Book Description

This book surveys the history of American technology from the early 17th century to the present, focusing on the key individuals, ideas, and systems that have shaped the important technological developments throughout American history. Cowan demonstrates how technological change has always been closely related to social development, and examines the important relationship between social history -- the family, women and work, and the home -- with that of technological developments in the factory, business, and the scientific community. In a fascinating concluding chapter, Cowan examines the vast social implications of recent technological developments, and how these technologies are causing crucial changes in America's political, economic, and social structure. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very Broad
Very broad overview of American technology starting with the beginning of the United States all the way through fairly current biotechnology. There are a few good stories in here and the second half is by far the best. I really liked the sections on the railroad, the automobile, radio communication, penicillin, and the section on the birth control pill was by far the best. Is it true that doctors and researchers weren't allowed to talk about birth control till past the early 1950's in the United States? Here's an interesting quote...

"In short, by 1880 if by some weird accident all the batteries that generated electricity for telegraph lines had suddenly run out, the economic and social life of the nation would have faltered. Trains would have stopped running; businesses with branch offices would have stopped functioning; newspapers could have not covered distant events; the president could not have communicated with his European ambassadors; the stock market would have to close; family members separated by long distances could have not relayed important news to each other. By the turn of the century, the telegraph system was both literally and figuratively a network, linking together various aspects of national life- making people increasingly dependent on one another."

Y2K, ay? ... Read more

Book Description

Before the term hacking became associated with computers, MIT undergraduates used it to describe any activity that took their minds off studying, suggested an unusual solution to a technical problem, or generally fostered nondestructive mischief. The MIT hacking culture has given us such treasures as police cars and cows on the Great Dome, a disappearing door to the President's office, and the commencement game of "Al Gore Buzzword Bingo." Hacks can be technical, physical, virtual, or verbal. Often the underlying motivation is to conquer the inaccessible and make possible the improbable. Hacks can express dissatisfaction with local culture or with administrative decisions, but mostly they are remarkably good-spirited. They are also by definition ephemeral. Fortunately, the MIT Museum has amassed a unique collection of hack-related pictures, reports, and remnants. Nightwork collects the best materials from this collection, to entertain innocent bystanders and inspire new generations of practitioners. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People
The Massechussettes Institue of Technology has been host to the leaders of innovations in many fields: Artificial Intelligence, media and communication technology, open source development, and on and on. One of its lesser known areas of bleeding-edge innovation has been pranks and hacking. Well, Institute Historian T. F. Peterson is here to set that straight with Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT.

Long before the term 'hacking' was associated with computers (and pejoratively by the popular press), it was an MIT institution. MIT undergrads used the term to describe any activity that took their minds off studying and stress. In Nightwork, the best of the best of the history of MIT hacks is documented, photographed, and explained in great detail.

Some of the best (and most visible) hacks at MIT involve The Great Dome. For instance, to celebrate the 2001 release of the movie The Lord of the Rings, MIT hackers made a gold ring around the dome with red Elvish script, "authentically inscribed with Tolkien's text." In the same spirit in 1999, two days before the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, the dome was made up to look like R2D2 (pictured below).

Nightwork covers these more obvious hacks as well as the long history of pranks at MIT dating back to the 1940s: Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People. And lest the reader think this is all just mindless fun, a collection of explanitory and philosophical essays is also included.

Even if you're not a hacker or a prankster yourself, hack your bookshelf with Nightwork.

Super humor from MIT!
"Nightwork: a history of hacks and pranks at MIT" is a well-written documentation of the ingenious stunts engineered by the super bright, super creative students at MIT. The author doesn't lose any of the hilarity in his/her description of the student hijinks. ... Read more

Book Description

Discover the battle against epidemics -- from the Black Death and smallpox to the modern superbug.

For as along as people have lived together in communities, infectious disease has been a part of everyday life. The fascinating story of disease-causing microbes, bacteria, and viruses crosses every area of human existence -- from medicine, social history, and geography to art and natural history. This unique guide takes you on a compelling journey through time and into the future -- from the plagues of the Ancient Egyptians to the laboratories of the twenty-first century. Stunning, three-dimensional models of disease-causing agents and superb electron-microscope images reveal this microscopic and dramatic world in incredible detail. Written by science and medical expert Brian Ward and produced in association with The American Museum of Natural History, Epidemic is one of the few in-depth explorations of this extraordinary subject for the ordinary reader. ... Read more

Book Description

Finally a book that unveils the shroud of mystery surrounding Waffen-SS camouflage clothing. Illustrated here, both in full color and in contemporary black and white photographs, this unparalleled look at Waffen-SS combat troops and their camouflage clothing will benefit both the historian and collector., over 1,000 color and b/w photographs, 8 1/2" x 11" ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Not for the ill-informed
I though the pictures in this book were outstanding. The text that goes with them is somewhat brief however, and I would not recomend this particular book unless you have a solid base knowledge of SS Uniforms in general. It expects you to know the basics. But if you are farmiliar with SS Uniforms, then by all means this is a highly recomended addition to your collection.

Camouflage Uniforms of the Waffen-SS : A Photographic Refere
It's ok, good pictures, but.....there is a better book out there and it's half the price. This is not a complete book of it but a good base to start for information.

The Best Book Around
If you love this stuff, this book is a must.

Maury!

Blondidog@hotmail.com

This book is a comprehensive review of Waffen SS camoflage.
This is the most complete reference of SS camoflage patterns and clothing I have seen. It includes several patterns (plane, palm, blurred edge, dot, oak leaf and LIEBERMUNSTER ), as well as extensive coverage of the garments utilizing these designs (zeltbahn, smocks, M-44, panzer, hats, mitts, parkas, anoraks and tropical clothing).The book contains hundreds of clear color photos and documents the development of each pattern and piece. An excellent buy!

very methodical in it's presentation
one of the best if not the best works on the camo patterns of the waffen-ss that I have come across not only in american lit. but as well as german sources. also is a very periodical look to arms, equipment as well as unit insignia. ... Read more

Book Description

Advances in aerodynamics, propulsions systems, avionics, materials artificial intelligence, and manufacturing techniques will all shape tomorrow's aviation, and this fully illustrated book offers a well-trained telescope to the future of flight. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Out Of Date Pie In The Sky
This edition of "Future Flight" (the second) was published in 1994. Much has happened in the aerospace world in the intervening time, and virtually none of the forward looking predictions made by the authors have come to pass in even general terms, except on an obvious and hugely macro scale such as avionics developing faster than airframe design.

The book itself is an acceptable introduction for very casual readers with little background in aeronautics. It should be skipped by anyone in an aviation profession. Unfortunately I was required to read this book for a graduate class, in what I can only hope was a ghastly textbook selection error by the instructor (I would say this book is comprehensible to suitably inclined junior high school students.) I read the entire book in less than three hours and learned essentially nothing of value from it.

The information is old (the authors still refer to the B-777 in the future tense) and many of the concepts advanced (especially on the civil aircraft side of the house) are pie-in-the-sky concepts, impractical and unfit for the real world (like the cargo plane so huge that it can't land on runways so it will instead land on an air cushion, bizarre flying boats, oblique wing aircraft with wing spans over 500 feet, etc.) Even if these ideas were practical and possible (I believe some are possible, but none are practical) the market for such aircraft would be so small as to render them commercially untenable.

My bottom line appraisal of "Future Flight" is that there are a few nuggets of interesting (although common) information in this book, but students or professionals who want a real-world overview of the future of aviation with appropriate technical details need to find another book.

good basic overview of possible advances
This book seems to be written with the curious in mind. It's a good introduction into the field. the only complaint I have about this book is the lack of a bibliography. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In our overstimulated, color-saturated society it is easy to forget the impact of color in the dull world before cheap dyes and plastics. Colors is a delightful little book, highly illustrated and packed with intriguing information. It traces the history of dyes and pigments from cave paintings to modern textiles. The book's four sections cover the uses of color in ancient times; its development and refinement in the Middle Ages; the explosion of supply and demand after the Renaissance; and the triumph of industrial chemistry in synthesizing and inventing colors. Production processes often paralleled those of alchemy, giving an almost magical quality to colors. Dyes were expensive in medieval Europe and could increase the price of a cloth tenfold; thus color was used to indicate social status, with aristocrats in bright robes standing out against the drab mob. Since antiquity, writers have compiled technical manuals on dyeing and pigment manufacture, often using more ancient texts, so that a great many antique recipes and techniques have been preserved. We learn, for example, how Indian yellow was made from a concentrated extract of the urine of cows fed exclusively on mango leaves (which was not healthy for the cows). Every page of the book has interesting tidbits of information, such as the derivation of blue jeans (from bleu de Genes, Genoa blue, a form of indigo). Clearly written and well-designed, Colors reminds us of the powerful ways color permeates our lives. --John Stevenson ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A treasure chest of interesting trivia
I am a Color Manager for one of the worlds largest paint companies and even though I have been working with pigments for 15 years I have found this book to be a treasure chest of interesting trivia that I didn't know or had long forgotten.
But this book is not just for chemists. If you are like me interested in art, especially paintings, you will find that this book gives you a wealth of information and facts that one can use to better understand the development of art through the centuries.
I can highly recommend this beautifully illustrated booklet which is fun to read to everybody (not just color nerds like me). ... Read more

Book Description

Paladin is now offering the most up-to-date version in print of the famed U.S. Army Ranger Handbook. This manual draws from bloody lessons learned from two centuries of special operations combat. Crammed with info on demolitions, booby traps, communications, patrolling, tactical movement, battle drills, combat intelligence and much more. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

The best planning template, period!
The Ranger Handbook is not only the best tactical field manual ever written, but has far reaching implications for any business person involved in planning on any level. While an excellent template for small unit tactics, the principles and procedures have a direct correlation to everyday life. The Ranger Handbook can be the perfect template for a business plan, a special event plan, or a marketing and sales plan. I highly recommend it for anyone, military or not. Now, my bias. I graduated from Ranger school in 1988. Little did I know that that 8-week course would forever change my life. I use something that I learned in that course, and subsequently from this book, every single day of my life. Rangers, Lead the Way!

For those who understand it, A MUST HAVE, miliatry or civi
I got out of the Army in 1997. Now I'm a businessman in Finance. There are three books that will always be on my desk for reference. 1)The Holy Bible, 2) Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms, and 3) The Ranger Handbook. All of my presentations are based on a 5 paragraph op-order. If you know what you are doing with it, this book will give you an edge on your peers.

Ranger Handbook!
I bought the book to see how the "Americans" do it, ie different patrol tactics etc.
Well, the book is okay but I must say that some of the material is too small to even read. The book is too small so you can not follow some sequences ( that is a 2 STAR). I wonder if the real layout is this small? -or is it just "palladin copy"?
Anyway it cover a lot of things (4 star), and it is a good book actually.

"Ranger Handbook" and "West Point" --- Perfect Together
Like the book "Ranger School", this is a five star account of what it is to be a Ranger. I went through Ranger school years ago. There have been changes, no doubt. There is, and always will be, that "old school" vs "new school" joshing around. I have no problem with that. Ranger training was gruelling then, and is gruelling now. That's the bottom line. I only have a problem with people --- liberals --- who pooh-pooh the need for our training. Their big comment is, "why should America be involved in anything that would require "grunts" with that kind of training?". They just don't get it, do they. They're always looking for cerebral principles and explanations, not military ones. I tell them they should try reading the book "West Point" by Norman Thomas Remick that gives all the cerebral philosophical principles and explanations, in plain language, for why our founding fathers decided America needed military leaders trained to have courage, character, and leadership ingrained in them, the ultimate training of which is Ranger School, as depicted in "Ranger Handbook". That's the only thing that answers their question, "why Ranger School?". Now that we finally recognize we are in a new kind of war, what are we to do --- grow beards, don muslim head dress, and all convert to Islam? The answer is NO! Who are those 20% of the people in the polls who don't support this new kind of war, anyway? I don't know. But, to those people in foreign countries who have been secretly supporting terrorists whose ultimate aim it is to kill American men, women, and children and destroy the USA, I say, we have Rangers defending America and our American principles. Get ready. WE'RE COMING!

The real thing, but wait...
I was disappointed when I first saw this book. It's small, and by small I mean almost impractically so. The pages look as though they have been simply photocopied and stapled into the cover. What I'm trying to say is that that quality of the actual book is terrible. I found the type very difficult to read and the diagrams even harder to read. With some practice, however, I discovered the tremendous worth of this volume. It's lengthy, but this is a tribute to the army's reputation for covering every base and contingency. It covers everything that a member of the elite Army Rangers would encounter in the field, and this is both fascinating and useful. Rangers are some of the best soldiers in the world, why not learn what they know? This is a must for any enthusiast of the military, as the advanced infantry maneuvers described are brilliant. You will learn everything in this book from survival and camping skills to ambush tactics and night maneuvers. This got me excited, and if you feel the same way then you should definitely pick this up today. My only warning is in regard to the quality, as I mentioned. Don't say that no one warned you! ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Great Book to Read!
This book explains all the details of the Technological Development of the great Saturn especially the Saturn-5. I bought the 2003 Edition and I get the mos information that I want to know on the Saturn Project!Wernher von Braun is great,althought there are so many paradoxial on his past involvement in the Nazi Party.The proof of all these is the end result of his direct involvement in building the Rocket Technology in the US till today!

Gives One an Idea of The Scope of This Program
This is the best attempt I've seen for an accounting of the Saturn Program(s). The enormity of planning, building and deploying the Saturn series was so great that one could make a career as a historian on this program alone. This not light reading and some base knowledge of rocketry helps.

The author does a great job of delivering the technical and program management side of Saturn and gives us enough juice on some of the key players to add some entertainment value. The selection of graphics and photos could be improved - there are a lot better ones available in the public domain. I struggled a bit with his technical description of the F1 engine and referenced schematic until I pulled a photo off of Nasa's Web site that made it much clearer.

If your a fan of the US effort to put man on the moon buy this book and add it to you collection.

What a ride!
I recently read "Apollo: The Race to the Moon", by Charles Murray and it left me hungry for more details on the Saturn V and the challenges of developing the first stage, F-1 engines. This book definitely hits the spot and provides a lot more. The text is so historically rich you feel as if you were there along side the NASA engineers. If that's not enough you might also like "Chariots for Apollo"; it tells a very good technical story about the Lunar Module development.

The Official History of the Saturn
I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Roger Bilstein as my professor. His personal enthusiasm for aerospace and history come together nicely in what is often considered to be the "offical" account of the development of the Saturn launcher that eventually placed men on the moon. This book will make clear that task was not nearly as easy as NASA made it seem. A must for anyone who wants to get beyond the astronaut books and see how the space program really worked in its glory days!

A Superb Book by a Superb Aerospace Historian
This thorough and well-written book gives a detailed but highly readable account of the enormously complex process whereby the Marshall Space Flight Center under the direction of Wernher von Braun developed the launch vehicles used in the Apollo program to send humans to the Moon. Based on exhaustive research and equipped with extensive bibliographic references, this book comes as close to being a definitive history of the Saturn rocket program as is ever likely to appear. Moreover, it is not simply a technical history but covers the decision-making process that lay behind the technological development, making it not just a history of hardware development but also an analysis of technical management and organization. As one reviewer said in "Air University Review" while reviewing the original edition of this book: "This volume is just one of many excellent histories produced by government and contract historians for the NASA History Office....The book is enhanced by many excellent appendixes and charts, and it has a thorough essay on sources and documentation....Author Roger Bilstein...gracefully wends his way through a maze of technical documentation to reveal the important themes of his story; rarely has such a nuts-and-bolts tale been so gracefully told." I can only add my "amen" to that assessment. ... Read more

Book Description

The Untold Story of the American Entrepreneur Who Helped Build the Atomic Bomb and Defeat the Nazis.

Legendary financier, philanthropist, and society figure Alfred Lee Loomis gathered the most visionary scientific minds of the twentieth century -- Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and others -- at his state-of-the-art laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York, in the late 1930s. He established a top-secret defense laboratory at MIT and personally bankrolled pioneering research into new, high-powered radar detection systems that helped defeat the German Air Force and U-boats. With Ernest Lawrence, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, he pushed Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fund research in nuclear fission, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.

Jennet Conant, the granddaughter of James Bryant Conant, one of the leading scientific advisers of World War II, enjoyed unprecedented access to Loomis' papers, as well as to people intimately involved in his life and work. She pierces through Loomis' obsessive secrecy and illuminates his role in assuring the Allied victory. ... Read more

Reviews (29)

Fascinating portrait of a brilliant man of science &business
The subject of Tuxedo Park, Alfred Loomis, is an absolutely fascinating individual whose life story is so unique and so amazing that, were this book fiction, the reader would likely not believe it. Loomis, who undoubtedly was a brilliant left-brained rational thinker, was educated as a lawyer, rose through the ranks of a law firm, then quit to become one of the wealthiest bankers on Wall Street. He foresaw the 1929 stock market crash and cashed out beforehand, and then gave up his finance career to educate himself so that he could work on the very leading edge of scientific research in multiple fields, including biology, physics, astronomy, and (at the very end of his life), computer science. Because he possessed immense wealth, brains, and leadership qualities, as well as patriotism and a savvy understanding of geopolitics, he became a key individual who put together the multiple scientific labs and projects that helped the Allies win World War II.

Jennet Conant succeeds admirably in the primary objective of her book: to describe the many technical and leadership contributions Loomis made to the scientific efforts, especially the development of radar systems, that ultimately produced victory for the Allies in World War II. She makes a very strong case that without Loomis's leadership, the development of both radar and the atomic bomb would have been delayed, endangering the Allies' chances of success and resulting in many more lives lost. Loomis's World War II efforts and achievements occupy half the book; the remainder covers the rest of his biography.

Besides being a fascinating, engrossing story, Tuxedo Park has much to teach the reader. The common impression is that the development of the atomic bomb was the greatest scientific achievement in the Allies' victory; however, as one of the scientists says, "radar won the war, and the atomic bomb ended it". Radar was the weapon the Allies used to defeat the Germans' submarines, superior air force, and rocketry. Tuxedo Park also shows the interconnected web of relationships at the pinnacles of the worlds of science, academia, government, and business in the mid twentieth century. Rational thought alone does not produce results; all accomplishments involve humans, and Loomis was able to navigate these worlds and relationships with remarkable aplomb. The book also shows the negative side of Loomis and genius in general: the toll it exacts on family life, and the depression and suicide that plagues certain families.

I have only minor quibbles with Tuxedo Park. Loomis's pre-World War II achievements were so impressive and interesting that I would have enjoyed more detail about those years. When Conant describes the many inventions of Loomis and others, I often had difficulty visualizing them; some line drawings would have helped. And there are a few errors in the book, such as referring to the RAF when the author means the USAF.

I would recommend Tuxedo Park to anyone interested in biographies of scientific figures, as well as anyone who would appreciate a history lesson on the role science played in winning the last major world war.

Tuxedo Park is an impressive achievement
Tuxedo Park is a factual history lesson, in a vein similar to The Devil in the White City, only without the serial killer.

Tuxedo Park takes place a bit later, pre-World War II. It starts with the death of one of the scientists who used to visit Tuxedo Park, a veritable fortress of technology and leisure. The suicidal scientist posthumously published a fictionalized book about the goings on there and sold it as science fiction. It was so bizarre that of course, nobody suspected, although the primary subject of the novel, Alfred Loomis, knew better.

Alfred Loomis is the star of the story, a rich entrepreneur with an all-consuming, frightening intellect. He applies his own cold, nearly inhuman methodology to business and science and excels at both. Loomis is also charismatic and connects with people in a way that makes him irresistible. A veritable human whirlwind, he swept people up and sometimes left them broken and lost behind him, most notably his wife whom he tried to have committed and left for a younger woman.

Loomis invented electrocardiograms (those brainwave doohickeys that draw jagged lines as a patient sleeps) and radar and made fantastic leaps in refining the science of sonics and magnetics. If the book has a moral, it's that money brings freedom, and Loomis was the freest man on Earth. He developed what he wanted, hosted who he wanted, encouraged projects he felt had vision, and had enough influence to determine the course of events in World War II.

What's so striking is that the world needed Loomis. The author, Jennet Connant, makes striking connections that identify just how significant Loomis' contributions (and machinations) were in ensuring victory over the Axis powers. From the atom bomb to the British radar systems, Loomis' fingerprints are on them all. And it was through sheer force of will, coupled with his massive wealth that made things happen.

The book suffers from the same problems as Devil in the White City - some parts are more boring than others. It's entertaining to read about Loomis' inventions, but I had difficulty distinguishing between the various scientists. There are so many intellects that are hosted by Loomis that they start to run together; on the other hand, the book features a lot of familiar faces like Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and others. Still, the physics and complexities of the inventions, along with the internecine squabbling drag in some places.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the book is when one British physicist embarks on a journey to bring all the technological advances of Britain to America with just himself and a trunk full of highly classified documents and devices. The thought of what could happen to that trunk (and how it nearly gets lost a few times) is nerve wracking and the makings of an excellent short story or role-playing adventure. It's the kind of scenario that is usually considered to be bad form by a writer - but it really happened.

Fortunately for us, the trunk made its way safely to America. The book really picks up as the devices Loomis raced to invent are finally implemented in the war. And then, when the action finally gets going, the book is over. There is definitely a feeling of the passing of something great that people could only look at indirectly and never touch - just like the intentional destruction of the Chicago World's Fair, Loomis Tuxedo Park is abandoned, his "rad lab" of scientists disbanded, only to backstab each other during McCarthy's "Un-American" committees. Worse, Loomis' divorce left his family sharply divided - like all things, Loomis treated his relationships with an intellectual clarity that was less a romance and more calculated odds. When Loomis felt his wife was not measuring up, she was discarded along with his other failed experiments. It dims, but cannot diminish completely, Loomis' personality.

Tuxedo Park is an impressive achievement. It manages to record the origin of the American scientist, the belief that technology is inherently good, and sharply frames the slow, lumbering bureaucracies that run everything from medical achievements to military advancements. In comparison, Loomis and his teams are breathtakingly nimble at a time when the world needed speed and decisive action most. It is an important part of history and a sharp reminder that rich men, should they choose, could do great good or terrible harm. Loomis was that rare combination of brilliance and wealth that creates freedom - an aberration not likely to be seen again in my lifetime.

Life changing....what a life this man lived.
Never have I read something so exciting, meaty, romantic and adventurous. This is the life I can only imagine living. Loomis had it all, good looks, intelligence, but most of all...class and style. His way of life gives insight into what good breeding is all about. More than that, his ability to use common sense in dealing with business, and science and every aspect of his life and relationships gave me the confidence to venture out a little further and try and reach for the apple way up at the top of the tree. Reading this book forever changed my life and I tried to find a way to send the author, Jennet conant, a letter telling her that but I could not find her address on the website, so I guess this will have to do.

Jennet, even after death, Alfred Loomis continues to succeed, your story is worthy of his calibre. Beautiful.

Conant fails to tell the truth about Loomis: uncritical
Nowhere in the book does Conant talk about how Loomis used his regulated utility holdings to subsidize the unregulated holdings... and he charged regulated customers for the subsidiaries' huge profits. The Public Utilities Holding Companies Act (PUHCA) of the 1930's was enacted and made illegal the very things that Loomis made his fortune on. Check out the SEC for PUHCA. But there is no mention of this. Conant writes a biased and uncritical account of one of her relatives. Bad.
Also, many scholars attribute the Public Utility Holding Companies with causing the Stock Market Crash of '29. And Loomis was at the head of this. Nowhere does Conant mention this.
Also poorly written. Incoherent writing style that blends scientific writing with prose. makes for muddled and unnatural reading. Also fails to describe sufficiently, important scientific advances discussed in the book, namely the Cyclotron, which I had to go look up what it was. bad

THE LAST GREAT AMATEUR
Today with university and industrial labs conducting research using multi-million dollar grants and government contracts, it is amazing that in before the 1930s a brilliant banker had established, financed and staffed a private research lab that was superior at the time to university laboratories. This book by Jennet Conant is the story of Albert Lee Loomis who not only established his lab in Tuxedo Park, NY, he also personally conducted research there. Outstanding scientists such as Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Neils Bohr, etc. visited his lab with Einstein describing the lab as a "place of science."

Loomis while interested in science at Yale nevertheless when to Harvard Law School and upon graduation entered the New York law firm of Winthrop & Stimson; Stimpson was a cousin of Loomis. During WWI, Loomis jointed the army, received a commission and was sent to Aberdeen Proving Ground where he struck up a friendship with Robert Wood of Johns Hopkins University, considered America's most brilliant experimental physicist, who later became Loomis' mentor. One year after WWI Loomis went to work in the investment business and later with his brother-in-law as partner purchased their employer. Recognizing the approaching financial crisis of 1929, the partners took appropriate action, with Loomis making $50 million during the first years of the Depression.

Loomis had established his lab at Tuxedo Park in the 1920s leaving the day-to-day running of the lab to a lab manager. Loomis worked in the lab evenings and on weekends, working alongside accomplished scientists. In 1934 he quit Wall Street for good devoting fulltime to his lab. The text notes "He played a major role in the development of the electroencephalograph, which went on to become an extremely valuable diagnostic tool and is used routinely in hospitals to detect epilepsy as well as many other diseases."

Loomis and other scientists became concerned about reports of German advanced weaponry; and aided by MIT, Tuxedo Park, devoted its work to the development of secret war-related radar systems to detect airplanes. When the 1940 British technical mission came to America, they brought their magnetron oscillator; Loomis immediately recognized that a major breakthrough had occurred in radar development. Loomis lead the establishment of a secret radar lab at MIT, closed his lab and shipped his valuable equipment to MIT. "For the next four years, he would drive himself and his band of physicists almost without break to develop the all-important radar warning systems based on the magnetron." Also, Loomis conceived the basis for and directed the development of the Loran navigation system, a system critical for accurate aircraft navigation during bombing missions.

In 1941 Loomis's involvement with the MIT Lab, called the Rad Lab, became increasingly sporadic as he was pressed into service on uranium research. One leading scientist noted "...it was a great stroke of luck for the country that Loomis was involved in the uranium project from the beginning, not as an originator of ideas as much as an individual who knew how to exploit them..." contributing to "the remarkable lack of roadblocks experienced by the Army's Manhattan District, the builders of the atomic bombs."

By June 1943 nearly 6000 radar set based on the MIT Rad Lab designs had been delivered with production climbing past 2000 sets per month. In the opinion of many of his peers, Loomis' greatest contribution lay in the brilliant manner he and the Secretary of War, his cousin Henry Stimson, had overcome military resistance to the flow of innovative ideas and applications.... and the military's acceptance of new weapons and systems. The author does an excellent job narrating Loomis' wartime work outlining his contributions in many areas.

In 1945 Loomis divorced his wife and married his mistress, the wife of his former Tuxedo Park lab manager. This produced strong reverberations in his elite financial and social circles. In 1947 he completed his administrative duties associated with radar and almost from the moment that the MIT Rad Lab ceased, Loomis began to disappear. In 1948 he was awarded the highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Merit. The book closes with an EPILOGUE which gives brief accounts of the post WWII lives of the key scientists and others with whom Loomis was associated during his active career. Loomis died in 1975 at age eighty-seven.

My main criticism is the account of Oppenheimer's opposition to the H-bomb in the EPILOGUE which concludes with the statement "Oppenheimer was ousted from power and publicly disgraced" leaving the impression Oppenheimer spent the rest of his life in disgrace. The text fails to tell that later the Atomic Energy Commission cleared Oppenheimer of all charges and in 1963 awarded him their highest honor the Enrico Fermi award. Oppenheimer served as director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1947 to his retirement in 1966.

This was a difficult book to write, not only because of Loomis' countless activities, but because he destroyed his papers before his death. Consequently, the book does not always read smoothly. Nevertheless, the book provides valuable material not available from other sources. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Brilliant! A brilliant piece of a complex whole
Chinese language and culture differ so strongly from American thought and culture that it is impossible to think that a single translation of a classic Chinese text can give the reader the complete experience of having read the text in its original language and context. RL Wing's translation brilliantly shines a light on the ART OF WAR.

I came to Wing's translation after having studied and studied the old public domain English translation with its copius notes and explanations. Wing gives the reader a tremendous insight into THE ART OF WAR, the brevity and compactness of Chinese language expression, the morality and thinking of Sun Tzu, and the different ways that the Eastern mind comprehends war from the Western mind.

If you are a dedicated student of Sun Tzu's ART OF WAR, this translation belongs in your collection. I don't know if it's the best or not, but it's a vital translation. If peace is your highest aim and the resolution of conflict without coming to violence is your highest aspiration, this book displays the wisdom of the great general in terms that clarify meaning for Western readers.

A must read for anyone who wants to better themself
For years people have been trying to translate Sun Tzu's Art of War, and having read many of these translations myself I can honestly say that not one person has even come close to interpreting this Eastern Classic, until now. RL Wing's book is delightful to read and easy to follow. If you have an open mind, then this book is sure to make your life better.

Explanation on Strategy & Politics
5 star for SunTzu's work
0 star for R.W.Wangs annotaion
3 stars over all

Sun Tzu's strategy is based on the laws of nature - both human and environment. His treatise is a universal template that shows the way to triumph over conflicts from interpersonal to international. The strategy follows a direct path that escalates until victory is assured. From analysis and projection, through planning and positioning and on to confrontation. Sun Tzu explains such techniques as the use of camouflage the creation of illusion and gathering intelligence. A true victory can be won only with a strategy of tactical positioning so that the moment of triumph is effortless and destructive conflict is averted. Sun Tzu pointed out "Those who win one hundred triumphs in one hundred conflicts do not have supreme skill. Those who have supreme skill use strategy to bend others without coming to conflict".

Sun Tzu explores the psychological motivations for power and discipline in 'Art of War'. His work is ostensibly about tactics and day-to-day practice of warfare. As Sun Tzu was a keen observer of human nature, 'the Art of war' is filled with advice useful not only for those engaged in war but also for those carrying on their normal lives.

The strategic and tactical doctrines expounded in 'The Art of War' are based on deception, the creation of false appearance to mystify and delude the enemy; the indirect approach; readily adaptability to the enemy situation' flexible and co-ordinate maneuver of combat elements and speedy concentration against point of weakness. The best policy is to attack the enemy plans to prevent him from acting; then disrupt his alliances; creating a wedge amongst the people in state.

In the 'Art of War' the underlying tone is discipline. The general has to spend considerable amount of energy in emphasizing the need for discipline. Discipline via fear is however useful only up to a point. There must be a motivating force for all people who aspire to succeed, whether in the field of business, politics, administration, government or warfare. Wars cannot be won by just mere strength but it is on a conglomeration of factors, which need to be accounted. Sun Tzu emphasizes the need to take the moral of oneself and its enemy, the environment and other barriers into consideration. The moral strength and intellectual faculty of men were decisive in war, and that if these were applied war could be waged with certain success. Never to be undertaken thoughtlessly or recklessly, war was to be preceded by measures designed to make it easy to win. The master conqueror frustrates his enemy plans and breaks his alliances; he creates cleavages between the sovereign and minister, superior and inferiors, commanders and subordinates. His spies and agents are active everywhere, gathering information, sowing dissention and nurturing subversion. The enemy needs to be isolated and demoralized and his will to resist broken, thus without battle his army is conquered his cities taken and his state overthrown.

Sun Tzu is a very vigilant and keen observer on human psychology.

The commentaries and annotations inserted preceding each chapter by R.W.Wang were lacking in depth; thought and any structure. They are more of an irritant than interesting read. I found myself skipping over his annotations. I found that his annotations had grammatical mistakes and I didn't find an introduction about the author.

Enter the Dragon
I purchased this book in its first edition when I was in my late twenties trying to climb the corporate ladder. I had just finished reading James Clavell's 'Shogun', was deep into the Akira manga and began dating a girl from Shinjuku. Needless to say I was a bit overboard on the whole Asian trip. But you remember the 80s, we were all thinking about the Pacific Rim. With that in mind, I took this book more seriously than the average reader might, but let me tell you something, it was profoundly impressive, and it worked.

The book is laid out in such a way that it makes a perfect blueprint for a year's worth of meditations. I rushed the process, but memorized each of the pages, and followed up with journal writings. A bit more extreme than the average bear, I confess but it made such a difference. Now, more than ten years later, what I have internalized from that period remains core. As I review the axioms, it's hard for me to imagine how I saw things before they became as self-evident to me as they are now. And yet I still find myself drawn to repeat the entire process as I embrace a new set of challenges at middle age.

I'm not the kind given to 12 step programs and all that, I make jokes about the person who asks for directions to the self-help section of the bookstore, but this is great stuff for the most hard headed pragmatists as well as the wooliest thumbsuckers. My recommendation to you is to take this book as a guide to meditations and study of the tao. The deeper you are into 'untenable' situations, the more profound the insights you will gain.

Maybe the best title translation
The title R.L. Wing has is far more representative of the content. It really is not all about "The Art of War", though it does address combat strategy. I find it is far more about success without ever having to come to blows. The commentary on the "four conflicts" is of interest as we appear to live in a society that only recognizes three of the four stated and denies the remaining one. From the other side of the world, a radically different time, a very different culture, and more than a thousand years ago he predicts the consequences. As he is dealing with human nature and behavior, the book is timeless in its commentary.
A Chinese national who I once worked with told me after reading this edition he thought it the best translation visually and in content he had seen to date. ... Read more

Book Description

Many historians and policymakers have studied how wars begin. Ikle studies how wars end, and why military strategists have overlooked this question. Throughout his work, Iklé uses historical examples to discuss the reasoning of strategic analysis. For this revised edition, a new chapter on the Gulf War has been added.

Reviews (1)

It's How Wars End That Become Important Afterward
The twentiety century taught us a lot about wars and how they end. World War I showed us that making strong demands on the defeated (who didn't admit defeat to their own people) set the stage for the next big war.

World War II was fought until the Unconditional Surrender of the Germans and Japanese. Something that thinkers still debate as having made them fight all that harder.

VietNam was fought with no clear end in sight, and "another VietNam" entered our language.

The first Gulf War was ended when Colin Powell and Bush II debated how to end the war. They stopped before they had to go in and see what the Sunni's, Shiite's and Kurds made of the power vacuum left by the removal of Saddam would have created. Bush II is learning about this now.

This is the second revised edition of this book, originally published in 1971 and then updated in 1991 and now 2005 to reflect happenings in new wars.

Still some of the old wars had interesting insights that I didn't know before, such as how Finland, originally on Germany's side against Russia, made a peace with Russia and kicked the Germans out before they became a Russian province. Great Book. ... Read more

Book Description

This a paperback edition of Professor Walker's full-scale examination of the German efforts to harness the economic, military and political power of nuclear fission between 1939 and 1949. The book explains clearly, in terms that the non-specialist can understand, what was involved in the Germans' quest, and in what ways the German scientists succeeded or failed in the development of 'the bomb'. ... Read more

Book Description

Drawing on a diverse array of thinkers from Plato to Kierkegaard, On the Internet is one of the first books to bring philosophical insight to the debate on how far the internet can and cannot take us. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Kierkegaard surfs prodigiously...
This is a very little book dealing with a very big subject: does the internet add or detract from meaning in our lives? Such a topic can be covered only in a cursory way within 107 pages, but the major issues are represented in this book, and provide valuable food for thought.

Some of the questions asked are: can the internet deliver us from our bodily selves? Can the internet be used to disseminate information more efficiently and more universally? Can the internet democratize education and produce experts? What is the effect of the internet on the real? And, lastly, what are the implications of meaning in our lives concerning the internet?

These are all good questions, and each one could fill a volume on its own. Nonetheless, this book is a survey on the topics, and each topic is dealt with in about 20-30 pages.

On the issue of disembodiment and the internet, Dreyfus goes out on a limb himself while accusing others of doing the same. Why rely on the vision of the 'Extropians' (whose website is still active as of this typing) for guidance about how people are using and conceiving the internet? The vision of the web as a disembodied non-physical realm where humans will no longer have to deal with intestinal gas is a vision shared by very, very few. Dreyfus gives this concept far too much validity, and the first section of this book creates a sort of 'phantom threat' of people wanting to release themselves from their bodies (he calls it 'Cyberia'), and warnings about the consequences of wanting to do so.

The interesting part of the first section is the discussion of the failure of AI and the failing hope that cyberbeings will one day replace human beings. Those who are freaked out by the implications of 'The Matrix' will find comfort here.

Dreyfus' best arguments concern the internet and distance learning. Anyone working in education can tell you about the dismal failure of trying to replace human teachers with computers. That's not to say a certain amount of knowledge cannot be obtained from cyber-learning, but that knowledge has its limits. Expert knowledge is even difficult if not impossible from reading books (which has a certain amount of disembodiment in its own, but different, way). Face-to-face or body-to-body interaction is important, and will likely always be important, in mastering a subject or skill. That's why those who can afford it still hire tutors.

Similar arguments are put forth concerning the internet becoming a 'virtual world' in which people can potentially get sucked into and lost. It's true that this can happen, but the internet is not necessarily to blame. People can get sucked into drugs, television, reading, fantasizing, etc., and lose themselves in much the same way they can on the internet. Addictions take many forms, and the internet is but one. Still, a word of caution is justified here: the danger in the confusion of 'telepresence' - or, just because you see someone on your screen means that you're having a 'human experience' - with actual human contact is real and needs to be noted. It is not as great a danger as Dreyfus presents, however. To some it may be, but an edpidemic of Cyberians seems unlikely at this point. Also, Dreyfus points out that using the internet does not involve risk on the human level. This is becoming less and less true. It's not too hard to find out who is behind a pseudonym these days, and identity theft and monetary threat loom more and more. Not to mention that everything you type and look up on the internet is stored somewhere, and can be retrieved for purposes of marketing or otherwise. There are risks, on a fundamental human level, with internet use.

Concerning meaning and the internet, Dreyfus' claims that the internet leads to nihilism are not wholly convincing. They're based on the Kierkegaardian notion of the aesthetic and ethical life. Where Dreyfus sees problems, he defers to Kierkegaard.

Overall, the book presents a negative view on the present and future of the internet. Today it seems almost paranoid in places.The .COM burst gave us all a dose of reality, and there will likely be others to come as far as the internet is concerned. We're not to Dreyfus' distopia yet. Time may change that, or it may not. Likely more threateninig technologies will have to surface first.

This is a good place to start for exploring the philosophical implications of the internet. You won't want to stop here if this book catches your interest.

From Plato to the net..The early fears.
"On the internet",written by H.L Dreyfus a professor at Berkley is one of the very few books on the market approaching the "net" from a philosophical point of view rather than a technical one.
This approach itself promises for some interesting questions and some very intriguing answers or theories.

Dreyfus touches both the obvious and the not so-obvious sides of the "information superhighway". He emphasizes the fact that while the internet is basically the biggest storage of information we've invented so far, it doesnt possess artificial intelligence (yet?) and thus it is hopelessly still relying on humans to sort this information out, divide it into "important" and "unimportnat" information, and even then, it's furthermore relying on the person looking for the information who has to know what he/she's looking for and how to get it (evaluating the information for example)...
He points out the flaws as he tackles the weaknesses of the search engines which look for key words and not meaning and predicts that we're not exactly close to solving this critical problem.

On probably the most interesting -and simoultaneously most controversial- chapter of the book, learning through online courses, Dreyfus argues that without personal involvement we might acquire the factual knowledge but not the skill since we are not physically "there" to interact with a teacher and to mimic what he/she does as far as the subject of learning is concerned, since, as he claims, this is one of the basics of learning.
He adds a rather strong argument on that, when he says that the fundamental way we "understand" reality is ba having a handle on it. He then goes on to conclude that the internet takes away exactly that: our connection to reality, and reasons that learning online compared to the traditional ways of learning is limited and inadequate, it inhibits proficiency.

With a world rapidly moving on to a digital existence, to functioning through the internet, a digital concious as it may, Dreyfus warns of the dangers. Predictably, alienation and new dimensions of loneliness are central themes of those warnings. We can talk to 10s of people online from different parts of the world without having any relationship with them. The passion is not there he claims, and that is probably the one indisputable point of his book.

Keeping in mind that the internet is still a relatively new medium, any conclusions we might hurry to make might be very flawed themselves. Dreyfus points this out himself when he reminds us of Plato (who seems to be a favorite of his) who 2.500 years ago warned the Athenians of the dangers of the written word. Yet, Dreyfus believes that the inetrnet is a more clear-czt case where we can see the dangers more clearly.
I disagree. We do not know how the internet will develop yet and to what direction. In Europe only a small fraction of the population actually uses it, other than to send or receive an email. This is far below the net's capabilities and it doesn't provide us with enough data about its influence on human societies yet. Most of Dreyfus's observations come undoubtedly from the american usage of the internet (which is pioneering in that sector) but as more and more cultures get involved with the medium we are bound to see the medium take on more changes and uses.

When it comes to online learning i would have to agree with Dreyfus's opinions with one main objection: up until recently learning the traditional way, whether in universities or schools, was going unquestioned and uncriticized. But especially in the 90s voices started abounding , especially from educators, that even that form of learning contains disembodiment. The west alone is filled with people with degrees who carry data but do not carry meaning in their data either exactly what Dreyfus is "accusing" the internet and its online courses of doing.
Learning in a school might provide with the all important human contact but how much of it is meaningful contact and to who's interest is one big open question.
Schooling (universities included) distribute dogma and the process of learning in them is basically limited on absorbing the dogma proficiently. It would be a blatant lie to claim that this type of learning is "better" than the online courses. It would also be an interesting question and discussion what type of learning is then the most proficient one? Dreyfus doesn't touch that question, indeed he seems to believe with no restrictions that the learning he's involved in (in university) is "ok"..
I beg to differ.
All this, with objections and questions included, doesn't mean that "On the internet" is not reccomendable. It's in fact filled with interesting points and at worst it's food for thought. As i said above , alone the fact that it's a philosophical approach on the issue makes it intriguing enough.

But we shouldn't be hasty. In 10-20 years time this book might seem terribly outdated and flawed. In fact, some might claim (and they might be right) that it already is...

Outmoded thinking - behind the times
Dreyfus' understanding of distance learning is quite limited. On page 39 of this book he defines distance learning as "the correspondence-course model of anonymous information consumers." Distance learning has a lot more going for it than that, I have found that there is a lot of interactivity in online courses and a high level of communication with the professors. I took one of Dreyfus' classes at Berkeley as an undergraduate and I never got to talk to him, there was no face to face learning. If you feel that the lecture method is the only way to learn, then the internet is not for you. If you want to feel like a "disembodied presence" go take a class at Berkeley as an undergrad.

The attraction and dangers of Internet Platonism
The Internet Book raises the following questions: Can we leave our vulnerable bodies while preserving relevance, learning, reality, and meaning? The latest book of Hubert Dreyfus examines in complete details the various perspectives -of the Net through the eyes of a Philosopher -the attraction of life on the Internet as a way of achieving Plato's dream of overcoming space and time as well as bodily finitude. Drawing on philosophers such as Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hubert Dreyfus discussed and seriously criticised the Net. In his criticism in the book, he explaines -that, in spite of its attraction, the more one lives one's life through the Net the more loses a sense of what is relevant, and so faces the problem of finding the information one is seeking. Also, in spite of economic attraction of distance learning, such learning by substituting telepresence for real presence (how much presence is delivered by the telepresence?), leaves no place for risk-taking an apprenticeship which plays a crucial role in all types of skill acquisition. Furthermore, without a sense of bodily vulnerability, one looses a sense of reality of the physical world and one's sense that one can trust other people. Finally, he discusses while the anonymity of the Net makes possible experimentation, the overall effect of the NET is to undermine commitment (what Kierkegaard spelled out in The Present Age) thus to deprive life of any serious meaning.

This fascinating discovery shows that the Internet has profound and unexpected effects. Presumably, it affects people in ways that are different than the way most tools do because it can become the main way someone relates to the rest of the world. Given the surprises and disappointments through the Net, Hubert Dreyfus explores the question, what are the benefits and the dangers of living our lives on line?

In the Internet book-the author tried to give answers in greater depth to the questions, which is important in field of humanities and Philosophy -that why reach beyond ourselves and our humanity? Why seek to become posthuman? Why not accept our human limits and renounce transcendence?

In my view, the book On the Internet discusses in greater depth the important question How does the Dreyfus's Skill developmental model and his non-representational learning relate to the Internet-facilitated education!

The book is divided into four chapters:

Chapter 1. Hyperlinks -In this chapter The hype about hyper-links Professor Dreyfus discusses the hope for intelligent information retrieval and the failure of AI. He raises one good question, how the actual shape and movement of our bodies plays a crucial role in grounding meaning so that loss of embodiment leads to loss of relevance.

Chapter 2. Distance-Learning -In this chapter, How far is Distance Learning from Education? Hubert Dreyfus discusses the importance of mattering and attunement for teaching and learning skills and phenomenology of skill acquisition. Apprenticeship and the need for imitation. "Without involvement and presence -he said we cannot acquire skills."

Chapter 3. Telepresence -The chapter, Disembodied Telepresence and the remoteness of the Real will let us know about -the body as source of our presence of causal embedding and attunement to mood. Hubert Dreyfus raises a question, how loss of background coping and attunement leads to loss of sense of reality of people and things. (I see something like you, but I don't see you and I hear something like you, but I don't hear you)

Chapter 4. Nihilism -The last chapter (most important), Nihilism on the Information Highway: Anonymity vs. commitment in the Present Age discusses in details about the meaning, requires commitment and real commitment requires real risks. The anonymity and safety of virtual commitments on-line, leads to loss of meaning. In this chapter, Prof. Dreyfus translates the Soren Kierkegaardian view of The Present Age to the Net.

Professor Dreyfus translates Kierkegaard's account of the dangers and opportunities of what Kierkegaard called the Press into a critique of the Internet so as to raise the question: what contribution -- for good or ill -- can the World Wide Web, with its ability to deliver vast amounts of information to users all over the world, make to educators trying to pass on knowledge and to develop skills and wisdom in their students? He then elaborates Kierkegaard's three-stage answer to the problem of lack of involvement posed by the Press -- Kierkegaard claim that to have a meaningful life the learner must pass through the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious spheres of existence -- to suggest that only the first two stages -- the aesthetic and the ethical -- can be implemented with Information Technology and Net, while the final stage, which alone makes meaningful learning possible, is undermined rather than supported by the tendencies of the desituated and anonymous Net.

In the aesthetic sphere, the aesthete avoids commitments and lives in the categories of the interesting and the boring and wants to see as many interesting sights (sites) as possible. In the ethical sphere we would reach a `despair of possibility' brought on by the ease of making and unmaking commitments on the Net. Only in the religious sphere is nihilism overcome by making a risky, unconditional commitment. Dreyfus concludes that only by working closely with students in a shared situation in the real world can teachers with strong identities, ready to take risks to preserve their commitments, pass on their passion and skill to their students. In this shared context students can turn information into knowledge and practical wisdom.

The risk-free anonymity of the Internet, Dreyfus said, makes it a good medium for slander, innuendo, endless gossip, and ultimately, boredom. "Without some way of telling the relevant from the irrelevant and the significant from the insignificant, everything becomes equally interesting and equally boring." He later argued, "The nihilistic pull of the new network culture doesn't prohibit such personal commitment but does inhibit.

As a philosopher Professor Hubert Dreyfus expresses his concern in not going to become involved in criticizing some specific uses of the Internet and defending others. His question is a more speculative one: What if the Net became central in our lives? What if it becomes what Joseph Nye, dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government calls an "irresistible alternative culture?" To the extent that we came to live a large part of our lives on the line, would we become super or infra human? In seeking an answer, to above questions, Hubert Dreyfus ellaborates..that..we should remain open to the possibility that, when we enter cyberspace and leave behind our animal-shaped, emotional, intuitive, situated, vulnerable, embodied selves, and thereby gain a remarkable new freedom never before available to human beings, we might, at the same time, necessarily lose our ability to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, lack a sense of the seriousness of success and failure necessary for learning, lose our sense of being causally embedded in the world and, along with it, our sense of reality, and, finally, be tempted to avoid the risk of genuine commitment, and so lose our sense of what is significant or meaningful in our lives. In greater depth, the Internet book discusses the hope that if our body goes, so does relevance, skill, reality, and meaning. If that is the trade-off, the prospect of living our lives in and through the Web may not be so attractive after all.

The book is highly recommended to educators, techno philosophers and techno enthusiasts. Thank you.

Existentialistic Pessimism
Books on the Internet abound these days, but there are few which take serious philosophical approaches to this important technology. This book is a welcome exception. Referring to Existentialistic thinkers such as Kierkegaard, the author discusses how the anonymity and ubiquity of the Internet will affect our involvement with the "World." He argues that the absence of physical body, locality, and concreteness in the Internet communication will invite the loss of our commitmentted action, ultimately leading to "despair." This arguement is particularly interesting when it is compared with the rather positive view to the rational "public sphere" advocated by Habermas and others.

I would recommend this book to anybody who cares about the implications of the Internet for our life. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

One of the best books on the process of transformation
This is purely and simply one of the best books ever written on the process of innovation and the interaction of technology, culture, systems, and individual personalities. If you are interested in the process of transformation or the development of technological change then this book should be on your short list. It should be required reading at every senior military school and for anyone who is really interested in transforming the health system.

This slender volume is actually a series of lectures given between 1950 and 1966 at Cal Tech and was influenced by a 15 year process of dialogue in a regular monthly meeting on the subject of technology and society. It reflects the insights and wisdom of a lifetime of thought about people and technology.

For those who care about transforming military institutions the chapters on Lieutenant Sims' reform of naval gunnery in 1900 and on the building of the best steam warship in the world in 1868 are marvels of bureaucracy confronting technology.

Consider just a few insights from Morison:

"It is possible, if one sets aside the long-run social benefits, to look upon invention as a hostile act--a dislocation of existing schemes, a way of disturbing the comfortable bourgeois routines and calculations, a means of discharging the restlessness with arrangements and standards that arbitrarily limit." (p.9)

When Sims reports remarkable success with a new system of gunnery he has learned from an innovative British officer ((Percy Scott) there are three stages of response from Washington:

"At first there was no response. The reports were simply filed away and forgotten. Some indeed, it was later discovered to Sims's delight, were half eaten away by cockroaches,
"Second stage; It is never pleasant for any man's best work to be left unnoticed by superiors and it was an unpleasantness that Sims suffered extremely ill.
"Besides altering his tone, he took another step to be sure his views would receive attention, He sent copies of his reports to other officers in the fleet. Aware as a result that Sims's gunnery claims were being circulated and talked about, the men in Washington were then stirred to action. "p29

The response was first that our ships were as good as the British so the problem was with the men and that meant the officers were not doing their job. "most significant: continuous-aim fire was impossible. Experiments had revealed that five men at work on the elevating gear of a six-inch gun could not produce the power necessary to compensate for a roll of five degrees in ten seconds. These experiments and calculations demonstrated beyond peradventure or doubts that Scott's system of gunfire was not possible." p. 30, note this is about a system that was actually being used with amazingly more accurate results. Sims' reform was not a theory it was an existing fact, which the Navy simply denied.

As Morison notes "Only one difficulty is discoverable in these arguments: they were wrong at important points."
"In every way I find this second stage, the apparent resort to reason, the most entertaining and instructive in our investigation of the responses to innovation." p. 30

"Third stage: the rational period in the counterpoint between Sims and the Washington men was soon passed. It was followed by the third stage, that of name calling." p.30

As things got worse Simms took the ultimate risk "he, a lieutenant, took the extraordinary step of writing the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, to inform him of the remarkable record of Scoot's ships, of the inadequacy of our own gunnery routines and records, and of the refusal of the Navy Department to act. Roosevelt, who always liked to respond to such appeals when he could, brought Sims back from China late in 1902 and installed him as Inspector of Target Practice, a post the naval officer held throughout the remaining six years of the Administration. And when he left, after many spirited encounters we cannot here investigate, he was universally acclaimed as 'the man who taught us how to shoot." p.31

Morison concludes "the deadlock between those who sought change and those who sought to retain things as they were was broken only by an appeal to superior force, a force removed from and unidentified with the mores, conventions, devices of the society. This seems to me a very important point; the naval society in 1900 broke down in its effort to accommodate itself to a new situation. The appeal to Roosevelt is documentation for Mahan's great generalisation that no military service should or can undertake to reform itself. It must seek assistance from outside. " p.38

Whatever field of change interests you this is a book well worth reading and thinking about.

18th century technology
A superb look at the wonderous and creative spirit that enabled the twentieth century to excel in engineering and science.
The events depicted in the book tell of an age where the industrial revolution was nacent and men brimmed with ideas on how to construct and create a new society for mankind. A fine read for anyone interested in the art of technology and of engineering history in the U.S.

Timeless wisdom
Elting Morison was a historian .. at MIT. I thought that curious, until I read his book. In a serious of beautifully wirtten historical essays, he traces the development and introduction of revolutionaly new processes or techiniques which profoundly changed the way things were done. But most interesting, and instructive, are the insights he provides as to what must be done to effectively introduce significant changes. For anyone who is frustrated by the time it takes to get things done, and who is interesting in learning how to shorten the process, this is a MUST read.

Superb historical vignettes/ insight on technological change
A must read if you work with people assimilating new technology. Through timeless and entertaining historical vignettes, Elting Morison describes the trials and tribulations of birthing sometimes revolutionary technologies from about 1830 (The Bessemer Process) through the early computer years (1966). He places man at the center of the technological universe struggling with the dilemna of assimilating new technologies while simultaneously trying to cling to past ways. Morison describes a continuous battle between entreprenuers and new adopters on the one hand and resistors on the other. He proposes that a process of more carefully testing and introducing new technologies may not only help soften the resistance to change, but also lead to less risky social adoption.

Vignettes include the Bessemer Steel Process, the revolutionary USS Wampanoag steamship, introduction of p