The similarities between between Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace are not hard to point out. Both men had been ardent beetle-hunters in their youth; both subsequently had become travellers, collectors, and observers in some of the most remote parts of the world; both were drawn to asking the big questions (such as why there […]
In Darwin’s Shadow by Michael Shermer Read More »
Dinosaurs have held a vivid presence in popular culture since the first remains were displayed in The Natural History Museum. The subject of countless primary school projects, fridge magnets, children’s books and, recently, computer animated films – everyone knows their diplodocus from their tyrannosaurus rex. Or, do they? This book could claim to be
The Complete Dinosaur Read More »
The human capacity for art, religion and science didn’t come from nowhere. Nor did it drop from a cloud one day a few thousand years ago. It has been millions of years in the making. Steven Mithen (https://www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology/about/staff/s-j-mithen.aspx) offers an account of how we got our creative imagination, our passion for metaphor, and how we
The Prehistory of the Mind Read More »
The reality of Winter in Scotland has been brought home in these early days of March 2018. Perhaps at home with a few hours to kill between blizzards, you could enjoy an appropriate piece of fiction by Bernard MacLaverty. This is Midwinter Break, and the summary is as follows. A retired couple, Gerry and
Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh argue that ancient Chinese wisdom has relevance for us today. They give us three chapters of Confucian thinkers and three chapters on the Taoist tradition. In each case, the authors explain how these ideas challenge our modern Western assumptions in ways that could have an impact on our everyday decisions.
The Path by Michael Puett Read More »
Life in a small market town like Lanark has its charms and frustrations. There you glimpse its fat cats and notice its small fry, its friendly locals and its entrenched conservatism. But what lies behind the faces of folk at the supermarket veg stall, the petrol station, at the leisure centre, at the Summer gala
There are a number of measurements of wealth among nations. One standard is ‘Gross Domestic Product’ (GDP) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product). Currently the UK lies 6th in a list of 191 nations (with the United States at the top and Tuvalu at the foot) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)). Scanning tables such as this convinces one what enormous disparities in material wealth
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes Read More »
In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman (https://scholar.harvard.edu/dlieberman/home) gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years. He illuminates the major transformations that contributed to key adaptations in the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the development of hunting
The Story of the Human Body Read More »
It’s been 20 years since the first publication of Virginia Postrel’s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Postrel) influential book ‘The Future and it’s Enemies’ in 1998. Much of the author’s analysis of contemporary global culture has been borne out. Postrel argued that the old political labels of ‘left’ and ‘right’ no longer carry much meaning, and that it’s better to
The Future and Its Enemies by Virginia Postrel Read More »
