Book Review: In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell

This collection of Russell contains different essays on social questions in which he scrutinizes many aspects of modern life. Spread over fifteen chapters, Russell makes interesting points, some of which I mention in this book review. 

Russell believes that formerly there was 'a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency' (p. 22). He also says that the more we know the more harm we can do each other (p. 151). Regarding fruits he adds that apricots and peaches were first cultivated in China (p. 35).

Writing about America Russell states that America is a man-made world; moreover it is a world which man has made by means of machinery (p. 143). In America 'educational commissions point out that fifteen hundred words are all that most people employ in business correspondence, and therefore suggest that all others should be avoided in the school curriculum' (p. 29).

Russell stresses on the need to introduce a communal element into architecture (p. 44). He further adds in the same chapter, that it is marriage and the family that introduce the instinct of privacy (p. 47). Russel enforces that the world needs two things. One is socialism and the other one is peace. Both are contrary to the interest of the most powerful men of our time (p. 80). He claims that in Germany and Italy Fascism arose out of Socialism, by rejecting whatever was anti-nationalistic in the orthodox program (p. 86).

Russell says that many modern inventions tend to make people silly (p. 136). He further says that 'the effect of mass production and elementary education is that stupidity is more firmly entrenched than at any other time since the rise of civilization' (p. 138). Russell writes that uniformity in matters of  thought and opinion is much more dangerous (p. 144). Regarding writers that author is of the view that it requires 'unusual firmness of character to produce good work and remain poor' (p. 106).

Russel also states that 'science and industrialism are nowadays the distinctive marks of western civilization' (p. 120). Russell says that he is afraid that Europe, however intelligent, has always been rather horrid, except in the brief period between 1848 and 1914 (p. 131). 

Overall in the book the author writes about superstition, power, economics, common characteristics of fascism, industrialism, war, socialism, skepticism, belief, civilization, science, peace, cinema, language, power, modernity, and many other ideas.