching to the choir Kakutani misses a chance to be more critical of where the left has gone along with the death of truth. To be fair, when she offers brief history of where the attack on objective truth came from, she targets the left. I just wish she had made more a point to show how in ignoring truth, it was as if conservatives had decided to play the left's game or to use the tools the left had built in the rise of postmodernism. I had a book back in seminary called Death of Truth about postmodernism and I wonder how many who highly reviewed such a book 15 years ago now ignore Trumps' killing of truth? Tracing the irony of the rise of postmodernism on the right, which began in liberal schools, would have been great.
It also would have provided Kakutani an opportunity to show it is not just the right who rejects truth. Rather than affirming her readers as the virtuous opponents to Trump, she could have challenged them a bit more. I am not saying this as if to say both sides are equally guilty. But there is still some science to be said about, to use one example, the reality of two distinct genders. There are those on the extreme left who reject science to argue gender is completely a social construct (it certainly partially is social, but biology is still a thing). Such examples are easy for conservatives to point to, especially when the feel attacked by self-righteous liberals.
Overall, I did like this book. I just think she should have spent more time challenging her audience rather than preaching to the choir.
Therein lies why I gave it 3 and not 4 or 5 stars. I doubt anyone who is already a fan of Trump is going to read this, and even if they did I doubt they'd be convinced. Thus, Kakutani is preaching to the choir. Those of us who hate what the rise of Trump has revealed will relish this book; it will make us feel good about ourselves. But what's the way forward? How do we even begin to fix things? There's not much here on that point.
Along with that, in preaching to the choir Kakutani misses a chance to be more critical of where the left has gone along with the death of truth. To be fair, when she offers brief history of where the attack on objective truth came from, she targets the left. I just wish she had made more a point to show how in ignoring truth, it was as if conservatives had decided to play the left's game or to use the tools the left had built in the rise of postmodernism. I had a book back in seminary called Death of Truth about postmodernism and I wonder how many who highly reviewed such a book 15 years ago now ignore Trumps' killing of truth? Tracing the irony of the rise of postmodernism on the right, which began in liberal schools, would have been great.
It also would have provided Kakutani an opportunity to show it is not just the right who rejects truth. Rather than affirming her readers as the virtuous opponents to Trump, she could have challenged them a bit more. I am not saying this as if to say both sides are equally guilty. But there is still some science to be said about, to use one example, the reality of two distinct genders. There are those on the extreme left who reject science to argue gender is completely a social construct (it certainly partially is social, but biology is still a thing). Such examples are easy for conservatives to point to, especially when the feel attacked by self-righteous liberals.
Overall, I did like this book. I just think she should have spent more time challenging her audience rather than preaching to the choir.