http://www.readersread.com/cgi-bin/bookblog.pl?bblog=1107071
"Investigators for the congressional library have told lawmakers on a House oversight committee that its review of the retrieval system for the general collection concluded that a 17 percent of materials requested could not be found."
"The number of not-on-shelf books has dropped each year. A quality assurance team in the past several months has reduced that rate to 10 percent," said Deanna Marcum, the associate librarian for library services. Established in 1800, the Library of Congress is one of the world's largest research facilities. It has 135 million items, including almost 20 million books, 59.5 million items in the manuscript division, and nearly 3 million sound recordings and radio and television broadcasts. It has 615 miles of shelving.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Rodric Braithwaite
Braithwaite wrote Moscow 1941. There's a mention in The New Yorker on October 23, 2007. Braithwaite was the UK ambassador to Mosco from 1988 to 1992, and he apparently worked hard on gathering materials for the book, "a symphonic evocation of a great city at war," The New Yorker said.
The Modern World
Joseph J. Ellis reviewed The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 in the NY Times. Author Jay Winick has "an uncanny knack for syntheizing the work of others," Ellis wrote. Ellis's fundamental comment on the book is that personalities of political leaders receive too much credit and the underlying forces receive too little emphasis. It sounds like a well done and well conceived book.
Rick Atkinson
Rick Atkinson is working on a trilogy of WW2 books. The Time reviewer referred to "genuinely new materials and perspectives." That's referring to The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, by Rick Atkinson.
Here is an Atkinson bibliography: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Atkinson
Here is an Atkinson bibliography: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Atkinson
- (1989) The Long Gray Line. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-48008-6.
- (1993) Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-60290-4.
- (2002) An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-6288-2.
- (2004) In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-7561-5.
- (2007) The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-6289-0.
Charles Darwin
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452288886/ref=pe_5050_7289230_pe_snp_886
At Amazon, they're promoting a new paperback version of Darwin's The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition.
Concise is good, considering how Victorian Darwin was. We might describe him as long-winded by today's short-attention-span standards. But there is a lot to like about Darwin. He was an amateur before know-it-all professional experts got the public to believe that experts know everything and ordinary citizens know nothing.
In part because he married his wealthy cousin (they were part of the family that became wealthy making Wedgewood china), Darwin had the luxury of being able to devote himself to interesting projects without having to worry about getting paid for them. He had his basic idea at a relatively young age, like most scientists, apparently. But he mulled over the idea and let it gestate. He spent a long time gathering evidence and collecting his thoughts into a well articulated and coherent statement. In part Origin of Species is so long because he had collected so much data to support the thesis. Our country would be better off if we had more people who devoted themselves to collecting data to support interesting theories. It doesn't happen often now. Maybe it happened rarely in the past, too. Anyway, I think we lack people like Darwin who are careful about making bold assertions and who make bold assertions after gathering a lot of evidence. I admire Darwin.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2300
www.infidels.org/library/historical/charles_darwin/descent_of_man/ - 10k -
http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-descent-of-man/
ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/darwin/charles/d22d/
This site purports to be the complete works of Charles Darwin online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/contents.html
At Amazon, they're promoting a new paperback version of Darwin's The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition.
Concise is good, considering how Victorian Darwin was. We might describe him as long-winded by today's short-attention-span standards. But there is a lot to like about Darwin. He was an amateur before know-it-all professional experts got the public to believe that experts know everything and ordinary citizens know nothing.
In part because he married his wealthy cousin (they were part of the family that became wealthy making Wedgewood china), Darwin had the luxury of being able to devote himself to interesting projects without having to worry about getting paid for them. He had his basic idea at a relatively young age, like most scientists, apparently. But he mulled over the idea and let it gestate. He spent a long time gathering evidence and collecting his thoughts into a well articulated and coherent statement. In part Origin of Species is so long because he had collected so much data to support the thesis. Our country would be better off if we had more people who devoted themselves to collecting data to support interesting theories. It doesn't happen often now. Maybe it happened rarely in the past, too. Anyway, I think we lack people like Darwin who are careful about making bold assertions and who make bold assertions after gathering a lot of evidence. I admire Darwin.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2300
www.infidels.org/library/historical/charles_darwin/descent_of_man/ - 10k -
http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-descent-of-man/
ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/darwin/charles/d22d/
This site purports to be the complete works of Charles Darwin online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/contents.html
Monday, November 12, 2007
achronoliterate v. aliterate
This was in Anu Garg's AWADMail dated November 11:
From: William Abbott (wbabbott3 comcast.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--aliterate
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/aliterate.html
Maybe I am an achronoliterate (I made that up), someone who does not
have enough time to read everything that he wants to read!
If there's a word for a person who is interested in reading but doesn't have enough time to read all the books he wants to read, then it must be a pretty common phenomenon. This came up in the context of the word "aliterate," which Garg says is a person who can read but is not interested enough to do so.
From: William Abbott (wbabbott3 comcast.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--aliterate
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/aliterate.html
Maybe I am an achronoliterate (I made that up), someone who does not
have enough time to read everything that he wants to read!
If there's a word for a person who is interested in reading but doesn't have enough time to read all the books he wants to read, then it must be a pretty common phenomenon. This came up in the context of the word "aliterate," which Garg says is a person who can read but is not interested enough to do so.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Books I Haven't Read
In today's New York Times, Jay McInerney reviews a book called How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read. This blog is all about books I haven't read.
The professor, Pierre Broyard, says talking about books that you did not read constitutes "an authentic creative activity." Broyard says, the reviewer tells us, "All education should strive to help those receiving it to gain enough freedom in relation to works of art to themselves become writers and artists." I want to thank Professor Broyard for allowing me to engage creative activity without reading any of these books I have noted in this blog. I also like the idea that someone else is doing what I am doing--not reading particular books, but talking about them nonetheless. If we can extrapolate from my own experience, I'd say it was a social trend, since there's a book and a blog about books the authors haven't read.
The professor, Pierre Broyard, says talking about books that you did not read constitutes "an authentic creative activity." Broyard says, the reviewer tells us, "All education should strive to help those receiving it to gain enough freedom in relation to works of art to themselves become writers and artists." I want to thank Professor Broyard for allowing me to engage creative activity without reading any of these books I have noted in this blog. I also like the idea that someone else is doing what I am doing--not reading particular books, but talking about them nonetheless. If we can extrapolate from my own experience, I'd say it was a social trend, since there's a book and a blog about books the authors haven't read.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Partisanship
Allen Brinkley writes: " "Voters have not changed their ideology very much. Most evidence suggests that a majority of Americans remain relatively moderate and pragmatic. But many have lost interest, and confidence, in the political system and the government, leaving the most fervent party loyalists with greatly increased influence on the choice of candidates and policies." He was reviewing Ronald Brownstein's The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America in tomorrow's New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/Brinkley-t.html?ref=books
http://premierespeakers.com/ronald_brownstein
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/Brinkley-t.html?ref=books
http://premierespeakers.com/ronald_brownstein
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" -- Richard Brookhiser in the NY Times says that this book is really about both Thomas Paine and Burke's Reflection on the Revolution in France. That's the classic conversation between Whigs and Tories, between "two masters of polemic." One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/09/arts/idbriefs10A.php?WT.mc_id=rssarts
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Paine-Th.html
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780743256025&z=y
Gordon S. Wood writes reviews in The new York Review of Books: http://www.nybooks.com/authors/53
Infamous Scribblers is an entertaining account of where we came from: http://www.declaration.net/news.asp?docID=5607&y=2007
A WRITER'S "concerns are with all mankind," wrote Thomas Paine in 1777, "and though he cannot command their obedience, he can assign them their duty." "Poor Paine [is] not the most prudent man in the world," wrote an American a few years later. These books support both judgments.
Tom Paine, by John Keane (Little, Brown, 644 pp., $27.95): John Keane's biography is hard going, thanks to its clumsy and cacophonous prose. To take one instance out of hundreds, Keane writes, of the style of Rights of Man, that "its author presented himself as a burping, farting rebel" -- and he means it as a compliment: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n9_v47/ai_16920443
http://www.umnexus.org/context.php?Article=107:
Thomas Paine, the great writer of inspiring (some said inflammatory) texts that sparked the Revolution, clearly felt that church and state should be separate, according to author Harvey J. Kaye in his book, “Thomas Paine and the Promise of America.” Kaye writes:
“Paine’s appreciation of America’s religious diversity and the need to divorce church from state, along with his skillful articulation of Bible story, American history and providential intent, also appealed to many of Virginia’s smallholders, the great majority of whom were Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists, who strongly resented the power and authority of the colony’s Anglican establishment” (page 55).
So from their earliest times Methodists and America share a reciprocal, informal influence – among other things, an independent spirit and an affinity for Trinitarian order (witness our common identity of legislative, executive and judicial branches in our respective governments).
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/09/arts/idbriefs10A.php?WT.mc_id=rssarts
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Paine-Th.html
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780743256025&z=y
Gordon S. Wood writes reviews in The new York Review of Books: http://www.nybooks.com/authors/53
Infamous Scribblers is an entertaining account of where we came from: http://www.declaration.net/news.asp?docID=5607&y=2007
A WRITER'S "concerns are with all mankind," wrote Thomas Paine in 1777, "and though he cannot command their obedience, he can assign them their duty." "Poor Paine [is] not the most prudent man in the world," wrote an American a few years later. These books support both judgments.
Tom Paine, by John Keane (Little, Brown, 644 pp., $27.95): John Keane's biography is hard going, thanks to its clumsy and cacophonous prose. To take one instance out of hundreds, Keane writes, of the style of Rights of Man, that "its author presented himself as a burping, farting rebel" -- and he means it as a compliment: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n9_v47/ai_16920443
http://www.umnexus.org/context.php?Article=107:
Thomas Paine, the great writer of inspiring (some said inflammatory) texts that sparked the Revolution, clearly felt that church and state should be separate, according to author Harvey J. Kaye in his book, “Thomas Paine and the Promise of America.” Kaye writes:
“Paine’s appreciation of America’s religious diversity and the need to divorce church from state, along with his skillful articulation of Bible story, American history and providential intent, also appealed to many of Virginia’s smallholders, the great majority of whom were Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists, who strongly resented the power and authority of the colony’s Anglican establishment” (page 55).
So from their earliest times Methodists and America share a reciprocal, informal influence – among other things, an independent spirit and an affinity for Trinitarian order (witness our common identity of legislative, executive and judicial branches in our respective governments).
Sunday, November 4, 2007
France
I admit to being a Francophile. I noticed the New York Times reviewed The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War," by Graham Robb, reviewed as the lead review in the Book Review section of the Times today. Sounds like a very interesting book.
Here's a URL for NYT review (it's different on line from the one that appeared in the newspaper)(signing may be required): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/books/02book.html
The guardian's review appears on line here:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,2165224,00.html
Here's a sentence from the Guardian review: "Graham Robb's first aim in this elegant, entertaining and occasionally brilliant overview of France past and present is to argue that France still matters - but not for the reasons that we usually ascribe to 'la Grande Nation'." The Guardian disses France, but the UK takes a different angle from the one in the US.
The Middle Stage HOMEPAGE, by Chandrahas Choudhury, wrote this:
http://middlestage.blogspot.com/2007/10/travelling-with-graham-robb.html
His new book takes the reader into the mental and physical universe of the millions of faceless people who, over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were at the work of "discovering France" – gradually working their way into a sense of a world larger than that of their immediate village and province. The word pays, Robb observes, is translated today as "country" but it derives from pagus, or the area controlled by a tribe, and refers not so much to the abstract nation but to a smaller region that people thought of as home: "A pays was the area in which everything was familiar...To someone with little experience of the world, the pays could be measured in fields and furrows."
Graham Robb's books:
# Baudelaire: Lecteur de Balzac (1988), ISBN 2-7143-0279-3 (French)
# Baudelaire (1989), ISBN 0-241-12458-1, translation of 1987 French text by Claude Pichois
# La Poésie de Baudelaire et la poésie française, 1838-1852 (1993), ISBN 2-7007-1657-4, criticism (French)
# Balzac: A Biography (1994), ISBN 0-330-33237-6
# Unlocking Mallarmé (1996), ISBN 0-03-000648-1
# Victor Hugo (1997), ISBN 0-330-33707-6
# Rimbaud (2000), ISBN 0-330-48282-3
# Strangers: Homosexual Love in the 19th Century (2003), ISBN 0-330-48223-8
# The Discovery of France. A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War. (2007), Illustrated, 454 pp. WW Norton and Co.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Robb
http://tinyurl.com/2ek3zx
Here's a URL for NYT review (it's different on line from the one that appeared in the newspaper)(signing may be required): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/books/02book.html
The guardian's review appears on line here:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,2165224,00.html
Here's a sentence from the Guardian review: "Graham Robb's first aim in this elegant, entertaining and occasionally brilliant overview of France past and present is to argue that France still matters - but not for the reasons that we usually ascribe to 'la Grande Nation'." The Guardian disses France, but the UK takes a different angle from the one in the US.
The Middle Stage HOMEPAGE, by Chandrahas Choudhury, wrote this:
http://middlestage.blogspot.com/2007/10/travelling-with-graham-robb.html
His new book takes the reader into the mental and physical universe of the millions of faceless people who, over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were at the work of "discovering France" – gradually working their way into a sense of a world larger than that of their immediate village and province. The word pays, Robb observes, is translated today as "country" but it derives from pagus, or the area controlled by a tribe, and refers not so much to the abstract nation but to a smaller region that people thought of as home: "A pays was the area in which everything was familiar...To someone with little experience of the world, the pays could be measured in fields and furrows."
Graham Robb's books:
# Baudelaire: Lecteur de Balzac (1988), ISBN 2-7143-0279-3 (French)
# Baudelaire (1989), ISBN 0-241-12458-1, translation of 1987 French text by Claude Pichois
# La Poésie de Baudelaire et la poésie française, 1838-1852 (1993), ISBN 2-7007-1657-4, criticism (French)
# Balzac: A Biography (1994), ISBN 0-330-33237-6
# Unlocking Mallarmé (1996), ISBN 0-03-000648-1
# Victor Hugo (1997), ISBN 0-330-33707-6
# Rimbaud (2000), ISBN 0-330-48282-3
# Strangers: Homosexual Love in the 19th Century (2003), ISBN 0-330-48223-8
# The Discovery of France. A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War. (2007), Illustrated, 454 pp. WW Norton and Co.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Robb
http://tinyurl.com/2ek3zx
One Effect of World War I
The New York Times today reviewed Alan Kramer's "Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War." Montefiore, the Times reviewer, called it an "important" book and a "stimulating, scholarly and shrewd book." Pretty high praise. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/books/review/Sebag-Montefiore-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (signin may be required) http://tcdlocalportal.tcd.ie/pls/public/staff.detail?p_unit=histories_humanities&p_name=alkramer
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryOther/MilitaryHistory/WWI/?view=usa&ci=9780192803429
http://www.tcd.ie/history/euroseminar.php. Here's what the web site says: Professor Kramer scarcely needs any introduction. Co-author, with John Horne, of the award-winning German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial (2001) and author of The West German Economy 1945-1955 (1991) along with many, many articles, Professor Kramer’s latest book, Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War has just been published by Oxford University Press.
Montefiore, the Times reviewer, has a Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Sebag_Montefiore
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryOther/MilitaryHistory/WWI/?view=usa&ci=9780192803429
http://www.tcd.ie/history/euroseminar.php. Here's what the web site says: Professor Kramer scarcely needs any introduction. Co-author, with John Horne, of the award-winning German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial (2001) and author of The West German Economy 1945-1955 (1991) along with many, many articles, Professor Kramer’s latest book, Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War has just been published by Oxford University Press.
Montefiore, the Times reviewer, has a Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Sebag_Montefiore
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Press Think by Jay Rosen
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/
I attended a program today sponsored by the Columbia Jou4rnalism School. Jay Rosen was a panelist. Very insightful. For lovers of the First Amendment, he said that bloggers expand the number of individuals participating in the benefits of the First Amendment.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DvjPAAAACAAJ&dq=Jay+Rosen&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3DJay%2Brosen%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26aq%3Dt%26rls%3Dcom.google:en-US:official%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=3&cad=author-navigational
I attended a program today sponsored by the Columbia Jou4rnalism School. Jay Rosen was a panelist. Very insightful. For lovers of the First Amendment, he said that bloggers expand the number of individuals participating in the benefits of the First Amendment.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DvjPAAAACAAJ&dq=Jay+Rosen&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3DJay%2Brosen%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26aq%3Dt%26rls%3Dcom.google:en-US:official%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=3&cad=author-navigational
Takeover
Takeover - Return of the Imperial Presidency
http://www.charliesavage.com/
All about "information suppression, warrantless wiretapping, torture memos, treaty violations, detention, rendition, a compliant Supreme Court and a supine Congress"
http://www.charliesavage.com/
All about "information suppression, warrantless wiretapping, torture memos, treaty violations, detention, rendition, a compliant Supreme Court and a supine Congress"
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
“Covering Power” panel moderated by Dean Nicholas Lemann
This evening, panelists at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism discussed "Covering Power." Panelists were Elisabeth Bumiller ’79, New York Times, Suzanne Malveaux ’91, CNN, and Mark Silva ’76, Chicago Tribune.
These working journalists exemplified that charm and good looks help a lot in addition to good writing and quick thinking. You don't get to cover the White House by being a bomb-thrower. They described it as professionalism and asking reportorial-style questions. It's the meta message that counts, not the particular kinds of things they say.
These working journalists exemplified that charm and good looks help a lot in addition to good writing and quick thinking. You don't get to cover the White House by being a bomb-thrower. They described it as professionalism and asking reportorial-style questions. It's the meta message that counts, not the particular kinds of things they say.
Friday, October 5, 2007
intellectual property and search
UC Berkeley lecture on intellectual property and "search":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxLTUZCudcw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxLTUZCudcw
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Vanishing Book Review
Here's what the Columbia Journalism School said:
Five leading figures in the world of books came together on Sept. 19 for a panel in the Lecture Hall to discuss "The Decline of the Book Review," a topic also explored in the September issue of Columbia Journalism Review. Panelists debated why American newspapers are cutting back their book coverage. To listen:
Ron Suskind lecture
Here's what the announcement to Columbia Journalism School alums said:
http://www.amazon.com/One-Percent-Doctrine-Americas-Pursuit/dp/0743271106/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-0587870-2020724?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191502974&sr=8-2
Suskind '83 Delivers Annual Poliak Lecture
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind '83, author of several books, including "The Price of Loyalty," and "The One Percent Doctrine," implored journalism students to remain committed to truth and disclosure despite resistance from the administration and the public, saying “Each of you has to be an avatar, a champion and a guardian of truth.” To listen:
I've had "The One Percent Doctrine" sitting on the night table beside the bed waiting for me to read it. I bought it at Costco, but here's the Amazon link:http://www.amazon.com/One-Percent-Doctrine-Americas-Pursuit/dp/0743271106/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-0587870-2020724?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191502974&sr=8-2
Here's the link for "The Price of Loyalty":
http://www.amazon.com/Price-Loyalty-George-Education-ONeill/dp/B0008EH6KA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/104-0587870-2020724?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191502974&sr=8-3
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Jeane Kirkpatrick & the Neocons
Making War to Keep Peace, by Jeane Kirkpatrick, HC/HarperCollins
Even if forcibly spreading democracy were feasible, is it actually desirable, the NYT Reviewer , Geoffrey Wheatcroft, asked. "...almost everywhere there are free elections, the American-backed side tends to lose."
We're backing the wrong side, what d'ya think.
The WSJ said this: "Her blunt style and strong defense of liberty will be missed. "
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009365
Here's apparently the text of Kirkpatrick's speech to the 1984 Republican convention:
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/san.diego/facts/GOP.speeches.past/84.kirkpatrick.shtml
Even if forcibly spreading democracy were feasible, is it actually desirable, the NYT Reviewer , Geoffrey Wheatcroft, asked. "...almost everywhere there are free elections, the American-backed side tends to lose."
We're backing the wrong side, what d'ya think.
The WSJ said this: "Her blunt style and strong defense of liberty will be missed. "
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009365
Here's apparently the text of Kirkpatrick's speech to the 1984 Republican convention:
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/san.diego/facts/GOP.speeches.past/84.kirkpatrick.shtml
Paul Krugman
The Conscience of a Liberal, by Paul Krugman
http://www.amazon.com/Conscience-Liberal-Paul-Krugman/dp/0393060691/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1473323-0180867?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190859915&sr=1-1
"stimulating manifesto aims to galvanize today's progressives"
From Paul Krugman's blog:
http://www.amazon.com/Conscience-Liberal-Paul-Krugman/dp/0393060691/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1473323-0180867?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190859915&sr=1-1
"stimulating manifesto aims to galvanize today's progressives"
From Paul Krugman's blog:
The great divergence: Since the late 1970s the America I knew has unraveled. We’re no longer a middle-class society, in which the benefits of economic growth are widely shared: between 1979 and 2005 the real income of the median household rose only 13 percent, but the income of the richest 0.1% of Americans rose 296 percent.
Most people assume that this rise in inequality was the result of impersonal forces, like technological change and globalization. But the great reduction of inequality that created middle-class America between 1935 and 1945 was driven by political change; I believe that politics has also played an important role in rising inequality since the 1970s. It’s important to know that no other advanced economy has seen a comparable surge in inequality – even the rising inequality of Thatcherite Britain was a faint echo of trends here.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/Heinlein and Conservative Sci-Fi
http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/2007/06/sort/time_rev/page/1/entry/18:108/20070626070637:4EFF21BE-23D5-11DC-856D-E08126AECBE6/
Conservative science fiction is described in this obituary for Robert Heinlein.
Amazon's review says about Heinlein's Starship Troopers: "Many consider this Hugo Award winner to be Robert Heinlein's finest work, and with good reason." It's #5,788 on Amazon's best-seller list.
Stranger in Strange Land is # 15,963. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is #7,761. That's pretty good for 50 year old books.
Conservative science fiction is described in this obituary for Robert Heinlein.
Amazon's review says about Heinlein's Starship Troopers: "Many consider this Hugo Award winner to be Robert Heinlein's finest work, and with good reason." It's #5,788 on Amazon's best-seller list.
Stranger in Strange Land is # 15,963. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is #7,761. That's pretty good for 50 year old books.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Hubris, deception, and death - David Halberstam
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, By David Halberstam
On September 26, 2007, it's #25 on the Amazon best seller list.
Here's a comment by Glenn Greenwald on Salon about Halberstam's findings:
http://nx5.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/24/halberstam_patriotism/index.html
Amazon quotes Publishers Weekly this way:
At the heart of David Halberstam's massive and powerful new history of the Korean War is a bloody, losing battle fought in November 1950 in the snow-covered mountains of North Korea by outnumbered American GIs and Marines against the Chinese Communist Army.Halberstam's villain is not North Korea's Kim Il Sung or China's Chairman Mao or even the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin, who pulled the strings. It's the legendary general Douglas MacArthur, the aging, arrogant, politically ambitious architect of what the author calls the single greatest American military miscalculation of the war, MacArthur's decision to go all the way to the Yalu [River] because he was sure the Chinese would not come in.Much of the story is familiar. What distinguishes this version by Halberstam (who died this year in a California auto crash) is his reportorial skill, honed in Vietnam in Pulitzer-winning dispatches to the New York Times. His pounding narrative, in which GIs and generals describe their coldest winter, whisks the reader along, even though we know the ending.Most Korean War scholars agree that MacArthur's sprint to the border of great China with a Siberian winter coming on resulted in a lethal nightmare. Though focused on that mountain battle, Halberstam's book covers the entire war, from the sudden dawn attack by Kim Il Sung's Soviet-backed North Koreans against the U.S.-trained South, on June 25, 1950, to its uneasy truce in 1953. It was a smallish war but a big Cold War story: Harry Truman, Stalin and Mao, Joe McCarthy and Eisenhower, George C. Marshall and Omar Bradley, among others, stride through it. A few quibbles: there were no B-17 bombers destroyed on Wake Island the day after Pearl Harbor, as Halberstam asserts, and Halberstam gives his minor characters too much attention.At first MacArthur did well, toughing out those early months when the first GIs sent in from cushy billets in occupied Japan were overwhelmed by Kim's rugged little peasant army. MacArthur's greatest gamble led to a marvelous turning point: the invasion at Inchon in September, when he outflanked the stunned Reds. After Inchon, the general headed north and his luck ran out. His sycophants, intelligence chief Willoughby and field commander Ned Almond, refused to believe battlefield evidence indicating the Chinese Communists had quietly infiltrated North Korea and were lying in wait. The Marines fought their way out as other units disintegrated. In the end, far too late, Truman sacked MacArthur. Alive with the voices of the men who fought, Halberstam's telling is a virtuoso work of history.
http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Winter-America-Korean-War/dp/1401300529/ref=pd_sim_b_3/103-9830571-0401420
Here's a link to David Halberstam's thoughtful words on uses and misuses of history:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/08/halberstam200708?currentPage=2.
Halberstam reports that MacArthur did not spend the night in Korea after reviewing the troops; in fact, he did not spend the night there during the entire time he commanded. That's hubris.
On September 26, 2007, it's #25 on the Amazon best seller list.
Here's a comment by Glenn Greenwald on Salon about Halberstam's findings:
http://nx5.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/24/halberstam_patriotism/index.html
Amazon quotes Publishers Weekly this way:
At the heart of David Halberstam's massive and powerful new history of the Korean War is a bloody, losing battle fought in November 1950 in the snow-covered mountains of North Korea by outnumbered American GIs and Marines against the Chinese Communist Army.Halberstam's villain is not North Korea's Kim Il Sung or China's Chairman Mao or even the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin, who pulled the strings. It's the legendary general Douglas MacArthur, the aging, arrogant, politically ambitious architect of what the author calls the single greatest American military miscalculation of the war, MacArthur's decision to go all the way to the Yalu [River] because he was sure the Chinese would not come in.Much of the story is familiar. What distinguishes this version by Halberstam (who died this year in a California auto crash) is his reportorial skill, honed in Vietnam in Pulitzer-winning dispatches to the New York Times. His pounding narrative, in which GIs and generals describe their coldest winter, whisks the reader along, even though we know the ending.Most Korean War scholars agree that MacArthur's sprint to the border of great China with a Siberian winter coming on resulted in a lethal nightmare. Though focused on that mountain battle, Halberstam's book covers the entire war, from the sudden dawn attack by Kim Il Sung's Soviet-backed North Koreans against the U.S.-trained South, on June 25, 1950, to its uneasy truce in 1953. It was a smallish war but a big Cold War story: Harry Truman, Stalin and Mao, Joe McCarthy and Eisenhower, George C. Marshall and Omar Bradley, among others, stride through it. A few quibbles: there were no B-17 bombers destroyed on Wake Island the day after Pearl Harbor, as Halberstam asserts, and Halberstam gives his minor characters too much attention.At first MacArthur did well, toughing out those early months when the first GIs sent in from cushy billets in occupied Japan were overwhelmed by Kim's rugged little peasant army. MacArthur's greatest gamble led to a marvelous turning point: the invasion at Inchon in September, when he outflanked the stunned Reds. After Inchon, the general headed north and his luck ran out. His sycophants, intelligence chief Willoughby and field commander Ned Almond, refused to believe battlefield evidence indicating the Chinese Communists had quietly infiltrated North Korea and were lying in wait. The Marines fought their way out as other units disintegrated. In the end, far too late, Truman sacked MacArthur. Alive with the voices of the men who fought, Halberstam's telling is a virtuoso work of history.
http://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Winter-America-Korean-War/dp/1401300529/ref=pd_sim_b_3/103-9830571-0401420
Here's a link to David Halberstam's thoughtful words on uses and misuses of history:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/08/halberstam200708?currentPage=2.
Halberstam reports that MacArthur did not spend the night in Korea after reviewing the troops; in fact, he did not spend the night there during the entire time he commanded. That's hubris.
Plutonium
Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element, By Jeremy Bernstein
This is a bibliography of Bernstein work; he has been active in NY Review of Books:
http://www.nybooks.com/authors/110
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/bernstein.html
Publishers Weekly - as quoted on Amazon
Physicist and former New Yorker staff writer Bernstein presents a scientifically rigorous (equations and all) but clearly written explanation of the recondite reasons why plutonium is supremely suited for bomb-making material—and little else. From the discovery of uranium in 1789 to the Manhattan Project, Nazi attempts at a nuclear bomb and the post-WWII efforts of the U.S.S.R. to become a nuclear power, Bernstein reviews the element's storied past. Although the discovery of the atom's structure has been covered before, Bernstein spins an accessible, insightful description of how the great scientists Curie, Bohr, Rutherford and Fermi, among others, deconstructed the atom through a combination of individual brilliance, a spirit of collaboration and serendipity. He also brings his acquaintance with several Los Alamos scientists (he interned at the laboratory in 1957) to the less canonical subject of the scientific and engineering problems inherent to building a working nuclear bomb.
http://www.amazon.com/Plutonium-History-Worlds-Dangerous-Element/dp/0309102960/ref=pd_sim_b_2/103-9830571-0401420
This is a bibliography of Bernstein work; he has been active in NY Review of Books:
http://www.nybooks.com/authors/110
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/bernstein.html
Publishers Weekly - as quoted on Amazon
Physicist and former New Yorker staff writer Bernstein presents a scientifically rigorous (equations and all) but clearly written explanation of the recondite reasons why plutonium is supremely suited for bomb-making material—and little else. From the discovery of uranium in 1789 to the Manhattan Project, Nazi attempts at a nuclear bomb and the post-WWII efforts of the U.S.S.R. to become a nuclear power, Bernstein reviews the element's storied past. Although the discovery of the atom's structure has been covered before, Bernstein spins an accessible, insightful description of how the great scientists Curie, Bohr, Rutherford and Fermi, among others, deconstructed the atom through a combination of individual brilliance, a spirit of collaboration and serendipity. He also brings his acquaintance with several Los Alamos scientists (he interned at the laboratory in 1957) to the less canonical subject of the scientific and engineering problems inherent to building a working nuclear bomb.
http://www.amazon.com/Plutonium-History-Worlds-Dangerous-Element/dp/0309102960/ref=pd_sim_b_2/103-9830571-0401420
The Arms Race
Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, By Richard Rhodes
Here's what it says at Amazon:
"Rhodes reveals the early influence of neoconservatives and right-wing figures such as Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz. We see how Perle in particular sabotaged the Reykjavik meeting by convincing Reagan that mutual nuclear disarmament meant giving up his cherished dream of strategic defense (the Star Wars system). Rhodes’s detailed exploration of these and other events constitutes a prehistory of the neoconservatives, demonstrating that the manipulation of government and public opinion with fake intelligence and threat inflation that the administration of George W. Bush has used to justify the current “war on terror” and the disastrous invasion of Iraq were developed and applied in the Reagan era and even before."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375414134/ref=pe_pe_5050_6735740_pe_snp_134
Here's what it says at Amazon:
"Rhodes reveals the early influence of neoconservatives and right-wing figures such as Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz. We see how Perle in particular sabotaged the Reykjavik meeting by convincing Reagan that mutual nuclear disarmament meant giving up his cherished dream of strategic defense (the Star Wars system). Rhodes’s detailed exploration of these and other events constitutes a prehistory of the neoconservatives, demonstrating that the manipulation of government and public opinion with fake intelligence and threat inflation that the administration of George W. Bush has used to justify the current “war on terror” and the disastrous invasion of Iraq were developed and applied in the Reagan era and even before."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375414134/ref=pe_pe_5050_6735740_pe_snp_134
Friday, September 21, 2007
How Slavery Shaped the US Constitution
Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits and the Struggle for the Constitution, by Lawrence Goldstone, Walker & Company.
The Constitution was the result of the work of "highly pragmatic men who were pursuing limited and self-interested goals." Too bad we lack such men in high places now.
The author respond to a book review on Mary L. Dudziak's Legal History Blog:
http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/lawrence-goldstone-responds-to-gordon.html
It's possible that interpreting the Constitution based on original intent just isn't possible because the compromisers that got the Constitution written and adopted did not all mean the same thing.
Here's the link to the transcript of Goldstone's appearance on the NPR Tavis Smiley show:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200611/20061116_goldstone.html
The Constitution was the result of the work of "highly pragmatic men who were pursuing limited and self-interested goals." Too bad we lack such men in high places now.
The author respond to a book review on Mary L. Dudziak's Legal History Blog:
http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/lawrence-goldstone-responds-to-gordon.html
It's possible that interpreting the Constitution based on original intent just isn't possible because the compromisers that got the Constitution written and adopted did not all mean the same thing.
Here's the link to the transcript of Goldstone's appearance on the NPR Tavis Smiley show:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200611/20061116_goldstone.html
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Einstein - Legend, myth, idol and icon
Einstein - His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster
Einstein - A Biography, by Jurgen Neffe, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Einstein - A Biography, by Jurgen Neffe, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Chalmers Johnson
The trilogy by Chalmers Johnson
Johnson said about his book The Sorrows of Empire:
"I suggested the sorrows already invading our lives, which were likely to be our fate for years to come: perpetual war, a collapse of constitutional government, endemic official lying and disinformation, and finally bankruptcy. At book’s end, I advocated reforms intended to head off these outcomes but warned that ‘failing such a reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us.’ … "
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people4/CJohnson/cjohnson-con0.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115-08.htm - Johnson has the courage to say that America dominates the world by the use of our military.
See www.jpri.org:
CHALMERS JOHNSON is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, a non-profit research and public affairs organization devoted to public education concerning Japan and international relations in the Pacific. He taught for thirty years, 1962-1992, at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California and held endowed chairs in Asian politics at both of them. At Berkeley he served as chairman of the Center for Chinese Studies and as chairman of the Department of Political Science. His B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in economics and political science are all from the University of California, Berkeley.
- Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire - http://books.google.com/books?id=tSrKgv8UIBsC&pg=PP1&dq=inauthor:Chalmers+inauthor:Johnson&sig=yBjR-MHnYh1pnLo3clwMyIwMHJg#PPA5,M1
- The Sorrows of Empire - http://books.google.com/books?id=WqwPZGBnf3IC&dq=inauthor:Chalmers+inauthor:Johnson
- Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic - http://www.radioopensource.org/chalmers-johnson-and-his-nemesis/
Johnson said about his book The Sorrows of Empire:
"I suggested the sorrows already invading our lives, which were likely to be our fate for years to come: perpetual war, a collapse of constitutional government, endemic official lying and disinformation, and finally bankruptcy. At book’s end, I advocated reforms intended to head off these outcomes but warned that ‘failing such a reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us.’ … "
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people4/CJohnson/cjohnson-con0.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115-08.htm - Johnson has the courage to say that America dominates the world by the use of our military.
See www.jpri.org:
CHALMERS JOHNSON is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, a non-profit research and public affairs organization devoted to public education concerning Japan and international relations in the Pacific. He taught for thirty years, 1962-1992, at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California and held endowed chairs in Asian politics at both of them. At Berkeley he served as chairman of the Center for Chinese Studies and as chairman of the Department of Political Science. His B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in economics and political science are all from the University of California, Berkeley.
India & The British Empire
The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857, by William Dalrymple, Knopf.
Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, by Alex von Tunzelman, Henry Holt & Company.
The reviewer in the NY Times wrote: "The truth is that Britain wanted to quit India with dignity if possible, but speed above all; the cost in human lives was of secondary importance." Sounds like a prelude to Iraq.
Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, by Alex von Tunzelman, Henry Holt & Company.
The reviewer in the NY Times wrote: "The truth is that Britain wanted to quit India with dignity if possible, but speed above all; the cost in human lives was of secondary importance." Sounds like a prelude to Iraq.
Those British Authors
P. G. Wodehouse
Wodehouse: A Life, by Robert McCrum
http://www.amazon.com/Wodehouse-Life-Robert-McCrum/dp/0393051595/ref=sr_1_14/103-1263163-9116636?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189979064&sr=1-14
P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master , David A. Jasen
http://www.amazon.com/P-G-Wodehouse-Portrait-David-Jasen/dp/0825672759/ref=sr_1_11/103-1263163-9116636?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189978974&sr=1-11
The Life of Kingsley Amis, by Zachary Leader, Pantheon
Wodehouse: A Life, by Robert McCrum
http://www.amazon.com/Wodehouse-Life-Robert-McCrum/dp/0393051595/ref=sr_1_14/103-1263163-9116636?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189979064&sr=1-14
P.G. Wodehouse: A Portrait of a Master , David A. Jasen
http://www.amazon.com/P-G-Wodehouse-Portrait-David-Jasen/dp/0825672759/ref=sr_1_11/103-1263163-9116636?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189978974&sr=1-11
The Life of Kingsley Amis, by Zachary Leader, Pantheon
Liberalism
Freedom's Power: The True Force of Liberalism, by Paul Starr, Basic Books
Michael Lind called it "an impressive achievement" in the NYT
Here's the book's own page: http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/basic/book_detail.jsp?isbn=046508186X
"George W. Bush's presidency is another era of overreaction at the expense of constitutional rights, but the prospects for a quick correction are not auspicious. Nothing has helped end earlier bouts of repression so much as the fact that the wars themselves came to a close, and nothing has so exposed our liberties to indefinite jeopardy as the conception of a "war on terrorism" with no end." - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/21/opinion/main1334435.shtml
Starr is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, and Stuart Professor of Communications and Public Affairs, Princeton University; Co-editor, The American Prospect -
http://www.prospect.org/web/index.ww
Here's Starr's home page:http://www.princeton.edu/~starr/
Michael Lind called it "an impressive achievement" in the NYT
Here's the book's own page: http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/basic/book_detail.jsp?isbn=046508186X
"George W. Bush's presidency is another era of overreaction at the expense of constitutional rights, but the prospects for a quick correction are not auspicious. Nothing has helped end earlier bouts of repression so much as the fact that the wars themselves came to a close, and nothing has so exposed our liberties to indefinite jeopardy as the conception of a "war on terrorism" with no end." - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/21/opinion/main1334435.shtml
Starr is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, and Stuart Professor of Communications and Public Affairs, Princeton University; Co-editor, The American Prospect -
http://www.prospect.org/web/index.ww
Here's Starr's home page:http://www.princeton.edu/~starr/
Churchill
Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped to Save England, by Lynne Olson, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Cold War Biographer
George Kennan: A Study of Character, by John Lukacs, Yale
We could learn from Kennan, as we embark on a new Cold War with Iran.
We could learn from Kennan, as we embark on a new Cold War with Iran.
Rome's Fall
The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle that Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire, by Alessandro Barbero, Walker & Company
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright by Ada Louise Huxtable, Lipper/Viking
James F. O'Gorman in the NYT called the book provocative - It depends what you mean by morality. individualistic, egocentric and all the rest.
James F. O'Gorman in the NYT called the book provocative - It depends what you mean by morality. individualistic, egocentric and all the rest.
Free Speech
Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime, from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism, by Geoffrey R. Stone, W. W. Norton & Company
The French
Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution, by Madison Smartt Bell, Norton
Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, by Madison Smartt Bell, Pantheon
Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, by Madison Smartt Bell, Pantheon
Edwardians
The Edwardians, by Roy Hattersley, St. Martin's
I've been reading the big biography of David Lloyd George, and this is a period that we Americans don't know much about, but the controversies are not so different from our times today.
I've been reading the big biography of David Lloyd George, and this is a period that we Americans don't know much about, but the controversies are not so different from our times today.
Pirates & America's beginnings
The Pirates Lafitte: The treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf, by William C. Davis, Harcourt
The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World by Frank Lambert, Hill & Wang
White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves, by Giles Milton, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World by Frank Lambert, Hill & Wang
White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves, by Giles Milton, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Peter Irons
I like Peter Irons' thinking.
War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution, by Peter Irons, Metropolitan Books
War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution, by Peter Irons, Metropolitan Books
Oppenheimer
The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race, by Priscilla J. McMillan, Viking.
I don't know why we're so surprised by today's heirs of those 1950's predecessors of today's Washington bosses.
I don't know why we're so surprised by today's heirs of those 1950's predecessors of today's Washington bosses.
Mafia
Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires, by Selwyn Raab. Thomas Dunne Books
Crusades
The First Crusade, by Thomas Asbridge, Oxford
The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, by Johathan Phillips, Viking
Fighting for Christendom: Holy War and the Crusades, by Christopher Tyerman, Oxford
The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, by Johathan Phillips, Viking
Fighting for Christendom: Holy War and the Crusades, by Christopher Tyerman, Oxford
Clarence Thomas and the Others
Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas, by Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher, Doubleday.
The Supreme Court : The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America, by Jeffrey Rosen, Times Books
Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court, by Jan Crawford Greenburg, Penguin
The Supreme Court : The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America, by Jeffrey Rosen, Times Books
Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court, by Jan Crawford Greenburg, Penguin
Lincoln's Beliefs
What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President, by Michael Lind, Doubleday
Robber Barons
Meet You in Hell, by Les Standiford, Crown
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, by Jille Jonnes, Viking.
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and its Tunnels, by Jille Jonnes, Viking.
Greek Olympics
The Naked Olympics, by Tom Perrottet, Random House
Ancient Greek Athletics, Stephen G. Miller, Yale
Wrestling with the Ancients, Alexander Kitroeff, Greekworks.com
Facing Athens, by George Sarrinikolaou, North Point
Ancient Greek Athletics, Stephen G. Miller, Yale
Wrestling with the Ancients, Alexander Kitroeff, Greekworks.com
Facing Athens, by George Sarrinikolaou, North Point
Noyce
The Man behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley, by Leslie Berlin, Oxford
Computer software
From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog, A History of the Software Industry, by Martin Campbell-Kelly, MIT
Cameraman
River of Shadows, Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, by Rebecca Solnit, Viking
"Deeply intelligent" and ""close to inspired" the NYT reviewer Jim Lewis said.
"Deeply intelligent" and ""close to inspired" the NYT reviewer Jim Lewis said.
Science survey
The Canon, a Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, by Natalie Angier, Houghton-Mifflin
Empire of the Stars: Obsession, Friendship and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes, by Arthur I. Miller, Houghton Mifflin
Conflict in the Cosmos: Fred Hoyle's Life in Science by Simon Mitton, Joseph Henry Press
The Scientist as Rebel, By Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books
Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About our Lives, by David Sloan Wilson, Delacorte Press
The Fellowship: Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren Newton and the Story of the Scientific Revolution, by John Gribbin, Overlook
Empire of the Stars: Obsession, Friendship and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes, by Arthur I. Miller, Houghton Mifflin
Conflict in the Cosmos: Fred Hoyle's Life in Science by Simon Mitton, Joseph Henry Press
The Scientist as Rebel, By Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books
Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About our Lives, by David Sloan Wilson, Delacorte Press
The Fellowship: Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren Newton and the Story of the Scientific Revolution, by John Gribbin, Overlook
Copperheads - Civil War Peace Democrats
Copperheads, by Jennifer L. Weber , Oxford
Well reviewed in both New Yorker and New York Law Journal (on June 29, 2007).
Timely discussion of dissent and opposition.
Well reviewed in both New Yorker and New York Law Journal (on June 29, 2007).
Timely discussion of dissent and opposition.
Read the Bible
How To Read the Bible, by James L. Kugel, Free Press
The NYT reviewer calls the book "awesome, thrilling and deeply strange" -- sounds great.
Referred to as a book that is so good that the reviewer doesn't know what to say:
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/09/books-that-are-.html
The NYT reviewer calls the book "awesome, thrilling and deeply strange" -- sounds great.
Referred to as a book that is so good that the reviewer doesn't know what to say:
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/09/books-that-are-.html
The Stillborn God
The Stillborn God by Mark Lilla, Knopf
Reviewed in both NYT and WSJ this weekend.
This sounds like a book I would like to read. Provocative.
Here's the review from the American Prospect:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=keeping_god_out_of_it
Reviewed in both NYT and WSJ this weekend.
This sounds like a book I would like to read. Provocative.
Here's the review from the American Prospect:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=keeping_god_out_of_it
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