Category: Books

Climbing down a cliff, I broke my ankle. In the resulting period of enforced idleness, I signed up for an online course, for which this was the recommended text. It is a relatively big (21×27.5 cms), but short book of 252 pages, plus a glossary and index. Closely printed in two columns, there are numerous … Continue reading Review: Human Evolution ; an Illustrated Introduction by Roger Lewin (2004) Assessment 6 out of 10

Mithen’s central thesis is that the development of children’s minds mirrors development of the human brain and therefore the course of evolution. The text is 250 pages long, including numerous diagrams. These are followed by 50 pages of two column closely printed notes and further reading, a source to be plundered. The thesis is like … Continue reading Review: The Prehistory of the Mind; a Search for the Origins of Art, Religion and Science by Steven Mithen(1998) Assessment 9 out of 10

This version published in 2017 updates the 1994 original, which in turn was based on John Kelleher’s doctoral thesis. It describes Jersey as a “peculiar “of the English crown, a jurisdiction which continued and continues without being a nation-state in a world dominated by nation-states. There were changes in population, society, economy and culture. However … Continue reading Review: The Triumph of the Country; The Rural Community in 19th Century Jersey by John Kelleher (2017) Assessment 9 out of 10

The Reviews stimulated little disagreement, but much debate. All were impressed by the 4 Levels of Prosperity as a model of a changing world and changing cultures. In Ruth’s view the Book’s essential message was not whether the world was on balance a better or worse (endangered) place but that, as decision makers, we need … Continue reading Discussion: Factfulness; Ten Reasons We Are Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better than You Think by Hans Rosling et al

I didn’t much like the Book. Tellingly, I kept calling it “Forgetfulness”. There were strengths: The analysis of social economic & demographic transitions. Four Prosperity Levels are recognised Levels 1-4, the explanation of people moving up the Levels interesting.  An impressive list of matters are improving, slavery, oil spills, HIV infection, battle death, smallpox, nuclear … Continue reading Review : Factfulness; Ten Reasons We Are Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better than You Think by Hans Rosling et al (2019) Assessment 3 out of 10

Magisterial, but not a light read. It runs to 832 closely printed pages, plus notes, an index and 40 illustrations. It includes 25 full page battle plans, which would make an excellent guide for a tour of the battlefields. The key questions are addressed of why the War was fought and why did it continue … Continue reading Review: Europe’s Tragedy; a New History of the Thirty Years’ War by Peter H Wilson ( 2010) Assessment 9 out of 10

A beautiful hard-back of 154 pages produced in an edition of 1,500 copies, with “financial assistance from the Friends of the Center of American Places.” The first half is a series of essays on religion and geography by the Oxford educated, Chinese-American Yi-Fu Tuan, a Master (literally) of human geography and landscapes, the second some … Continue reading Review: Religion; from Place to Placenessless by Yi-Fu Tuan and Martha Strawn(2010) Assessment 9 out of 10

Scholastic local history edging onto the European stage. “Jersey 1204” was commissioned by the States of Jersey in 2004, from two eminent Cambridge Medievalists. Publication marked 800 years since Jersey’s establishment as a separate jurisdiction, a continuity which almost nowhere else, except Guernsey, can claim. Two different scales are applied. At a large scale this … Continue reading Review: Jersey 1204; the Making of an Island Community by JA Everard and JC Holt (2004) Assessment 9 out of 10

Brilliant, original and thought provoking: a study of human & animal evolution, with profound implications for human history. Wrangham’s thesis is that domestication reduces reactive aggression, striking out in fear and anger. The domestication syndrome includes lighter bones, reduced dimorphism, smaller brains without reduced intelligence, and facial paedomorphism, where juvenile features continue into adulthood. Domesticates’ … Continue reading Review: The Goodness Paradox; How Evolution Made Us More and Less Violent by Richard Wrangham (2019) Assessment 10 out of 10

A key text of “humanist” geography, placing human experience centre stage. Yi Fu Tuan is an Oxford-educated Chinese American geographer. He originally researched geomorphology, then landscapes, writing the volume of the Oxford edited “World Landscapes” series on China. He then became a, probably the, guru of “humanist” geography, putting man himself, and man’s experience, at … Continue reading Review: Space and Place; the Perspective of Experience by Yi Fu Tuan (1977) Assessment 9 out of 10