Book Description

No Regrets is a candid memoir of a controversial social and medical reformer, Ben Reitman, written by a daughter who struggled to uncover her family's hidden past-searching in letters and family records for the secrets of her long-dead father and the women who had loved him.The book chronicles Reitman's complex relationships with several women including Emma Goldman and the author's own mother.The pain, confusion, idealism, brilliance, and destructiveness in Reitman's life are illustrated with excerpts from Reitman's personal letters. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A good book about an interesting man!
I didn't know anything about Ben Reitman until a friend gave me this book.It is a true story about a man who preached social responsibility but lived a reckless, insensitive, and destructive life.Mrs.Reitman-Carpenter's book is also a contradiction -- a real combination ofscholarship, historical accuracy, and a good, captivating story.I learnedabout hobos, whorehouses, birth control, and a whole cross-section oftopics in early twentieth-century history. Mrs. Reitman-Carpenter'semotional relationship to her subject fills the book with energy.Shemakes the reader feel as though he/she actually met Ben Reitman.Was he ahero or an anti-hero?He was a living example of the wave of heroicradicals which dominated artistic movements at the start of the twentiethcentury.He reminded me vividly of "Bazarov" from Turgenev's"Fathers and Sons".This book can be read for fun, or tolearn about US history.The provocative topics which are brought up onpractically every page stimulate the reader to open his/her mind andreconsider prejudices on controversial issues. The diligent scholarship,the high quality of the pictures, and the brilliantly clear prose are threegood reasons to read this book!

Carpenter provides a nuanced view of Reitman's love life.
In her biography of her father, Mecca Reitman Carpenter effectively rescues Ben Reitman from Emma Goldman's longstanding portrayal of him as ablindly promiscuous, self-indulgent libertine.While she does not alwayssympathize with his treatment of the women in his life, Carpenter'sexamination of the unpublished letters of several of the women who lovedhim, including those written by her mother, provides a nuanced view ofthese relationships.Her portrait of her mother is especially instructiveand engaging.Medina Oliver Reitman's dry wit and her unshakable sense ofself-direction are both endearing and admirable.While she was ostensiblyapolitical, unmoved by the radical social and sexual philosophies of hercontemporaries, she is the best embodiment of the "New Woman" ofthe twentieth century in fact or fiction that I've come across. ... Read more

Book Description

Fifteen original essays by eminent personalities in public life, journalism, economics, and the arts, written to honor the ninetieth birthday of one of the world's most famous economists The wide array of contributors to this celebratory volume reflects the richly varied life of John Kenneth Galbraith -- professor of economics and writer, public servant and ambassador, eminent collector of Indian art, and head of a gifted family. Each contributor writes from his or her own highly individual perspective, whether informed by politics, journalism, economics, academe, art -- or just as a good friend. Some of the essays are anecdotal and humorous; others, more serious, show how Galbraith's ideas have influenced the contributors; yet others underscore the contribution his ideas have made to a better understanding of the world by us all. Galbraith is himself present through a collection of his memorable aphorisms compiled as the closing chapter to the book -- not least in his thoughts on writing and the publishing business. The contributors include Derek Bok, Carlos Fuentes, Peter Galbraith, Katharine Graham, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Robert Reich, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Sharing a point of view
This is a birthday tribute book, in which a famous author, Harvard professor, economist, former Ambassador to India, and incredible wit is praised in print by people who find themselves honored by the opportunity to detail their links with John Kenneth Galbraith. Many names are scattered throughout the book, which has no index for finding them again. All my life I have wanted to be smart enough to be as witty as JKG, and in the present economic situation, it is a great comfort to find evidence that so many people share that aspiration. Freud is mentioned as a possible source of "a similar remark about individual people in psychoanalysis" needed for a comparison on page 126 with a comment of Karl Marx in CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, originally published in 1859, "Mankind inevitably sets itself only such tasks as it is able to solve." Conversations between these people can be daunting when it seems to lack any point whatever, and JKG has the kind of courage that it takes not to worry when an interest in political economy puts someone in a spot which requires responses at a level which most people have trouble maintaining at their best, responding to cues about basic conditions that establish who they are in ways that the inquisitive JKG could notice, when it was missing in those who had formerly been powerful, as when he met ex-Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas Home and told Roy Jenkins, "Who was that man? I thought he was Alec Home." (p. 50).

Power is a major consideration in this book, as a factor that was not adequately considered in the mainstream economic theory of motives which were thought classically to drive supply and demand. JKG noticed that the affluent society's maximization of production produced an increased need for public goods like trash collection and police to protect people from being swindled. The friendly tributes at the beginning of the book frequently note how tall and witty JKG was, and pages 161-175 at the end provide examples from books that JKG wrote of his thoughts on Farming, The Scotch, Rules of Academic Life, Economics and Economists, Writing, Politics, Politicians, Family, Places, and The Wisdom of Age. My favorite choice of words, "or a drunken bat," (p. 171) occurs in the section on Politics, and seems less hyperbolically suggestive of the fears that the Scotch possessed and the way everyone felt in 1968 than the kind of comparison which JKG used to describe a government crisis, in addition to "or a drunken bat."

I have not been doing Harvard many favors in recent thoughts which associate it most frequently with the Unabomber, Daniel Ellsberg, or Henry the K., who was repudiated when he might have wished to retain the kind of association with Harvard that JKG maintained for 50 years. Galbraith was a key adviser to JFK, and his book LETTERS TO KENNEDY still makes interesting reading, but JKG did not stay on for the debacle produced by President Johnson, and many in this book considered JKG a leader of the effort to oppose the Vietnam war. Political party was not an overriding consideration for JKG, certainly not in 1981 when he wrote the description of Johnson which is included in this book, that might be applied to Woodrow Wilson or any number of American presidents.

"Johnson sought to compensate for his uncertainty in foreign policy with an outward display of firmness, strength, decisiveness. This made him open to the advice of those who urged the seemingly strong as distinct from the restrained and considered course. Perhaps also his instinct was for an assertively masculine pose, as others have suggested. Combined, these qualities put him at the mercy of those who took pride not in their knowledge but in their will to act. Thus the disaster in Southeast Asia." (p. 173).

Seriously, though, there is a section on Economics in this book and an attempt throughout to present phrases which JKG ought to get credit for adding to the vocabulary of political economy. On the birthday question, if you hurry, you should be able to obtain and read this book prior to October 15, 2003, when John Kenneth Galbraith will be 95 and coincidentally, Friedrich Nietzsche will be 159, though Nietzsche has been dead more than a hundred years. This book starts with, "Thorstein Veblen" (pp. xii, 26, 30-31, 35, 36), "he could see little difference between a communist jungle and a capitalist one." (p. 9). "Galbraith's complaints against atmospheric nuclear testing" (p. 10), "endless meetings and far too many people." (p. 11). "I came to oppose strongly the widely applauded Reagan-Bush policy of reaching out to Saddam Hussein" (Peter Galbraith, appointed United States Ambassador to Croatia in 1993, worked extensively on Iraq in the late 1980s, p. 13). "During World War II, in the very opposite of the Keynesian stereotype, Galbraith and a few others in the Office of Price Administration actually produced a decline in prices during wartime. . . . Inflation dropped from 9.7 percent in 1941 to 2.1 percent in 1944." (p. 18). "his ability to distinguish carefully between real motives and pretense" (p. 23), "sought-after public speaker" (p. 24) "an extremely fluent writer, a quality that journalistic exigencies had fostered in him. From that time onward, I think, he always believed that he had to write something every day." (p. 24). "even truer today than it was then, although today the outstanding gap is that between private affluence and public poverty." (p. 26). "American farmers, today about 1 percent of the population, produce more than they did as 25 percent of the population in 1930." (p. 32). "American Academy of Arts and Letters; from 1984 to 1987 he served as its president." (p. 34). "countervailing power" (p. 37) "he vividly contrasted the `social imbalance' between the opulence of private consumption and the starvation of public services." (p. 37). ... Read more

Book Description

Incisivo, ameno y sugestivo ensayo biográfico sobre la subyugante vida del fundador del Psicoanálisis. ... Read more

Amazon.com

After three years in four concentration camps during World War II,Jewish neurologist Victor Frankl returned to Vienna to resume his medical practice. When he met an operating room assistant named Elly, it was "love atfirst eyesight," and over the next five decades, their romance, described inWhen Life Calls Out to Us, helped inspire the development of Frankl's famousphilosophy of logotherapy. For this book, the Frankls cooperated fully withauthor Haddon Klingberg Jr., a psychologist who conducted hundreds of hours ofinterviews, extensively researched the Holocaust, and mastered all of Frankl's primary publications (most notably Man's Search for Meaning.Unfortunately, Klingberg is also gaga for his subjects, fetishizing every detail of their lives. (Victor loved Captain Kangaroo and MacDonald'scheeseburgers "minus the mushy bread.") Readers already enamored of the Frankls will likely be entranced by the book; the rest may wish Klingberg hadbetter emulated the linguistic skills of his hero, whose text, he says, were "sophisticated, yet precise and plain. No pointless words. No petty chatter."--Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excellent biographic information
As one of Dr. Frankl's medical students at the Poliklinik in 1948 I found this book of great interest. It is well written and detailed. Although I had always admired Frankl for not falling victim to hate after his concentration camp experiences I was unaware of the profound influence his second wife Elly (the first wife,Tilly, died in Bergen-Belsen) had in his recovery from the tragedies and the help she had given him in the propagation of logotherapy.
Anyone who is familiar with some of Frankl's book will enjoy reading about the fascinating and colorful personal lives of these two truly extraordinary people. Dr. Klingberg is to be congratulated for his efforts in making them available to us.

Thoughtful context for Frankl's work
This history of Frankl's life, thoughtfully and respectfully told, provides much of the context which breathed even more life into Frankl's work for me.

Where in hell is my book?
I odered this book a LONG time ago from one of the used Book Dealers.

A Quality Reviewer
The below is from Kirkus Reviews.

"Vivid and revealing recollections, impressions, and stories of Viktor Frankl's life, as told to clinical psychologist Klingberg, his friend and former student. In a project that took eight years to complete, Klingberg (Psychology/North Park Univ., Chicago) recorded hundreds of hours of conversations with Frankl and his wife Elly. In the process, he managed to elicit from Frankl (1905-1997) the influences, decisions, and graces that went into the making of the mind that produced the soul-expanding Man's Search for Meaning (1959). Frankl speaks plainly about his secure and comforting early youth, how it may well have had as much influence on his future thought as did the remarkable intellectual atmosphere of early-20th-century Vienna. Not an athletic child, he would instead trip off to attend lectures at the university psychiatric clinic, take sprout in the seedbeds of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Jaspers, the Nihilists, Freud, and Adler. He explains the moment of his discomfort with an idea, of the psychological theory and reductionism that deflected him from Freud and Adler, their constrictions and lack of rationality. And how, prior to the concentration camps, he was forming his theory of logotherapy and the development of a less deterministic, more optimistic and humanistic psychology, one rooted in the freedom and independence of the human spirit to assume responsibility in all personal matters, to find meaning in existence by living for someone or something other than the self. Klingberg provides a thorough picture of Frankl's detractors-from those who were angered by his thumbing his nose at collective guilt to others who found fault in his marrying a Christian to those who thought hiswork came down to simple mental attitude. The author also does an artful job of painting in the background against which Frankl's story is cast. A particularly valuable tool for understanding Frankl, as Klingberg manages to collar a wealth of defining moments in his subject's life and work." ... Read more

Amazon.com

What makes people kill? Specifically, what are the motivations behind serial, mass, and spree killings? Drawing from cases such as the mass murder in Dunblane, Scotland, in which a lone gunman mowed down 16 children and their teacher, the still-unsolved Tylenol poisonings, and the Unabomber, former FBI profiler John Douglas and coauthor Mark Olshaker try to explain the unthinkable. What sets The Anatomy of Motive apart from so many of the theories about these horrific acts of violence is that Douglas and Olshaker have no obvious political agenda. They don't look for easy answers and they don't provide easy solutions. They do, however, offer some insight into the twisted kind of thinking that can lead a person to believe that the solution to his problems lies in bloodshed. They also provide some danger signs that may help to identify the potentially violent criminal before he has a chance to act out his morbid fantasies. While The Anatomy of Motive is undeniably horrifying, it is also illuminating, and Douglas and Olshaker approach their topic with grace and insight. --Lisa Higgins ... Read more

Reviews (58)

An intregueing read
The criminal mind is a mysterious thing.The anatomy of a motive is a look the mind of criminals.It goes thru cases in the career of John Douglass.This book explores the mind of everything from your serial arsonists to your serial killer.
John Douglas was a criminal profiler for the FBI for over 20 years.He's one of the greatest criminal profilers in history.He's also been able to write many books on what he knows about the profiling of criminals.The work he's done in his career has led to the arrest of many of the worlds most dangerous criminals.
The anatomy of a motive starts out when John talks about a period during his time in the FBI where he went around interviewing criminals.Many criminals would try to talk themselves up and show off who they were.Many of them would lie and talk about things they may or may not have done.It took John much effort to get past this to get what he wanted from the people he interviewed.He said that criminals I (p. 22)"main goals in life are to kill and to hurt- or as I've stated many times in my career, to manipulate, dominate, and control."
We then come to the issue of fire in chapter two "Playing with Fire."He explore's the mind of your arsonists.He goes into the idea that many criminals early in life will play with fire.They will also have other traits in common with each other.They usually have (p.47) "violent, antisocial tendencies often mistreat animals or smaller children.This chapter goes into the arsonists as sort of a "ticking time bomb."They will set fire after fire and if they don't get caught they will become more daring.They will take more risks and eventually evolve into a killer if not stopped.He also states how many of these arsonists will start out in a place they are comfortable in only.They won't go out of their "comfort zone" until they believe they are comfortable doing so.This was a major thing in the world of tracking criminals.That means they can look around the area where the fire starting began (or other crimes as it turns out) and get an idea who they might be looking for.
"Magnum Force" explores the idea of guns used in crimes.Many criminals get there ideas from other things such as kojackIn one case two air force enlisted men tied up and tried to poison some people in a Hi-Fi shop.They tried using poison and it didn't work like it did in the movies.They eventually had to some of them because the poison didn't work fast enough.
In "Name your Poison" the book goes into poisoning by tampering.It goes into adding poisonous pills to a Tylenol bottle.This led all drugs to be covered with a safety seal.In this chapter John talks about the Tylenol poisoner as someone who was proud of what they were doing.John figured this UNSUB was a passive person who would be afraid of confrontation.He was also able to figure that this offender wasn't that organized or methodical about his poisonings.He would just introduce a cyanide capsule to a bottle and put it back on the shelf.John eventually came up with an accurate profile of the Tylenol UNSUB.John was able to get the UNSUB out by getting him to write letters into a newspaper about his opinions and what he hated about society.

"Guys Who Snap", "On the Run" and "Shadow of a Gunman" all run along the same area and are about people who one day just can't take it anymore and snap.They snap for a number of reasons.They may have lost their job.Maybe their wife/husband left them.Or maybe they just realized there life is at a dead end. They see they aren't really going anywhere.Once they can no longer deal with the idea they won't achieve the great things they have always wanted to receive they decide to either relinquish their current situation and move on or go out in a blaze of glory.One UNSUB in this section for example, kills his whole family and quietly sneaks away to start life anew.Another UNSUB realizes that life is doomed for him and decides to go out in a blaze of glory by getting on top of a building and trying to take out as many people as he can with him.He had no plans to escape this situation.He just wanted to not go out alone.In a story of Brad Bishop who kills and burns the bodies of his family, he wants to start a new life somewhere else.He goes onto do so and is eventually caught.He never wanted to kill his family, but felt that he had to.
"Shadow of a Gunman" also goes into killers who have obsessions with weapons.Many usually have large collections.At some point they just snap and decide to go out in the blaze of glory and kill whatever they can, using what they have and know about they're weapons.
In "Random Acts of Violence" John goes into the idea of random violence.A mail bomber mails bombs to random members of the academic community.Many of his devices will either kill or extremely mangle his victims.As he progress's in his killings his bomb style becomes his "calling card."The UNSUB also likes to show how he's evolved as he goes on in his bombings.His bombs get a little better every time. This offender is a well educated person who knows a great deal.This person is also patient and willing to put in a great amount of time in constructing his weapons.This chapter also goes into the Unabomber.It talks about Timothy Mcveigh and about how he's always been a loner who liked doing things alone.He was a quiet and passive person who couldn't confront someone face to face.
The book ends with a summary type chapter called "You Make the Call."This chapter has a few examples of cases talked about in earlier chapters and asks that you make the call and eventually tells you the answers on whether your assessment was right or not.
The Anatomy of a Motive was an intriguing look into the way killers think.It will give you multiple examples of how criminals work.It explores the development of a criminal.It can give you an idea of how to profile a criminal.After reading this book I believe I could accurately profile many people.If you know the way someone was killed or the way the crime was committed you can learn everything you need to know about the person who did it.You can get a personality profile just by looking at the case.In many cases you can tell if the UNSUB was associated in any way with the victims.You can tell if this person was passive and afraid of confrontation.You can also see if the UNSUB will be around the crime scene and will want to witness his/her work.This book can benefit criminal profilers and even someone who enjoys things such as "America's Most Wanted."This book is quite strong in areas such as arson and murder.It falls short to me in areas such as rape, and burglary.This book is a great look into how FBI profilers think and a look at some of the cases that they can see everyday.It explains how many criminals think and where they get they're start.If we listen to the people in our lives who appear to be on edge and befriend those who look like they're all alone, criminals will eventually cease to exists and the world will be a better place for the future generations.

Amusing
At first glance, profiling seems to be about someone trying to understand and decipher the mind of a person who kills. It's often promoted as entering the mind of this person and discovering why and how this person became and acts this way.
This is not exactly how it seems to be though. Throughout this book, the author points out common elements between the killers, things that reoccur. This appears to be the whole of his job. He interviews these people and collects patterns. He is very good at drawing similarities between killers and using this, but when it comes down to actually understanding "why" they did it, he falls hopelessly short. According to the author, they did it because they were "losers" or "inadequate". This is far too simplistic, and the author isn't able to understand the complex intereactions that make a person kill. He catches these people because they follow similar and predictable patterns, but not because he can put himself inside their minds and feel what they do.

This may be annoying to some readers, who I'm sure, have formed their own opinions of why they believe someone would kill. This book is basically an overview of the common patterns amongst killers, but in no way does it delve into deep discussion on why these patterns are the way they are.
The author has a large degree of anger toward these killers, which, I'm sure is a pretty normal reaction in his position when you think about it. The only thing is that most of us out here are trying to understand, but not to judge explicitly. We want to know why, we don't want to hear the author's emotional outbursts. On the other hand though, this makes the book slightly interesting because what we have here is not a discription about why killers do these things, but a depiction of a profiler and how he sees the world around him. How he percieves it, his personality and how it has effected him. Don't read this book for its analysis or you'll be dissapointed. Read it instead to gain insight into his life and the things around him.

The only other thing that might annoy some people is if they are assuming that because of his job, the author is highly intellegent. Because he isn't. He seems pretty average in that department, he is just very good at sussing out similarities. So, I'll say it again, there is no intellectual discuss on the complexities of human emotions and how or why they are the way they are. The authors world is very black and white, and you can't help but feel a little sorry for him.

Either way. Two stars because it is an interesting view port into this man's world. But no other three stars, because its just too childish.

Prompting your Sense of Insufficiency
I read this book back to back during the past few days and it was the first book by Douglas that I have read.

While fairly impressed by the author's approach (both in theory and in practice), to some of the most notorious crimes and criminals, I felt there were several things that need to be pointed out.

(1) Self-oriented. I would not terribly disagree if one said in this book, Mr. Douglas was too much ego-driven and self-glorifying. It seemed for all the cases covered, on the other end of the justice scale opposite to the criminals, there was only Mr. Douglas whose penetrating force in bringing them to justice, at least His theories of profiling were.

(2) Insufficient case files. Virtually all the cases covered in this book are outdated and hugely well known that publicized information of them means nothing much than a news report. To my recollection, the average age of these cases was somewhere between 15 to 20 years. In today's fast driven society with progressive crime diversifications, this is hardly enough for a starter's course.

(3) Basic. While retaining my tremendous respect to the author and his book, I felt the materials presented here were over simplified and sometimes far more insufficient than they should be. I acknowledge the argument that nothing sophisticated could be well expressed in just over 400 pages, but I did feel the limitation and insufficiency of the author as an interdisciplinary scholar a great number of times during the book.

(4) One View Street. Simply stated, the author did not elaborate any alternatives to his "profiling' in catching some of the most sophisticated criminals, despite the importance of these alternatives in both the theory and the field. I was even offended when Mr. Douglas devoted only one and a half pages to the JFK Assassination, determining, based on the "physical and forensic" evidence, that President Kennedy was assassinated by Oswald and Oswald alone. He declared him to be just another "paranoid loser" who happened to be able to murder the president, how convenient! Interestingly, the historical and political aspects, which were in fact the very foundation of this heinous crime, did not even come into subject! Despite of the fact that Mr. Douglas was still a very young man and certainly an outsider of the FBI at the time, he implied to blame, more or less scornfully, a paranoid public in believing a "conspiracy theory", to which the government bureaucracy could and would, in no way to hold up. In a landmark effort, the History Channel presented its most mesmerizing program to date, "The Men who Killed Kennedy" (DVDs available at Amazon). Virtually all aspects of that program, in a six-hour stride, contradict Mr. Douglas' one and a half pages' view on the event of the twentieth century America.

(5) Compromising - in detail. During the late chapters, when John Hinckley Jr. came into the subject, one inevitable spotlight was focused on Jodie Foster. While her early highly irresponsible and totally ignorant remarks of "encouragement" to Hinckley that without any doubt, partially prompted his attempt on the life of President Reagan, Mr. Douglas asserted her behavior to be ONLY "courteous". The reason, in a separate paragraph that ended the discussion (I did sense that earlier), Mr. Douglas told that he was pleased by the advice he offered to the actress during the filming of the "Silence of the Lambs", inconceivable, but true. Of course, one without a legendary record in crime fighting would have known, that Foster's attitude toward Hinckley was everything but "courteous" in a legal sense!

Overall, I would believe without the above drawbacks, the book could have been a better effort. However, I recommend this book to those interested in the subject and/or law enforcement officers, as a good starter on a never-ending journey into crime fighting.

Prompting your Sense of Insufficiency
I read this book back to back during the past few days and it was the first book by Douglas that I have read.

While fairly impressed by the author's unique way of approaching (both in theory and in practice) some of the most notorious crimes and criminals, I felt there were several things that need to be pointed out.

(1) Self-oriented. I would not terribly disagree if one said in this book, Mr. Douglas was too much ego-driven and self-glorifying. It seemed for all the cases covered, on the other end of the justice scale opposite to the criminals, there was only Mr. Douglas whose penetrating force in bringing them to justice, at least His theories of profiling were.

(2) Insufficient case files. Virtually all the cases covered in this book are outdated and hugely well known that publicized information of them means nothing much than a news report. To my recollection, the average age of these cases was somewhere between 15 to 20 years. In today's fast driven society with progressive crime diversifications, this is hardly enough for a starter's course.

(3) Basic. While retaining my tremendous respect to the author and his book, I felt the materials presented here were over simplified and sometimes far more insufficient than they should be. I acknowledge the argument that nothing sophisticated could be well expressed in just over 400 pages, but I did feel the limitation and insufficiency of the author as an interdisciplinary scholar a great number of times during the book.

(4) One View Street. Simply stated, the author did not elaborate any alternatives to his "profiling' in catching some of the most sophisticated criminals, despite the importance of these alternatives in both the theory and the field. I was somewhat even offended when Mr. Douglas devoted only one and a half pages to the JFK Assassination, determining, based on the "physical and forensic" evidence, that President Kennedy was assassinated by Oswald and Oswald alone. He declared him to be just another "paranoid loser" who happened to be able to murder the president, how convenient! Interestingly, the historical and political aspects, which were in fact the very foundation of this heinous crime, did not even come into subject! Despite of the fact that Mr. Douglas was still a very young man and certainly an outsider of the FBI at the time, he implied to blame, more or less scornfully, a paranoid public in believing a "conspiracy theory", to which the government bureaucracy could and would, in no way to hold up. In a landmark effort, the History Channel presented its most mesmerizing program to date, "The Men who Killed Kennedy" (DVDs available at Amazon). Virtually all aspects of that programs, in a six-hour stride, contradict Mr. Douglas' one and a half pages' view on the event of the twentieth century America.

(5) Compromising - in detail. During the late chapters, when John Hinckley Jr. came into the subject, one inevitable spotlight was focused on Jodie Foster. While her early highly irresponsible and totally ignorant remarks of "encouragement" to Hinckley that without any doubt, partially prompted his attempt on the life of President Reagan, Mr. Douglas asserted her behavior to be ONLY "courteous". The reason, in a separate paragraph that ended the discussion, Mr. Douglas told that he was pleased by the advice he offered to the actress during the filming of the Silence of the Lambs, inconceivable, but true. Of course, one without a legendary record in crime fighting would have known, that Foster's attitude toward Hinckley was anything other than "courteous" in a legal sense!

Overall, I would believe without the above drawbacks, the book could have been a better effort. However, I recommend this book to those interested in the subject and/or law enforcement officers, as a good starter on a never-ending journey into crime fighting.

Superb!
John Douglas & Mark Olshaker hit another one out of the park.
I admit I feared repetition, since certainly, all that could've been said had to've been said in "Mindhunter" and "Journey into Darkness". To my pleasant surprise, any previous material and associated cases were treated --as the title suggests-- with a greater emphasis on the criminals' motives, keeping the reading fresh. Thrilling reading, tempered only by the fact that this is all about the suffering of innocent human beings at the hands of others who aren't. I highly recommend this book: 5 stars!! ... Read more

Book Description

Martha Wakenshaw shares her experiencing of the children who come to her for healing. This Child of Mine is a deeply personal account of the author's fifteen years of practice as a child therapist. Using play and expressive arts therapy, Wakenshaw deals with emotionally traumatized children and presents the healing relationship that occurs between therapist and patient on a human, rather than clinical level.

The author's career spans a therapy center for pre-schoolers where she is too quickly made Director, a group home for young teenagers never adopted, an elementary school of high-risk children, to her own private practice. Each raise memories from her own childhood which intersperse the story of her personal and professional development.

Wakenshaw shares all the experiences of a child therapist, from struggling with her own feelings about parents only trying to cope, to therapist burnout, to her struggles over referrals to Child Protective Services, to the imposition of insurance companies who give her ten session to "fix" a traumatised child.

There are the children. The Raymonds and Jacksons and Canadaces in whose lives she makes a difference, whose resilient little spirits cannot long be bent.

This Child of Mine is about the hurt child in us all, and our own journey of personal uncovering. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

of all of us
Martha Wakenshaw is a rebel among psychologists. She believes in the healing power of love, of simple human decency & natural bonds.

As a Children's Advocate for a rural Domestic Violence Prevention Program for several years, I learnt about the power of play & art therapy. Indeed, I recommended many of the Children for whom I spoke, to such a therapy, & I was impressed both by the process & the results.

Here you will meet the Therapist, who has opened her identity so you will feel as if you are inside her head, discovering her philosophies & her therapeutic skills, her naivete & confusion...& her endurance & courage.

THIS CHILD OF MINE is moving, interesting & enlightening.

A must for anyone working with traumatized children & their therapists.

Strong, emotional book
Be prepared for some of the most horrific stories of situations that some children live through. Martha Wakenshaw is a professional therapist who has dealt extensively with children from some of the most frightening family situations that you can imagine. As you read this book you will be transported to some of the most horrific situations that a child could live through. Be prepared to cry for the child and for the therapist as she deals with a child welfare system that seems to have very little interest in a child's welfare and insurance companies that think a lifetime of abuse can be resolved in ten weeks. Feel the pain of the children, feel the pain and love of the therapist, feel the frustration as both try to work through their difficulties. "This child of mine" shows Martha Wakenshaw's committment to the children brought to her for healing. It is not another child with another problem, they are real children which she accepts as if they were her own child.

If you are even remotely considering working with hurt or abused children in a theraputic setting then you owe it to yourself to read this book. An eye opening account of what goes on in the life of a caring and compassionate therapist it is an emotional roller coaster of a read.

Poetic, Inspiring and Real
Ms. Wakenshaw has given of herself to the children and families as well as to the readers of this book. She does not gloss over details that are traumatic and real nor does she exploit them. This poignant glimpse into the life a therapist working with traumatized children is not easy to read but I believe is essential to anyone considering working with children. Ms. Wakenshaw opens her heart to us as she did to the children, sometimes to her own detriment. You will feel what she felt and see through her eyes as she desperately tries to save fragile little lives. You may get new insights into the laws and policies surrounding the protection of children and families. Ms. Wakenshaw uses poetic imagery to describe what she was going through in a way that is real and moving. You will never forget this book.

The resilience of the tiniest human spirits
Four-year-old Jackson witnessed the attempted murder of his mother. He ran to call the emergency number like the medics at his pre-school had said -- but the phone was dead. He was found in the back yard, clawing the fence, splinters were under his nails. Martha Wakenshaw, a psychotherapist specializing in play and expressive arts therapy with children, took this youngster who told her that "If you really want to kill someone, all you gotta do is punch them in the heart", and helped him to once again become a child who could laugh, play, share, and be at peace. This Child Of Mine: A Therapist's Journey is a personal (as opposed to a coldly clinical) account, not about sensationalized child abuse, but about the healing relationship between therapist and child -- and how it works or fails despite all efforts. Wakenshaw describes her sessions with Bailey (who has to kill the Bad Guy); Candace (who loves cats and wants a new home); Raymond (beaten but loves to play); and many more. Here revealed is the pain of failure, the frustrations with "the system"; and the transcendent joy arising from the resilience of the tiniest human spirits -- children who evoke the child and the parent in all of us. This Child Of Mine is strongly recommended reading for anyone considering psychotherapeutic work with children of any age, circumstance, or background.

A Call to Love
Martha Wakenshaw's book offers an honest,well written commentary on our society's failure to love and care for our children. She takes us deep into the pain and frustration of child therapy, but she does more than just that - she shows us the human side of an often impersonal, objective profession. Wakenshaw wants us to see the pain, both personally and professionally, and thereby to wake us up and make us see ourselves and our society in a new way. This book hits all the senses and indirectly calls us to act on behalf of our children - to love and care for our children. Read this book. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The sun also sets
Two women travel about the Coral Sea painting portraits of natives and visiting plantations there in the late '30's. To us, the names of these then and now peaceful tropical places are loaded with horror and regret: Guadalcanar, Rabaul, Bougainville. Prophetically Mytinger details an incident on a British copra plantation in a world vanished away like smoke: the missus kicks a bush boy for using cocoanut husks on the fire, which burn too brightly. "Can every English clergyman's daughter kick like a kangaroo?" asks Caroline. Later the copra shed burns down mysteriously, ruining the missus. Her husband had died some time before and her thumb was infected. "It was the fact that she did not throw her head on the table and sob like any woman that undid me. I went for a walk down on the beach and did it for her." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

ACTS of HOPE for the Clinician and the patient
Acts of Will is not only a brilliantly written biography, it is a journey of hope for both therapist and patient. As the new century draws near, it is profoundly telling that now more than ever, the psychology of Otto Rank is so relevant to the world today. Obviously, Rank was far ahead of his time. His teachings of "psychological rebirth" and "concept of will" should be mandatory reading for all mental Health professionals and their patients. Rank's honesty in dealing with his own depression and suicidal thoughts will give the reader much hope that even the most brilliant person can face death, choose life, and make living an Act of Will.

ACTS OF WILL
Dr. E. James Lieberman's Acts of Will: The Life and Work of Otto Rank is one of the finest histories of the development of psychoanalysis ever written. His meticulous research provides the reader with an opportunity to look into the personal and intellectual life of Otto Rank,the most overlooked and underrated disciple of Sigmund Freud. What I found to be most informative was Dr. Lieberman's description of the interpersonal dynamics among the Committee, Freud's closest colleagues. Dr. Lieberman's masterful work brings the reader into the every day world of the pioneers in the field of psychoanalysis. His descriptions of the personal agendas, politics,personalities, and disagreements among the "Ring" of psychoanalytic pioneers helps those interested in the field of psychotherapy clearly understand the intellectual and political foundations of modern psychology. Acts of Will is superb in its description of the intellectual, economic, and political milieu of Vienna during the first two decades of this century and the influences of these forces on Freud and Rank. The author's treatment of the issue of Rank's own "birth trauma" before and after Rank's departure (exile) from Freud's inner circle allows the reader to come to his or her own conclusions with respect to the genesis of the controversy concerning Rank's "mental health". Acts of Will should be read by every student of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Social Work, as well as anyone interested in the fascinating history of modern psychology.

The most authoritative biography of Rank ever published.
Lieberman masterfully illuminates the life and work of Otto Rank, Freud's most brilliant student and co-worker. This book expalins why Ernest Becker and Rollo May consider Rank to be the most dazzling thinker in the early circle around Freud ... Read more

Book Description

On April 28, 1858, municipal officials announced the winner of the design contest for a great new park for the people of New York City-Plan no. 33, "Greensward" by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Though the appropriated ground for what was to become Central Park was nothing more than a barren expanse occupied by squatters, in a matter of a few years, Olmsted turned the wasteland into a landscape of coherence, elegance, and beauty. It not only surpassed the design ingenuity of its existing European counterparts but gained the designer national acclaim in a profession that still lacked a name.

Olmsted was an American visionary. He foresaw the day when New York and many other growing cities of the mid-nineteenth century would be plagued by what we presently term "urban sprawl." And he was convinced of the critical importance of adapting land for the recreational and contemplative needs of city dwellers before the last remnants of natural terrain were engulfed by "monotonous, straight streets and piles of erect, angular buildings." As a result of his early efforts to revolutionize the design of public parks, many cities today are able to preserve the recreational space and greenery within their urban limits.In addition, his thoughts and words on wilderness areas still echo across a century of preservation in the wild.

This lively and insightful account of his prodigious life features many of his outstanding landscape projects, including the Biltmore Estate, Prospect Park (Brooklyn), the capitol grounds in Washington, DC, the Boston Park System, the Chicago parks and the Chicago World Fair, as well as measures to preserve the natural settings at Niagara Falls, Yosemite, and the Adirondacks. It traces his early years and describes events that were to form his artistic, intellectual, and deeply humanistic sensibilities. And it restores this lost American hero to his prominent place in history. In addition to being the acknowledged father of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted helped shape the political and philosophical climate of America in his own time and today. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

GREAT BOOK!!
Excellent Book!!!! This book was a required reading for my Modern Social Theory course. I didn't think I would enjoy it, however, I absolutely loved it! It was humorous while hinting at the darker parts of our postmodern society. I would suggest this book to anybody and everybody! Thank you Don Dellilo ... Read more

Book Description

Drawing on letters, poems, notebooks, and secret diaries, Lisbet Koerner tells the moving story of one of the most famous naturalists who ever lived, the Swedish-born botanist and systematizer, Carl Linnaeus. The first scholarly biography of this great Enlightenment scientist in almost one hundred years, Linnaeus also recounts for the first time Linnaeus' grand and bizarre economic projects: to "teach" tea, saffron, and rice to grow on the Arctic tundra and to domesticate buffaloes, guinea pigs, and elks as Swedish farm animals. Linnaeus hoped to reproduce the economy of empire and colony within the borders of his family home by growing cash crops in Northern Europe. Koerner shows us the often surprising ways he embarked on this project. Her narrative goes against the grain of Linnaean scholarship old and new by analyzing not how modern Linnaeus was, but how he understood science in his time. At the same time, his attempts to organize a state economy according to principles of science prefigured an idea that has become one of the defining features of modernity. Meticulously researched, and based on archival data, Linnaeus will be of compelling interest to historians of the Enlightenment, historians of economics, and historians of science. But this engaging, often funny, and sometimes tragic portrait of a great man will be valued by general readers as well. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Nature and Nonsense
It has become axiomatic that historians of science know little about either. This revisionist treatment of the foibles of 18th century Swedish life paints poor Linnaeus as a whacko. However, he really wasn't too far removed from the contemporary members of the Royal Society of London in credulity, self promotion and ignorance and was certainly typical of Swedish Professors of that and more recent times.
This is really a silly book first produced under the tuterage of Simon Schama and reissued from HUP. The author does not acknowledge the intellectual ferment of the time when the Enlightenment was being crushed under the heels of van Herder and by the Romantic curse (that we still enjoy as political correctness). The greatest contribution of the Linne's systematics was the "taxonomic key" that allows some order out of biology, not his fatuous attempts to make booze out of lichens or grow pineapples in Bothnia.
I suppose other historians of "science" will someday mock Aristotle for his ignorance of DNA and not knowing how many teeth women have, but really, this is a silly book.

Interesting Reading.
Linnaeus : Nature and Nation
by Lisbet Koerner
Reviewed by Thomas Leo Ogren, author of Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten Speed Press.
Honestly I have mixed feelings about this book. One, I love it and really did enjoy reading it. I learned quite a bit from it too.
But I do wish it had been written in a more reader-friendly manner. It is a good bit too scholarly for my tastes, a trifle too text-bookishly written.
One of the important things about Linnaeus himself is that he always tried to reach the common man, tried to make his work popular and easily understood. I feel this book could have emulated some of that flavor.
But I don't mean to be too critical by any means because I did like this book very much. There is a real wealth of research here, many things about Linnaeus here that I'd never read before. Karl Linnaeus was THE botanist--of his time, and of our own time as well. His system of binomial nomenclature, Genus species, was pretty much right on the money. He was the first to realize that plants' sexual characteristics were what largely either grouped them together or set them apart. His system is often criticized today, but to me it still makes great sense.
Linnaeus : Nature and Nation, is not for everyone, but serious gardeners will enjoy it, as will historians, especially those with an interest in botany, horticulture, science. Well worth reading.

The Big Issue
‘Gazing at a flower by the grass-roofed cottage where he was born [...] Linnaeus was quintessentially a local man.’ (187). But as Lisbet Koerner explains, he also linked the ‘universal with the local [...] nature with nation.’ In this fascinating account, Koerner demonstrates that the father of modern taxonomy was also a political economist. Unlike Adam Smith, his interest was no so much in international trade or colonial conquest, but the substitution of imports (a cameralist program).

Although Linnaeus had travelled in Holland, France, and Engalnd (1735-48) there were nineteen ‘first-generation’ students who undertook ‘voyages of discover’ between 1745 and 1792. Koerner asserts that their travels ‘were part of their larger strategy to create a miniature mercantile empire within a European state’ (114). Linnaeus sensed that ‘explorers fostered strategies of national improvement based on ecological diversification rather than on territoral expansion.’ (114).

Linnaeus, it is argued was essentially a civil servant who turned his students into an efffective and efficient support staff. Chapter 3 deals with the Lapland journey. In line with economic and political priorities the area was to be colonized as a kind of Scandinavian “West Indies”. As a committed Lutheran, its is fascinating to deconstruct the theology at work in Linnaeus’s thought. Nature was a prelapsarian Paradise, but it must be exploited within each country. Accordingly, Linnaesus was concerned by the luxury and excess of products that trade supplied from the cornucopia of the New World. As this book notes, ‘He even urged Scandinavians to return to the old “Gothic foods,” such as acorns, pork, and mead.’ (95) At the same time he was keen to cultivate at home (to acclimatize) what was normally cultivated abroad. We even find him thinking, theorizing, and cultivating ‘an art to Make Mussles bring forth pearls.’ (141) He professed an an axiety that the pearl plantaions ‘could not long remain secret before our neighbours in Norway, Russia, and Siberia, who own more stores of Pearl mussels, could thus intirely triumph over us in quantity.’ (143)

Yet as Linnaeus’s stock rose in Europe among the Romantics, at home it fell as he failed to deliver economic adavantage and superiority through import substitution. Ernst Moritz Arndt attacked Linnaeus’s cameralist projects in 1783, wondering how ‘On e was supposed to believe that Sweden suddenly had become Asia Minor and Sicily.’ (168) His enterprising schemes turned out to be ‘fantastic and chimerical’; it was left to his taxonomic system to enrich the world. Nonetheless, in light of recent global protests and persistent underdevelopment, the larger issues which the book eloquently discusses, seem to me as relevant now as then. ‘Linnaeus: Nature and Nation’ concludes by stating that it ‘memorializes a local attempt at a local modernity, a now-forgotten future of the past’ (193), but the other issue it raises is timely:

‘Or can native subjects, using only local means of production, build a complex and complete local economy, incorporating contemporary technologies, and functioning as a microcosm of the global economy.’ (192)

Thank God the world isn't run by professors
A fascinating account of what a strange place the 18th century was. The age of confusion more than the age of reason. Who would have thought that Linnaeus had so much in common with today's new age cranks.

Well done!
A biography filled with wonderful detail, even though centering on Linnaeus' economic program. At times the author appears to be making fun of Linnaeus' odder ideas rather than attempting serious historical analysis, but in all a good job and an interesting argument. ... Read more

Book Description

This engrossing book by the author of The Lenses of Gender is an account of her years as an egalitarian partner in a gender-liberated, anti-homophobic, feminist marriage. Bem reveals how she and her husband, Daryl, became gender pioneers, how they raised their two children, and what their experiences-both positive and negative-have to say about the viability of nontraditional gender arrangements in society today. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Oh please, Gender Troubled
While this book may have its flaws (I wish its sense of narrative were richer, for example), it hardly warrants the snotty, ad homi/homonem attack by Gender...Gender Troubled strikes me as one of those "scholars"...who will never forgive him/herself for growing up in a bourgeois family and who keeps saying, "I AM a radical, I AM a radical, I AM a radical." Bad manners and purple prose do not a radical critique make. Go get another piercing--perhaps that will make you feel more self-righteous, girlfriend (whatever your sex/gender/sexuality/subjectposition may be).

genderblind phantasy
Back in the day, some people figured out that gender is a cultural construction, and that was important. Still is. Some people, or at least one of them, seemed to go from there to gender doesn't matter, if you don't want it to, unless of course you step out of your comfy bubble. Yeah. If you are really gender subversive, like Ms. Bem, then gender suddenly doesn't have to affect you, you can just be who you are and you can raise your kids like that. When they go to school and the unenlightened lumpen proletariat make "uneducated" and "prejudiced" comments such as expressing confusion that a boy's wearing barrettes, you can just reassure your son that he is superior to the masses, although not because he's living an upper middle class white academic sheltered lifestyle with a (pink) backpack full of privilege, but rather because culture is dumb.
I also enjoyed the security of knowing that, although gender is a construction, biological sex sure isn't. That's Science. And while cultural constructions are dumb, Scientific ones are important. THerefore, while your son sure is a boy, what a boy is can be whatever he wants--except, barrettes aside, a girl. Girls and boys are biologically determined. Cultural signifiers, which mislead the bamboozled and ungifted masses into believing that they actually signify, are in fact completely irrelevant when you can step into An Unconventional Family and just take off those lenses of gender. Give your eyes a rest. Let your brain float free from reality, lock your door and forescorn the people who feel that gender constantly impacts their life whether or not they want it to. Really, it's just their lack of imagination and Science when they are confronted by society's concrete barriers to eliminating gender from your life.
Also, someone missed the pomo boat, and that, apart from the evident theoretical problems raised by Bem's "reify oldetyme stereotypes, knock em down, and then advocate a lifestyle based on an attitude adjustment", more than just a self help strategy, is also only accessible to the privileged few. And completely useless, as well as aesthetically displeasing. I was especially frustrated by the book's second wave tendencies to buy into notions that playing with cultural signifiers is buying into one's own oppression, whereas demonizing them is somehow "subversive". The answer is, of course, Bem's academifrump version of androgyny, which she doesn't seem to realize is just as much of a gendered cultural construction as anything she disses. Also, she should note that "real" gender subversives would be considered, in one way or another, pawns of the patriarchy by her cozy coffee klatch of delensed academics who somehow missed the past thirty years of radical gender theory. However "pro-sex", wacky and transistorized Bem tries to be, she is just as naiively, repressively and uselessly moralizing in her privileged myopia as Catherine McKinnon. Her vision of life outside of the confines of gender is actually just as narrow and paralyzing as that of those explicitly invested in upholding the bianaries she claims to deconstruct. Her ideas for how to build such a shnasty escape fanatsy within one's own home are also actually a blueprint for raising kids unable to cope with or process the rest of the world, let alone construct a productive radical space within it. Thank god if you're a Beminist you have your privilege to protect you as stumbled confusedly through the dumb conventionally gendered world, mixing with the duped masses who believe gender matters, otherwise the ideology would be a recipe for raising a kid who's gonna get [messed] up pretty bad, a kid with elitist mythology and smug retorts to fall back on rather than genuine coping mechanisms.

Wonderful Eye-Opener
This book really helped our family to recognize what ..... attitudes we were unknowingly bringing into our home. The Bems' autobiography gives a clear guide to raising non-...., non-homophobic children. Though my husband and I consider ourselves to be feminists, we were really suprised to discover that there was so much more we could do for our children, and good examples we could set for them.

great book
Fascinating look at gender issues in child rearing. Well worth the time, plus engrossing and entertaining.

A book every woman and man should read
Bem is a pretty cool psychologist who lives her life in a way to test the theories she proposed. It really helps those who want to raise their kids in a non-sexist and gender aschematic way to gain more insights of the practical issues in doing that. I really appreciated that being a researcher Bem was able to share her personal life to others so as to illustrate the gender related problems and struggles in our society. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The inventions of Edwin Land made Polaroid a great company--and later accelerated its decline. Insisting on the Impossible, written by former New York Times reporter Victor K. McElheny, tells the story of one of the early giants in photographic technology.

McElheny follows Land's career from before the founding of Polaroid in 1937 through the release of the landmark SX-70 camera in the early '70s. Land invented instant photography and turned his company into a tremendous success and a Wall Street darling in the '60s and '70s. Land was a bulldog about patents--he trails only Thomas Edison in number of patents he received (535). But while the protection of the U.S. patent system helped Polaroid fend off attacks by its chief nemesis, Kodak, they couldn't shield Land from his own shortcomings. Land tended to lose track of business costs and he sometimes took criticism too personally. And he disdained market research. McElheny writes that Land's business philosophy boiled down to "making things that people didn't know they wanted until they were available." One of Land's final inventions--instant movies--loaded Polaroid with debt and sped his departure from the company he founded. Unlike instant photography, nobody wanted "Polavision." It lacked sound and the film was too short. It was soon overwhelmed by the more popular and practical videocassette tape. Land's instant photography also fell out of favor. It couldn't compete with Kodak Instamatics, improved 35mm cameras, and fully automatic digital cameras.

Land, who died in 1991, was bitter by the time he left Polaroid. He sold all his stock and refused to show up at the company's 50th-anniversary celebration in 1987. His inventions seemed like ancient history. Maybe that's a lesson for today's technology hotshots.--Dan Ring ... Read more

Reviews (10)

An inspiring look at an inspiring man
It's rare to read an involving account of a business leader who managed to keep his dignity and idealism intact whilst being phenomenally successful, but that's exactly what this book is.
The book not only covers Edwin Land's major technological achievements in thorough detail, but gives one a vivid feel for his visionary and practical genius that is more affirming and motivating than a dozen Robbins and Covey tomes. Land was not only prodigiously creative but also persuasively, passionately articulate with almost a Victorian missionary zeal about everything he did, and Victor McElheny's ability to balance prose and technical detail does his subject justice.
The organisation of the book into sections concentrating upon aspects of Land's work, rather than a strict historical narrative, does make sense considering the depth with which McElheny covers each topic, whether it's the political maneuverings behind the U2 project, negotiations with Detroit carmakers about polarized headlights, or colour film chemistry. It may not be considered good journalism to do it this way, but then again a "good journalist" would probably have jettisoned much of the detail so crucial to Land's work and concentrated on petty foibles, frustrations and conflicts far more than McElheny has-and McElheny's approach is ultimately more effective.
Where the book could have been better is in editing and rounding off some of the sections-for example, while there is excellent coverage of Land's involvement with classified intelligence projects under President Eisenhower, there is nothing about his subsequent working relationships with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, let alone his falling out with Nixon. Likewise there is poor coverage of Polaroid's innovations after the introduction of colour film and before the development of the SX-70 system, such as the introduction of packfilm and the world's first transistor-controlled shutter. Yet McElheny inexplicably finds room for a whole page listing the genealogy of Land's cousins!
Nonetheless, the criticisms above are strictly of the variety once described by P. J. O'Rourke as "Sharon Stone has ugly toes"-unless you are unhealthily pedantic about such things, the overall package is still well worth checking out.

The Impossible Takes Longer to Achieve
Insisting on the Impossible by Victor K. McElheny is a fascinating account of the life of Edwin Land. While this 510 page book may not get the Pulitzer Prize for literature, it is nevertheless an interesting study of a genius who established an empire but was also responsible for much of its financial troubles. This book is often being criticized for its lack of good structure and difficulty in following the story. However, to my knowledge, it is the most complete account, in a single book, of the life and activities of Dr. Edwin Land and his Polaroid Corporation. The book is organized in chapters that at times seem to have little connection to each other. Perhaps this is the result of a 30-year research and notes on the topic taken by its author. Some of the chapters may not appeal, or be understood, by all readers because of their technical background. On the other hand, one can skip certain chapters without missing or diminishing from the rest of the story. For example, the development of the polarizer sheet will fascinate those interested in stereoscopic photography, while the heavy chapters on the chemistry of photography will appeal to anyone who has ever tried to understand how light is captured and converted to an image on film and paper. The chapters on Land's involvement in the highest military and national secrets as an advisor to Eisenhower, give a interesting glimpse on high-tech spying and are relevant today as well.

Finally, it is a story of a man who changed the world around him and others because of his passion for science and technology. It is quite possible that for Dr. Land, the impossible simply took longer to achieve.

Fascinating and Accurate
Having been an employee of Polaroid for 15 years in the 60s and 70s I found this biography to be spellbinding and full of great details I never was aware of. Without being overly critical the author provides a balance of Land's brilliance and shortcomings set amidst the business world and its demands and pressures. Land was one of those leaders who was able to withstand many of the pressures of Wall St with his strong beliefs and self confidence. A good example for leaders today. He had his faults, most notably a poor selection of the management that suceeded him, leaving the company leaderless and clueless. But for all that, he was an incredible genius, business leader, inventor, project leader, scientist and inspiration to the thousands of Polaroid employees.

Incapable of anything longer than a newspaper article
This book should be a bestseller - to every journalism school as a case study of "when good journalists become bad authors". It reads like a collected series of author notes strung badly together. This writer should have never ventured past his skill set.

Page after page of detailed notes about chemical and optical process (more than likely lifted straight out of someone's lab notebooks) without a SINGLE diagram. None, zero, zilch. Can you imagine an entire book on Poloroid without a single explanatory diagram?!

In a potentially gripping human story there are no insights about the classic American conflict of what happens to an entrepreneur and his company when he misses the next market. No depth of character.

I forced myself to finish the book. Learned some interesting outlines of Land's life. It could have be covered in a New Yorker article.

Worthwhile bibliography - most of the insights were from these source materials.

Pick the Right Dare . . . for Lasting Greatness
This book contains the most detailed information I have seen assembled
in one volume about the life of Dr. Edwin "Din" Land, founder of
Polaroid Corporation. Although I long have read public accounts of
Dr. Land's work, this book greatly added to my knowledge.

For
those who would like to understand the rise and fall of Polaroid and
its stock price over several decades from 1937 through 1980, this book
makes fascinating reading