Which book do you mean?
Several books have similar titles, so it helps to sort them out first.
- Strange New World by Carl R. Trueman (2022) is a nonfiction book about how modern ideas of identity and sexuality developed. Most search results for this phrase point here, and it is the main subject of this page.
- The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (2014) is a science fiction novel. A short note is further down.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) is a classic dystopian novel, also summarized briefly below.
Because this site focuses on dystopian and sci-fi reading, those last two may be what you were looking for.
Strange New World by Carl Trueman: summary
Strange New World is a shorter, more accessible adaptation of Trueman’s larger academic-leaning book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (2020). The subtitle is How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution. In it, Trueman, a historian and theologian writing from a Christian viewpoint, argues that today’s cultural debates about identity make more sense when seen as the result of a long line of intellectual shifts.
The book is organized around tracing ideas rather than telling a single narrative. It moves from earlier thinkers to later movements, trying to show how assumptions about what it means to be a person changed over time.
Key ideas
- Expressive individualism. The idea that a person’s authentic self is found by looking inward and expressing one’s feelings and desires, rather than by conforming to external roles or traditions.
- The psychological self. Trueman argues that people increasingly understand themselves in terms of inner psychological experience.
- Sexuality and identity. He argues that sexual desire came to be treated as central to identity, rather than as one part of life.
- Intellectual lineage. The book discusses thinkers such as Rousseau, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud, and later figures associated with the sexual revolution, to show how ideas about the self developed.
- Culture and institutions. He suggests that ideas filter into everyday life through culture, art and media rather than only through formal philosophy.
Who is Carl Trueman?
Carl Trueman is a church historian and professor, known for writing on theology and cultural history from a Reformed Protestant perspective. Details of his current position may change, so check a recent biography if you need exact titles.
Strengths and limits
Possible strengths
- It is shorter and more readable than the longer volume it is adapted from.
- It tries to explain long-run intellectual history in plain language.
- It is clear about its perspective and the argument it is making.
Possible limits
- It is written from a specific religious and cultural viewpoint, and many reviewers who share that view praise it while others, including some secular and progressive critics, dispute its conclusions.
- A compact book cannot cover every thinker in depth.
- Readers who want a purely descriptive history may find that it argues a case.
Reading a few differing reviews is a good way to get a balanced sense of it.
Who it suits
It may suit readers who are interested in intellectual history, religion and culture, or who want an accessible entry point to the author’s larger work. It is probably not what you want if you were looking for a novel.
The Book of Strange New Things (novel)
Michel Faber’s novel follows Peter Leigh, a Christian minister who travels to a distant planet to work with its inhabitants, while his wife remains on Earth and faces trouble there. The book is about faith, distance and communication. It is a slower, literary science fiction story rather than a typical dystopian adventure, and I would suggest checking a detailed review if you plan to read it.
Brave New World in brief
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World imagines a society in which people are conditioned from before birth to fit assigned roles, kept content by pleasure and a drug called soma, and discouraged from deep attachments. The story follows characters who start to question that order, including a man raised outside it who finds the world troubling. It is often compared with 1984, but where Orwell fears control by force, Huxley emphasizes control through comfort and distraction. A similar theme about distraction appears in our Fahrenheit 451 book review.
Frequently asked questions
What is the plot of “The Book of Strange New Things”? A minister travels to another planet on a mission and struggles with faith and the strain on his relationship with his wife back on Earth.
Who is Carl Trueman? A historian and theologian who wrote Strange New World and The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.
Can you provide a brief summary of Brave New World? It depicts a conditioned, pleasure-focused society and the people who start to question it.
Can you provide a review of the book “Strange New World”? Reception varies with the reader’s perspective; supporters praise its clarity, and critics question its framing. See the strengths and limits above.