How does science work? Making Truth: Metaphor in Science argues that most laypeople, and many scientists, do not have a clear understanding of how metaphor relates to scientific thinking. With stunning clarity, and bridging the worlds of scientists and nonscientists, Theodore L. Brown demonstrates the presence and the power of metaphorical thought.

To illustrate the roles of metaphor in science, Brown presents a series of studies of scientific systems. These range from the atom, historically one of the most important ideas in science, through models in chemistry and biology, including current “hot” topics such as protein folding, chaperone proteins, and global warming. The case studies in Making Truth illustrate the deeply metaphorical nature of scientific reasoning and communication. They provide the basis for far-reaching conclusions about science as an intellectual and social practice and about the nature of scientific truth.

In Shouting Softly, literary lawyer and proud Southerner Allen Mendenhall provides valuable insights into perennial questions about the fundamental features of civil society. His expansive commentaries and criticism on law, literature, and culture reveal an abiding commitment to ordered liberty, the decentralization and diffusion of power, bottom-up and localized forms of voluntary governance, time-tested wisdom, and aesthetic sensibility. This vigorous work cautions against hubris and misguided certitude, predicating its arresting arguments on the proposition that human reason, however awesome and inspiring, is limited and fallible. Covering a wide range of issues and historical figures, Mendenhall espouses conservative yet melioristic approaches to complex subjects, rebutting the hollow claims and fashionable theories that captivate ‘purposefully’ leftist law and humanities faculties across the United States. His is the measured voice of a book-loving polymath who appreciates beauty, imagination, humility, clarity, cooperation, and sound argumentation.

The work is given in three parts. The first section on law explores legal minds, rules and commentary on seminal jurisprudence. The second part explores literature and the influence of the writer and the disconcerting truths stories often seek to convey. Thirdly, Mendenhall delves into culture and the more obvious situations wherein we gain insight into our manner of living, and here Mendenhall exudes a Southern accent that in no way compromises his universal bearings. One of the highlights is his echo of Larry Seidentop’s question: “If we in the West do not understand the moral depth of our own tradition, how can we hope to shape the conversation of mankind?” This is all the more meaningful given that Mendenhall is a member of the Millennial generation, and part of the intellectual minority who sees the urgency of “a studied appreciation for nuanced story and linguistic narrative.”