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"The four books in my Wanderings series contain many essays on politicized topics. I decided to collect them in one place, arranged by related subjects, covering most of the big issues of today: racism, climate change, abortion, inequality, heredity, nationalism, patriotism. I call it ""Politics,"" based on an unusual definition attributed to the late Christopher Boehm, formerly the Director of the Jane Goodall Research Center. I would clarify it by adding ""attainable"" before ""directions"" and ""rational"" before ""arguments"", making it less Utopian but also more aspirational. It seems silly to do more than dream about societies that can never exist; and we can at least hope for rational argument. I believe that these essays meet both criteria. ""[T]he essence of politics: the ability to reflect consciously on different directions one's society could take, and to make explicit arguments why it should take one path rather than another."" In May 2023, I became concerned again that I would run out of time and, frankly, was feeling worn out. So, I wrapped up my writing projects and published them. Then, during that summer, I resumed reading, then writing. The master of the book Politics became longer, as I revised and expanded it. It seems one cannot discuss politics without considering history and ideologgy. And, I felt the original title was now too narrow. Thus, I added to the title as well. With a subsequent (modest) burst of renewed energy, I continued reading, then writing, producing my fifth set of essays in my Wanderings series, which I titled Disappointments. About half of the essays involved scientific issues. So, I revised, supplemented and repackaged them into a new volume as a second addendum to Important Things We Don't Know, entitled Life, etc. Much of the remainder seemed to be useful additions to Politics, History and Ideology. While adding that material, I decided on a substantial restructuring. The essays consisting essentially of book reviews (really, critiques) have been moved to the back. I think that this change makes it much easier to follow the themes of the book and, for anyone interested, to find my comments on particular books. Here is the new, new, expanded edition, with a slightly modified title."

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Born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Northville, Michigan, John majored in economics at Amherst College (Class of 1970), graduating summa cum laude, and received his J.D., magna cum laude, from The Harvard Law School in 1973. Following law school, he did post-graduate research at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College). In late 1974, John began a 37-year career as a commercial litigator with a major law firm in New York City. He retired from the practice of law in 2011 and, shortly thereafter, located just outside of Cambridge, England. In March 2015, however, he was diagnosed with ALS. So, he returned to the U.S., settling in Alexandria, Virginia. In 2016, he finished the book on science that he had been working on during his retirement. Confined to a wheelchair in 2018, he wrote his first collection of essays, entitled Wanderings of a Captive Mind. The next set, The Eyes Have It, was written entirely using his eyes. And, so on.

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