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themorsecode's review
3.0
A short yet wide-ranging book, essentially an approachable primer on Cultural Hegemony. Found it a little too scattergun and it did feel like a collection of loosely linked essays (with some lax referencing at times) rather than a tightly structured thesis. The introduction and conclusion were strong though, and it's worth reading for anyone new to the concept of hegemony.
yourfriendtorie's review
2.0
This would be a pretty good book for folks who are not familiar with concepts like cultural imperialism, cultural relativism, the hegemonic function of culture and its various racist, sexist, homophobic, classist, imperialist, and consumerist constructs. Michael Parenti is a Marxist and definitely writes like one. His rhetoric reads like it's straight out of "Revolutionary Worker." He also cites almost no primary sources, so the book comes off reading like an extended op-ed piece. He identifies and analyzes very important, basic stuff; but again, this is really for folks who are relatively new to critically thinking about different agendas at work in the name of "culture."
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