Diane and I saw the play version of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 1995 at the Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo, NY. This more recent movie version on Netflix features Viola Davis as the Diva of the Blues, Ma Rainey. Davis plays Ma Rainey as capricious and moody as a legendary blues singer could be. Chadwick Boseman delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as troubled trumpeter, Levee Green, a member of Ma Rainey’s band, The Seasoned Georgia Jazz Band.

Most of the action centers around a recording session in Chicago at the Paramount recording studio in the 1920s. The white men who run the company try to cater to Ma Rainey’s whims because they know her records will earn them a lot of money.

As in many of August Wilson’s plays, there’s an undercurrent of violence in the action as race, art, religion, and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers trouble the characters.

Have you seen Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom? GRADE: A

Joseph Henrich, a professor at Harvard, maintains that we have become wealthy and successful because we’re Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD). Taking a historical approach, Henrich provides the formula for societies to out-perform other societies (and either defeat them or absorb them).

This 680-page book examines the ways countries can invest in their people to produce economies that generate wealth and power. Henrich shows how people who are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, analytical, and trusting of strangers tend to succeed. Some societies require strict adherence to social norms and values. But time and time again, Henrich shows that people who focus on themselves–their special attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations–tend to be confident, progressive, and astute.

Henrich explores the differences in family structures, marriage, and religion that produce such different results. And, of course, the impact of markets on the economies of countries result in the wealth–or poverty–of nations.

If you’re the mood for a comprehensive Deep Dive into why the West dominates the world (although China is creeping up), give The WEIRDest People in the World a try. GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

Preface xi

Prelude: Your Brain Has Been Modified 3

What God Wants 7

The Histories of Religions, Biologies, and Psychologies 16

Part I The Evolution of Societies and Psychologies

1 WEIRD Psychology 21

Really, Who Are You? 24

Marshmallows Come to Those Who Wait 38

UN Diplomats Get Parking Tickets 41

Obsessed with Intentions 49

Missing the Forest 52

The Rest of the Iceberg 55

2 Making a Cultural Species 59

Evolved to Learn 61

Evolving Societies 68

Avenues into Your Mind 82

3 Clans, States, and Why You Can’t Get Here from There 87

How Ilahita Got Big 88

When, How, and Why Did Societies Scale Up? 103

Getting to Premodern States 112

Going End Around 121

4 The Gods Are Watching. Behave! 123

Moralizing Gods and Contingent Afterlives 128

The Evolution of Gods and Rituals 139

Hell, Free Will, and Moral Universalism 146

Persuasive Martyrs and Boring Rituals 148

The Launchpad 151

Part II The Origins of WEIRD People

5 WEIRD Families 155

Dissolving the Traditional Family 159

The Carolingians, Manoriaiism, and the European Marriage Pattern 186

Downstream Transformations 191

6 Psychological Differences, Families, and the Church 193

Kinship Intensity and Psychology 194

The Church Altered Kinship and Changed Psychology 224

Opening the Floodgates 230

7 Europe and Asia 233

The Church’s Footprints 234

Psychological Differences Within China and India 244

Fertile Ground 252

8 WEIRD Monogamy 255

A “Peculiar” institution 258

Polygyny’s Math Problem 263

A Testosterone Suppression System 268

Trust, Teamwork, and Crime 274

Putting the Pieces Together 281

Part III New Institutions, New Psychologies

9 Of Commerce and Cooperation 287

Market Integration and Impersonal Prosociality 290

“No Hui, No Market Towns” 301

The Commercial and Urban Revolutions 307

Round Up 320

10 Domesticating the Competition 322

War, Religion, and Psychology 322

Europeans Made War, and War Made Them WEIRDer 332

Taming Intergroup Conflict 340

When and Why? 350

Harnessing the Power of Competition 357

11 Market Mentalities 360

How Work Became Virtuous 367

Be Yourself: The Origins of WEIRD Personalities 379

It’s Big, but How Big? 390

Part IV Birthing the Modern World

12 Law, Science, and Religion 395

Universal Laws, Conflicting Principles, and Individual Rights 398

Representative Governments and Democracy 407

The WEIRDest Religion 415

Dark Matter or Enlightenment? 427

13 Escape Velocity 430

Wiring Up the Collective Brain 442

More Inventive? 460

Psychology and Innovation in the Modern World 465

Escaping the Trap 466

14 The Dark Matter of History 469

Guns, Germs, and Other Factors 474

Globalization and Its Discontents 484

Appendix A Milestones in the Marriage and Family Program 491

Appendix B Additional Plots 499

Appendix C The Psychological Impacts of Relational and Residential Mobility 501

Notes 507

Bibliography 585

Index 657

Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes dominated the sports news this week. Would Mahomes recover from his concussion sustained in last week’s game against the Cleveland Browns? Well, yes.

The AFC Championship game features the two youngest quarterbacks to face each other in the key game: Mahomes is 25 and Bills QB Josh Allen is 24. The Bills are four point underdogs.

Over in the NFC Championship game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Green Bay Packers, we have some of the oldest QBs in the NFL: Tom Brady is 43, Aaron Rodgers is 37. The Packers are favored by 3 1/2 points. I’ll go with the team that plays its home games on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. Who will you be rooting for today?

Surface to Air is Malko Linge novel by the prolific Gérard de Villiers. It concerns a carpet merchant from New York City whose family in the Pakistan has been killed by a U.S. drone strike. The carpet merchant wants revenge so he contacts jihadists. Then he shares his plan with the jihadists: he wants to shoot down Air Force One with President Obama in it. But, in order to pull off this scheme of revenge, the carpet merchant needs an Igla-S–a sophisticated Russian surface-to-air missile. Since many Russian weapons find their way onto the Black Market, the jihadists agree to acquire one.

Complications occur as the FBI decides to aid the carpet merchant’s mission in order to lure the jihadists into a trap. But, much of the mission will take place in Russia where the FBI is supposed to defer to the CIA. Bureaucratic infighting ensues. The CIA brings in their favorite contract agent, Malko Linge, who nearly dies as he’s ambushed by Russian elements. If you’re a fan of spy novels with action, you’ll find a lot to like with Surface to Air. For my reviews of other Malko novels, check out Checkpoint Charlie here, Chaos in Kabul here, Madmen of Benghazi here, and Revenge of the Kremlin here. GRADE: B

I’ve always enjoyed Catherine Aird’s snarky mysteries. Stiff News (1998) is the 17th book in Aird’s Sloan and Crosby series, but you don’t have to have any previous knowledge of the books in this series to enjoy this clever mystery.

A letter received by an old woman’s son shortly after her death alerts Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan that another woman’s death by “natural causes” may actually be a murder. Sloan and Crosby begin an investigation of the odd events in a local nursing home catering to former members of a WWII regiment. Aird’s great strength as a mystery writer is her clever and witty characterizations.

You’ll wince at Aird’s uncompromising view of elderly residents of nursing homes. If you’re in the mood for mystery whose tentacles extend into the Past, Stiff News will amuse and entertain you. GRADE: A-

Last week, Patrick went on the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Covid-19 web site at 4 o’clock in the morning and signed Diane and me up for the vaccine shots…on February 24th.

I thought I might be able to arrange our Covid-19 shots earlier. Early last week, I spoke to the pharmacists at our local Rite Aid about the coronavirus vaccine. They told me, “We expect to get 30 doses next week.” I asked them to sign Diane and me up.

And, as luck would have it, the Rite Aid pharmacist called me on Monday–Martin Luther King Day–and asked, “Can you and your wife come in tomorrow at 1:00 P.M. for a Covid-19 shot.” “Yes we can,” was my response.

Diane and I got our shots, sat for 15 minutes to make sure there were no side effects (there weren’t), and went home happy. We’re scheduled for the second shot on February 16.

Are you having any luck getting a Covid-19 shot?

Finally!

Haunting Julia is a one-act play that’s being offered online at the price of about $15. Alan Ayckbourn, the playwright, takes on the trio of roles in this 1994 work about a musical prodigy who died of an overdose. In this Stephen Joseph Theatre’s radio-play version, you have the option of Closed Captions or not. (You can read The Wall Street Journal review here.). If you want buy a ticket, go to Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, England
Listenable online only through Jan. 31, 2021, £12
To purchase “tickets,” go to sjt.uk.com

Alan Ayckbourn voices all three characters in Haunting Julia. Julia’s father is obsessed with his daughter’s death, finding it inextricable. Julia’s former boyfriend finally reveals some key information about the incident. And the psychic who may or may not have a link to Julia’s ghost, does provide context to Julia’s last day.

I’m a fan of ghost stories so Haunting Julia delighted me. Your mileage may vary. GRADE: B+

Talia Lavin does something I would never do: she created multiple online identities and joined extremist organizations. Lavin’s exploration of dangerous right-wing groups predicts the Assault on the Capitol.

I was fascinated to learn how white supremacy groups operate online to recruit and fund-raise. Lavin exposes the strategies of Neo-Nazis, Christian extremists, and other hate groups.

It’s clear that we’re in for a protracted period of civil unrest. If you want to understand what we’re up against, read Culture Warlords. GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

Introduction — 1

• On hating — 9
• The Jews — 23
• Boots on for the boogaloo — 46
• Operation Ashlynn — 74
• Adventures with incels — 99
• That good old-time religion — 124
• Tween racists, bad beanies, and the great casino chase — 155
• Getting to the boom: on accelerationism and violence — 183
• Antifa civil war — 203
• We keep us safe — 217

Afterword — 237

Acknowledgements — 241

Endnotes — 243

Index — 255

Cleveland Browns might be the Cinderella team of the 2020 season. Their victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers last week was their first Playoff victory since January 1, 1995 when the Browns last won a playoff game, 20-13, over the New England Patriots. The Browns face last year’s Super Bowl Champions, the well rested Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are favored by 10 points. Go Browns!

Can the New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the third straight time? Vegas thinks so because they’ve made the Saints 3-point favorites. The two oldest QBs in the Playoffs face each other. Can Tom Brady work his magic again in the Playoffs? Go Saints!

Who do you think will win these games?