A World of Ideas II

by Bill Moyers

Another best-selling round of thought-provoking conversations with 29 men and  women whose dynamic ideas and decisions are defining the present and charting the course of tomorrow's America.



B & W photographs throughout

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Politics, Philosophy, Sociology

284 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

Billy Don Moyers was an American journalist and political commentator who served as the eleventh White House Press Secretary from 1965 to 1967. He was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1967 to 1974. He was also a onetime steering committee member of the annual Bilderberg Meeting. Moyers also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers was extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs, and won many awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities. He was well known as a trenchant critic of the corporately structured U.S. news media.

Reviews

[H (no longer expecting notifications) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Moyers has been a lauded journalist and interviewer. His interviews, in this collection, show how diverse a universe of individuals he draws from and how profound the ideas are that he is drawing out for his audience.

This collection includes writer Maxine Hong Kingston; bioethicist Ruth Macklin; physicist Murray Gell-Mann; environmentalist Lester Brown; and, journalist William Shirer. There is some grouping of the 29 interviews included as follows:
Imagining Ourselves
Imagining Others
Facing Each Other
Facing the World
Looking Ahead
Looking Back
Looking Within

These transcripts of the interviews from his Public Broadcasting Service programs are still valuable. Some topics have become more important while others have aged but are still relevant. Some, such as the interview with Patricia Smith Churchland, show the start of a field of interest that has made great advancements and is now known as cognitive science.

I am not yet ready to let go of this volume.

[Ranjit Kunwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

not bad

[David Bonesteel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a companion volume to his PBS series of the early 90s, journalist Bill Moyers published this collection of 29 interviews with intellectuals who contribute their insights on American society and its future. This book is consistently fascinating but the highlights for me were probably historian William Shirer and authors Richard Rodriguez and Toni Morrison. Moyers is skilled at engaging with these thinkers. Speaking soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the birth of numerous Eastern European democracies, there is often a note of optimism in these discussions that some sort of awakening has begun to take place in the world. It is disheartening to stand this optimism up against the world situation in 2013, when we are engaged in a truly frightening clash between cultures that appears to be capable of escalating into a truly cataclysmic disaster.

[David B · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a companion volume to his PBS series of the early 90s, journalist Bill Moyers published this collection of 29 interviews with intellectuals who contribute their insights on American society and its future. This book is consistently fascinating but the highlights for me were probably historian William Shirer and authors Richard Rodriguez and Toni Morrison. Moyers is skilled at engaging with these thinkers. Speaking soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the birth of numerous Eastern European democracies, there is often a note of optimism in these discussions that some sort of awakening has begun to take place in the world. It is disheartening to stand this optimism up against the world situation in 2014, when we are engaged in a truly frightening clash between cultures that appears capable of escalating into a cataclysmic disaster, and Cold War antagonisms are rearing their ugly heads...

[Will Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sequel was not quite as interesting to me as its predecessor.

Both are somewhat dated (this one was published in the early 1990's), but the sequel was organized differently, with seemingly a greater emphasis on the arts than science. To me, the focus seemed too narrow, especially for a book with such a grand title.

Or perhaps I had just had my fill of dated interviews in the first volume, for I found myself easily skimming and even skipping large swatches of this batch of transcripted conversations.

In other words...

...this "World of Ideas" seemed more like a quaint, old neighborhood.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting.