Decoding the Hand
A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic
University of Chicago Press | November 2025
The astonishing history of palmistry and biometrics – from occult physicians to the very foundations of modern science and medicine.
Why did Isaac Newton read books on chiromancy, the occult science of hand reading? Why did Charles Darwin claim that the hand gave humans dominion over all other species? Why did psychoanalyst Charlotte Wolff climb into the primate cages of London Zoo, taking hundreds of delicate palm prints? And why did world-leading geneticists study the geometry of palm lines in their search for the secrets of chromosomal syndromes?
Decoding the Hand reveals an astounding history of magic, medicine, and science, an enduring search for how our bodily surfaces might disclose an inner self—a soul, a character, an identity.
“Nothing is so secret in a human being that it does not have an outward sign.”
– Paracelsus, c. 1530
“Ingenious and fascinating, this is history at its best.”
– Janet Browne, Harvard University
“Compelling.”
– Simon Schaffer, University of Cambridge
An unexpected joy.”
David Stack, author of Queen Victoria’s Skull
“A ground-breaking book, and one that deserves the widest possible audience. Five stars.”
– Ross Macfarlane
Join Alison Bashford as she discusses Decoding the Hand
Audio and video
- Decoding the Hand, Inquiry, WICN Public Radio Massachusetts, 19 February 2026.
- What your hands say about you – according to history, History Extra, 11 February 2026, with Elinor Evans.
- Decoding the Hand, New Books Network, 10 January 2026, with Miranda Melcher.
- Genes and hands: mapping character and health, Start the Week, BBC Radio 4, 24 November 2025, with Adam Rutherford
- Telling the future and the past through the palm, ABC Radio, 22 October 2025, with Richard Fidler
Recent events
- 21 Mar, 2026 – In conversation with Richard Fidler, Bundanoon
- 25 Nov, 2025 – Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, Magdalen College
- 21 Nov, 2025 – British Library, Mapping the Mysterious. Chaired by Travis Elborough
- 20 Nov, 2025 – Hatchards, Piccadilly, London
- 18 Nov, 2025 – Edinburgh, Blackwells. In conversation with Richard Oosterhoff
- 17 Nov, 2025 – Manchester, Blackwells. In conversation with Ana Carden-Coyne
- 11 Nov, 2025 – Cambridge, Heffers Bookshop. In conversation with Simon Schaffer
