Pharmaceutical Reason: Knowledge and Value in Global Psychiatry (Cambridge Studies in Society and the Life Sciences)

Book Description

When a French biotechnology company seeks patients in Buenos Aires with bipolar disorder for its gene discovery program, they have unexpected trouble finding enough subjects for the study. In Argentina, the predominant form of mental health expertise Â- psychoanalysis Â- does not recognize the legitimacy of bipolar disorder as a diagnostic entity. This problem points to a broader set of political and epistemological debates in global psychiatry. Drawing from an ethnography of psychiatric practice in Buenos Aires, Andrew Lakoff follows the contested extension of novel techniques for understanding and intervening in mental illness. He charts the globalization of the new biomedical psychiatry, and illustrates the clashes, conflicts, alliances, and reformulations that take place when psychoanalytic and biological models of illness and cure meet. Highlighting the social and political implications that new forms of expertise about human behavior and thought bring, Lakoff presents an arresting case study that will appeal to scholars and students alike.

The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society (The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol1)

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"monster work"
Do not emancipate yourself without it!
A classic

The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society (The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol1)
Jürgen Habermas
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807015075

Book Description

"The THEORY OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTION represents a major contribution to contemporary social theory. Not only does it provide a compelling critique of some of the main perspectives in 20th century philosophy and social science, but it also presents a systematic synthesis of the many themse which have preoccupied Habermas for thirty years." (Times Literary Supplement)

Customer Reviews:

"monster work".......2004-04-17

it took me 1.5 years to read this book and to make an attempt to understand it in its whole power and beauty.
Real contribution to social theory, a great synthesis...
But for ordinary readers there are two ways to approach this book:
1.to undertand the main idea, but even it in only 20-30%
2. to penetrate into the magical world of social philosophy and sociological theory..
you choose...
Thanks to Habermas for such an epical book...

Do not emancipate yourself without it!.......2001-02-14

I would like remind readers that this book is the first volume of the two that constitute "The Theory of Communicative Action" (the second volume has as subtitle "Lifeworld and System - A Critique of Functionalist Reason"). The first volume was published in English in 1984, while the second volume appeared in 1987. The two volumes are not independent books and should be read as a single book.

Habermas can be linked to the group of German philosophers and social theorists associated with the Institute of Social Research, founded in 1924 at the University of Frankfurt. Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, the two most distinguished members of the "Frankfurt School" (as the Institute was nicknamed), developed a social analysis that departed from orthodox Marxism and was known as "critical theory". According to critical theory, the ailments of modern capitalist society were due to its encompassing rationalization, resulting in a complete alienation of the working class. Following Weber's pessimistic diagnostic, Horkheimer and Adorno considered that Enlightenment's dream of a society guided by reason had degenerated into an "iron cage": human beings were condemned to live without freedom, following rules devoid of meaning. "Instrumental reason", that is, the manipulative, self-interested, technical use of reason in administration, economics and science, had become so encompassing that there was no hope for escaping from it.

Habermas, who arrived at the Institute of Social Research in the early 1950's, concluded that Horkheimer's and Adorno's analysis of contemporary society hit a dead end. Critical theory, which was supposed to guide individuals in their struggle for emancipation, turned contemplative, pessimistic. The problem with the "old" critical theory, Habermas believed, was that it remained attached to the philosophy of consciousness. In order to put critical theory back to its original track, Habermas switched to the philosophy of language and expanded the concept of reason to include "communicative rationality". With these theoretical moves, Habermas reestablished the centrality of reason as the guiding principle for attaining emancipation. Because language presupposes unrestricted communication and mutual understanding, coordinated action is an always present possibility to speaking subjects. Parting from this philosophical outlook, Habermas developed the concept of "communicative action", defined as "the type of interaction in which all participants harmonize their individual plans of action with one another and thus pursue their illocutionary aims without reservation" (TCA, v.1, p. 294). According to this perspective, the predicaments of modern society are consequence - as Horkheimer and Adorno had argued - of an excessive reliance in instrumental reason (or purposive rationality, has Habermas prefers to call it). However, Habermas argued that there is a way out of this situation: In order to overcome social crises, it is necessary to counterbalance purposive rationality by bringing communicative rationality back into play.

Habermas' communicative action argument was already present in his writings of the early 1960's. In TCA Habermas presents a detailed justification of his theoretical approach and expands it into a social theory aimed at explaining the occurrence of social pathologies. In support of his argumentation, Habermas introduces a new concept of society that intertwine the lifeworld concept (the common pool of knowledge that individuals use in order to attach meaning to the world) and the social system concept. According to this "dual" approach, society evolves by differentiating itself both as system and as lifeworld. "Systemic evolution is measured by the increase in society's steering capacity, whereas the state of development of a symbolically structured lifeworld is indicated by the separation of culture, society, and personality" (TCA, v. 2, p. 152).

The argumentation Habermas conducts in TCA is highly abstract at times. This has lead to misunderstandings of his key arguments, particularly of the communicative action concept. According to this distorted interpretation, Habermas had advocated for the establishment of an ideal, utopian society in which all human beings would reach consensus about everything. Taken out of the context of the full argumentation, the communicative action concept acquires a naïve twist that Habermas' detractors - as well as some of his supporters - have contributed to establish. Nevertheless, the reader that endures the abstract aspects of TCA will be recompensed by a bright and clear interpretation of contemporary society. Habermas argument on the limitations of socialist states is particularly enlightening. Leftists will finally understand why democracy should not be seen just as a bourgeois invention and right-wingers will find reasons for not rejoicing at the downfall of socialism.

Prospective readers of TCA should be warned that they are at risk of establishing Habermas as a benchmark to every other social theorist. This risk, however, is worth taking.

A classic.......2000-05-24

I was quite surprised when I noted that there was no review to this book. In fact, this book will be considered in the future as a real classic lecture. As the figure of Habermas becomes more important every day his most important work become crucial. A must-read.

The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies

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Gifts and giving
Social Science Man
The Gift

The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies
Marcel Mauss
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Argonauts of the Western Pacific
Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)
The Division of Labor in Society
The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People
The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge Studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology)

ASIN: 039332043X

Book Description

Since its first publication in English in 1954, The Gift, Marcel Mauss's groundbreaking study of the relation between forms of exchange and social structure, has been acclaimed as a classic among anthropology texts.

Download Description

When first published, The Gift served as nothing less than an onslaught on contemporary political theory. This edition confirms the continuing relevance of Mauss's highly original perspective.

Customer Reviews:

Gifts and giving.......2005-10-24

People living in the modern world often have an impression of life being simpler, easier, and less complicated in primitive, tribal societies, especially those without money, credit cards, mortgage bills and other forms of financial exchange. Those who think so should read this book by the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss.

This book examines the practice of exchanging gifts in many non-industrial societies, and looks to see why gifts are given, how they are exchanged, who are involved in these exchanges, what is exchanged, when and where the gifts are exchanged, and how these exchanges factor into the greater fabric of society. What the author discovers and shows to the reader is that gift giving is actually a very complicated and highly political process, that the way it is done affects relationships within villages, between villages, and can end/being hostilities, family fueds, marriages, and alliances. In essence, the roles of many of the business and political institutions present in industrialized societies are all wrapped up in gift-giving and gift-receiving in pre-industrial societies, or archaic societies as the author denotes them. As such, gift exchange is an ever-present ritual at major ceremonies in many tribes, such as births, deaths, marriages, the building of a new house, the clearing of new land, etc, etc... And to not participate in the gift-exchange can lead to social exclusion, isolation, and possibly even banishment.

Overall, a good book and one that lends insight into the behaviour of people. The book is not that easy to read though, as it was first written in the mid-1900s.

Social Science Man.......2002-02-01

In his The Gift, Marcel Mauss attempts to explain and understand gifts in primitive societies. Mauss first decides to show that the motives behind giving gifts are more complicated than commonly believed to be. In modern day society, gifts are often thought of as something given out of good will and without the expectance of something in return. Mauss shows us that in many tribal and native cultures, this is not necessarily true. In discussing the Maori, he says, "They had a kind of exchange system, or rather one of giving presents that must ultimately either be reciprocated or given back" (10). The principle of gift giving is governed by the concept of mana, which is the authority, honor, and prestige derived from the wealth and glory of being a superior gift giver. One must give gifts in order to maintain and increase mana and reciprocates them in order to prevent oneself from losing it. The obligations to give and receive are both very important. To reject a gift leads to two problems. Initially, Mauss states that to do so "is to reject the bond of alliance and commonality" (13). To reject such an important bond in a society that so heavily values communal identity is "tantamount to declaring war" (13). The second problem is that of losing mana and being viewed as afraid to accept gifts because one is unable to reciprocate them. The concept of gift giving as one that has the motives of power and authority involved displaces the common belief of gift giving. Durkheim's influence on Mauss is apparent in Mauss' discussion of the contract and sacred qualities. The sacred quality of exchange and contracts also has a relationship to appeasing the gods according to Mauss, or so it is viewed in primitive societies (and according to Durkheim the remnants of such beliefs continue in today's society). Mauss says that the ideal of the gift as distributive justice arises from the belief that the gods punish those with great wealth who are not generous. Therefore, if a gift are given out of generosity and to promote justice, does that mean that those with less wealth have not only less honor and authority, but also a lower level of justness because they are unable to give great gifts?
Gift giving appears to be a "total" social phenomenon or service because of how it works on not only economic levels, but also social levels. The motives for gift giving are not as magnanimous as one may believe because as Mauss says concerning exchange-gifts, "They are kept for the sheer pleasure of possessing them" (23). He seeks to understand the blind accumulation of wealth and says that it is motivated by "competition, rivalry, ostentatiousness, the seeking after the grandiose" (28). To him, these are somewhat negative motives, although he does not explicitly say so. Mauss shows how gift giving evolves with the Native Americans where the concept of honor is more exaggerated and the idea of "credit" and a time limit on the reciprocation of gifts is highlighted. A gift is essentially given with the motive that not only does one gain honor, respect, and authority from it, but that one will also receive something in return. Now if this something received in return is usually paid "with interest" so to speak as it is expected to be of greater value than the original gift. If Mauss is indeed correct, then why is there not a greater disparity of wealth in these primitive societies? If one is wealthy, then one could seek to continuously extend one's own authority and wealth at the same time by giving all the time, since accepting the gift is virtually required, a wealthy person could do so and gain interest on all the gifts given.

Overall, it's interesting and provocative. It is helpful to have read Durkheim's Professional Ethics and Civic Morals (then you realize that Mauss is just following in Durkheim's footsteps). What kind of society do they propose? It's not too clear. I'm still trying to figure that one out, but nonetheless, it's a provocative book, as is Durkheim's.

The Gift.......2000-06-12

Mauss' book is a part sociological, part anthropological study of the practice of gift exchange. First, he explores the various forms this practice takes in distinct ethnographic settings. In each case, one catches a glimpse of what Mauss calls the 'total social fact': the notion that exchanging gifts signifies, beneath its voluntary and individualistic façade, a complex social affair. On the one hand, bonds of solidarity are created/maintained between implicated social groups; on the other, political relations of subordination (in which the donor often, if not always, occupies the dominant position) are reproduced/contested. Second, Mauss moves on to problematize the notion that the thing exchanged is merely an 'inert and lifeless object' and the synchronic view of gift exchange as a short-lived act devoid of temporality. Working his way through his ethnographic observations, Mauss unearths the historical dimension of the gift, which now appears to possess a 'spiritual' power irredemiably related to the donor and a historicity (and story) beyond the momentary encounter between donor and recipient. What follows from these two complementary arguments is that gift exchange, contrary to the individualistic notion that it merely involves the persons exchanging the gifts, establishes a wider social/political nexus, connecting the social groups the donor and recipient are members of. Finally, Mauss returns to the present and redeems the gift from its 'archaic' context to explore its potential as a social-democratic tool against 'unbridled' capitalist exchange.

Why Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe in Marriage in a Postmodern Society

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WHY MARRIAGE MATTERS
"Very Good Book"
Live long and prosper...
A "marriage saver". Critical information for every marriage
Good Research Book

Why Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe in Marriage in a Postmodern Society
Glenn T. Stanton
Manufacturer: Navpress Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially
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ASIN: 1576830187

Book Description

Marriage is in trouble. Based on one hundred years of social science research, this book gives you reasons to believe in marriage in a society characterized by a lack of commitment.

Customer Reviews:

WHY MARRIAGE MATTERS.......2007-04-11

READER SHOULD BE AWARE THIS IS A "FOCUS ON THE FAMILY" BOOK AND THE MORALISTIC DRUM BEAT IS CONSTANT.

"Very Good Book".......2007-02-15

In this time of so many divorces this was a great book detailing the many benefits of marriage.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who falsely believes that marriage has no value and that single life is the best.

Live long and prosper..........2000-11-22

The results of over 100 years of scientific research are gathered together in one place, spanning studies from the 1890s to the present day. The data cover multiple cultures and deal with all stages and ages of life. Literally hundreds of individual studies are represented, many of which were done by researchers at some of the most "liberated" universities in Europe and America. Yet the results of all these studies uniformly support a consistent set of notions: that human beings fare best when they are reared in intact nuclear families; that they prosper best in adult life when joined, male and female, in lifelong monogamous relationships sanctioned and supported by the community; that both adults and children suffer enormously when divorce breaks up a family.

The implications are clear. The post modern mantras that "children are resilient," and that "we're better off apart if we don't agree" are just plain wrong.

The lessons to be learned are not just for those facing marital difficulties. I think the message is especially important for re-establishing in our children the expectation that marriage is forever, so choose well and work hard. This book may be a little dry for your teenager and addresses a difficult subject for many parents to discuss with their own children, so you might wnat to extract some nuggets for small group discussion at key places like church youth gatherings. In the process, you will probably discover some reasons of your own for "keeping at it."

A "marriage saver". Critical information for every marriage.......1999-09-28

My husband and I read this book at a critical point in our marriage, and found it a life-saver. Many of the author's points are based on research and statistics, but when he writes from the heart, it touches your heart. It truly was an eye-opener and beneficial to us.

Good Research Book.......1998-11-27

This was a good reference for my daughter writing a school paper on marriage.

When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850

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clear, well organized introduction

When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850
Daniel R. Headrick
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195153731

Book Description

Although the Information Age is often described as a new era, a cultural leap springing directly from the invention of modern computers, it is simply the latest step in a long cultural process. Its conceptual roots stretch back to the profound changes that occurred during the Age of Reason and Revolution. When Information Came of Age argues that the key to the present era lies in understanding the systems developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to gather, store, transform, display, and communicate information. The book provides a concise and readable survey of the many conceptual developments between 1700 and 1850 and draws connections to leading technologies of today. It documents three breakthroughs in information systems that date to the period: the classification and nomenclature of Linnaeus, the chemical system devised by Lavoisier, and the metric system. It shows how eighteenth-century political arithmeticians and demographers pioneered statistics and graphs as a means for presenting data succinctly and visually. It describes the transformation of cartography from art to science as it incorporated new methods for determining longitude at sea and new data on the measure the arc of the meridian on land. Finally, it looks at the early steps in codifying and transmitting information, including the development of dictionaries, the invention of semaphore telegraphs and naval flag signaling, and the conceptual changes in the use and purpose of postal services. When Information Came of Age shows that like the roots of democracy and industrialization, the foundations of the Information Age were built in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Customer Reviews:

clear, well organized introduction.......2004-11-16

This is an interesting, clearly written, well organized introduction to the history of information technologies. The author explains the role of classification in the increase in knowledge, introducing major contributors to Western science: Linneaus, Lavoisier among others.

Average customer rating:

Indian Modernity Is Inseparable From Science's Authority
Great Foucauldian discussion of science and state in India
Not Science but more...
Not for the faint of heart. . .

Another Reason
Gyan Prakash
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Victorian Anthropology
Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge

ASIN: 0691004536

Book Description

Another Reason is a bold and innovative study of the intimate relationship between science, colonialism, and the modern nation. Gyan Prakash, one of the most influential historians of India writing today, explores in fresh and unexpected ways the complexities, contradictions, and profound importance of this relationship in the history of the subcontinent. He reveals how science served simultaneously as an instrument of empire and as a symbol of liberty, progress, and universal reason--and how, in playing these dramatically different roles, it was crucial to the emergence of the modern nation.

Prakash ranges over two hundred years of Indian history, from the early days of British rule to the dawn of the postcolonial era. He begins by taking us into colonial museums and exhibitions, where Indian arts, crafts, plants, animals, and even people were categorized, labeled, and displayed in the name of science. He shows how science gave the British the means to build railways, canals, and bridges, to transform agriculture and the treatment of disease, to reconstruct India's economy, and to transfigure India's intellectual life--all to create a stable, rationalized, and profitable colony under British domination.

But Prakash points out that science also represented freedom of thought and that for the British to use it to practice despotism was a deeply contradictory enterprise. Seizing on this contradiction, many of the colonized elite began to seek parallels and precedents for scientific thought in India's own intellectual history, creating a hybrid form of knowledge that combined western ideas with local cultural and religious understanding. Their work disrupted accepted notions of colonizer versus colonized, civilized versus savage, modern versus traditional, and created a form of modernity that was at once western and indigenous.

Throughout, Prakash draws on major and minor figures on both sides of the colonial divide, including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, the nationalist historian and novelist Romesh Chunder Dutt, Prafulla Chandra Ray (author of A History of Hindu Chemistry), Rudyard Kipling, Lord Dalhousie, and John Stuart Mill. With its deft combination of rich historical detail and vigorous new arguments and interpretations, Another Reason will recast how we understand the contradictory and colonial genealogy of the modern nation.

Customer Reviews:

Indian Modernity Is Inseparable From Science's Authority.......2007-06-09

Every nation born out of decolonization shares a certain faith in the emancipatory powers of science. Perhaps this blind reverence to the lights of reason was a sign of the times when they gained their independence, hoping to find a third way between capitalism's drive for modernization and socialism's social engineering. Or perhaps the positivist creed was implanted in their collective mind much before, under the authority of their colonial master, or again perhaps it developed independently as a mean to seize their own destiny and claim for themselves the age of reason that was denied to them.

To capture reason's mirror image into the world of collective beliefs and representations, and to analyze the dreams that science inspired, one needs to develop tools that are more sensitive than the conceptual apparatus commonly used by the historian. Michel Foucault's genealogical approach offer such frame of analysis, and this is why the French philosopher has found a wide following among anthropologists and other social scientists.

However, Foucault paid little attention to colonialism in outlining his key concepts, and he neglected the role that empires played in the formation of modern disciplines such as political economy or demographics. Given Foucault's view that governmentality and biopower, two key notions that marked the entry into modernity, were constituted fully within the borders of the West, their career in the colonies, in societies marked by their failure to achieve the "threshold of modernity", can only be seen as a dim reflection of their metropolitan original.

In Another Reason, Gyan Prakash shows that the scientific imagination that developed among the colonized elites of India wasn't a simple replica of the status and representations attached to science in Victorian England. In order to wield its transforming power, "science had to be tropicalized, brought down to the level of the natives and even forced upon them." Science went native in colonial museums that displayed the wonders of science and therefore appealed to imagination and to superstition as much as to reason, or in the creation of new technologies of government, such as tropical medicine or national accounting, that later found their way into Western societies.

But colonial rule also allowed for indigenous agency, indeed required it. Indigenous elites soon realized the basic contradiction between the emancipatory power of science and its use as an instrument of domination and oppression. They contested the Western claim to universal reason by pointing out that India had also developed its own tradition of scientific knowledge and rational enquiry. As practicing scientists and Hindu religious reformers read ancient texts and interpreted traditions to identify an original "Hindu science" upon which an Indian universality could stand, the nation soon became the political horizon to which Indians aspired and that they claimed as a right of their own. A lasting consequence was the identification of Hinduism as the cultural texture of the nation and the definition of an Indian modernity in a predominantly Hindu and Sanskritic idiom.

Great Foucauldian discussion of science and state in India.......2001-07-06

This book is a better example of the use of Foucauldian analysis in a non-Euro/American setting. Prakash's discussion of how the colonial state used science to legitimate its rule, and how the nationalist anticolonial elites redefined and reinscribed science to legitimate their own goals is very thorough. He applies Foucault's notion of "governmentality" to demonstrate how science operated to control and maintain the populace. Highly recommended.

Not Science but more..........2000-11-09

This not about science as such, but about the idea of science. This is one of best recent academic books that I have read on modern India. Using science as a window into the culture of modern India, or Indian modernity, Prakash provides a captivating account of how areas ranging from museums to religion to politics were refashioned. The book is also very elegant, starting with the cool cover, the well chosen chapter epigraphs, and chapter titles. You will come away with a very thoughtful, nuanced understanding of how the idea of science entered the constitution of colonial India. One last thing, though Prakash's approach is what would be called "postcolonial," it is solidly grounded in Indian materials while being very stylish. A real treat!

Not for the faint of heart. . ........2000-10-23

Chances are that if you're reading this book it was assigned for a class. Prakash is an eloquent writer who offers rigorous arguments, but he often does so in a convoluted and deeply academic style. His excellent coverage of the beginnings and underlying motivations of museums is fascinating and accessible reading, and it fits neatly with his over-all examination of the coming of Indian Modernity. His overall argument flows through the entire book, though it is easy to lose sight of it if you're reading for pleasure.

Reasons for Hope: The Faith and Future of the Friends Church

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Baptizing Revitalization, But Needs Editing

Reasons for Hope: The Faith and Future of the Friends Church
John Punshon
Manufacturer: Friends United Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0944350569

Book Description

Reasons for Hope is a mini-course in evangelical Friends theology, church history, and philosophy. It is also a call for renewal. Punshon cites the biblical bases of the Friends distinctives—open worship, decision-making under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, foregoing outward practice of the ordinances, and the Friends testimonies of simplicity, integrity, and nonviolence—and builds a case for the role these distictives can play in the growth of the Friends Church in the twenty-first century's postmodern culture.

Customer Reviews:

Baptizing Revitalization, But Needs Editing.......2003-01-14

We just finished analyzing this book in our meeting to understand what Punshon might have to say about the future of *our* church. The book is good as a revitalizing point, stretching and encouraging us to change and at the same time stay with the core of who we are. I appreciated all the info he shares on Friends history, especially more recent events of this past century, which are hard to find a record of. Punshon also does a very good job of explaining aspects of Friends theology. I was excited to learn that my denomination, Evangelical Friends International, one of those which this book focuses on, is actually an acessionary movement, not secessionary- it was formed from a gathering together of different churches rather than a splitting off. This is something holy.

But a more systematic theological approach to these subjects would have been helpful. A number of Punshon's theological points are not well backed up- they would only convince the choir- or meeting, as the case may be. And he really could have used a much better editor- there are large sections of the book that need to be skimmed because nothing concrete is said. The second half of the book is much better, more cohesive, with it's foci on worship, discipleship, holiness, end times, and the future. But Punshon's section on Holiness is very confusing- at some points he says that Friends are Holiness and at other points he says they are not; he says that Wesleyan Holiness, Methodist Holiness, and Friends ideas on perfection are all different, but never gets around to explaining how this is so. This section clearly demonstrates that the author assumes a large background in theology from his readers.

I still don't understand why a whole chapter is devoted to the end times, especially when Punshon states that it has never been a great focus to the Friends. As for the subtitle "Faith and Future", the book is long on faith, and short on future- to the tune of one chapter of future. A reissue of this work would be greatly benefited by more focus on possible future ideas.

A Living Faith: An Historical and Comparative Study of Quaker Beliefs

Screams of Reason: Mad Science in Modern Culture

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Skal's Treatise on Mad Scientists a Winner
Amusing but sloppy
Some Things We Are NOT Meant To Understand!!!
A wonderful history of Dr. Frankenstein and his ilk
The best overview of mad science's greatest names!

Screams of Reason: Mad Science in Modern Culture
David J. Skal
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The words "mad scientist" inevitably summon up the picture of a deranged, obsessive individual with a lab coat and bad hair, working on some grandiose project that probably means trouble for humanity at large. Behind this cartoonish figure, however, lurks a complex series of ideas, emotions, stereotypes, and archetypes. In Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture, David J. Skal investigates the whole issue of "our multilevel cultural waltz with the maniac in the lab coat" over the last two centuries.

The first few chapters focus on the origins of the mad-science mentality in the early 19th century. The age of Darwin and the Industrial Revolution saw the birth of many of the stock figures and themes of horror and science fiction: Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Dr. Moreau; creation of new life forms, contravention of natural law, science out of control. Then, in the early 20th century, the new medium of film helped make all of these into staples of popular culture. Succeeding chapters deal with types and trends in the mad-science phenomenon, touching on a variety of subjects, such as the classic horror movies of the 1930s, nuclear-age mutation and invasion fantasies, medical horror, the union of man and machine, apocalyptic entertainment, and "Alien Chic."

Movies certainly play a significant role in the whole mad-science phenomenon; Screams, however, is much more than a catalog of the classic horror and sci-fi entries. Skal's insightful, eloquent history gets at the psychological and social roots of our uneasy relationship with science and technology, and our attempts to master the fear of them.

Screams includes abundant notes, many black-and-white illustrations, and an appendix listing dozens of mad scientists from popular culture. Highly recommended. --M.V. Burke

Book Description

From the author of Hollywood Gothic and The Monster Show, the definitive book on the men in white coats who haunt our technological dreams and nightmares. From Frankenstein to Jurassic Park, the mad scientist is one of the modern world's most instantly recognizable cultural icons. Now, David Skal explores popular culture's perennial fascination with demented doctors, crazed clinicians, and technologically obsessed fiends. A prototype outsider, shunted off to the sidelines of serious discourse--to B-movies, pulp novels, and comic books--the mad scientist, the author argues, serves as a necessary lightning rod for otherwise unbearable anxieties about the consequences of modern science and technology. Employing a witty, highly readable style, Skal lovingly chronicles the mad scientist's quest for world domination, from nineteenth-century literature to the snap-crackle-scream apotheosis of 1930s Hollywood to the mad-science mystique that colors the cult of the computer, UFO abduction folklore, and the demonization of contemporary medicine.

Customer Reviews:

Skal's Treatise on Mad Scientists a Winner.......2004-08-07

Mad scientists have been a stape of US and world horror cinema since the very beginning; at no time has the stereotype left us abd today it's stronger than ever. David Skal, the esteemed historian of B movies, has tried to trace this slippery trail from Lon Chaney all the way to the present. As he points out, Hannibal Lecter is today's version of this old, satisfying trope, and Lecter's experiments with moths and menstrual blood can be seen as modern-day versions of the bizarre dreams of Dr. Frankenstein.

Standing slightly outside of society, although given cultural equity in the name of university educations, the mad doctors and scientists who people our movies are always judging us, until the time comes when they get judged themselves (see Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE).

What's all this heckling from other reviewers about Skal's scattershot approach? Cut him some slack, he's trying to entertain and educate us at the same time, that calls for a bit of digression here and there.

Amusing but sloppy.......2004-05-19

This is a light, unfocused book. It's supposed to be about mad scientist movies, but the author is all over the place. He starts off by re-telling chunks of his other book, The Monster Show. Then he writes about Mary Shelley and horror literature. He's off to a bad start, repeating himself and having trouble sticking to movies.

By chapter four, he gets to World War II and the post-war period, when mad scientists had become a significant part of popular entertainment. He tries to write about how the public reacts to the Manhattan Project and scientists like Einstein, but his analysis seems to be part of a different book. Is he writing about Mary Shelley, horror movies, science, or what?

Chapter five is all about alien visitations and flying saucers. Chapter six is about mad medical doctors like Mengele, doctor Frankenstein, Robin Cook's book 'Coma' (and the film), Dead Ringers, and AIDS. Chapter seven has something to do with flesh and cyborgs --- I think. It's not clear what that chapter was supposed to be about. The author wraps it all up with a list of famous mad scientists. The list is filler, but I enjoyed reading the "mad ambition/achievement" for each one.

This is good bathroom reading. The subject matter is fun because it's about popular culture and mad scientists, two topics that are never dull. But it's poorly-edited, with the feel of an enthusiastic rough first draft. My guess is that after the success of The Monster Show, Skal sent the idea for this book to his publisher, they loved the proposal, and he hammered it out quickly for fun. That's no crime, but I was really disappointed with it..

Some Things We Are NOT Meant To Understand!!!.......2002-08-18

True, Herr Doktor Skal?

Just from its title alone I was delighted to discover
this book. Mad science, scientists and 19th-20th
century Scientism is a remarkably important and overlooked
aspect of our culture and its progress.
And Professor Skal gets closer to providing
a history and understanding of this cultural
iconography than anyone has ever been able to do.
Much credit is due him!
However, as fascinating and stimulating and just plain right
as most of his thesis proves to be, equal parts suffer from
that most dread of all contemporary ills - ACADEMIC HUBRIS!
(And yes, I know he is not an academician. But a rose by
any other name...)

The last three chapters and the conclusion suffered from too much
specious overreaching; an attempt to somehow hyper-link his
way through the tangle of ideas/imagery/opinions that he was brave enough to try and decipher in the first place.
Obfuscation
rather than clarification was usually the result of all those

cross-references. Perhaps a separate volume would have been
more appropriate, giving the Professor a chance to stretch out
his line of reasoning.

Do not get me wrong! A VITAL ADDITION to any cinema/science-fiction/horror or popular culture student or just plain fan's library. As in his excellent Monster Show, the chapter on B Movies is worth owning this book for -- terrific insight!

Excellent quality hardcover, readable font, nice paper, some well
chosen pictures along the way.

(BUT, definitely overdue for a less expensive softcover edition!)

One last criticism, though:

The chapter on Alien Chic seques from a UFO sighting the
author recalls from his college years. I found it depressingly
typical - and illustrative of this otherwise wonderful book's
flaws - that his personal experience did not inspire a better understanding of such an important subject.
It always saddens me to find an excellent mind such as Mr. Skal's more or less shuttering itself off from reality in favor of "academic objectivity", or the pristine pursuit of
a cultural theory. The fact that his repression of
the facts associated with UFOs needs to find justification from Maven-dom, as well as movie release dates,
actually only serves to reveal his own monomania, and
therfore the book's primary thesis.

Just what the doktor ordered?

A wonderful history of Dr. Frankenstein and his ilk.......2000-06-02

After publishing books on horror films in American culture, the career of filmmaker Tod Browning, and the history of Dracula from Bram Stoker onward, David J. Skal has chosen to explore the role of the mad scientist in literature and film during the last two centuries. His book, "Screams of Reason: Mad Science in Modern Culture," begins with Mary Shelley's conception of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, touches on Drs. Jekyll and Moreau, and finally moves on to the twentieth century and its attendant griefs - including, but not limited to, the threat of nuclear war and the career of writer Robin Cook. Skal's main thesis - and it's a good one - is that the public's fear and distrust of scientists and technological innovation has been reflected primarily in the arena of popular entertainment. Skal writes well about the uneasy relationship most people have with science (ie, fearful and antagonistic on the one hand, but unable to live without cars, phones, and computers on the other). The best part of this book is the first half, which mostly deals with Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. From the life of Mary Shelley to the theatrical and film adaptations of her famous novel, the first half of "Screams of Reason" is fascinating and compelling reading. The second half is also interesting, but is sometimes so fragmented and tangential that Skal's main points are lost. Also, he seems unable throughout the second half to draw very many definite conclusions, allowing quotes and examples to simply stand on their own. "Screams of Reason" is most valuable as a sourcebook on Dr. Frankenstein and his ilk, and as a very enjoyable book about popular culture. A wealth of deep insights into the role of the mad scientist in films of the twentieth century will have to be provided by the reader, however.

The best overview of mad science's greatest names!.......1999-01-20

A mad scientist's dream book! There are more lunatics, would-be world conquerers, brilliant but misguided vivisectionists, and downright frightening personalities than in the last *three* Danielle Steel novels! (Not that I read them, of course...) Any mad scientist worth his salt needs to pick up this book...even the maddest of us could use the examples within of Doctors Frankenstein, Jekyll and Moreau as epitomes to strive for...and the extensive overview of movies gives me plenty of ideas of cinema to inflict upon my latest test subject. With this book, I WILL RULE THE WORLD! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

History: Fiction or Science? Dating methods as offered by mathematical statistics. Eclipses and zodiacs. Chronology Vol.I

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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? Dating methods as offered by mathematical statistics. Eclipses and zodiacs. Chronology Vol.I
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621074
Release Date: 2007-03-19

Product Description

History: Fiction or Science? is the most explosive tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by solid scientific data. The book is well-illustrated, contains over 446 graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays, which never cease to amaze the reader. Eminent mathematician proves that: Jesus Christ was born in 1153 and crucified in 1186 The Old Testament refers to mediaeval events. Apocalypse was written after 1486. Does this sound uncanny? This version of events is substantiated by hard facts and logic - validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources - to a greater extent than everything you may have read and heard about history before. The dominating historical discourse in its current state was essentially crafted in the XVI century from a rather contradictory jumble of sources such as innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts whose originals had vanished in the Dark Ages and the allegedly irrefutable proof offered by late mediaeval astronomers, resting upon the power of ecclesial authorities. Nearly all of its components are blatantly untrue! For some of us, it shall possibly be quite disturbing to see the magnificent edifice of classical history to turn into an ominous simulacrum brooding over the snake pit of mediaeval politics. Twice so, in fact: the first seeing the legendary millenarian dust on the ancient marble turn into a mere layer of dirt - one that meticulous unprejudiced research can eventually remove. The second, and greater, attack of unease comes with the awareness of just how many areas of human knowledge still trust the three elephants of the consensual chronology to support them. Nothing can remedy that except for an individual chronological revolution happening in the minds of a large enough number of people.

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.

Para-Sites: A Casebook against Cynical Reason (Late Editions: Cultural Studies for the End of the Century)

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Para-Sites: A Casebook against Cynical Reason (Late Editions: Cultural Studies for the End of the Century)

Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226504387

Book Description

Para-Sites, the penultimate volume in the Late Editions series, explores how social actors located within centers of power and privilege develop and express a critical consciousness of their own situations. Departing from the usual focus of ethnography and cultural analysis on the socially marginalized, these pieces probe subjects who are undeniably complicit with powerful institutional engines of contemporary change. In each case, the possibility of alternative thinking or practices is in complex relation to the subject's source of empowerment.

These cases challenge the condition of cynicism that has been the favored mode of characterizing the mind-set of intellectuals and professionals, comfortable in their lives of middle-class consumption and work. In their effort to establish para-sites of critical awareness parallel to the levels of political and economic power at which they function, these subjects suggest that those who lead ordinary lives of modest power and privilege might not be parasites in relation to the systems they serve, but may be creating unique and independent critical perspectives.

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