All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty - Softcover

O'Rourke, P. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0871136112 ISBN 13: 9780871136114

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995

Synopsis

With All the Trouble in the World, P. J. O'Rourke once again landed on best-seller lists around the country, confirming his reputation as the pre-eminent political humorist of our time. Attacking fashionable worries - all those terrible problems that are constantly on our minds and in the news, but about which most of us have no real clue - P. J. crisscrosses the globe in search of solutions to today's most vexing issues, including overpopulation, famine, plague, and multiculturalism, and in the process produces a hilarious and informative book which ensures that the concept of political correctness will never be the same again. "One of the funniest, most insightful, dead-on-the-money books of the year." - Los Angeles Times; "All the Trouble in the World is O'Rourke's best work since Parliament of Whores." - The Houston Post; "The dispatches are unfailingly funny....Mr. O'Rourke gets to the heart of the matter with a steady stream of wisecracks....Economists, political scientists and sociologists are inclined to approach the ills of society with regression analysis. P. J. O'Rourke just points and laughs. Not surprisingly, it is Mr. O'Rourke who gets it right." - The Washington Times; "Bottom line: Buy the book." - The Wall Street Journal.

About this title

From Booklist

"I hear America whining," the dyspeptic O'Rourke moans; "moral buttinskis" grouch and fret about "fashionable worries" when all the world really needs is a healthy dose of "property rights, rule of law, responsible government, and universal education." The Rolling Stone columnist here explores overpopulation in Bangladesh (and Fremont, California); famine in Somalia; the environment along the Peruvian Amazon, in Eastern Europe, and at the 1992 Earth Summit; multiculturalism at his alma mater, Miami University of Ohio, and in the former Yugoslavia; plague in Haiti; and poverty in Vietnam. This self-described Republican Party reptile can still strike journalistic sparks and puncture self-serving pomposity; increasingly, however, his iconoclasm seems to be just a more entertaining version of the propaganda generated by the half-dozen market-loving Beltway think tanks listed in O'Rourke's acknowledgments. Though some passages here are as penetrating and funny as anything in O'Rourke's previous six books, the ax he has been grinding so long appears to be in danger of losing its edge. Mary Carroll

From Publishers Weekly

Political humorist O'Rourke (Give War a Chance) takes a swipe at "fashionable worries," reminding us that "This is a moment of hope in history"-no more evil empire to threaten us. His contention that this is "the best moment of all time" and the U.S. is "the best place to be" is funny mostly in one-liners and anecdotes, but his larger arguments flag: while Miami's efforts at multiculturalism are worthy of parody, a field trip to "multiculturalism in practice"-the war in Bosnia-is no real contrast. After skewering environmentalists, whom he accuses of crying wolf too often, the author visits the polluted Czech Republic to proclaim sophistically that collectivist government can't solve ecological problems. As usual, O'Rourke has a good eye for self-righteousness, but his libertarian reach exceeds his wisecracking grasp.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871136112
• ISBN 13: 9780871136114
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 340