Duh!: The Stupid History of the Human Race (Bob Fenster)

Duh!: The Stupid History of the Human Race
Bob Fenster
Barnes & Noble
Nonfiction, Sociology/Humor
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Ah, the great species Homo Sapiens. Whether it evolved over millions of years or was placed here intentionally for reasons unknown, the human race has dominated and devastated the planet as no other creature has. We have gone from scrounging up grubs and living in caves to nuking nachos and building skyscrapers, from chipping stones to splitting the atom... but are we really all that bright? Evidently not, to judge by innumerable examples historic and modern. The author uses many stories to show just how smart we aren't, followed by a discussion of our persistent lack of intelligence as a race and some hints on how to make oneself slightly less stupid than one's neighbors.

REVIEW: In the vein of Hey Idiot!: Chronicles of Human Stupidity (by Leland Gregory) and The Darwin Awards (by Wendy Northcut), Fenster reminds people that we have a long, long way to go if we really want to call ourselves the best brains on planet Earth. His many examples make the point abundantly clear, though their brevity sometimes takes them out of context, and more than one almost sounds like an urban legend with so little information given for corroboration. His discussion of why we're a dumb race and how intelligence is apparently not a great survival tactic starts to feel like a comedian hitting the same jokes on the same note over and over again, expecting the same laughs every time. The last section, offering suggestions for breaking oneself out of the rut of laziness and associated stupidity that many of us fall into in the day-to-day course of life, has a little more going for it, and earned it the half-star to put it marginally above merely Okay.