Chris McManus’s dazzlingly written debut provides the answers to an array of familiar, almost childish, questions: Why are most people right-handed? Why do the British drive on the left? Why are human bodies symmetrical on the outside, but not on the inside? What is the relationship between handedness and speech disorders, such as stuttering? RIGHT HAND, LEFT HAND uses sources as diverse as the paintings of Rembrandt and the drawings of Leonardo, the origins of medieval iconography, the history of medicine, cognitive science, molecular biology, particle physics and the history of sport to explain the vast repertoire of ‘left–right’ symbolism that permeates our everyday lives. The book answers wonderfully deep and simple questions about why the universe, the human body and our minds and cultures are so full of distinctions between left and right.

Right Hand, Left Hand

Health, Fitness & Dieting

McManus, Chris

Psychology & Counseling

Yale University Press

A labor of love and enthusiasm as well as deep scientific knowledge, Right Hand, Left Hand takes the reader on a trip through history, around the world, and into the cosmos, to explore the place of handedness in nature and culture. Chris McManus considers evidence from anthropology, particle physics, the history of medicine, and the notebooks of Leonardo to answer questions like: Why are most people right-handed? Are left-handed people cognitively different from right-handers? Why is the heart almost always on the left side of the body? Why does European writing go from left to right, while Arabic and Hebrew go from right to left? Why do tornadoes spin counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere? And how do we know that Jack the Ripper was left-handed?
McManus reminds readers that distinctions between right and left have been profoundly meaningful--imbued with moral and religious meaning--in societies throughout history, and suggests that our preoccupation with laterality may originate in our asymmetric bodies, which emerged from 550 million years of asymmetric vertebrate evolution, and may even be linked to the asymmetric structure of matter. With speculations embedded in science, Right Hand, Left Hand offers entertainment and new insight to scientists and general readers alike.

Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures

Harvard University Press

Mano derecha, mano izquierda: Los orígenes de la asimetría en cerebros, cuerpos, átomos y culturas

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Biblioteca Buridán

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McManus, Chris. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by McManus, Chris