Alison Bashford in conversation

Blackwell’s Manchester presents Alison Bashford in conversation with Ana Carden-Coyne on Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic.

Why did Isaac Newton pore over books on chiromancy? Why did Charles Darwin believe the human hand gave our species dominion over all others? And why did psychoanalyst Charlotte Wolff collect hundreds of palm prints from the primates of London Zoo? In Decoding the Hand, award-winning historian Alison Bashford explores these questions and more, tracing the curious and often surprising history of palmistry and biometrics.

From sixteenth-century occultists to twentieth-century geneticists, from criminologists to evolutionary biologists, Bashford reveals how generations of thinkers have looked to the human hand in search of truths about body, soul, and identity. Drawing bold parallels between the divination of the past and the promises of modern genetic testing, this remarkable book uncovers the enduring fascination with what our hands might reveal about us.

This event offers a fascinating opportunity to hear Bashford in conversation with Ana Carden-Coyne, Research Explorer at The University of Manchester, discussing the strange intersections of science, medicine, magic, and self-knowledge.