Charlotte SleighReseñas

A scientific as well as artistic track of human intelligence on nature. Amazing records on the history of scientific illustration of various animals.

not finished

This is another case of me not reading the cover blurb properly and buying a book that was not what I expected. I thought I was buying a book about ants, but what this actually is is a book about human attitudes towards ants throughout history.

So, on its own terms, this is a very interesting and thought-provoking book. It examines how our attitudes towards ants have changed over time, from being exemplars of hard work, duty, faithfulness and self-sacrifice for the greater good of the community, to metaphors of our fear of foreign invasion and illegal immigration, to models for artificial intelligence and information theory (whatever that is!).

Profusely illustrated and easy to read, this was not what I expected but enjoyable nonetheless. And the bibliography and suggested further reading has given me some ideas for the books I might get to satisfy my curiosity about ants themselves.½