Don Moon’s Book Picks

J. Donald Moon is Dean of the Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs. He is also the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Professor in the College of Social Studies and a Professor of Government.

On his choices

• The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream
  Jacob S. Hacker (Oxford University Press, 2008)
  
  Hacker explains how the prosperity of recent decades has also been accompanied by growing insecurity for ordinary Americans, as employment and family life have become more unstable, and the support provided by public programs has eroded. He sketches a vision of an “insurance and opportunity” society which would guarantee basic well-being for all Americans.

  

• Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation
  Jonathan Lear (Harvard University Press, 2006)
  
  A compelling account of the moral courage shown by Plenty Coups, the leader of the Crow people, as their world was destroyed following the European-American conquest and settlement of the west. Although focusing on Plenty Coups, Lear’s work probes deep ethical questions about how the deepest sources of human vulnerability.

  

• The Reasons of Love
  Harry G. Frankfurt (Princeton University Press, 2006)
  
  A short book that sets out a compelling vision of how we should live our lives: one in which we pursue what we care about, and above all love, and how love for another is ultimately tied up with love of self.

  

• The Accidental Mind: How Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams and God
  David J. Linden (Harvard University Press, 2007)
  
  A fascinating account of recent developments in neuroscience, using clear language and wonderful drawing — and humor — this book provides a wealth of insight into how we perceive, think and feel. It opens for us new ways through which we can understand our selves.

  

• Unveiling the Prophet: The Misadventures of a Reluctant Debutante
  Lucy Ferriss (University of Missouri Press, 2005)
  
  A wonderful combination of memoir and social and cultural history, this book examines the displacement of the WASP aristocracy in the 60s and early 70s through the experiences of a young woman trying to make her way in a changing world while responding to her father’s needs, which are rooted in a world that is passing away.

  

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