Reviews and Comments

Tim Alberta's The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory is essential reading. Both for Americans who are religious and those who aren't, as well as for anyone outside of America who is wondering what the hell is wrong with American Christianity.

The book focuses primarily on the evolution of Evangelical churches since the rise of Trump and the Covid pandemic, but gives essential background information and history where needed. For roughly the first half of the book, Alberta gives a sweeping survey of the state of Evangelical churches, pastors, and the power brokers within Evangelical circles. It is a heart breaking and terrifying glimpse of a community that has gone off the rails. In the second half, after clearly making the case that the Evangelical movement is broken in some fundamental way, he makes the case that there is light at the end of the tunnel, introducing the reader to the Christians that are fighting against Christian Nationalism and corruption within their churches.

I left Christianity years ago, before the recent rise of Christian Nationalism. Watching, from the outside, those who I once respected turn away completely from the tenants of Christianity has been troubling, even if their movement didn't threaten human rights and American democracy. While Alberta does go into the history of how American Christianity got where it is, I would have appreciated more discussion of the rise of Christian extremism in the 90's and Bush years. The problems and charlatans he describes and interviews have a long history. This is not a slight against the book, as it is slightly outside of what Alberta was focusing on, and it is not supposed to be a comprehensive overview of the corruption of American Evangelicalism. All in all, after finishing this book I felt more informed and was even left with a little bit of hope.

Oldroyd does an admirable, and well researched, job of telling one story that shows how the science of Geology became a mature science in the middle at late 19th century. The principles, tools, and ideas about geological field mapping are so simplistic that an elementary aged student could likely understand them, and yet as Oldroyd shows with The Highland Controversy, the most important tool is the geologists mind and ability to think creatively. Followed closely by a willingness to climb to the top of every hill, an eye for detail, and the drive to see ones work through.

The Highlands Controversy is not a light a read, and I can imagine it could be difficult to follow in places for someone without a background in the geological sciences. However, I believe that most of those who are interested in the history of science will enjoy this book. Oldroyd was not a geologist himself, and he does an excellent job of walking the reader through terms and concepts. For professional geologists, especially those working with and creating geological maps, this book is essential reading. The types of conflicts and problems with methodology and lack of imagination still exist to this very day!

As a field geologist who creates geologic maps using techniques that are fundamentally the same as described in The Highlands Controversy I loved this book. Many parts were extremely relatable while other parts were sober warnings about professional conduct. While James Hutton taught us "the present is the key to the past" geologists, and scientists in general, should not hesitate to learn the history of their field, so that we do not have to relearn hard won truths discovered by our antecedents.

A beautiful yet disturbing book. I did not expect to find new-to-me horrors in a nuclear apocalypse story, especially one written so early in the Cold War. It is an incredibly thought provoking book, one that will stick with me for a long time.

Contrary to another reviewer, I believe the lessons in this book are as timely and important today as they were more than 60 years ago. The threat of nuclear annihilation is still with us and will never go away as long as humanity tolerates their existence. Canticle highlights this danger more than any other book I have read.

Since finishing, I have read a number of reviews and analyses of Canticle and am a bit confused by the repeated critique of its lack of female characters. The story takes place almost exclusively in the context of a Catholic monastery where women aren't even allowed. So the absence of female characters for much of the book was not something that felt problematic. Even then, two of the most important characters in the final act are women. One of whom drives home how myopic the well meaning monks were from the everyday world and the other half of humanity.

Anna Roos gives a delightful history of the early modern naturalist and scientist Martin Lister and two of his daughters, Anna and Susanna. During the same period as Newton, Hooke, Linnaeus, and Huygens Sir Martin Lister pioneered the study of invertebrates and fossils, becoming the first arachnologist and malacologist. His work and the scientific illustrations by his daughters not only taught others the value of art in scientific study and classification, but also that even the creepy crawly things are worthy of study and things of beauty in themselves.

I very much enjoyed learning about an early modern scientist that is now largely forgotten. I only wish there was more documentation on the Lister sisters lives. Their illustrations are stunning works of art, and the fact that they were creating scientific illustrations in their early teens for the Royal Society is remarkable. If you enjoy the history of science you will probably love this book.