Web Exclusive Reviews - NonFiction
-- Publishers Weekly, 3/26/2007 11:49:00 AM
* THE ACCIDENTAL MIND: How Brain Evolution has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God
David J. Linden. Harvard Univ., $25.95 (236p) ISBN 9780674024786
The brain, that “cobbled-together mess,” is the subject of this lively mix of solid science and fascinating case histories. Linden, a neuroscientist from Johns Hopkins University, offers “the Reader’s Digest version” of how the brain functions, followed quickly by the “real biology,” before tackling the big questions: Why are people religious? How do we form memories? What makes sleep so vital to mental health? Which is more important, nature or nurture? Linden tackles these problems head on, debunking myths (people do, in fact, use more than 10 percent of their brains) and offering interesting trivia (Einstein’s brain was a bit on the small side) along the way. Anti-evolutionary arguments are answered in a chapter titled “The Unintelligent Design of the Brain,” in which Linden proposes that it’s the brain’s “weird agglomeration of ad hoc solutions” that makes humans unique. The book’s greatest strength is Linden’s knack for demystifying biology and neuroscience with vivid similes (he calls the brain, weighing two percent of total body weight and using 20 percent of its energy, the “Hummer H2 of the body”). Though packed with textbook-ready data, the book grips readers like a masterful teacher; those with little science experience may be surprised to find themselves interested in—and even chuckling over—the migration of neurons along radial glia, and anxious to find out what happens next. (Mar.)
Animal Architects: Building and the Evolution of Intelligence
James R. Gould and Carol Grant Gould. Basic, $26.95 (290p) ISBN 9780465027828
In order to elucidate the thought processes of animals—and those processes’ evolution—the Goulds (The Animal Mind) consider those animals’ egg caches, cocoons, webs, nests and other structures. According to the authors, “complex nervous systems exist to make sense of the world”; therefore, by examining the material construction sprung from those nervous systems, one can begin to understand how those systems function. It makes a fascinating journey, with plenty of surprises. Beginning with the simplest structures of ants, wasps and bees, the authors introduce concepts of neural mapping to show what levels of brain complexity are necessary for the construction of such structures. Distinguishing instinctual neural program from questions of spontaneity and creativity, the Goulds suggest that creatures as small as wasps can react with spontaneous problem solving behaviors. The creativity of bower birds and beavers is more astounding: the former is known to build and decorate “maypoles,” clearly demonstrating aesthetic sense; and the latter display abstract reasoning, and even insight, in the maintenance and repair of their lodges, dams and canals. This book is filled with fascinating vignettes illuminating the intelligence capabilities of species us humans would like to think of as inferior; again and again, the Goulds show that human beings aren’t necessarily the smartest kids in class. (Mar.)
THE GOOD, THE SPAM, AND THE UGLY: Shooting it Out with Internet Bad Guys
Steve Graham. Carol/Citadel, $12.95 paper (144p) ISBN 9780806528243
Most of the internet-using public has by now received at least one unsolicited e-mail from someone in Africa (or elsewhere), offering a too-good-to-be-true, get-rich-quick scheme. According to author and retired attorney Graham (Eat What you Want and Die Like a Man), the stupidity of Americans has turned Lagos, Nigeria into “an upscale suburb full of spam mansions.” Turning the tables, Graham replies to these malicious e-mailers with invented aliases and crazy stories that only a hapless, gullible schemer would believe: signing his emails with names like Barney Rubble, Graham tells his correspondents that he wants to “sell chia pets in erotic shapes” and “open Nevada’s first drive-thru brothel for seniors.” It’s a funny premise—after all, it served three volumes of Ted Nancy’s Letters from a Nut well enough—but Graham’s humor often falls flat, and the back-and-forth e-mails quickly blend together. Amid juvenile, occasionally scatological humor, Graham provides middling comic anecdotes about himself and his family (such as his cousin, bit by a mongoose). At times, he’s gleefully offensive, as in an unfunny commentary about midgets, taking on the persona of Adolph Hitler and describing one spammer as “not the brightest candle on the Kwanzaa menorah.” While the idea of messing with spammers might entice, Graham’s approach isn’t for everyone. (Mar.)
The Little Red Book of Wisdom
Mark DeMoss. Nelson Business, $16.99 (170p) ISBN 9780785221685
As the founder and president of The DeMoss Group, a public relations firm devoted to serving Christian organizations and causes, DeMoss believes wisdom is simple, plentiful and in no way reserved for the elite or highly educated. However, it doesn’t hurt to have a Judeo-Christian perspective on the world; for DeMoss, “God is the source of all wisdom,” and the lessons contained herein come from the Bible (especially Proverbs), public figures like evangelist Billy Graham and golfer John Daly, regular Joes and DeMoss’s own experience. Eschewing a simplified approach to advice-giving, DeMoss uses narratives to convey his lessons, insisting that “We’re not talking about New Year’s resolutions here; we’re talking about every person’s option, sooner or later, to live deliberately.” Though it will appeal largely to a religious audience, DeMoss’s arguments debunking commonly accepted falsehoods—like the myth of the “self-made millionaire” and the limitless promise of technology—are definitely timely, and his common sense approach to chapters like “The Power of Understatement” and “Work Less, Think More” has universal appeal. (Mar.)
A NEW WORLD: England’s First View of America
Kim Sloan. Univ. of North Carolina, $60 (256p) ISBN 9780807831250; $29.95 paper -58257
Elizabethan artist John White, a gentleman of the court and a friend of Sir Walter Raleigh, made five voyages to the new world from 1584 to 1590 and provided England its first look at Native Americans and their home through his watercolor and ink illustrations. Author and British Museum curator Sloan devotes her first six chapters to historical background, placing White’s voyages to the New World in context; not only would White be appointed governor of Roanoke colony, he would also became grandfather to the first European born in North America. The remainder of the book catalogues White’s 75 watercolors (lost in the 16th century, rediscovered in 1788 and bought by the British Museum in 1866), which include renderings of Native Americans, Inuit, flora, fauna and maps. Sloan excels in explaining the images’ historical significance: White’s watercolors of Native Americans are remarkable for their sympathetic portrayal of real individuals—painted at a time when tribes like the Inuit were considered “barely human” by the English—and provide information about status, apparel, weapons and personal character. White’s skill also extended to cartography: his detailed map of the Virginia coast has proven accurate when compared against modern satellite photography. A visual treat throughout, Sloan’s collection is fully explicated, thoroughly sourced and handsomely presented. (Mar.)
SOCRATES: A Life Examined
Luis E. Navia. Prometheus, $28 (336p) ISBN 9781591025016
“Know thyself” was the foundation of Socratic philosophy. Ironically, history knows little of Socrates, because he refused to write about himself and only fragments of Socratic writing survive. New York Institute of Technology philosophy professor and Social Sciences chair Navia sifts through the writings of Aristophanes, Xenophon and Plato, all of whom knew Socrates personally, to discover the man in full, but an incomplete historical record and conflicting accounts prevent Navia from delivering a nuanced biography. Aristophanes portrayed Socrates in his comedy Clouds as a “ridiculous man,” for instance, while Xenophon and Plato described Socrates as “a gregarious man…possessed by an irresistible passion to communicate his message.” But murkiness is prevalent, as with Navia’s account—based on Xenophon’s Apology—of Socrates’s trial for asebia (worshipping gods not accepted by the state), in which the author constructs a rickety case of conjecture to explain Socrates’s motivations. Philosophy scholars will benefit most; casual readers with an interest in philosophy or Socrates will likely find the book tough going. (Mar.)
THE WIZARD OF MENLO PARK: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World
Randall E. Stross. Crown, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 9781400047628
In this entertaining biography, Stross (eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work) approaches the life of Edison from an atypical angle: where scores of other biographers have focused on the genius’s technical career, Stross presents Edison as the first self-conscious celebrity, a man deeply aware of the media’s power and who wasn’t afraid to use “the press’s hunger for more sensational discoveries for his own ends.” Though branding is now second-nature for famous people (and their handlers), Stross asserts that Edison launched the first successful branding campaign—an achievement arguably further ahead of its time than much of his technical output—by embracing the title “Wizard of Menlo Park,” which was coined by a reporter during Edison’s brief stay in that New Jersey town. With preternatural skill in image-management, Edison became indistinguishable from his moniker, encapsulating perfectly the air of mystery and wisdom he cultivated throughout his life, for both himself and his “invention factory,” which “seemed capable of mastering anything.” Stross’s clear-eyed biography will show readers why, even at the end of the 20th century, Edison remains, outside the U.S., the best-known American ever. (Mar.)
The World of the Vikings
Richard Hall. Thames & Hudson, $34.95 (240p) ISBN 9780500051443
This densely packed, highly informative compilation provides a thorough overview of what is currently known about the Vikings, from both historical sources and archaeological research. Hall, the Director of Archaeology at the York Archaeological Trust, has extensive excavation experience, and uses that experience to discuss, among other sites, the Viking city of Jorvik (beneath present-day York, U.K.). He also delves into broader Viking research, providing, for instance, a comparative chronology charting the history of archaeological investigations into Viking areas of Scandinavia, Europe, Russia, the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland and North America. This chart, located in the book’s early pages, proves to be an indispensible reading guide, anchoring events in the broader history of the Viking Age. Illustrations include photos of artifacts, monuments and sites; both broad-scale and fine-scale maps; and diagrams illustrating details of Viking artistic style. A thorough index and guide to further reading make this volume a fine reference, though it could have used an equally thorough glossary. Exceptionally small print allows Hall to pack in a trove of information; while readers may have to reach for magnifying specs, the effort is fully repaid by this remarkably well-done survey of the Viking Age. 330 illustrations. (Mar.)
