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The Age of Extremism: The Enemies of Compromise in American Politics, Culture, and Race Relations, by James Gardner (Birch Lane, 240 pp., $21.95)

“IT WILL not,” writes James Gardner, “be obvious to everyone why O. J. Simpson’s name should appear at the head of a chapter that touches upon Darwinism, the Holocaust, and French post-structuralist philosophy.” Quite. But, as The Age of Extremism makes clear, we live in an age of doubt. If nothing can be proved absolutely, then nothing can be absolutely true. But this is a flawed skepticism, one that paves the way for extremism. For, as Mr. Gardner explains, its corollary is a willingness to believe anything—”as long as it is at variance with received opinion or unadorned common sense.” The Holocaust never happened, O.J. is innocent, and the world was put together in seven days. The French post-structuralist? Oh, he believes the Gulf War never really took place.

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Andrew Stuttaford

Andrew Stuttaford is the editor of National Review's Capital Matters.

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The Age of Extremism: The Enemies of Compromise in American Politics, Culture, and Race Relations, by James Gardner (Birch Lane, 240 pp., $21.95)

“IT WILL not,” writes James Gardner, “be obvious to everyone why O. J. Simpson’s name should appear at the head of a chapter that touches upon Darwinism, the Holocaust, and French post-structuralist philosophy.” Quite. But, as The Age of Extremism makes clear, we live in an age of doubt. If nothing can be proved absolutely, then nothing can be absolutely true. But this is a flawed skepticism, one that paves the way for extremism. For, as Mr. Gardner explains, its corollary is a willingness to believe anything—”as long as it is at variance with received opinion or unadorned common sense.” The Holocaust never happened, O.J. is innocent, and the world was put together in seven days. The French post-structuralist? Oh, he believes the Gulf War never really took place.