Reviews
PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "The spirit of enlightenment breathes through the writings of Umberto Eco . . . [he] is an urbane, genial writer who brings calmness and clarity to every subject he treats." -- Los Angeles Times "Eco's double life as a theorist of communication and a practitioner of fiction makes him exceptionally well suited to entertain and inform . . . Eco is a master of saying what it is we can, with confidence, say, and he says it wonderfully." -- San Francisco Chronicle, PRAISE FOR TURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . . Turning Back the Clock is among the season's sprightlier works of nonfiction." --The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."-- Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."-- The Atlantic Monthly, PRAISE FOR TURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . . Turning Back the Clock is among the season's sprightlier works of nonfiction." --The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."-- Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."-- The Atlantic Monthly, PRAISE FOR TURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . . Turning Back the Clock is among the seasone(tm)s sprightlier works of nonfiction." --The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."-- Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."-- The Atlantic Monthly, PRAISE FOR TURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . . Turning Back the Clock is among the season's sprightlier works of nonfiction." --The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."-- Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."-- The Atlantic Monthly, PRAISE FORTURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . .Turning Back the Clockis among the season's sprightlier works of nonfiction."-The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."--Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."--The Atlantic Monthly, PRAISE FOR TURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . . Turning Back the Clock is among the season's sprightlier works of nonfiction." —The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."-- Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."-- The Atlantic Monthly, PRAISE FOR TURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . . Turning Back the Clock is among the season's sprightlier works of nonfiction." -The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."-- Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."-- The Atlantic Monthly, PRAISE FOR TURNING BACK THE CLOCK "A collection of charming, bite-size missives . . . Turning Back the Clock is among the season's sprightlier works of nonfiction." -The New York Observer PRAISE FOR UMBERTO ECO "One of the most influential thinkers of our time."-- Los Angeles Times "Eco combines scholarship with a love of paradox and a quirky, sometimes outrageous, sense of humor."-- The Atlantic Monthly
Table of Content
Contents Steps Back 1 I. War, Peace, and Other Matters Some Reflections on War and Peace 9 Love America and March for Peace 31 The Prospects for Europe 37 The Wolf and the Lamb: The Rhetoric of Oppression 44 Enlightenment and Common Sense 66 From Play to Carnival 71 The Loss of Privacy 77 On Political Correctness 89 On Private Schools 97 Science, Technology, and Magic 103 II. Chronicles of a Regime For Whom the Bell Tolls: A 2001 Appeal for a Moral Referendum 115 The 2001 Electoral Campaign and Veteran Communist Strategy 121 On Mass Media Populism 128 Foreigners and Us 157 Revisiting History 166 The Revolt Against the Law 180 Pasta Cunegonda 190 Chronicles of the Late Empire 195 III. The Return of the Great Game Between Dr. Watson and Lawrence of Arabia 201 Words Are Stones 214 Back to the Seventies 224 Kamikazes and Assassins 229 IV. The Return of the Crusades Holy Wars, Passion, and Religion 235 Negotiating in a Multiethnic Society 247 The Taking of Jerusalem: An Eyewitness Report 253 Beauty Queens, Fundamentalists, and Lepers 260 What Are We to Do with the Pre-Adamites? 263 V. The Summa and the Rest The Roots of Europe 269 The Crucifix, Its Uses and Customs 272 On the Soul of the Embryo 277 Chance and Intelligent Design 281 Hands off My Son! 284 Those Who Don''t Believe in God Believe in Everything 288 Relativism? 309 VI. The Defense of the Race Are the Italians Anti-Semites? 313 The Plot 317 Some of My Best Friends 320 Some of Her Best Friends 323 VII. The Twilight of the New Millennium A Dream 329 On the Shoulders of Giants 334 On the Disadvantages and Advantages of Death 355 Index 363
