Book Review of: Out Of Place In Time And Space

Inventions, beliefs, and artistic anomalies there were impossibly
ahead of their time

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Reviewer: Mark Lamendola, author of over 6,000 articles.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The subject matter is "off the beaten path," giving the reader something different from the normal fare. I also like Mr. Wood's writing style, which is conversational yet credible. His subtle use of humor also adds to the reading experience.

Prior to reading the book, I had steeled myself to possibly reading something that tries to build false "facts" out of minor coincidences. I'm happy to report that is not at all how Mr. Wood went about things.

Mr. Wood's approach was to look at the facts surrounding various artifacts or beliefs from the past and address the dominant theories and conjectures about them. In most cases, he debunked theories and conjectures using logic and/or related facts.

Many ideas about past artifacts don't stand up to such scrutiny (much like common beliefs today!). In some cases, Mr. Wood presented the truth. In other cases, he didn't have the facts to arrive at a soundly-reasoned conclusion so he presented no conclusion.

His sound research and solid analyses showed respect for the subjects covered and for the reader. While the facts he discloses may not be of practical value to the reader, they are interesting facts nonetheless. Learning from his example and methodology is of practical value to the reader. Too many people are gullible because they aren't familiar with the analysis process.

The blurb on the back jacket of the book is an accurate reflection of how the author approaches journalistic investigation. That's a rare approach today, but it's good to see it's not altogether gone.

By odd coincidence, while I was reading this book I also happened to read an article in the July 2011 issue of IEEE Computer Magazine. Chapter 2 of this book is "The Ancient Computer," and an 8-page article beginning on page 32 of the magazine discussed the process of decoding the mechanical programming of that very artifact. Nothing in the article contradicts anything in the book.

The book also has a fair number of photos and illustrations that help with understanding many of these topics. In some cases, the topics were not inherently straightforward, and Mr. Wood provided the clear explanations to get past that problem.

In the bibliography, I noticed a mix of sources of varying degrees of credibility. Given how everything in the book seems coherent, I'm not sure this is a problem from an authoritativeness standpoint. And the book doesn't have footnotes or backnotes to specific sources for specific facts.

I have a keen eye for factual errors and spotted only one in this book. So however he did it, Mr. Wood did his homework.

The error is a common one, and it's done in response to propaganda, revisionist history, and custom. It's an error that people need to stop making because the nature of that error perpetuates fraud. The war between the states (begun in 1861) was not a civil war. It was a war of secession. A civil war is one in which the insurgents try to seize the existing means of government. A war of secession is when they try to leave the existing government and start their own. To even "debate" this is absurd, as all of the evidence from the time points to a war of secession and not an iota of it points to a civil war.

This book covers 40 historical anomalies in 204 pages. It has a short biography and an index.