Author(s): David F. Prindle

Cultural Studies

Harvard palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould was, until his death in 2002, America's best-known natural scientist. His monthly essays in "Natural History" magazine were widely read by both scientists and ordinary citizens with an interest in science. One of his books won the National Book Award, and another was a best-seller in three countries. Philosopher Daniel Dennett proclaimed him 'America's evolutionist laureate'. While many people have written about Gould's science, pro and con, and a few have written about his politics, this is the first book to explore his science and politics as a consistent whole. Political scientist David F. Prindle argues that Gould's mind worked along two tracks simultaneously - the scientific and the political. All of his concepts and arguments were bona fide contributions to science, but all of them also contained specifically political implications. As one example among many, Prindle cites Gould's controversial argument that if the 'tape of evolution' could be rewound and then allowed to unspool again, nothing resembling human beings would likely evolve.