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THE CREATIONISTS

A beautifully balanced and comprehensive history of ``scientific creationism.'' Although Numbers (History of Science and Medicine/Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison; Prophetess of Health, 1976) is a staunch evolutionist, he professes sympathy for creationists, a product of his Seventh-Day Adventist childhood. The result is a book of crisp, cool intelligence that avoids polemic as it untangles the colorful ideas and personalities that shaped creationism. Modern Americans- -47% of whom embrace creationism, according to a Gallup poll, and 86% of whom favor teaching it alongside Darwinism in the public schools—may be surprised to learn that until a few decades ago, creationists accepted the antiquity of the earth and the validity of fossils, holding to either the ``day-age'' theory (each biblical day of creation was eons long) or the ``gap'' theory (after the initial creation, millennia passed before God made Eden). All changed with George MacCready Price, an armchair scientist and occasional construction worker whose 726-page textbook, The New Geology, dated the earth at less than 10,000 years and claimed that a massive flood (the one Noah survived) gave birth to the fossil record. This ``flood geology'' rules creationism today, which has received a remarkable boost through bestselling books, the support of scores of scientists, and massive publicity from the ``creation trials'' of the 1980's. Numbers notes that creationism is now a self-critical field with strict ethical standards, while orthodox science too often bashes the opposition through blatant prejudice and arrogance. Creationism is in its heyday, he says, with its ``shocking success'' most marked among Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and evangelical Protestants. Numbers's objectivity, eye for anecdote, and knack for deciphering the enigmas of science and pseudoscience make this the best history of creationism to date—a landmark work in the field. (Twenty-four b&w photographs—not seen.)

Pub Date: Sept. 2, 1992

ISBN: 0-679-40104-0

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992

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THE 48 LAWS OF POWER

If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.

The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.

Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.

If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-670-88146-5

Page Count: 430

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998

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THE BOOK OF GENESIS ILLUSTRATED

An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.

The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.

R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.

An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009

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