Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924)

Like two books smashed together, one decent book on philosophy and the animal mind (not just in bonobos), and one terrible book about the author's gripes with Dawkins and militant atheism, that is more blog post material than book quality. Skip this book and read de Waal's much better book "Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?" that covers much of the same ground, but in twice the depth and detail and without the irrelevant sidetrack.

Mixed bag. Lots of facts dropping without a clear purpose. A fresh approach to a series of sensitive issues. Smart and fun to read.
It's less sciency than you'd expect from a pop science book. Lacks clarity and is a bit repetitive at times.

I was going to rate it 3 but there are a few things that stuck with me and are pushing my finger towards the 4th star.

One is that expression he used "unexpected as finding bird shit in the cuckoo clock".

The other being the idea that "trying to convince a show more religious person that there's no God is as useful as trying to save fish from drowning". I believe he meant it mainly in the sense of "risky for the fish" but also a tiny little bit in the sense of "waste of time".

I think I'll read more Frans de Waal. show less

de Waal presents a very well-defended thesis that the origins of human morality lie in our biological, evolutionary heritage as mammals and social primate, and that religion is a johnny-come-lately method of strengthening and enforcing morality. The title might lead one to believe that he is presenting a strident, "new athiest" position. But he is not. While he is certainly not endorsing religion, he is not especially antagonistic towards it. All in all, an interesting read.

Book received from NetGalley.

While this was an interesting book and the first I have read about this Founding Father, I feel there are better and newer biographies out there that would be a better read. The best thing about this book is that it didn't fall into the flowery language of the era it was written in. It is likely to be heavily biased toward certain areas of his life while glossing over the not so good things he did. I think this was reprinted due to the hype over the hit musical show more and is mainly a way to cash in on it. Usually, I enjoy the reprints by this publisher, but I just wasn't that big of a fan of this one. show less