A review by lucarighetti
Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century by John Higgs
4.0
A very distinct take on the 20th Century, focusing on how philosophical ideas have changed rather than the usual political-economics narrative. In particular, by touching on so many areas of societal life, I felt its explanation for current Western disillusionment is much richer than the "everything changed in the 70s with neoliberalism" account.
Reminiscent of an Adam Curtis documentary, it drew many connections between seemingly unrelated events to form a grand, somewhat trippy narrative. Even if at times I was sceptical of some of the arguments made, they never ceased to be interesting and entertaining.
The only notable drawbacks for me were that (1) it is very Western-centric for what is meant to be a global history and (2) the premise that "before 1900 history seemed to make sense" is quite dubious to me and somewhat detracts from the conclusions.
Reminiscent of an Adam Curtis documentary, it drew many connections between seemingly unrelated events to form a grand, somewhat trippy narrative. Even if at times I was sceptical of some of the arguments made, they never ceased to be interesting and entertaining.
The only notable drawbacks for me were that (1) it is very Western-centric for what is meant to be a global history and (2) the premise that "before 1900 history seemed to make sense" is quite dubious to me and somewhat detracts from the conclusions.