Congratulations to my friend Chris Mooney. His book The Republican War on Science received a very favorable review in the New York Times Book Review yesterday, and Morgan Spurlock of “Super Size Me” has optioned the movie rights.

Here’s an excerpt from my review of the book:

I want to recommend that everyone pick up a copy of The Republican War on Science.

The reason why I am endorsing the book is simple: it addresses a very important part of the problem that we described on Spinsanity and in All the President’s Spin. In the public sphere, PR-driven spin is increasingly substituting for reasoned debate, and that is a very bad thing for democracy. Chris was one of the first people to understand the importance of what we were doing at Spinsanity, and I think that perspective informs his take here. TRWOS takes a deeply reported and researched look at how conservatives are using PR to confuse debate over science and science policy on issues ranging from evolution to global warming to embryonic stem cell research.

[Disclosure: I read an early version of the manuscript for the book and gave Chris feedback on it.]