a review by James Como (December 2016)

Tom Wolfe, The Kingdom of Speech. 
New York: Little, Brown, 2016.  185pp.  $26.

Tom Wolfe is back and enjoying himself as much as he ever has. His reporting is sound: historically accurate and thorough, with archives consulted and sources cited. His argument – Darwin’s Origin of the Species and its impact were largely contrivances and no “theory of everything” can account for speech: it simply did not evolve, from anything – is rigorous and, at least on its surface, dispositive: he certainly makes a prima facie case.  more>>>