To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science

To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science by Steven Weinberg

The author attempted to write something innovative describing how the ability to do science came about, but ended up with a typical history of science. The Arabs were holding the torch of science, but they didn't make the final push of the scientific revolution. People needed to learn to ask the right questions to get the right answers. They broke down things in controlled areas to get things that were explainable in the way we know. These things had to be shared. That is how we got to what we know as science today. It seems the best we can do. However, will people in the future treat it as we treat Astrology and Alchemy? Both of those were given scientific credence before they were treated as pseudo-science. The book concludes with Copernicus, Galileo and Newton. They were treated as the originators of modern science, yet they still had some traditional beliefs.

Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition

Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition by Mark Lawrence Schrad

The history of prohibition has been significantly rewritten from the modern point of view. Today it is often seen as a moral crusade by the religious right to inflict middle class values on the working class. However, during the time, it was primarily the oppressed fighting against those in power. An analogy today would be the attacks on big pharma for their role in the opioid epidemic. 

Taxes on alcohol sales were often a primary driver of revenue for governments. In addition, licenses to sell alcohol would be hard to come by. Regulation was often a means of controls. Laws prohibiting alcohol sales on Sundays would only be enforced on those establishments that failed to pay appropriate bribes. The lower classes tended to suffer the greatest damage. Saloon owners would encourage them to stay and drink more and more. It would cost the poor money as well as cause difficulty in the community. The damages were also inflicted on other countries occupied by Americans (such as the Philippines and Cuba)

Prohibition and temperance sought to resolve problems. The primary attack was on the liquor traffic, not the individual consumer. Abolition, universal suffrage and prohibition were closely entwined as part of the progressive platform. Blacks and Native Americans were especially drawn towards abolition as it caused great harm in their communities.  Even today, dry areas can be often found in areas with large Native American populations, such as Indian Reservations and Alaskan villages.

The book provides a very thorough history of prohibition worldwide. There were differences from place to place. However, a common theme is money and corruption. Those in power see alcohol as a great way to subjugate and extract money from those without. The author spends significant time flipping the modern narrative on its head. 

The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is―and Isn’t

The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is―and Isn’t by Steven Conn

After World War II, the population of central cities declined while the suburbs grew. However, the growth of the suburbs vastly eclipsed the loss in the cities. Much of this extra population consisted of people leaving rural areas. In some cases it may have been forced upon them as suburban areas encroached on farmland. In other cases, it was a more conscious decision. They sought more opportunities, yet didn't want to go all the way to the city.

In America, rural living represents many of the core tenants of individuality. However, rural living rarely lives up to the "ideal".  People also desire many of the resources of the cities. Suburbs are often the "compromise". Today, rural areas tend to be poor. Many "food deserts" appear in the areas of food production. Medical care and even education may be missing or require long distant travel. Retail in general is missing. Dollar stores are the most recent retail area that has taken to rural and small town areas. They are the latest in the series of "downtown dominators", after 5 and dime and Wal-Mart/K-Mart type stores. 

The explores the definition of what "rural" is. It can be more of a state of mind than an actual location. "Not city" may be the key part of it. In then wanders into various physical and economic characteristics. It is a bit unfocussed, but interesting.

The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World

Wayfinders started out as a series of lectures in Canada. The book explores bits of "wisdom" of ancient cultures. Polynesians could navigate across vast oceans long before the Europeans could. They used many different pieces of information to piece together the complete mental "map" of where they had been in order to find where they are going. There are other cultures that treat the land as an integral part of life. Other cultures had various rituals and customs that helped unite them as people as well as sustain the life in the world. Our view of many of these ancient cultures is often quite incomplete. We see the society after they have spent time in contact with western culture. This has caused them to adapt their ways. 

The has respect for ancient skills and wisdom. However, he does not idolize them as is often the case. He acknowledges that they had a way of wisdom and a certain set of skills. They are not necessarily better or worse than others, just different. It is valuable to retain these bits of wisdom rather than attempt to force everyone into the current mold of western civilization.

Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat

Taste is one of the more maligned senses. Vision and hearing are used everyday in our interactions in the world. Touch provides continuous stimulus in our daily activities. Even smell is providing constant clues about our environment. But taste? Even the Greeks thought of it as a baser sense. It seems to only occur as we are indulging ourselves in food. However, taste has evolved in humans for a purpose. The taste of items helps steer us away from things that will hurt us and towards things that can help sustain us. Human's larger and more demanding brains have allowed them to focus on more efficient ways of ingesting calories, allowing us to spend less time eating than our primate cousins. Taste also involves a cultural adaptation, with things appearing tasty in one culture, but repelling in others. (There seem to be a multitude of "rotten fish" or "Stinky cheese" dishes out there.)
Through history there have been some attempts to analyze taste, as well as bogus theories that have endured much longer than they should. (For example, the erroneous "tongue map" that placed difference taste buds in different areas of the tongue was created by an uncorrected game of "telephone".) We have a better understanding today, but there is still a ways to go. Umami has only been recently added to the list of basic tastes. Will there be other tastes added?
Artificial sweeteners are difficult because they have side effects and only work on the taste sensors. However, even if we can't taste sweetness, we are likely to be attracted to it. Hot Peppers trigger a reaction that tricks the body into thinking there is a hot temperature, even though there is not. (It still can be debilitating as is the case with pepper spray.) Repeated exposure can desensitize people to the hotness - and even help them to live longer. Tasty does contains a number of historical tidbits and interesting anecdotes as it looks into the history of taste. However, it feels incomplete. There is not much of an overall narrative tying everything together. There seems to be so much more that could be said about taste. We may just need to discover it first.