Dominion

Rating:
Summary: Reflections of Ishmael
Review: As you might have guessed, the first thing that came to my mind after reading this book (and it's a very fast read, so don't feel intimidated!) was how strikingly similar to the series of books written by Daniel Quinn (Ishmael, The Story of B, My Ishmael, etc.), making many of the very same points. The author even makes use of the Bible as support for his position that we developed a mythology of our proper place in the world (thus becoming "homo magister", rulers of all the world).

I certainly don't believe that the author intended his work to be so similar to the "Ishmael" books, but the similarities are striking. Given that this book was published 5 or more years after "Ishmael", it seems reasonable that the author was influenced in some way by it.

While much of the material covered is the same as "Ishmael", this book is more straightforward (and perhaps, some might think, a bit drier - posh to that!), and complements that book nicely, dealing far more in the nitty-gritty ecological and genetic significance of mankind.

In short, this book will not replace "Ishmael", but neither is it eclipsed by it. The two books complement each other wonderfully, and Mr. Eldridge does a far more exhaustive job of explaining exactly how we are impacting the environment. Don't just get one or the other, buy both (oh yes, I'm sure Amazon is just thrilled to hear that :))!

Rating:
Summary: A Naturalist Out of His Element
Review: In his introduction, Eldredge asserts that we have to get beyond such myths as the assertion in Genesis that God meant man to have dominion over all of nature, and that stories are important. Much of the book reviews the science of paleantology, which the field of his discipline. But I saw little convincing connection between that material and the extinction of animals which existed in prehistoric times. He speculates that the cave man artists who lived at least 30,000 years before the writing of Genesis, painted animals as a symbolic means of gaining dominance over them. In the Afterward, he proposes "A New Story", in which he ignores real history of human understanding of our place in the world. He offers no clear evidence of a connection between his exegesis of Genesis and the massive extinctions of species in our times. Perhaps he should read more widely and become aquainted with St Francis of Assisi.

Rating:
Summary: A Naturalist Out of His Element
Review: In his introduction, Eldredge asserts that we have to get beyond such myths as the assertion in Genesis that God meant man to have dominion over all of nature, and that stories are important. Much of the book reviews the science of paleantology, which the field of his discipline. But I saw little convincing connection between that material and the extinction of animals which existed in prehistoric times. He speculates that the cave man artists who lived at least 30,000 years before the writing of Genesis, painted animals as a symbolic means of gaining dominance over them. In the Afterward, he proposes "A New Story", in which he ignores real history of human understanding of our place in the world. He offers no clear evidence of a connection between his exegesis of Genesis and the massive extinctions of species in our times. Perhaps he should read more widely and become aquainted with St Francis of Assisi.

Rating:
Summary: A superb book.
Review: This author is a curator in the Dept. of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Together with Stephen Jay Gould, he formulated the evolutionary theory of Punctuated Equlibrium. In this excellent book Mr. Eldredge explores our evolutionary history, showing that although we think and act as though we live outside of nature, in reality, we have simply modified our position within the ecosystem through our agriculture and now global reach. He shows us how our notion of "dominion" over nature is largely an illusion and looks frankly at the consequences of this illusion, now and in the future, without resorting to darkness and gloom.

Mr. Eldredge is a very good writer for the layman and has a flair for transmitting a sense of wonder to his readers. His writing style reminds me of the late Carl Sagan. I especially enjoyed his thoughts on the biblical story of Genesis; how God's words regarding our dominion over the world have affected man and how we need a new story of who we are and our place in nature.

Don't worry as you read this book about forgetting anything important along the way, because Eldredge provides a brief and complete review of his salient points at the end. You won't need that highlighter.

I most sincerely recommend this easy-to-read yet scholarly book to anyone interested in ecology, evolution, and the future.