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hlouie's review
4.0
I read this with a book club and it's the second book of Todd's that I've read. I do recommend that before you read this book to know a bit about psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. The people who struggled the most with the book either didn't know enough about psychoanalysis, or completely disagreed with psychoanalysis all together. A little knowledge of philosophy (such at Kant's notion of sublime referenced in Chapter 10) is helpful as well.
All that to say, I did enjoy the book and it made me think about capitalism from a very different perspective: what is the free market doing to our unconscious drives and how we feel satisfaction. This is not an economics book, nor one that stays on the psychological surface. In a sense, McGowan notes the genius of capitalism and how it works psychically on us, and why all the past critiques (including Marx) don't hold up. By noting how well capitalism works, McGowan begins to search out some of its holes within the system and within us. Overall, it contained some very interesting theories that I will keep in my mind as I search out the next commodity to purchase.
All that to say, I did enjoy the book and it made me think about capitalism from a very different perspective: what is the free market doing to our unconscious drives and how we feel satisfaction. This is not an economics book, nor one that stays on the psychological surface. In a sense, McGowan notes the genius of capitalism and how it works psychically on us, and why all the past critiques (including Marx) don't hold up. By noting how well capitalism works, McGowan begins to search out some of its holes within the system and within us. Overall, it contained some very interesting theories that I will keep in my mind as I search out the next commodity to purchase.
niniane's review
informative
inspiring
5.0
An inspiring, fascinating book. I am enthralled by the author's insights. Highlights below:
Ancient societies had sacrifice to gods. We still have sacrifice. Laborers sacrifice their time to make frivolous products. Wealthy people sacrifice their time to keep working to add to their more-than-ample stash. People sacrifice their hard-earned money to buy things they don't need.
Sacrifice is what makes objects meaningful. Lace made with labor is valued. A beautiful flower growing by the side of the road isn't valued.
People are stressed about having to choose what they want to do. True freedom is scary. So they rely on figuring out what others want. But most people don't know, so advertising steps in and convinces all of them what they want.
Capitalism is always focusing us on the eventual goal, the end rather than the journey. If we fantasize that we can replace that with a different goal, that's still just another way to live in the future. If we instead live in the present and enjoy the process without any hope towards an eventual goal, that liberates us. An example would be meeting people for enjoyment in the moment (the journey), versus with a goal of getting married by a specific time and having kids and then buying a house (focusing on a future end state).
We fall in love because we cannot truly understand everything about our loved one. They become the most important person to us. This is a threat to capitalism, and capitalism transforms it into romance: flowers, chocolate, dinners, rings, trips.
Capitalism relies on us living for the future, ignoring the beauty of the everyday in hopes that one day we will have full satisfaction. The way to defeat this is to live for the moment, and see the beauty that surrounds us in the everyday.
Ancient societies had sacrifice to gods. We still have sacrifice. Laborers sacrifice their time to make frivolous products. Wealthy people sacrifice their time to keep working to add to their more-than-ample stash. People sacrifice their hard-earned money to buy things they don't need.
Sacrifice is what makes objects meaningful. Lace made with labor is valued. A beautiful flower growing by the side of the road isn't valued.
People are stressed about having to choose what they want to do. True freedom is scary. So they rely on figuring out what others want. But most people don't know, so advertising steps in and convinces all of them what they want.
Capitalism is always focusing us on the eventual goal, the end rather than the journey. If we fantasize that we can replace that with a different goal, that's still just another way to live in the future. If we instead live in the present and enjoy the process without any hope towards an eventual goal, that liberates us. An example would be meeting people for enjoyment in the moment (the journey), versus with a goal of getting married by a specific time and having kids and then buying a house (focusing on a future end state).
We fall in love because we cannot truly understand everything about our loved one. They become the most important person to us. This is a threat to capitalism, and capitalism transforms it into romance: flowers, chocolate, dinners, rings, trips.
Capitalism relies on us living for the future, ignoring the beauty of the everyday in hopes that one day we will have full satisfaction. The way to defeat this is to live for the moment, and see the beauty that surrounds us in the everyday.
three_martini_lunch's review against another edition
Plan to buy a physical copy because I was enjoying it so much, and want to take margin notes
poopdealer's review
5.0
this is the most i have ever fucked up a book with my pen. loved it. anyway, on the 96th page, 2nd paragraph, 4th sentence, 2nd word i think you meant 'difference'. now if you wanted to contact me to for the pod in return for this editing favour, my number is
raoul_g's review
5.0
Oh my God! That was one hell of a book. It also was one of the most difficult books I ever read. But, believe me, it definitely is rewarding.
What Todd McGowan set out to accomplish with this book is nothing less than to uncover the hidden driving motive of capitalism. He does this by analyzing many different aspects of capitalism from a psychoanalytical perspective, drawing heavily from Freud and Lacan. There are also many philosophical discussions which of course include Marx, but also thinkers like Hegel, Kant, Adorno and Arendt, just to name a few. Furthermore he engages with a variety of proponents of capitalism from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman, and uncovers weak points in their theories in a quite convincing manner.
For McGowan the key for understanding capitalism can be found in the second volume of Marx's Capital:
“For capitalism is already essentially abolished once we assume that it is enjoyment that is the driving motive and not enrichment itself.”
Now, the thing is that Marx does not really unpack this idea in a systematic manner. This is the task that McGowan seeks to fulfill with this book. The tool needed to unpack this idea is psychoanalysis:
"The resilience of capitalism as an economic or social form derives from its relationship to the psyche and to how subjects relate to their own satisfaction. This is why psychoanalysis is requisite for making sense of capitalism’s appeal."
McGowan goes into depth explaining concepts like desire, (dis-)satisfaction, (un-)consciousness, the lost object, the Other, fantasy, the gaze and others from a freudian/lacanian perspective and shows what role they play in capitalism.
"Capitalism has the effect of sustaining subjects in a constant state of desire. As subjects of capitalism, we are constantly on the edge of having our desire realized, but never reach the point of realization. This has the effect of producing a satisfaction that we don’t recognize as such. That is, capitalist subjects experience satisfaction itself as dissatisfying, which enables them to simultaneously enjoy themselves and believe wholeheartedly that a more complete satisfaction exists just around the corner, embodied in the newest commodity. [...] To take solace in the promise of tomorrow is to accept the sense of dissatisfaction that capitalism sells more vehemently than it sells any commodity. As long as one remains invested in the promise as such, one has already succumbed to the fundamental logic of capitalism."
Other than the first chapters which are concerned with these and other psychological aspects, some of my favorite chapters were the one in which he talks about the role sacrifice plays for obtaining satisfaction and how this manifests in capitalism, the chapter about God and how God is replaced by "the invisible hand" in capitalism, and the chapter about love. In the following, one small excerpt from each of those chapters:
"Sacrifice appears in the workers’ sacrifice of their time for the production of the commodity, which profits the capitalist in the stead of the workers. It also appears in the act of consumption, where consumers sacrifice their wealth for commodities that they don’t need. Sacrifice manifests itself in a hidden form in the production and consumption of the commodity. Rather than overcoming sacrifice, capitalism secularizes it. This is the essence of capitalism’s relation to sacrifice. [...] If anyone can obtain a product without sacrifice, it has no value for the subject... In fact, we cannot enjoy without some sacrifice—either of ourselves or of others—because sacrifice is the source of all value. We value objects through the loss that they embody. The psychic or financial cost of an object is inextricable from the worth that we assign to it."
"Freedom implies the absence of any substantial Other, the lack of guarantees to guide the subject’s choices. The free subject exists alone with its decisions, and whatever morality it adopts stems from it alone, not from God or from any authorized figure. [...] The market replaces God insofar as it tells us what we should desire. But it is an improved version of God because it permits us to retain the idea of ourselves as free beings. Whereas Christian theologians must constantly wrestle with the problem of human freedom in the face of an omnipotent God, the apologist for capitalism never confronts a similar problem because the free market incessantly assures us, even with its moniker, of our freedom. That is, the capitalist Other, unlike God, doesn’t force us to question how we could reconcile freedom and the Other’s omnipotence, and yet the market relieves us from our freedom much more effectively than God. God leaves room for doubt, whereas the market rarely does."
"Capitalist society’s packaging of love as romance aims at eliminating the disruptiveness of love while sustaining its passion. This is an impossible task, and the love of the capitalist subject is always a diminished love insofar as it’s safer. Romance under capitalism is a form of investment, and even a risky investment, as romance sometimes is, remains within the calculus of risk and loss. Love transcends any calculus and forces the subject to abandon its identity entirely, not simply stake its reputation or its fortune... The risk that occurs in love stems from the status the lover grants to the beloved. The beloved ceases to be just another object that the lover desires and takes the place of social authority itself. When I love the other, I want to count for this other more than any recognition that might come from society at large. I want to matter more than everyone else put together. For the lover, the other must value her or him not just above all else, but she or he must replace all else as the basis for the calculation of value. To put it in the terms of psychoanalysis, love demands that the little other take over the function of the big Other."
Sometimes the book gets a bit too technical (at least for me) but even when this is the case, these difficult passages are usually not too long and there are also many examples, like interesting interpretations of movies (this shows McGowan's proficiency in the domain of film theory), which make for an overall very enjoyable read.
The most important thing this book offers is a lens through which we can look at our lives and the world we are living in. It offers a way to understand and interpret much of what is going on around us and some of what is going on inside us. I have found this lens invaluable. At this point I have to issue a warning: After reading this book you might not be able to consume the way you did before and you might not be able to desire in the way you did before. And if that happens, believe me, it will be a good thing.
What Todd McGowan set out to accomplish with this book is nothing less than to uncover the hidden driving motive of capitalism. He does this by analyzing many different aspects of capitalism from a psychoanalytical perspective, drawing heavily from Freud and Lacan. There are also many philosophical discussions which of course include Marx, but also thinkers like Hegel, Kant, Adorno and Arendt, just to name a few. Furthermore he engages with a variety of proponents of capitalism from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman, and uncovers weak points in their theories in a quite convincing manner.
For McGowan the key for understanding capitalism can be found in the second volume of Marx's Capital:
“For capitalism is already essentially abolished once we assume that it is enjoyment that is the driving motive and not enrichment itself.”
Now, the thing is that Marx does not really unpack this idea in a systematic manner. This is the task that McGowan seeks to fulfill with this book. The tool needed to unpack this idea is psychoanalysis:
"The resilience of capitalism as an economic or social form derives from its relationship to the psyche and to how subjects relate to their own satisfaction. This is why psychoanalysis is requisite for making sense of capitalism’s appeal."
McGowan goes into depth explaining concepts like desire, (dis-)satisfaction, (un-)consciousness, the lost object, the Other, fantasy, the gaze and others from a freudian/lacanian perspective and shows what role they play in capitalism.
"Capitalism has the effect of sustaining subjects in a constant state of desire. As subjects of capitalism, we are constantly on the edge of having our desire realized, but never reach the point of realization. This has the effect of producing a satisfaction that we don’t recognize as such. That is, capitalist subjects experience satisfaction itself as dissatisfying, which enables them to simultaneously enjoy themselves and believe wholeheartedly that a more complete satisfaction exists just around the corner, embodied in the newest commodity. [...] To take solace in the promise of tomorrow is to accept the sense of dissatisfaction that capitalism sells more vehemently than it sells any commodity. As long as one remains invested in the promise as such, one has already succumbed to the fundamental logic of capitalism."
Other than the first chapters which are concerned with these and other psychological aspects, some of my favorite chapters were the one in which he talks about the role sacrifice plays for obtaining satisfaction and how this manifests in capitalism, the chapter about God and how God is replaced by "the invisible hand" in capitalism, and the chapter about love. In the following, one small excerpt from each of those chapters:
"Sacrifice appears in the workers’ sacrifice of their time for the production of the commodity, which profits the capitalist in the stead of the workers. It also appears in the act of consumption, where consumers sacrifice their wealth for commodities that they don’t need. Sacrifice manifests itself in a hidden form in the production and consumption of the commodity. Rather than overcoming sacrifice, capitalism secularizes it. This is the essence of capitalism’s relation to sacrifice. [...] If anyone can obtain a product without sacrifice, it has no value for the subject... In fact, we cannot enjoy without some sacrifice—either of ourselves or of others—because sacrifice is the source of all value. We value objects through the loss that they embody. The psychic or financial cost of an object is inextricable from the worth that we assign to it."
"Freedom implies the absence of any substantial Other, the lack of guarantees to guide the subject’s choices. The free subject exists alone with its decisions, and whatever morality it adopts stems from it alone, not from God or from any authorized figure. [...] The market replaces God insofar as it tells us what we should desire. But it is an improved version of God because it permits us to retain the idea of ourselves as free beings. Whereas Christian theologians must constantly wrestle with the problem of human freedom in the face of an omnipotent God, the apologist for capitalism never confronts a similar problem because the free market incessantly assures us, even with its moniker, of our freedom. That is, the capitalist Other, unlike God, doesn’t force us to question how we could reconcile freedom and the Other’s omnipotence, and yet the market relieves us from our freedom much more effectively than God. God leaves room for doubt, whereas the market rarely does."
"Capitalist society’s packaging of love as romance aims at eliminating the disruptiveness of love while sustaining its passion. This is an impossible task, and the love of the capitalist subject is always a diminished love insofar as it’s safer. Romance under capitalism is a form of investment, and even a risky investment, as romance sometimes is, remains within the calculus of risk and loss. Love transcends any calculus and forces the subject to abandon its identity entirely, not simply stake its reputation or its fortune... The risk that occurs in love stems from the status the lover grants to the beloved. The beloved ceases to be just another object that the lover desires and takes the place of social authority itself. When I love the other, I want to count for this other more than any recognition that might come from society at large. I want to matter more than everyone else put together. For the lover, the other must value her or him not just above all else, but she or he must replace all else as the basis for the calculation of value. To put it in the terms of psychoanalysis, love demands that the little other take over the function of the big Other."
Sometimes the book gets a bit too technical (at least for me) but even when this is the case, these difficult passages are usually not too long and there are also many examples, like interesting interpretations of movies (this shows McGowan's proficiency in the domain of film theory), which make for an overall very enjoyable read.
The most important thing this book offers is a lens through which we can look at our lives and the world we are living in. It offers a way to understand and interpret much of what is going on around us and some of what is going on inside us. I have found this lens invaluable. At this point I have to issue a warning: After reading this book you might not be able to consume the way you did before and you might not be able to desire in the way you did before. And if that happens, believe me, it will be a good thing.
colin_cox's review
5.0
Early in Capitalism and Desire, Todd McGowan suggests, "Capitalism has the effect of sustaining subjects in a constant state of desire...capitalist subjects experience satisfaction itself as dissatisfying, which enables them to simultaneously enjoy themselves and believe wholeheartedly that a more complete satisfaction exists just around the corner, embodied in the newest commodity" (11). Several important words and phrases in this passage reveal how McGowan thinks about the commodity and how the commodity within capitalism nurtures, as contradictory as it sounds, satisfaction and, more significantly, dissatisfaction. A word like "constant " suggests the potential impossibility of a world or state of being beyond the frustrating tension between satisfaction and dissatisfaction as expressed in the commodity form. To be clear, and McGowan emphasizes this point throughout Capitalism and Desire, it is foolish to imagine some utopia, Marxist or otherwise, beyond frustration and disappointment. Psychoanalysis argues we are creatures seeking dissatisfaction. Potentially, this is why so many people, in turn, dismiss or marginalize psychoanalysis. The question psychoanalysis demands subjects ask is this: how can and should we orient ourselves to dissatisfaction? Can subjects enjoy dissatisfaction better?
The source of McGowan's answer exists in how we relate to the commodity itself and the commodity form more broadly. From the passage I quote in the previous paragraph: "capitalist subjects experience satisfaction itself as dissatisfying, which enables them to enjoy themselves simultaneously and believe wholeheartedly that a more complete satisfaction exists just around the corner, embodied in the newest commodity" (11). This phrase "around the corner" is so critical. McGowan indicates that capitalism operates by deferring, ad infinitum, the promise of wholeness each commodity within capitalism must promise. That is to say, as capitalist consumers, we must imagine that each new commodity houses something in itself more than itself. This process is the essence of commodity fetishism, but this process is also the essence of capitalism's simultaneous satisfaction and dissatisfaction. McGowan contends that something radical would happen if we stopped imagining that the next commodity, or any commodity for that matter, possessed such power. He writes, "If we recognized that we obtained satisfaction from the failure to obtain the perfect commodity rather than from a wholly successful purchase, we would be free from the psychic appeal of capitalism" (14). And as McGowan contends, psychoanalysis has a part to play in liberating subjects from this psychic quagmire: "All that psychoanalysis can do--the extent of its intervention--is to assist the patient in recognizing its mode of repeating and the satisfaction that this repetition provides" (17).
Therefore, repetition, and understanding repetition's appeal, is McGowan's primary preoccupation in Capitalism and Desire. Capitalism offer subjects something akin to "bad repetition." That is to say, when capitalism has us, we place an outsized and destructive emphasis on the promise of the commodity. But this promise is a false promise for two key reasons: one, it obscures dissatisfaction's appeal while, two, suggesting that a single commodity (the one any subject finds themselves preoccupied with at any particular moment) will inaugurate an end to dissatisfaction. Instead, McGowan suggests we shift our understanding regarding dissatisfaction. He writes, "We invest ourselves psychically (and financially) in new commodities with the hope that they will provide the satisfaction that the previous commodity failed to provide, but no commodity can embody the lost object. Every object of desire and every commodity will fail. Capitalism thrives on this failure, and we can never escape its perpetual crises without recognizing this link. Only the turn from the logic of accumulation to the logic of satisfaction--with an acceptance of the lost status of the object--can move us beyond the crisis of capitalism" (242). McGowan's reference to "the lost object" or "objet petit a" is a crucial psychoanalytic concept. The lost object is the personification of lack within the symbolic order. Slavoj Žižek, for instance, has described the lost object as "a hole at the center of the symbolic order." While this object feels real, we must remember the lost object, objet petit a, or the object cause desire (whatever we want to call it), does not exist. This object is simply the manifestation of the lack of subjectivity.
Therefore, instead of seeking something beyond or something transcendent, we should turn our attention to the here and now. McGowan writes, "it is through the banality of the everyday, not in the promised satisfaction of the future, that one discovers the sublime" (243). Said differently, "the satisfaction of loss is our driving motive," not the promise of something beyond loss (244). Capitalism works by entrenching subjects in this bad infinite; this promise of something (i.e., the perfect commodity) beyond dissatisfaction. Furthermore, I argue we see this dynamic at play in the work of two famous musicians who both rose to varying degrees of popularity in the 1980s: Bruce Springsteen and Belinda Carlisle.
McGowan has spoken about Carlisle before. Her song "Heaven is a Place on Earth" symbolizes the radical potentiality of imagining the transcendent embedded within the banal. In the song, Carlisle says, "Heaven is a place on Earth / They say in Heaven, love comes first / We'll make Heaven a place on Earth / Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth." Carlisle rejects the conventional notion that heaven is some transcendent place beyond the triviality of daily human existence. For Carlisle, heaven is here, not out there.
By contrast, Bruce Springsteen, a musician I have nothing but unwavering affection toward, is the perfect capitalist. In so many of his songs, he encourages his listeners to reject the banality and triviality of the here and now. For Springsteen, the promise of the beyond is too enticing. For example, consider "Born to Run." Near the end of the song, arguably one of the most popular songs of the 20th century, Springsteen says, "Oh, someday girl, I don't know when / We're gonna get to that place / Where we really want to go, and we'll walk in the sun / But till then, tramps like us/ Baby, we were born to run." Contrasting Springsteen with Carlslie may help to explain why Springsteen is one of the most successful musicians ever while Carlsie, while successful, never experienced a Sprinsteenian-level of success; Carlslie's promise is a distinctly anti-capitalist promise. By contrast, Springsteen gives us precisely what capitalism gives us: the promise of a transcendent beyond, but as Springsteen suggests in "Born to Run," moving beyond is far from what the subject wants. This is why "Born to Run" ends with dissatisfaction ("Oh, someday girl, I don't know when") cloaked by a false promise of satisfaction ("We're gonna get to that place / Where we really want to go").
The source of McGowan's answer exists in how we relate to the commodity itself and the commodity form more broadly. From the passage I quote in the previous paragraph: "capitalist subjects experience satisfaction itself as dissatisfying, which enables them to enjoy themselves simultaneously and believe wholeheartedly that a more complete satisfaction exists just around the corner, embodied in the newest commodity" (11). This phrase "around the corner" is so critical. McGowan indicates that capitalism operates by deferring, ad infinitum, the promise of wholeness each commodity within capitalism must promise. That is to say, as capitalist consumers, we must imagine that each new commodity houses something in itself more than itself. This process is the essence of commodity fetishism, but this process is also the essence of capitalism's simultaneous satisfaction and dissatisfaction. McGowan contends that something radical would happen if we stopped imagining that the next commodity, or any commodity for that matter, possessed such power. He writes, "If we recognized that we obtained satisfaction from the failure to obtain the perfect commodity rather than from a wholly successful purchase, we would be free from the psychic appeal of capitalism" (14). And as McGowan contends, psychoanalysis has a part to play in liberating subjects from this psychic quagmire: "All that psychoanalysis can do--the extent of its intervention--is to assist the patient in recognizing its mode of repeating and the satisfaction that this repetition provides" (17).
Therefore, repetition, and understanding repetition's appeal, is McGowan's primary preoccupation in Capitalism and Desire. Capitalism offer subjects something akin to "bad repetition." That is to say, when capitalism has us, we place an outsized and destructive emphasis on the promise of the commodity. But this promise is a false promise for two key reasons: one, it obscures dissatisfaction's appeal while, two, suggesting that a single commodity (the one any subject finds themselves preoccupied with at any particular moment) will inaugurate an end to dissatisfaction. Instead, McGowan suggests we shift our understanding regarding dissatisfaction. He writes, "We invest ourselves psychically (and financially) in new commodities with the hope that they will provide the satisfaction that the previous commodity failed to provide, but no commodity can embody the lost object. Every object of desire and every commodity will fail. Capitalism thrives on this failure, and we can never escape its perpetual crises without recognizing this link. Only the turn from the logic of accumulation to the logic of satisfaction--with an acceptance of the lost status of the object--can move us beyond the crisis of capitalism" (242). McGowan's reference to "the lost object" or "objet petit a" is a crucial psychoanalytic concept. The lost object is the personification of lack within the symbolic order. Slavoj Žižek, for instance, has described the lost object as "a hole at the center of the symbolic order." While this object feels real, we must remember the lost object, objet petit a, or the object cause desire (whatever we want to call it), does not exist. This object is simply the manifestation of the lack of subjectivity.
Therefore, instead of seeking something beyond or something transcendent, we should turn our attention to the here and now. McGowan writes, "it is through the banality of the everyday, not in the promised satisfaction of the future, that one discovers the sublime" (243). Said differently, "the satisfaction of loss is our driving motive," not the promise of something beyond loss (244). Capitalism works by entrenching subjects in this bad infinite; this promise of something (i.e., the perfect commodity) beyond dissatisfaction. Furthermore, I argue we see this dynamic at play in the work of two famous musicians who both rose to varying degrees of popularity in the 1980s: Bruce Springsteen and Belinda Carlisle.
McGowan has spoken about Carlisle before. Her song "Heaven is a Place on Earth" symbolizes the radical potentiality of imagining the transcendent embedded within the banal. In the song, Carlisle says, "Heaven is a place on Earth / They say in Heaven, love comes first / We'll make Heaven a place on Earth / Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth." Carlisle rejects the conventional notion that heaven is some transcendent place beyond the triviality of daily human existence. For Carlisle, heaven is here, not out there.
By contrast, Bruce Springsteen, a musician I have nothing but unwavering affection toward, is the perfect capitalist. In so many of his songs, he encourages his listeners to reject the banality and triviality of the here and now. For Springsteen, the promise of the beyond is too enticing. For example, consider "Born to Run." Near the end of the song, arguably one of the most popular songs of the 20th century, Springsteen says, "Oh, someday girl, I don't know when / We're gonna get to that place / Where we really want to go, and we'll walk in the sun / But till then, tramps like us/ Baby, we were born to run." Contrasting Springsteen with Carlslie may help to explain why Springsteen is one of the most successful musicians ever while Carlsie, while successful, never experienced a Sprinsteenian-level of success; Carlslie's promise is a distinctly anti-capitalist promise. By contrast, Springsteen gives us precisely what capitalism gives us: the promise of a transcendent beyond, but as Springsteen suggests in "Born to Run," moving beyond is far from what the subject wants. This is why "Born to Run" ends with dissatisfaction ("Oh, someday girl, I don't know when") cloaked by a false promise of satisfaction ("We're gonna get to that place / Where we really want to go").
foundeasily's review
5.0
I can't say I agree with McGowan on a few key points but there is a lot to contend with here and it is a great introduction to several ideas and arguments.
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