The Kingdom of Speech

By: Tom Wolfe

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

The maestro storyteller and reporter provocatively argues that what we think we know about speech and human evolution is wrong.

Tom Wolfe, whose legend began in journalism, takes us on an eye-opening journey that is sure to arouse widespread debate. The Kingdom of Speech is a captivating, paradigm-shifting argument that speech - not evolution - is responsible for humanity's complex societies and achievements.

From Alfred Russel Wallace, the Englishman who beat Darwin to the theory of natural selection but later renounced it, through the controversial work of modern-day anthropologist Daniel Everett, who defies the current wisdom that language is hardwired in humans, Wolfe examines the solemn, long-faced, laugh-out-loud zigzags of Darwinism, old and neo, and finds it irrelevant here in the Kingdom of Speech.

©2016 Tom Wolfe (P)2016 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"In this mettlesome, slyly funny takedown, Wolfe spotlights two key scientific rivalries, each pitting a scrappy outsider against the academy.... Wolfe's pithy and stirring play-by-play coverage of compelling lives and demanding science transforms our perception of speech.... As always, white-suited Wolfe will be all over the media...stirring things up and sending readers to the shelves." (Donna Seaman, Booklist)

"A fresh look at an old controversy, as a master provocateur suggests that human language renders the theory of evolution more like a fable than scientific fact.... Wolfe throws a Molotov cocktail at conventional wisdom in a book that won't settle any argument but is sure to start some." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"Narrator Robert Petkoff's bright and energetic delivery reflects the author's well-known penetrating intelligence and curiosity." ( AudioFile)

Rollicking takedown of Neo-Darwinism

This seems to me an unusual book: a book that aims (and succeeds) in showing that the neo-Darwinian "modern synthesis" (and all of its derivative modern incarnations) is a complete failure in explaining how humans developed speech.

Written in a style that pure Tom Wolfe and with hilariously on-point narration by Robert Petkoff, this is a short book that I found fascinating from beginning to end. I learned about Darwin conspiring with Charles Lyell to present his idea of natural selection before Alfred Russel Wallace; how Wallace later turned on the theory due to its lack of explanatory power, how Noam Chomsky lorded over the linguistics world for 5 decades and how his biggest theory of language has proven to be a house of cards. All in all, a fascinating read. Highly recommended for all those with an interest in science and/or language or for those who can't get enough Tom Wolfe!

FIVE STARS.

A Book by an Atheist That Every Creationist Should Read

Darwin and Wallace; Chomsky and Everett. Two people you undoubtedly have heard of and two probably not. What these two pairs have in common and how they differ are the themes that the eloquent Tom Wolfe creatively explores in this small but powerful work. What does linguistics have to do with evolution? Much in every way say Darwin and Chomsky. "Be careful what you see" in Wallace and Everett.

You can either hate him or love him, but you should not ignore what the pugnacious Wolfe has to say about his past anti-hero Darwin and his current antagonist Chomsky.

If you ever wonder how intellectual elites rule our world, read this book. And if you want to see how contrary voices can be squashed by those elites, here are some sad examples.

I listened to this book and it was, I think, even more powerful than reading it, mainly because of Wolfe's sometimes biting prose. But read it even if you don't have Audiobooks.

Fascinating

The narrator is amazing, made the subject that much more riveting. I have read a fair amount about Darwin, but never heard this angle. I had trouble pushing the pause button to get my stuff done! Well done.

Tom Wolfe continues to make me feel brilliant...

...and witty for the duration of any given book of his I'm reading or listening to.

His sense of the intimacy and ultimately understandably-competition-born crawls, leaps, and scurries of history's ideas and movements are convincing in that they render concrete the facts that he has quite thoroughly and with great veridical sensitivity unearthed from the landfills of information about past singular human beings.

One feels that one is there, watching a furtive and despairing Darwin sending Wallace's paper to established members of the Linnean Society, caught between the rock of his less-developed theory and the hard place of his desire to stick to the code of conduct of a gentleman.

This is a history of ideas of the sort that I love: The sort that is an initiation ceremony belonging to the mini Elusinian Mystery Cult of learning for intellectual improvement. One is guided through the narrative by the author, and, based upon the trustworthiness, convincingness, and the storyteller's spellcasting ability of the author, one is brought into a slightly different, slightly better-comprehended world than one inhabited before the final chapter displays for one the truths the author has gleaned from the ceremony/ordeal of writing the book.

For this reason, I love Tom Wolfe.

Good read

As always Tom Wolfe has great insights and an interesting look into a particular field. The ending sort of fizzles out. But it's not the destination, it's the journey

A short and excellent classic by Wolfe

Now I know what Chomsky and Darwin were up to. A great reappraisal (with meticulous investigation) of both.

Just Don't If You are Literate

What did you like best about The Kingdom of Speech? What did you like least?

It's Tom Wolfe--that answers both questions.

What did you like best about this story?

Wolfe's way with words.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I have been a subscriber since Audible began and have never been moved to write a review. This is the worst job of pronunciation I have encountered. Please tell narrators to look up words they don't use every day. Even then, High School biology student know that Gregor Mendel's name is not pronounced like a discount store in Massapequa. As to the Latin and German, he just didn't try. I like the book but it is agony to hear.

Was The Kingdom of Speech worth the listening time?

Yes, if you can stand the narration.

Any additional comments?

Did I mention the narration.

The four hours flew by

Personal preference : listen to this audiobook before reading the myriad insightful reviews.

It's just that kinda book.

Afterwards, think it over, read the zany reviews here on audible... and enjoy the audiobook again.

P.S.
Disclosure:
I bought the audiobook.
And, (still) liked it just as much.

Same Great Tom, Minor Qualms but still great

What made the experience of listening to The Kingdom of Speech the most enjoyable?

Tom's consistently biting witty sarcasm, backed by generally exhaustive research - even when taking on such lofty topics (when doesn't he) Is here as always has been the case (in the growing number of his works I have absorbed since finding the Painted Word excellent a year or so ago)....

His depth and angle of attack alone always are a marvel to me, though I preferred for example (of his 'new journalism' rather than novel works) Hooking Up - my favorite at this point i think....

I find always that - as with someone like Christopher Hitchens - even though I often don't agree with Wolfe's stance or thesis - though it always adds something of a brilliant new perspective I am fascinated with looking at via new lens, the mastery of presentation and his awesome craftsmanship within his own (as with Hitch's) very personally compelling and personal voice and milieu. A style and method unique and thrilling in own ways..... too often lacking.

Any additional comments?

these guys are artists and characters who - refreshingly in what has become a sniffled atmosphere of polite PC norms - where saying what one thinks is a mine field (where i certainly agree and have for ages with Noam Chomsky about the way control is deployed through a now fairly clearly documented history of the PR industry, mass media and now less transparently online with too few people ever noticing....).

What is clear to most tough is what a brutal crime it is to make others feel discomfort.... i suppose this is what i find poignant and worthy of big respect for both the mentioned writers above but as this is a review of Wolfe's late and most recent work here - certainly specific to him and consistent even in his early writings I have to this point gotten to....

whereas a Dawkins for example I think does mass disservice as a masthead for science (in contrasting same opinions and stance with hitch, as convenient example)- he is a put off for lacking all the kind of qualities and tact, approach, etc. that a Tom Wolfe, a Hitchens, a Hunter Thomson can and has.... so miserable, lacking in character or seeming human qualities.....

--- I profoundly agree with Wolfe's point that speech (language - maybe specifically more written language.... though the thrust of his point is very very solid).... and yet i find one core point he hammers on - that Chomsky et all admit to not really knowing what language is.....

this is NOT such a big issue IMHO. Science for the most part - at least of the most serious sort - (look at most physics) doesn't tend to reveal much on the 'what' of anything.... it can - as a method and philosophy - help us dramatically figure out how things seem to 'work' (from a human pov) and through experiment let us manipulate and achieve seemingly fantastical things (go to moon) yet in the process - even if we figure out basic notions like 'here are these elements, here are these atoms, we can use this idea of them - a kind of mental jig - as particles or waves or that gravity pulls us towards mass etc.... but that doesn't say much of anything about WHAT any of it is. To say its a mineral is just a word..... it slots it into this system we've created, a model, but its always alll model.....

As Tom asserts as to the vitality of language in what makes us uniquely human- and surely (likely) a necessary trait to be able to consider - through whatever consciousness is - that WHAT in terms of these things is something one cannot ever really (though of course hotly debated now more than ever) though to expect linguistics as a scientific area of study to get at the what of language - its not really surprising at all that it doesn't shed any light on that answer.

This topic cluster has I guess struck a minor nerve as it surrounds some topics I have been finding myself at odds with common wisdom of the day very often - and wrestling with myself in many ways.

Ultimately I think (due to his points so often raised about Nietzsche and his prognosis for what has already occurred in 20th century and where we find ourselves - not so different from much Baudrillard thinking .... or frankly Aleister Crowley's! ) .... that I generally share Tom's critiques - though as I have gotten to know his ways and approach more and more - I think something I especially like about him (and I think is missing from much critique) is that though biting he doesn't absolutely separate himself from what he is brilliantly shreding to whatever intensity.... in fact I sense he knows - in the theatrical and not to be taken ever etirely seriously - human nature and folly... in some way he is celebrating whatever he is simulataneously duelling skillfully with such wit and vivacity.

Thrilled to have come across this release from a talent I am so happy to have come across (and yet more material to devour in his back catalog!)

Great book on a needed subject.

Darwin needed this debunking of his plagiarized theory 150 years ago. Well written and spoken 👏 🙌 👍 👌