Tag: history

Posted on

#BookReview: Stones Still Speak by Amanda Hope Haley

The Publisher Used The Perfect Review Tagline! I’m not joking on that headline either. As I write this review just over a month before this book publishes, the very first line of the current description of this book says “Untangling the Sunday School Stories You Learned from the Biblical History You Haven’t”. And dammit, had they not used that line, *I WOULD HAVE!*.

That book is the singular **PERFECT** way to describe this book in a succinct manner. It really is exactly what you’re getting here.

In this book, an actual field archaeologist goes through the Bible nearly cover to cover showing what the field of archaeology has discovered… and what it hasn’t. Written from an unequivocally Christian perspective, this is a book that doesn’t try to destroy faith – and yet also actively debunks claims that the evidence simply can’t support, even while fully acknowledging and even actively embracing the supernatural in instances where there is wiggle room. (Absence of evidence not being evidence of absence and all that jazz. 😉 )

In many of my reviews of Christian books I’ve deducted a star for prooftexting, and while Haley does in fact cite Bible verses frequently throughout this text… she never actually engages in that practice. Indeed, she cites the verse specifically to place it *within* its context both Biblically and historically and archaeologically. Thus, she’s actually doing quite the *opposite* of prooftexting, even while employing a similar mechanism.

No, the star deduction here is simply the dearth of the bibliography, clocking in at just 8% or so of the text I have in my Advance Review Copy – vs the roughly double that that would be an acceptable (ish) minimum per the documentation standards of other nonfiction books I’ve read over the years. (And indeed, many of the remaining nonfiction ARCs I have clock in at or north of 30% documentation, a few even hitting the 40% and above mark!)

Overall though, this really is a particularly strong book that may potentially be controversial for the hyper religious (both Christians and those who oppose anything remotely related to Christianity), but is well within the Overton Window for most readers. The writing style is very approachable, far from the dense and dusty academy-speak one might fear they would be getting into here, and thus truly very much approachable for most any reader capable of reading chapter books at all.

Very much recommended.

This review of Stones Still Speak by Amanda Hope Haley was originally written on August 22, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Beyond Control by Jacob Sullum

Strong Refutation of Gun and Drug Laws. At least in American politics, the political right loves to demand total freedom re: guns (and has a particularly strong textual Constitutional case for exactly that) yet also demand exceedingly harsh punishments for even minor issues wherein a person is using, possessing, or even being anywhere near some substance the government has decided it doesn’t like. In American politics, the political left is the opposite – demanding near total freedom re: substances (despite, to be clear, a clear Constitutional case protecting access there) while demanding ever more draconian punishments for any issue they don’t like involving certain tools they don’t like.

In this text, reasonably well researched with a bibliography clocking in at around 23% of the overall text, Reason Magazine editor Jacob Sullum finally writes a book about the two issues he has spent a career writing for the magazine about: gun control and drug control, and how both have remarkably similar histories and even current arguments.

Sullum shows how both ultimately come from racist and classist origins and actively have racist and classist causes and effects even in today’s society. He quotes the oft-cited Michelle Alexander’s New Jim Crow, while pointing to some of its shortcomings. He cites others across the ideological spectrum, showing the strengths and weaknesses of several different ideas through the course of both early American history up through history as recent as 2024.

Ultimately, this is not even that arguably the strongest take down of both regulatory schemes I’ve yet encountered in book form – and the fact that Sullum did it with *two* topics (and shows how closely they are linked, despite “both” American Political Parties handling each very differently) at once shows just how much of a master logician he is. I mean, I consider myself reasonably well versed in various forms of debate, but here Sullum may as well be Neo upon discovering that he really is The One, effortlessly slicing through counter arguments as if they were no more substantive than the hot air coming out both sides of Joe Biden’s mouth. (And yes, yet again another libertarian-based book, and another book were former US Senator and now former President Joe Biden is cited – and showing how wrong he was – seemingly more often than any other US President, including the current one as I write this review just over a month before publication of this book. The other similar book being Radley Balko’s excellent 2013 book Rise Of The Warrior Cop.)

If you’re at all interested in gun control or drug legalization in the US, from any position and any angle… you need to read this book. Even if just for opposition research. Because even if I didn’t agree with Sullum’s positions (and I don’t… maybe 5% of the time here 😉 ) this truly is a very solidly reasoned and examined argument against government regulation of either object, at least as regulations of either currently stand or are largely even thought of at all, and even if you are 100% opposed to Sullum’s stances here, you’ll do yourself a favor by examining his arguments if only to try to find a way to counter them.

Truly well done, truly well organized narratively, and absolutely…

Very much recommended.

This review of Beyond Control by Jacob Sullum was originally written on July 31, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Road That Made America by James Dodson

Phenomenal Esoteric Tale of American History You’ve Likely Never Heard Of Marred By Dearth Of Bibliography.

Looking back on my own ancestry off and on over the years, I’ve traced at least some lines to within a generation or two of when Europeans were in the Americas at all, and most of those lines come from somewhere in the British Isles – mostly England and Ireland (indeed, 5 of 6 historic Counties of Ireland), with a few Rhineland region relatives tossed in at different points for good measure. The ones that I’ve traced that far, they generally showed up in the Americas in Virginia or so and ultimately worked their way along the eastern side of the Appalachian foothills until they reached its southern end in the northwest corner of Georgia, not far from the border with North Carolina and Tennessee in the region known as the Great Smoky Mountains. There, I can trace nearly every line of my family tree to that same region for the past 180 years or so – including one multiple-great grandfather who died fighting for the Union in a battle in northeastern Alabama during the Civil War.

As it turns out, there was a reason my family took the geographic path it did once it got to the region now known as the United States – apparently quite a few immigrants made their way mostly down one particular road that wound its way along this very region from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania all the way to Augusta, Georgia – where even I spent a few years living directly across the river in Aiken, South Carolina.

But what do you care about all of this?

Well… long before the Oregon Trail or the Trail of Tears or other famous trails that took Americans west from the Appalachian Mountains ultimately to the Pacific Ocean, there was the Old Wagon Road. The road that fueled expansion inland *to* the Appalachians, and along which quite a bit of American history took place from the colonial years right up through the Civil War years in particular. This book reveals a lot of that history in stories not as well known by many, even when some of them involve names known by most Americans. Names like Benjamin Franklin and Robert E. Lee and Woodrow Wilson, just to name a few you’ll hear about in this text and recognize.

The real magic here though is in the names you *don’t* recognize. The tales you’ve *never* heard of before. This is where the “real” history of America lies – the history that is rapidly being forgotten and overwritten. The so-called “esoteric” history that supposedly only matters to fanatics and those whose ancestors directly played roles in or who were directly affected by, But one could argue – and Dodson makes a truly excellent case for throughout this book – that this is the very history that builds communities and tightens bonds within them. It is the history that binds people to place and whole to piece. It is the vagaries of one man choosing one path over another – and walking into the history books (for good or ill, at differing times) because of the path he chose that night. It is the history of families and communities coming together to celebrate the great times – and mourn the bad times. It is our history as Americans, and it is my personal history – even though Dodson’s tales here don’t touch on a single name I recognize from my family tree – because it is the history of how the nation came together via the individual and community actions of those who came so long before.

Narratively, this book is both memoir and history, following one man through time and space as he travels the road – as best as he can know it – from its origins in Philadelphia to its terminus in Augusta, learning the history of each place along the way and reflecting on his experience with it.

It is a stirring narrative, both in the communal and personal histories and in Dodson’s ability to craft his words in such an evocative way. And yes, there are sections where no matter your own personal politics, Dodson is likely going to say something you don’t overly like, whether it be espousing support for the so-called “1619 Project” in one chapter or supporting the right for Confederate monuments to exist in seemingly the very next chapter. But don’t defenestrate the book, no matter how tempting iq may be in the moment. Read Dodson’s words, and carefully consider them. This is no polemic. It is a pilgrimage, and one that we’re brought along for the ride on and asked to experience for ourselves via Dodson’s narrative here.

Overall a particularly strong book about histories largely forgotten and certainly far too often ignored. And yet it is this particular strength that also leads to its one flaw: For a book that shows so much history and even references quite a few texts along the way, for the bibliography to be only a page or two is damn near criminal. While the book did contain quite a few personal and direct interviews, there is also quite a bit of history discussed, and it would serve Dodson’s readers to have a more complete bibliography so that they could read up on the same sources he used in his own research.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Road That Made America by James Dodson was originally written on July 5, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Hiroshima Men by Iain MacGregor

Among The More Complete Histories Of The Nuclear Bombing Of Japan. Clocking in at nearly 450 pages, with only about 10% of that bibliography – and hence the star deduction – this account really is one of the more complete accounts of the entire event I’ve yet come across in all my years both reading books generally and studying WWII in its various facets more specifically. It was also the last of three books about the bomb and/ or the use of it that I read over the few days of US Memorial Day Weekend 2025 or in the days immediately after, the other two being Evan Thomas’ 2023 book Road To Surrender and Frank Close’s June 2025 book Destroyer Of Worlds.

Specifically, in tracking exactly who it does – including several key US personnel involved with both war planning and the Manhattan Project itself, the pilot of the bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, the reporter who really opened America’s eyes to the horrors of nuclear fallout, and even the Mayor of Hiroshima himself – this book really does give a complete all around picture of all aspects of the creation and use of the atomic bomb and the repercussions for both American leadership and Japanese civilians.

Reading almost like a Tom Clancy or perhaps Robert Ludlum war thriller at times, this text *also* manages to have the emotional heavy hitting of Hersey’s original Hiroshima report, which it covers in nearly as much detail as Lesley MM Blume’s 2020 book Fallout – which told the story of that report exclusively. Leaning more towards the American position that as horrific as this event was, it very likely saved lives – American, Japanese, and even Russian – this is one of those texts that largely doesn’t speak of the efforts in both America and Japan by several key, yet not quite highly ranked enough, leaders to at least consider trying to end the war through dialogue (ala Evan Thomas’ 2023 book Road To Surrender), but instead seeks to offer the reader a more complete understanding of the men who *were* making the decisions in these moments, from the President of the United States all the way to the commander of the airplane that actually dropped the bomb itself.

Ultimately a thorough yet sobering account, and with its release intentionally timed just barely a month before the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, this really is one of the most complete books I’ve ever encountered on the topic, one that at least attempts to strive for a balance in understanding *all* involved in this event. Thus, all -American, Japanese, and everyone else interested in discussing the event with intelligence and facts – would do well to read this particular accounting.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Hiroshima Men by Iain MacGregor was originally written on June 1, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Destroyer Of Worlds by Frank Close

Despite Title, This Is A Physics History – Not A WWII History. Despite using J. Robert Oppenheimer’s famous quote upon seeing the detonation of the first atomic bomb – quoting from the Bhagavad Gita, he proclaimed “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” (in case you’ve been living under a rock and had never heard that tale) – and indeed even showing that moment in this history of physics, this really is exactly that – a history of nuclear physics and the scientists involved.

Even when the book finally gets into WWII and the Manhattan Project – as well as at least touching on both Germany and Japan’s efforts to also create the first atom bomb – it still primarily focuses on the science, scientists, and the technical, logistical, and political challenges they were having. Indeed, this is really as close as this text gets to discussing the larger picture of WWII – or the Cold War after it ended.

Instead what we get is a fascinating, and perhaps first of its kind in just how detailed and comprehensive it is, examination of the history of scientific discovery as it relates to nuclear and even quantum physics. Yes, it has a lot of complex – as in, truly seemingly PhD level in the field – images of some of the various mathematical equations involved, but Close does a pretty great job of actually explaining them in such a way that someone with at least a high school physics class under their belt should be able to follow along reasonably well, and even for those that don’t have even that background in physics, it really is more “history of physics” than “physics” in the text’s actual discussions of the relevant histories. (Though I could absolutely see this being used as a textbook, particularly at the collegiate level and particularly in certain history classes or even physics classes, as a way of showing all that has come before to get us to roughly where we are in our understanding of the topics at hand.)

At least I had an easy enough time following along with the text here- though as others frequently tell me, this could very well be a “*my* abilities” thing rather than a more general level of ease. So please, read this book and write a review yourself, no matter who you may be, and please briefly describe your own educational background when you do. (For me, I have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, came within a handful of classes of getting two other degrees in Secondary Mathematics Education and Mathematics -long story there – and had physics classes in both high school and college. In addition to several history classes, including a few covering the time and issues in question.) I also had a great time reading this over US Memorial Weekend 2025, as we prepare for the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki later this summer – though I *did* expect this book would be more about those events than it was, which was one main reason I had originally picked it up and chose to read it at this exact time. So again, to be crystal clear yet another time: This is a history of nuclear physics, *NOT* a history of the atomic bomb directly or exclusively.

Truly a fascinating and compelling history, particularly for anyone at least remotely interested in the field for any reason.

Oh, and the star deduction? For all that is discussed here, the bibliography is actually rather short, clocking in at just 10% or so of the text. Astonishing, really, considering the sheer amount of history presented here.

Very much recommended.

This review of Destroyer Of Worlds by Frank Close was originally written on June 1, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Road To Surrender by Evan Thomas

History In All Its Complexity. This is one of the better histories of the nuclear bombings of Japan that I’ve come across over the years in that it isn’t “hoo-rah we didn’t drop *enough* bombs on Japan!”, but it also isn’t “nuclear weapons are an absolute abomination and their use made the term “war crime” seem like stealing a piece of gum, it was so much worse than that”. (The second there being closer to my own position on the matter, for what that’s worth.)

Instead, Thomas takes pains to show the complex realities on both sides of the war, both in what the leaders at the time knew and in the various pressures each was facing in trying to lead nations during a war. This is a Western-based book, and thus ultimately comes down on the side of the deployment of these weapons being “necessary”, but Thomas really shows effort to show that at least some of the American leaders that ultimately selected the targets and ordered the strikes did at least attempt to consider other alternatives – but again, given their own intelligence estimates, planning, and pressures, ultimately concluded to issue the orders they did.

One thing that becomes crystal clear when reading this text, however, is that while there may not have been (apparently clearly were not) actual communications regarding this between the governments, there absolutely were people – high ranking people – on both sides that were seeking ways to avoid this fate. There were those on the American side high enough up to know what was being built in top secrecy but low enough to not be able to countermand the order to actually use them that wanted to avoid civilian deaths at *all* costs – even if it meant not dropping these bombs at all. There were those on the Japanese side that were striving, as early as late 1944 in particular, to find some way to end the war and still allow Japan to retain its Imperial system, or at bare minimum its Emperor. (Which, to be clear, despite the US “insisting” on “unconditional” surrender, *was* ultimately allowed – and yes, Thomas goes into detail here too about what the terms actually meant to both sides.)

Truly one of the better histories of the topic I’ve ever come across, and I’m glad I finally read this text on US Memorial Weekend 2025, as we begin to go through the 80th anniversary of many of the final events detailed in this book.

Very much recommended.

This review of Road To Surrender by Evan Thomas was originally written on June 1, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Fuji Fire by Chas Henry

Mass Effect. September 11. Small Exurban Atlanta, Georgia. A Blimp Commonly Seen At Major US Sporting Events. All Connected By One Event. Many, many years ago – nearly as far back as the fire at the heart of this book, though I’m not quite *that* old – I attended a Family Day (or whatever they called it at the time) at the Goodyear plant in Rockmart, Ga, just outside metropolitan Atlanta at the time. My dad and several uncles all worked for Goodyear at one of their two plants in my hometown of Cartersville, just up the road, and for whatever reason this year (and maybe one other?) Goodyear was combining the event for all three plants. Little did I know that in attending that event, I would have a direct – if extremely remote – connection to a fire that killed 13 US Marines and injured nearly 50 other people when my dad was 19 and just before my mom’s 19th birthday, nearly a year before they wed and within 5 yrs before my birth. To the level that given my family and community connections, it is at least somewhat likely that I actually know people who know the people who likely never even knew that something they had made had unfortunately indirectly caused so much devastation.

And little did Henry know that in including the tiny detail of who made the fuel bladder that leaked the fuel that burned and caused these casualties, he would instantly make this tale that much more personal to a reviewer who had never heard of this tragedy before seeing this book.

But there are wider connections here, both more in the aftermath than the setup. One issue Henry dives into for a page or two (of just barely 230 pages of actual text here) actually connects directly to an issue explored early in the first Mass Effect game in an encounter that is almost unavoidable, but to reveal which one would be a major spoiler for the discussion at this point of the book, as they are in fact identical, with identical reasonings if not identical particulars.

The other, perhaps even most surprising connection of all, is actually that this 1979 USMC tragedy along the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan is directly connected to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City – and directly helped save lives in 2001. All because one doc in particular was there in 1979 trying to save the lives of as many of these Marines as he could and learned lessons that became directly applicable that Tuesday in New York.

Read this book to learn of the Marines tragically lost over those two months in late 1979. Their stories have rarely been told outside of Marine circles, and everyone deserves to be remembered and have their stories known. Read this book to learn of the mistakes that were made that caused this calamity – or certainly exacerbated it, at minimum – and what we can do better both in the military (which *has* updated and clarified the relevant regulations over the intervening decades) and as a society in response to emergency and traumatic situations. Read this book to learn of the selflessness and heroism of so many working to save as many people as possible, and of the Marines themselves who were so often so much more worried about their fellow Marine than their own body. Read this book because so few of us have ever heard these stories, yet the sacrifice and courage of so many truly deserve to be more well known by so many more of us.

And yes, after you read this book… leave your own review. Tell the world what you thought of Henry’s reporting here (reads like a thriller, even as you know it is all too real) or the events shown here (I think I’ve been clear on that point). Help get the word out about this book so that the world can see what happened in 1979… and since.

And then go hug a loved one, because as this tale so poignantly points out… you never really know when it will be the last time you have a chance to do so.

Very much recommended.

PS: The star deduction? Unfortunately there was no bibliography at all in the Advance Review Copy edition of the book I read, and while I understand that this is original investigation, even by my more relaxed bibliographic requirements of nonfiction books these last few years I still really need to see at least around 15% of the text be bibliography, as that does seem to be a rough industry standard and is the standard I’ve been judging nonfiction books by for quite some time.

This review of Fuji Fire by Chas Henry was originally written on May 30, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Projects by Howard A. Husock

Important History That Should Spark Needed Discussion. First up, I fully admit I am *far* from a public housing expert of any kind. I read books like this to learn about issues, not because I already know about them. The closest first hand knowledge I have of any of this is growing up in Exurban Atlanta and being generally aware of the Atlanta news… right as the Atlanta Projects were coming down and being rethought in the late 90s/ early 2000s around the time of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. And even then, even while working with a community service oriented collegiate honor society throughout my college years in this period, while we worked a lot with various “community revitalization” efforts, we never really worked in the Projects. Maybe some other Atlanta chapters did (Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Spelman, etc), but my school just in the suburbs (Kennesaw State) didn’t.

All of that tangential personal history dealt with, the actual text here is great for sparking discussion on a few different, yet mostly related, topics… but the text here is also written almost as a textbook. It *feels* like something you would actually take a class on with this as the text and expect to be quizzed and tested about the various people and dates and movements and philosophies and such, yet it isn’t as dry and formal as an actual academic paper tends to be. It is one of those University Press (NYU, in this case) titles that seems truly destined to be *most* read as a textbook, very nearly explicitly designed for exactly that… and yet it *should* be read by a much wider audience, particularly among the “leader” / “influencer” / “organizer” set, because it really does have some interesting things to say about the entire history up to 2023 or so – and, somewhat, of the potential future – of public housing in the United States.

Among the discussions relevant here are the Nazi-based origins of public housing as we now know it in the 2020s – literally, the leaders who first proposed the national laws that led to the Projects openly praised Adolf Hitler and many of his acolytes of the late 1920s/ early 1930s – when their antisemitism and violence was already clear, but well before their “final solution” began. How can we openly embrace the freedom and diversity we claim to hold so dear in the US in the 2020s while also advocating for ideas that are in places almost word for word out of Hitler’s own mouth?

Another discussion point that Husock actually does a truly phenomenal job of exploring, even if a touch tangentially, is reparations. No, not for slavery – by and large, clear records of that don’t exist and the people directly affected by it are long dead. HOWEVER, the black communities whose property was effectively stolen -via so-called “eminent domain”, where the government can dictate the price it will pay you for your land – … this happened in the 1930s and later. We have actual property records of those who owned that land at that time. While many of the owners themselves are now dead, as many of them would have been born around the turn of the 20th century, some of the later ones – the projects built more in the “golden era”, as Husock describes it, of the 1950s and early 1960s… some of those original owners *may* still be alive. In either case, it is very likely that direct legal heirs of many of these people – their kids, grandkids, or even great-grandkids – are very much alive today and could be more adequately compensated for what was taken from their near ancestor. In theory, this could be seen as a just remediation for sins that while in the past, are still recent enough to bear accurate justification. Obviously, this would have to be more completely thought through and debated by those with far more knowledge of the specifics than I have, and likely far greater philosophers and ethicists than I will ever begin to approach claiming to be, but I do believe that Husock lays the basic groundwork for such conversations quite well in this text, and it should be read for this if for no other reason.

The final major discussion that Husock leads to here in the text is actually the very original discussion – what, if anything, should be done regarding public housing: Who should fund it, who should manage it, who should benefit from it, *is it possible* to truly benefit from it, under what conditions can it be successful, what is “successful public housing”, etc?

Husock makes clear that in certain times and places – even in this Millennium – public housing *has* worked and *can* work – but he also makes equally clear that the realities of public housing have rarely lived up to the ideals and goals of its proponents.

Read this book. Even if you yourself happen to be a public housing expert, you’re still likely to learn at leasta few things here. Write your own review of this book. And, perhaps more importantly, write to your governmental “leaders” at every level from your local City Councilman (as Housing Authorities are run by local leaders) all the way through your Congressman and even the President (as Federal policy is set in DC) and let them know your thoughts after reading it. Maybe, just maybe, we can actually get these discussions had in the manner than they are due.

Oh, and the star deduction? The bibliography clocked in at just 11% or so, which is short of even my recently relaxed standard of 15%.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Projects by Howard A. Husock was originally written on May 8, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Crossings by Ben Goldfarb

Well-Documented Examination Of How Roads Affect Animals. The subtitle of this book in particular is at least slightly misleading, as the book isn’t so much about all the ways roads impact ecology as much as how roads impact animals. It also isn’t so much about the “future of our planet” so much as it is about preventing extinction of migratory animals in particular.

But for what it *is*, this is actually a well documented (38% of the overall text) examination of how roads impact animals and how we can make them better for the wildlife around us… and thus ultimately safer for us. (As Goldfarb points out, at least at one point deer were the most deadly animal in America, far surpassing sharks or even snakes or even insect stings, due to the sheer volume of people killed in crashes wherein they either hit deer directly or swerved to avoid doing so.)

Indeed, much of the book is spent discussing largely three topics: roadkill, animal crossings, and to a slightly lesser extent, noise pollution and how it affects animal crossings and roadkill. Along the way we get sidetracked to a discussion of LA’s cougars, Tasmania’s world record roadkill, Interstates preventing deer migration in the Rocky Mountains, and even some discussion of salmon migration in the Pacific Northwest, among others.

If you’re looking for a book about the *totality* of how roads affect ecology… this isn’t that.

If you’re looking for a historical/ current look at how roads affect animal life… you’ve come to the right place.

And yes, Goldfarb has rather frequent leftist political rants sprinkled throughout the text, but none anywhere near as severe as the ultra leftist reviews eviscerating this book, so take that for what it’s worth – while annoying, I’ve read books with far worse rants with far fewer interesting facts, so I personally didn’t think it was *too* terrible – hence the reason I didn’t deduct a star for it. But your mileage will absolutely vary there, so just be aware of this before coming into this book.

Recommended.

This review of Crossings by Ben Goldfarb was originally written on May 1, 2025.

Posted on

#BookReview: Proof by Adam Kucharski

Not As Bad As It Could Have Been. Quite honestly, if I had known up front that I was reading a book about proof and certainty written by a *COVID “scientist”*… I would never have picked the damn book up to begin with. Those fuckers have been more wrong than flat earthers, and the world learned from dire direct personal experience to not believe a word they say.

This noted, Kucharski does at least admit that even he was wrong in at least certain areas, so the fact that he wasn’t trying to defend everything he and his colleagues did to us and all of their blatant mistakes was at least somewhat refreshing and gave this review its title.

Kucharski actually does a good job here with writing about precise concepts in layman and approachable terms, and even raises great (and hitherto unknown even to me) points about how even Euclid’s Elements ultimately shaped decades of American politics… via one State Senator working himself through it in order to learn how to be a more convincing orator. That particular State Senator being none other than later President of the United States Abraham Lincoln.

Similarly, other sections are also quite enlightening about other forms of proof, even going so far as to at least allow for the possibility of Bayes being wrong in his Theorem (a topic explored much more fully in the much more targeted work Bernoulli’s Fallacy by Aubrey Clayton) – which not many books about proof and statistics have ever done, at least in my experience as a former math and math related fields major and avid reader. (LONG story short, I came within a half dozen classes of getting degrees in Computer Science (the one I ultimately did get), Mathematics, and Secondary Mathematics Education at once… almost 20 yrs ago to the day as I write this review.)

Ultimately, the star deductions are for the long focus on COVID, which even 5 yrs later still warrants a star deduction in my own personal war against books focusing on that topic, and for trying to defend the scientists who were pushing so much of the damaging narratives – including, it seems, Kucharski himself. In a book about “proof” and “certainty”, where history has now proven that one group of scientists in particular was so *incredibly* wrong in their “certain” judgements, to defend that very group of scientists as correct is to actively deny reality, and this cannot be ignored in such a text as this. (I’ve since come to forgive/ be far more lenient about more passing references to that horrible period of the 21st century, by the way.)

Now, maybe your political positions align more with Kucharski’s. Maybe you still believe the blatant lies the world was fed about that period that ultimately caused far more harm and devastation than the actual virus ever did. In which case, you’re going to LOVE this book.

But for those like me who believe that every single one of those “scientists” should find a more appropriate job that suits their actual knowledge and skill level – burger flipper, maybe? – eh… read this book anyway. Kucharski really does have some great stuff here, when he’s not talking COVID.

Recommended.

This review of Proof by Adam Kucharski was originally written on May 1, 2025.