A Left-Hand Turn Around the World. David Wolman.

A Left-Hand Turn Around the World: Chasing the Mystery and Meanings of All Things Southpaw.
David Wolman
Da Capo Press. 2005.

Why read it? If you're not left-handed, you have probably not given the topic of left-handedness much thought. "Gauche," "sinister," "left-handed compliment," "maladroit": the English language has treated left-handers negatively. So our author, a left-hander, decided to explore the phenomenon of left-handedness. What he learns is interesting, but I'm afraid, not very enlightening. He had more questions after he finished the book than he had before he set out on his journey.

The author begins a journey to find out what is known about left-handedness, including what makes people left-handed, the research that has been done on the causes and effects of left-handedness, and the theories and images that abound about left-handers, but he comes away with just a few facts about the brain and handedness and not many answers to his original questions.

What he does conclude is that it's not whether you are left-handed or right-handed, but how you deal with things that matters. [Same thing is true of everyone else who is the victim of stereotype.] He does recognize that the left-handers have to adjust, sometimes unconsicoulsy, but constantly, to the right-handers' world. The effect of this life-long adjustment on the character of the left-hander he does not know. His chapter on the Left-handers' Golf Tournament in Japan is a humorous commentary on the Japanese culture and golf. Don't miss it. And did you know that there is actually a place called "Left Hand, West Virginia"?

He finds that in every culture on every continent, the left-hander is put down in language and respect by the majority right-handers. However, he learns that left-handers are perceived as creative and believers in the occult. He finds some of the research and ideas of academic researchers on the topic of handedness to be weird. He also learns that graphologists cannot tell the handedness of the writer from studying their handwriting.

He discusses the issue of genes vs. environment in creating handedness, concludes that the two often work together, but learns that left-handers are made that way before their birth because handedness is in the wiring of the brain.