'Beautifully written . The reader will find [Shorto's] intellectual insights entertaining, enlightening, and, perhaps, disturbing' Lisa Jardine, Nature Sixteen years after René Descartes' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Descartes' bones played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith. Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day. 'A kind of intellectual adventure story . Fanciful and beguiling . Shorto writes with wit, verve and style. On every page, he offers up some new bafflement, curiosity or delight' Los Angeles Times 'Shorto's insights are keen .

He delves into the oddest and most unappetizing aspects of Descartes' story along with the inspiringly lofty ones' New York Times.