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The Assault on Reason Hardcover – Jan. 1 2007
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At the time George W. Bush ordered American forces to invade Iraq, 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio, when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush television ads that played to fears of terrorism.
We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern is this administration's disinterest in the process by which the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based reasoning-first among them an embrace of open inquiry in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions.
How did we get here? How much damage has been done to the functioning of our democracy and its role as steward of our security? Never has there been a worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment. As The Assault on Reason shows us, we have precious little time to waste.
Gore's larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason's enemies, to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future. Drawing on a life's work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking.
About the Author
Former Vice President Al Gore is chairman of Current TV, an independently owned cable and satellite television nonfiction network for young people based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. He also serves as chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing. Gore is a member of the board of directors of Apple Computer, Inc., and a senior adviser to Google, Inc. Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976 and the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years. He is the author of the bestsellers Earth in the Balance and An Inconvenient Truth. He and his wife, Tipper, live in Nashville, Tennessee. They have four children and two grandchildren.
- Print length308 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Press HC, The
- Publication dateJan. 1 2007
- Dimensions16.15 x 3.2 x 24.18 cm
- ISBN-100739484613
- ISBN-13978-7030121189
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Product details
- ASIN : 1594201226
- Publisher : Penguin Press HC, The; American First edition (Jan. 1 2007)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 308 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0739484613
- ISBN-13 : 978-7030121189
- Item weight : 567 g
- Dimensions : 16.15 x 3.2 x 24.18 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,977,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,251 in United States Politics
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Former Vice President Al Gore is co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management. He is also a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and a member of Apple, Inc.'s board of directors.
Gore spends the majority of his time as chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit devoted to solving the Climate Crisis.
Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, 1978, 1980 and 1982 and the U.S. Senate in 1984 and 1990. He was inaugurated as the forty-fifth Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1993, and served eight years. During the Administration, Gore was a central member of President Clinton's economic team. He served as President of the Senate, a Cabinet member, a member of the National Security Council and as the leader of a wide range of Administration initiatives.
He is the author of the bestsellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason, and Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. He is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary and is the co-recipient, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change."
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If you were to boil this book down into one single idea, it would be this: Absolute power corrupts absolutely and is a danger to us all. Gore takes the point of view that the Bush administration has been and is mostly about gaining and holding power in order to reward Republicans and those who pay for Republicans to be elected.
As examples, Gore cites the following evidence:
1. The administration always knew that there never was any connection between terrorist attacks and Iraq (nor any threat of weapons of mass destruction being produced in Iraq), but made invading Iraq a high priority for pursuing its oil-focused strategy of controlling the Middle East where major oil companies and contributing contractors have been rewarded.
2. The Bush administration seeks to maximize fear of terrorism to gain ever more power for itself, usually by ignoring the limits on government power in the Constitution.
3. Fund-raising for Congressional Republicans is now controlled by the White House so the administration hasn't had any oversight from either party in Congress, a sharp departure from past practices.
4. When the president signs a new piece of legislation, he almost always indicates that he won't follow the law that was enacted (this has occurred over 1000 times). As a result, President Bush operates as though he is free from any legal restraint, including treaties that the United States has signed and honored for decades.
5. The Justice Department has been used to punish political enemies rather than seeking to enforce the law in a fair way.
6. Judges (who are supposed to be independent) are threatened with violent rhetoric and having their courts discontinued while they are wooed by special interests at high-priced seminars that serve as vacations.
7. Special interests that support Republicans make all the Bush policy decisions in secret, often contrary to the best evidence of what's in the public interest.
Against this backdrop of raw political hardball, Gore points out that the electorate isn't in the ball game. Most people don't know that Congress and the courts are supposed to be a restraint on presidential power. About half the electorate still thinks Saddam Hussein was the guiding force behind the terrorist attacks on 9/11. People prefer to see news reports about celebrities than news reports about public issues. When the president sponsors legislation that says it's a "Clean Air Act" hardly anyone knows that the bill will actually make air dirtier.
What's the diagnosis?
1. Restore balance between the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government.
2. Start debating major decisions with emphasis on looking carefully at the best evidence.
3. Re-establish the rule of law.
Those ideas will be appealing to those who are deeply steeped in the history of how the U.S. government evolved. But in the last 40 years, schools have done little to teach about how government is supposed to operate. Polls show that many people favor having the government run like a CEO leads a private company, with no role for the legislators, judges, and citizens.
I think the remedy has to be a lot more fundamental, starting with recreating a consensus on what it means to be a citizen of the United States, what proper government behavior is, and what the United States wants to stand for in the world.
The book has three weaknesses that you should keep in mind when you read it:
1. There's no discussion of the inherent problems of having political parties in the government system that our founding fathers created. The original idea they had was to avoid parties. The solution lasted about as long as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were able to stay friends. Much of what Gore decries is an outgrowth of greater partisan battling. What's to stop a continuing escalation of that trend?
2. In the area of public debate, Gore relies a lot on the idea that experts usually know the answers. But that's not always true. In addition, what the experts know if often incomprehensible to everyone else. How effectively can you debate such technical issues when most government leaders were primarily trained to be lawyers and the general electorate has little technical knowledge?
3. The essence of getting elected is to create a temporary coalition of voters. Voters mostly look for "someone like me." That's a pretty big disconnect between proposing an approach to having philosopher-kings (of the sort that Plato liked to write about) who even-handedly make careful decisions that benefit everyone.
You may also find yourself wanting to snooze a bit as Gore describes brain physiology to explain why television is the guilty party for many of our anti-thinking woes.
But, all in all, this is a book that should spark a lot of public discussion. That would be good.
If you don't know much about the political theory behind our methods of governing over the last 200 years and the history of the U.S. government, this book will be even more enlightening. Gore is at his best in citing sources that capture the essence of those perspectives.
After all, the book is called 'The Assault on Reason', not 'What Dubya Got Wrong: Evil Ways, Evil Times'.
I believe that what's in the book could have been managed within a lengthy magazine article. No more.
I believe that the intent of the book was flawed, if in fact the intent was to explore 'the assault on reason'. There were myriad examples that Mr. Gore could have explored that wouldn't have had him constructing such a badly-edited invective against so easy a target.
So while I appreciated much of his insight, the book as a whole was an assault on my patience.
Personal rating: 7/10
Gore does not simplify his message or dumb-down his wording for some hypothetical "reader of average intelligence". He expects that his readers are smart, educated, and quite justified in feeling cut out of the political game as we've seen it. Of course he rips into the crimes against open debate and access to information by the Bush administration. But he does this against the backdrop of all American history, and draws heavily on other leaders from the past such as Teddy Roosevelt from 1906:
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."
Sometimes Gore seems to wish for the moral thunder of America's founders: "How long would it take James Madison to dispose of our current president's claim, in Department of Justice legal opinions, that he is largely above the rule of law so long as he is acting in his role as commander-in-chief?"
And sometimes Gore plays the card of religion as he understands it:
"Dominance is as dominance does. Dominance is not really a strategic policy or a political philosophy at all. Rather, it is a seductive illusion that tempts the powerful to satiate their hunger for still more power by striking a bargain with their consciences. And as always happens sooner or later to those who shake hands with the devil, they find out too late that what they have given up in the bargain is their own soul."
Okay, so he could use some more humor. But through it all Gore stays optimistic that the tide is turning in favor of interactive media and renewed popular debate. He sees it in the multiplication on web-based movements, the power of blogging, or experiments with two-way television systems: "We can see it happening before our eyes: As a society, we are getting smarter. Networked democracy is taking hold. You can feel it."
--author of Correcting Jesus: 2000 Years of Changing the Story
Top reviews from other countries
I must confess that I have reached a point of saturation when it comes to the corruption, mendacity and incompetence of the Bush administration and I suspect that many if not most Americans are in my same boat. Every lie, every scandal, every moronic utterance and cynical political maneuver just adds to a buzz of white noise. George W. Bush will forever be ranked near the top of the list when it comes to the worst American presidents ever. Perhaps the only thing more distressing than El Presidente Bush's limited intellect is his unshakable belief in his own infallibility. Infallibility plus shortsightedness is a recipe for disaster. When the Patriot Act was up for renewal the Bush Administration claimed that offering it up to Congress for a vote was an unnecessary formality, in fact they claimed that Bush could have originally imposed the Patriot Act with no Congressional involvement. Combine that with Bush's signing statements and Congress has become a superfluous branch of government which seems to suit Congressional Republicans just fine. Now Bush can declare people enemy combatants, remove them from the justice system and try them in secret military tribunals. Al Gore quotes James Madison who said, "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
Mr. Gore writes, "If the president has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap, and tortured, then what can't he do?" and that's a question I've often pondered. According to some of Bush's legal councils like John Yoo there literally is no limit to Bush's power. According to Yoo, Bush could legally crush the testicles of a child in order to extract information from his parent. Mr. Gore asks a terrific question, "Should we amend all of the textbooks in America to explain to schoolchildren that what has been taught for more than two centuries about checks and balances is no longer valid?" If conservatives truly believe in the Unitarian Executive then perhaps it's time to codify it by teaching our children that the Legislative and Judicial branches are intended to serve the Executive Branch regardless of the party affiliation of the president.
I greatly appreciate what Al Gore wrote although I have to confess that he can get a little long winded at points and sometimes the book descends into nothing more than a laundry list of all the ways the Bush administration sucks. The thing is when Al Gore really gets going he can knock the ball out of the park like no other. Besides some occasional flirting with censorship in the past and an absolutely horrific choice of running mate in the 2000 election Al Gore is about as good and decent as they come in politics and I support his causes 100%. This is a very good book but even more so it's a necessary book.
But unfortunately, the book is written pretty much like an oratory in a legal case. It is so repetitive, it could probably have been 100 pages less just by not repeating the words "checks and balances" all the time... I understand this is a fundamental concept in the american constitution, but come on...
It's worth reading, just that it would have quite a collection of books ahead of it, at least in my list of recommended reads.
Would like to encourage Mr Gore though, get back on it. Keep writing about interesting stuff and make next one a better read! :)
I was impressed with Gore's writing style and in awe of his brilliant understanding of the current fragile state of American democracy and how it has almost been drowned in a sea of corruption and complacency. But his intricate knowledge of history and humanity enables him to apply and heed warnings and lessons already anticipated by drawing comparisons from historic ideas and thought already conveyed and preserved in writing. I am thankful that he wrote the book and shared his perspective.
What seemed to offer some explanation of governmental mistakes made since 9/11/01 in our country was learning about the inevitable danger created when corrupt government and religion mix.
Gore quoted Thomas Jefferson stating, "Fix reason in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, He must approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." (p. 45) "All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God". (p. 46) Gore elaborated, "It is important to note that what Jefferson warned against was not faith itself--nor even organized religion itself. He was warning us against the combination of religious dogma and governmental power." (p. 47)
Gore doesn't let Jefferson off the hook either. He states, "It is also one of America's most painful ironies that Jefferson and many of our other Founders often seemed so blind to the immortality of their own participation of slavery" (p. 47). Although Gore is critical of Bush & Company throughout the book he confirms, "We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes" (p. 2).
One of the most profound statements for me was Gore's insight of the relationship between fear, reason, and faith. He states, "Fear displaces reason, reason challenges faith, faith overcomes fear" (p. 45). Gore carefully supports his arguments throughout the book about President Bush's inept ability to perform presidential duties and responsibilities.
Additionally he enlists some Republicans, "There are many people in both political parties who worry that there is something deeply troubling about President Bush's relationship to reason, his disdain for facts, and his lack of curiosity about any new information that might produce a deeper understanding of the problems and policies that he is supposed to wrestle with on behalf of the country" (p. 55).
Gore is an expert in American Government and politics, but I'm left with the distinct impression that he has not completely read the Bible nor contemplated the scriptures based on his supporting comments. I think that if he ever reads it completely, he would be disillusioned by its inherent corruption. He spends time in this book writing about radio and propaganda's roles in totalitarian regimes within fascism and Nazism, but doesn't explicitly include the affect the Bible, a printed resource, had in the role of the genocide of 6 million Jews (p. 92-93). Nor is the role that this compilation had on American slavery mentioned. Gore ironically partially quotes Isaiah 1:18 (KJV), "come let us reason together" (without ellipses) (p. 241), and finishes his conclusion with a supporting quote by Solomon (p. 271). In my humble opinion, the Bible hardly suffices to support reason, and Solomon was a slave driver. Gore's point, however, is well taken. One of the contributing factors to our complacent citizenry is that not enough people are reading and comprehending the knowledge necessary to make their own informed decisions and contribute actively in our democracy. I would recommend reading this book. (Thank you for overlooking the lack of italics and indented block quotes.)
