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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010166362 | GN281 S97 2008 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
This fascinating and accessible book examines the survival of the human race from a broad range of viewpoints. Through in-depth examinations of a number of very distinct aspects of human life, the book covers topics ranging from the preservation of Empires, to the challenges of maintaining cultural identity, the sufferings inflicted by famine, disease and natural disasters, the opportunities for increased longevity and the threats presented by climate change. The chapters draw from the expertise of those in the arts and humanities, as well as the social, physical and biological sciences. Following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin with his thoughts of the Survival of the Fittest, each chapter explores strategies which may be adopted to assist us in our individual struggle for existence and to preserve and indeed improve our collective lifestyles.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
The theme is ancient: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The framework is recent: Darwinian selection. The prescription is a bit unexpected: a temperate brand of Herbert Spencer's efficacy of organization. The authors, through a series of cogently and sometimes elegantly written essays, explore the threats to and demise of empires and institutions, cultures and languages. They examine the effects of diseases, natural disasters, famines, and war on the survival of some of us, and their potential to extirpate all of us. If pestilence, famine, war, and even death are to be avoided, or at least delayed, knowledge and wisdom must be deployed through appropriate institutions. This Spencerian message (see Herbert Spencer and the Invention of Modern Life by Mark Francis; CH, Feb'08, 45-3124) is the thread shot through all the chapters. The whole hangs together because of the clarity of the prose and the great skill of the editor. Important even to those who do not believe in global warming. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. C. S. Peebles Indiana University-Bloomington
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgements | p. vii |
| 1 Survival of the human race | p. 1 |
| 2 Survival of empires | p. 21 |
| 3 Survival of culture | p. 53 |
| 4 Survival of language | p. 80 |
| 5 Surviving disease | p. 99 |
| 6 Surviving natural disasters | p. 123 |
| 7 Surviving famine | p. 146 |
| 8 Surviving longer | p. 178 |
| 9 Survival into the future | p. 205 |
| Epilogue | p. 225 |
| Notes on the contributors | p. 226 |
| Index | p. 230 |
