Moderately interesting popular science likely to excite academic debate on sex and gender.
An exploration of the hormone that makes men do strange things while keeping the species going.
“Testosterone is present in our blood in minute quantities,” writes Hooven, co-director of undergraduate studies in the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard. “Both sexes produce it, but men have ten to twenty times as much as women.” She continues, “if the Y chromosome is the essence of maleness, then T is the essence of masculinity, at least in the popular mind.” That popular-mind aspect plunges the author into timely and intriguing yet eminently debatable territory, as she’s left to address such matters as biological determinism, the question of whether there are truly sex differences, and what role testosterone plays in sexual violence and aggressiveness of other kinds. Much of this boils down to the ancient question of nature vs. nurture, and Hooven walks a fine line between the two. Carefully, she notes how our now-well-developed scientific understanding of the biochemistry of testosterone does not mean that “we have to accept current levels of sexual assault, harassment, discrimination, or coercion.” The author privileges definitions of sex while not giving much breathing room for contending notions of gender. Exploring the question of why the play of boys and girls is different, “it is a remarkable and unexplained coincidence that social forces have exactly reproduced the kinds of differences in play that would be predicted from endocrinology and evolution—in every human culture where they have been studied.” As for the matter of how much testosterone figures into the appallingly high levels of violence in the U.S. and elsewhere, Hooven writes, “taking arrest rates as a rough proxy for the composition of offenders, men commit 80 to 85 percent of violent crimes in the United States.” Then the author brings socialization into the picture to allow for circumstance, personality, and other non-T factors. In the end, “it’s complicated.”
Moderately interesting popular science likely to excite academic debate on sex and gender.Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-23606-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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