Review by Booklist Review
In his first book-length essay since Wonderful Life (1989), Gould explains two seemingly disparate problems by the same method of analysis. The issues: the disappearance of the .400 hitter in baseball and the notion that biological evolution represents a progression from bacteria to humans. Both phenomena could be more satisfactorily illuminated, Gould feels, if examined in light of Darwin's perception that variety, not distinctiveness, is the theme of life. As a preface to such examination, Gould discusses the interpretation of trends and presents two small case studies--his own experience with a doubtfully treatable cancer and the evolution of horses--in which the consideration of individual variation leads to true conclusions that contradict a central tendency: Gould survived cancer, and the modern horse is evolutionarily a dead end, not an epitome. Finally, Gould tackles his two big cases, in both asking us to take the "full house" of factors into account; that is, the development of all the arts involved in baseball, not just of hitting, and in the matter of evolution, the volume and variety of all species throughout geological time, not just the specializations of vertebrates. So doing, we discover that baseball is better than ever, not that hitters have degenerated, and that progress in evolution is a delusion, for bacteria are now, as they always have been, the real central tendency--the most prolific form of life. Humans constitute a very minor variation in the grand symphony of life, and progress is a cultural, not a scientific, quality. Gould says he has "nurtured" this book, "my adored and wayward boy," for 15 years. If its publication is like the homecoming of the prodigal, go kill the fatted calf. (Reviewed July 1996)0517703947Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A veteran intellectual daredevil, Gould (Dinosaur in a Haystack) climbs further out on a thought-limb than ever before in this paradigm-shattering book. "I am asking my readers," he proclaims, "finally and truly to cash out the deepest meanings of the Darwinian revolution and to view natural reality as composed of varying individuals in populations." The implications of this view are enormous. The most cherished idea Gould challenges is that progress is characteristic of the history of life. In so doing, he undercuts a premise fundamental not only to most religious systems but also to the ideas of many evolutionists (he goes after E.O. Wilson here as vigorously as he does M. Scott Peck). Rather than encompassing a progression from simplicity toward complexity, evolution, says Gould, simply embraces a "full house" of a variety of organisms. Humanity is not a pinnacle of evolution, but an "utterly unpredictable, partly random, and entirely contingent" blip in a distribution pattern. Though Gould relies on much statistical evidence and analysis, he knows how to sugar the pill; for instance, by applying his reasoning to a lengthy, fascinating discussion of the increased rarity of the .400 hitter in baseball. Gould's thinking is solid, but careful readers will note that it is based on fundamental assumptions, including that biological mutation drives evolution, and that matter is primary to mind. The second assumption has received forceful scientific challenge in this century, particularly from quantum physicists. Still, Gould elegantly lays down a gauntlet here, and readers should rush to witness the first thrust in what may become a royal scientific duel. Author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
We suppose it's progress of sorts when popular science writer Gould argues that progress does not in fact characterize life on Earth. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Now hear this: Evolution is not progressive. We (humans) are not the be-all and end-all of nature's plan. You've heard these lines before: They are quintessentially Gould. In this short volume Gould (Dinosaur in a Haystack, 1995, etc.) elaborates on this theme. Among the examples he advances is one that should prove dear to the hearts of baseball fans: Why, Gould asks, are there no .400 hitters anymore? The answer requires looking not at batting but at how the game of baseball has varied over time. There has been a general improvement in play so that the normal curve of batting averages no longer has a tail trailing off to the right where the few .400 stars were to be found. Instead, in Gould's phrase, we have hit a right wall--a boundary reflecting the limits of human performance. A second, longer, and more complex example deals with evolutionary data. If we eliminated human hubris, we would see that it is bacteria that were in the beginning, are now, and ever will be the most populous and successful kingdom--virtually at the left wall boundary in terms of minimally complex organisms capable of life. Over time, there was nothing else for life to do but to expand to the right. However, using fossil records, Gould demonstrates that there was no directionality: Descendants didn't always get more complex--they could just as easily revert to less complex forms. What befuddles the issue is the matter of cultural ``evolution''--a word Gould would strike in favor of the word ``change.'' Cultural inventions (including reading and writing) have enabled great leaps of technical ``progress'' in nanoseconds of time, reckoned by evolutionary standards. As a species, however, we remain an anomalous tail in the full house of life on earth. So we should accept our place with becoming humility. Gould fans will be charmed at the cogency and cleverness of his arguments--but expect a wall of opposition from pious and diehard progressivists. (50 illustrations, not seen) (Author tour)
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