Reviews for Biology of Seaweeds - Christopher S. Lobban - Hardcover

The average rating for Biology of Seaweeds - Christopher S. Lobban - Hardcover based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-18 00:00:00 John Mills Also would like to read, Soul of the Republic by the same author

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-06 00:00:00 Joseph Degovann In the beginning of the book, Rose cites the successful popular books by Levins and Levontin such as "Dialectical Biologists" and "Not in Our Genes". He claims that their thesis of dialectical approach to evolution and rejection of reductionism in biology bears repeating. So, apparently, Rose decided to write a me-too book on the subject. To increase the number of good books so to speak. Problem is that he tries to extirpate the evils of reductionist thinking without bothering to learn to write cogently. Remember the silly principle they taught you in grad school as to how to write a research paper? Where in the introduction you say what you are going to say, then say it, then you say what you have said in the conclusion. Now imagine the whole book where every second sentence is reflective of what is happening. That's "Lifelines". Rose takes care to constantly explain to us what it is that he is explaining. He also makes sure to forward and backward reference the other parts of the book lest we forget. Rose ensures that the attention is never drawn from him, the main character of the book. We are expected to observe and admire how clever he is. The style is certainly annoying. However, the main problem with the book is that Rose does not back up his claims with with facts extensively. He sprinkles anecdotes here and there but he assumes that if he just says the _right words_ the argument should be convincing enough. And indeed, Rose views lie in dialectical, progressive part of academic spectrum. It would have been a great book had he been able to argue his points convincingly. Instead the book reads like a scatterbrained self-centered academic cocktail party ramble. One can still glean some interesting bits of information and key in on the researchers' names and concepts Rose drops. But such useful bits are few and far between. With this book, Rose does a disservice to the cause he set out to support.