The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon (Bill McKibben)

In this book, activist Bill McKibben (he wrote the first popular account on global warming) reflects on his formative years in Lexington, Massachussetts, and uses that as a lens to describe what he believes is wrong with the world (racism, wealth inequality, climate change, hyper-individualism, etc.), along with a few thoughts on what to do about it.

This one disappointed me. I hadn't heard of McKibben, but apparently he's a well-known and staunch progressive. While there are some good points sprinkled throughout the book, they're overpowered by unfair characterizations of the opposition, dubious arguments (often overly-simplistic), and some suspect logic. He basically re-hashes the typical progressive positions on hot-button topics while adding nothing new and unfairly representing the opposition. (Though he does also criticize some in his own party, to include some Democratic presidents and his own liberal town of Lexington, the vast majority is pointed one direction.) There are some strengths, don't get me wrong- but I had a hard time overlooking the weaknesses.

One good point he makes concerns the distortion of history by ignoring facts inconvenient to the narrative. That's fair- the problem is that he proceeds to do the exact same thing, just in the opposite direction. I would argue that is the problem with most American history presentations . . . they tend to be simplistic and agenda-driven. We use an incomplete set of data and statistics to present a distorted story, which invariably leads to incorrect interpretations and (then) ill-formed political stances. (This happens on both sides of the aisle. That doesn't make it okay.)

I'm trying to figure out the audience of this book. It strikes me as an 'echo chamber' work, written to people who would agree with him. It's certainly not to persuade conservatives- to engage your opponent, one basic rule is fairly present their side of the story- so I guess it is to persuade centrists and mild progressives that they should be going farther to the left? It's unclear to me. Regardless, I had hoped for more.

Rating: C-