Ron Theodore Robin

I found this to be a rather odd little book as the author's unique point is to examine the Wohlstetters as an intellectual unit, in as much as the sanitized record allows, before moving on to a systematic take-down of some of the couple's more aggravating disciples; individuals such as Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad & Richard Pearle. At the end this is a story about how the most rarefied of rich-kid radicals eventually reinvented themselves as ideologues of American empire and one does show more have to wonder how much of their intellectual achievement really has stood up to the test of time, rather than merely being an artifact of a brief moment in history; Robin certainly doesn't make an effort to disguise his doubts, and this is a man who was a serving intelligence officer in the Israeli military when the survival of that state really seemed to be on the line. show less

Mildly interesting accounts of academic scandals including Alan Sokal's Social Text hoax article, Napoleon Chagnon's questionable research among the Yanomami, and Margaret Mead's alleged falsehoods about the people of Samoa.