The King's 28 letters have been described by scholars as the world's best alphabet and the most scientific system of writing.

[W]hat makes patriotic and religious fanatics such dangerous opponents is not the deaths of the fanatics themselves, but their willingness to accept the deaths of a fraction of their number in order to annihilate or crush their infidel enemy.

All recognized famous inventors had capable predecessors and successors and made their improvements at a time when society was capable of using their product.

In the latter case it is often government that organizes the conquest, and religion that justifies it.

But this was the only way of life that humans knew for their first 6m years on the planet. In giving it up over the past few thousand years, we have lost our vulnerability to disease and cold and wild animals, but we have also lost good ways to bring up children, look after old people, stave off diabetes and heart disease and understand the real dangers of everyday life.

For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.

The King's 28 letters have been described by scholars as the world's best alphabet and the most scientific system of writing.