This is not a good book, if by good you mean the kind of book in which the authors have . . . But it is a very good bad book. It's stuffed with interesting nuggets. Lewis has given us Du Bois's life in all its multiple facets and ideological complexities. Gilder should stick to technology. . . .
Gilder does deliver a good sermon.
There is no odyssey here, no journey. From Third World to First. One can disagree with him, but intolerance and authoritarianism have never had so articulate or stimulating a spokesman. These are rich memoirs . . . The considerable power of the book lies in part in the sustained local verve of the writing . . .