Excellent criticism

I have just passed a pleasant few hours introducing myself to some of the work of Steven Sherman, a sociologist and prolific reviewer of left-leaning books.

His insightful reviews are all over the Web, including the Monthly Review, Counterpunch and the scholarly "Journal of World Systems Research." (That last one calls for further perusal.)

Fortunately, these, along with reviews by other writers and interviews, are collected at Left Eye on Books, my new favorite Web site.

I became aware of Sherman when he responded to a comment I had left at Monthly Review's Web site, under the pseudonym "American Atheist," in response to an article by Jean Bricmont. In his response to my posting, I appreciated the straightforward way Sherman set me straight on the voting patterns of lower class Americans and the political characteristics of Christian Fundamentalism. Moreover, he expressed an agreeably moderate view toward religion in general.

I googled him and came up with a forward-looking (prescient?) piece from March discussing the challenges and opportunities for the left in the event of an Obama victory. Along with calling for wealth redistribution, investments in public infrastructure and a reduction in military spending, he outlines a strategy for these changes by forging a viable left coalition. (He also does the best job I've seen so far of laying out the contradictions in Obama's coalition.)

Impressed, I kept looking and found his book-review website, and I was hooked. I enjoyed his reviews of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine and Chomsky's Failed States, among others. I am always looking for intelligent criticism of works like these from the left. Sherman is fair, intelligent, coherent, and tough. He doesn't take it easy on iconic authors when he thinks they're wrong -- or just boring. On Chomsky:

If urging him to look more closely at these factors seems like unfairly telling him to write a different book, one may well ask why he has insisted on continuing to write the same book over and over.

I love the Chomsky, but I had to laugh in agreement when I read this.