A good book, not a great book. There is much knowledge in here to be gleaned, and quite an excellent history of the why of American ignorance, but it plods at times and there are several 20-30 page swaths that are not easy reading. In the hands of a non-scientist or non-religious person, the information would have been easier to digest. What's interesting about that is the book explains how scientists have such a tough time explaining themselves, an ironic fault with the book itself! Surprising is a lack of hopefulness. Hopefulness would have been better. The author has much to learn about delivering a message. ( )

Good book about the debate with science. He focuses on the history of ideas, and has some interesting policy suggestions. ( )

This book is a jumbled, messy look at critical thinking and the cult of ignorance in American culture. The author seems at times to be trying for the Templeton prize, and at other times to be trying to appease everyone, and then he will turn around and say something profound and insightful. There certainly are some gems in this book, but it is trying to read, especially when the author manages to muck up the history of science early in the book by assuming that the Scopes trial represented a win for science, and not understanding that, in fact, evolution was quietly removed from science for several decades following that famous battle. Perhaps this is the reason why so many of his conclusions and proposed solutions seem forced and unintelligible, at least to someone who spends every day actually facing students in the front of a science classroom. The fact that this individual does not do that rings through every page, as he lectures scientists on how science should be taught and clearly has no clue how it is being taught. He also does not appear to have met the average American (if such an animal exists), and gets all or most of his information about this particular group from polls and internet searches. Very little of his information moves beyond anecdotal, and for the few actual facts he cites, there are multiple possible interpretations, and the one he adopts is often a stretch. Overall, a disappointing, rambling work. There are many who have covered the subject much better. ( )

Rating: 4.9* of five

The Publisher Says: "Whenever the people are well informed,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “they can be trusted with their own government.” But what happens in a world dominated by complex science? Are the people still well-enough informed to be trusted with their own government? And with less than 2 percent of Congress with any professional background in science, how can our government be trusted to lead us in the right direction?

Will the media save us? Don't count on it. In early 2008, of the 2,975 questions asked the candidates for president just six mentioned the words "global warming" or "climate change," the greatest policy challenge facing America. To put that in perspective, three questions mentioned UFOs.

Today the world’s major unsolved challenges all revolve around science. By the 2012 election cycle, at a time when science is influencing every aspect of modern life, antiscience views from climate-change denial to creationism to vaccine refusal have become mainstream.
Faced with the daunting challenges of an environment under siege, an exploding population, a falling economy and an education system slipping behind, our elected leaders are hard at work ... passing resolutions that say climate change is not real and astrology can control the weather.

Shawn Lawrence Otto has written a behind-the-scenes look at how the government, our politics, and the media prevent us from finding the real solutions we need. Fool Me Twice is the clever, outraged, and frightening account of America’s relationship with science—a relationship that is on the rocks at the very time we need it most.

My Review: The most unnerving reality in today's social, political, and educational reality is that science, which you are benefiting from this very second as you read this review on the Internet, is underfunded, undertaught, and underapprecitaed by the people of the USA and their political overlords. The reason for this is that an insane religious know-nothingism has infected the Body Politic with a conservative (in the worst possible meaning of that never good term) resistance to accepting reality as it is, instead of how one fancies it should be. This book quantifies the horrors on their way down the pike as this horrifying metastatic stupidity continues unchecked and even promoted by the small-souled fear-mongering Yahoos, in the original Swiftian sense, who shout and rail and spew on Fox "News" and the related echo chambers.

This book is exactly as tendentious as my book report is. If you don't already agree with its premise, then you're unlikely to consider picking it up. Which is a pity, in my view. For those of us who already agree, this acts either as a call to arms, or a horribly depressing reminder of how the New Dark Ages have already begun. For make no mistake: Stupidity has more gravity than intelligence, and hate has more than enlightenment. Science has proven too many times that gravity always wins for me to have any hope that Good will triumph over Willful Ignorance.

Please prove me wrong. Read this book and get energized to fight the Yahoos. Please. ( )