Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations

Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations
Average customer rating:

Wrong conclusion from the start

Lacks discussion of sociology and public choice theory

Incomplete.

A vaccine against populism

What we know and what we donýt

Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations
Paul Krugman
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Wrong conclusion from the start.......2007-07-09

Krugman has bought into the myth that we are forever going backward and that true progress for all is impossible. This is completely wrong. He may not be as extreme as Marx, but he still believes in the "limits to growth" school of economics. No how much evidence is produced to debunk this, it is still the foundatation for benighted folks like Krugman. He has no understanding of innovation and why wealth is unlimited in today's world. He also throws up extreme views and then shoots them down, such as claiming that many argue for no role for government. Goodness, how silly and extreme can you get? If you want to liberate your mind and see the unlimited possibilities of the human mind see anything by Milton Friedman.

Lacks discussion of sociology and public choice theory.......2006-12-29

"If you are a good economist, a virtuous economist ... you are reborn as a physicist. But if you are an evil, wicked economist, you are reborn as a sociologist."

Krugman begins 'Peddling Prosperity' with this quote to expose a fallacy of conservative economists: they do not appreciate the fact that the real world is messier than over-simplified economic models of perfect competition. As someone who has already been through the 'markets are perfect' phase, I can relate. I had high hopes that this book would provide a more balanced and nuanced view of economics. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Issue One: Inequality and Out of Wedlock Childbirths

The first flaw is that Krugman ignored his own advice and treated modern day poverty as an economic issue, rather than a problem best studied by those "evil, wicked" sociologists. On page 4 Krugman notes that child poverty rose from 1973 to 1991, and that family income is only 5% higher in 1991 than it was 1973. He follows this up in chapter five with a whole host of data showing that the poorest families have gotten poorer and the richest families have gotten richer.

What Krugman does mention is the increase in out of wedlock childbirths, which have increased from 11% to 69% among blacks, and from 1% to 28% among whites (including Hispanics), with most of the increase taking place after the mid 1960's. (See the book 'The First Measured Century' about changes in 20th century America).

This rise of single motherhood has two consequences.-The first is that we created an entirely new category of poverty through single motherhood. In 1965 the late Democratic Senator and, and "evil, wicked" sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan showed that the breakdown of married two-parent family is the number one cause of poverty with his famous Moynihan Report. Modern research from conservatives like Charles Murray and liberal sociologists like Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur has confirmed the link between family structure and poverty.

Out of wedlock childbirths cause increased poverty, inequality, and lower wages in the bottom quintile of Americans, but Krugman consistently puts the blame on conservative economics while avoiding mention of family structure. I do recall one vague mention that social upheaval of the 1960's probably increased poverty, but that's about it.

For an accessible summary of the research on family structure and poverty, see 'The Marriage Problem' by the sociologist James Wilson. 'Civil Rights' by Thomas Sowell is an excellent example of an economist (and a conservative, no less) who does take into account cultural factors when discussing poverty.

Issue Two: Public Choice Theory

Krugman is correct that many conservatives are too wedded to simplified models in which markets always work. But there is an equally negligent assumption in the case for government intervention, which is that government interference can provide a better solution.

The rise of Public Choice Theory, for which James Buchanan received the 1986 Nobel Prize in economics, shows that this assumption is unwarranted. Government failure tends to be worse than market failure. This is why there were no Southwest's and JetBlue's when airlines were regulated, and why the price of phone service dropped rapidly after AT&T's government-granted monopoly was broken. And as another reviewer has mentioned, the purported market failure of higher prices after cable deregulation is really due to being granted legally protected monopolies at the local level. But the real lesson of Public Choice Theory is not that governments are innefficient, but that they are corrupt. This leads to regulatory capture, in which regulators help Big Business dominate an industry, rather than serve the consumer, small businesses, and entrepreneurs.

Krugman should have discussed Public Choice Theory, even though it bolsters that case for markets over government. Paul Samuelson, who has historically been the most important Keynesian economist in America, and the author of the best selling economics textbook of all time, did discuss public choice theory in his textbook. It is one of the main reasons that Keynesian economists abandoned the use of public works projects to stimulate the economy - it leads to corruption and graft.

For a good discussion of Public Choice Theory, check out 'New Ideas From Dead Economists.'

Issue Three: Europe

Europe has put into practice many of the policies that Krugman supports, so it seems almost unbelievable that Krugman criticized Europe for being too conservative. Europe has the policies that Krugman freely discloses at the start of his book that he supports: progressive income taxes and social welfare safety nets for the poor.

Europe also has a stubbornly high unemployment rate that runs about 3-4% or so higher than the United States. This cannot be explained by invoking "hidden unemployment" because all the major organizations that track international employment (BLS, ILO, OECD, Eurostat) agree that Europe has higher unemployment. Furthermore, there are objective measures of hidden unemployment, such as U-6 unemployment, and they are even higher still in Europe (they are a whopping 20% for Sweden). That should come as no surprise because a large part of hidden unemployment consists of people who have given up on finding a job. This is easier to do if you have extensive government safety nets to fall back on.

But the biggest problem with Europe is that its productivity lags the United States, even hourly productivity (although you can cherry pick individual European that do better, western Europe as a whole is worse). This productivity gap is understated because productivity only measures the employed. But Europe's higher unemployment is concentrated among the young and minorities (unemployment among young Muslims was 40% at the time of the Paris Riots). Young, inexperienced workers pull down the average productivity, so excluding them boosts Europe's productivity statistics.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that Europe is lagging in productivity. Although you do not think of bankruptcies as being good for the economy, they allow misallocated capital and labor to be put to a better use (think: employees at failed dot.coms going to work for more viable businesses). Much of the productivity gap between the United States and Europe has occurred because the United States has been allowing its manufacturing jobs to go overseas and focus on services. But the more protectionist Europe has kept those jobs at home and paid the price with lower productivity growth. The statistics bear this out. Germany has a mere 735 bankruptcies per 10,000 businesses compared to 1012 in the United States (page 59, Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Reality).

The costs of starting a business in the United States are also lower. It costs about 1.7% of the per capita GDP to start a business in the United States, compared to 32.5% for Germany. France and Italy are even higher. So each year only 906 businesses are started per 10,000 in Germany compared to 1240 in the United States. Consequently, when Business Week did its survey of the 100 most important IT firms, the United States topped the list with 44, compared to only 4 for France and 1 for Germany(page 60, Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Reality). Asian countries like Korea did better than Europe.

Incomplete........2006-11-04

I see this book is in someone's "Listmania!" as being on the Economics reading list of the Wharton MBA program, alongside two primers on economics 101. Good grief. Please don't read it thinking that Krugman is explaining what economics is REALLY all about, or is doing so in a non-partisan way. Indeed, this IS how the book comes across, and perhaps this is why it is on the Wharton B-School reading list.

However, this book is hardly even-handed, and it fails to present a complete picture of the really important ideas in economics.

To be sure Krugman does discuss MOST of the modern big ideas in economics, and there are a lot of interesting insider perspectives in this book. What's more, Krugman provides a solid introduction to how economic theory can affect economic policy. Finally, Krugman is a hyper-intelligent and prolific economist, and one of the central figures in economics today - and these facts alone lend interest to the book. But if instead you're looking for answers as to which of today's economic ideas might be the best, this book falls well short of providing a balanced and complete picture of the possibilities.

First, the reader needs to be aware that Krugman is a strict Keynesian/new-Keynesian economist, which in short means that he has a distinct intellectual leaning towards all things originating in the theories of John Maynard Keynes, an extremely infuential economist who came to the fore in the 1930's. Nothing wrong with having an intellectual preference, per se. However, in Krugman's guided tour through the modern economic landscape he fails to mention one particular school of thought - the Austrian school - which happens to present a very serious challenge to Keynes, and indeed to all of the other major modern schools.

The three schools that Krugman DOES discuss in this book - the Keynesians, the Chicago School, and the Supply Siders - are along with Marxism the three most dominant schools of economic thought of the 20th century. And contrary to popular belief, these schools all share something fundamentally in common: they all base their ideas upon John Maynard Keynes' conceptual framework of the economy. That is to say, in the 1930's Keynes presented his theory as to what the primary building blocks of the economy are, and the other schools have subsequently accepted these as being the starting point for economic analysis.

For example, the Keynesian framework holds that A, B, C, and D are the economy's fundamental components, so that any and all conclusions one draws about how the economy works must take into consideration each of these. And though the disagreements among the different schools are excruciatingly complex, they ultimately are merely disagreements about how A, B, C, and D act upon one another other; not about whether for example C belongs in the analysis in the first place, or whether the addition of E might not indeed clarify things a bit.

The Austrian school, on the other hand, argues with considerable force that the Keynesian model is flawed. The Austrians - who almost no one has heard of and who even most economists pay little attention to - believe the Keynesian components A, B, C, and D are simply the wrong ones. The economy, they say, can instead be MUCH better understood in terms of A, C, F, and G for example. But no matter how penetrating and insightful their arguments are, the Austrian challenge to Keynes was dismissed decades ago due to historical circumstances and political expediencies, and is now far out of favor by practice. And it is very unfortunate that the reader will walk away from Peddling Prosperity without hearing the Austrians mentioned.

In sum, anyone interested in learning about how economic theory affects economic policy could benefit from reading this book. It gives a brief, accessible, and interesting snapshot as seen from one of today's central figures in the field. However, it would be a big mistake to come away from Peddling Prosperity thinking that you could now make an informed decision about which modern economic ideas might be the best. For while Krugman DOES give you a view of MOST of the big ideas - at least as seen from a Keynesian perspective - his omission of the Austrians is a critical one. Anyone who is interested in exploring the really important ideas in economics needs to include the Austrians on their reading list. The ideas are extremely powerful and their critique of Keynes and the Keynesian framework is truly profound. Warning: if you already know a thing or two (or even three) about economics be prepared, the Austrian perspective may just flip your lid and take you to a place firmly outside of the mainstream.

A vaccine against populism.......2005-06-15

Krugman's most important achievement in this book is, possibly, outlining the limits of our ability to understand and forecast the workings of the economy. To a scientist, this makes perfect sense: economy is almost impossible to predict because it is the ultimate chaotic system. In the "normal" world, however, many rational people tend to fall for the most ludicrous promises regarding economic prospects, even though the same rational people understand why weather is extremely difficult to predict. Krugman describes the class of people who make a living generating these promises, "economic policy entrepreneurs", and their interaction with politicians. In this respect, this book is invaluable and should serve as bed-time reading for voters during elections. At the same time, Krugman's reasoning is itself not without flaws: he does cut corners and sometimes spends too little time arguing a point that should be argued in greater detail. I would hesitate to call this book a classic of modern intellectualism, yet it is certainly highly relevant.

What we know and what we donýt.......2004-06-26

To many, Krugman's emphasis on what we don't know about economics is probably disappointing. A whole lot of Peddling Prosperity is devoted to the puzzle of the non-existing productivity growth during the 70s and 80s, and Krugman's conclusion is: we just don't know why productivity had fallen so abruptly. Written in 1994, the productivity surge of the 1990s was just starting, and PK had of course no idea that the high productivity growth would recover.

There are some things economist do know, and PK's introduction to Keynes, the attack on Keynes by the monetarists, and the revenge of keynesianism is excellent. Like most real experts, PK is fully able to explain complicated matters in an understandable manner. The story is well written, with plenty of anecdotes to spice it up.

PK's distinction between the `professors' and the `policy entrepreneurs' is a main theme in the book, but he is taking himself too seriously. Anybody really interested in economics is because it is about people, their needs, their wants, their motivations and so on. That clever economist/professors engage in and policymaking or public debate (as PK himself is heavily into), shouldn't lead to lack of credibility. Krugman is also missing the bottom line in the tax debate: people disagree about the best tax and redistribution policy, not mainly because someone believe this or that system is more efficient, but because it is fairer. And it is quite possible to argue, on the grounds of fairness, both that rich people should pay an awful lot in taxes and that they should pay a little, both coercive sharing and keeping their income.

Krugmans brilliant and well-written story about the rise of monetarism during the 1970s earns, and of neo-Keynesians in the late 80s, is great. The best part, though, is his clear explanation of the huge misconception of comparing a nation with a corporation. The comparison is so far-fetched and leading to so much bad policy, yet so normal, that the issue should be dealt with at primary school. And Krugman's explanation is a very good place to start.

Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations
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Great book, not republican bashing...

Republican bashing

An incredibly intelligent book

The truth hurts

Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations
Paul Krugman
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Great book, not republican bashing..........2003-03-08

I found one reader seemed to be biased. He told that Krugman was immature, becuase of his immediated attack against the supply side economists. If Krugman's way of criticizing is regarded as immauture and immediate, then no criticism in the world will survive. I doubt he read through Krugmans book throughly. Krugman used logic and evidences to attack. With those things, Krugman showed us how supply side economists deceived the world. I think his proof was quite logical. My friend who have Ph.D degree in economics recommened me this book as a must.

This book is very insightful. If you never experience what does 'insightful' mean, now you found a rare opportunity to do that.

Republican bashing.......2002-08-29

Anyone who reads Paul Krugman's articles in The New York Times knows how pro-Democrat he is. Reading through Peddling Prosperity in 2002 not only made the book feel dated, it made Krugman seem so petty. Krugman was trying to address the problems of America's then-productivity ills and it ended up being a very personal and immature attack on supply side economists. Calling them 'cranks' and 'outsiders'' (I don't know whether to take such a raw attack as being emotional or immature). Reading the book made me uncomfortable thinking how arrogant this man was, claiming that all research done outside the boundaries of MIT, Harvard, Chicago etc were inconsequencial. The book suffers from schizophrenic tendencies, claiming at one moment that the economy was largely beyond the controls of the government and laid in the hands of the Federal Reserve, yet quickly turning to blame the supply side economists for leaving such a huge budget deficit. Try 'The Return of Depression Economics' instead. I think Krugman's matured much over the 6 years between writing both books. He doesn't seem so much now as a mouthpiece for the Democrats.

An incredibly intelligent book.......1997-10-11

When referred to by "The Economist", Paul Krugman is called P. "Nobel Prize 2024" Krugman and he largely deserves this nickname. In "Peddling Prosperity", P. Krugman describes with clear and simple words what America's economic problems have been in the last 25 years. He presents theory, ideas, Government policies (or lack of) and individual stories - history, in fact - with such penetrating views that, while reading, one wishes the book could go on forever. We can only hope that he will repeat this achievement in the next book.

The truth hurts.......1997-03-13

This book should be required reading for any introductory economics course. This is also great reading to understand the silliness of our politicians' answers to our economic problems. This book can be offensive to die-hard conservatives as well as die-hard liberals. So, for those readers I would recommend reading it once and get the anger out, then a second time to really understand what is wrong with our economy.

Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations.: An article from: Columbia Journalism Review

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Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations.: An article from: Columbia Journalism Review
J.D. Brown
Manufacturer: Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00092KNIS
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Columbia Journalism Review, published by Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism on July 1, 1994. The length of the article is 2183 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations.
Author: J.D. Brown
Publication: Columbia Journalism Review (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1994
Publisher: Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism
Volume: v33 Issue: n2 Page: p50(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations

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Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations
Paul Krugman
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLWHKQ

Book Description

Book Description

Even though second-language learners may master the grammar and vocabulary of the new languages, they almost never achieve a native phonology (accent). Scholars and professionals dealing with second-language learners would agree that this is one of the most persistent challenges they face.

Now, for the first time, Roy Major's Foreign Accent covers the exploding scholarship in this area and lays out the issues specifically for audiences in the second language acquisition and applied linguistics community.

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One Of The Most Influential Books On Evolutionary Thought Published In The Past Twenty Five Years
The rise and fall of a scientific idea
More of a history of ideas than a biology text
Serious competetion for barbiturates
Ontogeny and Phylogeny

Ontogeny and Phylogeny
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0674639413

Book Description

"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" was Haeckel's answer--the wrong one--to the most vexing question of nineteenth-century biology: what is the relationship between individual development (ontogeny) and the evolution of species and lineages (phylogeny)? In this, the first major book on the subject in fifty years, Stephen Gould documents the history of the idea of recapitulation from its first appearance among the pre-Socratics to its fall in the early twentieth century.

Mr. Gould explores recapitulation as an idea that intrigued politicians and theologians as well as scientists. He shows that Haeckel's hypothesis--that human fetuses with gill slits are, literally, tiny fish, exact replicas of their water-breathing ancestors--had an influence that extended beyond biology into education, criminology, psychoanalysis (Freud and Jung were devout recapitulationists), and racism. The theory of recapitulation, Gould argues, finally collapsed not from the weight of contrary data, but because the rise of Mendelian genetics rendered it untenable.

Turning to modern concepts, Gould demonstrates that, even though the whole subject of parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny fell into disrepute, it is still one of the great themes of evolutionary biology. Heterochrony--changes in developmental timing, producing parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny--is shown to be crucial to an understanding of gene regulation, the key to any rapprochement between molecular and evolutionary biology. Gould argues that the primary evolutionary value of heterochrony may lie in immediate ecological advantages for slow or rapid maturation, rather than in long-term changes of form, as all previous theories proclaimed.

Neoteny--the opposite of recapitulation--is shown to be the most important determinant of human evolution. We have evolved by retaining the juvenile characters of our ancestors and have achieved both behavioral flexibility and our characteristic morphology thereby (large brains by prolonged retention of rapid fetal growth rates, for example).

Gould concludes that there may be nothing new under the sun, but permutation of the old within complex systems can do wonders. As biologists, we deal directly with the kind of material complexity that confers an unbounded potential upon simple, continuous changes in underlying processes. This is the chief joy of our science."

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One Of The Most Influential Books On Evolutionary Thought Published In The Past Twenty Five Years.......2007-06-02

If there is any book that has greatly reinvigorated interest in the relationship of developmental biology to evolutionary biology, then Stephen Jay Gould's "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" may be the most likely suspect. When it was published originally back in the late 1970s, this elegantly written volume was as much a superb overview of Gould's extensive scientific research up to that time, having been preoccupied with understanding allometry and its evolutionary implications for years and writing a series of memorable scientific papers for which he would receive such notable honors as the Paleontological Society's Schuchert Award (which is bestowed upon paleobiologists under the age of forty for making significant contributions to the field.). It is one of the rare technical books on evolutionary thought which have become widely read by others outside of evolutionary biology, and that is due mainly for its relevance as an important history of developmental biology and philosophy of science text as well as a more technical volume of primary interest to developmental biologists, paleobiologists and other evolutionary biologists. Stephen Jay Gould explores the relationship between ontogeny and phylogeny with an elegant historical overview which starts with ancient Greek philosophers and emphasizes the work of Ernst Haeckel, Gavin de Beer and others. His scientific discussion about various aspects of ontogeny (e. g. neoteny) remains among the best written accounts I have come across. Now more than ever, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" remains an important contribution to the history and philosophy of evolutionary thought in biology, especially in light of the current, substantial interest in "evo-devo", or rather, the importance of developmental biology in affecting not only our understanding of speciation, but equally important, in trying to comprehend better the patterns and processes of macroevolution. So I am not exaggerating when I observe that "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" remains one of the most influential books on evolutionary thought published in the last twenty five years; I predict that it will remain one of Gould's most important contributions to evolutionary biology, and an enduring legacy to a scientific career that became well known to fellow scientists and the general public alike.

The rise and fall of a scientific idea.......2007-02-15

"Ontogeny recapitulates philogeny" is the largely defunct theory that as a fetus grows it reprises the collected earlier adult states of its evolutionary forebears.

And this book is not so much about that theory as it is about the history of how the theory was proposed, its influence on other learning and the process of its demise.

In this way, this book is properly bracketed with Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate in its discussion of the all too not empiracal process of empiracal reasoning. Its also reminiscent of Percival Lowell's assertion that canals existed on Mars because just as Lowell largely saw what he was predisposed to see early biologists like those mentioned in this work were themselves predisposed to see what they were predisposed to see.

Yes, the theory rose and fell but perhaps Gould's most telling discussion was in his treatment of how the theory came to misused for educational and political purposes. If the fetus recapitulated its evolutionary past, then perhaps children in prominent countries capitulated in their behavior the cultures of less prominent countries. And so, child's play was just a stage reminiscent of aboriginal social interaction and a child's make believe world was their real life religion.

Deep stuff.

What Gould could have added were the other abuses made on the still existent theory of Darwinian evolution wherein turn of the century aristocrats fancied themselves the socially fittest of the species. Again, we have an example of science placed at the easy service of prejudice.

However, and this is where Gould's discussion gives cause for hope, being a scientific theory it fell because it failed to pass muster with scientific techniques of testing.

And in this way, Gould's book is not so much about the passing of a scientific idea as it is about the use of the technique of empiracal testing and not predisposition to determine truth.

More of a history of ideas than a biology text.......2006-06-04

This book is about the history of the concepts around which the "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" developed, flourished and eventually faded out. Gould goes into the viewpoint of every significant biological thinker that ever thought anything about this phrase, and what that thinker thought about all the other thinkers.
If you are really interested in the history of evolutionary thought, there is a point to reading this. But if you are just interested in reading about neat biological examples/life histories/concepts, this book is serious overkill.
It is probably not fair to rate this book for what it is not, instead of what it is. However, once I decided to read this book (and I read it twice, with several years between), I found that I didn't enjoy the reading that much. As Mark Twain remarked about some piece of music, the book is not as long as it seems. But it sure does seem long!

Serious competetion for barbiturates.......2002-08-29

Oh my friends, I tried Atlas-fashion but to no avail. This drawn out excercise in long haired erudition was simply too much for me. I'm sorry but there were cracks on the cieling that needed observing, weekends to be spent at the market and hangnails to chew. No, Ontogeny and phylogeny was simply not to be. I tried mind you, I read it up to page 223 where Gould set out to delineate De Beer's eight categories of heterochrony in part II, chapter 7 of this opus, where upon I cried "enough!!" I really like Gould too. I loved "Wonderful Life" and devoured "Ever Since Darwin." Indeed, Gould waxed eloquently (and succintly) on neoteny, paedomorphism and heterochrony in "Ever Since Darwin." Ontogeny and Phylogeny on the other hand will make you wish you'd never heard of these terms. I will say, having read part I, that I did get a thorough grounding in why Haeckel's recapitulation is untenable, but I was able to get that in one paragraph in Werner Muller's "Developmental Biology." Maybe this book was just a bad personality fit for me, and lord knows I love biology better than money or food, but I found it to be a not pleasant to read, sparingly informative, massive waste of time. This may seem harsh to Gould-ophiles, but I'd be lying if I said otherwise. On a positive note, it did give a good historical account of such 19th century natural science luminaries like Haeckel, Von Baer, de Beer, et al, and the development of their thought. Maybe if I were incarcerated I'd read this book, as it is there are too many other interesting and rewarding activities to pursue.

Ontogeny and Phylogeny.......2002-06-03

Ontogeny and Phylogeny by Stephen Jay Gould is an enlightening book filled with facts, history, knowledge, science, sociology, biology and mixed with this is the Gould Factor.

By this, Gould Factor, what I mean is this. There are illustrative bits woven into the tapestry of this scientific work. I always liked how Gould did this... always bringing more information into the mix. Then, when you think you know how he is going to arrive at the conclusion he brings you into a whole different level of thinking and you become enlightened and then, only then, do you see... you arrived at the conclusion... via the Gould Factor.

Now, some may say that, why doesn't he get to the point... ah those are the impatient ones... as knowledge to be wisdon has to be appreciated... thought through to the end and only then... will the enlightenment be appreciated. The same has to be said about Ontogeny and Phylogeny, as the development of the individual leads to the development of the whole (type).

Gould's clever brilliance is evidenced here and you'll see him working the esoterics, bringing the reader on, interlacing ideas, and ultimately to the conclusion. A learning process that is evident here as only Gould could do. Gould also brings the reader a broad base of knowledge at the begining forming a foundation. From this foundation, the book begins to construct the major points of Gould's perseptiveness, then later we get the major point of the work.

Customer Reviews:

this is one of the best books written on homer this century.......2006-07-10

i can't sell it enough, it is absolutely a must-read for any student of homer, no matter how serious. if you care the tiniest bit for the iliad, you need to read this. especially recomended for freudians

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Evolution of Man
Ernst Haeckel
Manufacturer: D. Appleton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQ8BXY

Product Description

TWO VOLUME SET

The Evolution of Man a Popular Scientific Study: Vol 1 Human Embroyology or ontogeny (1907) Vol 2 Human Stem-History, or phylogeny (1908) // Wonders of Life Popular Study Biological Philosophy 1905 160pp / Riddle of the Universe Close of Nineteen

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The Evolution of Man a Popular Scientific Study: Vol 1 Human Embroyology or ontogeny (1907) Vol 2 Human Stem-History, or phylogeny (1908) // Wonders of Life Popular Study Biological Philosophy 1905 160pp / Riddle of the Universe Close of Nineteen
ernst / mangasarian, MM haeckel
Manufacturer: Wattts for Rationalist Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000V6YHTI

The Evolution of Man : A Popular Exposition of the Pricipal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Volume 2 Only.

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The Evolution of Man : A Popular Exposition of the Pricipal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Volume 2 Only.
Ernst Haeckel
Manufacturer: Kegan Paul
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RCBYVA

THE EVOLUTION OF MAN: A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF PRINCIPAL POINTS OF HUMAN ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY

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THE EVOLUTION OF MAN: A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF PRINCIPAL POINTS OF HUMAN ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY

Manufacturer: D. Appleton and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000ID3WQS

Evolution of Man: A Popular Exposition of the Principal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny

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Evolution of Man: A Popular Exposition of the Principal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny
Ernest Haeckel
Manufacturer: Appleton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IG3SJG

The evolution of man: A popular exposition of the principal points of human ontogeny and phylogeny

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The evolution of man: A popular exposition of the principal points of human ontogeny and phylogeny
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
Manufacturer: The Werner Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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