The Sundance Kid: A Biography of Robert Redford

Book Description

1969 was Robert Redford's breakout year, when he starred with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Since that time he was continuously successful, either as an actor or director. His concern for the environment, particularly in the American West, has made him an important spokesman for conservation, often lending his name to causes and charities that help support preservation and endangered species. This comprehensive biography is based on extensive interviews with friends and colleagues, as well as assistance provided by Redford himself.

Customer Reviews:

Dissapointed.......2006-08-09

The first 40 pages of this book was somewhat interesting. However, everything else was repetitious. Almost the entire book was about every film he starred in or directed......nothing new!

Rehasing nothing new.......2006-08-07

I just finished reading the book, and my suggestion is: skip it! Really! No way Redford contributed to this. The authors have used some well-known circulating interviews Redford gave throughout his carreer, with -even for casual fans- well-known quotes.

The authors contribute nothing new, there are no revelations of any sort, no funny bits. It's a rehash of public knowledge. And besides all that, the authors don't seem to like him very much. They are very critical of Redford, even negative and at times sarcastic. I was wondering why someone would want to write a book about a person they don't like and don't think is very special. They do compliment him on his acting here and there, and more so on his directing abilities, but it just doesn't balance out.
It's mostly about his movies, with tiny segments in between about his personal life. The book is poorly written. The authors state opinions and assumptions as facts on every other page, they contradict themselves on several occasions and they also repeat themselves, in almost the same words and sentences throughout the book. The last part, let's say from after Horse Whisperer to now (Unfinished Life) is rushed and the movies he did in that timeframe are a lot less detailed in description than his older projects.
Also, they go into the ups and downs of the Sundance Institute, festival and related organisations, but it's fragmentary. Every time I felt we were getting somewhere, the subject was over abruptly.

The book left a bad taste in my mouth.

Poor "Unauthorized" Bio of Redford - Disappointing.......2006-07-10

Wow, I do not know where to begin on this one. Robert Redford has always fascinated me from the time I was a child. Especially since I grew up in Utah, and part of my childhood was spent growing up on the slopes and mountains of Sundance. I saw his activism first hand, and also the evolution of the Sundance Film Festival,and his resort in Utah, which is somewhat frozen in time. On top of that, I'm a huge film buff, and some of his films have entertained me, and some have not. So, I was really looking forward to this book. What a disappointment. Written in a timeline based on his film chronology, which isn't altogether bad, but the author takes constant swipes at Redfords persona and attitudes, while not really examining why he may have been that way, and why altogether it may not be such a bad thing. Poorly written as a bio, and even worse as a movie critic. The opinions given on each particular film are not insightful, nor innovative. They lack true analysis, and are based upon heresay, and different reviews from periodicals of the time. Plus, I would wager that many would disagree with the reviews of certain films here. It also just glosses over Redfords passion of activism involving the environment. Why is he so passionate about it? We never really find out. Was it that he was a child in a desolate urban sprawl of LA, or what? I could go on and on about how poorly written this is as a bio, but I won't. It is even poor at developing a extensive filmography of Redford. this book falls short in so many ways. I do not recommend you waste your money on this book.....if you must, then buy it in six months on the discount shelf, because thats where it will end up. Honestly, I got more insight into Redford watching Iconoclasts on IFC in an hour than I did from this book, and it was infinitely more entertaining. I do not recommend this book.

Excellent and fair biography.......2006-07-04

Okay, this isn't a superficial fan's look at the life of Robert Redford, but a full-blooded account, good and bad, of the actor's life, career, and films. I found the book gave me good insight into the mind of this superstar, and there were plenty of behind the scenes details about his movies and co-stars, as well as numerous interviews. I think the authors were as objective as possible, and tried to explain his actions and see things from his point of view. They don't sugarcoat some negative opinions or make Redford out to be Laurence Olivier -- that's not the job of a biographer. They explain how Redford stayed on top for so many years and what got him there in the first place. Superficial fans who only want to read the positive may be disappointed, but this is a strong and serious biography of the actor-director.

the book should have been much more.......2006-06-27

This book is a disappointment. It provides little insight into the life or personality of Robert Redford, the actor or the person. The book is basically a chronicle of the movies RR has directed or in which he has appeared as an actor. But even as a filmography the book fails. The reader learns little about the creation of each movie or the relationships among the actors beyond the anecdotes that have been repeated numerous times on TV or in the press. In addition, the authors have the annoying habit of consistently putting down Robert Redford with snide remarks. There must have been something about the actor other than his white teeth and good looks that made him an international superstar. For sure, it must be difficult to write a biography of such a private person as Robert Redford. However, it is the responsibility of biographers to gather information and gain an understanding of their subject, and if they can't do so, then there is no book.

Amazon.com

In his latest book, David Ewing Duncan traces the development of our modern-day calendar and describes how people's experiences are shaped by their conception of time. Duncan postulates that all this concern with time started when a Cro-Magnon man decided to mark off the days of the lunar cycle on an eagle bone. After recounting the slow evolution of the calendar through the centuries, the author laments how time oriented our society has become: "There are moments when I am hopelessly late, or cannot possibly fit anything else into my schedule, when I sigh and wish that Cro-Magnon man 13,000 years ago in the Dordogne Valley had set aside his eagle bone and gone to bed."

The book is organized in chronological order and focuses mainly on the centuries leading up to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (our modern calendar) by the Catholic Church in 1582. Along the way, Duncan describes the ancient calendars of many cultures all over the globe, from India to Egypt to the Mayan empire. During the Middle Ages, Christian churches discouraged scientific inquiry on the theory that it was wrong to question the nature of God's creation. This severely hampered the refinement of the calendar and the advancement of many academic pursuits. By the 16th century, Europe's calendars were 11 days out of sync with the solar year, which meant Easter was being celebrated on the wrong day. An infusion of knowledge from India and the Middle East helped Europeans get back on track. Duncan profiles the many mathematicians, philosophers, and monks who made organizing time their life's work. This book honors the efforts of those scholars and examines the way politics and religion influenced societal perceptions of time through the ages. --Jill Marquis

Book Description

How did Pope Gregory set right a calendar which was in error by at least ten lull days? What did time mean to a farmer on the Rhine in 800 A.D.? What was daily life like in the Middle Ages, when the general population reckoned births and marriages by seasons, wars, kings'' reigns, and saints' days? In short, how did the world

The adventure spans the world from Stonehenge to astronomically aligned pyramids at Giza, from Mayan observatories at Chichen Itza to the atomic clock in Washington, the world's official timekeeper since the 1960s. We visit cultures from Vedic India and Cleopatra's Egypt to Byzantium and the Elizabethan court; and meet an impressive cast of historic personages from Julius Caesar to Omar Khayyam, and giants of science from Galileo and Copernicus to Stephen Hawking. Our present calendar system predates the invention of the telescope, the mechanical clock, and the concept ol zero and its development is one of the great untold stories of science and history. How did Pope Gregory set right a calendar which was in error by at least ten lull days? What did time mean to a farmer on the Rhine in 800 A.D.? What was daily life like in the Middle Ages, when the general population reckoned births and marriages by seasons, wars, kings'' reigns, and saints' days?

Customer Reviews:

Great read for the holidays.......2007-01-10

Entertaining, well written and informative. David Ewing Duncan takes you through the politically fraught struggle to develop an accurate, globally accepted method of measuring the year. The author does a good job of explaining the science behind the calendar to the layperson. I read this book a while ago and purchased it as a Christmas present for my father.

A History of human Recording of the Flow of Time !.......2005-12-24

Calendar's Days & Months:
As a kid I was fascinated by my dad's Q & A! He recounted how the Calendar of the Coptic Church preserved the Alexandrine version of the accurate ancient Egyptian one. Why are the ninth to twelfth months of the year were numbered seventh (Sept) to tenth (Deci), and how consecutive 31 days July and August were jammed into the Roman calendar? Why are all the names of days after pagan gods: Sun, Moon, Ziu, Woden, Thor, Venus, and Saturn? I used similar ways to challenge my two sons interest, but then gave them a 76 pages monograph, "The Roman origins of our calendar", by Van Loran Johnson, 1958, for more details. Now, they may offer Duncan's book to their own.

Evolution of calendar:
Ancient peoples linked their 'calendar' to recurring natural phenomena, most easily observed. Annual weather changes usually post marked the times of the year in warmer climates of the Middle East. There, the moon was used to mark time, that evolved into the lunar calendar still used by today's Moslems.
Calendars have been utilized, since their invention in Ancient Egypt, to plan its farming cycles and precisely fix the celebration of agriculture seasons and events, harvests and religious festivals. At certain precise dates in Karnak's Amun Temple sanctuary, in Luxor, the rituals performed in Amun's honor each year light enters through the ceiling granite blocks during the Festival of Opet. Our contemporary calendar is one of the great adoptions by the Roman Empire from eternal Egypt. It has been in use there, in its final form for two centuries, since its reform in 238 B. C. by Ptolemy III, before it was presented by Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer and mathematician, to Caesar. Cleopatra's learned courtier convincingly worked the embracement of the Egyptian calendar, renamed after Julius Caesar and stayed unchanged for over sixteen centuries, with one major improvement when it was adjusted by a Briton Monk during rein of Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582.

Western world calendar:
The history of the present western world calendar has recently been made the concern of scholarly monographs, since "Origins of time measurement and the origins of our calendar," was addressed by James Henry Breasted in 1936.
A fairly good informal history of the Western calendar, has been revisited in the dawn of Y2K by E. G. Richards, Mapping Time : The Calendar and Its History, and Michael Judge in his The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar. History and FAQ's of calendars, from ancient Rome to outer space, including Julian, Gregorian, Jewish, Islamic, etc. are posted in the hyperspace from Caesar's imposition of the Julian calendar, through the medieval centuries. Various scholars noted problems but failed to repair them, finally ending with the council that promulgated the Gregorian calendar.

Duncan Calendar History:
Duncan gives a compelling and detailed discussion of the calendar history from the early development of astronomy and ancient time keeping devices, like sun dials, to the development of our modern-day calendar. He traces the development of our modern days calendar and describes how the conception of time influenced the human experience. After recounting the slow evolution of the calendar through the centuries, Duncan postulates that the real concern with time was born when a man decided to mark off the days of the lunar cycle on an eagle's bone. He tells us, in his diverse research that goes into considerable details, a story surely enjoyed by curious readers.
Duncan epilogued his account with a chapter on atomic clocks, but the wonder stays focused on those midieval centuries since the Council of Nicaea has decreed that Alexandria was to set the dates for Easter for the whole empire, and when Dante joined Copernicius in adjusting Ptolomy's year deducting some seven minutes. This fascinating book packs together diverse information on the calendar in a story that would amuse more, if some distractions are to be filtered off.

Fascinating and very readable .......2004-10-29

Many books on the topic of time, calendars, and, in an unsuprisingly related way, papal history have so much to tell given the vast scope of years involved that their authors either just scratch the surface, leaving the reader wanting more, or tell lengthy, complicated anecdotes about select occurences, leaving the reader scratching his head and wondering how the events are related. Duncan does an admirable job of telling the history like, of all things, a STORY. The myriad names and places somehow settle into a pattern that makes the disparate chapters makes sense together.

Certain editorial license is take by Duncan, as well, which adds to the reader's enthusiasm in speeding through the chapters. It's a quick read and a great re-read.

Of dates, times, people and places..........2003-05-26

There are a number of things I wish someone told me before I picked up this book, and here are some of them. This is NOT a book about the mathematics or the science behind the creation of the Calendar and the process of measuring time. Rather it is a long winded and one sided rambling history of the creation of the Gregorian Calendar in its present form. The book is too heavily European centric and Christian centric. It relegates all other histories of the measurement of time, such as the Mayans, the Indians, the Chinese, the Arabic etc to at most a chapter each. Further, the entire book is about the impact of the Church on the creation of the Calendar due to the need to fix Easter, and gives amiss to factors such as sea navigation, intercultural trade links etc, which were just as critical in the search for a universal time. Instead these are treated as anecdotes to illustrate the problems of a non-universal time, more as effects of changes made by the Church, rather than socio-cultural causes that led to the need for a Calendar.

In addition to all the above, the writing style makes the book a true chore to read. Filled with names, dates, names of towns and references to texts, paragraphs become extremely overloaded with junk information for anyone except the scholar interested in making chronological research notes. The other aspect that makes plain reading difficult is the frequently occurring capitals and years within paranthesis. A sample paragraph, picked almost at random is below.

"The bull itself was written in the fall of 1581, mostly by Pedro Chacon. On 20th October 1581 , he sent a draft from Turino to Cardinal Sirleto in Rome. Chacon then died a few days later, leaving the final version of the bull to be written by member Vincenzo di Lauri. Sirleto also dispatched Antionio Lilius, Aloysius's brother, to work with the pope's aides on the final bull at Mondragone, Gregory's favorite villa outside of Rome "

The good part of the book is that for someone unexposed to the frailties of time-measurement, this is definitely an eye opener in showing how recent the phenomenon of a universal time is. But even in the book being a non-scientific exposition, it falls far short of its own blurb which proudly announces the decision by Mao Zedong to accept the Gregorian Calendar as a seminal event, one which is treated in its entirety in a couple of paragraphs as compared to the entire book about the habits of monks and the "Ecclesiastical history of the English".Worth a read, not a buy though.

I liked it.......2003-01-13

I read this not long after it was first published, so I can only speak to my general recollections. If you're looking for a Michael Crichton or Stephen King page-turner, then click on... And, after reading some of the negative reviews here, I also remember that some of the computations in this book don't quite check out. I also remember that some "tangents" to the basic story seemed to be unduly drawn out, in an apparent effort to make a book of "respectable length" (about 250 pages, in my hardbound edition). On the other hand, I think most academically inclined people would enjoy this book.

In a world where time can be measured to an accuracy of "one second in 1,400,000 years" (tycho.usno.navy.mil/cesium.html), and the rotation of the earth is no longer used as the basis for its measurement (it's not sufficiently constant), and anyone with an Internet connection can easily synchronize his PC to within .2 seconds of the correct time, it is very easy to take this whole subject very much for granted. However, if asked how long it takes the earth to make one orbit of the sun, most people would answer "one year"... and they would be wrong; it takes about 1 year and 20 minutes for the earth to orbit the sun.

There are answers to many questions (that most people probably never ask themselves) in this book. If "decem" is Latin for "ten" (thus the words decimal, decade, etc.), then why is December the 12th month of the year? There are also surprises for even the generally well educated: the Gregorian calendar "of 1582" wasn't accepted in England and America until 1752.

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Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year
David Ewing Duncan
Manufacturer: New York Avon 1998.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LTSEBW

Amazon.com

"Don't trust your instincts." Hardly the standard self-help fare, to be sure. Arguing that Darwin has a lot more to tell us about ourselves than Freud, Mean Genes is high on evolution and low on inner child. Deemed "brilliant" by E.O. Wilson himself, the book is the work of two young Wilson disciples: Terry Burnham, an economics professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and Jay Phelan, a professor of biology at UCLA.

Burnham and Phelan divide life issues into 10 categories (debt, fat, drugs, risk, greed, gender, beauty, infidelity, family, and friends and foes), and then offer a two-step guide to better living. "Step 1 is to understand our animal nature, particularly those desires that get us into trouble and can lead to unhappiness. Step 2 is to harness this knowledge so that we can tame our primal instincts."

Needless to say, Nancy Reagan-esque bromides don't fit into the Mean Genes scheme of things:

"Just say no" to drugs is the simplest way to kick a habit. Unfortunately, this obvious and low-cost approach is also the route most likely to fail. For example, only one person quits smoking for every twenty who attempt to just say no. Raw willpower seems like a great solution right up until weakness strikes and we light up a cigarette or mix a margarita.

Instead of slogans, the Mean Genes approach to overcoming drug addiction is to first recognize that "every person has strong, instinctual cravings for destructive substances." This, coupled with a thorough scientific understanding of a given drug's pleasurable effects on the brain, offers a more realistic course of action, such as finding a less harmful substitute for achieving a similar buzz.

Be it talk of weight loss, saving for retirement, or resisting the neighbor's wife, such practical, tough-love suggestions for subduing the beast within are provided throughout the book. Phelan describes how he instantly smears mayonnaise all over tempting sweets served with airline meals to keep from eating them during long flights, and Burnham writes of giving away his Internet access cable in order to free himself of a serious day-trading fixation.

The authors also rely heavily on findings from the animal world in stating their case, which makes for fascinating reading, if not always for readily transferable lessons to daily life. Consider, for example, certain frog species that "continue individual bouts of mating for several months. If people mated for a similar percentage of our lives, a single round of intercourse would last almost ten years." And then there's the famed black widow spider. "Shunning the more traditional chastity belt, the male breaks off his sexual organ inside the female, preventing her from ever mating again. When the act is completed, the female kills and eats the male."

Put off by all the sex and violence? Don't worry. There's also a nod to family values in the form of the Australian social spider. "Soon after giving birth to about a hundred hungry spiderlings, Mom's body literally liquefies into a pile of mushy flesh. The babies then munch on the flesh so they can start their lives with full bellies." Mean genes, indeed. --Patrick Jennings

Book Description

"The Mean Genes message is optimistic . . . a self-help book for the merely average human being." (The Washington Post Book World)

"An unusual cross between a social Darwinist monograph and a self-help manual." (The New Yorker)

Why do we want-and do-so many things that are bad for us? In Mean Genes Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan argue that we need to stop looking to Sigmund Freud for answers and start looking to Charles Darwin. Mean Genes reveals that our struggles for self-improvement are, in fact, battles against our own genes-genes that helped our distant ancestors flourish, but are selfish and out of place in the modern world. Using this evolutionary lens, Mean Genes brilliantly examines the issues that most affect our lives-body image, money, addiction, violence, and relationships, friendship, love, and fidelity-and offers steps to help us lead more satisfying lives.

Customer Reviews:

Good book.......2007-06-27

The book is easy to read, and aims to explain human behavior based on our psychological aspects and our genes. It's a good book, a book I will keep on my book shelf. However, it's nothing extraordinary, it will not change your life perspective by 180 degrees :).

Funny, Practical.......2007-04-30

Phelan and Burnham's practical, yet informative and humorous approach to teaching shines in their book through multitude of real life stories. It is half science, half novella, 100% genuine and funny!

Nothing New.......2007-01-04

I just finished "Mean Genes". This is a book you will read once and will sit on the shelf. I am glad I checked it out from the library.

It is a quick and easy read, which I like. Other books of this sort can become bogged down in scientific lingo. There was nothing in this book that I had to re-read several times before it sunk in. That isn't necessarily a good thing.

I did not read any information that I have not already heard. And I am far from an expert on such a topic. I, like most, am somewhere in the middle when it comes to intellegence (of course, I like to think I am at the upper level of average). I am sure that has something to do with my genes.

If you want a quick and easy read, this book is for you. If you want to learn in-depth information on genes, look elsewhere.

A light introduction to a serious subject.......2006-11-30

Mean Genes is a light and entertaining overview of human sociobiology, so those looking for a more "serious" work should skip this one. Burnham and Phelan demonstrate that much of human nature reflects our evolutionary past. They do acknowledge the importance of environment, but it's now clear that upbringing is a 3rd-order effect after genetics and epigenetics in that order. (Otherwise chimps could be raised to be like people.)

When I was younger, I used to be on the fence re: evolution and religion. However I'm now a believer in the former because it explains what the latter can't: it explains why men have a stronger sex drive than women (because men have an infinite supply of sex cells vs. women); it explains why people are more aggressive and violent than they should be (e.g. road rage), considering our modern (easy) lifestyle; it can even explain why people are compelled to believe in religion in the first place.

junk theories?.......2005-07-16

Save your money! I can sum up the book in a few sentences. According to the authors, we are genetically inclined to spend money and avoid saving because our ancenstors didn't have refrigerators. We use drugs because they make us feel good. We take risks because it gives us a little high. We do drugs because they make us feel good.

I had to read this book for a graduate Accounting class. No, I am not joking. I wouldn't have wasted my money, nor my time if I wasn't being graded on it. This book is a bunch of junk theories that say we are genetically induced to do things because of some ancestor and we can change it if we are smart enough. On just about every page in the book is some study done on animals that is supposed to be related to the topic. The author says races have DNA that are almost identical. Yeah, well Chimps and humans have almost identical DNA's. The book also says that 25% of women and 50% of men admit to cheating on their spouse. If you look at the source, you will see it is from 1974 and published by none other that Playboy Press. The book also says 10% of British children tested were not children of their married mother and father. Meaning that the mother had an affair. However, in the notes it says that this 10% only applies to people who were suspicious and actually went and had the test done. That is a pretty importatnt fact they chose to leave out in the text.

This book is a bunch of theories based on animal behavior and the hypothetical behavior of our ancestors. The rest of the book is common sense. Especially the dozen or so pages the authors use to discuss how women like men with money and success. I didn't need a PhD to tell me that.

Ask Darwin's Grandma.(Review): An article from: American Scientist

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Ask Darwin's Grandma.(Review): An article from: American Scientist

Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts

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Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts
Terry Phelan, Jay Burnham
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJGSUS

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Mean Genes; from Sex to Money to Food Taming Our Primal Instincts
Terry & Jay Phelan Burnham
Manufacturer: Perseus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X6ITKO

Book Description

The book stresses the six key structural factors that will affect future environmental policies in the Mediterranean region during the next fifty years: population growth, climate change, soil erosion and desertification, water scarcity, food production, and urbanization and pollution. The contributors point out the potential of all these problems as sources of violent conflict, their policy implications, and the possibilities for the development of preventive policies, based on cooperative strategies.
The interdisciplinary approach of the book makes it relevant and useful to a broad range of professionals, specialists and researchers.

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