Part of the Casswiki article series Books
In the Name of Sanity is a book by historian Lewis Mumford, first published in 1954.
This book is a collection of essays/lectures, and as he wrote on the first page, “the aim of this book is to give fresh insight - and with that insight hope and courage - to those who are disquieted by the violence and irrationality of our times”. There are nine chapters, with parts of them were written before 1950s. Before the cold war broken out, the author was describing the foundations of the war and the issues surrounding it with brief discussions and comparisons with the previous wars and the severe consequences for the humanity at large.
The author also discusses the coming of the times of hate, violence, fears, and most of all, irrationality, which are quite fitting for our present times. He implores us, the reader, to come to our senses during a time of “irrational violence” and strongly suggested to us to utilize the “techniques of Creativity” for national security, which had been relying so much on those disintegrating forces, before it’s too late. Humanity, as the author points out, is heading to its own destruction as long as people paying attention to “less important things” like wars, atom bombs, violence, fears, - all that contributes to one’s disintegration and dehumanization. In order to unite “men,” he illustrated an action begins with “conversations” at the lowest level and then out to the humanity at large.
From Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s review on Amazon:
Parts of this book were written in 1946 just as the world was emerging from the insanity of the second World War. What Mumford described was, basically, the foundations of the ensuing cold war. It’s chilling to realize that what he predicted did happen, and even more chilling to see how his predictions have played out in 9-11 and everything that has happened since then.
Mumford was very concerned about the planet and humanity at a time when very few other people had the same vision that he did. He wrote about the coming of an era of hate, fear, suspicion and violence which is most certainly the norm of our present day in almost the exact terms he predicted.
Mumford’s primary concern was that humanity has come to rely on aggression for national security instead of making peace and helping others and accepting a multi-cultural world. He saw clearly that we were becoming the barbarians we think are “over there” somewhere else, that we need to control or destroy.
A timeless and timely book, simply and eloquently argued; a must read for everyone.