Review by Choice Review
Ignorance fills the vacuum around what is known--it has no special time or place; it is simply ubiquitous. Inspired and alarmed by the popular ignorance accompanying the 2016 American presidential election and its aftermath, Burke (emer., Univ. of Cambridge, UK) found contemporary roots in the "spectacular examples of the ignorance of presidents Trump and Bolsonaro" (p. xii). Reflecting on the historical manifestations of ignorance, Burke looks at third-century Greek skepticism as "suspending judgment until knowledge had been attained," as Sextus Empiricus prescribed (p. 19). Ignorance assumes larger dimensions in modern history as the focus moves from individuals to emerging nations. It evolves into a problem of mass psychology, whereby knowledge divides the essential and the useless, producing tunnel vision. Ignorance fills the dark side of identity issues pertaining to gender, race, religion, and class. Burke revisits the paradox of education exploding popular recognition of what people do not know. "Precarious knowledge," as argued by Martin Muslow, is that pushed to the edge of popular ignorance (p. 73). In 1920, journalist Walter Lippmann condensed ignorance as the real enemy. Burke holds readers' attention throughout this volume, in which the information flows. A joy to read. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --David Aaron Meier, Dickinson State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
