Book reviews The Nature of Time. Edited by Raymond Flood and Michael Lockwood. Pp. 187. Basil Blackwell, Oxford. 7986. f 19.50.

‘What is time? When nobody asks me I know - when I’m asked to explain it I don’t know!’ St Augustine’s dilemma remains as strong today as when he first described it. This set of articles by a group of philo- sophers, mathematicians, astronomers, and physicist is based on a series of lectures given in Oxford in 1985 and shed just a little more light on the darkest corners of the problems of Time.

Our thinking about time is very strongly influenced by the theories of Special and General Relativity, both of which are covered in this book in essays by Sciama, Penrose, and Lucas. Other authors consider Cosmology, Thermodynamics, and Quan- tum Mechanics and Dummet probes the problems of causality.

The essays avoid mathematical detail whilst probing the philosophical issues - it will stimulate those interested in the prob- lem of Time - but it poses more questions than it gives solutions.

I. W. Roxburgh

Origins. A Skeptic’s Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth. By Robert Shapiro. Pp. 332. Summit Books, New York. 7986. $17.95.

Robert Shapiro is a Professor of Chemistry at New York University and an expert on DNA research. He undertook to write this book because ‘a need exists for a clear explanation, comprehensible to the general public, of what science does and does not understand about how life first began’ (p. 7). Shapiro identifies science with a system for obtaining answers and not, as he puts it, as a given set of answers (p. 33). At the same time he adopts a ‘sceptical’ perspective on the scientific and mythical (religious) answers, past and present, to the question of the origins of life.

The final product is a useful overview, if compressed and personal, of the perennial debate between the believers in the super- natural creation of life and proponents of life’s natural origins from inorganic matter. There is a handy list of references (by chapter) to further reading. In order to assess the main issues the reader will need to have basic knowledge of biochemistry, genetics, and evolutionary biology, and some familiarity with the historical back- ground to the subject. At this point it has to be said that Shapiro’s own historical con- ciousness of the field leaves something to be desired. For example, he is unnecessarily critical of the statement by the historian John Farley that it is impossible to say whether the final chapter of the spontaneous generation controversy has been written (p. 154).

M. Teich

Endeavour. New Series. Volume 11. No. 2,1987. 0160.9327187 $0.00 + .50. 0 1987. Pergamon Journals Ltd. Printed in Great Britain.

Renewable Energy Technologies. Their Application in Developing Countries. By L. A. Kristoferson and V. Bokalders. Pp. 319. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1986. $66.00.

There is a lot of first class material in this lengthy study from the Beijer Institute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science. Drawing from the Institute’s considerable experience of working on projects with the developing countries and from a wide range of recently published material, the authors have prepared a very comprehensive over- view of the renewable technologies, aimed at the non-specialist and placed in a development context: ‘The present energy problems of the developing countries will not be solved by renewable energy sources. But they cannot be solved with them.’

After a brief introduction, each topic is described in an executive summary - a useful feature as several topics, e.g. alcohol fuels, appear in more than one chapter. The 27 chapters each contain a brief bibliogra- phy and are grouped into four sections. About two-thirds of the text is devoted to Bioenergy and Biomass Engines and Fuels, while Solar Energy, Hydro, Wind, and Water Power complete the picture. Appen- dices give abbreviations, units, acronyms, conversion tables, and a list of associated reports, but there is no index. Freehand sketches illustrate the text and result in a consistent presentation.

This study can be highly recommended both as an introductory text and as a reference source.

Cleland McVeigh

Energy Research and Development in the USSR. Preparations for the Twenty-first Century. By William J. Kelly, Hugh L. Shaffer, and J. Kenneth Thompson. Pp. 4 7 7. Duke University Press, Durham, NC. 7986. $62.50.

Energy is one of the great Soviet enigmas and an account of its energy R and D is therefore timely. The authors first outline Soviet energy policies, and then consider nuclear development; oil and Arctic gas; Siberian coal; energy utilisation; alternative energy; and energy modelling. They con- clude that Soviet energy R and D is part of a ‘coherent, technically feasible, and econo- mically rational energy strategy’. The real question is whether Soviet planners and organisers can effectively implement R and D outputs.

The authors’ culling of Russian sources produces a definitive account of their subject. Unfortunately, they wrote before Chernobyl, which will profoundly influence Soviet energy policy. That accident, and reactions to it, also illustrates the import- ance of ‘non-technical’ factors in energy matters. Western concern about environ- ment and safety has combined with market and institutional pressures radically to change the content and direction of energy R and D, for example towards ‘clean coal’ technologies or ‘intrinsically safe’ reactors.

Is this flexibility desirable and, if so, is the USSR hampered by its absence? This book’s ‘technocratic’ bias prevents it from considering this and related questions, and therefore. limits its audience to Kremlin watchers and energy specialists.

Peter James

Emil W. Haury’s Prehistory of the American Southwest. Edited by J. Jefferson Reid and David E. Doyel. Pp. 505. University of Arizona Press, Tuscan. 7986. $45.00.

This anthology of Haury’s writings does much to explain the extraordinary extent of his influence on the archaeology of the southwestern United States. Written be- tween 1935 and 1986, these papers (some with introductions by Haury’s colleagues) address the central issues in Southwest prehistory. Two chapters comprise Haury’s analyses of the 12 000 year old mammoth- kill sites that helped establish the antiquity of New World colonization. Also included are his report on Ventana Cave, which clarified the chronology of the Paleoindian- Archaic transition; his accounts of his role in the development of tree-ring dating; and various reports on his excavations that revealed the chronological sequence and economic transitions represented by the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures.

Haury asserts that archaeology is ‘90 per cent art and IO per cent science,’ and his writings reflect this attitude in that they contain few references to the post-1950s debates on scientific aspects of archaeologic- al method and theory. Throughout his career he has maintained a sturdy empiric- ism, convinced that documenting what ancient peoples did and when they did it is a necessary preamble to higher levels of analysis. The book’s final chapter, Sixty Years as a Southwest Archaeologist’ is an interesting blend of reminiscences and eva- luations of recent evidence relating to the archaeological problems to which he de- voted his life.

R. J. Wenke

Future Employment and Technological Change. By Donald Leach and Howard Wagstaff. Pp. 264. Kogan Page, London. 1986. Paperback f9.95.

Recognition of the fundamental changes responsible for the world-wide increase in unemployment and the inadequacy of cur- rent political responses, whether in capitalist or socialist societies, is an essential prelimin- ary in this very serious discussion of the challenges all societies have to face. The shared assumptions of neoclassical, Keyne- sian, and Marxist theorists on economic growth are set alongside their common failure to accommodate technological change.

Overall employment in manufacturing can never be expected to regain its previous scale. While highly skilled and professional jobs may become even more significant,

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