Book Description

Leonhard Euler was one of the most prolific mathematicians that have ever lived. This book examines the huge scope of mathematical areas explored and developed by Euler, which includes number theory, combinatorics, geometry, complex variables and many more. The information known to Euler over 300 years ago is discussed, and many of his advances are reconstructed. Readers will be left in no doubt about the brilliance and pervasive influence of Euler's work. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

So much fun it makes you chuckle
I don't have much to add to the excellent reviews above, except to say that if you like clear exposition of sometimes obscure mathematical themes, like logarithms of imaginary numbers, or the almost magical Euler line, you can't do better than read Professor Dunham's books. And when you mix this talent with a subject such as the incredibly clever and curious Leonhard Euler, you can't help but be carried away. I literally found myself chuckling with awe at some of the amazing leaps of intuition this 18th-century mathematician was able to make, even as he was losing his sight and fathering 13 children! I've always been an admirer of Euler's, and Prof. Dunham's wonderful little book only increased my admiration -for both.

I hope Prof. Dunham will decide to write a sequel, and/or tackle the work of other prolific mathematicians, like the Indian Srinivasa Ramanujan, another one of my heroes.

This is the third book by Prof. Dunham I've read. I have enjoyed them all and keep them handy to lift my spirits when I'm down -they're that much fun. I wish I'd had him as a teacher in college, and I envy his students at Muhlendorf. I just hope they appreciate how lucky they are!

A little gem.
I had never read any of William Dunham's many books before. Now I want to read them all. In a scant 173 pages he describes in great detail how Leonhard Euler, arguably the greatest mathematician ever, solved the most difficult mathematical problems of his day.

The style in this book is both unusual and clever. Each of the eight chapters covers a different branch of mathematics and each begins with a prologue, then follows with some of Euler's contributions, and finishes with an epilogue. The prologues present the history of mathematics up to Euler's time, so the reader gets a feel of what this great mathematician had to work with. And the epilogues tell where we have come since Euler.

This book is full of equations and expects some work (but not much mathematical background) from the reader. If you like mathematics or ever wondered how some of the great discoveries in this field were derived, do yourself a favor and buy, then carefully read, this wonderful book.

Nice book for readers with a background in math
I really enjoyed reading this book that describes some background on Euler and his work. It is written in an informal style, so for people with a math background it reads like a novel.

The book is not suitable for people who want to learn more about the person Euler, but do not have a math background, because 75% of the book is about real math (equations). So if you don't enjoy reading equations, do not buy the book.

Summary: as enjoyable as the other Dunham books, although a bit more expensive (but still worth the money).

William Dunham has done it again!
With the publication of this, his third book, Dunham has once more shown himself to be a master himself of mathematical explanation. Unlike his previous two books, The Mathematical Universe and Journey Through Genius, which covered results by a variety of mathematicians, this book focuses on selected results that sprang from the remarkable mind of Leonard Euler, one of the most prolific and important mathematicians of all time. What sets Euler apart is not only the vast quantity of his output (the publication of his collected works, the Opera Omnia, spans six dozen volumes, or over 25,000 pages in all!), but also the breadth and originality of his work. Not only did Euler contribute to a wide array of mathematical fields -- from number theory to complex analysis to geometry -- but in many cases, he was the founder of those fields. For example, Euler invented the field of analytical number theory, and he was the first mathematician to recognize the importance of and to discover the important properties of complex numbers.

This book in many ways resembles Dunham's Journey Through Genius. As in that book, Dunham has selected 15 or so theorems to present in detail, and he makes an effort to keep the proofs similar in spirit to the original proofs. Although the proofs are complete and the book is full of equations, they are accessible to anyone with a high school level of mathematics education. But in addition to the proofs, Dunham also provides historical context, as well as commentary on how later mathematicians used and improved upon Euler's work. For example, we learn that Euler began to loose the sight in his right eye at the age of 32, and that despite his virtual blindness by the age of 65, he continued his prolific rate of output until his death at age 84.

The book's title is taken from a quote by Laplace, who said, ``Read Euler, read Euler. He is the master of us all.'' Indeed, if you have any interest in mathematics, you will almost certainly find yourself in complete agreement with Laplace's sentiments by the time you finish reading this wonderful book. ...

" Euler, the anlysis incarnate "!!!!
" Analysis incarnate " , no other more suitable words probably can describe the incomparable power of Euler, as his contemparies called him. Concerning the usual style of Dunham to write this stimulating book, other readers have made many comments and I think there is no need to repeat that. What I want is that Dunham to write another book, perhaps volume 2,3 etc and also write a thorough biography of Euler, one the greatest mathematicians in the history. ( To me, for mathematical ability, his should be at the same rank with Newton, Archaemedes, and Gauss, even Einstein concerning the mathematical and theroetical aspect, is below par compared with Euler ) ... Read more

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"""It is the aim of this book to...present the evolution of number as the profoundly human story which it is.""

¿Tobias Dantzig

""This is beyond doubt the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics which has ever fallen into my hands. If people know how to treasure the truly good, this book will attain a lasting place in the literature of the world. The evolution of mathematical thought from the earliest times to the latest constructions is presented here with admirable consistency and originality and in a wonderfully lively style.""

¿Albert Einstein

""Tobias Dantzig's Number: The Language of Science is one of the truly great classics of mathematical exposition, perhaps the most lucid history of the number concept ever written. Its republication should be a cause for celebration by every scientifically minded person, regardless of his or her mathematical background.""

¿Eli Maor, author of e: The Story of a Number and To Infinity and Beyond

""Tobias Dantzig's Number is a classic. A fascinating account of the evolution of mathematics, it deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone who is interested in the history of thought.""

¿Charles Seife, author of Zero and Alpha and Omega

""A classic! Anyone interested in the history of numbers and mathematics should read this book.""

¿Mario Livio, author of The Golden Ratio

From the rudimentary mathematical abilities of prehistoric man to the counterintuitive and bizarre ideas at the edges of modern math, this masterpiece of science writing tells the story of mathematics through the history of its most central concept: number.

Dantzig succeeds in his aim to reveal a human story, and in making that story accessible to the non-expert. In his friendly and welcoming style, he shows how math developed from basic faculties present in us all, beginning with our ""number sense""¿the ability to discern that an object has been added to or removed from a small collection of objects without counting. The subsequent evolution of the concept of number is inextricably linked with the history of human culture, as Dantzig demonstrates. He shows how advances in math were spurred by the demands of growing commerce in the ancient world; how the pure speculation of philosophers and religious mystics contributed to our understanding of numbers; how the exchange of ideas between cultures in times of war and imperial conquest fueled advances in knowledge; and, ultimately, how the forces of history combine with human intuition to trigger revolutions in thought.

Sweeping in scope, Number is an open doorway into the world of math. Dantzig explains the foundations of mathematics with ease, and eloquently explores deeper philosophical questions that arise along the way. He describes the properties of all kinds of numbers¿integers, primes, irrationals, transcendentals, and more. He explains the significance of zero, and shows that its invention had revolutionary consequences for arithmetic. He shows how the invention of symbols for use in algebra¿a radical departure from tradition at the time¿ushered in a new era of math; how arithmetic and geometry reflect each other; and how calculus uses infinity to model the continuity of space and time.

With a new afterword, notes section, and bibliography written by math professor and author Joseph Mazur, and a new foreword by mathematician Barry Mazur, the Masterpiece Science edition of Number¿which was first published in 1930¿is the first update of Dantzig's classic work in over fifty years. It is a story that ranges from the dawn of man to the genius of history's greatest mathematicians, vividly revealing how the pursuit of knowledge transcends the rise and fall of civilizations." ... Read more

Book Description

How can an individual identify and make sense of the voluminous amount of currently available information on nearly every important topic in education, health, social welfare, psychology, and business? What criteria can be used to distinguish between good and poor studies? Conducting Research Literature Reviews shows readers how to identify, interpret, and analyze published and unpublished research literature. Through the use of checklists, case examples, and exercises, author Arlene Fink unravels the intricacies of: selecting questions to maximize the efficiency of the review; identifying subject headings and key words for electronic searches; identifying the most appropriate databases; including supplementing computer and Web-based searches; identifying and dealing with unpublished studies; setting inclusion and exclusion criteria; justifying methods for reviewing only the `highest quality' literature; preparing a structured literature abstraction form; ensuring the reliability and validity of the review; synthesizing and reporting results; conducting and evaluating descriptive literature reviews; and, how to understand and evaluate the principles of meta-analysis.

Reviews (1)

Readable guide
This is a readable guide to executing a large-scale literature review, with special attention to the issues of doing a quantitative synthesis. It is written for people in the health professions rather than scholars, so the latter may find the treatment a bit light. ... Read more

Book Description

Robert Kuehl's DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS, Second Edition, prepares students to design and analyze experiments that will help them succeed in the real world. Kuehl uses a large array of real data sets from a broad spectrum of scientific and technological fields. This approach provides realistic settings for conducting actual research projects. Next, he emphasizes the importance of developing a treatment design based on a research hypothesis as an initial step, then developing an experimental or observational study design that facilitates efficient data collection. In addition to a consistent focus on research design, Kuehl offers an interpretation for each analysis. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Statistics text for people who understand statistics
Kuehl covers a lot of statistical designs, and provides great examples and practice problems. However, the book is not "user friendly" even for student who have had several semesters coursework in regression analysis. Also, the author tends to change his notation from chapter to chapter without telling the reader, thus creating great confusion. For example "r" or "k" could signify replicate. Some sections are poorly organized. ... Read more

Book Description

In this very different book, Arnold Pacey takes a global view, placing the development of technology squarely in a "world civilization." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Hello! What about the S. American potato plant!?
The book's a great resource if you're a Marco Polo fan BUT..

Doesn't he know that the Industrial Revolution was caused by the POTATO PLANT which was cultivated by the Aymara Indians in present-day Peru?
The potato plant allowed European wheat-grinding mills to be converted to textile mills and a mere 300 years later, Europe had nuclear reactors.

The Ancient Greeks had the steam engine! Heron of Alexandria called his invention an "aeolopile". But Pacey didn't explain why Ancient Greece had no Industrial Revolution.

Pacey is a physicist. Maybe he knows if the Ancient Greeks had an Industrial Revolution in some Parallel Universe.

A Good Overall Review
Arnold Pacey has written a fine examination of the development of technology throughout the world. He does not limit himself to one area of the world ( a common failing of many Eurocentrists), nor does he go overboard in praising the accomplishments of one area at the expense of others ( something many Asiaphiles tend to do).

Pacey concentrates on the last thousand years or so. He covers the numerous accomplishments of Asia and highlights the important role played by the Mongols in linking the world. He also spends some fascinating time in the Americas, which tend to get short shrift from many historians, and draws some interesting parallels between the various "gunpowder empires" and industrial movements. The writing is clear and always interesting, with many nice drawings and diagrams.

Technology in World Civilization
Pacey's thesis is that technology spreads through dialogue between cultures. There are three different types of technological diffusion: when one culture simply gives another culture a technology, when one culture gives another the basic idea and the latter improves upon it, and when technology is imposed upon another culture. A good example of the first type of diffusion is when the Chinese empire came into contact with the Europeans they exchanged goods as well as information that lead to the use of gunpowder and looms in Europe. The second; when the Turks taught the Europeans how to make guns and the Europeans developed an even more powerful cannon that made it back to the Turks. And finally, the plantation farming techniques were imposed on the Africans during the colonial era, even when they thoroughly depleted the soil and required fertilizer and pesticides. The AP World History theme best reflected in Technology in World Civilization is the impact of technology and demography on people and the environment. There are hundreds of examples of this theme in Technology in World Civilization so I will list the three best ones. When the gun was invented after the Chinese spread the word about gunpowder, 'gunpowder empires' began to form. The Ottoman Empire is the best example as it was built around the gun. The Ottoman Army was one of the first to fully embrace the firearm into its tactics and even trained special units called Janissaries that were trained from an early age in the ways of firearms. Another critical invention was the printing press in China. The Chinese had an incredible hunger for books and loved to read and learn. The printing press allowed the book to be accessed by many more people than ever before. The final invention that changed life more than anything else was the steam engine. At first only used to pump water out of coalmines because of its incredible inefficiency, it evolved into the force that powered factories, trains, and blast furnaces. Not only did the steam engine make it possible to produce textiles hundreds of times faster than before it united the world. Within 100 years since the popularization of the steam locomotive, tens of thousands of miles of track had been laid and nearly the entire world was accessible by rail. Pacey's thesis seems very sound based on everything he's written in Technology in World Civilization, which makes sense since he wrote the book to defend his thesis. Not having read any other books about the subject matter, I'm not the best person to attack or defend his thesis, but I will choose to defend it because I see no other logical way technology could be transferred. It could be possible that technology was brought over by middlemen who bought and sold information, however it seems that that is a relatively new concept and it didn't occur the pre-modern peoples that information is worth money. The cause and effect examples that support Pacey's thesis are very clear. If one civilization never imposed technology upon another than there wouldn't have been plantations in Africa and the indigenous peoples would still be 'multistory farming'. If technology never spread through dialogue, than the Turks would be ruling the world with their superior weaponry that no nation could come close to. Pacey also has a wide variety of examples from all different cultures and eras that support his thesis. In order to prove technology is spread through dialogue, he starts by using the spread of the loom and gunpowder as examples and then moves through history all the way through the train and how it quickly spread through the entire world. Pacey's sources are very varied and never contradict each other. All the books listed in the bibliography are for specific sources and he consulted a separate book for every area of specific interest as well as several more general sources including two of his previous books. He documented every source perfectly and had a wide cross section of author nationalities as well and publishers guaranteeing that his information couldn't be biased. He also had many illustrations and a few sources that were originally from the time period or based on originals. There are few periods in time were it is excruciatingly difficult to find works of the period and many historians write books to fill in the gaps, which are referenced in Technology in World Civilization. In conclusion, Technology in World Civilization is a good read a well as a very informative book on the spread of technology. The only thing it lacked was the pre-historical spread of technology, which I hoped to learn more about. Pacey's thesis is very sound and he provide plenty of evidence to back it up as well as many maps, tables, and drawings. Every fact is documented and he has an impressive list of sources on his bibliography, from the most obscure Studies in Primitive Looms to the very broad Printing and Paper Pacey covered every subject in his book with the utmost detail. Technology in World Civilization delivers not only a lesson in World History, but also an entertaining read. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Everybody knows the Dark Ages weren't really dark, right?Not so fast, counters archaeological journalist David Keys, maybe it's more than just a slightly judgmental metaphor.His book Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World, based on years of careful research spanning five continents, argues that sometime in A.D. 535, a worldwide disaster struck and uprooted nearly every culture then extant. Given contemporary reports of the sun being blotted out or weakened for nearly a year and a half, followed by famine, drought, and plague, it's hard not to think that so many reports from all over the world must be related.

Keys shows a keen grasp of both the written historical record from Asia, Africa, and Europe and the archaeological evidence from the Americas, and tells many tales of great havoc destroying old empires and laying the ground for new ones.Rome may have fallen, but Spain, England, and France rose in its place, while farther east, Japan and China each unified and gained strength after the chaos.Could an enormous volcanic eruption have had such influence on the world as a whole, and could the same thing happen tomorrow?Catastrophe makes no predictions, but leaves the reader with a new sense of history, nature, and destiny. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (45)

How Forces of Nature Shape Human History
"Catastrophe" refers to a mid-6th century climactic cataclysm that author David Keys believes destroyed the geopolitical status quo of late antiquity and gave birth to the protomodern era from which our current world circumstances derived. According to the hypothesis put forward in "Catastrophe", around the year 535 AD there occurred a major atmospheric disturbance that blocked out much of the Earth's sunlight all over the globe. Tree ring and ice-core evidence, as well as archeological and contemporary written accounts indicate that there was, indeed, severe climactic disruption at this time, and that it almost certainly was the result of a tremendous volcanic explosion. In "Catastrophe", David Keys describes the ways in which he believes the famine, drought and plague that resulted from this explosive event directly and indirectly led to the downfall of the contemporary political powers and the emergence of the new political entities and forces which shaped the world we live in today. As every continent was affected by the loss of sunlight, Keys hypothesizes that the fall of the Roman Empire, the emergence of Islam and the Arab and Ottoman Empires, the reshaping of Eastern Europe, the creation of the modern nations of Japan, China, and Korea in the East and the European powers in the West, the collapse of the great Mesoamerican Empire of Teotihuacan and the emergence of the Mayans, among other great shifts in power, were all indirect results of the climactic changes unleashed in 535 AD.

I find it unlikely that all of the developments that David Keys attributes to the "catastrophe" would not have occurred otherwise. While the direct consequences of a single event are predictable and substantiable, the indirect consequences of something are, of course, impossible to know for sure as there are other factors involved. How many of the developments which occurred in the centuries following the eruption of 535 AD would not have occurred, or would have occurred at a different time, or would have occurred by different means, if the climactic catastrophe had not set change in motion is impossible to say. But David Keys' point is well taken: "Forces of nature and other mechanisms" beyond human control have played -and may continue to play- a fundamental role in human history, culture, and achievements. "Catastrophe" reintroduces the concept of determinism to the discussion of human history, which has been unfashionable for a while now and is due for reconsideration by the academic community. Keys also gives the reader a nice overview of the transition from the order of late antiquity to that of protomodern nations all over the globe, which is interesting and informative regardless of what may have instigated the changes.

A New Explanation for the 535AD Catastrophe
That the Earth suffered catastrophic weather conditions starting around 535AD and lasting for many years thereafter, is becoming a scientifically accepted "fact." As explained in "Catastrophe: a Quest for the Origins of the Modern World," these conditions weakened the Eastern Roman Empire; created horrendous living conditions in the western part of Great Britain that were remembered and later incorporated into the Arthurian legend; contributed through drought in the America's to the fall of the Teotihuacan civilization in Mexico; and through flooding to the collapse of a major center of civilization in Yemen.

Almost wherever in the world that there was significant use of writing in the 6th century AD, from Constantinople to China, references to this catastrophe have shown up in contemporary documents. Many such documents are cited in this book. In the 20th century, the occurrence of the catastrophe and its worldwide impact has been confirmed by the analysis of ice-cores from Greenland and Antarctica and by the study of annual growth rings in wood from across the world that can be safely dated to the 6th century.

The author of "Catastrophe," David Keys, has a theory about the event - or closely related events - that caused of this catastrophe. I found his theory plausible and frightening. Plausible because of the way he lays out his facts, and frightening because there appears to be no reason such dramatic and devastating events could not happen occur again - in the next thousand years or in the next ten years.

Mr. Keys is an excellent writer. He certainly makes this book fully accessible to the non-scientist. He also is apparently quite well informed about both the historic and archeological record from around the world during the 6th century and for a long time afterwards. In fact, most of his book consists of plausible - usually directly climate related - explanations for all kinds of civilization collapses, barbarian migrations, and shifts in economic and political power in different parts of the world following the "event" of 535AD. These explanations are fascinating, and, as just mentioned, always plausible. On the other hand, I doubt that they can all be right, and wished that author had given a little more credit to happenstance and the decisions of individuals in shaping the "origins of the modern world."

Rethinking the Dark Ages and the Origins of the Modern World
"Catastrophe" rocketed to fame as a result of a PBS series which devoted two one hour episodes to its thesis: that an eruption of what was probably a monstrous earlier version of the volcano Krakatoa created weather disruptions and tidal phenomena which wiped out many Classical civilizations, brought on LITERAL "dark ages" in many societies, and helped to create the Medieval world and lay the foundations of the modern.

The Keys theory is so widely accepted now (just five years after the publication of the book) because it is not only backed by masses of contemporary documentary evidence, but also because it explains, better than any other theory, the global decline of civilization in the 6th Century of the Common Era. In mathematical terms, it is "elegant." It is a latter-day Occam's Razor cutting through generations of theories based upon individual cultures or isolated events to show that they could all have at their heart a single event which triggered, as the title says, global "Catastrophe." (Definitely with a capital "C"!)

Keys uses Chinese records to show that a loud bang was heard over hundreds of square miles around 535, and that this was followed by a fall of yellow ash. Other records, from Japan and parts of modern Indonesia, support this occurence. Keys, after weighing and rejecting alternative theories, suggests that only a massive volcanic eruption could be the culprit for the event recorded by the Chinese, and shows, decade by decade, using historical records, dendrochronological (tree ring) records, ice samples, and other measurements, that what happened was no ordinary eruption, but possibly the largest volcanic eruption in history, which darkened skies around the world, creating a "volcanic winter" which brought famine and plague in its wake. Amazingly, he does it in plain, easy-to-read language, a hallmark of historiographic greatness.

Keys documents major climatic disruptions and uses established scientific models to project the impact of these changes on people as diverse as the Central Asian Avar and Turkish horse nomads, East African herdsmen, South American fishermen, and Anglo-Saxon and Britannic farmers in the modern British Isles. His conclusion is stunning: the eruption triggered waves of nomadic migrations which helped to bring about the decline of the recently revived Byzantine empire (which was well on its way to reconquering much of the old Roman Empire), destroyed flourishing urban cultures in the Americas, ruined the powerful Southern Arabian kingdoms which had existed for centuries (thus creating the power vacuum later filled by Mohammad's follwers), and also wrought devastation remembered in Arthurian romances.

One of the crucial contributions which Keys has made is an explanation of the otherwise unexplainable irruption of the bubonic plague out of Africa and into the Byzantine and Indian worlds. The plague -- which spread as far as Britain and permanently ended any chance that an independent Celtic Church would be established, separate from Rome -- killed millions of then and former Romaions (inhabitants of the original Roman Empire) and blasted any hopes of re-establishing the Empire, relegating it instead into an ever-dwindling Greek-centered Eastern Empire, subject to nomadic incursions from Arabia and central Asia.

In the Americas, Teotihuacan and Tikal alike suffered from near-simultaneous climatic disruption which ended their civilizations -- contemporaneously with the decline of the great cities of the Classical Eurasian world. Only the Keys Catastrophe theory explains BOTH phenomena -- the end of urban cultures in the Americas AND in Africa-Eurasia.

In east Asia, Keys blames the super-eruption for the famines whch led to the revolt of Hou Jing, which ended southern Chinese independence and led ultimately to the establishment of the Sui Dynasty and the near-continuous unification of China as a single cultural entity since then. In 535, the very year which Keys gives for the eruption, the Korean state of Silla, probably faced with climatic turmoil and famine as bad as China's, abandoned its pagan past and adopted Buddhism, laying the groundwork for the unification of THAT country, too. Again, no other theory provides a unified explanation for the near-simultaneous events.

The Keys theory is not without its weaknesses. I have particular doubts about the Indonesian chronicles which he utilizes, but which, if authentic, indicate that the Sunda Strait is a relatively modern phenomenon, and, until 535-536, Java and Sumatra formed a super-island, dominated by an unfortuante civlization (called Holotan by the Chinese). If the records Keys uses are correct, Holotan was destroyed (along with much of the island) by the super-eruption, putting it alongside Thera as a major cultural center destroyed by a single volcano. Undeniably, however, major changes took place in Southeast Asia after 535, including the establishment of Proto-Cambodia and Proto-Thailand only one generation later, along with other, more diffuse civilizations, presumably filling the gap left by the vanished Holotan.

The Keys theory will likely be subject to much criticism in the years ahead, and further refinements, but it is already so well-established as a convenient explanation for the catastrophic events of the Sixth Century C.E. that anyone who wants to understand histories of the period being written nowadays simply MUST be familiar with "Catastrophe."

I give "Catastrophe" Five Stars, the highest rating, for its historiographic significance, ease of reading, and current impact on historical thinking.

A fascinating historical detective story
Recent years have seen the publication of several books offering radical new explanations of ancient events or presenting sweeping revisionist theories of history. Examples include Noah's Flood, Eden in the East, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders, and 1421: The Year China Discovered America.

Catastrophe is one of the best of these. Archaeological writer David Keys has assembled multiple arguments supporting his theory that a major natural disaster around the year 535 altered the world's climate for years, causing famine and plague and triggering the collapse of existing political systems. He gives us brief but well-written summaries of events that sprang from this catastrophe, including the rise of Islam. According to Keys, this event ended an old world and gave birth to a new one whose patterns we still see today. After a process of elimination, Keys proposes that the cause of this disaster was a volcano in what is now the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. He warns that natural catastrophes in the future could change the world we know. Even if you don't agree with his conclusion, you will learn much from his reviews of historical events. This is fascinating stuff, and highly readable.

Not Catastrophic....But a Little Suspect in Places
Catastrophe, by David Keys, is an effort to attribute several significant changes in history that occurred in or near the 6th Centuary AD to drastic global weather changes, and to attribute those changes to a volcanic eruption. Keys ammasses an enormous amount of evidence to support these attributions, enough by itself to make the work impressive. However, on the whole his trail of evidence is a bit suspect.

Keys offers ample convincing evidence that the 6th century AD saw startling changes in weather. In doing so, he presents data from literally around the globe; moreover, his various sources of information seem to corroborate one another. This represents the most solid part of his argument, although he didn't tell us if he omitted evidence that didn't support his conclusions. From here, Keys proceeds to suggest what affects this weather pattern may have had on the world.

Some of these suggestions are more believable than others. His attribution of plague outbreaks to the weather patterns seems reasonable. Similarly a discussion of impacts on the Roman Empire is well argued and somewhat supported. From there, though, Keys trots about the globe presenting marginal evidence that most of the major events of the 6th Century (and some thereafter) are directly attributable to this weather pattern. In doing so, Keys includes a lot of marginal evidence and reaches for some causal relationships that are probably a lot more complicated than his book suggests. In particular, I found his version of events in the Middle East, Europe and China not so well supported.

I was a little bothered by the language and evidence of some of these chapters. Frequently, Keys uses phrases such as "almost certainly" to describe a cause-and-effect relationship, without providing any real supporting evidence. In one place, his endnote to such a comment simply repeats the "almost certainly" phrase without offering any additional information or citing a source. I think this fact really weakens the credibility of his work.

As he moves toward the end, Keys tries to pinpoint the source of the weather patterns. Toward this end, he nominates the eruption of a volcano in Java. However, in doing so, he needs to significantly re-interpret Javan historical accounts based on second and third hand sources. And while there's some limited basis for doing so, the connection is, from my point of view, far from a slam-dunk. It's easy to see that Keys left this section for the end because it's the least supported part of his chain of argument and potentially unravels the whole thesis.

On the whole, the book is an impressive projection of a lot of focused research. Sadly a lot of the evidence presented is weak in supporting Keys premise. In the end, it's easy for the reader to see that some, perhaps even a lot, of the things that Keys suggests caused major historical changes are credible. Still, a lot aren't. I give the book three stars for pulling together and presenting this information, which is in itself an impressive feat. Keys is not convincing in telling us that a volcanic eruption in 535 AD rewrote most of human history from that point on, however. Other than that, the book is interesting and fairly readable, and worth the time to take a look. ... Read more

Book Description

At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion -- and indeed our future. ... Read more

Reviews (102)

Probably wrong, but thought-provoking
I read this book about 20 years ago, and it still stands out in my mind as a very interesting theory. I initially believed it, but then developed doubts.
It would be very hard to find a clear test of the theory, but some of my suspicions are based on theories of why humans evolved intelligence. The arguments in Geoffrey Miller's The Mating Mind suggest pressures that would have caused consciousness to be used as soon as the brain developed the capacity for it. But Jaynes' theory seems to require that genes needed to support consciousness spread around the world without being used for that purpose.
What I like most about the book is the way it shakes up the common assumption that we can understand the mind by a combination of introspection and casually observing people around us (i.e. by folk psychology). Jaynes doesn't do this as well as Dennett in Consciousness Explained, but he comes close.

An extraordinary, challenging, enduring idea.
An extraordinary, challenging, enduring idea lies at the core of this book: an idea that encompasses and seeks to explicate the birth of consciousness, and thus the origin and evolution of civilisations. An evolution which, from this book's remarkable perspective, is still taking place now, and whose trail the reader can trace as clearly through recent centuries as the author delineates it in ancient cultures. The trail of consciousness.
Jaynes is quite possibly a maverick. He is, however, intellectually rigorous, painstaking, and honest. There is no sense that the reader is being lured into crackpot theory - this is no von Daniken potboiler. It's no easy read, believe me: and yet, Jaynes always provides the reader with clear, sure ground on which to proceed.
This book is, and should be regarded as, one of the 20th century's major works of psycho-archaeology, a true landmark and turning point in how humans understand themselves. It throws down many challenges to our elemental cultural and psychological assumptions. And it confronts, as bravely and as stimulatingly as any single thesis since Freud's idea of the subconscious, the biggest questions of all in our secular epoch: who are we? And what is our consciousness?
Questions that, as you will find out in discussion having read it, most people would rather leave well alone.

Critical Thinkers, BEWARE!
This book is disturbingly ill-reasoned tripe. Do NOT listen to the positive reviews that have been granted this work, as they ignore the fundamental problems that are endemic in this work. Jaynes bases his thesis on some of the poorest and most circumstantial evidence I have ever come across in my years as a psychological researcher. He succumbs to many pitfalls in his search for the root of human consciousness, including the subtle adherence to Cartesian Dualism. In other words, he is basing his book on the idea that there is a homunculus in our brains that guides our actions (or in this case, guided the 'hallucinations'). This idea is as reasonable as their being a little man in our television sets that orders the programming.

I believe that many of the positive reviews are a product of Jaynes' alluring writing style. He is quite capable with his word usage, but part of the trick he employs is miring his concepts in jargon in order to pull a fast one over discerning readers. The words sure are pretty, but they signify nothing. This is the kind of book that can successfully implant literally hundreds of false notions and poor scientific concepts in your mind without your recognition, on account of the level of his prose.

For a radically different and faaaaaaar more reasonable view of human consciousness, read Dennett's Consciousness Explained. While I have yet to discover the PERFECT book on consciousness, Consciousness Explained is a great start in the right direction towards a valid way to look at the issues.

Intriguing
First of all the book was copyrighted in 1976 and apparently first published in 1982. That is eons ago in the science of cognition and brain imaging. So I would like to know how the past 2 and a half decades have affected the theories in this book.

I also note that the author taught at Princeton University (he died in 1997), so his theories ought to have received a hearing. But apparently the follow-up book he intended was never published, and he was considered somewhat of a maverick, if not quite a crackpot. This website offers some perspective: http://www.julianjaynes.org

His theory, in simplest terms, is that until about 3000 years ago, all of humankind basically heard voices. The voices were actually coming from the other side of the brain, but because the two hemispheres were not in communication the way they are now for most of us, the voices seemed to be coming from outside. The seemed, in fact, to be coming from God or the gods.

So far, so good. That is certainly imaginable to most of us, because we know that schizophrenics and some others still hear voices in apparently this manner today.

But he also posits that many sophisticated civilizations were created by men and women who were all directed by these godlike voices. What is not very clearly explained (a serious gap in his theory) is how all the voices in these "bicameral civilizations," as he calls them, worked in harmony. But his theory is that ancient Greece, Babylon, Assyria, Egpyt, and less ancient but similar Mayan and Incan kingdoms were all built by people who were not "conscious" in our modern sense.

When one hears voices, whether then or now, the voices tend to be commanding and directive, and the need to obey them compelling. Free will is not possible. And so the people who built the pyramids were not self-aware as we are, did not feel self-pity, did not make plans, but simply obeyed the voices, which somehow were in agreement that the thing must be done.

Again, when he mentions that hypnosis may be triggering a reversion to a similar kind of consciousness, in which a voice, somehow channeled through the sub-conscious rather than the reasoning part of the brain, has an unusual compelling quality to it, and enables a person to do things that in their conscious analytic mind they are unable to do, we feel that we do have a glimmer that such a state of being is possible.

Of course, he connects these ideas to schizophrenia, seeing that as a throw-back to an earlier kind of mind-state, though now socially unacceptable and also unacceptable to its victim, who retains a remembrance of what it was to have control of his or her own mind.

He also sees prophets as remnants of the older mind, still able to hear the voices after most people had lost the ability. And he sees idol worship and modern religious behavior as both signs of a longing for the lost certainty and simplicity of a world in which decisions didn't have to be made, and all were of one accord as to what the gods wanted done.

I don't see much evidence for the pastoral simplicity which he thinks the bicameral mind lived in. But I do think that it is possible that not only ancient people but even many modern people have mind-experiences that are very different from our individualistic, introspective, self-determined ideas. In fact, I think relatively few human beings question and ponder and change belief systems as we might. The feeling of being adrift in a world that we can't understand, struggling with questions about everything, is far from universal, I think.

It is pertinent that he calls the shift from bicameral (two houses) to modern consciousness a "breakdown." He sees the shift as happening in response to crises and threats in the environment, but he doesn't present it as necessarily positive, and certainly not as pleasant to those living in its shadow. He sees the cries of the Jews and many other people for God to "rend the heavens and come down," to "not forsake them," as cried from people who no longer hear the "voices" that seemed to be the gods, and who desperately miss them.

In view of individuals such as Mother Teresa, who at one point had a clear inner sense of being directed by God (not necessarily actual auditory voices) and then lost that sense of presence and had to walk blindly thereafter (or silently would be a better metaphor), perhaps we would agree that the experience of the gods or God going silent not only happened at large in human history but is often recapitulated in individuals' personal history as well.

If Jaynes is on to something (and I think he is, though I think he may have pushed his "theory of everything" too far and lost scientific credibility), his theory does help us understand why there is a widespread belief that in Biblical times, God interacted with people in a very different way than He does now. The Bible, and other holy books as well, are remnants of a time when human beings own inner sense of right and wrong, clean and unclean, enemy and neighbor, were experienced as coming from outside of them, from disembodied voices that commanded great power. As the mind (or brain) developed, this split healed (or this mind broke down?) and this knowing become a still small voice in many people, and in others a resounding silence.

The question remains: should we take the reductionist view, and look at all religious ideas as merely misunderstandings based on schizophrenic-like delusions and hallucinations? Or should we take the view that God, who in times past spoke to us in fire and plague and audible voices (and later in dreams and visions) has now become one with humanity and speaks to us in the silence of our own hearts?

A fascinating book, raising as many questions as it answers, but well worth the reading.

breathtaking
I have just recently re-read Jaynes' book after reading it when it was first published. Though one's reading interests tend to change wildly over so long a period, I was surprised to find that the thesis of the book is still as compelling to me now as it was decades ago. This is an astonishingly creative, cross-disciplinary tour-de-force and the best book of its type that I have ever read.

The book is basically an elegant and meticulously detailed theory about the historical appearance in humans of what we call consciousness. The tough sledding referred to by many of the other reviewers, I think, is in his explication of what precisely consciousness IS, and how that differs from our common misconceptions about it. This part, admittedly, is no page- turner: I had to stop and think frequently just to make sense of what he was saying and trying to relate that to my own experience.

But the definitional foundation pays off as Jaynes places the origin of human consciousness into the historical timeline, and starts applying it to the ancient literature of the Old Testament and the Iliad, and to several curiosities in idols observed throughout the prehistoric world. This is the portion of the book that I found breathtaking. In particular, reading the Old Testament has a resonance for me that it never had before. As a modern skeptic, many of these stories were difficult for me to think about: there seemed to be no middle ground between thinking of the stories as cultural fabrications or else having to confront the odd hypothesis that they are records of a completely implausible reality. Now the stories are revealing in ways that I never would have imagined.

I do wonder if the intervening years have been kind to Jaynes' suppositions on the mechanics of the mind - especially his reliance on the (historically recent) emergence of bicamerality. If he is ultimately proved wrong in this respect, I think it doesn't detract at all from his central intellectual achievement. Because if the ultimate test for any theory is that it should explain the most phenomena in the simplest way, Jaynes' theory is a towering one. By simply asking us to accept a few counter-intuitive principles on the nature of our own minds, he provides a beautifully simply paradigm for some of the most intriguing oddities that hover around the dawn of our literature, religions, and cultural historical record. ... Read more

Book Description

The first collection of essays from renowned scientist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins is an enthusiastic declaration, a testament to the power of rigorous scientific examination to reveal the wonders of the world. In these essays Dawkins revisits the meme, the unit of cultural information that he named and wrote about in his groundbreaking work The Selfish Gene. Here also are moving tributes to friends and colleagues, including a eulogy for novelist Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; correspondence with the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould; and visits with the famed paleoanthropologists Richard and Maeve Leakey at their African wildlife preserve. The collection ends with a vivid note to Dawkins's ten-year-old daughter, reminding her to remain curious, to ask questions, and to live the examined life. ... Read more

Reviews (30)

Darwin's Dangerous Disciple strikes again!
To some, Richard Dawkins is threatening. His phrases pry open shut minds. His words bend and flex rigid thinking. His ideas trash dearly held dogmas. And, of course, he idolizes The Devil's Chaplain - Charles Darwin [the title is from a letter of Darwin's]. He performs all these feats with a graceful style - one which anyone writing science should study. This collection is comprised of letters, book reviews and even eulogies - an unusual vehicle for espousing the cause of rational thinking. If much of his writing seems intense, it's because he recognizes his role in waging an uphill battle against "established truths", no matter how false they prove. To show the validity of truth over myth requires a direct approach.

Dawkins recognizes that people abhor being called animals. The continuity of life, one of the major themes in this collection, remains an indisputable fact, he stresses. This series reinforces Dawkins' attempts to make us aware that we are part of Nature. He is always witty, using his sound scientific basis and rationale to keep us informed. Science, in his view, must not be eroded by baseless tradition nor false dogmas. The goal of living, he argues, is the understanding of life itself. Religion and philosophy have failed abysmally, the realm of science should be given its opportunity. It's a broad view, sustained by an ability to grasp it firmly. Better yet, for us, it's presented here with verve and dedication.

Segregated into [lucky!] seven sections, each addressing a general theme. He covers many topics in this anthology - evolution, of course, but medicine, genetically modified foods [many foods are hybrids resulting from genetic manipulation], jury trials, intellectual heresies, and even government policies are included. The arrangement presents no difficulty - in fact, each offering might be chosen at random without losing any impact. Selecting a favourite is an arduous task [although it promotes re-reading] but the review of Sokal and Bricmont's "Fashionable Nonsense" ranks very high. The review demonstrates Dawkins' many talents, from insight to incisiveness. Few essayists provide the imagery he can attain to explain an idea.

There are those, particularly adherents of the idea that science lacks morality, who see scientists as cold and distant. Dawkins shows how false this idea is with his laudatory comments on John Diamond, Douglas Adams and William Hamilton. He even extends an olive branch to his academic opponent, the late Stephen J. Gould. As fellow evolutionists, Dawkins and Gould forged a rapport against the rants and duplicities of the Christian creationists. It requires a broad mind to take such steps, and narrowness isn't among Dawkins' blemishes. He's a feeling human being and a tireless campaigner. We would all do well to heed and emulate him. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A response to middle America
I'd just like to briefly respond to the "reader from middle America" who I feel is over-reacting a little to Dawkins' book.

Dawkins' main target is not what I'd call 'traditional theists', but that group of what's usually labelled "fundamentalists" who are trying to suppress science teaching and replace it with their bogus "creation science".

I know plenty of intelligent people who believe in a God. I don't know any that believe in the literal "created in six days" word of the bible or who think a belief in evolution is absolutely antithetical to religious belief.

The majority of denominations - and thus Christians - don't subscribe to the fundamentalist view (don't take my word for it, do a quick search). In fact most explicitly disavow a literal reading of Genesis. So it's entirely wrong for "middle America" to speak of creationism as a "majority" belief.

Dawkins does take a fairly militant stance. Although I share his views, I initially felt he was being a bit hard on those he disagrees with. However when I read of people seeking to have creationism ranked as "science" in schools at the exclusion of real science I think he's right to get stuck into them.

Dawkin's target isn't "middle America" or the majority of believers for whom belief in God and science can coexist. His target is what we call in Australia "the loudmouth ratbag fringe" who want to foist their view on others. And he's got me on side.

Incidentally, his broadside at postmodernism is just as much fun to read as his views on 'creation science'.

Evolution is the art of the developable
This selection of Richard Dawkins' essays is an absolute delight and a clear-cut illustration of the author's strong anti-tradition, anti-authority and anti-revelation opinions.
It deals with very important problems like the real nature of natural selection, its cruelty and blindness to suffering.
The author's life goal is nothing less than a combat with the cosmic progress and its clumsy, blundering waste, and that with one of the products of evolution itself: our brain.
Crucial is his war of words with the late S.J. Gould about the question if evolution is progressive. No, for Gould. Yes, for Dawkins. For the latter, progress cannot be defined in terms of complexity (Gould), but rather by the accumulation of features contributing to adaptation. I believe now that Dawkins is right.
Other very important issues are his battle with the creationists, his lucid pro-opinion on genetically modified food, his brilliant refutation of genetic determinism via the blueprint/recipe distinction or his necessary virulent anti-religious viewpoint (religion is a virus of the mind and the most inflammatory enemy-libelled device in history).
I have only a few remarks.
Richard Dawkins writes that 'Every time we use contraception we demonstrate that brains can thwart Darwinian designs'.
But, ceteris paribus, the outcome here is a certain defeat. The genes of those who use contraception will be overrun by those who don't. Contraception is itself a component of the Darwinian design.
In his essay 'What is true', he misses some important points.
As Tarski said, truth = accordance with the facts or processes.
Popper's importance was mainly the refutation of inductivism and its demand for infinite corroborations. As long as a theory has not been falsified we can continue to work with it. Popper's proposition constitutes a progress and time gain of lightyears for science as a whole. Also testing remains the cornerstone of scientific research.
Presenting Popper as a truth-heckler seems to me a little overdone, when we don't know 90% of the matter in the universe, perhaps 1 % of the existing virusses; when 'I' doesn't exist (V. Ramachandran) or when 'is' is an illusion (L. Smolin). As Popper said, the more we know, the more we see how little we know.
Richard Dawkins' essays are thought-provoking analyses and comments, written by a splendid humanist and a superb free mind.
This book is a must for all those interested in the fate of mankind.

A MANUAL TO THE TRUTH REVEALED BY SCIENCE
Dawkins is a well known biologist whose "The Selfish Gene" revolutionized the way we think (or ought to think) about evolution.

In this book, he puts together a collection of essays which, in the essence, is a guidebook to non-scientists to debunking pseudo-science. He does so in a variety of ways:
1. He demonstrates how complex physics concepts are used in literature to seem more scientific.
2. He shows how creationists seek legitimacy in the public eye with scientific sounding ideas like "intelligent design" and others which are nothing more than pseudo-science. He also offers ideas on how to deal with them.
3. He points out, in an open letter to his daughter, how to know what is truth and what isn't, what are good and bad reasons to believe something.
4. He recommends a number of follow up readings in his book reviews. These are mainly on Stephen Jay Gould and Peter Medawar, two other famed biologists who write for the general public.

The essence of the book is reflected, I believe, in the last essay, in which he makes the point that evidence is the only way to truth and knowledge, and the basis of science. He shows that evidence is a better reason to believe something than its three foes: authority, revelation and tradition.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for intelligent arguments and thoughts on a wide variety of subjects, all related to science, its importance and its usage (or lack thereof) in society.

In Defense of the Scientific Method
If you only read one book by Professor Richard Dawkins, I recommend The Selfish Gene. That book is a remarkable tour de force covering the latest thinking about how evolution really works by taking into account our understanding of genetic qualities in reinforcing the evolutionary struggle of the survival of the fittest.

By contrast, A Devil's Chaplain is a book that will appeal primarily to people who have read several books by Professor Dawkins and would like to know more about him as a person and his views outside of neo-Darwinism.

If you have not read anything by Professor Dawkins, I recommend you skip this book unless you have a thorough understanding of the latest evolutionary theories. Much of the book won't make sense to you otherwise.

A Devil's Chaplain is a series of essays (some published before and some not), laments, eulogies and a letter to his daughter. From these materials, you can learn more about how Professor Dawkins sees his colleagues, those who oppose evolutionary teachings, postmodernists, and his personal views on religious beliefs and "alternative" medicine. Much of what he says will not surprise you. As a scientist, he favors the scientific method and is rationally skeptical of anything that cannot be proven by this method. He is also annoyed by a society that grants prominent opportunities to share views that are not proven by scientific methods. As a result, he is also an atheist . . . but one who draws great joy from considering the world around him and the methods by which it has been created.

Many people think of atheists as gloomy people, or people without much emotion. Professor Dawkins is neither. His loving descriptions of relations with his colleagues, rivals and mentors show just the opposite. His concern for using scientific methods is obviously also based on a desire to help people live better lives.

Catholics may find the book a little annoying in that Professor Dawkins likes to challenge some of the "faith"-based beliefs that that religion espouses.

As I finished the book, I found that I was most attracted to the advanced speculations that Professor Dawkins used in his book that speak directly to evolutionary studies. I especially recommend the essay, "Son of Moore's Law," where he describes the timing of when individual genomes will be economically affordable and how that will influence health and medical treatments. I was also drawn to the essays that describe his optimistic belief that we can escape our evolutionary heritage and evolve into people who produce the best possible future for all.

There's much food for thought here. I doubt if any religious believers will be undone by his arguments. I also doubt that he will convert any people who believe in the literal creation as described in the Bible to change their views.

Ultimately, I was left wondering how other prominent scientists bridge the gap between their scientific methods and having a rich religious life.

I graded the book down one star because the editor presumes the reader has a little too much familiarity with the leading lines of thought about evolution. The book could have used more footnotes to explain the background of the points Professor Dawkins is making for those of us who are not evolutionary biologists . . . but simply like to read books about the subject. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

A Very Good Read; An Outstanding Resource
This book is written for a general audience, and provides an interesting and informative read about the scientific theory of intelligent design (ID) and its importance to our understanding of biological systems in nature. The format is particularly interesting, as it is divided neatly into forty-four short question-and-answer sections. As a result, there is some overlap of content, but the repetition helps to reinforce key concepts and arguments without becoming redundant.

Section two is quite interesting, for it is in the chapters contained therein that Dembski succinctly discusses the concept of a design inference, describes his explanatory filter for design, and deals with the related issues those concepts have given rise to. Particularly noteworthy is the section that follows (section three), which deals with information. I personally find issues pertaining to information-including its characteristics, generation and maintenance-to be downright fascinating. Expect several chapters of intriguing reading here.

Section six is worth special mention because it contains important discussion about the promise of ID and what it will take for ID to become a fruitful program of scientific research. ID has some cultural and institutional barriers to overcome, but contains some intriguing possibilities that have only begun to be explored.

As a non-scientist who is nonetheless familiar with most of the published literature in the contemporary Darwin vs. design debate, I found sections one and six particularly useful. (In the interest of disclosure I should point out that I am an attorney who works with the Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture.) ID is frequently comes under scrutiny through the use of simplistic arguments that are really nothing more than the stuff of ad hominems, straw men, red herrings, genetic fallacies, etc. Dembski ably deals with these kinds of fallacious arguments while simultaneously building a strong, positive case for ID.

It is all too often the case that skeptics of ID never bother to read the materials of ID proponents, instead relying upon the glosses of other ID skeptics. Should skeptics of ID wish to take their debate to a higher level of sophistication and nuance, they would do well to read this book before launching into their attacks.

Persons who are interested in ID and its possibilities for explaining the information-rich, complex structures in biological systems will find this to be a useful resource. I recommend reading it through once and then keeping it as a handy reference for ID-related issues.

This engaging book is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in ID and the Darwin vs. design debate.

There is something going on here...
I believe this will end up being an important book in the ID movement...but not because it offers any new insights or ID defenses. It doesn't. It also doesn't necessarily discredit naturalistic processes. What this book does is thoroughly catalogs the ID position and demonstrates the "reasonability" of the ID argument when compared to undirected "macro-adaptation" (neo-Darwinism, I guess) as an explanstion for the rise and diversification of life on Earth. "Thinking people" with doubts about naturalism fear not---you will WANT to be on this side of the debate after reading this book. The arguments are presented clearly and fairly---your world view will determine if an event is either "obvious" or "mind-numbingly improbable". I got the strong sense reading the book that Dembski feels ID (as a science...not a philosophy) needs a breakthru (decisive confirmation) in order to progress. This is a high-bar considering how little we really know about the universe (sort of like flatlanders trying to "prove" spheres exist)...but at least it's POSSIBLE (unlike neo-Darwinism which is utterly un-provable). Today I read that an ounce of dried DNA has the information storage capacity of 1 Trillion CDs. Now, a CD is pretty cool, and I'm glad that someone WAY smarter than me invented them. Yet the materialist happily acknowledges that "nature" has randomly produced a substance a mere fraction of the size of a CD with...ummm...a TRILLION times more processing capability. There is something going on here...

Another fine Dembski offering
This book will be enjoyable and informative to anyone interested in the issue of intelligent design. Dembski covers a broad range of issues and objections related to his specialty in a question and answer format that makes it reasonably easy to follow, even for the lay reader.

One reviewer below apparently felt that Dembski did not cover all the territory he needed to. Can it be that this individual does not understand the significance of the information question that is the focus of Dembski's work? Perhaps he expected a greater focus on nuts-and-bolts biology? At any rate, since the reviewer seemed to accuse the author of intellectual cowardice, he should have been more specific about Dembski's alleged problem areas at least. In my opinion, this book does a fine job of confronting the toughest objections to design head on. Buy and enjoy!

Thinly disguised Christian blather
All you need to know about this book is found in the name of the person who wrote the foreword, ex-Watergate scoundrel Chuck "I'd drive over my own grandmother" Colson, who "found" God in prison. Uh, what are his scientific credentials again?

A.M.D.G.?
If you've got some set of EMOTIONS that you choose to call "believing in God" then more power to you. But don't go propping it up with a bunch of p*ss-poor "scientific" arguments. -- Hey I got an idea. Why don't you try reading the Bible and praying, instead of wasting your time on these so-called "apologetics" which only serve to make Christians look like idiots. ... Read more

Amazon.com

This surprising book may appear to be about the simple things of life--forks, paper clips, zippers--but in fact it is a far-flung historical adventure on the evolution of common culture. To trace the fork's history, Duke University professor of civil engineering Henry Petroski travels from prehistoric times to Texas barbecue to Cardinal Richelieu to England's Industrial Revolution to the American Civil War--and beyond. Each item described offers a cultural history lesson, plus there's plenty of engineering detail for those so inclined. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Good Tech History book
This is a scholarly look at the history of invention. Henry Petroski is a Professor of Civil Engineering at Duke and has written several books of this genre. The book is well written, has many footnotes, and an eight page bibliography. While the book is not technical per se, it would probably be most enjoyable by other engineers and fans of technological history.
The author tracks the engineering and development of several common devices of everyday life. Two that he spends a lot of time on are the fork and the paper clip. There are several full chapters examining issues such as the first historical records of use, patents, and the development of companies and industries as these items became incredibly popular. Other items receiving lesser treatment include wheelbarrows, tin cans, and McDonalds hamburger containers.
This book will give you an appreciation of the time frame that great inventions occupy. Most of the items discussed here are developed over several lifetimes, or at least several working lifetimes. This alone should be very instructive to anyone trying to get a feel for the history of invention. The histories given are very detailed with names, dates, addresses, patent numbers and drawings, and the economic data (manufacturing costs, prices, etc.). If you find intriguing the question of where and how did we get all of the modern devices that we use everyday, you will enjoy this book.

An interesting look at the development of everyday objects
Things get improved because in their current form, they do not work properly. Henry Petroski's book, The Evolution of Useful Things, traces the development of objects in our everyday life, including detailed histories of the development of the staple, the zipper, silverware, and hand tools. The book is interesting, although Petroski does tend to shy away from offering a theory of development, and instead offers a conjectures about how things might have developed. He explains, but he does not offer a theory or an argument that explains everything. Overall, though, a goos book, well researched, well illustrated, and interesting on many levels.

Form follows failure
This book is an extended essay about the process of invention. In it, Petroski takes the viewpoint that the form of manufactured items is the result of an evolutionary-like process. He stresses that for any specific item, the form it has is only an arbitrary choice from many possible solutions that the inventor could have come up with. And the driving force behind invention, according to Petroski is failure- -each change in form that an invention takes is the result of trying to address some failure in what was done previously.

Petroski introduces the book with an item that very aptly demonstrates his thesis: the fork. He details the history of the development of the fork, starting with the table manners of the Middle Ages, when people were in the habit of using knives to both spear bits of food and convey them to their mouths. But in order to chop off bits of food from larger pieces, it was handy to have a second knife to hold the larger piece steady. Of course, the second knife was also like to put a hole in the larger piece, and wasn't well adapted to holding things, not until someone had the brilliant idea of making a stabilizing knife with two prongs instead of one. Eventually, this stabilizing knife began to be used for conveying food to the mouth instead of just holding food steady while cutting, and it was found that four prongs were much better suited for this task than two. Each step of the way through the history of the fork, Petroski points out how when the implement of the time failed to accomplish its intended task satisfactorily, its form was modified, until the fork took its present customary form. At the same time, however, Petroski also stresses that the current form of the fork is only one possible solution to the food conveyance problem. He compares its development to that of chopsticks, which are equally well suited to the same task, but take a very different form.

Other objects given a detailed examination in this book include paper clips, zippers, and cans for food, as well as openers for cans. In this last topic, Petroski brings out the point that objects are often developed and brought into use long before their supporting technology is even conceived of. Although tin cans came into general use during the first half of the Nineteenth Century, it was to be another 50 years before the first can opener was finally developed. Until then, producers of canned foods expected their customers to open their cans by stabbing them with hammer and chisel and (miraculously) come back for more!

Overall, I found the book somewhat interesting, and certainly illuminating. While I agree that form does follow failure in many cases, I think that Petroski is too quick to dismiss aesthetic influences in the evolution of form. He notes that some forks in modern tableware sets have only 3 tines out of a desire to look different or special, even though they aren't as efficient at conveying food as 4-tined forks. But he dismisses this as being a minor factor, unimportant for the general evolution of the fork. Perhaps he is right in the case of forks, but there are a number of other items where fashion plays a larger role. High-heeled shoes, for instance, are certainly an evolutionary wrong-turn in foot attire, but not a dead end. Colored cars are wasteful in the mass production process, as Henry Ford was quick to point out, but he learned that color options are also a selling point. Indeed, many times a better solution for achieving a task can be invented, but then never brought to market because of economics. Or the form that finally does become standard is a less than optimal solution for the task, but cheaper to manufacture than a better one. Petroski points to tableware sets with over 200 individual items, each with a separate task. He argues that each item was developed in response to some perceived failure of another form at doing the stated task, and dismisses the idea that it was simply manufacturers trying to develop new things for consumers to buy so that they would have a complete set. Personally, I'm not so sure that the manufacturers really depended entirely on failure to develop the forms of their tableware. I find it easy to imagine an artist being asked to come up with some more fancy designs that could be created in silver so that customers would have more items to purchase. Perhaps some of these new silver utensils received their titles only after they were actually created and tested to see what they might be good at. In short, I think that economics may have a stronger influence on the form of things than Petroski seems willing to grant in this book. But in any case, the book is very well researched and documented. It is amply illustrated with black-and-white photos and drawings. The text itself flows smoothly and is quite clear for general and technical readers alike although it can be a bit dry at times.

A Lucid Primer on Industrial Design for Everyday Folks
How does everyday discontent lead to material progres? Does form follow function? What are some common mistakes in patent writing? The Evolution of Everyday Objects, explores the hidden history of axes, spoons, paperclips, garbage bags,tin cans, and zippers for a general audience. Henry Petroski, a professor of industrial design at Duke University, also introduces unlikely heroes like Walter Hunt (the safety pin) Richard Drew (Scotch tape), and Jacob Rabinow (pick-proof lock) while celebrating the marvels of engineering and industrial design.
This lucid primer weaves a weird and wonderful tale of techincal evolution and expanding consumerism. Petroski argues that disappointment with available choices inspires inventors, engineers, and industrial designers to continually expand our consumer choices. Form, contrary to rumors, follows failure. Edison's edict seems more apt than ever.
Petroski focuses on the telling details behind both familiar success stories and the far more frequent failures of consumer objects and modern artifacts. Although this 288-page paperback lacks illustrations and might seem a bit repeative and/or simplistic to specialists, Petroski's book should appeal to aspiring inventors, engineering students, and curious readers seeking a better understanding of our modern consumer culture. You might even look at your cluttered desk, a crowded department store, and your crammed tool shed with more appreciation.

A little dry, but worthwhile
Petroski's field is design, but his take on it is the history of design rather than the "science" of design as Donald Norman (of The Design of Everyday Things fame). Although their approach is different, the two men share some of the same insights into how and why objects are the way they were. But where Norman's philosophy is that an object can be designed to be "better," Petroski feels that an object will always be less than perfect. His theory, in part, is that because most objects have multiple purposes, the object can not perform any single task perfectly. This idea of the competition of purposes is best illustrated from the book by Petroski's examination of eating utensils. The perfect utensil would be one that could cut and lift food to the mouth for eating. But knifes that cut have difficulty in lifting, forks are almost useless with a soup, and a spoon doesn't cut well. By showing us the evolution of the flatware selection (which remains imperfect), Petroski gives weight to his theory.

But I'm not wholly convinced. Perhaps it's because I read Norman first that I want to defend him. I want to believe that objects can be bettered--an interface can be easier to use, etc. The difference between Norman and Petroski is also one of style. Norman's prose is almost light weight compared to the dense, multi-syllabic approach used by Petroski, and Norman wasn't afraid to use terms and ideas that were not in lay usage. It could be that Norman's short columnar structure breaks up the duty of trying to convey so much information that his is more readable prose. It could also be that Petroski likes the language of academia, even when it begins to obfuscate. From the design standpoint, both authors are worthwhile. It is important to see specific examples of real world solutions to design problems to come up with ideas for our own designs, be it a fork, a building, or software. ... Read more

Book Description

This riveting work of investigative reporting and history exposes classified government projects to build gravity-defying aircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flying saucers.

The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy government scientists in the 1940s.Antigravity technology, originally spearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another high priority, one that still may be in effect today.Now for the first time, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in the intelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidence that tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove as powerful as the A-bomb.

The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation that a "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can be replicated here on Earth.The pressure to be the first nation to harness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to build military planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the most deadly weaponry the world has ever seen.The ideal shape for a gravity-defying vehicle happens to be a perfect disk, making antigravity tests a possible explanation for the numerous UFO sightings of the past 50 years.

Chronicling the origins of antigravity research in the world's most advanced research facility, which was operated by the Third Reich during World War II, The Hunt for Zero Point traces U.S. involvement in the project, beginning with the recruitment of former Nazi scientists after the war.Drawn from interviews with those involved with the research and who visited labs in Europe and the United States, The Hunt for Zero Point journeys to the heart of the twentieth century's most puzzling unexplained phenomena. ... Read more

Reviews (49)

Very entertaining
If you enjoy "X Files", "Roswell", even "Star Trek" for the entertainment value (as I do) you will probably like this book. If you are a passionate believer, or disbeliever, you won't. In "The Hunt for Zero Point" Nick Cook has crafted a very readable, entertaining novel around a subject for which there is little hard evidence, historical or current. And in a field which is rife with conspiracy theories and theorists he manages to underplay this aspect - as a respectable journalist should.

My father-in-law turned me on to this book. He is a taciturn fellow; his comment to me was "there is not a lot here, but you might enjoy it." He was right on both counts, and my guess is he should know. He was an electrical engineer, drafted into the Army during WWII, worked for ARPA, was posted to Germany towards the end of hostilities to help "cle