To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.Copyright © 2005-2024 Christopher P. Winter. All rights reserved.
This page was last modified on 10 August 2024.
| ANTHROPOLOGY |
The primary definition of anthropology, according to Merriam-Webster, is: "the science of human beings; especially: the study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space and in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture." I base my usage here on the first part of that (which I think should read "the study of human beings.") I include in this category, therefore, books about formal studies of anthropology, psychology and sociology. I also include less formal works — for example, Bernie Zilbergeld's excellent self-help guide for adolescent males. As I did in the first instantiation of my Web site, I wall some of these off. This may be an excess of caution, but I'll stick with it for now. Garish and forbidding, the gateway to these sequestered reviews lies below the main list. |
| PRINCIPAL AUTHOR |
TITLE (Linked to review) |
RATING (0-5) |
REVIEW DATE |
ONE-LINE DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Achenbach, Joel | Captured by Aliens | 5.0 | 2/18/2004 | All those who have been so captured — that is, had their imaginations captured by aliens, scientists as well as UFO believers — are covered in this entertaining and thoughtful book. |
| Barley, Stephen R. | Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies | 5.0 | 1/26/2006 | The authors examine the care and feeding of professional contractors in the high-tech culture of California's Silicon Valley, and speculate on contracting's future place in society. |
| Bickerton, Derek | Adam's Tongue | 5.0 | 2/03/2012 | Derek Bickerton, linguist at the University of Hawaii, has an idea how human language came to be — and a warning. |
| Borsook, Paulina | Cyberselfish | 4.5 | 7/19/2011 | A close look at Silicon Valley during the heyday of the personal computer revolution finds the creators of that revolution, by and large, too far into extreme, anti-government libertarianism and far too dedicated to the outlook of "I got mine; everybody else can fend for themselves." |
| Carr, Nicholas | The Shallows | 5.0 | 8/18/2014 | Yet another look at the way modern communication systems work against sustained concentration |
| Eldredge, Niles | Dominion | 4.5 | 5/20/2011 | Eldredge, a Curator at New York's Museum of Natural History, says our unnatural history is in big trouble if we don't change our profligate ways. |
| Gelernter, David | Drawing Life | 5.0 | 10/30/2000 | A meditation on surviving both the Unabomber and the educational system that produced him |
| Hammond, Allen | Which World? | 5.0 | 9/18/2011 | From a year of intense work, Dr. Hammond and others distilled three plausible scenarios for the next fifty years. Supporting information is provided. |
| Harrison, Albert A. | After Contact | 5.0 | 3/24/2002 | How will the human race react when it hears from ET? Psychologist Albert Harrison looks at the current state of human affairs, and is encouraged. |
| Jackson, Maggie | Distracted | 5.0 | 6/10/2010 | We're deluged by information from a society that demands we be good at multitasking. What are these requirements doing to our minds? Maggie Jackson takes a good long look at the question. |
| Kolata, Gina | Ultimate Fitness | 5.0 | 9/16//2010 | New York Times reporter Kolata here probes the world of workouts and exposes a health scam. |
| Larbalestier, Justine | The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction | 4.0 | 2/15/2012 | Flashes of insight and some unique scholarship by Australian academic Larbalestier make this work useful despite its excessive jargon and overstatement of its feminist case. |
| Levitt, Steven D. | Freakonomics | 5.0 | 6/03/2007 | Why do drug dealers live with their mothers? What was behind the drop in crime during the 1990s? Find out in this book by "rogue economist" Levitt and New York Times reporter Dubner. It's like no economics book you've read. |
| Mooney, Chris | The Republican Brain | 5.0 | 5/16/2012 | Following up on his excellent survey of how Republicans misunderstand science, here Mooney investigates why they do so. It is a worthy successor to the previous book. |
| Pinker, Susan | The Sexual Paradox | 4.5 | 1/12/2010 | Developmental psychologist Susan Pinker gives us an empathetic and useful examination of how the career choices of men and women relate to their biological differences |
| Postrel, Virginia | The Future and its Enemies | 5.0 | 6/17/2002 | Those who try to prevent change, and those who try to control it, block the paths to genuine progress. |
| Ray, Paul H. | The Cultural Creatives | 5.0 | 2/28/2003 | Thirteen years of research went into this book, which portrays through anecdotes and statistics the cultural evolution being wrought by the 50 million people making up its namesake group. |
| Rifkin, Jeremy | The European Dream | 5.0 | 1/09/2006 | Is the American Dream obsolete? Jeremy Rifkin argues in this information-dense book that it is, and should be supplanted by the more communitarian model he labels the European Dream. |
| Ruggiero, Vincent Ryan | Warning: Nonsense is Destroying America | 4.0 | 4/24/2006 | Mr. Ruggiero seeks to analyze the harmful effects of popular culture on America, but lets his hatred of that popular culture lead him to overstate his case. |
| Sagan, Carl | The Demon-Haunted World | 5.0 | 1/07/1997 | Why ignorance and superstition persist — and why they must not |
| Sagan, Carl | The Dragons of Eden | 5.0 | 1/14/1997 | Speculations on the origin of human intelligence |
| Sagan, Carl | Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors | 5.0 | 1/22/1997 | An exploration of human nature in its ecological and historical contexts |
| Teilhard du Chardin, Pierre | The Phenomenon of Man | 4.0 | 6/18/2003 | In his best-known work, the renowned paleontologist and Jesuit Father attempts to reconcile evolution and Catholicism. |
| Weeks, David | Eccentrics | 5.0 | 11/08/2000 | A layman's version of Dr. Weeks' report on the study he did of the eccentric personality |
| Weissman, Dick | Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution | 4.5 | 11/23/2011 | Popular music has the ability to inspire, to comfort, even to heal. But can it — can protest music, especially — bring about social change? |
| Williams, Joy | Ill Nature | 4.0 | 12/31/2009 | Novelist Joy Williams here holds forth on the environment (and a few other things) in a collection of her essays. |
| Wylie, Philip | Generation of Vipers | 5.0 | 1/10/2006 | Written in 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked, this famously forthright work of social criticism has much about it that still rings true and valuable. |
| The books are rated from 0 to 5 in increments of 0.5. Colors represent the following quality ranges: | ||||
| 4.0 to 5.0 | Quality: | HIGH | (Color = Aqua) | Competent to exceptional; well worth the money |
| 2.0 to 3.5 | Quality: | FAIR | (Color = Lime) | Useful despite some flaws; may or may not be worth buying. |
| 0.5 to 1.5 | Quality: | POOR | (Color = Yellow) | Seriously flawed; read it if you wish, but don't buy it. |
| 0.0 to 0.0 | Quality: | YUCK | (Color = Fuchsia) | Avoid this book at all costs! |
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.