Elia Kazan: A Life

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One of the most important theater autobiographies of the 1980s, Elia Kazan: A Life, has finally been released in paperback. The extra decade adds to the book's poignancy and its value: a history of backstage personalities and politics in the 20th century is included in this release. Elia Kazan was a founding member of the Group Theatre, was among those shouting "Strike! Strike!" on the legendary opening night of Waiting for Lefty, directed the two greatest Broadway dramas ever--Death of the Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire--and earned countless other credits, but he also played a flawed role in the greatest real-life moral drama of his era: the McCarthy Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Kazan offered names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. He cut his conscience to fit the fashion of the time, and his conscience continues to bleed. Though this book is framed, like so much of Kazan's best stage and film work, as a lifelong search for man's proper relationship to society, the book serves as a massive explanation and apologia for Kazan's one monumental lapse. He lived his life intensely, a life in which a single word could transform you, where a misdeed might be "never forgotten or forgiven." Such were the times, and Kazan captures them with appropriate drama.

Customer Reviews:

A Master tells his own story..........2007-08-19

This is the best show-biz biography I have ever read. Poor, Greek immigrant, Kazan fought his way up the entertainment ladder to direct my favorite movie (On The Waterfront) and my favorite play (Death of A Salesman). Along the way to these achievements he was an original member of the Group Theater; he relates his experiences there including an in-depth retelling of his relationship with Lee Strasburg. He met prectically everyone in the business from an aspiring Marylin Monroe, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Arthur Miller and what seems thousands of others in the theater and movie world. His antecdotes are fresh and revealing, even those that may be common knowledge. Of particular note are the chapters devoted to the making of Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. His work with Brando, who was seldom better than when he worked with Kazan, is discussed. Along with his great movies and plays, Kazan tells his side of the House On Unamerican Affairs controversy that swirled about him until his death. While the book is massive at 864 pages, it is over too soon. It is a rare, literate portrait of the man Kazan, who changed American movies and theater forever-- and for the better.

Possibly the best autobiography ever written.......2007-08-12

One of the most honest, compelling, brilliant, wise, stunning books I've ever read. Kazan's life was awe-inspring, and to have it retold with such lucidness and unflattering candour is a gift for the ages. Not only was he one of the greatest theatre directors and film directors of the 20th Century, he writes like a blessed demon. This was a spellbinding, page-turning read. Immersed in its pages, I learnt so much about life, America, directing, theatre/cinema history, and myself. I also learnt more than I've ever known about how men think! (wish I'd read this years ago)

It's such a pity Kazan's life has become simplistically defined by one act, and his artistry overshadowed - ironic, too, considering he made films with a deep, liberal humanity. You can look at his life through through the prism of that one act, or read this for a much richer, fuller, deeper understanding of Kazan - the good, the bad, the ugly. And the genius.

This book made me want to live my life more fully, view myself less vainly, and create my work more honestly. Can't ask for more than that.

Perhaps the best of all 'Show-Business Autobiographies'.......2006-01-18

I was truly surprised by this book when I read it some years ago. I was surprised by how engrossing and powerful it was , all the way through. This man lived a tremendously interesting life, rich in great creative challenges and triumphs, rich in meetings and experience with remarkable people, rich in sexual adventures and complex human relationships. The story of how the child of Greek immigrants came to become the director of two of the classics of the American Theatre "Death of a Salesman" and a 'Streetcar Named Desire" and of two of the great American movies, "On the Waterfront" and " East of Eden" is told with remarkable frankness and perceptiveness.
Kazan does not come across in this work as a saint, but rather as a truly strong person who took what he wanted from life, even if this meant hurting others. His personal and inner torments however too make up an interesting part of this story.
One more point. His writing follows the rule of Henry James and is always interesting. This is a work whose richness in anecdote and event are so great that it fits into the 'couldn't put it down' category.

Yesterday/Today: Right Wing Uses Same Tactics.......2005-03-05

With a former Supreme Court Justice warning the USA today (March 10, 2006) about starting down the road toward a dictatorship, it seemes fitting to re-visit the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s when the right-wing was trying to scare our citizens into giving the government supreme power, just as neocons are trying now.

Elia Kazan defends his decision to name names during the Hollywood Hearings of the 1950s, saying that his ideas toward the Communist Party had changed and he thought the higher ups (maybe from Russia) were dictating policies to the American communists in the movie business.

Maybe so, but he also admits the Hearings already had all the communists' names and admits they were only showing their power to control people here in Hollywood,using intimidation to instigate the blacklist. In real life, the USA government was the bully, not the old, tired communists of the 1930s.

If so, then why did he ever think the movie he directed, "On The Waterfront," was a good analogy for what he faced? The USA government caused the black list and precipated suicides and family break-ups in their Hollywood investigation.

It was the mob who caused the deaths and intimidation in "On The Waterfront." Is Kazan saying that Congress behaved like the mob? Or that the mob behaved like Congress?

Granted, Kazan was a great director, brilliant at times. But to him the bottom line was the bottom line, and to keep his position as an all-star director, he had to name names. While he tries to seem noble, the reader can see his 'reel' motivation was money and his career. So what if he named names! He was working.

Today, we see the right wing using similar tactics in the Bush administration: questioning people's patriotism, using smears and mud-slinging against opponents, trying to get people fired if they disagree with neocon policies, keeping a blacklist of university professors who oppose them, and most recently, equating the AARP group of loving gays instead of our troops.

After reading Kazan's book, I did gain a firm insight into right-wing politics, and these politicians use juxtaposition of images to label their opponents. Right-wingers still don't care if they distort the record. To them, winning is everything.

Say what you will about his politics, this book is great!.......2005-01-08

First, let me state I have often judged other people by their past actions. Was Kazan wrong for providing names of alleged Communist Party members? I can't answer this, and you shouldn't answer it, not until you read this book! Yes, Kazan named names. Yes, he did ruin the careers of certain artists. Please, don't judge until you have read his story! This is an honest, masterful show business autobiography! Kazan was a fearless, authentic, visionary director. He admits to adultery, poor parenting skills, and using people for his own good. Alfred Hitchcock allegedly tortured Tippi Hendren during the filming of the THE BIRDS by having the little critters thrown at her face in repeated attempts. Why? To foster the character's psychological terror. Would you want that man house-sitting for you while you are on vacation? Hell no......Can Kazan be rewarded for his art, yet escape judgement for his past behavior? You decide, but read his story first! Kazan's films never shirked from dealing with pressing social issues, yet the movies are visual poetry. Hey, you try to make a movie about corruption on the Brooklyn docks! Oh, and make it a heart-wrenching allegory, a love story, and a black-and-white masterpiece! One other thing, don't forget that the Mob basically controlled the docks at that time and were not too keen on being protrayed in an unflattering light!!

One of Kazan's gifts was his tremendous empathy. Kazan the author allows us to develop this same empathy. He is a wonderful story teller, relating anecdotes about personalities like Tallulah Bankhead, Tennessee Williams, and Brando. Granted, he worked with a pantheon of American writers, like Tennessee Williams and John Steinbeck. Granted, with source material like A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and EAST OF EDEN, and actors like Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, and Julie Harris, he clearly had an edge over other industry directors.

Again, before you judge his character, read his book, sit down and watch his complete output of films, and draw your own conclusions. Don't let Nick Nolte or Ed Harris, both of whom refused to applaud or stand when Kazan was given his lifetime Academy Award, decide the issue for you. This book should be a must-read for young people considering a career in film or theatre.

Anatolian, The ... The Life of the Young Greek from Anataolia ... whose early years were chronicled in " America America " ... by Elia Kazan

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Anatolian, The ... The Life of the Young Greek from Anataolia ... whose early years were chronicled in " America America " ... by Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Manufacturer: Alfred Knopf Pub.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KLH9IA

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ELIA KAZAN A LIFE
Elia Kazan
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWFZ68

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Elia Kazan: A Life

Manufacturer: Alfred A Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0317662058

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A Life
Elia Kazan
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NUKK3O

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LIFE, A
ELIA KAZAN
Manufacturer: A. Deutsch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPSJTA

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Elia Kazan : A Life
Elia Kazan
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OLTWT0

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A LIFE.
Elia: Kazan
Manufacturer: Pan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W2TZ3O

Amazon.com

Richard Lederer gets a greater charge out of the English language than a kid gets from a Volkswagen full of clowns. His playful examination of "the most tintinnabulating of the world's tongues" in The Word Circus is more fun than a barrel of monkeys (however fun that is), and Dave Morice's illustrations are no sideshow: they are as clever and charming as the text they accompany.

There's a lot going on in Lederer's big tent. Words are beheaded in one ring (the devil becomes evil) and curtailed in another (watch this priest become someone who pries). Over there, they're being cut right in two (does he bewilder? Be wilder!). Step right up, barks our emcee at the homophone (ewe/u/yew/you), and watch me juggle one phrase to make another: hand me the nudist colony and I'll show you no untidy clothes. Palindromes, like push-me-pull-yous, parade to and fro. And oh, the verbal freaks you'll meet: grammagrams, heteronyms, vowelless things; consonant packs (catchphrase) and silent strings (Brougham).

According to Lederer, the late poet James Merrill once commented that, "We speak wistfully of sounding the depths of language, but language has its shallows too, and we can drown in those just as easily as in the raptures of the former." Lederer certainly does. Let his circus begin! --Jane Steinberg

Book Description

A fun and frolicking book of wordplay. Hundreds of acrostics, anagrams, puns, riddles, and spoonerisms. Features a full chapter of skill-testing word games.

Customer Reviews:

Have Fun With Words.......2002-04-02

It's found in the sea like pirate's loot
Cut off its tail, and now it's a fruit
Cut off its tail once more and you read
The name of a vegetable small as a seed (Lederer 116)

After reading Richard Lederer's The Word Circus you will be able to look at riddles like these and come up with the answers. The Word Circus is a fun way to become more alert to the words we use every day. Lederer makes you think about words, and he relates them to the circus. His entire book takes you through a circus; he starts with the barker who introduces the book and tells you what you should expect to see in the chapters following. He introduces you to things such as grammargrams, words that are pronounced and consistent only of letter sounds. Like the word cutie, which could be written as QT. He also talks about anagrams, beheadment, curtailment, palindromes, semordnilabs, acrobatic words, charade words and kangaroo words, all different ways to look and play with words. Lederer has fun with words and after reading his book it is easy to begin playing with words yourself. It is a great book to accompany any class studying the elements of words, or just for someone who wants to become more aware of the English language.

Word Circus.......2000-03-05

Word Circus is a wonderfully entertaining look at the English language. The cartoon illustrations are a great addition. Well worth a look if you are interested in the many different ways the English language can be used to amuse, or confuse.

Fantastic words, terrific 'toons! Magical wordplay circus!.......1998-12-10

I never dreamt there could be a book about language that was so much fun. Richard Lederer's text truly creates a circus, complete with acrobats, clowns, animal tamers, lions, tigers--wow! Dave Morice's hilarious cartoons leap off the page and fly through the air with the greatest of ease. There must be at least 300 drawings in so many different styles that there's a surprise on every page. It's amazing that Lederer and Morice have produced a book where words and pictures interact as perfectly as they do. I've never seen this done so well before. This must be the greatest, most entertaining wordplay book of all. I hope they put together a new show soon! Encore!

Jumping words? They're addictive........1998-09-07

I have been fortunate to have a pre-publication copy of Word Circus. This is the first time I have enjoyed my native language!

My prior reactions to composition and reading pushed me to computerdom and geekdom. Word Circus showed me our language too has those twists and relationships that I find appealing in computerdom. Richard Lederer has put together more twists and relationships in this book than a year of soap operas!

Book Description

The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history. From the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence. The story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority. To this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a tour de force of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History. The paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.

Customer Reviews:

The Perfect Language.......2007-04-26

The search for the perfect language has it germ in the investigation to what constitutes the expression of totality within the experience, in what is archaic, in the notion of unity and the idea of rupture at the fringes of language. Eco's paths sounds out the detachments of the Confusio Linguarum: Adán, cabbala, Dante, Lllul, analytical, philosophical, oneiric, and mystic languages up to communication in our time. Babel and the sensation of a reading that speaks about something previous to the speak. What is this? What is this dear reader?

Monumental.......2007-04-09

A scholarly tour de force. Eco demonstrates his famous erudition in a sweeping yet detailed-when-necessary overview of the search for the perfect language - from the monogenetic hypothesis to a priori philosophical languages. The breadth of his reading brings together a bibliographic database that will serve as a starting point for further research for anyone interested in babel, symbolic languages and of course the birth of languages and europe. I only wish he'd pushed his limit to include the non-european world, but that is of course asking for too much.

A Tour de Force.......2007-03-04

As always, Umberto Eco amazes with his erudition and insight. The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is because I see that as reserved for the near perfect.

The felt need to transcend the frustrations of the world's great multiplicity of languages is clear, even in this age of on-line dictionaries, instant Google translations, etc. How much greater than need must have felt two or three centuries ago!

Eco painstakingly explores the strengths and weaknesses (with the latter usually prevailing) of the many attempts made to devise a much improved, if not perfect, langauge. It is quite amazing to contemplate the enormous efforts put into this project!

Successive attempts progressively elucidated the nature of the problems that had to be overcome, and ultimately the impossibility of the task, at least where one is envisaging a language to be used by the population at large. A major reason for this is the evolutionary and uncontrollable nature of a common language (which the French have sought to control in vain).

A most enjoyable read!

Excellent short review that is true to its title.......2001-08-15

This is an excellent short review of European quest for a language to unite its disparate nations with each other and the rest of the world. I thought that the book did an excellent job of staying on the subject and illustrating the progression of thought in this area. It does confine itself to Europe and time period as defined in the beginning of the book. That is excellent, there is simply no other way to cover as much ground as the book attempts to do, and I feel that it does suceed admirably. As usual, Eco's erudition and research are amazing. This book is published in the context of a European series of books about Europe and I wish there was a similar book series that would cover this ground for Far East and India as well. I am sure people there worked on the same kind of problems. Some of the problems with languages and methods described seem so obvious that one has to wonder what the authors themselves thought about them. Of course, this is a whole other book series. I wish there was a 4 1/2 rating as I do not think this is truly a masterpiece, but certainly a very very good book from a very very good author of fiction and non-fiction. A bonus for fans of Focault's Pendulum -- a lot of data in that fiction book refers to work discussed in this non-fiction work. Great fun!

An extraordinary view of language.......2001-04-05

This is an amazing book. My only complaint is that it is about a topic with no resolution - it is a catalogue of attempts that have all met with failure. But it is instructive that so many have tried to create the perfect language, and are still trying. Perhaps it is the hand of God from the moment of the tower of Babel that is blocking success.

When I first started reading linguistics (triggered by an SF novel by Sam Delany called 'Babel 7') I soon learned that the origins of language were taboo. Linguists had decided the topic had been subject to so much questionable and unsuccessful research that they would concentrate their work elsewhere. But in this book Mr Eco explores these early searches for the pre-Adamic language that all human kind were supposed to have evolved with (provided evolution was allowed anyway). Of course Hebrew was THE candidate in the West, but even Chinese was considered by some.

When this line of investigation petered out the philosophers tried to develop generic languages that could be understood by all people and to do this they had to think carefully about the logic of naming things and the logic of the grammar that connects ideas. The categories of knowledge and the development of encyclopedias were triggered by these endeavours. As I read this book, gradually I could see forming in the corners of my mind just what these people were doing, just what they were trying to create. And I suspect it could be successful if we were taught with it, grew up with it. But it is such a daunting task and always the expressiveness of natural language - what we have grown up with and what has grown with us as need has required - makes it seem a thankless task.

I guess this type of perfect language - unambiguous and universal - has never cemeted itself in anyone's mind - it has always been a dimly glowing ideal on the periphery of understanding. Perhaps we are not genetically equipped for this type of language. I value the effort Mr Eco has put into sharing these ideas with us, and value the time I have spent trying to grasp them.

Scripts for Winning Jobs.: Book and 4 CDs. Power English Series.
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Never be tongue-tied at a job interview again.

Scripts for Winning Jobs.: Book and 4 CDs. Power English Series.
Natasha Cooper
Manufacturer: Cooper Learning Systems
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Perfect Paperback

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Speak Business English Like an American: Learn the Idioms & Expressions You Need to Succeed On The Job! (Book & Audio CD)

ASIN: 1932521488
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Product Description

Book with corresponding sound tracks on 4 audio CDs in a durable multimedia album. Learn from successful people from many different walks of life. What did they do and say to win that job or get promoted? How did they negotiate? What is their secret? Prepare for job interviews with authentic scripts for various occupations, find the right recruiter or headhunter, get references that work, ask the right questions, negotiate the salary you deserve, pass your performance review with flying colors, advance your career... and more.

Customer Reviews:

Never be tongue-tied at a job interview again........2007-04-14

If you've ever worried about exactly what to say at a job interview, this book and accompanying set of 4 CD's is just what you need. It walks you through a wide variety of job interviews, and helps you anticipate questions you will be asked, and will want to ask. And unlike other books on getting a job, this one even guides you through interviews with job recruiters, plus how to handle job evaluation and promotion interviews once you've got the job and want to keep it, or advance.

Whether you are looking for that first entry-level job or a skilled position, this book has all kinds of appropriate things you can say about yourself, your training and experience. Drawing on actual job interviews, Ms. Cooper creates very realistic and appropriate language so that you can sail through job interviews with confidence, and get the job you want. She even helps you through the tricky salary negotiations with expressions that diplomatically get you into the salary range you want.

This book is great for people who speak English as a second language, but is also extremely beneficial for native speakers going through the job search process. The CD's give an opportunity to listen and practice saying just the right thing on your next job interview.

Nancy Loncke, teacher, lawyer, and information resource for the series Power English : what to say and how to say it (EnglishSkills.com) .

The search for meaning in the Australian novel (European university studies. Series XIV, Anglo-Saxon language and literature)

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The search for meaning in the Australian novel (European university studies. Series XIV, Anglo-Saxon language and literature)
Christoph Armbruster
Manufacturer: P. Lang
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Circles : Fifty Roundtrips Through History Technology Science Culture
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Round and round we go;where we stop,only Burke knows.

Burke is trying too hard

Another Classic

James Burke is fantastic

Circuluar reasoning

Circles : Fifty Roundtrips Through History Technology Science Culture
James Burke
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books
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History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books
General & Reference | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
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The Knowledge Web : From Electronic Agents to Stonehenge and Back -- And Other Journeys Through Knowledge

The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made Carburetor Possible - and Other Journeys

Twin Tracks : The Unexpected Origins of the Modern World

Connections

Connections 2 DVD Set

ASIN: 074320008X

Amazon.com

Unlike Perry Mason, James Burke does not try to assemble watertight (if convoluted) cases. His essays in the history of technology are more like random walks, paeans to serendipity. In The Knowledge Web Burke attempted to duplicate on paper the feeling of inter- and cross-linking trends that you find in history and on the World Wide Web. The essays in Circles are more artificially restricted, topological circles that wrap around. A typical trip goes from the Space Shuttle to Skylab to Werner von Braun to feedback to digestion to lab animals to the Humane Society to sea rescues to charting sea currents to Foucault to astronomical photography to the solar corona to Skylab. Whew!

"There are two reasons why I make such play of the unstructured nature of history, but then, in this book, give it a formal shape," Burke says. "One reason is that otherwise these essays would have mirrored the serendipity I described, just going from anywhere to anywhere.... Choosing to go round in circles, and to end each story where it begins, lets me illustrate perhaps the most intriguing aspect of serendipity at work, which shows itself in the way in which history generates the most extraordinary coincidences." He might have added that trying to guess how Burke proposes to connect all this up makes these tales a game for reader as well as writer, a most educational amusement. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description

From the bestselling author of The Knowledge Web come fifty mesmerizing journeys into the history of technology, each following a chain of consequential events that ends precisely where it began. Whether exploring electromagnetic fields, the origin of hot chocolate, or DNA fingerprinting, these essays -- which originally appeared in James Burke's popular Scientific American column -- all illustrate the serendipitous and surprisingly circular nature of change.

In "Room with (Half) a View," for instance, Burke muses about the partly obscured railway bridge outside his home on the Thames. Thinking of the bridge engineer, who also built the steamship that laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable, causes him to recall Samuel Morse; which, in turn, conjures up Morse's neighbor, firearms inventor Sam Colt, and his rival, Remington. One dizzying connection after another leads to Karl Marx's daughter, who attended Socialist meetings with a trombonist named Gustav Holst, who once lived in the very house that blocks Burke's view of the bridge on the Thames. Burke's essays all evolve in this organic manner, highlighting the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated events and innovations. Romantic poetry leads to brandy distillation; tonic water connects through Leibniz to the first explorers to reach the North Pole.

Witty, instructive, and endlessly entertaining, Circles expands on the trademark style that has captivated James Burke fans for years. This unique collection is sure to stimulate and delight history buffs, technophiles, and anyone else with a healthy intellectual curiosity.

Customer Reviews:

Round and round we go;where we stop,only Burke knows........2007-09-06

This book consists of 50 different trips through
Technology,Science,History,Culture,Personal Relationships and a few other things;but in the end they all end up where the trip started.
The trips in this book are reminiscent of the trips Burke used to take us on in his TV series Connections. I enjoyed the trips on Connections much more than the trips in this this book for a number of reasons. Since the connections that are detailed are interesting asides which are quite surprising and entertaining ;but not particularly earth shattering.These trips are little else than entertaining;and as such they are far better presented with video than simply by prose.

Burke is trying too hard.......2007-08-07

After producing the marvelous and engaging series "Connections", Burke seems to have gone to the well one to many times with "Circles". Burke trys to take his 'Connections' approach to identify complete circles in the connections of history. But rather than taking the connections where they lead, this self-imposed, artificial constraint leads to a combination of wild leaps and tidy little packages that just doesn't ring true. Burke comes out looking like he's just trying too hard, and a reader who's really paying attention will just refuse to follow.

Okay, there are some curious and interesting historical connections identified here, but it's just too hard to follow Burke's route just to glean a few gems.

Another Classic.......2007-01-10

Does anyone write about technological history better than James Burke? In this volume, Burke literally takes the reader in circles as he connects ideas, inventions, and innovations that have changed our world. Whether by purpose or serendipity, some of the critical inventions and discoveries came about in highly entertaining ways. With its brief chapters, this is one of those books that it you can easily pick up and set down, and pick up again days later.

James Burke is fantastic.......2006-12-30

I am a true JamesBurkeophile. I love all of his books and DVD's. I found this book, like his others, to be full of quirky facts, engaging writing and thorough research. I would highly recommend this book to anyway with a bent in science, history or even politics.

Circuluar reasoning.......2006-12-09

I teach a course in the History of Technology at my local community college, and use James Burke's book `Circles' as an interesting and engaging means of showing the connections different ideas of technology have to each other, and to history, often in most unexpected ways. This book has fifty short circular stories, trips through science and technology, each of which introduces connections that are fascinating, sometimes bewildering. How do wigs and fruit preservation technologies relate to each other. Why would one ever think that bologna and Gothic revival architecture are related? How is it that the Star-Spangled Banner is related to a calendar revision so complex that even Burke claims not to understand it?

Burke presents his tales in short order - they can each be devoured as a bite-sized morsel in one sitting, and yet, to do so and move on quickly is to miss the depths of what is there - as these circular connections show, there is always more than meets the eye. My students upon reading are often intrigued enough to go on the internet or visit the library to investigate further. Burke introduces history almost on the sly - readers often think they are reading a story, not history. Well, they are reading stories, cleverly developed, with a good deal of wit and subtlety. One doesn't necessarily need to know all the dates and places, but the span of the connections helps to prove that long before the era and phenomenon of globalisation, we were already interconnected and learning from each other.

The essays here originally appeared as columns in the journal Scientific American - hence, each chapter is the length of a magazine article for good reason, and the near-uniformity of the length of each is no accident. These are written for people with an interest in science and technology without being experts in science or technology, but they aren't written in a dumbed-down version either. Regardless of whether or not you can program your VCR or you can program the Shuttle to rendevous with the Hubble Telescope, this book is for you.

Book Description

Landscape Ecology - a rapidly growing science - quantifies the ways ecosystems interact. It establishes links between activities in one region and repercussions in another. Landscape Ecology: A Top-Down Approach serves as a general introduction to this emerging area of study. In this book the authors take a "top down" approach. They believe that context is equally as important as content and that an isolated, dismembered landscape fragment loses biodiversity. In contrast, past and current ecosystem studies have not considered the consequences of outside influences. The authors argue that the most detailed mathematical models of biodiversity within a landscape do not suffice to predict the outcome of management practices if the contextual analysis reveals that human impacts outside the landscape contribute to a reserve's ultimate demise. The material presented in this book demonstrates that protecting disconnected vignettes of nature in isolated national parks and reserves, or saving so-called "hot spots" of biodiversity, does not work. The rapid convergence of themes in ecology supports the study of the ecology of landscapes. Advances in this field will come from studies in landscape effects and the mobile organisms whose top down effects create and maintain landscapes. Landscape Ecology: A Top Down Approach supplies the basics for this work.

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