The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom
The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom
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The Lucifer Principle
A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History

Author: Howard Bloom, David Sloan Wilson

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Unabridged: 12 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/07/2015

Synopsis

The Lucifer Priciple is a revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture to put forth the thesis that “evil” is a by-product of nature’s strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric. Though this argument is not a new one—it has been brought forth by such great historical figures as St. Paul, Thomas Hobbes, and Raymond Dart—Howard Bloom here takes fresh data from a variety of sources and shapes it into a lens through which listeners can reinterpret the human experience.

About Howard Bloom

Howard Bloom has debated one-on-one with senior officials from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Gaza’s Hamas on Iran’s al-Alam TV. He has dissected headline issues over thirty times on Saudi Arabia’s KSA2-TV, Ekhbariya TV, Economics TV, and on Iran’s global English-language Press-TV. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler, who doubles as the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has named a racehorse after one of Bloom’s books. And Britain’s Channel 4 TV says Bloom is the Einstein, Newton, Darwin, and Freud of the twenty-first century.

About David Sloan Wilson

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist with a special interest in human biocultural evolution, and Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He is the author of Evolution for Everyone and The Neighborhood Project, as well as several academic books including Does Altruism Exist? and Darwin’s Cathedral. He is the president of The Evolution Institute and is the editor in chief of the institute’s online magazine This View of Life.

About Malcolm Hillgartner

Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. Named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013 and the recipient of several Earphones Awards, he has narrated over 250 audiobooks.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on January 08, 2008

Bloom has been declared by several people to be one of the great geniuses of the last 50 years. I don't understand that declaration. Sure, he's smarter than me, but I'm also not suffering from insanity like he is. The Lucifer Principle is basically a study in the genetic roots of good and evil in na......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on August 23, 2008

This is really two different books that have been smashed together. The first one proposes a framework for history that views human societies as "superorganisms" subject to the same evolutionary pressures that guide biology. The second one is a long jeremiad about the decline and fall of American ci......more

Goodreads review by Dave on September 29, 2009

I started out very excited by this book. The ideas about humans behaving as superorganisms were quite interesting and seemingly apt. But as I read on I started to realize I didn't fully trust Bloom's research and presentation. He started to come across as a Bill Mahr skeptic, that is, critical of th......more

Goodreads review by Carlos on August 31, 2007

A well reasoned attempt to say everything several social theorists, political scientists, ethnographer, and psychologists suspect but are loathe to admit. Bloom's book offers a look at social theory and the intrinsicly interconnected nature of sentient psychology, behavior, and physical result. Why......more

Goodreads review by David on March 07, 2009

A semi-heretical look at our curious species using sociobiology, meme theory, and facts that don’t fit well into consensus reality (did you know that tuberculosis cases declined by 97% between 1800 and 1945 — before antibiotics came into the picture?). Bloom believes that like ants, bees, and slime......more

Quotes

“Unlike anything you’ve ever read before. An act of astonishing intellectual courage.” Leon Uris, New York Times bestselling author

“Readers will be mesmerized by the mirror Bloom holds to the human condition and dumbfounded by the fusillade of eclectic data that arrives with the swiftness and intensity of a furious tennis volley. His style is effortless, engaging, witty, and brisk…He draws on a dozen years of research into a jungle of scholarly fields…and meticulously supports every bit of information.” Washington Post

“Provocative…explosive…feisty…a string of rhetorical firecrackers that challenge our many forms of self-righteousness.” Boston Globe

“Bloom’s tour of science and history is fascinating…A grand, exciting idea.” Detroit Free Press

“Howard Bloom’s book is an epoch-making and culture-defining treatise. It is destined to be the Future Shock of our time.” Bob Guccione Jr., publisher and editor-in-chief of Spin magazine

“Elegant…the highest quality of brain food…[A] revolutionary new vision of human nature…[a] monumental work…Heady stuff from a wonderful, original thinker…Simply stunning.” Newark Star-Ledger

“A philosophical look at the history of our species, which alternated between fascinating and frightening. Reading it was like reading Dean Koontz or Stephen King: I couldn’t put it down…Masterful.” Rocky Mountain News

“An ambitious, often provocative study.” Publishers Weekly

“Bloom draws on an impressive range of historical, anthropological, and biological research to support his thesis…Thought-provoking.” Kirkus Reviews

“The Lucifer Principle is a long step forward to understand human biology. Its original assessment is brilliant; its historical facts are unassailable…An outstanding book.” Richard Bergland, MD, founder of the Department of Neurology, Sloan-Kettering, and author of The Fabric of the Mind

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