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DOMINION

The latest on human evolution from our man at New York City's American Museum of Natural History (Dept. of Invertebrates), who views the future with alarm. We have absorbed the Genesis myth, Eldredge (Reinventing Darwin, p. 356, etc.) declares, accepting our God-given role as having ``dominion . . . over every creeping thing.'' Thus, we stand above and apart from nature, which we continue to exploit. The rise of agriculture and cultural traditions allowed us to transcend local ecosystems so that we stand today 5.7 billion strong and growing, a global species in danger of planetary and self- destruction. Not good. Not new, either. Eldredge, as impassioned and articulate as he is, echoes much of what the Ehrlichs, E.O. Wilson, and other biologist-conservationists are saying. Elsewhere there are new wrinkles, and Eldredge is good at reprising the out- of-Africa evolutionary story, emphasizing major weather changes as pivotal goads to evolution. One occurred 2.7 to 2.5 million years ago as East African wetlands changed to dry savannah. That created niches for specialized vegetarian protohuman species and other more generalized, bigger-brained speciesboth descendants of Australopithecus africanus. According to the Eldredge scenario, a second cold pulse around 1.6 million years ago led to a more advanced hominid, Homo ergaster (``work man''), which Eldredge believes was ancestor to the more familiar Homo erectus species, which eventually led to us. In short, Eldredge argues that material culture builds with each successive species and with the ice ages begins to move at a pace that decouples biological from cultural evolution. We can no longer count on natural selection to do its thing because we are no longer living in small, geographically isolated groups. Ergo, we need to forego dominion and embrace sustainable growth, respect all flora and fauna, and practice population control, most likely to come about with the education and empowerment of women. Makes sense, but is anyone outside the members of the choir listening?

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-8050-2982-6

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995

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WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...

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A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.

Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”

A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6

Page Count: 248

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015

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GOOD ECONOMICS FOR HARD TIMES

Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.

“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.

It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.

Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0

Page Count: 432

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019

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