The World Beyond Your Head

Starred review from December 15, 2014
Crawford (Shop Class as Soulcraft) is deeply interested in how one masters one’s own mind, especially in a time of information overload and constant distraction provided by technology. In a manner similar to Malcolm Gladwell, this brilliant work looks at individuals from varied walks of life, including hockey players and short-order cooks, to focus on the theme of how important (and difficult) it is to truly pay attention in our noisy, busy world. Crawford’s sources, ranging from the philosophy of Kant to testimony from gambling addicts, might seem too disparate to ever cohere, yet he synthesizes them with skill. The result will force readers to dig deeply into their own “metacognition” (thinking about thinking). Beyond individual experiences, the book traces Western thought from the Enlightenment to contemporary times, persuasively arguing that much of our thinking about individuality and cognition is, simply put, wrong. Crawford’s arguments can be dense at times, but they are not meant to be digested in pull quotes. Readers will feel rewarded for spending the time with a text this rich in excellent research, argument, and prose. Agent: Tina Bennett, WME.

December 15, 2014
A philosopher mounts a polemic against self-absorption, subjectivism and conformity. In this astute, acerbic cultural critique, political philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Crawford, senior fellow at the University of Virginia Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, focuses on what he sees as a philosophical, social and psychological crisis: individuals' assiduous distraction from engagement in "the shared world." Drawing on a wide range of thinkers, including Descartes, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Kant, Alfred Kinsey and Sherry Turkle, Crawford argues that contemporary culture has been undermined by an Enlightenment notion of autonomy, which takes "an intransigent stance against the authority of other people," even other people's notions of reality. This view, however, is complicated by many individuals' desire to see themselves as representative and conform to "the wisdom of the crowd." The author excoriates commercialism, and he maintains that choice is not synonymous with freedom. Individuals, after all, choose only among offerings of manipulative corporations, acting out of greed in a so-called free market. "We take the 'preferences' of the individual to be sacred, the mysterious welling up of his authentic self," writes the author, "and therefore unavailable for rational scrutiny." True freedom requires that "the actor is in touch with the world and other people, in comparison to which the autistic pseudo-autonomy of manufactured experiences is revealed as a pale substitute." As in his earlier book, Shop Class as Soulcraft (2009), Crawford celebrates productive work and craftsmanship by carpenters, mechanics, plumbers and organ makers: Learning a skill and honing a craft, he believes, affords individuals a chance to connect knowledge to "the pragmatic setting in which its value becomes apparent" and to contribute to a shared reality. Occasionally ponderous and strident, Crawford's argument is both timely and passionate.

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Starred review from February 15, 2015

Crawford (senior fellow, Univ. of Virginia's Inst. for Advanced Studies in Culture; Shop Class as Soul Craft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work) here takes a unique look at attention, positing that it is a commodity. He sets out to establish that in a world of increasingly pervasive distractions, individualism can only be attained through focus. Crawford uses examples of skilled labor and craftsmanship to explain how people can gain back some of their lost autonomy (a word he works over quite thoroughly) through concentration. He explains his theories well, with strong writing and citations, and the resulting argument is fresh and extremely enlightening. What is most satisfying is that technology is not blamed for the modern deluge of distractions--it is discussed as the cumulative effect of a number of influences found within Western culture. VERDICT This illuminating work will appeal to students of philosophy and sociology, as well as fans of good cultural analysis. [See Prepub Alert, 9/29/14.]--Matthew Gallagher, Victoria, BC

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2015
In the gambling addict, dead broke at the slot machine, Crawford finds the surprising terminus of a way of thinking traceable to Descartes, Kant, and Locke. These iconic thinkers enshrined at the very center of Western philosophy a ceaseless concern for the autonomy of the individual, untrammeled by authority or tradition. The boundless emancipatory project legitimated by this perspective, Crawford argues, has actually undermined authentic autonomy by fostering an anxious fixation on the self. This fixation, readers learn, subverts truly liberating mastery of real-world skills and sabotages genuine human individuation within a healthy community. Extending themes of his acclaimed Shop Class as Soulcraft (2009), Crawford shows how the short-order cook, the welder, the carpenter, the pipe-organ builder all achieve a free individuality by submitting to the authority of mentors who discipline their minds for full engagement with the complexities of the external environment. Those who never mature into this valid individuality, Crawford warns, disappear into a distracted crowd of mindless consumers unable to recognize the distinctions that sustain a vibrant democracy. Worse, such stunted psyches are easy prey for the corporate strategists who hide their predations behind the faux freedoms of the shopping centerand the casino. A cultural inquiry of rare substance and insight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)