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The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
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Review
Reviews for Nature via Nurture:
‘Nature via Nurture sets the modern terms for an ancient debate, and at the same time delivers a superb tutorial on contemporary genetics; the feedback loop that embraces genes and environment is generally not well understood. And yet this plasticity, this elegant mutuality, seems crucial if our new understanding of human nature is to inform public policy. These times need a book like this.’ Ian McEwan
‘Lucidly explains the most recent discoveries on what makes us what we are, and how we should think about these discoveries as we ponder who we want to be…A treat, written with insight, wisdom, and style.’ Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate
‘Bracingly intelligent, lucid, balanced – witty, too. Nature via Nurture is a scrupulous and charming look at our modern understanding of genes and experience.’ Oliver Sacks
‘A real page-turner. What a superb writer he is, and he seems to get better and better.’ Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene
‘Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist, in glorious contrast, tells us what we really should want to hear: that the human species, through our unique ability to exchange ideas and thus innovate at the speed of thought, has overcome all the challenges that have ever confronted us, and will do so in future. This inspiring book, a glorious defense of our species, explains why: it is a devastating rebuke to humanity's self-haters.' Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
Review
‘A triumphant blast on the vuvuzela of common sense’ Boris Johnson
‘A glorious defence of our species… a devastating rebuke to humanity's self-haters’ Sunday Times
‘No other book has argued with such brilliance against the automatic pessimism that prevails’ Ian McEwan
‘His theory is, in a way, the glorious offspring that would result if Charles Darwin’s ideas were mated with those of Adam Smith’ The Economist
‘Original, clever and controversial’ Guardian
‘As a work of bold historical positivity it is to be welcomed. At every point cheerfulness keeps breaking through’ The Times
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Send your inner pessimist packing - along with organic crops and ethanol. That's the contrarian message of Matt Ridley's insightful, entertaining look at humankind's steady progress over the millennia. Ridley dips into biology and economics to support his case that life is good and getting better. His wide-ranging look at humanity's past and future makes it clear that those who long for the good old days just don't realize how rugged hunting and gathering or medieval medical care must have been. Ridley meanders at times, yet, as the title suggests, his book offers a fundamentally optimistic analysis of humankind's ability to solve the planet's problems, even now. getAbstract recommends it to readers seeking a thought-provoking analysis of contemporary issues that doesn't hew to conventional wisdom.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The (I think original) theory propounded in this book is that our species, uniquely, continues to evolve through the mechanism of exchange, a social process that operates much more quickly than genetic advance. I find the author's detailed argument at least as convincing as the Darwinian model from which it's derived, although of course such theories are notoriously difficult to test. Still, I hope someone takes the time to simulate this model, since that would help us understand the factors that speed it up and slow it down.
The optimism in the title is indeed rational since it's based on an historical assessment of of the way the mechanism has led to mankind's explosion from a few hunter gatherers to the dominant species on the planet. Again, I was fairly convinced.
The final thesis concerns the doom-sayers, who the author shows have always been with us. I particularly liked his dissection of the IPCC models, which imply that we should impoverish ourselves now so to ensure that 100 years hence our descendants are 20 times better off, instead of the mere 19 times they'd be if we do nothing.
And yet, the book creates a concern. No, more optimistically, a challenge!
The challenge is those doom-sayers - you can see the way they think in the negative reviews of this book. These folk, in spite of humanity's unprecedented wealth (see Cool it: The sceptical environmentalist's guide to global warming) want to stop our advance and are getting louder and more desperate the higher we climb. And now they rule the western world - currently the US administration, the EU, and the British government have all embraced that pessimism, and are pushing up our energy costs (in consequence killing poor people) in an attempt to avert an alarmist prophecy.
The book tells us that this kind of rejection of change froze the Chinese into a stasis of poverty for a thousand years. But author also shows that, historically, such local failures don't matter much, because in the past there's always been another civilization - such as the Italian city states - to pick up the torch of progress. But for that to work, we need a fragmented world, which we had until recently. But now the Internet makes it much less fragmented. And the doom-sayers are pushing for a form of world government to enforce 'sustainability' on us.
So, if we want our descendants to continue to get richer and healthier and happier, we're going to have to fight hard not to bring the world into one big happy polity, but to keep it fragmented.
Now that's a challenging thought!
The optimism in the title is indeed rational since it's based on an historical assessment of of the way the mechanism has led to mankind's explosion from a few hunter gatherers to the dominant species on the planet. Again, I was fairly convinced.
The final thesis concerns the doom-sayers, who the author shows have always been with us. I particularly liked his dissection of the IPCC models, which imply that we should impoverish ourselves now so to ensure that 100 years hence our descendants are 20 times better off, instead of the mere 19 times they'd be if we do nothing.
And yet, the book creates a concern. No, more optimistically, a challenge!
The challenge is those doom-sayers - you can see the way they think in the negative reviews of this book. These folk, in spite of humanity's unprecedented wealth (see Cool it: The sceptical environmentalist's guide to global warming) want to stop our advance and are getting louder and more desperate the higher we climb. And now they rule the western world - currently the US administration, the EU, and the British government have all embraced that pessimism, and are pushing up our energy costs (in consequence killing poor people) in an attempt to avert an alarmist prophecy.
The book tells us that this kind of rejection of change froze the Chinese into a stasis of poverty for a thousand years. But author also shows that, historically, such local failures don't matter much, because in the past there's always been another civilization - such as the Italian city states - to pick up the torch of progress. But for that to work, we need a fragmented world, which we had until recently. But now the Internet makes it much less fragmented. And the doom-sayers are pushing for a form of world government to enforce 'sustainability' on us.
So, if we want our descendants to continue to get richer and healthier and happier, we're going to have to fight hard not to bring the world into one big happy polity, but to keep it fragmented.
Now that's a challenging thought!
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am not really surprised that this book gets either great or very poor ratings!
Having read many other (great) works by the author for whom I have great respect as a deep thinker, I first couldn't believe that this book was written by the same other of "Red Queen". Much of the book lacks scientific rigor, which however does not imply that the basic tenets are wrong. The counter-current way of looking a meaning things is often quite refreshing and I ended up enjoying the book as much as I disliked it in the beginning. So, if you are interested in "evolutionary economics", grab yourself a copy, it is a good read and provides a lot food for thought.
Having read many other (great) works by the author for whom I have great respect as a deep thinker, I first couldn't believe that this book was written by the same other of "Red Queen". Much of the book lacks scientific rigor, which however does not imply that the basic tenets are wrong. The counter-current way of looking a meaning things is often quite refreshing and I ended up enjoying the book as much as I disliked it in the beginning. So, if you are interested in "evolutionary economics", grab yourself a copy, it is a good read and provides a lot food for thought.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Upside/Downside?
Matt Ridley's Rational Optimist is the companion piece to the more erudite Stephen Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature. Read more
Published 9 days ago by The Outsider
Wonderful read during a crisis
Most of the news I get bombarded with is negative: Greek debt close to default, economic decline in Europe, you name it ... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Schmuecker
A Great Summation of the State of Humanity
This book take all the issues that have been presented as looming disasters in the press and looks at them in far greater depth. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ashcroft Peoples
An outstanding book
A breath of fresh air in a world that is losing confidence in the human race's own ability to progress and improve. The answer to Malthus, and the followers of Malthus.
Published 4 months ago by Fenbeagle
Interesting
Pros
I am very much in tune with Ridleys optimistic outlook so this helped my enjoyment of the book. Read more
I am very much in tune with Ridleys optimistic outlook so this helped my enjoyment of the book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by W. Henderson
a grand theory of everything
Matt Ridley's book starts with some propositions that are not obvious but are, once pointed out, compelling: that it's interesting that human beings have made "progress" in a way... Read more
Published 8 months ago by William Jordan
Compelling, Eloquent and Unashamedly Pragmatic - Be Prepared to...
In this devastatingly persuasive book, Matt Ridley espouses a pragmatic perspective through which to view our world, our history and our potential. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. T. Swift
Rational, but a little too optimistic
Like many other reviewers, I'm a fan of Ridley's books, which are justly admired for their scrupulously well-informed and lively approach to science writing. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dr. G. Garrard
Required reading
I found the first 100 pages slightly repetitive, but after that I could hardly put the book down. It covers a vast canvas, from prehistoric man to the present; saying in essence... Read more
Published 10 months ago by SueConn
Reasons to be cheerful?
An enjoyable and thought provoking read, if somewhat lacking proper intellectual rigour or originality. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Scott
Listmania!
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