The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History Reissue Edition

by Stephen Jay Gould (Author)

189 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0393308198

ISBN-10: 0393308197

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"Gould is a natural writer; he has something to say and the inclination and skill with which to say it." ―P. B. Medawar, New York Review of Books

With sales of well over one million copies in North America alone, the commercial success of Gould's books now matches their critical acclaim. The Panda's Thumb will introduce a new generation of readers to this unique writer, who has taken the art of the scientific essay to new heights.

Were dinosaurs really dumber than lizards? Why, after all, are roughly the same number of men and women born into the world? What led the famous Dr. Down to his theory of mongolism, and its racist residue? What do the panda's magical "thumb" and the sea turtle's perilous migration tell us about imperfections that prove the evolutionary rule? The wonders and mysteries of evolutionary biology are elegantly explored in these and other essays by the celebrated natural history writer Stephen Jay Gould.

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Editorial Reviews

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“It is a wonder what Mr. Gould can do with the most unlikely phenomena: a tiny organism's use of the earth's magnetic field as a guide to food and comfort, for instance, or the panda's thumb―which isn't one…Science writing at its best.”
- The New Yorker

“Stephen Jay Gould is a serious and gifted interpreter of biological theory, of the history of ideas, and of the cultural context of scientific discovery…The Panda's Thumb is fresh and mind-stretching. Above all, it is exultant. So should its readers be.”
- H. Jack Geiger, New York Times Book Review

“Gould can do no wrong…As long as he writes, you cannot help but read―and enjoy.”
- Isaac Asimov

About the Author

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University. He published over twenty books, received the National Book and National Book Critics Circle Awards, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (August 17, 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393308197
ISBN-13: 978-0393308198
Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 189 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #166 in Books > Science & Math > Essays & Commentary
- #384 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural History
- #1745 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Biology & Life Sciences

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Reynaldo Bo

Some great essays, but uneven

April 23, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Gould is a terrific writer when on the right subjects, neatly and concisely laying out in a series of essays originally written as magazine columns some interesting trivia. When he sticks to evolution, he's incredible. When he veers in to the history of science, he can be uneven and long-winded, and the forays in to geology are largely pointless. When discussing the period from Darwin's first publishing of his theory to the widespread acceptance over the course of a generation, he focuses too much on one or two unimportant characters and misses the forest for the trees.
Which is a shame. The early chapters are great fun to read, and offer great insight in to how adaptation works. But unlike, say, Dawkins, Gould wanders about in an uneven fashion. That's expected somewhat in a book that is a collection of magazine pieces written over many years, unlike a purpose-written book. But some of these feel like an idea that had been sitting in a drawer for many years, he decided to write something about it, but didn't really have much to say. A good editor could have cleaned that up, but perhaps that would not have left enough material for a book.

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March 8, 2001

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This volume is a collection of Gould's earlier essays for the New York Museum of Natural History. They reflect his marvelous insight into the heart of current arguments in evolution studies, his knowledge of the history of the subject, and his take on life in general. The Panda's Thumb, entitled from one of these essays, is not quite as witty as his later works are, but his personable style and conversational approach make the book very readable.
One of the more interesting topics included is his discussion of the 19th Century rationale for prejudice against women and individuals of non-Western cultures. I found the very circular reasoning on the correlation between brain size and intellect and the misbegotten comparison of developmentally delayed individuals with individuals of other races particularly informative. The same kind of reasoning appears to be enjoying a destructive renaissance among social biologists today, most notably the authors of the notorious Bell Curve. The dissection of this type of faulty reasoning by an expert is instructive and a process well worth learning oneself and teaching to young people.
Some of the more admirable of Gould's writing habits, and well displayed in this book, are his ability to give fair voice to the opposition, his acknowledgement of the work of others, and his capacity to find value even in the faulty work of others. The latter is well demonstrated in his discussion of the 19th Century effort to locate a representative of a basic life form, a link between the living and the inert. In this essay he shows that good science is part hard work, part individual brilliance, and part being able to say "I was wrong in my thinking here."
The casual, approachable style, the brilliant and open mind, the logical approach to argument all make this an excellent book for anyone but would definitely make it a good book for high school students to learn the process of critical thought.

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Andrew K. Galloway

IQ only explains very little when trying to judge the worth of a person.

March 13, 2014

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I love the way Gould gets to the heart of things and explains his arguments in an easy to understand way. I highly recommend this and any of his books to enlighten your knowledge of many subjects. I am not saying he is the final authority on any of these subjects but after reading him, I always feel I am better off for putting in the time to read his books.

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February 25, 2018

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The Mismeasure of Man Stephen Jay Gould

The late prolific writer of natural history and natural selection concludes his The Mismeasure of Man with a line from Darwin,”If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by out institutions, great is our sin.”

In The Mismeasure of Man, Gould yields perspectives on three centuries of race and racism, and how men of the fledgling school of psychology attempted to qualify and quantify their new science by half baked theory and methodology followed by bastardizing the intent of Binet’s intelligence testing. Binet said “intelligence cannot be abstracted as a single number. IQ is a helpful device for identifying children in need of aid, not a dictate of inevitable biology.”
Much of Gould’s manuscript concentrates on those, much to the contrary of Binet’s intent, who carried intelligence testing and ratings to obscene levels.

Gould explains and refutes the examples of statistical analysis used by the early to mid 20th century psychologists, which formed the basis for the Herrnstein and Murray 1994 work, The Bell Curve. Gould writes in regard to The Bell Curve, “So long as people remain on the top of the Social heaps by accident of a noble name or parental wealth, and so long as members of despised castes cannot rise, whatever their talents, social stratification will not reflect intellectual merit.” Though quite often long in word, Gould attacks and documents how this intellectual racism has and continues to inject itself into our culture.

Gould analyzes how “passive acceptance of common wisdom, of upper class Victorian males” evolved into “potent and evil nonsense that passed for certain knowledge,” and the repercussions that have historically manifested themselves. This became all too apparent with certain ethnic groups, Jewish refugees from Central Europe in particular, wishing to escape the coming Nazi holocaust, who sought to emigrate, were refused entry due to “eugenic propaganda”due to quotas based upon intelligence testing.

Gould was a prolific writer, whose voice, now absent, is needed more than ever.
The Mismeasure of Man, at times is a tough read, in particular the sections covering statistics and factor analysis, but Gould enables the reader to understand the continual fallacy of effort to quantify intelligence with a single number, and how this has affected us historically, and continues to do so today.

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January 27, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Wonderfully written and thought provoking. Although I do not necessarily agree with all of Mr. Gould's opinions, he provides good arguments and interesting facts. A must read for anyone with a keen interest in evolutionary biology.

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May 24, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Always good reading

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ventingisok

I am a captured audience

September 24, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I am a fan of Gould's "A Wonderful Life". I am in the beginning pages of The Panda's Thumb. The quality of the information is similar in both books. They are coffee table books for me, not really retaining anything but better than most for passing the time.

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