How the World Ran Out of Everything by Goodman

Do you remember the hunt for baby formula in 2022? I know that our family, spread over several states, were actively searching every time any of us went to a pharmacy, grocery store or even online outlet so as to provide our newest family member with sustenance. HOW THE WORLD RAN OUT OF EVERYTHING by Peter S. Goodman reflects on the pandemic’s impact by burrowing deep “Inside the Global Supply Chain.” Goodman, the Global Economics Correspondent for The New York Times, uses a case study involving a container filled with children’s toys to trace the breakdown in a system and “consequences of relying on faraway factories and container ships to keep humanity supplied with goods.” The text has three main sections: a review of China-centric globalization; price manipulation and engineered scarcities; and opportunities to reinvent the supply chain. Throughout, Goodman comments repeatedly on labor exploitation and deregulation; he stresses that, “ordinary people were paying the mounting costs” with weak unions, indifferent politicians, and over reliance on “Just in Time,” or lean, manufacturing. Extensive notes and an index comprise at least twenty percent of the book. HOW THE WORLD RAN OUT OF EVERYTHING received a starred review from Kirkus (“This book should be in the hands of policymakers and economists before the next crisis emerges.”) I would encourage readers looking for related perspective to also check out Arriving Today by Wall Street Journal columnist Christopher Mims. And, Goodman’s work even made me think of The Travels Of A T-Shirt In The Global Economy by Rivoli, published almost twenty years ago in a far more optimistic time.

Young Readers: The Sixth Extinction and The Uninhabitable Earth

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION (young readers adaptation) by Elizabeth Kolbert is scheduled to be available on February 6, 2024. No one would deny that this is an important topic of grave concern to young people and I am grateful for having seen a preview. I wish, however, that greater effort had been made to provide a version of this award-winning text that more clearly outlined key issues. Kolbert shares many relevant stories (e.g., the rhino ultrasound), but important messages may be lost in the still rather dense text.  In addition to line art images (no graphs or diagrams that I saw), there is a three page glossary and index, but, sadly, sources and further reading are not included. Booklist recommended THE SIXTH EXTINCTION for grades 5 thru 8 (seems young, given the language level) and gave it a starred review.

THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH by David Wallace-Wells is now available in an adaptation for Young Adults. It tells the story of “Life After Warming” and shares dire predictions regarding a range of topics including dying oceans, greenhouse gas, extreme weather events, and results like hunger and migration. However, the language is quite stilted (e.g., “like our sea-level myopia, it threatens to occlude our picture of what global warming means for us”) and there is even an entire section improbably named The Anthropic Principle (how many high school students can readily explain that idea?). Plus, graphics or images are totally missing. And, despite an array of statistics included in the text, there are no sources listed and no bibliography for further reading. Those additions and a much more conversational tone would have made this text more appealing and more inspirational for its intended young adult audience. Kirkus sums it up well: “Heavy going, both in content and prose style, but filled with critical content.” 

Fortunately, there are a variety of accessible texts on climate change and the environment geared to high school students.

The Fourth Turning is Here and The Perennials

Twenty-five years ago, Neil Howe and the late William Strauss collaborated on a book titled The Fourth Turning about how history repeats itself. With this recent update, titled THE FOURTH TURNING IS HERE, Neil Howe again reviews the cyclical trends which he contends occur roughly every 80 years, naming them the High (featuring strengthened institutions); the Awakening, (push for change);  the Unraveling, (strengthening individualism as decay sets in); and the Crisis, (value changes such as we may be experiencing now). His writing seems less optimistic than that of Robert Putnam (The Upswing) and in contrast to Peter Turchin (End Times) is more narrowly focused on the United States. Howe also fervently argues that “each generation will have its own common narrative, its own past memories, and its own future hopes,” with elder Prophets, midlife Nomads, young-adult Heroes, and child Artists. While this contention parallels some analysis by Jean Twenge (Generations), Howe’s work is much less accessible and is in direct contrast to Mauro F. Guillén’s claims about the coming post-generational society in The Perennials (see below). I believe that the average reader would find THE FOURTH TURNING IS HERE to be rather dry and difficult to parse at times; however, it did receive a starred review from Kirkus. Notes and Bibliography comprise roughly twenty-five percent of the text.

The megatrends which are creating a postgenerational society are described in THE PERENNIALS by Mauro F. Guillén, bestselling author of 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything. Once again, Guillén turns to demographics and technological changes in another thought-provoking work. One of his most appealing proposals is utilizing the ability of people to work well into their seventies. Another is the vast opportunity for lifelong learning and reskilling as people age and new technologies become available.  He argues for mutual respect of the varied strengths between age cohorts and begins with examples like the factory floor at BMW. Overall, an uplifting and forward-looking text, THE PERENNIALS is a Next Big Idea Book Club choice for August.

Beijing Rules by Bethany Allen

BEIJING RULES by Bethany Allen, an award-winning China reporter at Axios, deals with China’s role as a world power, arguing that China has “weaponized its economy.” Allen begins with the coronavirus pandemic and notes that “China was the only major economy in the world to expand in 2020;” she further says “with the West flailing, he [Xi] saw a window of opportunity to go on the offensive.” Allen outlines a concept she calls “authoritarian economic statecraft” and argues that Beijing uses gatekeeping, legal and economic leverage (e.g., tariffs), and channels of influence to shape behavior beyond its borders. One of Allen’s key points is that Western attitudes towards China will need to change and are changing. The content is fairly academic and generally sophisticated, making for a rather dry read. However, the work is well-documented - at least a third of the book is devoted to Notes and an Index. BEIJING RULES received a starred review from Kirkus (“A disturbing, insightful book about China’s hidden, multitiered war—and how the West can fight back.”).