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An inspirational classic, Coach Wooden is above all a teacher, and the lessons he imparts here are derived from a lifetime of learning and achievement.
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A wonderful book of wisdom by John Wooden...life and basketball both...from the philosopher-coach who understands motivation and the game.
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The Rise of the West, winner of the National Book Award for history in 1964, is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers, and argues instead that human cultures interacted at every stage of their history. The author suggests that from the Neolithic beginnings of grain agriculture to the present major social changes in all parts of the world were triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli, and he presents a persuasive narrative of world history to support this claim.
In a retrospective essay titled "The Rise of the West after Twenty-five Years," McNeill shows how his book was shaped by the time and place in which it was written (1954-63). He discusses how historiography subsequently developed and suggests how his portrait of the world's past in The Rise of the West should be revised to reflect these changes.
"This is not only the most learned and the most intelligent, it is also the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and explain the whole history of mankind. . . . To read it is a great experience. It leaves echoes to reverberate, and seeds to germinate in the mind."—H. R. Trevor-Roper, New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
Good, but a little outdated.......2006-02-28
I'm a brazilian, (unemployed) agronomist, single and 35 years old today.I read this book, here in Brazil, some years ago.It's a great book, both on size, as in ideas.It's now a little outdated.Some ideas of this book were crushed by recents arqueology's discoveries.
The core idea of this book is, that Western civilization, is a evolution of others civilizations.From Sumerian, to Europe, Western civilization was builted.Western civilization has some cultural advances ahead of all the rest of mankind.Such as freedom of conscience, science, religion's freedom, freedom and dignity of the individual,etc.Having this cultural(and even more religions) advantages, Western civilization got world dominance, against all the others civilizations (Islam, India, etc.).Writen in time, when be a marxist was seen as a cultural value, this book was ahead of the majority of scholars at his times.This book shows you a true:economic results depends of religion and cultural results who existed before.
Even with some failures and a little outdated, this book has a great value today.If you reaf the best-seller book "The Clash of Civilizations" you can see, that this book was (in ideas)the father of this modern best-seller.Being a brazilian, I should to tell you that Western civilization is the best civilization ever to exist in human history, and this book can tell you, why.
Somewhat outdated, but still worth while.......2005-12-23
McNeill calls American Indians and Africans little more than the victims of the West in this book. He explains that they have little role in the development of culture (which he sees as passing from society to society from Mesopotamia on, like some sort of conceptual Olympic torch) and some get it and others do not. It is an outdated and bigoted way to see cultural history, and difficult to read without cringing.
That said, the book contains marvelous elements. Few writers will explain with his brevity and mastery how cultures have passed elements, one to another, over the expanse of time; few writers can convey the forward momentum of history as McNeil. So with all its faults, it is very worthy book, certainly worth reading while keeping in minds its somewhat dramatic shortcomings.
A mostly worthy text.......2005-08-11
For those interested in world civilization, "The Rise of the West" is a concise, enjoyable work written in 1963 that reflects the views and available scholarship of a erudite historian. McNeill's subsequent contemplations 25 years after his original manuscript are worthy in itself; that of a scholar influenced by Post-WW2 optimism of the West, but seeing inadequacies in his work because of such past exposure. McNeill is a thoughtful academic that does examine new evidence and modifies earlier theories to match contemporary findings.
In McNeill's own words of 1988, parts of the text are obsolete. Indeed, the original edition is even more outdated for 2005. His overall points regarding the influence of Western civilization in modern affairs still are salient, if not also interesting, notably in the breadth and structure of European expansion.
Some of the books topics are sure to run into opposition. McNeill's thesis regarding the Sumerian diffusion of civilization has been thoroughly challenged (though there are still champions of this view). The belief of outside invaders militarily conquering India and especially China for the formation of civilization is certainly far more in dispute today than in McNeill's time. The Aryan Invasion Theory is certainly no longer in vogue. Evidence for the uniqueness of China's Bronze Age is quite strong, and any outside civilizing influences are fairly negligible in Shang bronze development.
Histories of civilization do reflect the mindset of that particular generation. While one can leap into judgement that this text is Eurocentric, it does not compare in this regard with other books like James Henry Breasted's (also from the University of Chicago) "Ancient Times, A History of the Early World, 1916, second ed. 1935".
Other deserving books along the same lines are Fernand Braudel, "A History of Civilizations", Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs, and Steel", and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, "Civilizations".
The West Rises.......2002-03-06
McNeill belongs to that category of historians who not only bring an enormous treasure chest of knowledge, but who present it in a writing style so direct and compelling that the reader cannot help but admire their work. "The Rise of the West" is a monumental book. McNeill's knowledge of histroy, of facts, his erudition--all leave the reader in a kind of suspense and disbelief. Can one man know this much? Apparently he can. McNeill's vast lore is a proof of commitment to scholarship and historical discovery. Whether or not the West has a special status and a claim to a special place in human civilization (as I believe it does) is something that is for you, the reader, to decide. McNeill makes his arguments and then reasses them years later in this new edition; and he is less upbeat about the special position of the West. But that is theory, perspective, possibility, interpretation. Whatever interpretation you embrace, you won't regret reading this book for its facts, its comprehensive narrative, and its gift of widening historical perspectives and imagination.
A masterpiece, rendered in a noble voice.......2002-01-28
This epic magesterial volume deserves no less than to be required reading for all citizens of the Western World. McNeill employs deft understanding and sensitivity equal to the herculean task. The author is no Western apologist, but shows how global civilization is developing into a mosaic largely driven by Western ideas.
Beginning just before the dawn of the agrarian transormation and spanning its eventual blossomings (and fadings) into civilization, McNeill takes the reader on a journey that answers questions you never knew you had. The Western way eventually remade the world, and McNeill shows why and how and when. Using evidence from art, archaeology, anthropology, politics, commerce, science, and religion he paints confident, broad strokes that nevertheless are rich in detail. It is a masterpiece of staggering scope, rendered in a noble voice.
The only important criticism is an undeniable Eurocentric bias (readily admitted by the author). But this becomes understandable and quite forgiveable as the reader follows the author wrestling enormous epics of civilization into a readable form. Regardless of this necessary perspective Rise of the West can certainly stand as comparable, perhaps even superior to similar works by Spengler, Toynbee, Braudel, or Diamond.
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The Rise of the West: A History of The Human Community
William H. McNeil
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0451607511 |
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The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community
William H. NcNeill
Manufacturer: The New American Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
History
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ASIN: B000ODO5D6 |
Amazon.com
Imagine an almost instantaneous communication system that would allow people and governments all over the world to send and receive messages about politics, war, illness, and family events. The government has tried and failed to control it, and its revolutionary nature is trumpeted loudly by its backers. The Internet? Nope, the humble telegraph fit this bill way back in the 1800s. The parallels between the now-ubiquitous Internet and the telegraph are amazing, offering insight into the ways new technologies can change the very fabric of society within a single generation. In The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage examines the history of the telegraph, beginning with a horrifically funny story of a mile-long line of monks holding a wire and getting simultaneous shocks in the interest of investigating electricity, and ending with the advent of the telephone. All the early "online" pioneers are here: Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison, and a seemingly endless parade of code-makers, entrepreneurs, and spies who helped ensure the success of this communications revolution. Fans of Longitude will enjoy another story of the human side of dramatic technological developments, complete with personal rivalry, vicious competition, and agonizing failures. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
"A fascinating walk through a pivotal period in human history."--USA Today
For many people, the Internet is the epitome of cutting-edge technology. But in the nineteenth century, the first online communications network was already in place--the telegraph. And at the time, it was just as perplexing, controversial, and revolutionary as the Internet is today.
The Victorian Internet tells the story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it. With the invention of the telegraph, the world of communications was forever changed. The telegraph gave rise to creative business practices and new forms of crime. Romances blossomed over its wires. And attitudes toward everything from news gathering to war had to be completely rethought. The saga of the telegraph offers many parallels to that of the Internet in our own time, and is a remarkable episode in the history of technology.
* Illustrated throughout
* A masterful, lively blend of science and history, in the bestselling tradition of Longitude
"Fascinating...If you've ever hankered for a perspective on media Net hype, this book is for you."--Wired
"Sparkling."--Forbes
"Essential reading for those caught up in our own information revolution."--Christian Science Monitor
Customer Reviews:
An important book and a fun book.......2007-09-10
I have written three books on Wireless networking and am about to start writing a fourth. Coming from this perspective, The Victorian Internet was both an excellent read and an enlightening one. It is true that we can get caught up in any new thing and think that it is going to drastically alter the world. Of course, those of use directly implementing the new thing always think it will alter teh world for the better. This book shines a light of reality on this thinking to make you realize that a new technology alone is not likely to save the world, though it can make it an easier place for many to live.
Many reviewers have stated their favorite story, so I will share mine. It's the opening story of the book. It begins, "On an April day in 1746 at the grand convent of the Carthusians in Paris, about two hundred monks arranged themselves in a long, snaking line. Each monk held on end of a twenty-five-foot iron wire in each hand, connecting him to his neighbor on either side. Together, the monks and their connecting wires formed a line over a mile long."
The story goes on to reveal that Jean-Antoine Nollet induced a shock onto the wire to see if the monks would feel the shock at the same moment and indeed they did. This revealed to Nollet that electricity traveled at an extremely rapid speed and began the turning of the gears that led to electrical impulse-based communications (which we still use today in Ethernet and Wireless).
This book is filled with such stories and will certainly both entertain and inform you.
Tom Carpenter, Author: Wireless# Certificiation Official Study Guide
History repeats itself.......2007-01-03
Again, and again, patterns of human behavior repeat. This easy to read book explains the parallels between early communication methods and our Internet era. Everything old is clearly new again, and once you read this book, you will more easily identify the same thing in other areas. I may make you a bit of a cynic, but I think it is being more realistic.
There are also some really cute stories of individuals and their interactions. Romances over telegraph, some of which led to marriages and other ends for example.
Educational and fun to read, somewhat of a written documentary.
Writing Far Away.......2006-10-26
The invention of the electric telegraph during Queen Victoria's reign allowed communication to quickly cover long distances. The railroads allowed people and freight to quickly cover long distances. Both made the modern world what it is today. The telegraph existed decades earlier as a semaphore (with lights) that could send messages to a distant viewer. Sending a signal by light goes back over a thousand years. "One if by land, two if by sea."
Oersted discovered that an electric current creates a magnetic field that affects a compass needle (p.23). Samuel Morse invented a "bi-signal" scheme that became the dots and dashes of the Morse Code. Others invented their version of the electric telegraph (Chapter 2). Morse could see the benefits of rapid communication (p.40). Chapter 3 tells of the skepticism towards this newer invention. The telegraph was used to capture a pickpocket and a murderer (p.50). Chapter 4 tells of the explosive growth of the telegraph network. International agreements allowed interconnections (p.69). Underseas telegraphy was invented (p.72). Chapter 5 explains how lines were laid across the ocean connecting Newfoundland to Ireland in 1858. Would communication result in World Peace (p.83)? The success of the telegraph created traffic jams of delayed messages, most of which were time-sensitive. A pneumatic tube system could be used for short distances (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 tells how telegraph messages were used to cheat by sending horse race results before betting was closed. Changing a lower price attracted more customers and led to more profit. Page 115 shows how nine words of code replaced over 62 words. But the meaning of a code word would change if one letter was changed in error (p.116).
Chapter 8 tells of romance over the wires. Ordinarily they could distinguish a woman by how she "worked their wire" (p.134). People were married by telegraph. Telegraphers were rated on their ability alone, which meant women and teenagers were hireable. One effect of telegraphy was the speed in reporting news from around the world (Chapter 9). Newspapers formed groups to gather and send the news (p.150). Rapid news now required press censorship (p.155). Too much knowledge created an overload (Chapter 10). Rapid communications made possible "large, hierarchical companies" (p.173). The stock ticker tape was invented to present continuous news (p.175).
But a new technology appeared and sent telegraphy into a decline. Others refused to pay Samuel Morse for his patent and legal battles followed. The Supreme Court upheld Morse's patent in 1853 (p.183). The growing use of automatic telegraphs reduced the need for skilled operators (p.188). Wheatstone patented an automatic sender that was ten times faster (p.190). A duplex sent twice as much traffic. Baudot used rotating distributors to multiply the number of lines (p.192). Others tested the "harmonic" telegraph to use tones to send separate messages on one circuit (p.195). Alexander Graham Bell built a "speaking telegraph" that transmitted speech (p.197). "Distant speaking" on a telephone was "an instant success" (p.199). A new age had dawned (p.200). Chapter 12 gives the legacy of the telegraph, which went into a decline as telephone usage increased. The teleprinter was invented (p.205). The days of a telegrapher as a highly paid, highly skilled information worker were gone (p.205). Standage compares the similarities between the telegraph network and today's Internet (pp.206-210). The `Epilogue' notes that today's Internet echoes the 19th century telegraphic network. The `Sources' list the books and journals used for reference.
can't get it back..........2006-02-18
I bought this one, and my 15 year old son took it. He reads it constantly and I can't get it back. What a surprise...
Interesting parallels between the telegraph and the Internet.......2005-07-27
This is an interesting, well-written account of the history of the telegraph, with parallels drawn between that story and the modern-day history of the development of the Internet. Not a scientific account, but includes enough information to tell general readers how the key technologies work. Also includes entertaining anecdotes about the social changes that the new invention caused or contributed to.
Book Description
What really goes on between the sheets? It takes research to discover the truth about sex. But studying people's sex lives has not always been easy, safe, or even legal. This book traces the curious history of sexology and details the surprising findings of these brave researchers who have dared to ask the tough questions.
Written in a breezy style, the book reveals how we came to know what we know about topics from birth control to homosexuality, open marriage to surrogate sex therapy. Included are the most significant events and colorful individuals, such as the idiosyncratic German transvestite Magnus Hirschfeld and the controversial Alfred Charles Kinsey, who shattered the Puritan facade of 1950s America.
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- The league of Morse Code gentlemen
- Past and future...
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Victorian Internet
Tom Standage
Manufacturer: Walker Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0965703797 |
Customer Reviews:
The league of Morse Code gentlemen.......2006-07-10
At some future date, a history of the 'bit' will be written. The title of this books suggests such a story, but the focus is actually on a unique and interesting community of people: those that could 'read and write' in Morse Code at more than 10 words per minute. Thus, the book starts with the formation of the league by Mr. Morse himself, and ends with the device that made such skill superfulous, the telephone.
The book is a mix of legal history ('x' patented 'y' and 'z' fought the patent until ...) and culture shock narrative. The legal history is largely drawn from court proceedings surrounding patent lawsuits. The culture shock narrative attempts to map contemporary Internet speculations upon 19th century society. Unfortunately, this latter theme is secondary to the safe and traditional legal history.
The various 'invention and patent' stories can be found elsewhere in more detail, but the social history is unique. Standage argues we can anticipate the outcome of various Internet social trends by looking for parallels in the Victorian era. The early telegraph era, like the early Internet era, produced wild popular delusions about universal peace and harmony. The humdrum reality of network crime and loss of privacy was the 19th century reality, will it be so for us? The telegraph produced the earliest examples of 'scientific' utopias. We could learn much by carefully recounting the outcomes of such experiments.
My only complaint is that the social commentary was secondary to the legal history.
Past and future..........2005-11-08
The title of this book, 'The Victorian Internet,' refers to the 'communications explosion' that took place with the advent and expansion of telegraph wire communications. Prior to this, communication was notoriously slow, particularly as even postal communications were subject to many difficulties and could take months for delivery (and we complain today of the 'allow five days' statements on our credit cards billings!).
The parallels between the Victorian Internet and the present computerised internet are remarkable. Information about current events became relatively instantaneous (relative, that is, to the usual weeks or months that it once took to receive such information). There were skeptics who were convinced that this new mode of communication was a passing phase that would never take on (and, in a strict sense, they were right, not of course realising that the demise of the telegraph system was not due to the reinvigoration of written correspondence but due to that new invention, the telephone). There were hackers, people who tried to disrupt communications, those who tried to get on-line free illegally, and, near the end of the high age of telegraphing, a noticeable slow-down in information due to information overload (how long is this page going to take to download?? isn't such a new feeling after all).
The most interesting chapter to me is that entitled 'Love over the Wires' which begins with an account of an on-line wedding, with the bride in Boston and the groom in New York. This event was reported in a small book, Anecdotes of the Telegraph, published in London in 1848, which stated that this was 'a story which throws into the shade all the feats that have been performed by our British telegraph.' This story is really one of love and adventure, as the bride's father had sent the young groom away for being unworthy to marry his daughter, but on a stop-over on his way to England, he managed to get a magistrate and telegraph operator to arrange the wedding. The marriage was deemed to be legally binding.
A very interesting and remarkable story that perhaps would have been forgotten by history had history not set out to repeat itself with our modern internet.
Book Description
A new paperback edition of the first book by the bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses—the fascinating story of the telegraph, the world’s first “Internet,” which revolutionized the nineteenth century even more than the Internet has the twentieth and twenty first.
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by Thomson Gale on February 22, 2006. The length of the article is 516 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Victorian Internet.(Editorials)(The telegram dies, but a revolution continues)(Editorial)
Publication:
The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: February 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: A6
Article Type: Editorial
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services, published by Auslib Press Party Ltd. on June 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1218 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Victorian Public Libraries and the Internet: Results and Issues.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: Paul Scully
Publication:
Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1998
Publisher: Auslib Press Party Ltd.
Volume: 11
Issue: 2
Page: 102
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Ecology, Engineering, and Management: Reconciling Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Service Reliability
Michel J. G. van Eeten , and
Emery Roe
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0195139682 |
Book Description
Ecology, Engineering, and the Paradox of Management is the first book that addresses and reconciles what many take to be the core paradox facing environmental decision-makers and stakeholders: How do they restore the environment while at the same time provide ever more services reliably from that environment, including clean air, water and energy for more and more people? The book provides a conceptual framework, empirical case analyses, and organizational proposals to resolve the paradox, be it in the US, Europe, or elsewhere. Thus, Ecology, Engineering, and the Paradox of Management has multiple audiences. First are the key professions involved in the protection and improvement of ecosystems and in the provision and delivery of services from those ecosystems. These include ecologists (and other natural scientists such as conservation biologists, climatologists, forest scientists, and toxicologists), engineers (as well as hydrologists, environmental engineers, civil engineers, and line operators), modeling and gaming experts, managers, planners, and power, agriculture, and recreation communities. Another audience includes university researchers in ecology, conservation biology, engineering, the policy sciences, and resource management. Those interested in interdisciplinary approaches in these fields will also find the book especially helpful. Finally, those interested in the Everglades, the Columbia River Basin, San Francisco Bay-Delta, and the Green Heart of western Netherlands will find new insights here, as the book provides a detailed examination of the paradox in each of these cases.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of the American Planning Association, published by American Planning Association on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1220 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Ecology, Engineering, and Management: Reconciling Ecosystem Rehabilitation and Service Reliability.(Book Review)
Author: Robert E. Deyle
Publication:
Journal of the American Planning Association (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: American Planning Association
Volume: 70
Issue: 1
Page: 118(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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