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Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History Reprint Edition

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Stephen Jay Gould (Author)
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Stephen Jay Gould (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 27 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0393308570
ISBN-10: 039330857X
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (April 17, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 039330857X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393308570
  • Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1 x 8.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #581,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
extraodinary range, intellectual but in laymans terms - wonderful
By A. Woodley on January 2, 2006
Format: Paperback
I have really enjoyed Stephen Jay Gould. His range of essays and the scope of topics he discusses has always interested me, as has in ability to draw from what is clearly a profoundly wide range of material which covers literature, history, religion as well as natural history. This is I think the thing that most interests me and it is something which we don't often find in intellectual writing now, that ability to draw parallels, or discuss in depth issues outside of a certain subject matter. It reminds me a bit of the late Alistair Cook and his letters from America and these essays are mostly of about the same length.

This collection is 35 essays and collected into 10 loose sections. These include some interesting groupings which you would normally not expect from a natural scientist including Intellectual biography. His biography of Antoine Lavoisier is a case in point. Lavoissier, a renowned scientist of his time, was condemned to death at the guillotine during the French Revolution, and indeed was beheaded. Gould's biography manages to touch on the aspects of his life and death including the myths which remain on his last words and days, the attempted scientific restructuring of France by the revolutionaries (including new measurements and renaming of the months etc) and the revolution's final downfall, it turned out the revolution did need scientists after all.

There are essays on "kiwi eggs and the liberty Bell" or one of my favourites on Glow worms which uses the life of this insect to discuss our understanding of life processes of all insects - is the adult form the ultimate, or, like glowworms which are pupa, should we be reconsidering our adult-centric view of the natural world?Read more ›
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Goulden pond
By Cecil Bothwell VINE VOICE on November 19, 2007
Format: Paperback
My commendation of Stephen Jay Gould is in the way of a class action review. I do not remember reading anything by this author that was not satisfying and worthwhile - though sometimes at odds with my own views. This collection of essays was simply the latest I had found at the library when I wrote this review (some years ago). Gould's explorations of science and its cultural relevance, his clear explanations of arcane points of evolutionary theory, and his evident excitement about learning make him one of my faves. Why is the QWERTY keyboard (on which I am typing this review) a good example of the tendency of evolutionary changes to persist? What can we learn about creationism from the myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball? How might the popularization of dinosaurs be used to improve science education? Why is birth only a point on a continuum? Why do kiwis lay enormous eggs, and what does that tell us about scientific research? This is brain candy of the first order. Check it out.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Gould makes natural science a fun read.
By James Song on December 12, 2000
Format: Paperback
Gould makes clever analogies & comparisons of natural sciences with common things around us. Most of the topics he covered would be a bore to read by itself but Gould masterfully entertains & educates with his adroit prose & humorous side comments.
It is a bit on the long side and some of his comparisons used fads of the early 90's which are not relevant today; but all in all, the book is a winner.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Gooey Globs of the Great God Gould
By A Customer on June 21, 1997
Format: Paperback
The 20th century has produced 3 truly great science writers, professional scientists who are able to not only write well, and not only in their own particular fields, but in virtually all fields of science and culture. Two of those great writers, Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan, are no longer among us. The third, Stephen Jay Gould, is. Gould is an eclectic writer and a true scholar, able to make virtually any subject not only accessible to the "average" reader, if there is any such animal, but also fascinating- if you have no interest in the subject of an essay when you begin reading, you will have an interest by the time you finish. Gould's essays wander far and wide across many fields of science, religion, literature, history and human nature, but all revolve around his one central passion- evolution, and how it effects EVERYTHING (earning for Gould the eternal contempt of Creationists.) If I could recommend the works of only two writers from whom you would be allowed to gain an understanding of the world, Stephen Jay Gould would be one of them (and Joseph Campbell the other
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Practice Makes (More Nearly) Perfect
By Glenn A. Knight on March 9, 2001
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is the sixth of the collections of Gould's essays from the magazine Natural History. Gould has commented that, as he got better at essay writing, he found the earlier volumes less pleasing. Certainly, as he went along, he improved both in literary quality and in the depth of his treatment of issues. Gould is amusing, but always with a serious purpose: to educate the public about how science works, and how, often, it doesn't. In particular, the section of three essays gathered under the heading "Numbers and Probability" is very good at making one think about the real nature of "the odds."
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
GOULD'S FIFTH BOOK OF ESSAYS FROM "NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE"
By Steven H Propp TOP 100 REVIEWER on May 13, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) wrote many other important books, such as The Panda's Thumb, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, The Flamingo's Smile, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, Eight Little Piggies, Dinosaur in a Haystack, Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, The Lying Stones Of Marrakech, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, etc. [NOTE: page numbers refer to the 540-page hardcover edition.]

He wrote in the Prologue of this 1991 book, "This is the fifth volume of collected essays from my monthly series, 'This View of Life'...Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

the stories are great, science is really and brought to a level ...

I bought this for a class but really, even if you are not a Bio major, the stories are great, science is really and brought to a level everyone can appreciate.

Published 9 months ago by Mo B
Recipient loves this book.

This book was given as a Christmas gift & the recipient is delighted with it.

Published 11 months ago by Buffalo Bill
Four Stars

A great book by Stephen Jay Gould dealing with the mechanisms of evolution and the controversy darwinism- creationism.

Published 11 months ago by Vilma G. Rosato
Three Stars

good

Published 14 months ago by W.Grimm
Five Stars

Excellent

Published 15 months ago by Charles Cosner
GOULD'S FIFTH BOOK OF ESSAYS FROM "NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE"

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) wrote many other important books, such as The Panda's Thumb, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, The Flamingo's Smile, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and... Read more

Published 19 months ago by Steven H Propp
An entertaining series of essays on the early life of this planet.

For anyone interested in paleontology, Stephen Jay Gould's books of essays on that science and evolution are a must read.

Published on July 11, 2013 by Old Rocks
"science is tested evidence"

_Bully for Brontosaurus_ is really a 3.5 star book, but I'll round up, as Amazon won't allow half-star ratings. Read more

Published on May 5, 2013 by doc peterson
Science? Not just - Culture

The best science writer, ever. And not only this. Gould makes you travel from biology to basebol, then to archeology and to music... He is amazing!

Published on April 6, 2013 by Luiz Carlos Modesto dos Santos
Gould's Seminal Work

Stephen Jay Gould's writing is always fascinating and this book was equally engrossing. His style is so enjoyable that I did not want to stop reading until finished.

Published on December 20, 2012 by rbcormany

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