Synopses & Reviews
In a frank and unpretentious series of letters addressed to a teenage granddaughter, this highly original book teaches us to know and understand the world we live in and its rules, and how to behave in it. In these thirty letters, Alan Macfarlane answers his granddaughter's questions about how the world works, how it got to be as it is, what it could be, and where she fits in. Lily's enquiries range from the intimate, personal and moral to the political, social and philosophical. What is the nature of good and evil? What is religion? How can I be truly me? Is right and wrong the same wherever you are? What is beauty? Does there have to be torture? Does money matter? Is knowledge always good? What is progress? What is truth? What is sex? Is democracy a good idea? These are just a few of the questions. In responding to Lily's challenging problems, Alan Macfarlane, from a lifetime's experience as a historian, anthropologist and teacher, ranges through history and across the world's cultures. Her questions are timeless. His answers add up to a classic.
Review
"A real tour de force. It is a guide to the whole of history and ethnography and encapsulates the historical philosophy of its author in a bewitchingly simple way."--Keith Thomas, author of Religion and the Decline of Magic and Man and the Natural World
"One of the most perceptive writers we have."--Paul Barker, Evening Standard
Synopsis
Alan Macfarlane is an anthropologist; Lily his inquisitive granddaughter, constantly asks him questions about how the world works. In this book he provides her with some answers in a series of thirty letters. His answers range through history and across the world's cultures, from the personal to the philosophical to the political.
Synopsis
What is love? Why are families so difficult? How do we get justice? Who is God? What makes us individuals? And why are we here in the first place? In responding to his granddaughter’s challenging questions, social anthropologist Alan Macfarlane tackles the great questions of life. His answers range through history and across the world’s cultures, from the personal to the philosophical to the political.
Synopsis
Alan Macfarlane answers his granddaughter’s questions about how the world works. Lily’s enquiries range from the personal and moral to the political, social, and philosophical. In responding, Macfarlane, as a historian and anthropologist, ranges through history and across the world’s cultures. Her questions are timeless. His answers add up to a classic.
Synopsis
In responding to his granddaughter's challenging questions, social anthropologist Alan Macfarlane tackles the great questions.
About the Author
Alan Macfarlane is Professor of Anthropology at Cambridge. He has often visited and taught in Japan. He is the author of The Glass Bathyscaphe and Japan Through the Looking Glass.