(September 2016)
Not a book so much as (very) long-form
journalism, and exemplifying both the strengths and the weaknesses of the
genre. I will refer you elsewhere for far more erudite refutations of Wolfe's
linguistic scholarship than I could hope to manage. It should, however, be noted
early that the concern of this book is only tangentially language; The Kingdom of Speech is really
interested in how ideas are born, tested, and accepted or rejected. Almost by
accident Wolfe gives us something far more interesting than his fatuously
simplistic notions of linguistic evolution. Behold instead the 'Swinging Dick'
theory of scientific advancement.
