Heretics: The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy

As its title suggests, this book seldom has a dull moment, even as the father-son authors (Steven is a philosophy professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Ben an illustrator) attempt to capture the essence of metaphysics and epistemology. In the bright panels that lay out a who’s who of European philosophers, the imaginative juxtaposition of the literal and symbolic, and the clarity of the lettering, the book adopts a very simple but beautiful visual and textual format. Steven summarizes the key moments of the history of philosophy, while Ben’s pleasing indie comics style delivers charming, uncluttered art with a lighthearted touch–John Locke watching TV in his spare time or drilling a fellow philosopher with a snowball. Most importantly, the authors never try to pack in too much information. It’s a wonderful addition to the tradition of graphic nonfiction, and readers should be able to breeze through it. [em](June) [/em]

This review has been corrected to note the authors are a father-son team, not siblings as originally published.