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Also includes: Steven Johnson (1)

Image credit: Steven Berlin Johnson. Photo courtesy Meet the Media Guru.

Works by Steven Berlin Johnson

Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World (2016) 287 copies, 11 reviews
Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer (2021) 105 copies, 2 reviews

Associated Works

Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 (2001) — Contributor — 167 copies, 2 reviews
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018 (2018) — Contributor — 122 copies, 4 reviews

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The Ghost Map - Group Read in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (April 2013)

Reviews

"...few human beings had ever captured the imagination of so many strangers around the world without commanding an army, presiding over a major religious sect or being born with royal blood."

Henry Every was one of the richest pirates in history and not how you'd expect. Instead of vying for Spanish Treasure Fleets, Every took his men to Madagascar. In the 17th century, India and the Mughal Empire, boasted the richest kingdom in the world. Despite the East India Co.'s attempts to dominate, the Grand Mughal Aurangzeb kept them on a tight leash. But whatever beneficial relationship the British had soon crumbled after Every took the Ganj-i-Sawai. The "Ganj-i-Sawai" or Gunsway, was massive, far larger than Every's "Fancy" and carried an astounding amount of treasure as well as pilgrims from Mecca. These were all noblewomen of Aurangzeb's own family. What happens next, as Every's men took the ship, I won't describe in detail. Suffice it to say Aurangzeb anger could not be contained. The East India factory in Surat was seized and an international bounty was put on Every's head.

While I can't seem to find the perfect biography of Every, this one is still better than "The Pirate King." Unlike "The Pirate King," Johnson does not try to romanticize Every in any way. The men "were r*pists of the worst order" and as captain, Every bears full responsibility. Referring to Indian narrative and survivor testimonies, Johnson effectively dispels the myth of Every as the "Robin Hood" of the seas. In fact, Every also promised to never attack English ships, but he did. Using an alias, he even money launders some of his loot in exchange for slaves, the "universal currency," to sell in the colonies. While Johnson included so much that is often ignored or glossed over, it did help that I had read Woodard and Cordingly first. It needed just a bit more leading into the Golden Age.
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½
 
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asukamaxwell | 8 other reviews | Jan 6, 2025 |
Every now and then I start reading and realize "this book is going to change how I think."

Its a little bit scary and a lot of bit exciting.

While I know--I know--I picked this up because I thought it was about disease, Emergence has proved far more interesting and satisfying than I could hope. Emergence's premise is about networks and 'organized' behavior that develops from a lower-level to a more sophisticated one. In one sense, this is a very real snapshot of the history of thinking/science captured in a book, no less pertinent for its publication date. We have been coming out of the ages of hierarchy and webs from how we explain and understand the universe, from biology to political systems. Now there is a new type of explanation. From looking at how disorganized individuals spring up into a larger, organized whole, he explains slime mold, ants selecting new colony sites, video games, and grassroots political revolutions.

He is one of those rare science writers that sees across disciplines and speaks intelligibly about all of them.
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carol. | 23 other reviews | Nov 25, 2024 |
Interesting history of London (and world) epidemics in the 1800s. From the detail, it left me with the impression this was a pivotal time in western history where science and mythology truly began to diverge, at least with respect to public health.

Then came the epilogue. The author’s pro-city/anti-rural bias exploded into full flame. I stopped listening to his silliness shortly after he suggested it would be better to cram all the humans into densely populated cities - think Mumbai, Tokyo, or Hong Kong dense. Somehow, this is supposed to save the earth from devastating (and nonexistent) global climate change.

His specific example is waste-handling systems in cities vs rural areas. Yes, rural systems serve fewer people, per capita. The one thing conveniently ignored is: When rural waste systems need repair/maintenance/replacing, the cost and timing is borne by the owner. In cities, residents are at the mercy of bureaucrats who decide when to do that work and how much to spend on it. Neither system is perfect and both require trade-offs. I prefer my freedom, so I will stay in my rural community, thank you very much.
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AMKitty | 197 other reviews | Nov 21, 2024 |

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