FROM FOREWORD REVIEWS (A trade magazine for the book industry)

Martin’s ambitious and well-researched work calls for the recognition of a new paradigm of interconnectedness in order to face global crises. In his complicated and challenging One World Renaissance, Dr. Glen T. Martin discusses the necessity of a “shift to holism” that would help cement a global social contract. Specifically, Martin looks at “transformative holism,” a holism that can help humans realize their potential in a sort of utopian vision of the world.

Martin describes holism as “the most fundamental discovery of 20th century science,” a bold claim that he defines as “the discovery that the entire universe is an integral whole” composed of fields within fields that mirror the broader structure. Parallel to this, a global awareness is growing that the problems we face (and share) must be taken on by a united and mindful people who are willing to enter into a “global social contract,” a part of Martin’s proposed solution.

Martin’s work is not for the lay reader; his discussion of holism and global issues is aimed at a sophisticated reader who has already wrestled with these types of issues and thus is interested in the solution that Martin lays out. Early parts of the work are focused on tracing the history of thought on different cultures’ ways of viewing the world, including paradigms stemming from Newton’s, Descartes’s, and Weber’s work.

The book’s esoteric ideas are sometimes hard to relate to definitive examples, and the work as such becomes more philosophy than practical guide. There are some sections, such as “The Rule of Law Among Nations after 9/11” in chapter 5, with an extensive discussion on both individual and nation state-terrorism, that are exceptions to this general rule, but as a whole the work is more focused on the broader ideas behind the philosophy and not the details they apply to.

One World Renaissance is a work suited to the thoughtful reader looking for a philosophical study of a unifying theory of human culture. At times dense and complicated, Martin’s ambitious and well-researched work calls for the recognition of a new paradigm of interconnectedness in order to face global crises, complete with a pledge to live out the ideals inherent within this dedication.

STEPHANIE BUCKLIN (Winter 2016)