I just feel like it’s hard to come away with much of long-term value. I sort of nod along as I read thinking, “That’s plausible,” and that’s about it. (To be concrete: I make Anki cards for most nonfiction I read and I’ve only made around 1o or 12 across 200 pages which is way fewer than normal for me.) I think I generally want my non-fiction to have at least one of:
Solid empirical findings (i.e. widely and repeatedly attested within the field)
Falsifiable models with some explanatory depth (i.e. not just mindless curve fitting or a listing of all possible causal factors)
Insightful conceptual analysis (e.g. mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive taxonomies)
Regarding 1, several empirical studies are mentioned but they don’t seem to add up to a coherent or even non-contradictory whole.
There’s basically none of 2.
The book is probably closest to achieving number 3, but still not great. I would have liked, for example, if they talked about why the classic agenda of “collective action frames”, “mobilizing structures”, and “political opportunities” is a better organizational scheme than the alternatives.
The book also focuses more on apportioning credit and on the history of the thinking in the field than I’d prefer.
All that said, I understand different readers are looking for different things.
Why have you found it underwhelming?
I just feel like it’s hard to come away with much of long-term value. I sort of nod along as I read thinking, “That’s plausible,” and that’s about it. (To be concrete: I make Anki cards for most nonfiction I read and I’ve only made around 1o or 12 across 200 pages which is way fewer than normal for me.) I think I generally want my non-fiction to have at least one of:
Solid empirical findings (i.e. widely and repeatedly attested within the field)
Falsifiable models with some explanatory depth (i.e. not just mindless curve fitting or a listing of all possible causal factors)
Insightful conceptual analysis (e.g. mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive taxonomies)
Regarding 1, several empirical studies are mentioned but they don’t seem to add up to a coherent or even non-contradictory whole.
There’s basically none of 2.
The book is probably closest to achieving number 3, but still not great. I would have liked, for example, if they talked about why the classic agenda of “collective action frames”, “mobilizing structures”, and “political opportunities” is a better organizational scheme than the alternatives.
The book also focuses more on apportioning credit and on the history of the thinking in the field than I’d prefer.
All that said, I understand different readers are looking for different things.