Hoisted from the Archives; Yet Another Gregg Easterbrook Train Wreck (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?)
6/29/09 11:55 AM
Grasping Reality with Both Hands The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: A Fair, Balanced, Reality-Based, and More than Two-Handed Look at the World J. Bradford DeLong, Department of Economics, U.C. Berkeley #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720-3880; 925 708 0467; delong@econ.berkeley.edu.
About This Website | About Brad DeLong | This Weblog | Weblog RSS feed | Brad DeLong's Egregious Moderation | Order of the Shrill | Office Hours: Evans 601, W10-12, 2-3, and by appointment, email delong@econ.berkeley.edu | Macroeconomic Policy Lectures | Economic History Lectures | Academic C.V. | John Yoo and the Torture Memo | Audio and Video Read the comment policy: no drive-bys, and if you bring information and humor you will be fine... AYUSA Exchange Program Students from 75 Countries. View Profiles & Apply To Host A Student www.AYUSA.org
Weblog Home Page Weblog Archives Subscribe to RSS Dynamic Blogroll Berkeley Economics Department NBER Brad DeLong's Egregious Moderation Hot on Google Blogsearch Hot on Google Berkeley Political Economy June 25, 2009
Hoisted from the Archives; Yet Another Gregg Easterbrook Train Wreck (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?) This morning's observation from Zachary Roth that the mainline press corps has no way--in fact, regards it as a breach of ethics--to tell its readers that important political figures are likely to be lying reminded me of the other major grave deficiency of the press corps: its inability to exercise any quality control over its own members. And that reminded me of http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/06/hoisted-from-the-archives-yet…brook-train-wreck-why-oh-why-cant-we-have-a-better-press-corps.html
Page 1 of 4
Hoisted from the Archives; Yet Another Gregg Easterbrook Train Wreck (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?)
6/29/09 11:55 AM
deficiency of the press corps: its inability to exercise any quality control over its own members. And that reminded me of thus just-ain't-so story from four years ago: Brad DeLong's Website: Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (New York Times Book Review Edition): Everyone who has read Jared Diamond's excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies knows that its principal theme is that Eurasian civilizations have dominated world history because Eurasia (including the southern shore of the Mediterranean) was the best environment to nurture the growth of preindustrial human cultures, technologies, and civilizations. The large size of and easy east-west communications across Eurasia meant that Eurasia had more people in communication thinking about solving cultural, technological, and civilizational problems--and two heads are always better than one. The east-west axis of Eurasia meant similar climates across ten thousand miles--so whatever good ideas your neighbors had were probably relevant to you as well. The rich biological resources of Eurasia gave its civilizations an advantage in terms of the crops and animals they could selectively breed and domesticate. And, at a slightly finer scale, Europe's mountain ranges and narrow seas provided barriers to control that were not impediments to communication: thus the Ming Dynasty could suppress shipbuilding, but the Pope could not suppress astronomy. Thus I was astonished to open the New York Times Book Review and find: Gregg Easterbrook: "Guns" asked why the West is atop the food chain of nations. Its conclusion, that Western success was a coincidence driven by good luck, has proven extremely influential in academia, as the view is quintessentially postmodern.... [E]nvironmental coincidences are the principal factor in human history. Diamond contends it was chance, not culture or brainpower, that brought industrial power first to Europe; Western civilization has nothing to boast about. But this is completely false. Diamond does say it was culture, it was brainpower--brainpower that could be successfully amplified, harnessed, and applied to building cultures because of the tremendous long-run advantages provided by the Eurasian incubator. It's not either/or. Diamond's view is not postmodern: it is materialist--the antithesis of postmodernism. Diamond's story gives "Western civilization" a great deal to boast about (and also gives it, as any attempt to tell history straight does, a great deal to be bitterly ashamed of). Some quality control, people. Somebody's job should be to catch book reviewers who don't understand or don't accurately present the books they are reviewing, and pull their reviews before they hit the press. rated 4.24 by 10 people [? ] You might like:
Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (New Republic Contributing Editors Edition) (@this site) I See No Green Shoots Here... (@this site) 2 more recommended posts Âť Brad DeLong on June 25, 2009 at 01:46 PM in History, Information: Better Press Corps/Journamalism, Utter Stupidity | Permalink TrackBack TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e551f08003883401157065385e970c Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Hoisted from the Archives; Yet Another Gregg Easterbrook Train Wreck (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?):
Comments http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/06/hoisted-from-the-archives-yet‌brook-train-wreck-why-oh-why-cant-we-have-a-better-press-corps.html
Page 2 of 4
Hoisted from the Archives; Yet Another Gregg Easterbrook Train Wreck (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?)
6/29/09 11:55 AM
Somehow, the historical memory forgets that the US, like other colonies, were largely formed by the people who were failures, criminals, outcasts and non-conformists in the "old world". The successful conformists remained in place. Toss that in the next time there is a discussion of American exceptionalism. Posted by: Neal | June 25, 2009 at 02:29 PM Doesn't "politician openly lying" qualify as news? Isn't it almost necessarily a bigger story than whatever the politician is lying about? Posted by: Nathan Myers | June 25, 2009 at 04:45 PM I've never read much Diamond, possibly from having already read Alfred Crosby. But along the why-is-Europe-special line, Barry Cunliffe's lavishly illustrated new "Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC--AD 1000" (Yale, 518 pp) looks promising. Who'd expect a bronze Buddha to show up at HelgĂś, Sweden, maybe in the seventh century? Posted by: Dave Martin | June 25, 2009 at 11:32 PM On the good news side, Easterbrook is no longer at Brookings (fired?). In a century or two, Brookings can live down its hiring decision. Posted by: Brian Schmidt | June 26, 2009 at 08:52 AM Diamond also pointed out that the great extent of Eurasia plus Africa meant more exchange of diseases, creating immunities that helped Europeans (and Africans) to take over the Western Hemisphere demographically. That may have been what Easterbrook was thinking of. But of course it doesn't explain the European dominance over the rest of Eurasia/Africa. Posted by: Spencer | June 26, 2009 at 12:51 PM You could conceivably call it luck... [You can call it luck, but you cannot call it "quintessentially postmodern... not culture or brainpower." Luck got some people into environments where they could use their brainpower, pool their brainpower, and advance their culture most rapidly. Easterbrook's opposition of "luck" to "culture and brainpower" is, I think, the most offensive and stupid thing in his review.] ...since certain groups of people arrived in certain areas that were more or less beneficial to preindustrial development, large-scale agriculture, and physical, political, and economic integration. Diamond's basic point is that, barring one-time luck events, if you swapped the North and South Americans for the Europeans and Africas at 10,000 B.C. (before agriculture), the same factors would assist the replacement cultures in the same way that they helped the actual cultures. Posted by: Brett | June 27, 2009 at 09:38 AM
Verify your Comment Previewing your Comment Posted by: | This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted. Post
Edit
Your comment could not be posted. Error type: Your comment has been posted. Post another comment The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again. As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments. Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate. Continue
Me:
Economists:
Juicebox Mafia: Moral Philosophers:
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/06/hoisted-from-the-archives-yet‌brook-train-wreck-why-oh-why-cant-we-have-a-better-press-corps.html
Page 3 of 4
Hoisted from the Archives; Yet Another Gregg Easterbrook Train Wreck (Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps?)
Paul Krugman Mark Thoma Cowen and Tabarrok Chinn and Hamilton Brad Setser
Ezra Klein Matthew Yglesias Spencer Ackerman Dana Goldstein Dan Froomkin
6/29/09 11:55 AM
Philosophers: Hilzoy and Friends Crooked Timber of Humanity Mark Kleiman and Friends Eric Rauchway and Friends John Holbo and Friends
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/06/hoisted-from-the-archives-yet…brook-train-wreck-why-oh-why-cant-we-have-a-better-press-corps.html
Page 4 of 4