Adam Smith in Beijing or The Myth of Moral Justice

Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century

Author: Giovanni Arrighi

An authoritative exploration of China's emergence as the most dynamic center of economic and commercial expansion in the world today.

In the late eighteenth century, the political economist Adam Smith predicted an eventual equalization of power between the conquering West and the conquered non-West. In this magisterial new work, Giovanni Arrighi shows how China's extraordinary rise invites us to read The Wealth of Nations in a radically different way than is usually done. He examines how the recent US attempt to bring into existence the first truly global empire in world history was conceived in order to counter China's spectacular economic success of the 1990s, and how the US's disastrous failure in Iraq has made the People's Republic of China the true winner of the US War on Terror. In the 21st century, China may well become again the kind of non-capitalist market economy that Smith described, under totally different domestic and world-historical conditions.

Jim Doyle - Library Journal

Here are the experiences of five British veterans who survived World War I physically but came home damaged goods. It is the psychic impact of the horrific war that Barrett (English, Univ. of London; Imagination in Theory) examines through the experiences of Willis Brown, Douglas Darling, Ronald Skirth, William Tyrrell, and Lawrence Gameson. Each was the victim of shell shock or what is now known as posttraumatic stress disorder. Yet Barrett reveals that these succinct mental classifications do not do justice to what these men experienced. It was the cumulative effect of death as a constant companion that changed these veterans forever. They all returned home to apparently normal lives but beneath the surface there was illness, alcoholism, bitterness, and depression. Through interviews with the soldiers' descendants and a careful reading of archival material buried in the Imperial War Museum, Barrett evokes the bloody crucible these five men passed through. She may be criticized for not offering more in-depth documentation of the archival resources used, but no one will question the authenticity of her compelling characterizations of these five veterans of the Great War. Sadly, this is a timely work. A worthy addition to the extensive literature on the mental health of combat veterans; recommended for all libraries.

Kirkus Reviews

A collective biography of five shell-shocked veterans of trench warfare. Delving into mountains of personal papers, letters and photographs in London's Imperial War Museum, Barrett (Modern Literary and Cultural Theory/Queen Mary, Univ. of London; Imagination in Theory: Culture, Writing, Words, and Things, 1999, etc.) tells stories of three soldiers and two military doctors. All witnessed terrible things, suffered mental breakdowns and seemed to recover, but the experience permanently colored their lives. Investigating the flood of psychiatric casualties among uninjured soldiers, World War I physicians preferred an organic cause, so the term "shell shock" entered the vocabulary. Experts explained that soldiers in proximity to explosions suffered subtle brain injuries, but readers will share the author's shock at discovering how much the simple horror of trench life contributed to their breakdowns. Soldiers walked, slept, ate and fought among dead and rotting bodies and body parts. The smell of decaying corpses grew more intense during the summer and after battles, but it never vanished. "I thought by now the horrors of war could no longer shock me. I was wrong," writes Bombardier Ronald Skirth. "It must have been some ghoulish influence that drew me to the old battlefield and three months after the fighting had ceased the mangled, putrefying bodies of men and beasts still lay awaiting burial." Classic WWI memoirs (by Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon and others) mention disgusting details of trench warfare, but those were written for publication and after time had softened the memories. The soldiers profiled here recorded their uncensored feelings on the spot. "The significant context ofthese life stories," writes Barrett, "is not what can be remembered, but what has survived for us to study." Fear and the death of comrades figure prominently, but it was the nauseating sights and smells that dominated their thoughts. When one of the author's subjects, a doctor, revealed this to a postwar Parliamentary investigation into shell-shock, it was censored. A unique contribution to war literature.

See also: Managing Business Process Flows or The Definitive ANTLR Reference

The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right

Author: Thane Rosenbaum

We are obsessed with watching television shows and feature films about lawyers, reading legal thrillers, and following real-life trials. Yet, at the same time, most of us don't trust lawyers and hold them and the legal system in very low esteem.

In The Myth of Moral Justice, law professor and novelist Thane Rosenbaum suggests that this paradox stems from the fact that citizens and the courts are at odds when it comes to their definitions of justice. With a lawyer's expertise and a novelist's sensability, Rosenbaum tackles complicated philosophical questions about our longing for moral justice. He also takes a critical look at what our legal system does to the spirits of those who must come before the law, along with those who practice within it.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Kirsch

Rosenbaum seems to realize that there is not much chance that his proposed reforms will be adopted in any formal sense, and he readily acknowledges that many lawyers will find the whole idea to be "ludicrous." But his book ought to be required reading in law schools and continuing legal education classes, if only because at least a few of his readers will be humanized by the experience. And that is, above all, what "The Myth of Moral Justice" is really about.

The New York Times - Dahlia Lithwick

Rosenbaum should still be read by every law student in America. His assessment of attorneys as unhappy shells of people and his statistics about the rates of depression and addiction remind us of the dangers inherent in locking your heart in the parking lot each morning. Being more empathetic, attempting to broker compromise, encouraging parties to apologize, becoming, as he puts it, ''feelers'' rather than mere ''thinkers'' -- all are crucial steps toward making lawyers emotionally intact again. But the single most moral thing lawyers can do is to urge clients to understand that even if they win their case they won't necessarily be happy and that they can't get their old life back. That happens in church, or therapy, if it happens at all. The myth behind The Myth of Moral Justice is that the law would be more moral if it could become more than it is. The truth is, we'd all be better off if we looked to it for far less.

Publishers Weekly

A professor at Fordham Law School, Rosenbaum (The Golems of Gotham) observes that American culture is enthralled by lawyers and courtroom proceedings, yet Americans distrust lawyers and find the quality of justice in this country deficient. He ascribes this what he feels is ambivalence regarding the lack of morality and emotional complexity in law offices and in courtrooms. Rosenbaum calls for a "morally inspired transformation of the legal system," a "massive attitude adjustment" that would replace the sterile formality of the law with conscience and spirituality. To accomplish this, he advocates fewer settlements of cases and more trials, at which injured parties would be permitted, even encouraged, to vent rage at their oppressors. A novelist as well as teacher of law and literature, Rosenbaum believes in the power of storytelling as a means of healing and insists the storytelling should continue even after judgment is entered. A second trial phase should immediately convene, one in which all participants would discuss their grief, disappointment and shame. No one would be permitted to leave until all the stories had been told in full. On other themes, Rosenbaum urges that a duty to rescue should be recognized in American law as a moral imperative, and endorses apologies as beneficial to victims and wrongdoers alike. Readers will recognize that this book is more visionary than practical, and lawyers will be annoyed at the author's scolding and superior tone. But perhaps provoking lawyers is part of the book's point. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Rosenbaum (law, Fordham Univ.) here critiques the current state of the legal system, decrying its lack of a soul or tenderness. He argues that the system fails to consider the basic question of why people bring lawsuits or prosecute criminals. The desire for a moral lesson, an apology, or an ability to express feelings is currently suppressed by the law. Using examples from movies, plays, and fiction, he contrasts the grievances and expectations of justice of individuals entering the system and the institutionalized results the system delivers. Rosenbaum suggests that the law should provide moral remedies and strive to restore human relationships for the good of the entire community. He further argues that, instead of reducing damages to dollars and cents, the law should require apologies to the injured. This well-written book ranges widely in its use of examples, which include the Torah, Seinfeld, and the courtroom movies of John Grisham. Recommended for large collections.-Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	1
1	Doing the right thing : the split between the moral and the legal	11
2	A new paradigm of moral justice	30
3	Pound of flesh	48
4	Story as remedy	61
5	The various faces of grief	79
6	Aborted trials and lying under the law	92
7	The best-kept secrets of zealous advocates	114
8	Forbidden emotions in a world out of order	139
9	Judges who feign not having feelings	157
10	Apology as moral antidote to the legal disease	179
11	Apologies in practice	194
12	Restoration or revenge	212
13	Repair in practice	226
14	The non-duty to rescue under American law	246
15	Rescue as moral imperative	258
16	The law's preference for the body over the soul	266
17	Frustrated lawyers and the public's discontent	285
18	The artist and the law	296
	Conclusion	313
	Acknowledgments	319
	Notes	321
	Index	341