Expansive and thought provoking ... its elegant explanation of 'Trumpism' is notable ... This work, translated from French into English, has the rare power to demand attention and encourage consideration of how the New Climatic Regime impacts the destiny of humanity. With expressive language and self-acknowledged 'deliberate bluntness,' Latour challenges conventional thought and opens a pathway to an alternative worldview. Down to Earth will leave a lasting impression on any reader who recognizes the prime importance of raising fundamental if troubling questions.
It’s fascinating to see a thinker like Latour grapple with the political moment and deploy the abstractions of his intellectual program to help clarify it. His book is a success in this regard. It’s even encouraging. Yet, for all its discussion of 'geo-social conflicts,' it cannot quite reckon with the uglier political passions and genuine hatreds that define current political dynamics, and it does not have enough to say about the absence of vital grassroots in today’s democratic landscape. Where are these locals? ... Latour’s most important contribution to current debates may be his untimely insistence on the importance of thinking universally in a post-universal world.
An illuminating and counterintuitive analysis of the present post-truth moment ... extends the sociological analysis that he brought to bear on factory workers in Abidjan and scientists in California to the minds of anti-scientific voters, looking at the ways in which the reception of seemingly universal knowledge is shaped by the values and local circumstances of those to whom it is being communicated.
Written in a distinctly Francophone intellectual style which is argumentative, provocative and at times short of empirical detail. As such, Down to Earth is rather airy in style and content, and readers might question how calls for ‘Earthliness’ materialise in practice.
