The book's tone is breezy, but his command of the subject is such that even a well-schooled economist will discover much that is new.

ECONOMIST: Economics

The Book of Numbers is so named because of God's command to Moses that he should count the Israelites in preparation for war.

ECONOMIST: The traditional census is dying, and a good thing too

Similarly, his foray into geopolitics--he thinks Krakatoa contributed to the rise of modern Muslim extremism--suffers from the book's lack of endnotes, and from Winchester's occasional overconfidence in his command of this great mass of material.

FORBES: Don't Go Near The Volcano