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Gerald Holton's Science and Anti-Science examines how scientific knowledge is created, defended, and sometimes rejected within modern culture. Drawing on his dual background as a physicist and historian of science, Holton argues that science is not just a method but a deeply human enterprise shaped by historical context, conceptual commitments, and public values. He introduces the idea of scientific themata - foundational assumptions that guide how scientists think and frame problems - and uses case studies of figures like Einstein, Mach, and Bohr to show how these underlying themes influence scientific breakthroughs.

A major thread of the book explores the political and cultural forces that shape scientific authority. Holton highlights episodes such as Thomas Jefferson's debates over federal support for research to illustrate how science has always been entangled with public policy and national priorities.

The book culminates in Holton's analysis of the anti-science phenomenon, a diverse set of movements ranging from creationism to pseudoscience to ideological attacks on scientific institutions. Rather than dismissing these outright, Holton examines why they resonate - often reflecting anxieties about modernity, expertise, and social change.

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Michael Mann and Peter Hotez's Science Under Siege reads like a joint dispatch from two scientists who have spent decades on the front lines of humanity's most urgent crises. Mann, a leading climate scientist, and Hotez, a vaccine researcher, trace how the same forces undermining climate action have also fueled resistance to public health measures. Their narrative reveals a shared enemy: a coordinated, politically motivated anti-science movement that distorts evidence, attacks experts, and erodes the public's ability to respond to real-world threats.

The book frames this assault through five powerful forces: plutocrats, pros, petrostates, phonies, and the press - each playing a role in amplifying doubt and manufacturing controversy. Mann and Hotez describe how these actors weaponize misinformation, funnel dark money into influence campaigns, and exploit media ecosystems to sow confusion. The result is a society less capable of confronting pandemics, climate change, and other existential challenges.

Yet the narrative is not purely bleak. Mann and Hotez write with the urgency of scientists who have endured harassment and disinformation but remain committed to public engagement. Their story becomes a call to arms: a roadmap for dismantling anti‑science forces and rebuilding trust so that evidence, not ideology, guides our collective future.

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Peter Hotez's The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science reads like a dispatch from a scientist caught in a cultural crossfire. As COVID‑19 spread, Hotez - long respected for developing vaccines for neglected diseases - found himself thrust into public view. His calm explanations on major news networks made him a trusted voice, even as he worked to advance a nonprofit vaccine effort during the crisis.

Visibility came with a cost. Hotez recounts how the anti‑vaccine movement, once a scattered fringe, evolved into a politically charged machine amplified by conservative media and elected officials. What began as misinformation hardened into a coordinated campaign that, he argues, contributed to the deaths of more than 200,000 unvaccinated Americans despite the wide availability of vaccines. The book traces this shift with the urgency of someone who has lived through its consequences: harassment, threats, and relentless attempts to undermine his credibility.

Hotez places today’s anti‑science rhetoric within a longer history of ideological attacks on scientific institutions, drawing parallels to past regimes that punished researchers for contradicting political narratives. Yet he refuses to surrender to despair. His narrative becomes a call to action - urging scientists to speak publicly, defend evidence, and rebuild trust before anti‑science sentiment becomes an entrenched feature of civic life.