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A review by peter_ewing
Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time by Gaia Vince
2.0
First, the good things. There's a lot in this book. Gaia Vince covers a huge amount of ground, taken from a wide range of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, psychology and history. There are numerous striking snippets of information to engage the reader.
But as a whole, it just doesn't add up to anything. Not only does it not build to any comprehensible overall thesis, it really has no structure at all. Vince moves from one topic to another often by what seems to be a process of word association. It's a bit like listening to someone ramble about their pet theories. Nominally, it is structured into four big themes (fire, language, beauty and time) but most of the content has only a vague connection with these. Just one example: the last theme explored under "beauty" is living in cities. There really is no thread to connect these.
There are numerous errors of fact and, worse, errors of reason. Again, one example: Vince uses a flawed statistical argument to suggest that we all share a fairly recent common ancestor. She then goes on, shortly afterwards, to show exactly why this is not true by discussing isolated populations such as the Pacific Islands. In many places, speculation is presented as fact - no "might have been" or "it is possible that".
But maybe the most problematic aspect of the book is its enthusiastice, "gosh how wonderful" tone which predominates with occasional exceptions. Combined with the tendency to over-explain simple and well-known ideas, this can at times make it feel like a children's book. (Yes, I did feel patronised.)
But as a whole, it just doesn't add up to anything. Not only does it not build to any comprehensible overall thesis, it really has no structure at all. Vince moves from one topic to another often by what seems to be a process of word association. It's a bit like listening to someone ramble about their pet theories. Nominally, it is structured into four big themes (fire, language, beauty and time) but most of the content has only a vague connection with these. Just one example: the last theme explored under "beauty" is living in cities. There really is no thread to connect these.
There are numerous errors of fact and, worse, errors of reason. Again, one example: Vince uses a flawed statistical argument to suggest that we all share a fairly recent common ancestor. She then goes on, shortly afterwards, to show exactly why this is not true by discussing isolated populations such as the Pacific Islands. In many places, speculation is presented as fact - no "might have been" or "it is possible that".
But maybe the most problematic aspect of the book is its enthusiastice, "gosh how wonderful" tone which predominates with occasional exceptions. Combined with the tendency to over-explain simple and well-known ideas, this can at times make it feel like a children's book. (Yes, I did feel patronised.)