Bob Goudzwaard

The authors of “Beyond the Modern Age” offer perspicuous critiques on the edifices and ashes of modernity. The treatises being put forward in the book, at the cultural and economic level, are at once ambitious, generous, and hope-filled. With the manifold societal crises facing the world today, one would long that their message is heeded by more, especially those who wield public power.

A drawback in the middle section (Part Two) mars the book’s eloquence, though. There, the authors show more include extensive quotations from works of Philip Rieff, René Girard, et al. These quotes are made at length but, given the philosophical nature, are still extracted from their own contexts. Meanwhile, the authors spend not adequate efforts interacting with what they have quoted and thus blurring the overall message they want to convey.

All in all, an important alternative vision to human future and a refreshing antidote to the profusion of monotonous economic discourses. show less

Although this book and some of its statistics are now dated, the message and the call is still quite relevant. It would be great if an updated version of this book would be written.

Beyond Poverty and Affluence makes an urgent appeal for a bold new economic practice. In the face of distressing societal realities - poverty, pollution and environmental degradation, ongoing losses in both the quantity and the quality of work - eminent Dutch economists Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange argue that the foundations of our local, national, and international economic order need renewal, and they provide a provocative twelve-step program for economic recovery based on an "economy show more of care" for the earth and its people. show less