We Built Reality: How Social Science Infiltrated Culture, Politics, and Power

Blakely puts his finger on what is false and phony in our every day lives. In our government. In our talking heads of the media. This is a great introductory work not only to learn about the paper pillars of knowledge around us, but even to start a movement to tear them down and see human reality again.

Folks, this is one of the best books in social science in 2020. Totally changes the way you see the world. Blakely has done brilliant research for years, and has distilled it down into a readable, fascinating book. I cannot recommend it more highly.

Need to read parts of book multiple times to understand the author’s points!

In just 150 pages, Blakely identifies, explains, and presents an alternative to the central assumptions and oversights of both the academic social sciences and our modern technocratic impulses. With insights equally important to the populist right as the insurgent left, Blakely synthesizes the thought of Hegel, Heidegger and Gadamer to draw what might be truly called a new paradigm- an interpretive, or perhaps even continental theory of the social sciences. This is a worthy (I would say necessary) addition to the library of any student or observer of politics, economics, or international relations brave enough to question the fundamental assumptions of their field of interest. My only gripe is that it's not longer.

Blakely is quite clear about what the opinions of social scientists have made of us (as a society) and equally clear about the slanted and negative nature of the social sciences today. He is an important contemporary voice, one that ought to be taken seriously. His call for more humanists to step up to the plate is heartfelt.

This is a straightforward explanation of how the integrity of hard science is abused in explanations of human action and culture. In its place a "scientism" continues to upstage nonscientific knowledge and wisdom. The argument here is at once deep . . . and accessible to us nonexperts, adding resonance to everyday life, and politics.