Rediscovering America's values

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A leading activist in the fight against world hunger, Lappe ( Diet for a Small Planet ) here envisions a more democratic economy, one in which big corporations would be responsive to community needs, while workers would win decision-making power in their companies. She asserts that society's failure to tend to the welfare of all citizens has led to ``damage control'': belated, ineffectual efforts to salvage or warehouse people. She favors a ceiling on wealth accumulation, affirmative action for groups hurt by discrimination and the creation of media channels free from control by corporations or other vested interests. Lappe's proposals are presented in the form of a sometimes windy philosophical dialogue between herself and a more conservative, imaginary other, who represents what she misleadingly terms the ``liberal worldview.'' Yet her brave, challenging essay is valuable for its power to encourage people to assess the kind of society we now haveand to envision alternative scenarios for the future. Author tour. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Lappe, well known for her writings on world hunger ( Diet for a Small Planet , Ballantine, 1975. rev.ed.) constructs an ``imaginary dialogue'' between classic liberal dogma, represented by thinkers ranging from Hobbes and Bentham to Hayek and Milton Friedman, and her own ``alternative perspective'' that articulates new social, political, economic, and moral imperatives. The dialogue explores some of the central concepts and questions of our time--freedom, democracy, capitalism, wealth, poverty, equal opportunity--in an effort to find ``shared values fit for the twenty-first century.'' Intellectually provocative and presented in a manner accessible to educated adults, this serious book demands serious readers.-- Kenneth F. Kister, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, Fla.