Book Description

James Gleick has long been fascinated by the making of science—how ideas order visible appearances, how equations can give meaning to molecular and stellar phenomena, how theories can transform what we see. In Chaos, he chronicled the emergence of a new way of looking at dynamic systems; in Genius, he portrayed the wondrous dimensions of Richard Feynman’s mind. Now, in Isaac Newton, he gives us the story of the scientist who, above all others, embodied humanity’s quest to unveil the hidden forces that constitute the physical world.

In this original, sweeping, and intimate biography, Gleick moves between a comprehensive historical portrait and a dramatic focus on Newton’s significant letters and unpublished notebooks to illuminate the real importance of his work in physics, in optics, and in calculus. He makes us see the old intuitive, alchemical universe out of which Newton’s mathematics first arose and shows us how Newton’s ideas have altered all forms of understanding from history to philosophy. And he gives us a moving account of the conflicting impulses that pulled at this man’s heart: his quiet longings, his rage, his secrecy, the extraordinary subtleties of a personality that were mirrored in the invisible forces he first identified as the building blocks of science. More than biography, more than history, more than science, Isaac Newton tells us how, through the mind of one man, we have come to know our place in the cosmos. ... Read more

Reviews (36)

Q.E.D.
This book demonstrates that biography is no exception to the adage that brevity is the soul of wit. Gleick divides this short but comprehensive biography into short chapters that respectively address each aspect of Newton's work: the calculus, the laws of gravity and motion, optics, alchemy, theology and so on. Moreover, each chapter succinctly but vividly describes the phase in Newton's life in which that work was performed and finally published, so that the reader moves chronologically through Newton's life while examining each of his monumental achievements. In 188 pages (not counting the informative, pertinent footnotes) Gleick tells the story of Newton's life, describes (but,thankfully, does not try to explain) his peculiar personality, sets out, in layman's terms, the basics of his most important discoveries, and places those discoveries in their social and historical context. Other biographers should take heed; readers with an interest in science and intellectual history should hasten to buy this book!

Revealing the personality of a genius
James Gleick's book Isaac Newton presents the life, the oddities and the great discoveries of the man who set the foundations of modern physics. Gleick has a unique talent for rendering science in layman terms. He preserves and sometimes amazingly expands the scope of the original ideas. When I read his book Chaos I wondered - Gleick seemed too vivid and comprehensible for a scientist and in the same time too penetrating for a writer who is not a professional researcher.

Maybe you would like to see what creates the observations described by Newton in his famous laws. Perhaps you have been sometimes puzzled by the enigmatic meaning of your life. Then you should read also Eugene Savov's Theory of Interaction the Simplest Explanation of Everything, James Gleick's Faster and Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order by Steven Strogatz. The explorations and discoveries presented in these three books show a path toward a new knowledge in which the laws of Newton and his genius shine even brighter.

A universal mind
With almost poetic grace, Gleick portrays the life and thinking of history's most expansive mind. Works on Newton aren't as common as might be expected. The task of addressing such a monumental mentality is formidable, to say the least. Only the most ambitious or analytical could attempt it. Gleick's effort encompasses the major facets of Newton's life, including his academic, political and religious aspects. He avoids the modern approach of delving into Newton's psyche or recapitulating three centuries of scholarly disputation. Even the "falling apple" story is redrawn as Newton's realisation that apparent size compared with distance expressed a relationship needing explanation. The result is a clean, unobstructed view of a complex man - and his legacy.

From meagre beginnings Newton carved an expansive niche in European scholarship. His skills, noted early, brought him a Cambridge appointment at 27. Already showing great promise, he was a reluctant publisher. He sequestered himself in his rooms, later in a small cottage. He'd lived almost alone during his childhood, but his curiosity led him in many directions. The prism experiments, breaking sunlight with a prism, began his long career in what is now deemed "physics". Light's properties were the subject of great dispute, with Newton holding to emitted particles. Waves seemed to adhere to the Cartesian "vortices" which Newton found suspect. Playing with mirrors and lenses led to the reflecting telescope widely used today. Thinking about the heavenly bodies he observed led, of course, to his idea of gravitational attraction. Not a popular idea then, since such forces were disdained.

It's difficult to assess whether his delving into the facts of nature led to his personal isolation, or the reverse holds. Gleick shows how Newton focussed on problems with an intensity few have demonstrated. Even in employment as Warden of the Mint, Newton pursued counterfeiters with a Rambo-like dedication - even accompanying culprits to the gallows. His brief stint as a Member of Parliament, however, was virtually silent. He was perturbed by his developing scepticism of the Holy Trinity - this while teaching at the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Cambridge University. These thoughts, too, he kept closely concealed. Only the dispute over gravity with Robert Hooke brought him reluctantly forth.

Although Newton's accomplishments were vast, Gleick relates how the great thinker understood he was only uncovering beginnings. Even those beginnings, however, were deemed "mechanistic" by the later Romantics - a label applied to science even today. Gleick rebuts this hostile view in his conclusion. However Newton's personality is viewed, his accomplishments readily surpass puerile complaints. Without him, Gleick reminds us, much of today's world would not exist. Cassini would not be orbiting Saturn, returning its amazing images to us, without him.

This book isn't highly detailed, and that's right and proper. Massive volumes of Newton's life already exist. Gleick has provided a tasteful and effective teaser for those wishing to learn more of this amazing man. He's even provided images of some of Newton's notes and observations imparting the flavour of Newton's thinking. Start here, you will not be disappointed. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Doesn't capture enough of the inner-Newton
There were moments in this book, but overall I was left a bit disappointed by the author's lack of insight into the man himself. I have always held Newton in awe, and wondered what his IQ might have measured. Perhaps what I was looking for in this book was not the author's intent in focus. I've read many scientific books that detail the theories and history of Newton's contributions. In this book I hoped to find more of an inner glimpse into Newton's psyche. What it did reveal was disillusioning--Newton was apparently petty, jealous, and socially inept. For those who are looking for a biography, this doesn't cut the mustard. For those who are not already familiar with the scientific thought of the day and with Newton's accomplishments, this book will be much more satisfying.

Honesty meets rationalism
I found this book hard to follow in places, but because James Gleick places you so close to Isaac Newton, I found it impossible to give up reading it. According to other reviews, the struggles between Newton and the philosophy of Descartes, and the personality of Hooke, and the possible plagarism of Leibnitz, are not new or unknown. They were to me. Another thing that I didn't understand about the times that Newton lived in was how his society and culture was so steeped in mysticism and the occult. Newton set his philosophy apart from the rest by strictly defining all of the terms that he used. So, while religions and other faith philosophies thrive on the dishonesty of wordplay, science, as defined by Newton's approach, rules the day. ... Read more

Book Description

This history of computing focuses not on chronology (what came first and who deserves credit for it) but on the actual architectures of the first machines that made electronic computing a practical reality. The book covers computers built in the United States, Germany, England, and Japan. It makes clear that similar concepts were often pursued simultaneously and that the early researchers explored many architectures beyond the von Neumann architecture that eventually became canonical. The contributors include not only historians but also engineers and computer pioneers.

An introductory chapter describes the elements of computer architecture and explains why "being first" is even less interesting for computers than for other areas of technology. The essays contain a remarkable amount of new material, even on well-known machines, and several describe reconstructions of the historic machines. These investigations are of more than simply historical interest, for architectures designed to solve specific problems in the past may suggest new approaches to similar problems in today's machines. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

very technical
This book is very technical, which is exactly what I was looking for. It is filled with architectual diagrams, opcodes, and even code fragments from the earliest computers. Some of these machines even predate World War 2.

The book opens with discussions on the taxonomy of these primordial computers. This section is the weakest part of the book. External references are mentioned, when they should have been described in detail. Another typical problem is on page 8, where a family tree is printed in a micro-fiche font.

The remainder of the book is divided into sections for the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. This is the bulk of the text, and the reason why you would want to buy it. I must stress again, that the articles are extremely technical. They will be hard to follow without a background in digital design, some knowledge of system architecture, and maybe some assembly. But for those who can appreciate it, it is absolutely fascinating.

This is my favorite book that none of my friends would appreciate! ... Read more

Book Description

For more than one hundred years, the National Geographic Society has brought "the world and all that is in it" to millions worldwide. Through its unparalleled research, exploration, publications, and photography, the organization and its magazine have, in many ways, defined how we see the world. Now Robert Poole's Explorers House gives a vibrant, behind-the-scenes look at National Geographic, from its start in 1888 to its evolution into one of the most esteemed and iconic American institutions.

The story of the National Geographic is a family story of a media dynasty to rival the Sulzbergers or Luces. The Grosvenors, along with Alexander Graham Bell, who was linked to the family by marriage, created the institution's photography-based monthly, and the family has been on the masthead since the McKinley administration. Content to stay in the shadows, however, they have remained modestly obscured from public view while their media empire has grown to reach some forty million readers and viewers each month. The Grosvenor and Bell family history is not merely the story of the National Geographic; it is a captivating view of the sweep of American scientific, geographic, and political history since the late nineteenth century, rendered in fascinating human terms by Poole.

Moreover, Explorers House shows the inside workings of the magazine's editorial process, providing an unprecedented look behind some of National Geographic's ground-breaking articles and explorations-from Cousteau's famous Calypso voyages to the origins of Jane Goodall's research on chimpanzees to the institution's 1963 Mt. Everest expedition, the first to place an American on the summit. We also hear of the writers and photographers who are larger than life figures themselves, such as Luis Marden, the writer-photographer who unearthed the remains of the H.M.S. Bounty off Pitcairn Island, among many other feats.

Explorers House presents the National Geographic from the inside out-from its remarkable founding family to the very ends of the earth it investigates. ... Read more

Book Description

The creation of the Mac in 1984 catapulted America into the digital millennium, captured a fanatic cult audience, and transformed the computer industry into an unprecedented mix of technology, economics, and show business. Now veteran technology writer and Newsweek senior editor Steven Levy zooms in on the great machine and the fortunes of the unique company responsible for its evolution. Loaded with anecdote and insight, and peppered with sharp commentary, Insanely Great is the definitive book on the most important computer ever made.It is a must-have for anyone curious about how we got to the interactive age.

"Engaging . . . A delightful and timely book."--The New York Times Book Review

"A holy scripture for loyal clickers of the mouse that may someday result in placement by digital Gideons in all motel rooms (virtual and actual) serving travelers on the information highway." --San Francisco Examiner ... Read more

Reviews (37)

The Macintosh Evolution
Insanely Great takes a look at how the Macintosh evolved from a garage with two hippies and a soldering iron into a multi billion dollar company. Unlike what the title suggests this book does not spend a whole lot of time talking about Steve Jobs. Instead, this book focuses on a part of Apple's history that is really, as far as I have seen, not very well documented. It discusses in detail the evolution of the Macintosh from the inside, talks to people directly involved with the project and really shows this part of the computer revolution from the inside out. For those of you who are PC users this book will help you understand the Mac way of thinking. Levy is a true Mac person but writes in a fairly unbiased manner. This book is a great read for anybody who enjoys the history of how computers became what they are, as well as all Mac users.

This book is O.K.
Steven Levy's "Insanely Great" features the birth and triumph of the Macintosh personal computer. Levy approaches the history of Apple's Mac by using his own personal experience with the company. He also explains the story by explaining the many people who had contributed to the success of the the Mac. For people who want to know an easy to read story of the birth of the Mac this book is the book to read.

I for "Internet"
Once upon a time, a guy named Steve had a vision: to take IBM's place in the computer industry. Not by copying IBM's ideas as Michael Dell did. No. By innovating...
Steve Jobs, a charismatic and driven individual, who wears the same outfit so he doesn't have to waste his time deciding what to wear, and who once was exiled from his own company, came back. Although many critics always thought of Jobs as an opportunistic individual, more than creative and visionary, and labeled him as a "One Hit Wonder" was able to make a "Come Back." This book tells the story of the first Mac, the one that only a few people knew about, and then, it takes you through a journey of one of the greatest companies ever founded: Apple, Inc. The story that almost wasn't told. After years of mismanagements and senior executives not understanding what Apple Computers was all about, Steve Jobs returned not just to save the company, but also to redirect where the company was headed. As many people said, "Apple was off track," and it was, it really was. However, Jobs' return not only brought blood back to Apple, but also put them on the black ink once again.
Before picking up this book, ensure that you have enough time to read it all at once. You won't be able o put it down. If you are a Mac fan, or if you are just interested in knowing a bit more of what Apple has gone through, this book is for you.
Enjoy it!

Fast, furious, and full of excitement
People who read this are in for an evening of excitement and fun. It's like a pulp fiction story for the silicon age.

Sould of a new Macintosh
Steven Levy, author of Hackers, reprises his examination of the high-tech industry with a close-up on the making of the Macintosh. Levy retells the story of the Macintosh's genesis, its influence from research at Xerox PARC, the ill-fated Apple Lisa and finally its painful birth. This is not a classic business book and really doesn't cover the rise and fall of Apple or it's CEOs in any great detail. Instead this is a more intimate story of the people who helped make the Macintosh. If you liked "Soul of a New Machine" you'll love this book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In Ptolemy's The Almagest, the earth is placed at the center of the universe and the planets move in crystal spheres against a backdrop of fixed stars. While these ideas have been swept away since the scientific revolution, Ptolemy's influence on astronomy was profound and long--we'll be dealing with the Y3K problem before Copernicus's time of influence catches up.

James Evans, historian and astronomer at the University of Puget Sound, believes that "staying close to the practice of astronomy means explaining a subject in enough detail for the reader to understand what the ancient astronomers actually did." As this unique book teaches you to do astronomy the old-fashioned way, you gain a profoundly deeper understanding of what the Greeks and their successors thought and did. "There is all the difference in the world between knowing about and knowing how to do," says Evans. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy is truly hands-on history, and deserves to be widely imitated. --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Book, took the class from the author
This is great book. I got to take the class for which the book was the class book, and the author was the professor. Class time was used for discussing the history and practice of the ancient astronomers from the babylonians to copernicus. We then were able to take a lab time to go through the well written excerisize to actually do the astronomy as, say, the ancient greeks did it. You can learn how the ancient greeks were able to predict the position of the stars and planets using the principle that the earth is the center of the universe. I took the class 2 years ago, and every once and awhile i pull out the book just to read through or make a new astrolobe plate.

Fantastic!
The big problem when writing a book about history of science, is how much background to include. If you don't include any background, the ordinary reader will not really get what's going on. Evans has instead written what can best be described as a two-fold book. It's both an introduction to astronomy and an introduction to history of astronomy! His explanations, and particularly his illustrations, are excellent. Both his scholarship and his writing are exceptional! Read it!

A great work of scholarship--and great fun
An impressive compendium of thousands of years of astronomy--from Babylon to Copernicus. In tracing the history of star-gazing, Evans traces the history of science, showing how ideas arose, migrated, stood up or failed under testing, and were passed down through the centuries. One learns a deep respect for ancient astronomers. Almost 2,000 years before Columbus, Greek scientists had figured out that the world was round, and had even determined that the Earth was miniscule compared to the size of the universe. Evans is committed to the idea of learning by doing, so he gives detailed instructions on how to construct every instrument that ancient astronomers used--from sundials to astrolabes. The book is full of great science projects. I would strongly recommend this book for those interested in the history of science, ancient and medieval thought, backyard astronomy... even astrologers would benefit greatly from this book. ... Read more

Book Description

In The Business of Alchemy, Pamela Smith explores the relationships among alchemy, the court, and commerce in order to illuminate the cultural history of the Holy Roman Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In showing how an overriding concern with religious salvation was transformed into a concentration on material increase and economic policies, Smith depicts the rise of modern science and early capitalism. In pursuing this narrative, she focuses on that ideal prey of the cultural historian, an intellectual of the second rank whose career and ideas typify those of a generation. Smith follows the career of Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682) from university to court, his projects from New World colonies to an old-world Pansophic Panopticon, and his ideas from alchemy to economics. Teasing out the many meanings of alchemy for Becher and his contemporaries, she argues that it provided Becher with not only a direct key to power over nature but also a language by which he could convince his princely patrons that their power too must rest on liquid wealth.

Agrarian society regarded merchants with suspicion as the nonproductive exploiters of others' labor; however, territorial princes turned to commerce for revenue as the cost of maintaining the state increased. Placing Becher's career in its social and intellectual context, Smith shows how he attempted to help his patrons assimilate commercial values into noble court culture and to understand the production of surplus capital as natural and legitimate. With emphasis on the practices of natural philosophy and extensive use of archival materials, Smith brings alive the moment of cultural transformation in which science and the modern state emerged. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Alchemy and Science?
Pamela Smith's work, "The Business of Alchemy", has a rather startling thesis. We all know that throughout history alchemy and empirical science have been considered seperate, and as soon as such men as Newton and Darwin came along, psuedosciences such as alchemy disappeared lost all credability. Right? Wrong. As Pamela Smith explains, that notion is ahistorical. The only problem with this book is that it is boring. I had trouble finishing even a single sentances without being bored. In conclusion, she should write more books about the history of science in Early Modern Europe. Over and out! ... Read more

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In the foreword to this expanded edition of his 1979 masterpiece, Horace Freeland Judson says, "I feared I might seem the official historian of the movement"--molecular biology, that is. If by official he means "authoritative; definitive; the standard against which all others are measured" then his fears are warranted.Detailed without being overly technical, humane without being fulsome, The Eighth Day of Creation tells of molecular biology's search for the secret of life. "The drama has everything--exploration of the unknown; low comedy and urgent seriousness; savage competition, vaulting intelligence, abrupt changes of fortune, sudden understandings; eccentric and brilliant people, men of honor and of less than honor; a heroine, perhaps wronged; and a treasure to be achieved that was unique and transcendent." And in Judson this drama found its Shakespeare. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Biomedical research, as it is actually practiced
Judson's book, like Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New
Machine", stands out for getting it: the passion, the
politics, and the personalities behind scientific
and technological progress, as well as its pitfalls and
cul de sacs. Judson's book, like no other I've read,
captures molecular biology as it is practiced.

I received this book as a gift in 1980 when I was a
college freshman hoping to major in biochemistry.
Today, much as I like to see the biomedical research I
do as a rational, deductive, "hypothesis-driven"
affair, there is unescapably the human element. Think
ego, and all of the other human qualities, respectable
or scorned. Have you seen genome sequencer J. Craig
Venter on the cover of Time (or was it Newsweek?). What
do you think put him there?

Science as a human endeavor was put forth theoretically
in 1962 by historian Thomas Kuhn in his "The Structure
of Scientific Revolutions". Complementing Kuhn, Judson
illustrates it in deliciously readable human terms. For
this reason this book is unmatched and is worth six,
not five, stars.

Max Perutz appears significantly in Judson's story. In
1990, as a beginning graduate student, I had the
priviledge of meeting and conversing with Perutz. He
was just as Judson portrayed him: modest, plodding,
dedicated, pursuing what he might learn from the
structure and properties of hemoglobin. Reading Judson
a decade earlier prepared me for this most important
meeting for me.

Though dated (the story stops about 1975), I heartily
recommend this book to anyone considering a career in
biomedical research. Judson successfully conveys the
human reality of that honorable profession. Some times
it hurts -- crystallographer Rosalind Franklin never
got her due -- but that's the state of the profession.

Great piece of historical writing
I loved this book. Before reading it, I had the rather naive view that Crick and Watson discovered the structure of DNA and suddenly "all was light". I hadn't realised the huge effort required over the next twenty years to attain an understanding of the linkages between that structure and the biological processes it codes for. Judson's book tells that story, in detail, and is written at a level that I could follow (as a layperson with a keen interest in science).

Judson talked to the researchers responsible for all the major developments in molecular biology, and quotes extensively from his interviews, so the reader gets a feel for the human side of the great adventure, the sense of community and the rivalries, the frustrations and dead ends as well as the victories.

Be warned that it is not a light or short read. It demands the reader's close attention. Fortunately, though, it is a pageturner that (with only minor exceptions) keeps the reader gripped.

It should also be noted that the first edition of the book was written in the early seventies and, while no doubt Freedland has updated it, the main narrative ends in about 1972. There is a final chapter on developments since then, but it is of necessity quite brief and touches on a limited number of highlights.

A magnificent Eighth Day
Wonderful, it is simply the best book on the subject. An account that carefully balances scientific contents and personal issues of the scientists from the early times of molecular biology and conveys the the thrill of professional research.

An awesomely brilliant work of intellectual history.
I used to think "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder was unsurpassable in this genre. But the truth is, "The Eight Day of Creation" is far more ambitious, far more informative, far more amazing, and far more important. And it's also very beautifully written. What a great way for people to find out what the deepest truths are in biology, and how they were discovered!

outstanding presentation of origins of life chemistry
presents discovery of DNA structure, RNA structure, and protein synthesis in a New Yorker style book. Very long, but very interesting. I've read the first half of the book twice, but haven't finished. I intend to finish it next time. Lots of fascinating anecdotal information. ... Read more

Book Description

Pronged ants, horned humans, a landscape carved on a fruit pit--some of the displays in David Wilson's Museum of Jurassic Technology are hoaxes. But which ones? As he guides readers through an intellectual hall of mirrors, Lawrence Weschler revisits the 16th-century "wonder cabinets" that were the first museums and compels readers to examine the imaginative origins of both art and science. Illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

This one stays with you a LONG time.
I can't think of another book that has so altered my perception of how we process new information in a world full of unexpected and remarkable scientific "wonders." Are we easily duped? Are we natural non-believers or natural believers? Weschler really gets us going about objects found in the "Museum of Jurassic Technology" in L.A., then suddenly we're caught short - is the Director of the Museum kidding Weschler, just to prove a point about how gullible we are? Is WESCHLER making it all up? Is this book itself a curio from a "cabinet of wonder" and are we being asked to accept it as non-fiction? Does the Museum exist? (I even tried to find it in the L.A. phone book when I visited - couldn't find it. Curiouser and curiouser....does anyone out there know for sure?) This book made me want to go sit in on graduate-level classes in Museology - how do museum professionals really decide what information will go on those little cards next to the e! xhibits in museums? How easily convinced are we by the authority of those stark, compact little "explanations" that what we are seeing is what they tell us we are seeing - especially in situations where we have very little ability to check out the infomation? Can we believe the unbelievable? Should we? How do museums - how does anyone, really - manipulate the way information is delivered to the uninformed or the unconvinced? Weschler keeps his readers wonderfully off-balance about what he's describing - we are often half-way to believing impossible information because that information comes wrapped up with the bows & ribbons of an exclusive academic vocabulary. Weschler brings in the phenomena of "cabinets of wonder", brought back from the New World to the Old, full of objects which we know now to be real but which seemed marvelous and almost surreal at the time. This whole book is like a trip through a carnival House of Mirrors - you're just never quit! e sure that what you're seeing is real. Delightful and thou! ght-provoking in absolutely every way. And it's short to boot - no excuse not to sit right down and read it. Then read it again because you were so perplexed the first time through. Then give a copy to a friend.

David Wilson needs a better reader
The photographs and engravings reproduced in Lawrence Weschler's book are poignant and riveting. They account for the 2 stars in my rating. And David Wilson is indeed a "national treasure," as is his unsettling museum. This book, however, seems to me a snide, yuppie's-eye-view of a truly original person and his meticulously wondrous contribution to the long history of the wonder-cabinet. I was depressed for quite a while after reading it to think that this condescending and anti-intellectual account would bear Wilson's mind and seditious achievements out into the world so much more frequently than would the Museum of Jurassic Technology itself, or its own publications. People fated to live out imaginatively impoverished lives in latter-day American society could use some capacity for self-loss in the face of what is other than ourselves or what we have mastered. And--perhaps less fundamentally, but in the interests of our being less boring to each other--we could use a less pervasive culture of knowingness. *Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder* brings that possibility forward only to smother it in a kind of smugly affectionate ridicule for the person who tried to give us a chance. I was particularly disappointed in that Weschler's 80s New Yorker piece about Boggs was both intriguing and respectful, and his original Harper's piece on Wilson at least showed honest curiosity. The book is a failure for a writer who had seemed to have an interesting mission. People interested in Wunderkammern of the past, as Wilson himself is and as Weschler's irrepressible condescension demonstrates he is finally not, should look at the catalogue of Dartmouth's Hood Museum exhibit and conference on them, edited by Joy Kenseth, *The Age of the Marvelous*; Paula Findlen's *Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy; Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park's *Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1100-1750*, and Rosamond Purcell and Stephen J. Gould's glorious *Finders, Keepers: Treasures and Oddities of Natural History*. All are profusely illustrated; Purcell's photographs in the last are works of art in themselves.

Fascinating subject, wrong author
I learned of the Museum of Jurassic Technology through this very short book, which begins with journalist Lawrence Weschler's description of the exhibits and then goes briefly into the history of museums and the history of this particular museum and its proprietor. But I already feel I know more about it than Weschler.

Among other things, the museum is a straight-faced, Andy Kaufman-esque joke, blending exhibits that look too nutty to be true, but are true, with outright hoaxes. Weschler, who apparently came into the Museum of Jurassic Technology with little of the sort of education or interests that would have prepared him for such a place, continually mistakes the veracity of the exhibits one way or the other until he researches each and every one, and in his writing he expects everyone to have had the very same reaction to the exhibits that he did.

In other words, he didn't get the joke, and he writes as though he expects us not to. For those, like me, who already knew enough to get it in the first place, reading Weschler's book is like hearing someone explain a joke -- it struck me in many places as laborious and unfunny.

Fortunately, the museum itself and Weschler's other material is fascinating stuff on any terms. Weschler does not do justice to the material, but the material is so strong it carries the book anyway. If the idea of visiting a museum that claims to have an X-ray bat that flew so fast it embedded itself in a lead block does not interest you, this is not your book. But if this sort of quasi-Fortean esoterica sounds like your cup of tea, you will enjoy reading about the Museum of Jurassic Technology, if only to know that a place like that exists and to daydream about visiting it someday.

A thrilling intellectual odyssey
Weschler's animated look at the 'asthetically just' museum curator David Wilson and an examination, in the book's second part, of the history of 'Wonder-cabinets' from the sixteenth century to the present day is a fascinating mix of profile, historical inquiry, and detective story. David Wilson and his museum are almost too good to be true and should encourage anyone who can get to Los Angeles to visit the MJT. The prose throughout is superb: Weschler is a master at making people talk on the page, and his own thoughts are conveyed in a prose that mimics colloquial speech -- a murderously difficult thing to do. I have read all of Weschler's books, and this, I think, is his very best.

A remarkable exposition of wonder
This remarkable book documents, in part, the extraordinary collection of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, a small storefront museum in Culver City, California. The MJT is something of an anomaly, existing in some strange territory between genuine (though odd) museum and performance art piece. As Weschler walks us through several of these exhibits, we are ultimately left in a wonderful state of suspension between credulity and skepticism, simultaneously unable to dismiss the museum as a joke and unable to accept its wonders without skepticism. At times, the experience is very much like reading BorgesÕ elaborately self-referential fictions; at other moments, it feels like youÕve wandered into a Pynchon novel in which a deeply strange and hidden world lies beneath the surface of the real.

The second part of the book places the MJT in the historical context of the wunderkammern of the 17th and early 18th centuries, those vast collections of natural and artificial curiosities that served as the first museums. The articulation of a profound sense of wonder is at the heart of WeschlerÕs fascinating book, which is in fact astounding in its elaboration of a world stranger than many found in fiction. Enthusiastically recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume contains state-of-the-art essays, offering broad reflections on the Scientific Revolution, by a group of leading scholars actively engaged in the study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century science. Although the volume's thirteen original essays displat a wide variety of methods and approaches, all share the aim of reexamining fundamental assumptions and questioning established interpretations of the Scientific Revolution. Some of the essays deal with questions of method, audience, and social context. Others examine the conceptions of science held by the major figures in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century science, reconsider the relationship of metaphysics to scientific inquiry, investigate the ideology of scientific openness and its origins, and revise traditional estimates of the place of science within the universities. Still others reconsider the map of scientific knowledge as viewed during these two centuries, and the relationship of occult traditions to other features of the Scientific Revolution. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Science museums can be illuminating, exciting, and disturbing--just like the collectors that make them possible. Scholar Stephen T. Asma turned his professional curiosity about preserving bodies into an engrossing, wide-ranging exploration of the nature of these places and their curators.Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums brings a refreshing vitality to a subject usually thought boring, if not morbid. Asma's writing ranges from expositive to chatty, and it occasionally feels like a travelogue or memoir, as he investigates the American Museum of Natural History, the Galerie d'anatomie comparée, and other collections in the U.S. and Europe. This informality keeps the reader engaged throughout. Referring to the process of skeletonizing specimens--while maintaining his hold on all but the most sensitive--he writes:

I stepped into the foulest, most pestiferous stench you can imagine.... Inside each tank were thousands of dermestid beetles, otherwise known as flesh-eating beetles, blissfully chewing the meaty chunks and strands off the bones. Each bug was no bigger than a watermelon seed, but en masse they could strip a skeleton clean in two short days.

To Asma's credit, the bulk of the text is less a gross-out fest than a consideration of the hard, sometimes obsessive work of the men and women behind the displays. He examines the role of museums and collectors in the great evolutionary debates of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the future of these institutions as they come more and more to depend on corporate largesse. Equally enlightening and entertaining, Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads is a perfectly exhibited specimen. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Bizarre and Brilliant!
This is an excellent and provocative book. Asma ranges widely, but also deeply, over the relatively uncharted territory of museum practices and theories --some mainstream and others quirky and idiosyncratic. One of the great virtues of the book is that it consciously avoids the typical postmodern cultural studies lingo that most of the other recent museum books invoke. This is clear and thoughtful analysis of the tradition of natural history collecting --analysis that brings us face to face with oddball curators like Peale and Hunter. But it also connects the older forms of edutainment (early taxidermy, etc.) with the more contemporary and controversial forms (Hollywood-type displays of dinosaurs, etc.). Two other important aspects of the book are scarcely mentioned in the promo blurbs, but they make for fascinating reading. One, is a fresh, if ocassionally dense, tour of European scientific classification theory --a philosophically important and often ignored area. And two, a powerful argument for evolution theory as against creationism and the increasingly popular "intelligent design" theory. Great writing and very intelligent!

The evolution of natural history museums around the world
Stephen Asthma's Stuffed Animals And Pickled Heads surveys the presence and evolution of natural history museums around the world, interviewing curators, scientists and exhibit designers and providing many observations of the history of these museums and how their contents and approaches have evolved. The result is an excellent and intriguing story of the evolution of natural history collections.

Mummies, Museums, and Metaphysics
If you do not want to know the nuts and bolts (or rather, the knives and molds) of the craft of taxidermy, but you want to know about why people might be interested in such an activity, what happens to their exhibits in museums, how museums express cultural and scientific philosophy, and how we come to categorize the biology that fills our world, then Stephen T. Asma's _Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums_ (Oxford University Press) will do nicely. It is an amusing ramble through museums, but since Asma is a professor of philosophy, it veers through much larger ideas.

Asma obviously likes museums, and he has gained entrance to the back rooms denied to other mortals. He is delighted to report his findings, such as the dermestid beetle room at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. These beetles, held in a stinky sealed room that has a door like a submarine hatch, swarm over the skinned bodies of specimens, literally gnawing them to the bone in a couple of days. He has interviewed curators and exhibition designers, and has them explain what they are trying to accomplish in their exhibits. But they may not know; how a display is arranged depends on scientific and social philosophy which varies from time to time and from nation to nation, and may be covert. Louis Agassiz displayed human racial artifacts at Harvard to emphasize that races were different, having been separately and specially created, rather than showing the continuity of human descent. The natural history museum in England have exhibits that emphasize Darwin, but the French hardly mention him. The Americans will have the most modern philosophy of taxonomy.

Comfortable with including Plato, James, Wittgenstein and others from his own field, Asma gives a wide-ranging discussion of epistemological issues that is academic but is never stuffy and never loses its sense of fun. ... Read more

Book Description

American Ground Zero is the extraordinary product of one photojournalist's decade-long commitment, a gripping, courageous collection of portraits and interviews of those whose lives were crossed by radioactive fallout.

For twelve years beginning in 1951, the United States government conducted above ground testing of nuclear weapons in the deserts of Nevada. For more than four decades it has tried to cover up the human and environmental devastation wrought by this testing. In American Ground Zero, Carole Gallagher has penetrated the veil of official secrecy and anonymity to document the incredible untold story of the Americans whose misfortune it was to live downwind of the nuclear detonations - those citizens described in a top-secret Atomic Energy Commission memo as "a low-use segment of the population" - and of civilian workers and military personnel exposed to radiation at the Nevada Test Site.

The above ground nuclear testing was "the most prodigiously reckless program of scientific experimentation in United States history," Keith Schneider notes in his foreword to the book. Many of its 126 fallout clouds floated across the American West and eastward with radiation levels comparable to those released at Chernobyl. Yet residents of the downwind areas were consistently told that there was no danger, and were even encouraged to "participate in a moment of history" by coming out to watch these fallout clouds drifting over their homes.

Abandoning her career as a successful New York photographer, Carole Gallagher moved to Utah in 1983 and spent the next seven years networking among radiation survivors' groups and finding people willing to be photographed and tell their story. She covered six downwind states in all, including Test Site workers and atomic veterans. The result is a striking gallery of the undecorated casualties of an undeclared war. Never exploitative, Gallagher's photographs only rarely convey the subjects' considerable physical sufferings: instead, they invite the viewer to witness the beauty and value in these ordinary lives.

Carole Gallagher is a photographer whose work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. She is currently living in New York City. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Gallagher's book is conduit for voices of the downwinders
I grew up in Northern Arizona on the Utah border. Living close to St George and Cedar City, Utah, we heard rumors of families with unusually high incidents of leukemia and other cancers and the ensuing speculation about the cause. Gallagher's compilation of stories supplies the most human view of the downwinders. She documents a dark and frightening chapter in our goverment's history. Most compelling were the stories of the workers at the test site who were not even afforded the pretense of protection from exposure. I would have appreciated additional focus on the effects of the testing on the Native American tribes in Utah and Northern Arizona.

Gallagher has given us a treasure by documenting the stories of radiation exposure victims who deserve to have their stories told. Once started, I could not stop reading this book and found myself studying each photograph for several minutes before reading the accompanying story.

Thank you Ms. Gallagher for leaving your New York roots, succuming to the fashion dictates of southern Utah and permitting yourself to become the blank slate upon which these stories were etched.

Should be required reading in every school!
I've read and reread this book so many times I've lost count. In addition I've loaned it out to multiple friends just to get them to open their eyes. Each time I read it I'm still amazed at the liberties taken by the military during this period of time. There is so much important information here I could never even scratch the surface in a short review. The poignant stories told by the victims of these nuclear tests (mostly patriotic mormons who felt the govt. could do no wrong) will move you emotionally, besides backing up Gallaghers claims. If you consider yourself a patriot, prepare to have your world shaken. Just buy it, you wont be sorry.

Compassionately denying one's ability to hide truth.
I have had this book for two years. Reading it completely 9 times and countless partial times. Gallagher in her effort "to become a blank slate upon which the stories could be written" has embodied the voice of a people not just a position of personal opinion. Hearing that voice cause's the reader to open there eye's to the stark reality of what "we the people" have allowed to happen. Revealing just how fast the holocost of the WWII was pushed out of the conscientious of the people. Allowing the same mentality that drove the Nazi's, to develope in the country "were that could not happen". Without a doubt this "work" is not for the light hearted. Reality with weight, forces the reader to think. Cause's the reader to question not only the government structure and poilcy's we have let be set but the moral code by which we justify a means to a end. How do you determine who live's and who dies? What and Who determines the worth of a human being? You will be challanged, morally, and emotionally. Carole Gallagher has painted people, words, and pictures together in a way that you will not shake off anytime soon. Personal stories will bury themselve's deep into your heart and mind. You will hear the echoed cry's of a people for which there was no justice, no hope. The bottom line reality is we let it happen. This is "the wake up call" Gallagher presents the reader with. It is very disturbing wake up call.

Carole tells how the Gov't. knew they would kill US Citizens
Carole Gallagher has written the most informative and descriptive book ever about the how the U S Government knew that innocent americans would die from the atomic bomb tests and were considered as GUINEA PIGS for the effects of radiation on humans and how the Government is still, to this day keeping documents top secret that contain information regarding how radiation effects humans when exposed to it, yet we are still being exposed to man made radiation and all for a profit for the corperate world and their bank accounts. This book is a eye opener This is written By a atomic veteran that worked on the atomic bomb while in the U S Air Force (50-54) in underground tunnel systems in New Mexico and Texas and participated in one atomic bomb test at Fort Hood, Texas. During the four (4) years I was in the USAF and has read 28 books on the subject. I was hospitalized six (6) times and treated as a outpatient thirty five (35) times and all I was ever told that there is not enough radiation to harm me. I now have 15 chronic diseases linked to radiation exposure plus cataracts. Carole Gallagher is a great author and cares less whose feet get hurt so the truth can be told. This is a must read Vernon F. Sousa National Association of Atomic Veterans Research Coordinator

Tragic but true story of "downwinders"
Ms Gallagher writes about the A bomb test in Neveda in the 50's and 60's some very disturbing information about the AEC and the DOE. Exactly what was our government trying to prove? ... Read more

Amazon.com

Trinh Xuan Thuan, whose books of popular science are bestsellers in France, is an astronomer by training. In Chaos and Harmony, he reaches well beyond the immediate bounds of that field to consider the explosion of scientific knowledge of all kinds in the 20th century, and he muses on the very nature of scientific inquiry.

The most important aspect of a theory of science, in Trinh's view, is not that it be verifiable experimentally, but that it "allow beauty and truth to emerge into one." General relativity is a hallmark in this regard. Unendingly rich in insight and implication, as well as "inevitable, simple, and congruent with the whole," it has enabled cosmologists to range across the whole of time and to conceive of such phenomena as black holes and curved space. Trinh applies his beauty-and-truth criterion to various problems, such as where the moon--the largest known satellite in the solar system--came from, how chaos theory can properly be applied to economic modeling, and why nature seems to favor symmetry. Along the way, Trinh pauses to remark on episodes in the history of science and to make gentle but provocative asides (for example, gainsaying Einstein to insist that God does indeed play dice with the universe). Elegant and lively, Trinh's book is a fine survey of contemporary scientific ideas and a look ahead at science's ongoing quest for a unifying Theory of Everything. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (7)

hard to decipher
As a reviewer below notes, this book is neoplatonism obscured by much well described science.

On page 332, the author writes-- "Our abitlity to do science and decipher the cosmic code suggests an intimate connection between the world of the mind and that of Platonic forms. The universe has produced human beings capable of understanding it. The loop is now closed. I believe that it did not happen by accident. ... The universe does have a meaning, and it is man who, by understanding it, bestows that meaning on it."

One must cover a lot of territory between the Foreword which only barely hints at the hidden Platonism and page 332. Such deciphering becomes extremely tedious...

General Information
Without getting into specifics you read Chaos, Symetry and Harmony. A good description of all modern theories and how they tie to Chaos without concrete reasoning. Yes Stock Market behaves like Chaos so what do you do with that, i could not get the answer. I would call it more like a summary of modern physics

Good popular science, but not really philosophy
Just so you get an idea of Dr. Thuan's philosophical viewpoint, he is a neo-Platonist (in the sense that he believes in a self-existing reality where mathematics "resides") and he believes that the universe was designed. He also thinks that determinism is bad. If you agree with any or all of these perspectives, you probably won't find any new reasons to support your viewpoint. If you disagree, you will probably find little here to convince you otherwise. This is not a philosophically original work.

But Dr. Thuan does offer an engagingly written (if brief) account of much of the history of modern physics--big bang cosmology, electromagnetism, special and general relativity, quantum mechanics, strong and weak nuclear forces, particle physics--as well as some fun topics like black holes and wormholes, and he teases the reader with short accounts of potential research areas such as superstring theory and supersymmetry. His treatment is nice since we get not only the results of modern physics, but also some sense as to how we got them in the first place, which is often missing in works of popular science.

My only complaints (other than the possibly misleading title) are:
* I wish he would have been a little more careful to distinguish the behavior of chaotic systems from the operation of "chaos theory" in Chapter 3.
* In Chapter 6 I wish he would have given more rigorous reasons than his personal incredulity for doubting that natural selection can account for the diversity of life. At least he could have gotten a biologist's perspective--he quoted quite often from physicists and mathematicians, so presumably it wouldn't have been very hard to get a relevant comment from a biologist.
* I found his comments on the "evils" of determinism in Chapter 7 to be distracting and beside the point, but perhaps others will see merit in them.

Overall, it's a good read if you want to get a general sense of some of the more important advances in physics, but if it's philosophy you're looking for, you could do better elsewhere.

What an amazing book!
I thoroughly enjoyed Xuan Thuan Trinh's approach to describing a modern view of the Universe. He ties many of the common themes underlying modern physics and science together. He also beautifully inter-weaves them together to give us all a better perspective on the advances that will come in the 21st century.

Vivid, accessible overview of the latest theories ...
A clear, eloquent, and graceful discussion of how recent scientifc discoveries impact our lives in more than just theoretical terms. Thuan begins with a wonderfully vivid, accessible overview of the latest theories about chaos, gravity, strange attractors, fractals, symmetry, superstrings, and the strangeness of atoms, and reveals how these discoveries have shaped our view of the universe. From the subatomic world to the vastness of quasars and galaxies, from the nature of mathematics to the fractal characteristics of the human circulatory system, Trinh Xuan Thuan takes us on a truly awe-inspiring tour of the universe as we know it today. With brilliant analogies that open up the strangest, often counterintuitive theories about all sorts of things most of us don't take the time to consider, what Thuan really shows readers in Chaos and Harmony is how science has actually restored mystery and amazement to the world around us. ... Read more

Book Description

The long-awaited story of the science, the business, the politics, the intrigue behind the scenes of the most ferocious competition in the history of modern science—the race to map the human genome.
On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life—seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government’s Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich. Calling his company Celera (from the Latin for “speed”), he assembled a small group of scientists in an empty building in Rockville, Maryland, and set to work.
At the same time, the leaders of the government program, under the direction of Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, began to mobilize an unexpectedly unified effort to beat Venter to the prize—knowledge that had the potential to revolutionize medicine and society.

The stage was set for one of the most thrilling—and important—dramas in the history of science. The Genome War is the definitive account of that drama—the race for the greatest prize biology has had to offer, told by a writer with exclusive access to Venter’s operation from start to finish. It is also the story of how one man’s ambition created a scientific Camelot where, for a moment, it seemed that the competing interests of pure science and commercial profit might be gloriously reconciled—and the national repercussions that resulted when that dream went awry. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A complex story well told
This is a ferciously well-written account of the race to map the human genome, one of the most sordid and expensive races in the history of science. Virtually alone amongst the books available out there on the genome race, this book tells the story from the point of view of Craig Venter. Not only that, but James Shreeve had a complete fly-on-the-wall view of the inner workings of Celera, allowing Shreeve to give a full-blooded account of the implosion of Venter's dream, that of becoming the Bill Gates of Biotech.

Shreeve has done the impossible by pulling the threads of this immense story into a tight coherent narrative. At the end of the story, we understand how Venter ended up in the embarassing situation of negociating a so-called "tie" in the race for the human genome. Shreeve has a novelistic eye for detail in painting memorable portraits of the many people involved in the story. The science is vividly introduced when needed, but the complex financial and political moves are also explicated with authority. This is very very good writing.

Although Craig Venter has often been demonized amongst scientific circles, it was always an open question whether Venter was the devil incarnate, or an incredibly naive scientist who made one stupid faustian bargain after another. While there is no doubt that Venter is a brilliant man, Shreeve' account portrays Venter as a financial masochist, a victim of financial forces beyond his understanding.

In the preface, Shreeve explained that he had originally wanted a balanced account of the race as he tried to get access to the head of the public Human Genome Project, Francis Collins. He was refused. Because of that, Shreeve has structured the book as a character study of Venter, where we are privy to all his inner trials and tribulations. From being embedded in the private side of the race, Shreeve introduces a subtle bias in the account. The private researchers at Celera are fun and daring, even glamorous, whereas the public scientists are inefficient, stodgy, yawningly boring white-lab coats, especially when they talk about the ethical stuff. In my experience, it's been the opposite. I know researchers who have come back into academia because industry research was so achingly boring.

One big gripe I have with this book is that Shreeve glides over why the public project was so fixated on trying to keep the map open, free and accessible. Shreeve makes the leaders of the public project sound like shrill ideologues, constantly harping on over some kind of utopian ideal. This subtle bias ignores the heavily documented, though much ignored, literature over the pathological behaviour of the pharmaceutical industry. A commercial monopoly over the human genome would have been a disaster for public health (as opposed to rich men's health), and Celera came close to destroying the fragile consensus in academia science.

Apart from this gripe, I do recommend that you read this book if you want a sophisticated guide to one of the most fascinating collisions between commerical and public science, as well as a superb study of scientific ambition.

A zesty story of a great struggle for discovery
The business, science and controversial politics affecting genome studies are outlined by James Shreeve in The Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried To Capture The Code Of Life And Save The World, a history of the race to map the human genome. From the efforts of both private and government industries to unravel the complete genetic code of life to accounts of individual ambitions and motivations for participating in the project, The Genome War offers a zesty story of a great struggle for discovery.

Informative and exciting
This book has it all: brilliant, extraordinary personalities; big egos and big visions, high stakes political and business maneuvering, scientific breakthroughs and feats of technical virtuosity - all making up a very thrilling and important story. James Shreeve relates a complex history of a monumental scientific achievement in a way that is lucid, engaging, informative and exciting. Once you start this book, it is hard to put down. Craig Venter personal story is incredible and intriguing enough, but there are several other interesting and gifted individuals in both the private and public sector chronicled in the book whose genius, dreams and hard work lead to the mapping of the human genome.

Pure joy! A science writing masterpiece.
If you read only one science book this year, it has to be James Shreeve's inside view of the race to sequence the human genome. The story of this tumultuous competition between the prestigious Human Genome Project and the brash visionary Craig Venter is a joy ride. Shreeve's irreverent, charming and ultimately thrilling tale is a masterpiece of science writing. The white coats (and white hats) drop away in this book as Shreeve reveals the majesty of science for what it has always been, a very human story. Bravo!

And now for the other side
Several books have already covered many aspects of the race to sequence the human genome. These books were either written by outsiders with limitted access or in the case of The Common Thread by an insider from the public human genome project. For the first time this book gives the perspective of someone who had intimate access to the people, premises and meetings at Celera Genomics. As an insider at Celera I can vouch for the accuracy of the events covered in the book that I was present for as well as the spirit of the endeavor captured by this book. While I am undoubtedly biased, I found the quality of the narative for this book to be better than that of its rivals and the content more compelling. Shreeve also covers the concurrent public effort and does a nice job of explaining many of the technical challenges in an understandable fashion, but what is unique to this book is the story from behind the scenes at Celera as well as some in depth descriptions of the people involved. If you are at all interested in the whole story about this moment in history you need to read this book! ... Read more

Book Description

"Forcefully challenges habituated understandings of `history., `urban' and `economics'." -- Christopher Hight, AA Files

Following in the wake of his groundbreaking War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, Manuel De Landa presents a radical synthesis of historical development over the last one thousand years. More than a simple expository history, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History sketches the outlines of a renewed materialist philosophy of history in the tradition of Fernand Braudel, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari, while also engaging the critical new understanding of material processes derived from the sciences of dynamics. Working against prevailing attitudes that see history as an arena of texts, discourses, ideologies, and metaphors, De Landa traces the concrete movements and interplays of matter and energy through human populations in the last millennium.

De Landa attacks three domains that have given shape to human societies: economics, biology, and linguistics. In every case, what one sees is the self-directed processes of matter and energy interacting with the whim and will of human history itself to form a panoramic vision of the West free of rigid teleology and naive notions of progress, and even more important, free of any deterministic source of its urban, institutional, and technological forms. Rather, the source of all concrete forms in the West's history are shown to derive from internal morphogenetic capabilities that lie within the flow of matter-energy itself. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

the echoes of a dynamic mentality.
This is a fascinating odyssey through the compelling concept of nonlinear theory. In using detailed examples De Landa performs amazing explications as to the relationship between nonlinear theory and various historical processes. His suggestion to "destratify" and "experiment" with reality are exciting views in contrast to the rampant homogeneity propagated through the seams of our society. A truly envigorating book that with patience and thought can radically reconfigure your outlook on history and any other entity that may need a tweak of nonlinearity.

A really good book.....
De Landa's take on history is that it is a product of complexity and self-organization much more than we are prone to believe; in this book, he expands on and explodes from those of his (also) brilliant "War in the Age of Intelligent Machines".

The traditional metaphors for human progress that have been coopted from other sciences-- economics, geology, and engineering-- and do not adequately portray what exactly man hath wrought. In this book, De Landa works through history three seperate times and discusses-- through the use of terms like 'bifucation' and 'singularities' how he believes it did progress....

I really like this book: I think that it is definately a text whose time has come..... BUT.... having read both this and 'War...' I want to warn readers of their one failing-- the author-- because of his broad sweep-- seems to occasionally make errors in the myriad of references that he makes (the book is meticulously footnoted, to its credit). Though this is largely an editor's problem, it is bad.... something that someone who is going at things fast-and-furious and from a broad sweep is likely to have happen....

It doesn't blight the whole. This is a must read.... though fans of traditional disciplines might not find a whole lot to like about with it (and might find a lot more along the lines of my above point....)

Gibberish
The author is trying to communicate with us, but
by using Klingon Battle Language he'd be more intelligible.
The terms and concepts in the book appear not to have
ordinary meaning, but follow a lexicon inspired by someone who had too much graduate level deconstructionism. I gave it an honest try, on recommendation of Terence McKenna and Mark
Pesce. It would seem that the author is writing for
an audience with IQs above 200, or I'm hopelessly out
of touch.

Understand the BwO!
The pot of gold at the end of this rainbow covered book is De Landa's explanation of Deleuze and Guattari's Body without Organs. Worth it for that alone.

T.S. Kuhn would have been pleased.
Application of non-linearity to problems in the Natural (hard) Sciences is not a new concept, and it has long been known that the omission of these terms is what prevents most models from aquiring the complexity we see in real life. De Landa chronicles the development in this area as applied to Biology, a couple of branches in Physics and the Social Sciences, and links all his subjects in such an extraordinary way that the book is itself a meshwork, in the purest sense of Deleuze and Guattari. The historical tidbits are themselves amusing and informative, and thus make the reading quite enjoyable. This is just as well an exposition of the history of nonlinearity as it is a presentation of nonlinearity as culmination of any and all ongoing natural processes.
The book's greatest strength is the presentation of unusual concepts in a strangely clear and persuasive way. In fact, if you have picked Deleuze and Guattari's books and have discarded them as pseudophilosophical bull, as I once erroneuosly did, give them a go again after De Landa; you will be surprised.
Read it, and one day you may brag that you were well aware of the conceptual revolution that shook Science as a whole as the 21st Century began, well before it was fully on its way. ... Read more

Book Description

From the prizewinning author of Modern Times comes an extraordinary chronicle of the period that laid the foundations of the modern world. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A Leisurely Stroll through a Largely Overlooked Era
Johnson's intriguing premise is that 1815-1830 were the years when the modern era blossomed, and he does a convincing and commendable job of telling us why this is so. One of the reasons why this fat volume is so enjoyable is that Johnson is in no hurry to tell his story. Unlike so many historians that focus only on the big picture, he delights in giving this era a personality by acquainting us with so many of its personalities, in remarkable detail. His scholarship is astonishing, and his story-telling arresting. Being a Brit, I think, gives him wonderful insight into the European characters whom he describes. Ult