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Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I'm aware (quite well, as I know someone who's worked with him) of Ferguson's shortcomings. But I think you're a bit harsh here. He does have respected works in his canon. It's his later stuff that lacks underpinning and seems designed for middle minded readers.
And he is an insightful guest on various podcasts and programs. There's a mind willing to admit the other side's points there, unlike D'Souza, who seems pathologically unhinged and rabid toward Obama.
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I haven't made it past the first chapter of any of his books, because by then I felt like I'd gotten his point and he was just repeating himself.
Some of that may be the choice to write pop history instead of academic works, but some of it is just an inherent laziness and unwillingness to dig deep.
As to insightful guest - meh. He's someone you can have a drink with or eat a meal with, but he wilts quickly under questions from someone better versed in the subject matter he is dealing with. He would have ranked in the bottom 10% of my profs in college. He could have taught the jock classes.
When I was a young 'un, we thrilled at the debates, both public and private, between Edward Said and Bernard Lewis - there was a conservative who dug deep, who did his reading (even if he did stop visiting the Middle East after a spell). Edward Said has 1000 successors in today's academe - Bernard Lewis just two or three.
