Alex Mesoudi

An interesting book that promises more than it could deliver. This doesn't appear to be the author's fault, and perhaps the publisher hyped its content beyond what it can reasonably be expected to sustain. Cultural evolution research is in its early days, and this is an overview of some of the more interesting findings to date. As such it doesn't "cover" a wide range of topics in any comprehensive sense, as the blurb implies, but it does 'touch' on them (although one mentioned, public policy, apparently passed me by - I couldn't find it anywhere, it it was my sole reason for buying the book). I look forward to more work from Mesoudi on this topic, with greater breadth, depth, and perhaps some of that theoretical sophistication which will give us a welcome synthesis of the social sciences; a synthesis promised in this book, but a promise unfulfilled.… (mais)