Book Description
Recounting the spiritual odysseys of an Apache scout known to him as Grandfather, Tom Brown emphasizes the need for spiritual healing of the earth and delivers his own message of healing and redemption to the world.
Customer Reviews:
A powerful book and more powerful message.......2001-10-14
All of Tom Brown's books are written on many different levels. As a just-starting-out naturalist, I read most of Brown's books with interest, but the deeper I go into the naturalist's world, the more powerful messages I get between the lines.
The book offers many insights on modern man- most of all, the notion that if one simply lets the world drift by, with all sorts of damage, trouble, etc. being done (mind you, yourself doing none of the actual damage), the message is clear- Why didn't you do something?
Probably the most powerful message in the book is, "There are no small things." To quote Bruce Lee, if you throw a rock into a pond, you get ripples- soon the ripples cross the whole pond. Every action we do has implications, good and bad. Make your impressions positive and beneficial.
For those lucky enough to attend Tom Brown's school, reading any of his books after taking a class- no matter how many times you read them previously- it's like reading an entirely new book. There are countless messages and powerful teachings in The Quest, and I give it my highest recommendation.
Man's Environmental Holocaust.......2000-11-01
Dear Sirs, I hope you reconsider your decision not to publish this review. On October 7, 1998, the NY Times reported on the biggest Ozone Hole yet seen. To quote the article: "Government scientists said today that the gap in the planet's ozone over Antartica was greater than the size of North America and was the largest ever observed." In addition, on August 13, 2000, a frontpage article in the Sunday NY Times reported on how a formerly benign fungus which has been found in the US from time immemorial was suddenly killing millions of acres of oak trees in California. The article ends on a puzzling note with scientist unable to explain why this disease had become so virulent. However, it is well known that UV radiation affects plants earlier than Humans and one documented effect of UV radiation is a weakening of the immune system. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to theorize that UV radiation may be responsible for this latest plant die-off. I hope you give these issues consideration. -----------------------------------------------------------------
Like many people, I used to read the grim newspaper accounts of environmental destruction and wonder what it all meant. Then, in the late 1980s Tom Brown published The Vision and in the final chapter of that book provided the first glimpse into a future most of us want to deny. Now here in The Quest, he lets out all the stops and makes plain for the first time that mankind may very well be doomed.
Brown reveals that as far back as 1962, Grandfather, his Apache Native American Teacher, had warned that the appearance of holes in the sky would mark the beginning of the end of mankind on Earth. Sunlight would become deadly killing everything it touched. Plants would shrivel up and die, crops would fail and starvation would sweep around the world. People would be hunted like deer for food. Many events would foreshadow the appearance of the holes but finally there would be a time of peace. This would mark mankind's last chance to reverse his endless destruction of the Earth. If instead, he concentrated on material gain, all would be lost and the end would come as surely as the Sun rises.
From this beginning, Brown takes us through a series of personal visions wherein he is transported to the future and sees for himself the horrors that await us. In one account, he visits a city where human limbs hang in shop windows and walking skeletons covered with sores roam the streets. Everything reeks with death and Brown watches as a roving band of armed men hunts down an abandoned child, and without remorse, guts and skins him like an animal. Brown makes it clear that this an America city and not some distant third world nation.
Not all the stories deal with the future. Brown relates his own efforts to deny what he knew and avoid taking up his Vision of teaching the ancient tracking and survival skills. At one point, he witnesses a brutal father rob his young son of a promising future. Grandfather then asks Tom what obstacles will stop him from fulfilling his vision ? The question is clearly not meant for Brown alone and foreseeing an excuse many of us will use to deny our share of responsibility Grandfather points to a graveyard and asks `what will be the measure of your life Grandson? Will it be a lifetime of meaningless toil or one filled with purpose and meaning?'
This is by far Brown's darkest book but how does one sanitize such a horrifying account? There is no science here and those who believe ozone depletion is a figment of some environmentalist's imagination would be better off reading God's Last Offer, by Ed Ayres. Mr. Ayres presents related doomsday scenarios but with the science to back them. To those who are sensitive to the Earth, however Tom Brown's book needs no proof. Its truth is obvious.
The only question left open by Brown is when all this will take place? The question is important because many people will shrug off this account as part of some distant future. Although this book does not provide a timeframe a little reading in the scientific press will. It takes thirty years for CFCs to waft through the atmosphere and reach the ozone layer. If all CFC production ceased today, and it hasn't, we would still face 30 more years of degradation. According to NASA, there is already enough CFCs in the upper atmosphere to blow away 70% of the ozone layer. Take a equal amounts of ozone and CFCs, expose them to ultraviolet radiation and one can easily measure the rate of breakdown. The answer you will find is that we have a mere score and ten years left.
Grandfather made it clear that once the holes appear there would be no physical way to heal the Earth. Indeed, Time Magazine writing in the early 90s said that `the entire world's fleet of 747s operating around the clock, 365 days of the year' could not replace a fraction of the ozone that has already been lost. But Brown does leave us with a ray of hope: if enough people become aware of what is happening, combined we can achieve what technology cannot. Brown is a great believer in the combined efforts of many people working together. Seldom does he speak of grand heroic acts. Each of us, doing a little, can achieve a lot. Be forewarned that if you read this book you will never be able to look at your children in the same way again. Most of us adults living today will not bear the brunt of this horrible future but our children and grandchildren will. If you read this book and do nothing, the Time of Peace will pass and you too, like Brown, will have to answer the screams of your children as they clutch at you in the grave yelling "YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?"
A unique culteral view of universal truths........1999-11-10
This book presents principles of growth that we find common across time and cultures. Highly recommended both as interesting reading material, as well as an opportunity to reconsider values, meaning (and all that other existential stuff) and our own perspectives through a differant path. In recent popular venacular, "getting out of the box" of western culture.
This book is INCREDIBLE!.......1999-06-12
I read a lot of spiritual books and I've read lot's of Tom Brown's books, but I have rarely been so blown away than I was by The Quest. For one, let me tell you that this book will scare the heck out of you. But at the same time, it is really shocking what Tom learned from the fear he had to face. While reading it, I was dying to be able to sit down and share with someone what I was learning. It will blow your mind and change the way you think about the Earth.
This book has been an incredible help and inspiration to me.......1999-04-04
I first read this book about 5 years ago. I thought it was great but I couldn't grasp alot of it. Then I re- read it after taking Tom's first philosophy class and it really hit home. It is a guide book for walking a spiritual path in modern society-which is one of the most difficult things any of us could choose to do. I've found that I get more from it every time i read it. The lessons go far beyond the words. It is an insiring work that shows the human side of the spiritual path. Thanks Tom. Thanks Grandfather.
Amazon.com
Paying his own way, Mark Hertsgaard set out on a world tour in 1991 wondering what people thought of environmental problems. Earth Odyssey is his result, a sweeping and provocative work of travel and serious reporting that covers 19 countries and reveals, with often stark reality and vision, the legacy and prospects for our global environment.
Hertsgaard focuses on and reveals much of his story through the people who guide him and whom he meets along the way. After touring a state-owned paper factory in Chongqing, China, and seeing billowing clouds of chlorine and foaming rivers, Hertsgaard hears his guide and interpreter Zhenbing mourning for his country. In Sudan, Hertsgaard visits areas of extreme famine and poverty, where "the environment is no abstraction" to the people who live there. Through interviews with Vaclav Havel, Jacques Cousteau, and Al Gore, as well as research and philosophy about the roles of industry and technology, the global environmental picture is etched skillfully chapter by chapter. When at Africa's Lake Turkana, Hertsgaard delineates in clarity and detail the evolution of our species and the history of technology to build perspective on our current lifestyles, values, and environmental problems.
Earth Odyssey is not only a good book, but an important one--even essential--grasping the true human predicament as we face a worldwide environmental breakdown.--Byron Ricks
Book Description
Like many of us, Mark Hertsgaard has long worried about the declining health of our environment. But in 1991, he decided to act on his own concern and investigate the escalating crisis for himself. Traveling on his own dime, he embarked on an odyssey lasting most of the decade and spanning nineteen countries. Now, in
Earth Odyssey he reports on our environmental predicament through the eyes of the people who live it.
Earth Odyssey is a vivid, passionate narrative about one man's journey around the world in search of the answer to the essential question of our time: Is the future of the human species at risk? Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate of humankind.
Customer Reviews:
A good balance between environmental statistics and personal narrative.......2005-10-07
This book does a great job in bringing down to human scale otherwise abstract concepts like global warming, overpopulation and resource management. Anyone who enjoys reading travel stories and learning about the impact our current state of development may have in future generations will enjoy reading Earth Odyssey.
sobering thoughtful book about our planet.......2005-07-28
Excellent review of factors which influence our environmental survival. Very easy to read. Hertsgaard puts a human face on many of these issues by including stories of people he meets on his journey. Good index.
Shows that environmental stories are human stories.......2005-03-21
Journalist Mark Hertsgaard sets out on his own to circumnavigate the globe, recording a broad array of environmental woes along the way.
As much as this book focuses on the environmental problems we face, the writing returns again and again to the people that Hertsgaard meets along the way. His characterization of the individuals that he meets are presented in a narrative style that really brings those people to life. We can understand, after reading the book, why the Chinese government has such an abominable record, and the Chinese people make a compelling argument that environmental concerns must come second to financial concerns. The fact that we can see this is a "long walk off a short pier" doesn't change the fact that China is caught between a rock and a hard place.
Hertsgaard presents many human stories that are, in their way, more interesting than the environmental problems he explores. His on-the-ground visit to a polluted river, for example, is almost exactly what I would expect. The river is dirty, the water ugly. But the interpreter who accompanies him on part of his visit to China provides far more surprising, and interesting, reading.
Hertsgaard also ends on a ray of hope, presenting some of the solutions that have yet to gain widespread acceptance, but which demonstrate that a sustainable future is available, should individuals and governments muster the willpower to implement it.
Overall, I was impressed with the writing and the attention to detail that Hertsgaard displays. I'm not sure if every trip that he made paid off, in terms of providing insight via a ground-level look at some of these issues, but overall, he has given us all something to think about.
An Environmental-Issue Must-Have.......2005-01-07
This is a heart-wrenching and eye-opening tale of our earth's health, yet the book maintains throughout a sense of hope in humanity's abilities. I believe that all priviledged developed-world citizens should read this to understand how the "other half" of the world's inhabitants are forced to live. Hertsgaard created here a smooth and flawless read that never becomes tedious.
Our environmental crisis.......2003-11-16
Investigative reporter Mark Hertsgaard spent six years traveling around the world, gathering material for this book. This is not strictly a scientific treatise (although he conducted extensive research into his topics). Rather, he reports through the eyes of the people who live in the environmentally damaged places he visited. The theme of the book is how technology has both benefitted and harmed the planet and its inhabitants, and how greed continues to threaten our existence. His accounts of wanton destruction of nature in the 19th century make the reader gasp with dismay over the short-sightedness of our predecessors: the damming of a mighty river and its magnificent waterfall; the murder of the largest, oldest sequoia on earth. (Two of the examples which brought me to tears.) The horror is: the destruction, the contamination, and waste are still happening. And not only at the hands of totalitarian regimes or ignorant third-world peasants, but due to the callousness of greedy American corporations and government lobbies. The conclusions of Chapter Three, "The Irrisistable Automobile", will come as no surprise to most American readers, although the images of the perpetually gridlocked traffic-jams of fume-choked Asian cities astonished even this rider of Southern California freeways. Statistics of the predicted explosion in automobile sales world wide are especially ominous. This book was published in 1999 and exposes the hypocrisy of the Clinton administration in paying lip service to environmental issues while simultaneously caving to the demands of the powerful fossil fuel lobby. If Chapter Three is gloomy, Chapter Four, "To the Nuclear Lighthouse", is utterly terrifying. The account of Hertsgaard's visits to the most blighted areas of the former USSR is preceeded by a dismal, just recently uncensored history of the Soviets' worst nuclear disasters. While everyone knows about Chernobyl, few people knew about the radiating of the Siberian region of Chelyabinsk. Few, that is, other than the hapless residents who've been suffering its effects for years. With the aid of his translator, Russian author and photographer Vlad Tamarov, Hertsgaard conducted a relentless expose' of the deliberate coverups of "incidents" at nuke plants and shipping lanes, which irreversibly poisoned crops, fisheries, and even the water table. Even more worrisome than the damage already done are Hertsgaard's reports of poorly inventoried and practically unguarded nuclear stockpiles in volatile republics such as Kazakhstan. The American reader who attributes Soviet environmental crimes to Communist cruelty is in for an ugly shock -- Hertsgaard then documents identical coverups by our own government, of similar "incidents" on our own soil! From Russia, the author journeyed to China and Africa to report on overpopulation and its adverse effects on nature, health, and standards of living. The bleak narrative ends on a hopeful note: "Sustainable Development and the Triumph of Capitalism". Since the publication of "Earth Odyssey", the Bush administration has all but declared war on the environment, so even that fleeting hope now appears elusive.
Book Description
A beautiful, meditative memoir mixed with travel and history, this unique book is the story of one American’s search for a deeper connection to the land. Drawn by a sense that he is missing a critical link to his home in suburban Ohio, John W. Simpson heads for rural Scotland, where he encounters his own family history as well as estate owners and tenant farmers who have centuries-long ties to their land.
As he travels, he meditates on the legacy of the great 19th century conservationist John Muir, who himself developed a complex love of the land when he immigrated from Scotland’s North Sea coast to the fields and forests of Wisconsin. As Simpson physically retraces Muir’s journey he wonders what sense of belonging Muir found on the frontier that modern America, with its strip malls and housing developments, has forgotten. A fascinating story of changing perceptions and values from the Old World to the New,
Yearning for the Land shows us just how much roots matter—both in our own lives, and in the many ways time and history, landscape and community are tightly intertwined.
Average customer rating:
- excellent in every way
- Excellent essays
- Stimulative reading
- An EXCELLENT read.....
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In Search of Nature
Edward O. Wilson
Manufacturer: Island Press
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Naturalist
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The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
ASIN: 155963216X |
Amazon.com
Biologist Edward O. Wilson has been observing humans and nature in a career in biology that spans more than four decades. For the last 10 years or so, he has labored to alert us to the dangers we face due to the decline in the "diversity of life, which we are so recklessly diminishing through species extinction." The essays in In Search of Nature range widely. He gives us tales of nature's boundless variety with creatures like the reservoir ant and the cookie cutter shark and with a discussion of the importance of taxonomy. In the final essay, "Is Humanity Suicidal?" he returns to the topic that seems to be most on his mind: mankind's assault on the world of nature.
Book Description
Perhaps more than any other scientist of our century, Edward O. Wilson has scrutinized animals in their natural settings, tweezing out the dynamics of their social organization, their relationship with their environments, and their behavior, not only for what it tells us about the animals themselves, but for what it can tell us about human nature and our own behavior. He has brought the fascinating and sometimes surprising results of these studies to general readers through a remarkable collection of books, including The Diversity of Life, The Ants, On Human Nature, and Sociobiology. The grace and precision with which he writes of seemingly complex topics has earned him two Pulitzer prizes, and the admiration of scientists and general readers around the world.
In Search of Nature presents for the first time a collection of the seminal short writings of Edward O. Wilson, addressing in brief and eminently readable form the themes that have actively engaged this remarkable intellect throughout his career.
"The central theme of the essays is that wild nature and human nature are closely interwoven. I argue that the only way to make complete sense of either is by examining both closely and together as products of evolution.... Human behavior is seen not just as the product of recorded history, ten thousand years recent, but of deep history, the combined genetic and cultural changes that created humanity over hundreds of thousands of years. We need this longer view, I believe, not only to understand our species, but more firmly to secure its future.
The book is composed of three sections. "Animal Nature, Human Nature" ranges from serpents to sharks to sociality in ants. It asks how and why the universal aversion to snakes might have evolved in humans and primates, marvels at the diversity of the world's 350 species of shark and how their adaptive success has affected our conception of the world, and admonishes us to "be careful of little lives"-to see in the construction of insect social systems "another grand experiment in evolution for our delectation.
"The Patterns of Nature" probes at the foundation of sociobiology, asking what is the underlying genetic basis of social behavior, and what that means for the future of the human species. Beginning with altruism and aggression, the two poles of behavior, these essays describe how science, like art, adds new information to the accumulated wisdom, establishing new patterns of explanation and inquiry. In "The Bird of Paradise: The Hunter and the Poet," the analytic and synthetic impulses-exemplified in the sciences and the humanities-are called upon to give full definition to the human prospect.
"Nature's Abundance" celebrates biodiversity, explaining its fundamental importance to the continued existence of humanity. From "The Little Things That Run the World"-invertebrate species that make life possible for everyone and everything else-to the emergent belief of many scientists in the human species' possible innate affinity for other living things, known as biophilia, Wilson sets forth clear and compelling reasons why humans should concern themselves with species loss. "Is Humanity Suicidal?" compares the environmentalist's view with that of the exemptionalist, who holds that since humankind is transcendent in intelligence and spirit, our species must have been released from the iron laws of ecology that bind all other species. Not without optimism, Wilson concludes that we are smart enough and have time enough to avoid an environmental catastrophe of civilization-threatening dimensions-if we are willing both to redirect our science and technology and to reconsider our self-image as a species.
In Search of Nature is a lively and accessible introduction to the writings of one of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century. Imaginatively illustrated by noted artist Laura Southworth, it is a book all readers will treasure.
Customer Reviews:
excellent in every way.......2004-02-20
Among all of E.O. Wilson's spectacular books, this one is one of my favorites - not just for the substantial content - but for one of the best cover-designed and illustrated books I have ever seen.
Everything about this book is top notch and all who were involved should be applauded.
This book is an enduring collection of ideas expressed with lucidity and wisdom.
Bravo.
Excellent essays.......2003-11-22
I was first introduced to E.O. Wilson when I went on a butterfly count a few years ago. As we were looking for butterflies and counting what we saw, the count leader (who is an incredibly smart naturalist) made a passing refernce to E.O. Wilson. That day I came home and got onto Amazon to find out more. This was the first book I came across and I'm so glad I did. It is filled with about 12 essays on different topics in nature. They're broken down into three groups:
Animal Nature, Human Nature (In the Company of Ants is one of these)
The Patterns of Nature (The Bird of Paradise: Hunter and Poet is one of these)
Nature's Abundance (The Little things that run the world is one of these)
The writing style is easy to read, fun, interesting - I learned a lot reading the essays but also just found the reading fun. I love how Wilson pulls back the stories to ideas/concepts that are relevant to us so we can put things in perspective. Great book! Any nature lover would enjoy it
Stimulative reading.......2002-08-28
This book is not as provocative as 'On human nature'. The writing is not as combative, although it has many of the same themes :
- human aggression (he does not agree with Konrad Lorenz - even aggression evolves rapidly - and Erich Fromm - humanity is not suicidal -)
- the fallacy of ethics (human nature is to a large extent the heritage of a Pleistocene hunter-gatherer existance)
- the place of mankind in Gaia (the totality of Life on Earth). He argues clearly that if human beings were to disappear, the world would go on little changed and would heal itself from the damage inflicted by mankind. The only necessary animals,for Gaia and also for the human species, are the invertebrates.
Perhaps the most controversial point of the book are his arguments in defence of racial differences in the human populations, based on genetic components. But as always with E. O. Wilson, his argumentation is based on solid research and clear thinking.
An EXCELLENT read............2002-06-21
The author has a very easy to read style. It is very succinct and eloquent. If you love nature, you will love this book.
The chapter "In the company of ants" is probably one of the best chapters [of any book] that I have ever read. I found the hierarchal structure of the leaf-cutter ants very intriguing. What marvellous little creatures! I'll never look at an ant the same way again. Here's a little snippet for you:
"Watch where you step. Be careful of little lives. Feed them crumbs of coffeecake. They also like bits of tuna and whipped cream. Get a magnifying glass. Watch them closely. And you will be as close as any person may ever come to seeing social life as it might evolve on another planet."
I also loved three other chapters entitled, "Humanity seen from a distance", "The little things that run the world" and the final chapter, "Is humanity suicidal?". Other interesting chapters are about snakes, or rather serpents, sharks, altruism & aggression, etc. The essence of the book is really as the title suggests, "in search of nature".
Towards the end, a sincere and legitimate message is delivered by the author. It is a very moving assertion and everyone, yes everyone, should read it. Edwin O. Wilson is proof that Carl Sagan wasn't the only good author.
Book Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1972, and a past president of both the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association, Carl Degler is one of America's most eminent living historians. He is also one of the most versatile. In a forty year career, he has written brilliantly on race (Neither Black Nor White, which won the Pulitzer Prize), women's studies (At Odds, which Betty Friedan called "a stunning book"), Southern history (The Other South), the New Deal, and many other subjects. Now, in The Search for Human Nature, Degler turns to perhaps his largest subject yet, a sweeping history of the impact of Darwinism (and biological research) on our understanding of human nature, providing a fascinating overview of the social sciences in the last one hundred years. The idea of a biological root to human nature was almost universally accepted at the turn of the century, Degler points out, then all but vanished from social thought only to reappear in the last four decades. Degler traces the early history of this idea, from Darwin's argument that our moral and emotional life evolved from animals just as our human shape did, to William James's emphasis on instinct in human behavior (then seen as a fundamental insight of psychology). We also see the many applications of biology, from racism, sexism, and Social Darwinism to the rise of intelligence testing, the eugenics movement, and the practice of involuntary sterilization of criminals (a public policy pioneered in America, which had sterilization laws 25 years before Nazi Germany--one such law was upheld by Oliver Wendell Holmes's Supreme Court). Degler then examines the work of those who denied any role for biology, who thought culture shaped human nature, a group ranging from Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead, to John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner. Equally important, he examines the forces behind this fundamental shift in a scientific paradigm, arguing that ideological reasons--especially the struggle against racism and sexism in America--led to this change in scientific thinking. Finally, Degler considers the revival of Darwinism without the Social Darwinism, racism, and sexism, led first by ethologists such as Karl von Frisch, Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, and Jane Goodall--who revealed clear parallels between animal and human behavior--and followed in varying degrees by such figures as Melvin Konner, Alice Rossi, Jerome Kagen, and Edward O. Wilson as well as others in anthropology, political science, sociology, and economics. What kind of animal is Homo sapiens and how did we come to be this way? In this wide ranging history, Carl Degler traces our attempts over the last century to answer these questions. In doing so, he has produced a volume that will fascinate anyone curious about the nature of human beings.
Customer Reviews:
Good book providing a good historical context for Darwin's influence.......2005-10-23
This book does a good job of showing Darwin's influence in the social sciences and how Darwin has been used and misused to promote certain ideas.
Starting off, the book discusses Darwinism and some contemporary philosophies that Darwinism influenced such as Spencerism and Lamarckism. If there was a goal this book sought to accomplish was to broaden in the minds of the non-professional the idea that Darwinism is relevant to the social sciences despite the abuses of those who misused Darwinism to promote the bigotry found in "social Darwinism."
Not an earth-shattering book that will likely change the course of the studies of human nature, it never the less puts Darwinism in a more useful and meaningful place in understanding how humans evolved and the role culture and learning played in that evolution.
A Historical Malaise.......2005-03-25
This is a good nature/nurture dialectic book to read. Degler's book is a historical account of - not a philosophical, sociological, or psychological argument for - the rise and fall of "social Darwinism."
He begins with an important historical demarcation at the beginning of the 19th century between Spencerism (Herbert Spencer), Lamarckism (Jean Baptiste Lamarck), and Darwinism (Charles Darwin). What we call "social Darwinism" today is not derived from Darwin himself (although one might infer it from his "Descent of Man"), but is actually Spencerism. Spencer, not Darwin, is the one that asserted man is entirely biologically determined. In the nature/nurture dichotomy after the appearance of "Descent of Man," nature is the sole determinate of human nature.
Degler then proceeds for about 200 pages to describe the various reactions against all three of the above forms of evolution as it applies to human beings, starting with the provocative and virulent challenges from anthropology, particularly by Franz Boaz, then onto sociology, and finally onto psychology. All three of these social sciences denied that evolution in any of the above forms contributed to the makeup of homo sapiens. In what becomes a highly repetitive and often tedious account, Degler excavates a minefield of writers from all the social sciences at the end of the 19th century to the mid-20th century to attack all aspects of biologically acquired or inherited characteristics in mankind invoked by evolution. Almost all of these attacks start from the "liberal" conclusion first, viz., that man is the product of his environment only, and then proceed to provide "empirical" evidence and premises for the conclusion that supports intelligence, sexism, racism, feeblemindedness, and the like are all the consequence of society, culture, and the environment, not the result of any biological, much less evolutionary, determinate. Even the notion of "instinct" is practically annihilated. By 1950, the infamous B. F. Skinner had announced that all human behavior was nothing more than a conditioned response to external stimuli - and nothing more. Thus, during this period of the nature/nurture dispute, despite the variety of approaches in the social sciences, nurture alone was deemed the sole determinate of human nature.
By the end of part two, Degler covers more than fifty years of cultural relativism in the social sciences in manifold detail. By the 1950s, attitudes slowly began to change with two concurrent events: (1) The revitalization of genetics and ethology in the field of psychology, and (2) the publication of three major books: Nikolaus Tinbergen's "Study of Instinct" (1951), Konrad Lorenz's "On Aggression" (1966), and E. O. Wilson's "Sociobiology: The New Synthesis" (1975). Instinct was resurrected, and the social sciences could no longer ignore the biological encroachment of genetics and instinct on every living species, including man..The incest taboo is but one example that exists both among non-human and human animals. Aggression is another. The flight/fright response is yet another. Dominance/submissiveness, reproductive success, kin inclusiveness, survival of the fittest, etc., are all based on the Darwinian principles of evolution that have shown themselves "predictive" and "probable" (as opposed to absolute and necessary) inherited characteristics. Such characteristics are mere probabilities, based on genetic inheritances over hundreds, if not thousands and millions, of years. How they actually interact with each individual in the human species is, of course, a matter of adaptation of the species to the environment; hence, there is not the Spencerian inevitability that "social Darwinists" speak of.
This book is a treasure trove of historical developments (or lack thereof) of Darwinism in the fields of biology, genetics, anthropology, psychology, and sociology, especially as it pertains to the first-half of the 20th century. It also clears up several ambiguities and misplaced attributions. Overall, though, it can be tedious and repetitive by restating the same principles from myriads of different social scientists. But it is a heuristic device that leads to the triumph of sociobiology as an essential tool in all the sciences, both natural and social. For all of its historical antecedents, it does lack a contemporary balance in how sociobiology is infiltrating our understanding of human nature today. Therefore, be prepared to continue reading a book like E. O. Wilson's "On Human Nature" (Harvard, 1978) or his "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge" (Vintage, 1998) to get the full thrust of evolutionary theory in the social and natural sciences.
Detailed, Readable Intellectual History.......2000-04-04
Through intellectual biohgraphies of numerous social thinkers, Carl Degler traces the evolving social implications of biological thought. Degler traces the theme in the writings of individuals, and in the thought of the public and policymakers.
Degler's account only hints at the often ghoulish results (e.g., forced sterilizations). Degler, however, did not intend to fully document American crimes against humanity; he intended to offer the history of a certain theme in American intellectual life. Degler offers a fascinating account of the rise, staggering fall, and gradual comeback of Social Darwinism in American thought.
Book Description
What does landscape mean to us? How does it shape our sense of “rootedness” to place and connection to community? Can that sense and that connection enrich us in the same manner as having knowledge of our familial lineage? Landscape historian John Warfield Simpson sets out to answer these questions by following the journey of the great conservationist John Muir from his homeland along the North Sea coast in East Lothian County, Scotland, to his family’s adopted home in the fields and forests of Marquette County, Wisconsin. Along the way he discovers much about himself; and we, in turn, can learn much about ourselves.
In 1849 the Muirs immigrated from East Lothian to the wilds of central Wisconsin in search of religious and economic opportunity. What concept of land did they and millions of others from the Old World leave behind, and what did they find in their New World homes? Simpson physically retraces the Muirs’ journey, as he delves into the meaning and importance of place. He speaks with estate owners and tenant farmers in Scotland who have centuries-long ties to the land they own or work; to Wisconsin farmers for whom one hundred years measures a profound connection to place; and to Native Americans working to reclaim the land they lost to white pioneers like the Muirs and to the author’s own Scottish ancestors. Among all of these people Simpson discovers a powerful link between personal and communal history, and a deep connection to the land on which they have been played out.
Time and history, landscape and community, are tightly intertwined, Simpson learns. Roots matter, he discovers, in his adopted home of Cockburnspath, Berwickshire, Scotland.
Book Description
What are the roots of human nature and what is wrong with the scientific picture of what and who we are? Was Thomas Hobbes right to say that human life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short?" In this new work, biologist Mary Clark argues that the Western view of human nature is built around a highly atomistic and ideological framework that encourages us to think about the world and ourselves in the wrong way.
Beginning with some of the problems that emerge from building "laws" of human nature upon "laws" of physics, Mary Clark tackles an astonishing array of problems: what role genes play in the development of the brain, how we generated the concepts of mind and meaning we accept today and what is wrong with them, to the way we think about the formation of individual and group identity, conflict resolution and the environment. Throughout the book, she critically scrutinizes many widely-held views, whether it is what Darwin actually said about adaptive fitness and survival, received models of human nature such as man the "warrior" or "hunter," or whether it is right to think of emotions as an unfortunate legacy of our evolutionary heritage. Arguing for a more expansive view of science and human nature, she makes a strong case for the role of culture in constructing what and who we are without falling into the trap of relativism.
Customer Reviews:
Clark's thesis important for us to understand.......2004-07-06
Mary Clark focuses on the issue of the nature of human nature, and she brings a wide range of scholarship from many fields to the question. Reviewer Jeffares is quite wrong; Clark's book is heavily referenced; the endnotes comprise nearly 50 pages of small print and the reference list is more than 30 pages. Perhaps what most disturbs many about her argument is that she suggests a "story of who we are" that differs significantly from the currently dominant paradigm of humans as driven to compete for resources and status and survival. Moreover, she has the temerity to point out that what is often taught in schools and promoted by opinion leaders is also a "story," one subject to interpretation as something other than the "facts" that proponents would claim it to be. Clark is not totally rejecting of modernity; but she does argue that modern civilizations are in danger unless some important truths about "human nature" are recognized and more adequately served than such civilizations currently do. She emphasizes that survival of our species from earliest times to the present required cooperation and human bonding more than competing and persuasively presents a case that our current perspectives on humans and the world in which they live lead us to behave in maladaptive ways. We all will ignore her message at our own peril. Clark writes clearly and argues cogently on a vitally important topic. This book should be in every college, university and municipal library. It needs to be understood by all those who consider themselves public intellectuals. Her perspective could lead us toward survival not destruction of our world.
Few books could be more important to us at this moment in time. I urge you to see that your local libraries, academic and general, order this remarkable new publication.
Book Description
The essays collected here offer important new reflections on the multiple images of and rhetoric surrounding the rain forest. The slogan “Save the Rain Forest!”—emblazoned on glossy posters of tall trees wreathed in vines and studded with monkeys and parrots—promotes the popular image of a marvelously wild and vulnerable rain forest. Although representations like these have fueled laudable rescue efforts, in many ways they have done more harm than good, as these essays show. Such icons tend to conceal both the biological variety of rain forests and the diversity of their human inhabitants. They also frequently obscure the specific local and global interactions that are as much a part of today’s rain forests as are the array of plants and animals. In attending to these complexities, this volume focuses on specific portrayals of rain forests and the consequences of these characterizations for both forest inhabitants and outsiders.
From diverse disciplines—history, archaeology, sociology, literature, law, and cultural anthropology—the contributors provide case studies from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They point the way toward a search for a rain forest that is both a natural entity and a social history, an inhabited place and a shifting set of ideas. The essayists demonstrate how the single image of a wild and yet fragile forest became fixed in the popular mind in the late twentieth century, thereby influencing the policies of corporations, environmental groups, and governments. Such simplistic conceptions, In Search of the Rain Forest shows, might lead companies to tout their “green” technologies even as they try to downplay the dissenting voices of native populations. Or they might cause a government to create a tiger reserve that displaces peaceful peasants while opening the doors to poachers and bandits. By encouraging a nuanced understanding of distinctive, constantly evolving forests with different social and natural histories, this volume provides an important impetus for protection efforts that take into account the rain forest in all of its complexity.
Contributors. Scott Fedick, Alex Greene, Paul Greenough, Nancy Peluso, Suzana Sawyer, Candace Slater, Charles Zerner
Average customer rating:
- Science written for humans, not robots
- Indispensable
- Great!
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The Encyclopedia of Evolution: Humanity's Search for Its Origins
Richard Milner
Manufacturer: Facts on File
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Physical
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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Evolution
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
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Science
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
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General
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
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General
| Evolution
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General
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General
| Nature & Ecology
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ASIN: 0816014728 |
Customer Reviews:
Science written for humans, not robots.......2007-07-16
This book really is a treasure. Richard Milner's encyclopedia is both entertaining and educational. And it's fun. There is no reason the intellectual adventure can be fun. And Milner's book is wonderful.
Richard Milner isn't delivering a book for technical specialists who know the theory anyway, he writing for the intelligent layman and uses wit, humour and sparkling ideas to home deliver one of the biggest ideas of all, Darwin's theory of evolution.
Along the way Milner takes us on side trips to see how the theory of evolution itself evolved, to see how evolution has impacted both religion (and not just Christianity) and popular culture. He introduces us to some of the great characters who have played a role in the rise of evolution. Science is a human enterprise, not a pursuit for robots, and humans like to have fun.
Indispensable.......2003-07-19
Danger: This encyclopedia is habit-forming. I try to stop at just one entry, but each one is so very interesting that it leads me to more cross-referenced entries and then still more. All in all it seems very even-handed in its tone and treatment of the various contentious theories and theorists. It is indispensable for anyone working with evolution, no matter how versant in evolutionary history, and eminently readable for nonspecialists. The only negative criticism I have of the book is that it lacks an index in the back so that one could track a thread. The cross-references at the end of each article are not as exhaustive as I'd like, so a word index to find every mention of a concept should definitely be considered for subsequent editions.
Great!.......1999-01-01
If you're interested in biological evolution, this is a book you've got to have. A huge collection of articles, arranged alphabetically, but each one interesting in itself. And many are fascinating. It's written for common folks, like me, but few compromises are made with scientific precision. Of special interest to many will be the biographical sketches (of "losers" like Lysenko as well as "winners" up to an including both Charles and Erasmus Darwin). Also covers a lot of frauds and hoaxes (e.g., Piltdown Man). You'll have fun. And even professional evolutionary biologists can expect to learn a lot.
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Grandfather
The Search
