The time: 2000 to 2005, the years of neoconservatism, terrorism,\nthe twenty-four-hour news cycle, the ascension of Bush, Blair, and\nBerlusconi, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Umberto\nEco’s response is a provocative, passionate, and witty series of\nessays—which originally appeared in the Italian newspapers La\nRepubblica and L’Espresso—that leaves no slogan unexamined, no\ninnovation unexposed. What led us into this age of hot wars and\nmedia populism, and how was it sold to us as progress? Eco\ndiscusses such topics as racism, mythology, the European Union,\nrhetoric, the Middle East, technology, September 11, medieval\nLatin, television ads, globalization, Harry Potter, anti-Semitism,\nlogic, the Tower of Babel, intelligent design, Italian street\ndemonstrations, fundamentalism, The Da Vinci Code, and magic and\nmagical thinking.

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