Most Anticipated December Reads

Anti-Science and the Assault on Democracy: Defending Reason in a Free Society, edited by  Michael J. Thompson and Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker 

In this collection of original essays, experts in political science, the hard sciences, philosophy, history, and other disciplines examine contemporary anti-science trends, and make a strong case that respect for science is essential for a healthy democracy.  Beyond critiquing attitudes hostile to science, the essays in this collection put forward a positive vision for how we might better articulate the relation between science and democracy and the benefits that accrue from cultivating this relationship.

Infrahumanism: Science, Culture, and the Making of Modern Non/Personhood by Megan H. Glick

Outlining how the category of the human is continuously redefined in relation to the infrahuman–a liminal position of speciation existing between the human and the nonhuman–Glick reads a number of phenomena, from early twentieth-century efforts to define children and higher order primates as liminally human and the postwar cultural fascination with extraterrestrial life to anxieties over AIDS, SARS, and other cross-species diseases. In these cases the efforts to define a universal humanity create the means with which to reinforce notions of human difference and maintain human-nonhuman hierarchies. In foregrounding how evolving definitions of the human reflect shifting attitudes about social inequality, Glick shows how the consideration of nonhuman subjectivities demands a rethinking of long-held truths about biological meaning and difference.

F**k Plastic: 101 ways to free yourself from plastic and save the world by Surfers Against Sewage

In this proactive illustrated book, you’ll find 101 simple ways to cut plastic from food and drink (e.g. freeze fresh veg rather than buying frozen, and buy beeswax wrap over clingfilm), around the house (e.g. buy bars of soap instead of hand dispensers and swap scourers for natural cloths), and your lifestyle (e.g. how to have a plastic-free party and find good plastic-free make-up).