Review by Choice Review
Written in a free-floating and seemingly disconnected postmodern style, this book is held together by the message that one should enjoy the freedoms, ambivalence, and ambiguity of the postmodern condition. Individuals living in Western, postmodern societies are liquefied, flowing, dispersed, and scattered in their self-image, feelings about global order and chaos, and feelings of security. Social institutions have changed in how they assess and socialize the way people think. The function of education is no longer to transmit a common body of knowledge, but to prepare students in some vague, open-ended way for constant changes in life. Instant gratification is the rule in all aspects of social life. Sex is no longer linked to procreation or even genital intimacy. Bauman (emer., sociology, Univ. of Leeds) writes more clearly than other postmodernists such as Jean Baudrillard or Richard Rorty, but the arguments are similar. Seeking to convince readers to be comfortable in the face of all the insecurity that he describes, Bauman stands in sharp contrast to Anthony Giddens in The Consequences of Modernity (CH, Nov'90), wherein Giddens argues that despite rapid social changes, individuals can still find security, truth, and meaning in Western societies. This provocative, interesting, and engaging book is recommended for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. No bibliography, limited endnotes. S. G. Mestrovic Texas A&M University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
