SOURCE: Haegel, Nancy M. “The Questions Scientists Can Answer.” Commonweal 117, no. 16 (27 September 1991): 553-55.

In the following review, Haegel offers a positive assessment of Bully for Brontosaurus, calling the work a “rich and integrated collection of essays.”

Bully for Brontosaurus is Stephen Jay Gould's fifth volume of essays collected from his monthly contributions to Natural History magazine. The author himself calls it the best of the five, in part because “I have become a better writer by monthly practice.” This bit of encouragement to those who practice the writer's craft is especially welcome from Gould, the acknowledged master of the popular science essay. For the past twenty years, the Harvard paleontologist and author, most recently of Wonderful Life, has been sharing his knowledge of evolution with the public in a style which has become uniquely his own.

The title essay is classic Gould. It begins with a discussion of...