Sources: history

Thoroughly entertaining review of The Family that Couldn’t Sleep, a work of epidemiological history focusing on the history and science of prion diseases — from Kuru to Mad Cow Disease. Disturbing problem in science with some intriguing proposed correlations to other diseases; good read.

Not cheerful but a helpful, dispassionate account of where we are: in a global socio-economic transition. The suggestion is that in such times shared conceptions of purpose, organization, identity, and trust break down — leaving us with only uncertainty about the future and unable to form collective objectives, and therefore, predictions about what might happen next.

I found this a useful analytic framing of present experience; the sense that the future has disappeared in uncertainty seems like a fair description of what I hear expressed by others and experience myself lately. Also many useful proposed connections relating to the rapid evolution of liberal vs conservative worldviews; the collapse of the relationship between them as points on a common spectrum; the growing reduction of ideological options into exremes of progressivism and authoritarianism…

Strange, dark reflections on the strange, dark state of modern culture. Nice, rambling essay connecting Vico, Kafka, AI, rationalists, and the rise of cheerful end-times techno-optimists and state-pessimists. Conclusion: the metaphors that drive the techno-culture of the moment have gone wrong; we need better metaphors.

The essay is actually, kind of claiming this. More charitably, it argues that historians, specifically, are prone to letting the emotional and moral tension of a story corrupt their commitment to reason and evidence. This is a story (I know, right?) well told, and the cautionary tale is apt, but it kind of skips over the challenge we find in making a distinction between the kind of story that ‘makes us stupid’ and the kind of story that connects the metaphysical foundations of the commitment to rational process of scientific discipline — see Bruno Latour, eg.

Justice for all is composed of the ugliest compromises…
Ben Caplan, Truth Doesn’t Live in a Book

Another outstanding entry in the ACX 2023 Book Review contest. This one a review of the medieval Icelandic classic Njal’s Saga. A hilarious and entertaining reflection on a very strange work as commentary on liberty, justice, and civilization, and the ancient Norwegian example of how we have tried to negotiate them.

Short history of the Vilnius Jazz Trio and their place in the history of both modern jazz and the last decades of the Soviet Union.

Another provocative essay by Ted Gioia, in this one he argues that the roots of modern rational philosophy and STEM culture are to be found in shamanic or Orphic musical traditions in Greece (and elsewhere). As always, good reading, lively engagement with knowledge and history, with broad ranging subject matter and unusual connections.

Consider in relation to J E H Smith’s Philosopher on Drugs

Noah brings it… Who was the more active deregulationist: Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan? The answer is a surprise entirely contrary to the standard neo-con->neo-liberal mythology. Of course, it isn’t quite as simple as that…

An extensive and compelling review of two new works on the history of science that challenge the traditional Eurocentric view and the tendency to reduce the path of modern science to a story about a few Great Men. These books cut through the complex relationships of global knowledge creation in the age of European colonialism, on the one hand, and the role of indigenous peoples and common people constructing knowledge through craft and experience, on the other. A nice summary question from the article, attributed to Peter Dear, is the question “what is the history of science the history of?”

Reviewed are the books Horizons: the Global Origins of Modern Science by James Poskett, and From Lived Experience to the Written Word: Reconstructing Practical Knowledge in the Early Modern World by Pamela H Smith.

A refreshingly thoughful discussion of the historical path of our thinking about and the cultural manifestation of racism. Helpful in broadening one’s perspective beyond the overly simplistic political context of the moment.

A great cautionary essay on the critic’s reactions to first performances of music we now consider classic or great or revolutionary, from Jazz to the Beatles to Beethoven. The upshot: when something is different and innovative it usually gets a bad first review. The Beatle’s albums were all different from each other, each one a fresh, innovative experiment; therefore, most of their first reviews were bad. Amazing reflection on the folly of history.

The authors intro summary: “a journey deep into the cavern of dungeons & dragons, a utopian, profoundly dorky and influential game that, lacking clear winners or an end, may not be a game at all”.

Strange, wandering, often horrific reconstriction of stories from the history of Russia; a kind of poetic reflection on/of cultural identity. Reminds me of Curzio Malaparte’s Kaput in its (successful) attempt to capture a sense of reality by telling reality-adjacent stories more effective than mere description. Beautiful and remarkable writing, as usual.