A fascinating history that reveals the ways in which the pursuit of rationality often leads to an explosion of irrationalityIt's a story we can't stop telling ourselves. Once, humans were benighted by superstition and irrationality, but then the Greeks invented reason. Later, the Enlightenment enshrined rationality as the supreme value. Discove "Smith is an excellent dramatizer of this dialectic, a witty and provocative guide leading the reader through chapters on logic . . . pseudoscience . . . and death . . . with a distinctive voice and considerable wit."---Jonathan Egid, Times Literary Supplement