The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Some times you just need to put on some rose-colored glasses. I picked this one up to read positive news, something I rarely get on the local TV news here, or in much of my reading. I was surprised the author took a long view, going back to pre-history to set a baseline for growth of the species, starting with the birth of homo sapiens and waning of other humanoids. So you start off with a win for our team. And each chapter is another chapter where the author makes a case for a win for the "home" team, through issues of trade, population explosion, food shortages, etc. I enjoyed the trip, and the author provided some different ways to frame progress that I hadn't considered. At times, though, the writing seemed a bit off. For instance, the author kept making assumptions about violent males and passive females that lead into his theses on prehistory and trade, presenting in a flip way. That makes things readable, but it made it a bit questionable. So I got the rose-colored glasses here, and maybe a bit more. There seems to have been a number of these kinds of books written in the recent past, I need to see if the newer ones are better than this or not.
View all my reviews
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Review: The Dying Animal
The Dying Animal by Philip Roth My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read this at the same age as the protagonist, and I greatly appreciated t...
-
Foundation by Isaac Asimov My rating: 3 of 5 stars I decided to read the Foundation novels in chronological order, and before this...
-
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler My rating: 4 of 5 stars As an aging tech guy myself, I saw parts of myself and my frien...
-
Dutchman's Flat by Louis L'Amour My rating: 4 of 5 stars I found myself smiling as I read the second or third story in thi...
No comments:
Post a Comment