A Room of One's Own

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Surprisingly, this long essay about society and art and sexism is one of Woolf's most accessible works. Woolf, a major modernist writer and critic, takes us on an erudite yet conversational--and completely entertaining--walk around the history of women in writing, smoothly comparing the architecture of sentences by the likes of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, all the while lampooning the chauvinistic state of university education in the England of her day. When she concluded that to achieve their full greatness as writers women will need a solid income and a privacy, Woolf pretty much invented modern feminist criticism.

Book Description

Why is it that men, and not women, have always had power, wealth, and fame? Woolf cites the two keys to freedom: fixed income and one’s own room. Foreword by Mary Gordon.

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" A remarkable work in both the history English literary criticism and feminist theory, Virginia Woolf?

Customer Reviews:

unavailable..........2007-09-09

after i ordered this book, the distributors let me know instantly that they no longer had the book on shelf, and instantly refunded my account. speedy service is one thing, but keeping the customer informed is another...thanks

A must have.......2007-01-03

A timeless essay not only for women. Good hard binding that will keep. It's a must have if you like English literature.

A woman's liberation classic .......2006-05-23

This is a beautifully written and highly enjoyable exploration of the history of women in writing. It is also a plea for the liberation of women, and their full entrance into the world of Literature. Woolf argues that a woman needs financial independence, a room , that is a space of her own, if she is to be able to truly create. She also needs the kind of access to everyday life that women confined to hearth and home were as she sees it, traditionally denied.
She urges that Woman enter into all fields of writing, and develop in directions they had no opportunity to develop in before.
She also perhaps reflecting on her own experience and nature argues for the androgynous nature of the creator, seeing in Shakespeare, Keats and certainly Proust a strong feminine element.
Woolf anticipates and perhaps in some sense helps creates the vast flourishing of Literature written by women which will come in the decades after her.

a room for what?.......2006-03-14

This essay reunites several works from Virginia Woolf about the right of women to possess a place - a room- to read, write and work, intended that not as domestic work as was usual for women during many times.
This book is very good. The problem with it today is many people uses this work only as a vindicating feminist weapon, while few people has truly read it, but remember, Virginia Woolf wanted that room not for itself, but for a finality: to do an intellectual task inside. Some people forgets this fundamental fact.

To get a room of one's own.......2006-02-17

Woolf's argument that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction," holds true not just for fiction but for any activity a woman wants to pursue. The early 20th century essay is still widely relevant, and not just in developing countries.

On the reading style, this essay is much more accessible, compared to say `Mrs. Dalloway' and `To the Lighthouse'. Reading it felt like having a conversation with someone who was not just erudite, but also reflected some of my own thoughts and beliefs. Especially as I believe that economic independence and resource availability could be key to overturning the notions of sexual inequality.

Many thanks to Woolf for airing these thoughts and inspiring the rest of us.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays

Average customer rating:

A great scientist explains his work and his life
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
EVENT HORIZON
Fascinating and Stimulating
Good, but not up to Hawking's standard

Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
Stephen W. Hawking
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553095234
Release Date: 1993-09-01

Book Description

Readers worldwide have come to know the work of Stephen Hawking through his phenomenal million-copy hardcover best-seller A Brief History of Time. Bantam is proud to present the paperback edition of Dr. Hawking's first new book since that event, a collection of fascinating and illuminating essays, and a remarkable interview broadcast by the BBC on Christmas Day, 1992. These fourteen pieces reveal Hawking variously as the scientist, the man, the concerned world citizen, and-always-the rigorous and imaginative thinker. Hawking's wit, directness of style, and absence of pomp characterize all of them, whether he is remembering his first experience at nursery school; calling for adequate education in science that will enable the public to play its part in making informed decisions on matters such as nuclear disarmament; exploring the origins of the future of the universe; or reflecting on the history of A Brief History of Time. Black Holes and Baby Universes is an important work from one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

A great scientist explains his work and his life .......2007-04-01

This book consists in two distinct parts. In one Hawking talks about his life, and in the other about his major areas of interest in his researches. Both parts of the work are written in clear and understandable language, though I admit that when he talks about black holes, singularities, and the real heart of his work my own lack of understanding and knowledge prevents me from feeling I really 'get it'. Hawking's work in these areas is considered foundational and of great importance. I cannot possibly evaluate it.
As for the second simpler section on his life there is the one overwhelming fact. It was only after he contracted AMS that he decided to get down to work, and become a serious researcher. His meeting Jane Wilde was the key here for this gave him hope for his future. She became his wife and the mother of his three children. And though they later divorced he attributes her with having given the hope and belief he needed at that critical time.
Despite his infirmity Hawking went on to make major scientific discoveries. He at one point lost his power his speech and learned to communicate through a special synthesizer. He is a widely appreciated figure whose 'Brief History of Time' won a worldwide readership. He has continued to speak out on issues such as global warming, the nuclear - war danger, the necessity for human population of space.
The book is naturally reticent about many questions regarding Hawking's life which no doubt future biographers will more deeply explore.
One more thought about the 'scientific work'. It seems to me and this is a layman's opinion that a lot of his work is done in areas and ways which are speculative and not as yet verifiable by experimental test. It thus seems to me that comparisons sometimes made of his work with that of Newton and Einstein are probably premature.

Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays.......2007-02-06

Very very interesting. Made my husband very happy+

EVENT HORIZON.......2006-11-14

An event horizon is the boundary of a black hole, defined by the light that can reach out that far and no further. Hawking himself sometimes uses pictorial metaphors to illustrate abstruse mathematical concepts, and this one occurred to me by way of an analogy of the brilliant illumination that I am trying to persuade to shine out far enough to reach my own dim wits hovering hopefully in the outer darkness.

The whole `feel' of Hawking's discourses reminds me of the stories I have read about Einstein at work - placid, orderly and without excitement (or should I say `perturbation'?). Genius of this kind seems to be a kind of glorified knack - such minds just operate naturally with concepts of this kind, and there is no sense of effort or struggle. Sandwiched between some biographical material and a radio interview, the main material in this book is a collection of essays and lectures. They include Hawking's inaugural lecture at Cambridge where he occupies the chair of mathematics once held by Newton, and all are intended in the first place for an audience of his peers. On the other hand, where Newton and Einstein did not try to address the general public, Hawking, like Russell, seeks to do just that, and he does it superbly. The style of writing is both literate and unpretentious, and the occasional jokes are very good. Readers who, like myself, are intensely interested in the subject-matter but entirely lacking in natural aptitude for it, ought to find this book enormously helpful. There is a certain amount of repetition inevitably, but the more of that the better so far as I'm concerned. Any amateur trying to get a handle on mathematical concepts like these has to get into a mathematician's way of thinking as best he can and stop thinking as a layman. We can all understand the basics of gravitation without being Newton, but if we are still struggling with the general idea of the General Theory of Relativity in 2006 it's worth remembering that it was propounded in 1915 and that physics and astronomy have came on a long way since then, so we had better get our minds round it at last.

At least as astounding to me as Hawking's triumph over his physical paralysis is the fact that this professor of mathematics at Cambridge never graduated in that subject. His degree subject was physics, allegedly on the grounds that the Oxford physics course was easy. Not easy enough to tempt me away from Latin and Greek, I must say, but doubtless for him. Mathematics is just a technique that Hawking invokes as a tool in his quest for a grand unified theory of the entire cosmos. This, said he 20 or 30 years ago, is something he hoped and largely expected could be achieved in 20 or 30 years. I'm sure we would have heard if he thought by now that he had got there, but he honours us with his ideas at the time of writing on the origin and future of the universe. The main obstacle to the final resolution of the issue is apparently that no one has yet successfully integrated old Newton's gravitation with the rest of it. However he also helps us with some more `back-at-the-office' theory concerning black holes, on which topic he appears to be the leading thinker, and that gives him the opportunity to remind us of the outlines of the most important advances since Einstein, namely quantum mechanics and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

The latter principle enunciates that the better the position of a particle can be predicted the less well its velocity can be predicted, and conversely. Since it is necessary to predict both, all we can do is predict the combination on a `smeared' statistical basis. It seems to come into everything, and Hawking invokes it to try to comfort us with the belief that although everything (and everyone) actually is determined by particle physics, the extent of the unpredictability is such that we might as well consider ourselves to be free agents. For once, I would dare question him. In the first place such a view doesn't seem to require Heisenberg - simply viewing the story of the cosmos as a chain of events constituting causes and effects would surely get us that far, as the permutation of these is incalculably large and therefore only to some extent predictable. Secondly, when we talk about `free will' and `determinism' what are we even talking about? I'm often told in arguments that I can think what I like. On the contrary, I wish I could, but my own observation and reason, such as they are, leave me unable to. When I exercise `free choice', e.g. in choosing from a menu, I can quite understand that my choice might be determined by physical causes (whether that is the truth of it or not). However when I change my mind about something factual or theoretical, which is taken as a sign of free intelligence, I do so because I feel that the evidence leaves me no choice, and evidence is not an `event' or a `cause' or any matter of particles or physics. Where does all this leave `free will'?

Those seeking God or a Creator will find that Hawking hedges his bets, so that any capable by nature of thinking what they would prefer to think remain, I suppose, `free' to do so. The issue is beyond me, and my own quest is for a better understanding of the cosmos I have been born into and will have to leave before too long. May I wish Professor Hawking a long and productive further career. We are much the same age, and his 20-30-year estimate for solving the riddle of the cosmos is up around now. If he finds it, I hope I can recognise it when I see it.

Fascinating and Stimulating.......2005-11-29

Like others who have reviewed this work, I can endorse it as a stimulating and thoughtful book. It is in essence however not a coherent book with a single theme. It is a compilation of articles and as such there is much in the book that is repetitive. Hawking acknowledges this and disclaims it at the outset. Even with the forewarning I found that element to be a tad annoying.

I listened to the audio version of the book while commuting and I found it overall to be a fascinating read. The biographical material about Hawking helped to put a "person" to the personality. Hawking is, without doubt, brilliant. His ability to reduce difficult concepts to listener sound bites speaks to that brilliance. I came away with an appreciation for his brilliance and abilities as well as the field of cosmological science that I did not have before.

Of particular note, I found Hawking's treatment of metaphysics to be interesting but ultimately no more valuable than anyone else's opinions in that area. Physics will never answer the question of why the universe exists or whether God in fact exists and created this universe. Science can only answer how the universe works and what laws govern its behavior. Hawkings admits this himself so I took no offense to his words, I just found it interesting that his position did not make his insights in that regard any more valuable.

The final segment of transcript from a radio show read by the narrator struck me a an opportunity missed to allow Hawking to finish with his own voice and presence. I was disappointed they did not use the original sound feed and chose to read the transcript.

Well worth the read or the listen. Entertaining. Already dated though and perhaps his more recent works would be of more value to most listeners.

Good, but not up to Hawking's standard.......2005-07-08

I immensely enjoyed A Brief History of Time, and had high hopes for this book as well. Unfortunately I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it is a good book full of interesting things, but there is far too much repitition, both with A Brief History of Time and withing this book itself. It seemed that he explained his "the only boudary conditition is that there is no boundary" theory in every essay. Good material, but you won't find much in here that you didn't already know if you read A Brief History of Time. I would recommend skipping this and going straight to The Universe in a Nutshell, a more recent Hawking book.

Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloons of New Orleans (2nd Edition, Expanded)

Average customer rating:

Fantastic Book!
It will make you thirsty
The Spirit of New Orleans
A Bourbon Street Hopper
Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloon of New Orleans

Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloons of New Orleans (2nd Edition, Expanded)
Kerri McCaffety , and Andrei Codrescu
Manufacturer: Vissi D'arte Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0970933606

Book Description

The new edition: Two years after its original release, the new Obituary Cocktail has more bars, photos, drink recipes, and quotes. Six added spreads include the bar in the kitchen at Commander's Palace, The Circle Bar and its Herradura tequila shot with tonic--the Harry Tonic Jr.--and Butler's fantastically seedy interior.

WINNER Silver Medals, Publisher's Mktg Assoc & Ind Publ Assoc 2002! Book of the Year 1999 (New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association).

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic Book!.......2007-01-28

If you have ever visited the bars in New Orleans, you will appreciate learning of the little known history of the watering holes that you have spent many an evening drinking and laughing. It reminds you of the many who sat on the stools before you and what interesting things have occured before your presence! The book has beautiful photographs and is very much a necessity for any lover of the city of New Orleans. It is a great coffee table book, and can spark many interesting conversations!

It will make you thirsty.......2003-10-17

first of all, this is a beautifully produced book, with wonderful photographs of the great New Orleans drinking establishments and local scenary.

Secondly, it's a must for any bartender. Not much needs to be said on this topic except for the fact that many great drinks have come out of New Orleans and the bartender (professional or otherwise) should learn how to prepare them.

Finally, the book also presents some important historical information on New Orleans and its saloons. The two go hand in hand.

The Spirit of New Orleans.......2003-08-09

Ms. McCaffety has captured the essence of New Orleans with her wonderful book. The pictures are gorgeous, and the addition of a few traditional New Orleans cocktail recipes and the history of the saloons rounds out the book nicely. I can't wait to get back to New Orleans and visit the bars I've missed.

A Bourbon Street Hopper.......2002-11-08

I don't think I've ever experienced anything quite like the bars in New Orleans! They are fantastic! The press has given Bourbon St. such a negative view, but I had no trouble the two times I went down by myself! I mean if you use a little common sense, then there's no problem! The people were some of the nicest I've ever met! Everyone treats you like family and you have such a great time! This book shows that down-home, friendly atmosphere! It was interesting for me too, to see a lot of the places off of Bourbon that I didn't get to see! You know, the 5 star places that cost an arm and a leg, and require reservations! This is just another great book to relive memories of your trip to "Sin City."

Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloon of New Orleans.......2000-05-29

Growing up in New Orleans is a rare experience. Living away often makes one nostalgic and wistful.. Reading "Obituary Cocktail" brings the sights, sounds, smells and tastes roaring back. This is a beautiful book. The photos are warm, romantic and evocative. The commentary is pure magic and the recipes are fabulous. Whether you live there now, once were there or have never visited - this book captures the charm, the quirkiness and the mystery of New Orleans and her great watering holes.

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Average customer rating:

Nothing Unnatural About It; It's Sacred
This verse unlocks the heart.
If you have been affected by cancer it is worth reading!!!
Suprising turn of events
Disappointed

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Terry Tempest Williams
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679740244
Release Date: 1992-09-01

Amazon.com

The only constants in nature are change and death. Terry Tempest Williams, a naturalist and writer from northern Utah, has seen her share of both. The pages of Refuge resound with the deaths of her mother and grandmother and other women from cancer, the result of the American government's ongoing nuclear-weapons tests in the nearby Nevada desert. You won't find the episode in the standard history textbooks; the Feds wouldn't admit to conducting the tests until women and men in Utah, Nevada, and northwestern Arizona took the matter to court in the mid-1980s, and by then thousands of Americans had fallen victim to official technology. Parallel to her account of this devastation, Williams describes changes in bird life at the sanctuaries dotting the shores of the Great Salt Lake as water levels rose during the unusually wet early 1980s and threatened the nesting grounds of dozens of species. In this world of shattered eggs and drowned shorebirds, Williams reckons with the meaning of life, alternating despair and joy.

Book Description

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.

Customer Reviews:

Nothing Unnatural About It; It's Sacred.......2006-10-28

The first time I went to Utah, I read Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and loved it. This time, at a bookstore in Moab, I picked up Williams' "Red" for a contemporary view of the ecological issues around this gorgeous desert landscape, which is unlike any place I have been. Although I liked "Red," people told me "Refuge" was even better.

This is a very special book. I'm no birdwatcher, but it made me want to be. I'm no scientist, but I wished I were. I'm no Mormon, but it gave me respect for a religion I have never been able to fathom. Terry Tempest Williams has profound insights into the natural world. Her observations of the Great Salt Lake and the many migratory birds that visit it are as moving as her account of the death by cancer of her mother and grandmothers. Not surprisingly, they taught Williams awe of birds and sunsets and their own bodies. All of them are brave and spiritual women, and we would be wise to learn from them.

I think what I most admire about Williams as a writer is her emotional courage. Time and time again, she strikes out where more conventional writers would hesitate. She finds redeeming passages from the Book of Mormon. She follows her mother through her long and circuitous spiritual journey with cancer. She follows her grandmother as she moves into Eastern thought and modern physics. She dips respectfully into ancient Indian and Mexican culture. She walks in the desert at some peril to her well-being. She speaks of the intimacy of her marriage and about her decision not to bear children.

Yet his is not a book "about" the desert or cancer or birds or Mormonism, but about life and how it can be richly observed, experienced. shared and redeemed. It's one brave woman's answer to "Desert Solitaire."

This verse unlocks the heart........2006-10-16

Terry Tempest Williams is a national treasure. Her unvarnished verse carries one deep into the mystery of the Earth and sends us helplessly into the depths of our own hearts. The landscape of wildness breaths a spectacular wisdom under the watchful eyes of this keen observer of wind, rock, desert, sky, sage, along with the birds who soar and dance and play in a benediction to non-sentient life.

When I need to recapture my own mortality along with my own humility, I always return to the verse of this elder of silence and truth. Williams stands alone in the power to convey both outer and inner wildness. Her verse is poetic and healing. One does not read these words but are instead initiated into the heart beat of wild nature. Savor its beauty as you might a calming sunset or a wind swept sea shore calling you ever deeper into your own soul.

Read everything she writes and find peace deep within.

If you have been affected by cancer it is worth reading!!!.......2006-06-26

I loved and hated this book. It is beatifully written. I found the author frustrating at times. Some parts got a little long winded about the birds. It takes you on a emotional rollercoaster but the pay off of finishing this book is worth it. Any one who has been affected by cancer will find this book very inciteful to the process of going through treatment and also the death process. Terry Tempest gives the most authentic and honest account of what life is like living through cancer I have every read. She put into words thought and feelings I could never express fully.
The research of the history of the Great Salt Lake was very fun to read about. I have lived in Utah all my life, but I have never been to the Lake I now am very curious to see it and the bird refuge. I think I will find the trip much more interesting now than if I had gone before reading this book.

Suprising turn of events.......2006-03-02

Terry Tempest Williams is a naturalist living in Utah who has the history of cancer in her family. Cancer in this novel is paralleled with the flooding of the neighboring Great Salt Lake. Overall this book goes to show that cancer goes deeper than the person who it is diagnosed to. I would suggest this book on limited circumstances: One-if you can get past the strong feminine presence and domination of this novel. Two-do not read the last 60 or so pages. I approved of this book up until that point. If the book ended at that point, leaving out the harassment of the government it would be ten times better. To anyone who is in the process of reading Refuge, you won't want to read past around page 230. Enough said.
My rating(first 230 or so pages): 7.5/10
My rating(after page 230 or so) 2.5/10

Disappointed.......2006-02-03

Although I found the passages about Ms. Williams relationships with her mother and grandmother and their struggles with cancer to be well-written and moving, I am surprised that she and many other reviewers imply that the cancers were the consequences of nuclear testing. I think of myself as an environmentalist, and I believe that such testing is likely to have been harmful to human health; however, the striking family history of breast and ovarian cancer in this case strongly suggests that there is a genetic disorder (mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene) that was responsible for the cancer in these women. I was living in Salt Lake City during the spring of 1983, and the flooding was indeed dramatic, but I was bored by the rather repetitious descriptions of the refuge and the birds.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

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Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

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great book
Orwell's indictment of industrial squalor
Split approach to societal betterment
It is not just what you say but how you say it...
Needs a 21st Century Editor

The Road to Wigan Pier
George Orwell
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156767503

Amazon.com

Although George Orwell grew up in the relative comfort of the English middle class, his socialist convictions and general sense of fairness led him to hate his country's deeply ingrained class structure. That perspective permeates this book, but the most striking elements are the quotidian details of life that Orwell observes in his first-person account of the lives of coal miners and others in the poor north of England. Wigan Pier is almost too realistic at times, as Orwell brings his unparalleled powers of observation to portray the wretched conditions of the working class. That Orwell may have slanted his reporting to make things look worse than they were is a question that does not lessen the book's interest.

Book Description

In the 1930s Orwell was sent by a socialist book club to investigate the appalling mass unemployment in the industrial north of England. He went beyond his assignment to investigate the employed as well-”to see the most typical section of the English working class.” Foreword by Victor Gollancz.

Customer Reviews:

great book.......2007-10-11

George Orwell is the man. This is for sure one of the top 5 best books i've ever read. Even if I tried, I couldn't come close to doing the book justice with this review.

Orwell's indictment of industrial squalor.......2007-07-08

This work commisioned by the Left Book Club, a socialist group in England in the 1930's contains an incredible description of the miserable working conditions of coal miners in the northern industrial areas of England. Orwell's power of description brings home the awful condiditons to the reader in a very tangible and palpable way. Reminiscent of Jacob Riis' "How The Other Half Lives" or Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", Orwell's account is unforgettable social historical writing.

The remainder of the book is a polemical piece critical of socialists of his day. To the modern reader that will not have as much relevance except as an example of Orwell's pursuasive writing but the earlier sections of the book are incredibly memorable.

Split approach to societal betterment.......2006-11-28

My first and easily least substantial question concerning The Road to Wigan Pier is this: where is the pier? I looked on a map, and Wigan is not a coastal town. Well, no matter I suppose. Orwell himself points out that the pier was gone even by the time he reached the town, and that was seventy years ago.

For more substantial issues, the reader will not be disappointed. George Orwell does not write fluff. What he did write, in this case, is a split work, with the first half covering his observations of life among the very poor of northern England in the thirties and the second half consisting of a lengthy essay on the practice and future of Socialism. This latter section was considered scandalous enough among the book's expected readership that the editors who commissioned the work felt the need to include a foreword saying, in effect, that the opinions expressed by this author do not reflect those of the Left Book Club management.

The first and expected traditional account is about life among the poor. What's life like? Well, it's pretty lousy. Boarding houses are depressing and dirty places to stay in Orwell's account. Mine work is brutal and impossible for all but the fittest of the populace. Slum housing is miserable. The common wage is only sufficient for living off of if one is prepared to live life to the slimmest. Of course Orwell would never just recite these facts, so there's no need to repeat them here. He lived these facts, or something approximating them. Unlike in his earlier life-among-the-people books like Homage to Catalonia or Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell never really provides a chronological narrative. He is much less a participant here, possibly because he's already done that and didn't need a repeat. He also provides more quantitative analysis here than in the others, and blends it with his own personal observations. If he tells about it, he's seen it. Clearly he was wandering around the north a bit, mixing and living and working with the people. Apparently he was even conducting something like semi-formal interviews with various residents of the towns he lived in.

Something that's worth pointing out that I've observed both here and in other works such as Down and Out is this: Orwell takes some of the unknown and hence some of the fear out of his depiction of poverty. He alludes on more than one occasion that the middle class person falling on hard times is far more likely than a lower class sort if suddenly confronted with real poverty in the form of unemployment, and today these probably make up the bulk of Wigan Pier's readership. Put plainly, Orwell provides a blueprint on how to survive. Not well, but well enough to live. Or so it appears.

The latter half of Wigan Pier steps back entirely from his stated purpose of exploring poverty in the industrial north and begins taking a long look at Socialism in practice in Britain. This is where things get interesting, because when one strips away all of Orwell's personal observations and reminiscences, he is essentially saying that the average Socialist is a thoroughly unlikable, unthinking person. Of course Orwell would never strip any of that away, so what the reader gets is a snapshot of how Orwell saw the culture of the political hard left in his day.

I don't know how this section was received in Orwell's day. Certainly the publishers had an idea of how it would come across, and hence the foreword. How should we look at it today? Alas, his political observations were severely limited in time and place and hence limited in intrinsic though not historical value today. Orwell was a student of human nature and was among the more capable of spectators in seeing across class lines and sociological boundaries. There is much to be said for his observations on how people interact with one another and what draws a person to a political identity. Where did he fail then? His was a failure of imagination and a failure of optimism. For all his skill in seeing the present, he could only see the present. He missed the messages of the past, and he was blind to the future. Orwell could never see a society that would improve itself of its own accord without radical change. He called Socialism the only possible solution to society's problems and seemed to genuinely believe that everyone could see it given sufficient prodding (and correct prodding, since he was greatly concerned with how so many people recoiled from Socialism even when he thought they should have no reason to). This is related, I suppose, to his musings in Coming Up for Air that British society could never stop fascism without becoming fascist. When all was stripped away, Orwell could not conceive of a society that would act for its own betterment while remaining the same society.

Did Orwell see the past? He missed the forest for the trees, I'm afraid, and it's evident right in these pages. More than once he made comparisons of his Britain with the Britain of years or decades past. More than once did he say that things had changed and were no longer as bad as in times past (no public dole back then, fewer amenities, lower wages, etc). And this while writing during something called the Great Depression. Did none of this sink in? Was he blind to existing progress? Did he see no improvements in public attitude, to say nothing of technological progress? Was Orwell's man a slave to his class? Sadly, the answer appears to be `yes' on all counts. Does this detract from the value of his work? I suppose it does, but hardly enough to discount it entirely. It would be folly to view Wigan Pier as merely a dated snapshot of a single mind. Not when that mind is Orwell's.

It is not just what you say but how you say it..........2006-08-20

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell is a book requested by the Left Book Club on the issue of poverty and mass unemployment in the industrial north of England. Mr. Orwell does a great job of investigating the harsh job conditions in the coal mines, the foul lodgings, the bad diet, the pitiful wages and the struggle to feed a family. He points out that much of the conditions can easily be changed IF people wanted to change them. The wealth is there it just needs to get to the lower-class.
The other part of the book is Orwell trying to explain why, if Socialism seems to be so logical, so reasonable, everybody is either turning away from Socialism and, in many changes, turning to Fascism. It seems that while people might agree with many ideals of Socialism they don't like the Socialists they meet. Orwell points out that Socialists need to work on the delivery of their message - less about class systems and more about justice and income.
When you attack the middle-class you put them on the defense. Why would they join up in a movement that is insulting them? He says the Socialist should drop the idea of the class war and focus on the basic ideals of increasing incomes, better housing for everybody, justice and liberty. He also says that Socialists are linked to progress which many people link with a machine-civilization and therefore a dark, bland future. Funny I also linked Socialism with slowing down progress and Fascism with speeding it up.
Even while the facts in the book are outdated the problems that many parties today face, such as Libertarians, are the same. How can you take a Libertarian seriously when he is dressed up as a butterfly? In print the ideas of the Libertarians and Socialists and even Democratics look good but sometimes the PEOPLE of these parties make the voters go running to the Republicans. I know many people who did JUST that - they didn't like the Republican's ideas but hated the people the Democratics had picked to run for President. Left-wingers sometimes come out, because of the terms they use or they way their come out as attacking almost everything, as nuts.

Needs a 21st Century Editor.......2006-07-01

A well-written, if dated, account of George Orwell's trip to the industrial north of England to investigate unemployment. The book was important for me to read because I have read many of Mr. Orwell's books previously.

This work is a kind of investigative journalism of the 1930s. Although the main premise is to investigate unemployment, Mr. Orwell covers the class system and the future of socialism, and takes swipes at vegetarians, femininsts, and men with beards. He is delightfully cranky in his treatment of "cranks."

The book is in need of a 21st century editor, someone who can explain the currency (Pounds/Shillings/Pence), who miscellaneous public figures are, and put the work into a context that a non-specialist can understand.

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Green Philosophy for Greenhorn Environmentalists
Wilderness is so important to living and being an American !
A Wilderness Philosophy Buffet

The Great New Wilderness Debate

Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0820319848

Customer Reviews:

Green Philosophy for Greenhorn Environmentalists.......2005-01-11

I've always considered myself an environmentalist and supporter of wilderness, based on my many wonderful personal experiences with wilderness and nature. Shamefully, however, I never did much reading on the topic of wilderness. Nor, for that matter, did I do much THINKING about the whole CONCEPT of wilderness. What do we mean when we talk about "wilderness"? Where, and with whom, did the whole idea of wilderness begin? Has the notion of wilderness changed with our changing attitudes towards the environment and our role in it?

Luckily, you don't have to read several dozen dense volumes to get some answers to these questions. Instead, you can pick up this marvelous collection of essays spanning nearly 250 years of thought on wilderness and the environment. "The Great Wilderness Debate" gave me a chance to simultaneously catch up on the "classic" wilderness texts AND many later influential essays, including plenty that I would otherwise never have read, and several unique to this collection.

The book is divided into four parts, each of which synopsizes a different strand of wilderness writing. The first section focuses on the origin and emergence of the wilderness ideal. It includes the "classic" stuff - selections from Emerson, Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Sigurd Olson - as well as essays on early wilderness preservation in the United States. A definite must-read is the Wilderness Act of 1964, which not only provided a federal definition of "wilderness" but also established the Wilderness Areas that we have today. This section alone makes the purchase of the book worthwhile.

The second section is devoted to "Third and Fourth World Views of the Wilderness Idea." The essays in this section introduced me to the fact that "wilderness" is not some kind of universally-understood concept. Instead, the American/Western/First World concept of wilderness (i.e. as a place without humans) is being imposed on a global scale. The authors in this section take issue with the colonialism inherent in forcing "our" wilderness on others, and discuss the many problems of universalizing a concept of "wilderness."

I most enjoyed the third section, a sort of philosophical WWF match where various eminent environmental thinkers - including William Cronon, Holmes Rolson III, and Dave Foreman of EarthFirst! - go head-to-head over a (seemingly) simple question: Is the "Wilderness Idea" useful in today's world? Can "true" wilderness even exist anymore? Does a focus on "pristine" areas distract us from appreciating the nature in our own backyards? It's fun to watch a bunch of hotshot environmental philosophers tussle over definitions, but it's also unnerving to think that they might actually succeed in undermining one of the few pillars supporting "wild" areas in America (however you define "wild").

Which brings us to the fourth section, "Beyond the Wilderness Idea", which attempts to go beyond the sort of "sound and fury" debate of the third section and instead to actually USE wilderness philosophy to inform environmental policy. There's a lot of discussion here about what wilderness SHOULD be and CAN be and WOULD be if only someone would listen to the philosophers. Initially, however, I found this section to be a bit of a letdown. Several of the ideas discussed here - preserving big areas, promoting biosphere reserves - have already become accepted notions since "The Great Wilderness Debate" was published in 1998, so there's a good bit of "old news." More importantly, the policies expounded here are frequently WAY too idealistic to be practical - they're nice to think about, but not something you could take to your congressman.

But what I later realized is that fundamentally "The Great Wilderness Debate" is about the philosophy and ethics of wilderness, NOT the practical policy issues. Those who would create wilderness policy would certainly do well to read this book, as these essays provide a grounding in the basic beliefs and writings that have informed the concept of wilderness. I'm sure there are plenty of great essay collections on environmental policy, but this is not one of them and is not MEANT to be one of them.

If the environmentalist movement has taught me anything, it's to THINK before you ACT. There's no doubt that "The Great Wilderness Debate" really makes you THINK about a lot of the assumptions we make everyday, about what constitutes nature, what is wild, and what is worth preserving. Consequently, I encourage anyone with a strong interest in wilderness and the environment to read this book. It's a wonderful resource for philosophy, a powerful tool for policy, and a great read for any "greenie."

Wilderness is so important to living and being an American !.......2001-07-25

If you had to pick one volume to capture some of the greatest thinking on wilderness, this is probably your single best choice. Almost all of the key ideas and influential writers are included. In fact, for most readers, there is probably too much here ! Over 40 wonderful, dense, and thought-provoking articles from all eras of wilderness thought !! 7 of the contributions are new to this volume.

The title of the volume refers to the recent challenges to the idea of wilderness, and therefore the book starts with the received notion of wilderness. There are wonderful selections from well known U.S. wilderness writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Bob Marshall, and Aldo Leopold. There are also important ideas from Jonathon Edwards, Teddy Roosevelt, and Sigurd Olsen -- each representing important components of the wilderness idea such as spiritualism, redemption, sacred american virtues of the frontier, etc.

Then J. Baird Callicott, William Cronon and an assortment of postmodern and postcolonial scholars take this 'romantic' notion of wilderness to task. The idea of wilderness is seen as dualistic, ethnocentric, racist, and an attempt to 'freeze frame' nature. Defenders of the wilderness idea then include Reed Noss, Dave Foreman, and others. To some this debate is now a little weary, but it was a high profile and contentious discussion that is still doing the rounds today.

There are also some hidden gems in this volume, and it is to those that I return most readily. Some examples are Fabienne Bayet's story from the Aboriginal communities of Australia, Jack Turner's call for the wild, Gary Snyder's more recent reflections on Turtle Island, and Tom Birch's piece on the incarceration of wilderness. These are cutting edge ideas that are taking many of today's wilderness thinkers beyond the postmodern debate into tackling questions of ecological restoration and the role of wilderness management.

In summary, a solid and thorough discussion of the idea of wilderness. For those of us living and working in the U.S., wilderness is a crucial part of what it means to be American - the ideas in this volume deserve a large readership. But, don't expect to read from cover to cover - this is a collection to which you will continue to return and find great insight and delight.

A Wilderness Philosophy Buffet.......2001-03-13

This is a useful sampler of wilderness philosophy. It's well balanced account of American debate of wilderness and what "wilderness" and "natural" really mean. It contains influential authors such as Aldo Leopold, William Cronon and John Muir. It also has some important reports relating to the history of wilderness management like the "Leopold Report". I've been using it as a starting point for research and it has been a good spring board for finding good authors and diversity of opinion.

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An excellent coverage of the Baltimore fraud case
Judson would be a demagogue, if he could get your attention.
Tendentious at best
Superficial, shallow, naive
Examining events, causes, and resolution processes

The Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science
Horace Freeland Judson
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0151008779

Amazon.com

Horace Freeland Judson, author of The Eighth Day of Creation, eloquently examines the nature and causes of scientific fraud in The Great Betrayal. Although the process of science has built-in checks and balances such as peer review and paper refereeing, Judson calls these "moribund" and asks "whether in fact and to what extent science really is self-correcting." After all, success and good results are sometimes valued above all in science, especially by the agencies or corporations that provide the funding for research. Upon examining hundreds of cases of suspected scientific fraud, Judson answers blind praise of science's self-policing with the terse statement, "Their claims about science are unscientific."

To make his case, Judson begins with some of the giants of science: Mendel, Darwin, Pasteur, Freud. It turns out that each of these men fudged their data in one way or another, whether by omitting numbers that didn't fit desired results, or manipulating photographs, or not using experimental controls. Judson recognizes that there are difficulties in examining historical scientists' behavior through a modern lens, and he deals with the associated complexities by asking tough questions: What if their cheating led to a correct answer? Where is the line between intuition and lying?

The Great Betrayal goes on to describe enough modern cases of scientific fraud to leave readers reeling. The most damning revelations in the book are those showing how whistle-blowers are treated by the scientific establishment, and Judson's showcase for this is Margot O'Toole, who called for correction or retraction of a paper co-authored by noted biologist David Baltimore and was subsequently vilified for her actions. The so-called "Baltimore case" became one of the ugliest and most revealing controversies in late-20th-century science. In the end, Judson offers hope that science may become truly open through electronic publishing. Whether the free exchange of criticism offered by the Internet will refresh science remains to be seen, but without learning from its defects, Judson writes, this great endeavor will ultimately fail. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

Fraud permeates all types of institutions today and now the world of science, the last bastion of respect and trust, is no exception. Dozens of cases have been uncovered in the past quarter-century-and the headlines continue. We can no longer shrug off fraud in science as the work of aberrant individual scientists, Horace Freeland Judson argues. Instead, we must look for its causes and its remedies in the structures and cultures of the scientific institutions themselves. Judson carefully details all types of scientific fraud and how they happen; considers the self-government of the sciences, including peer review and the refereeing of papers; and exposes the failures of academic, governmental, and legal responses. He also shows how the movement toward Internet publication of papers promises remarkable new checks on fraud and suggests how we can restore and defend the integrity of the greatest monument of human endeavor- the sciences.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent coverage of the Baltimore fraud case.......2007-02-21

Judson has done an excellent job in exposing intellectual fraud in general ,as well as concentrating specifically on the attempt by David Baltimore to cover up the extremely shoddy,error filled work of a colleage,Imanishi-Kari.Baltimore had agreed to put his name on a paper that he had not read carefully,if at all. Margot O'Toole exposed the paper,showing that it was riddled with errors.Baltimore engaged in an attempted coverup ,believing that his great reputation,based on his being a Nobel Prize winner with a number of accomplishments ,would serve to sidetrack any call for the retraction of the paper.An excellent summary of this scientific fiasco is given on p.242 by Judson when he cites the final judgment of another Nobelist,the late Howard Temin:" David's misconduct was-When an experiment is challenged no matter who it is challenged by it's your responsibility to check...When you publish something you are responsible for it.And one of the great strengths of American science...is that even the most senior professor,if challenged by the lowliest technician or graduate student,is required to treat them seriously...It is one of the most fundamental aspects of science in America".
In fact,what Temin is stating is not just the most fundamental aspect of American science.Transparency,the requirement that results be checked and rechecked before the publication of an article in a scientific journal,is the most fundamental aspect of science.Error correction is a necessary condition for any field to be called "scientific ".Fields or disciplines that do not prevent or correct error filled articles from being published or that do not retract such articles once they are exposed ,like most social sciences,economics and psychology in particular,are not considered hard science.

Judson would be a demagogue, if he could get your attention........2006-01-03

I would have given this no stars if it were an option.

The first 20 pages of this book bored and insulted me. Judson drones on about every fraud known to mankind, but only occasionally scientific fraud. He seems to hope that if we hear enough examples of fraud in the world, we will get fired up and join him in a lynching.

His tone is condescending and assumes that you already agree with him. This is not the type of academician that you could hope to have a meaningful conversation with. He laces his information with references to "the epidemic" of fraud and nobody being "immune" to it, as if by the weight of these descriptive terms you will be swept into his inevitably correct conclusions. I suspect that Judson would have presented a more objective book if he had more worthwhile information to offer.

Tendentious at best.......2004-12-30

Judson is an academic manque who wrote an interesting if overly pretentious and self-agrandizing history of molecular biology. Unfortunately this book, which, as Judson states early on, could not find a publisher, would have been better left unpublished. This desultory history of scientific fraud simply rehearses what has been better said elswhere. The standard fraud cases - from Newton to Pasteur to Freud to Darsee to Baltimore - are given a superficial treatment. Especially egregious is the hatchet job on Baltimore and Imanashi-Kari. Anyone wanting to find out how shoddy and partisan his treatment of the later affair is ought to read the thoughtful and well researched "The Baltimore Case" by Daniel Kevles. Since Judson seems to regard himself as a purveyor of scientific ethics in a time of lapsing moral values in the scientific enterprise, one can only hope that the scientific community can protect themselves from such scrutiny. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.

Superficial, shallow, naive .......2004-12-18

First of all, this is not really a book about fraud in science. The analysis of specific cases of scientific fraud is thin and focused mostly on procedural matters; actual science behind each case is almost completely missing from Judson's analysis. His analysis of fraud as a phenomenon is even more superficial. For all the 400-plus pages of pomp, he fails to look at the obvious: what drives scientists to work in science? A quick look at a randomly selected group of postgraduate students would have revealed that there is a very broad distribution of reasons, ranging from the very global (desire to better understand the surrounding reality) to practical (making a living), to idiosyncratic personal reasons (e.g., looking smart in the eyes of the opposite sex). Where there is a distribution of motivations, there will be a distribution of rules by which people play - including some people bending the rules unacceptably far. Sociology of science is probably as complex as of the society at large; and as in any complex group, fraud is unavoidable.

Which brings us to the second point. Judson's real reason for writing this book seems to be the critique of the ways by which science is funded and by which scientific publishing works. He uses the existence of fraud to attack the existing system of scientific publishing (formal, peer-reviewed, commercially run journals) and claims that a transition to an arXiv-style system will all but eliminate scientific fraud. Unfortunately, his arguments are thouroughly unconvincing. The way scientific results are reported and published may well have a second-order effect on the incidence of fraud, but it is hardly the determining factor of the latter. Risk-vs-benefit factors - what one has to gain by publishing high-profile papers - seems to have much more to do with the occurence of fraud. Because the scientific establishment is not a uniform, Mertonian-type system, there will always be cheaters. The only reason they have not used arXiv so far is that currently one has nothing to gain by submitting a fraudulent publication there. This would change as soon as arXiv became the primary mode of scientific publishing.

Judson's recipe seems to be based on an over-simplified, neo-positivist philosophy of science, with its inherent assumption that scientific community is an ideal, uniform collection of people without agendas, personal ambitions, or theories to prove - what one might call an "ideal-gas approximation" of the scientific community. This might be to a limited degree applicable to biomedical research, which consists largely of data mining, but it completely breaks down in natural sciences. His arguments for open publishing are thus largely ideologically driven, and in his push for the desired conclusion he contradicts both the logic and himself. Of known cases of fraud, how many were caught by people scrutinizing someone else's published papers? Perhaps 10%? Most were discovered by chance - by a postdoc digging up old lab books; a technician noticing dodgy practises; by historians going through old raw data; by an author accidentally coming across an article identical to his own. This seems to be Judson's conclusion as well. Why does he think that community-scrutinized arXiv publishing would be more self-correcting than peer-reviewed traditional publishing? Both logic and experience suggest otherwise. Peer review may be costly, awkward, and inefficient, but it does keep junk science in journals with impact factors <1 - which noone reads. Without it, scientific publishing will quickly become awash with self-posted garbage (for a proof, look at the percentage of garbage on the Internet - it's hardly lower than in published journals!) Judson evades this obvious fact by saying that even garbage papers eventually get published in peer-reviewed journals, conveniently omitting that in most cases they get published in journals which have no impact.

To be sure, the book does contain a few fresh ideas. The first couple of chapters provide a good discourse in the philosophy of science. Some ideas regarding ArXiv are also quite nice, as long as they are not presented as some magic bullet which will miraculously eliminate scientific fraud. But were these worth reading through 400 pages of naive populism written by someone who, by own admission, has never been a practising scientist? I'd say no.

Examining events, causes, and resolution processes.......2004-12-13

Science as a discipline is not immune to fraud, as Horace Freeland Judson demonstrates in his study The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science. Judson is the former director of the center for History of Recent Science: his background lends to his survey of dozens of cases where scientific fraud and aberrant scientists have threatened the very reliability and foundations of the scientific process. Chapters chart cases of scientific self-government and cases which came to light, examining events, causes, and resolution processes.

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Anthropology and Photography, 1860-1920

Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire

ASIN: 0300059442

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This fascinating book is the first serious study of the place of photography in anthropology and the contribution it can make to an understanding of the ethnographic past. Focusing on still photography in British anthropology from about 1860 until 1920, it examines the content and contexts of over 150 photographs-many reproduced here for the first time-showing how to "read" the images and how they are used in conjunction with more traditional forms of anthropological information.

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