George Bernard Shaw - The Population Question (1928)

Introduction 

Historically, socialist writings on population problems have exhibited a curious ambivalence. On the one hand, there has been an inclination flatly to deny that such problems exist at all. For a socialist society "the most precious asset is people.'" In capitalist societies talk about population problems is a cynical tactic by reactionaries aimed at diverting attention from the real problems of exploitation and class conflict. On the other hand, at least the abstract possibility of demographic growth generating economic hardship has often been acknowledged by socialist writers, coupled with the argument that if such problems are real only a socialist society will be able to resolve them. The pronouncements on population of the Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who was an ardent socialist of the Fabian variety, exhibit this ambivalence fully, the more so as Shaw's pellucid style is in happy contrast to the turgid theorizing characteristic of much of the earlier literature expounding socialist views on the subject. Reproduced below are passages from Shaw's most sustained discussion of political economy, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism, a treatise of over 500 pages that first appeared in 1928. (The passages are from Chapters 25 and 80.) If Shaw's usual penchant for the iconoclastic pose-at times for sheer entertainment's sake-is evident also in his discussion of population problems, this flaw is amply compensated by numerous insights and critical points that after 55 years still retain their relevance and cutting edge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bo Gräslund - Early Humans and Their World (2005)

Abstract

Summarizing modern research on early hominid evolution from the apes six million years ago to the emergence of modern humans, this book is the first to present a synthetic discussion of many aspects of early human life. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arthur Koestler - Less equal than others (1974)

 

Introduction

 

When Professor H. J. Eysenck was beaten up by a bunch of nitwits at the London School of Economics some time ago, he roused a wave of sympathy even among those scholars who disagree with his ideas. This book (see below) will predictably lose him much of that sympathy. Not on the grounds on which the L.S.E. gang attacked him: to call Hans Eysenck a Fascist or a 'reactionary' is simply laughable, and race is not even discussed in the book. It is nevertheless a book with a potentially harmful effect on psychology students, educationists and even politicians, who might take Eysenck's controversial interpretations of ambiguous statistics as the ultimate scientific truth about human nature. His thesis is, briefly, that intelligence is 80 per cent determined by heredity, which leaves only a small, 20-per-cent margin where environmental factors, including education, can exert their influence on child or adult. This puts man into a universe where genetic predestination rules almost supreme — where, in the words of the Koran, every man's destiny is fastened round his neck.