The New Prophets of Capital

Nicole Aschoff
Verso Books
2015

We live in a capitalist and free market world, and many of us struggle to keep our heads above the globalization waters. So when some-one, especially someone wildly successful, comes along to tell us how to stop clinging to the wreckage and swim safely to shore, we listen. After all, they made it, and now they’re telling us how to do it.

There’s just one problem. All of the solutions uncritically assume that the current economic and political system is a given: if not inevitable, it’s not going to change anytime soon. And that assumption condemns most of us to an unequal and inequitable existence. In a free-for-all market system of course there will be winners, but they always will be vastly outnumbered by the losers and the left behind.

Undeniable

Undeniable
2014

Undeniable is an anti-creationism book with a soft touch. When Bill Nye was “The Science Guy,” science had a friendly face. That basic civility is everywhere in this book. You don’t convert a true believer through anger or scorn. Undeniable makes its case for evolution without rancour. Nye isn’t interested in starting an argument; rather, he presents one.

Nye weaves back and forth through the many topics associated with evolution, dipping in here and there to highlight an easily-comprehended and unambiguous piece of evidence. In chapters with titles like “What Good Is Half a Wing?” and “Medicine and You–Evolution at the Doctor’s Office,” Nye builds his solid explanation of the details–the unavoidable reality–of evolution.

Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences

James Lawrence Powell
2015

This very engaging book is more than a history of its four central earth science subjects. At its core is an examination of the ways that science works. Not just the scientific method, although that’s certainly everywhere in the book, but also the scientists themselves, with their all too human brilliances and weaknesses, insights and blind spots, on display for all to see.