Books reviews, current events, and other musings

 
Peter Watson's The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century is a very impressive review of the last century's developments in science, the humanities, social science, art, and numerous other areas. Unlike most treatments by non-scientists, Watson views scientific discoveries as significant and his presentation of modern physics is largely accurate. The science, social science, and philosophy portions were more compelling than the discussions of art, music, literature, and architecture, but that's just a reflection of my personal preferences. Watson manages to weave an exhaustive range of intellectual works into a more-or-less coherent narrative. Modern Mind is well worth reading, if you're sufficiently dedicated to get through an intense 800 page treatise
posted by Julian at 11:00 PM