Week 6 Reading: Kysar on Climate Change Controversies
Anjali Motgi
Hi PSWers,
Happy Friday! Attached please find the reading for next week’s workshop, a book review by Deputy Dean Doug Kysar titled “The Consultant’s Republic.” This is a piece that Professor Kysar published a couple years ago on the state of the environmental movement, using a controversial book by William Nordhaus & Mchael Shellenberger as a framing device. Professor Kysar has never been able to present the piece and has always wanted to have an opportunity to discuss the issues it raises. He feels—rightly—that the piece fits quite well with the goals of the progressive scholarship workshop, and is really excited to be presenting next week!
For those of you who’d like to get situated in the relevant academic dialogue a bit before jumping into Kysar’s contribution to it, it’s worth noting that Nordhaus is a vocal and controversial figure in the academic climate change community. See his much-discussed piece from March in the New York Review of Books here and the dialogue it sparked among his colleagues here and here.
Professor Kysar has also agreed to discuss not only the merits of Nordhaus & Shellenberger's interesting claims about environmentalism--and his critique of their alternative--but also how book reviews can be effective vehicles for advancing scholarly discussion on a particular topic. This is our second book review of the term, and in light of recent efforts by YLJ and a number of other journals to increase avenues for shorter-form student scholarship, Professor Kysar thought it might be nice to share some strategies that he’s found successful when writing book reviews. Time is always limited, of course, but hopefully we’ll get to chat about both the substance of this piece as well as the art of crafting a valuable review.
Have a lovely weekend,
Anjali
Anjali Motgi