A generation ago, the Gaia hypothesis was simultaneously met with both an explosion of public popularity and an implosion of rejection by many in the scientific community. This rare occurrence is explained by Michael Ruse, professor of philosophy at Florida State University, in his entertaining and highly readable book The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet. The action centers on the 1970s and 1980s, but Ruse traces the underlying reasons for this schism back to Plato and two traditions of thought that began with the ancient Greeks. His aim is to show how our thinking today is deeply influenced by the past.