Product Description

Stephen Jay Gould's writing remains the modern standard by which popular science writing is judged. Ever since the late 1970s, his monthly essay in Natural History and his full-length books have bridged the yawning gap between science and wider culture. This fascinating new collection of essays from Natural History is his next to last. Gould has once again applied biographical perspectives to the illumination of key scientific concepts and their history, ranging from the origins of palaeontology to modern eugenics and genetic engineering. As always, the essays brilliantly illuminate and elucidate the puzzles and paradoxes great and small that have fuelled the enterprise of science and opened our eyes to a world of unexpected wonders.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147439 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Stephen Jay Gould's monumental series of popular science essays, started in the 1970s, approaches its close with The Lying Stones of Marrakech. The subtitle, "Penultimate Reflections in Natural History", indicates that the next volume will be the last. Back at the beginning, in The Panda's Thumb and The Flamingo's Smile, Gould concerned himself with zoological and paleontological issues, demonstrating how the curiosities of nature--the bodged jobs, if you like--were more revealing of the workings of evolution and natural selection than its perfection. His focus has changed somewhat, and the current offering reflects a preoccupation with the intellectual history of science. The results may be less immediately appealing than Gould's earlier accounts of biological freaks and oddities, and the effort required of the reader greater, but the rewards are immense.

These essays deal with the evolution of key concepts in the history of science, showing in every case that the accepted textbook accounts of their development are at the least over-simplifications, at worst downright falsifications resulting from misunderstanding, prejudice or even malice. The title essay deals with the case of an 18th-century fossil-collector duped into accepting as genuine fossils an absurd (to modern eyes) collection of forgeries including life-like lizards complete with skin and eyes, cobwebs and bees taking nectar from flowers. As always with Gould, context is everything. He patiently explores the intellectual assumptions underlying the wretched Dr Beringer's mistake and shows how, far from being a piece of misguided folly, it illuminates a profound and serious contemporary debate about the origins of the Earth and the laws governing the workings of the Universe.

The remaining essays share the same spirit of dedicated enquiry. Gould's delight, or even exultation, in the life of the mind and the workings of science is inspiring in the highest degree. Readers familiar with his earlier essays will encounter many old friends (Darwin, Huxley, Lyell, L Lavoisier, Richard Owen among others) and meet new ones; the preoccupation with baseball is as strong as ever, though references to his beloved Gilbert and Sullivan are, mercifully some might think, absent. Many will regret the imminent closure of this remarkable series of volumes, but The Lying Stones of Marrakech is an intellectual feast and sufficient unto the day. --Robin Davidson

Customer Reviews

A blemished redeemer
What to make of American paleontologist and science historian Stephen Gould? Nearly any one viewing this page will have heard of him, few in the English-speaking world have not. His passionate defense of science against the Christians, his affinity for that American social icon baseball, his ability in retrieving lost reputations of early scientists have all become legendary elements to his readers. His writing talents are aknowledged excellent, even by his opponents. Those who have read him elsewhere will find this collection a worthy addition to their library's Gouldiana.

Gould begins this series with a description of fake 'fossils' found in Morroco. He doesn't credit this with widening acceptance of ancient remains, but turns it into an essay describing a notorious event in mid-18th Century Germany. Johannes Beringer was hoaxed by his own students into accepting a number of impossible conigurations found in some local rocks as genuine 'fossils'. The effect of the hoax may inhibited geological theories.

As with so many of Gould's essay collections, he engages in the redemption of scientists now overshadowed by modern scientific thinking. Buffon is portrayed as a man of immense energy and dedication. Lavoisier's struggle to comprehend the earth's processes foretold ideas later expressed by Hutton and Lyell. Lamarck, that exposed target of Darwinian assaults, is restored to an enhanced position in the scientific pantheon. Even Richard Owen, who used such devious methods in assailing Darwin's natural selection, is given absolution.

What, then, are we to make of Gould's continuous attempts to degrade the reputation of Charles Darwin. This isn't the initial strike; in other collections Gould has judged Darwin as a coward for holding back publication of Origin for twenty years. Elsewhere, he's criticized Darwin as a hypocrite due to the master of Down's social standing. Here, he uses advertising techniques to characterize Darwin as a 'Sly Dullard'. The Oxford dictionary translates that into 'Michievous and Mentally Slow'. How that appellation can be applied to the man who conceived the grandest idea in science is elusive. Darwin's spirit should not be found guilty simply because he lacked flamboyance. If Gould wished to categorize Darwin as a 'plodder', it would be far less objectionable. It isn't Darwin's fault that he didn't arrive at his concept in a flash of malarial dilerium, as Wallace did. Darwin spent those two decades building evidence, a proper scientific technique.

Still, most of us have learned to grit our teeth and bear Gould's anti-Darwinian diatribes, focussing instead on his fine writing skills and breadth of subject matter. He certainly needed them in the essay on Two Work Sites. In this compassionate essay, he struggles with aspects of human culture, finally pronouncing it a 'Lamarckian' mechanism. One can visualize him agonizing before his word processor to find a substitute for 'meme' so as not to concede a single point to Richard Dawkins. A tribute, indeed, to his writing skilss, but a signal failure to aknowledge an idea growing in strength.

Interesting read but you do need to put down part way throug
For a different look at things in the world, this book is fun to read, but you can have too much of a good thing and need time to think about what is written.

I'm glad I read the book and I think it has made me look at many things in a different way from how I might have approached them before reading this book

Gould strikes again
Another essay collection from Gould, another interesting read. I'm currently re-re-reading parts of this book because there's so much to learn and ponder. Gould has the golden touch (no pun intended) as far as writing goes, and he has an uncanny ability to draw the reader into small sections of the Universe we never knew existed. Then he makes these tidbits a source of wonder and amazement. Good thing it is an essay collection though. It's nice to be able to take a breather between essays to assimilate the material.

If you wonder what to read next then this is just right. There is bound to be something in the book that captures your imagination.