Customer Reviews (1)

The best overall biography of Glenn Curtiss
I first read this exceptional book years ago - and then met its author, Tip Roseberry, a fine man and an accomplished historian/writer. Sometime later I wrote my own book on Curtiss, PENDULUM, THE STORY OF AMERICA'S THREE AVIATION PIONEERS, WILBUR WRIGHT, ORVILLE WRIGHT, AND GLENN CURTISS, THE HENRY FORD OF AVIATION, and in the process discovered several important unknowns about Curtiss, his partner, Alexander Graham Bell, and his relationship with Henry Ford which Roseberry never knew. Suffice to say that anyone studyingthe life of Curtiss should read both books - and will come away with a new, never-before-understood appreciation of this great man. In fact, since finishing PENDULUM I've learned more very startling and important things which has led me towrite BELL AND CURTISS, HOW THE PARTNERSHIP OFALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL AND GLENN HAMMOND CURTISS LED TO THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN AVIATION INDUSTRY, as yet unpublished. But the credit goesto Tip, who so spendid! ly began it all. ... Read more

Product Description
Updated edition traces the course of Hawking's life and science, successfully marrying biography and physics to tell the story of a remarkable man. Authors have skillfully painted a portrait of an indefatigable genius and a scientific mind that seemingly knows no bounds. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Perspectives on a Man and His Mind
When I first heard of Stephen Hawking, he had already reached his pinnacle of fame. It was the standard draft: "Have you heard of Hawking? He's disabled, nothing left but his mind, but oh! What a mind!" Stephen Hawking A Life in Science filled in the life behind the mind, but it goes further to share the science in the context of physics thought of the modern age. In ways, this book is more accessible than the explanations of A Brief History of Time, providing and illustrative that makes the other approachable. I appreciated the context of pop culture, and Hawking's rise to Hollywood fame. I really enjoyed the entire book. If you have a mind for science and the advancement of theory, so will you.

Cool and hot universe
--This is a story about one man who has changed man's view on the universe, about one man who miraculously survives......

Spending more than twenty years of life on a wheelchair, Stephen Hawking has revealed the most intriguing part of the whole universe, through his groundbreaking discovery in black holes. Considered "the successor of Einstein", Hawking attempted to combine quantum mechanics and relativity, two contradictory theories, breaking a new path for scientists to reveal the nature of physics. But perhaps the most fascinating part of Hawking's miracle is his fight and resistance to his illness, which, according to the doctors, would have ended his life by the age of 21. Despite huge difficulties of moving and speaking, Hawking has never given up himself, and neither has his wife, Jane, who helped Hawking go through the most difficult time of his life. The authors are inspired by Hawking's tenacity and spirit, and also will every one who will read Hawking's life through this book. After reading the book, one would understand, as what the authors hope, what contribute to Hawking's success--not only his genius and incisive intuition, but also fortitude and a positive attitude toward life. This book perfectly blends theories of physics and the universe with Hawking's life, depicting a colorful and unique picture to help understand the indefatigable scientist.

Book motavations
The story of Stephen Hawking that is told in the book is not only extremely informative but also very Physics based. The motivations for the author to write the story are obvious, due to famous nature of the subject that is Stephen Hawking. And the reason for being famous is different to just about every other situation possibly imaginable. The reason for reading this book is not confined to those that are interested in Physics. The book is written in a nature that allows all people to read and understand it. it show people where Stephen Hawking had been and what he had done before he become disabled from his disease, as well as allowed people to better understand and appreciate him as a person in society growing up and not as someone that was different from all other people. it can give some hope to those that do not believe that they will be able to do something with there lives and allows the idea of a chance of success

JoJo's Review
Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science is an excellent biography which presents one of the most celebrated physicists, Stephen Hawking, in an elegant and expressive manner. Michael White tells of the significant events that greatly influenced Stephen King's life, for example the disease that crippled him but he fought valiantly enough to delay his later death. White wrote in a way which kept the readers attention. It had the basic theories that an average reader could fully understand, but the book did not go in depth with the scientific reasoning behind the theories.
Overall, I generally liked the book even though at times the book seemed to go on forever. I have to say I honestly learned quite a lot about his theories of black holes etc. The overcoming of his disease inspired me because it showed how strong he wanted to finish work. I would suggest this book to other readers because there is a lot of information that can be understood. It is a pretty long read but it flows pretty nicely especially if you like the science genre.

A Fascinating Story of a Man and His Ideas
Stephen Hawking A Life In Science by Michael White and John Gibbons does a fantastic job of combining both the story of Stephen Hawkings's life and in depth explanations of his scientific work and findings.The story of Hawking's life is told starting from his very early childhood and progress through his schooling and career.The book discusses the people and events in Hawking's early life that influenced him to work in the field of Cosmology.The book also addresses the discoveries and theories that Hawking developed in his studies.The theories are explained in plenty of detail but the authors do a good job in making them as easy to understand a possible.The story of Hawking's life itself is truly amazing because of the significant discoveries he made despite his disability.The book is worth while fro anyone who want s to learn about Stephen Hawking and wants to learn a bit about his discoveries and why they are significant.Although the authors do try to keep the explanations simple, there are some parts that are hard to understand without a decent knowledge of physic's principles.Even so, the book is still well written and the story it tells is fascinating. ... Read more

Product Description
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, this book is an in-depth photographic portrait of their monumental work in aviation--and the world's reaction to the invention of flight. From their early experiments with gliders to the first flight of heavier-than-air aircraft, from their tours of European and American air shows to their development of a military aircraft, to the final installation of the Kitty Hawk Flyer at the Smithsonian Institution in 1948, this book celebrates an invention that changed the world.

Composed entirely of photographs of the brothers and their aircraft, as well as such memorabilia and souvenirs as vintage postcards, posters, stereopticon images, and toys, the images in this book are drawn from the most extensive Wright Brothers collection in private hands, which includes many examples by the Wright Brothers' personal photographer, William Preston Mayfield. Published here for the first time, this extraordinary collection will also be on view in an international traveling exhibition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Pictures
FIrst book I read on Wright Brothers. Excellent pictures and good bood. Wish I could get some of these pictures in 5x7 glossy for the walls in my house, even "first flight". After reading the book, I went back looking at the pictures several times. ... Read more

Product Description
After the 200-year anniversary of his birth in 2002, this biography brings this genius -- who called geology the most poetical of all the sciences -- to a wider audience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best book on Miller
Well written, well illustrated and well worth the price. Hugh Miller is a major figure in paleontology and this book is a fitting tribute to him.
This man proved that anyone can make great observations in science if they put their mind to it! ... Read more

Product Description
A dazzling and powerful account of a life profoundly altered by Prozac-- "surely among the best on the long-term effects of the drug" (The New York Times)

In 1988, at age 26, Lauren Slater lived alone in a basement apartment in Cambridge, depressed, suicidal, unemployed. Ten years later, she is a psychologist running her own clinic, an award-winning writer, and happily married. The transformation in her life was brought about by Prozac. Prozac Diary is Lauren Slater's incisive account of a life restored to productivity, creativity, and love. When she wakes up one morning and finds that her demons no longer have a hold on her, Slater struggles with the strange state of being well after a lifetime of craziness. Yet this is no hymn to a miracle pharmaceutical. It is a frankly ambivalent quest for the truth of self behind an ongoing reliance on a drug. Slater also addresses Prozac's notorious "poop-out" effect and its devastating attack on her libido. This is the first memoir to reflect on long-term Prozac use, and reviewers agree that no one has written about Prozac with such beauty, honesty, and insight.

*12 million Americans take Prozac regularly
*Prozac Diary appeared on the Boston Globe and Independent bestseller lists
* Penguin Readers Guide Bound into Every Book

"Powerful. . . . The chemistry ofProzac Diary is beautiful."--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York TimesAmazon.com Review
When the author began taking Prozac in 1988 she was 26 and hadalready struggled for over a decade with hospitalizations, suicideattempts, anorexia, and self-mutilation resulting from a variety ofmental illnesses, obsessive-compulsive disorder the most recent amongthem. The newly released drug liberated her from debilitating anxietyand pain even as it raised unsettling questions about her ownidentity, as she had always been defined by her afflictions. "Theworld as I had known it my whole life did not seem to exist," writesSlater in a characteristically incisive sentence. She was happier, butshe found it difficult to write without the inner voices that hadsparked her fevered creativity; even the philosophy books she had onceloved now seemed irrelevant to her newly healthy state.With uttercandor (even about her dampened sexuality) and a surprising amount ofhumor, Slater chronicles the ups and downs of life on Prozac. Anightmarish relapse when the dosage suddenly proves inadequate("Prozac poop-out") ultimately helps her discover inner resources tocombat her illness in conjunction with the medication. She finds newlove and a better understanding of her past; she avoids the equallyunrealistic extremes of Prozac boosters who ignore the drug's costsand doomsayers who depict it creating a generation ofzombies. Slater's balanced final assessment is voiced, as usual, inexact, lyrical prose: "This is Prozac's burden and gift, keeping mealive to the most human of questions, bringing me forward, bringing meback, swaddling and unswaddling me, pushing me to ask which wrappingsare real." --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (41)

A journey Across the Chasm - from Illness to Wellness
This is a remarkably well-written memoir about journeying across the chasm, from illness to wellness.The journey is subjective, philosophical, psychological and metaphorical.

Lauren Slater had been dealing with mental illness, especially depression, for a very long time.When she hears about the FDA approval of Prozac, she knows that she wants to be on it. Slater's memoirs delve into the world of 'being well' and what it means to enter that world via chemical intervention.

It is beautiful and lyrical in its use of language.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in mental illness and its treatment.

Brief Diary
This book was just okay. It was somewhat interesting to read about her experiences with Prozac, but she did a lot of whining about the things that it took away from her, rather than focusing on the fact that it gave her her life back. Her writing is also tangential when she tries to become poetic. Something seemed to be missing. The book felt incomplete or rushed. It is a quick, easy read, but I can't say that I would recommend it.

Honest, weird, worth reading....
Dr. Lauren Slater woke up one day to discover that Prozac had eliminated one of her most closely held realities - Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder (OCD).This book is a journal of her experiences for the ten years that would follow.

Slater documents her fear of losing that comfortable reality, her ability to write creatively, her disciplined reading and eating habits, her inhibitions and her familiar internal voices.Having survived multiple hospitalizations for anorexia and other medical interpretations of her behavior, Slater agrees to begin therapy with Prozac during the drug's infancy.Her physician, overtly wooed by the pharmaceutical's manufacturer, supplies an ever-increasing dose of the wonder drug without mentioning its side effects and its temporary efficacy.While the author refuses to become the Prozac poster-child, she does experience a significant amount of success with the drug and is forthright about her satisfaction as well as her fears.

Lauren Slater is inspirational on many levels.Not only does she treat the status of her psycho-emotional health as something to be embraced as worthy, she regards this unique piece of her identity as something normal for her in this place and time.Slater acknowledges the need for caution when it comes to safety and well-being without negating the value that an alternate psychological reality canpresent.In addition to her open-minded views on psychic illness, Slater channeled her experiences into motivation and earned her PhD in psychology.She now sees patients of her own and writes professionally regarding subjects in her field.

Prozac Addiction?
Lauren Slater was prescribed Prozac in 1988 when the pharmaceutical first came out.She recalls having an almost immediate and "blissed out" feeling.Slater says that Prozac made her "high" and goes on and on about it obsessively as she describes her reaction to Prozac as, "the single most stunning experience of my life."This is rather melodramatic.I have tried Prozac and I have been depressed throughout my life.Taking a pharmacetical like Prozac does not make a person "high."

I have a real problem with the way Slater portrays Prozac as her "drug."She pontificates as if taking an anti-deppressant for DEPPRESSION is shameful, secretive.Slater becomes an intern at a half-way house for "boozers" and is informed that staff member's sign waivers allowing the administration to do random urine screens.Athough Slater does not use any illegal drugs, she panics at the thought of "being revealed."Slater compares herself to the addicts who live at the half-way house.Describing a client, she says "he stared straight at me, one junkie to another..."

It insulting to those of us who have struggled with addiction to have Slater describe herself as a "junkie" because she is over dramatizing her experience with Prozac.It was persribed to her for the treatment of a disease and she was NOT abusing the medication.
(I am in recovery and have been clean for 3 years).Slater later also considers herself "drug-dependent" and tries to convince the reader of her claim with her interpretation of what The DSM IV calls addiction.I don't buy it, and I don't think anyone who has struggled with drug or alcohol addiction will either.Maybe a reader without a history of addiction and/or depression won't notice that Slater is a phoney and an alarmist.Nobody is buying the "addicted to Prozac" crap.

Inspirational story
This book follows the story of learning, recovering, and adjusting of a woman, confused
and feeling alone. Chronicling a young woman's experiences of the late 80's, being one
of the first to take Prozac, it focuses on the changes and mixed emotions associated with
taking the new drug. Reality and psychology blend together to form an inspirational story
for those that can relate. Recommended age 16 and up due to sexual content, adult
themes, and language.

Based on a true, biographical story, the story behind the author (Slater) is very intriguing.
Being a somewhat difficult read, following the ups and downs, the story details the life of
a depressed, suicidal-prone young woman trying to survive in society. Setting up the
story, it details doctor's visits, past attempts to regain a grasp on her life, and her
prescribing doctor. Upon actually being prescribed Prozac, the story details the tough
decision and thought process about being one of the first to take the new psychotropic
drug. Once making a decision to proceed with the medical treatment, a focus is paid to
the effects and results. Although changes are felt within the author's attitude and outlook
on life within very few days, questions are provoked about whether these changes can
appear in such a short amount of time. A diary-like feel is given to the story when the
author accounts her days on the drug. In going from depressed to a never before
experienced happiness, the question of truth behind these feelings is proposed. 888 Over
the course of her first few weeks on Prozac, Slater personally tests her true happiness and
ultimate truth behind this happiness. Throughout her treatment period, the author makes
large progression toward her final goal of happiness, seeking help along the way and
receiving it where hands extend. Struggle and strength are themes throughout the
chronicle, displaying conflicts associated with taking a somewhat controversial and
amateur market drug of the time. Now a large name drug, the unknowns behind it in it's
early stages are marked within this diary of a young woman pleading for her happiness-
something she has never truly known. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Esta es la historia de dos sencillos bicicleteros del Medio Oeste nortamericano, que se impusieron a competidores formidables en la carrera por lograr el milagro del vuelo. ... Read more

Product Description
In third grade I started hearing voices, seeing people chasing me, feeling paranoid, confused, and delusional.I can't remember before third grade, but it is likely that I have had schizoaffective disorder all my life.I was afraid to tell anyone about my issues because I was afraid that the voices would kill me.There were two main voices: the blue and the red.They sometimes just mimicked me, or made me feel guilty about being bad, but they were the most dangerous when they commanded me to kill other people or myself.

Customer Reviews (5)

Great insight into a person's experience with mental Illness
Ms. Katz has written an honest account, revealing her thoughts and feelings as she worked through treatment for her mental Illness. Her story is very inspiring and would be helpful for others who are effected by mental illness - for individuals, families, friends and healh care providers. Thank you Brooke for sharing your story with us.

Intimidatingly honest and self-perceptive
This book is amazing and actually destigmatizes a lot of other human experiences in addition to "mental illness".The author's honesty and intelligence are empowering and truly inspirational. There is a long history of mental illness in my family and it has brought joy, pain and loss to my own life.This book removed the layer of icky fear that coated me every time I thought or talked about "mental illness". It helped me better undertand that a lot of the human experience of growing up and entering adulthood is shrouded in myth and fear.If we were all as brave and clear-headed as Brooke, the world would be a far, far, far better place.

Opened My Eyes
I have a friend whose daughter has psychosis and I've never really understood what that meant. Reading Brooke's candid and intelligent account opened my eyes to the effect this has had on both my friend's daughter and on her family. I wish everyone would read this book and appreciate the courageousness of this young author and how she has made a life for herself despite living with psychosis. It's very impressive.

Interesting, But Lacked Something
Though reading about Brooke's psychosis was interesting, the chapters towards the end of the book seemed to be lacking something.This may be from her being on antipsychotics or it may have been something else, but towards the end of the book, the book got less interesting than it had been at the beginning.If you have psychosis, you might want to check this out, though it might be a bit triggering for self-injurers as there are some descriptions of how she cut herself.

An Amazing Help
When I told my mom I was having horrible nightmares and hearing and seeing things a little over 3 years ago, she was horrified, but moreso, she wanted to help me. Countless pill bottles and 4 diagnosises later, I stumbled across this book. The tall-lettered title caught my eye, but when I read the subtitle, it made me grin. My problems were no longer taboo. It's ok to write and publish a book about psychosis and have it out in plain sight in Borders.

I bought it immediately and my mother and I read it together. It helped us both understand a little better on a more human level what it is I'm dealing with and the struggles that go with that. ... Read more

Product Description
By 1915, pioneer aviator Art Smith was as celebrated as any movie star might be today. He thrilled audiences with his barnstorming feats, doing"death spirals," sky writing, "loop-the-loops," and night flights using phosphorus fireworks. He was a consummate showman and had he not died in 1926, his name probably would be familiar to most Americans. He glamorized and popularized aviation while testingthe boundaries of aeronautical principles.

As a boy he longed to fly before he had ever seen an airplane. Hisparents believed in him, and he was fortunate to have a best friendnamed Al Wertman who helped him build an airplane. His fame spreadaround the globe and in 1916, the Japanese offered him $10,000 for aseries of exhibitions. His flying skills inspired a young Wiley Postto a life of aviation. After Smith’s death, when Lindbergh flew overFort Wayne and dipped his wings, he gave credit to the "BirdBoy" Art Smith.

The story of this rising star in American aviation is one of adventure, romance, scandal and history. Using Smith’s own autobiographical writings, the story is also a factual account of events in early aviation. The book includes photographs and postcards in Art Smith’s own handwriting mailed to Al Wertman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is an exciting historical account of a true aviator..
Art Smith Pioneer Aviator is an excellent read.The account not only portrays Smith as a 'free spirit' leader in the evolution and exploration of aviation, but also considers his many personal experiences along the way.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in this area of history;from the beginner novice up to and including self-proclaimed aviation fanatics!Also makes for a great gift idea.. ... Read more

Product Description
This book, a companion volume to the biographical memoir, is a unique collection of photographs compiled from von Braun's life, spanning his childhood through Peenemunde, White Sands, Redstone and NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center to his final years in Washington, D.C. ... Read more

Product Description
Throughout history, tuberculosis has been at or near the top of the list of infectious diseases that have plagued humankind. This pervasive disease has had a central position not only in causing illness but also in challenging medical scientists to understand it - and, in so doing, to further understand all of human health and illness. Pioneers in Medicine and Their Impact on Tuberculosis tells the stories of six of these individuals: Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec (pathology), Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (bacteriology), Hermann Michael Biggs (public health), Clemens von Pirquet (immunology), Wade Hampton Frost (epidemiology), and Selman Abraham Waksman (antibiotics). It examines not only their contributions in their own fields but also their special work in conquering tuberculosis. Presenting their fascinating lives and the seminal work they did in their disciplines, the author examines the importance of their discoveries and relates them to the dramatic expansion of medical science during the era in which they lived. ... Read more

Product Description
As visiting physician to Bethlem Hospital, the archetypal "Bedlam" and Britain's first and (for hundreds of years) only public institution for the insane, Dr. John Monro (1715Ð1791) was a celebrity in his own day. Jonathan Andrews and Andrew Scull call him a "connoisseur of insanity, this high priest of the trade in lunacy." Although the basics of his life and career are well known, this study is the first to explore in depth Monro's colorful and contentious milieu. Mad-doctoring grew into a recognized, if not entirely respectable, profession during the eighteenth century, and besides being affiliated with public hospitals, Monro and other mad-doctors became entrepreneurs and owners of private madhouses and were consulted by the rich and famous. Monro's close social connections with members of the aristocracy and gentry, as well as with medical professionals, politicians, and divines, guaranteed him a significant place in the social, political, cultural, and intellectual worlds of his time. Andrews and Scull draw on an astonishing array of visual materials and verbal sources that include the diaries, family papers, and correspondence of some of England's wealthiest and best-connected citizens. The book is also distinctive in the coverage it affords to individual case histories of Monro's patients, including such prominent contemporary figures as the Earls Ferrers and Orford, the religious "enthusiast" Alexander Cruden, and the "mad" King George III, as well as his crazy would-be assassin, Margaret Nicholson. What the authors make clear is that Monro, a serious physician neither reactionary nor enlightened in his methods, was the outright epitome of the mad-trade as it existed then, esteemed in some quarters and ridiculed in others. The fifty illustrations, expertly annotated and integrated with the text, will be a revelation to many readers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Very Well Done!
Though it starts off slow, by Chapter 2 the enthralling story of John Monroe, one of several Monroes to be primary physician at Bethlem hospital in London, England, begins to unfold. This man spent four decades in his position at "Bedlam" which is likely why he is the one to be featured - as opposed to his father James, who held the position before him and his son Thomas, who came afterwards.

Though I was aware that John Monroe has somewhat of a bad reputation in our day and age, largely because of his work in mad-doctoring and that Bethlem hospital is associated with great horror and scandal.. I didn't reach that conclusion from this book. There was evidence of mistreatment and false confinement and a lack of much help beyond custodial-type care - it seemed more a symptom of the ages rather then an intentional practice.

It was obvious, however, that a motivating factor for people to become engaged in the business of lunacy by owning and operating madhouses (often without any credentials or experience) and catering to those pronounced mad was the profit to made from such. Though mad-doctors, it is said, were not well respected in the 17-18-19th centuries, John Monroe and others seemed to have reached quite a great height in their social status.

What I found most fascinating was the many stories of those deemed mad - most especially the story of "Mad Meg" near the end of the book. Along with these stories there is a great deal of pictures in the book with excellent descriptions by the authors. It is very clear from reading that the two authors know their subject well and have done a great deal of research. I was familiar with Skull's work prior to this reading but had not had the pleasure of reading Andrews. Both authors have several other titles on the subject that I have since picked up and look forward to reading.

The book ends abruptly with the death of John Monroe. I would have liked to hear about what happened with Thomas Monroe when he took over "the business" much like we were able to read about James Monroe's work. But, the book is about John Monroe so I suppose it makes sense to concentrate largely on his work and I believe the others are likely written about in greater detail in the other books available by these authors.

The book was a joy to read, I think you will enjoy it!

Mad-doctoring Monro
Monro's life and career have been satisfactorily documented, however this book attempts to bring forward more detail and evermore facts, and as such is a worthy treatise.In our day of analysts and a theory for everything, it is almost impossible to understand that in the eighteenth century one might be forever locked away for such diagnoses as truculance and intractability.Besides the awful Bedlam most associated with this era, there were also private, rather more poshy institutes that catered to the rich and the famous, to which Monro also applied his 'mad-doctoring' skills.By means of his profession, Monro was privvy to the social world, and made acquaintance with the aristocracy and assorted politicians, would-bes, also-rans, and dignitaries. The authors utilise a huge base of extant materials to draw this portrait of a fascinating time in medical history.Especially noteworthy are the exceptional mentioned drawings, which alone are worth the price of the book.

Wall Street Journal Review
See the review of this book in the Wall Street Journal, Thursday, January 30, 2003. ... Read more

Product Description
These spellbinding reminiscences trace the path of a Western-trained physician whose most profound lessons in healing came after he completed his formal training. Fresh out of medical school, Tim Fleming began practicing medicine on isolated Arizona Indian reservations. The lessons he learned from the Hualapai and Havasupai people permanently changed his life and his career. After the Indian Health Service he was called to the passion and chaos of emergency medicine. Seventeen years later, he became a patient himself, battling a rare and progressive malignancy that killed him shortly after the first edition of this book was published in 1999. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not your ordinary doctor
There are three parts to this book.

The first part deals with the Doctor's work with Native Americans on reservations in Arizona.The second part has to do with his many years as an Emergency Room physician.The final part is about when the tables are turned and he is the patient, not the doctor.

I found Tim Fleming to be an amazing man.As a physician living and working with the Hualapai Indians in Arizona, he showed a compassion and deep respect for their culture.For the rest of his life, he was comforted by the spiritual lessons he learned by living with these people.His stories of time spent there and the many unique individuals he met there were the best part of this book.Beautifully written.

The second part of the book chronicles his next adventure - practicing emergency medicine at a trauma center in northern New Mexico.He wrote about many of the serious trauma cases he dealt with.This part was not an easy read.

The final part of the book details the Doctor's long, difficult battle with cancer.During this time, he stated that he had lost his comforting trust in Western medicine.He frequently traveled to spiritual places on Indian Pueblo land where he gained his balance.In the end, however, he finally submitted to all sorts of medical procedures. He lamented that while medical technology offered "miracles", it also was lacking in warmth; lacking in the human touch; lacking in the healing concern of others.He wrote:

"There are no comforting hands in those machines; no steaming chicken soup.It's all grayish-white plastic, fluorescent lights, red laser beams on walls....and always, those cold, hard tables".

Tim Fleming died in 1999 at the age of 54.He worked hard to get this book written before his death.I'm glad he did so. ... Read more

Product Description
This fascinating biography celebrates the bicentenary of Wheatstone's birth, and draws on information about the family business as well as letters, including correspondence with Cooke and Faraday, which were not available for the first edition. Charles Wheatstone was one of the leading electrical engineers of the mid-nineteenth century, and began his career in the family musical instrument firm where studying the workings of musical instruments gave him a taste for physics. He was responsible for the introduction of the electrical telegraph where his scientific understanding enabled him to turn it into a practical technology. This book will be of particular interest to scientists and historians interested in the work of this pioneering engineer.

Also available:

Exhibiting Electricity - ISBN 9780852968956
Communications: an international history of the formative years - ISBN 9780863413278

The Institution of Engineering and Technology is one of the world's leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community. The IET publishes more than 100 new titles every year; a rich mix of books, journals and magazines with a back catalogue of more than 350 books in 18 different subject areas including:

-Power & Energy
-Renewable Energy
-Radar, Sonar & Navigation
-Electromagnetics
-Electrical Measurement
-History of Technology
-Technology Management
... Read more

Product Description
Karl Menger (1902--1985), a pure mathematician of distinction, also took an active interest in both philosophy and economics. In this memoir, which he was composing at the time of his death, he relates how all these subjects developed and flourished against the Viennese background (itself described in depth and with affection), and did so despite the political developments of the '20s and '30s, which depressed but did not silence him. He continued his work in the United States. The memoir describes his membership of the Vienna Circle (the scientifically minded philosophers that gathered around Moritz Schlick) for whom he was an invaluable intermediary, bringing them into contact with Brouwer's intuitionism, with the work of the Polish logicians, especially that of Tarski, but more generally with rigorous mathematical thinking.Indeed, the other Viennese group described here is the Mathematical Colloquium, which he founded, whose Proceedings (still read) show it to have been a powerhouse of ideas. There are also valuable chapters on philosophy and mathematics in the Poland of the '20s and '30s and the U.S. of the '30s and '40s. The memoir devotes particular attention to Wittgenstein (with whose family Menger was acquainted) and to Godel, whom he was instrumental in bringing to America. The genesis of Menger's own writings on philosophy is also described and the work abounds in mathematical examples lucidly applied to that subject. This volume (which can now be placed beside the two by Menger already published in the Vienna Circle Collection) gives an unequalled impression of the fruitful interdisciplinarity of the tradition to which he partly belonged and partly created. It testifies both to Menger's power to inspire and to the critical eye he always turned on even the philosophers he most approved of. A brief account of his life is given in an Introduction by the Editors (all of whom knew him personally), and his important contribution to the social sciences -- only touched on in the text -- is elucidated by Professor Lionello Punzo. ... Read more

Product Description
Phyllis Kaberry and Me tells the fascinating story of two women, both anthropologists, who worked with Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region of Western Australia - one in the 1930s, the other in the 1980s and 1990s.

Phyllis Kaberry and Me raises fascinating questions about the nature of biography, the doing and writing of ethnography, the representation and interpretation of culture, and the changes and continuities in Aboriginal Australia. With energy and originality, this remarkable book explores past, present and future relationships between anthropologists and the people among whom they work. ... Read more

Product Description

A pioneering geologist from Scotland, Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was one of the nineteenth century's most important and controversial scientists. His landmark 1830 book Principles of Geology, for example, went against the received wisdom of the age and posited that throughout the history of the earth, geological changes occurred largely through slow and ongoing processes. And although he is today perhaps best known as Charles Darwin's mentor, Lyell's contributions are still felt in the disciplines of geology and evolutionary biology. In Lyell in America, Leonard Wilson continues his acclaimed study of Lyell's life and works with this chronicle of Lyell's extensive travels throughout America which blends detailed scientific observations with colorful travelogue.

Lyell first came to America in 1841, remaining for more than a year and touring widely. His immediate reason for the journey was to deliver the prestigious Lowell lectures in Boston. His larger purpose was to study the geology of North America, hoping that the vast scale of the continent -- its mountain ranges, plains, great lakes, and rivers -- would confirm his belief in the uniformity of geological history. The America he and his wife Mary arrived in was a country in transition. Now more than two hundred years old, the English settlements along the Atlantic seaboard had, in relative isolation, developed a distinctly American culture. Over the course of this tour and three subsequent trips to North America (twice for extended periods), Lyell observed both America's geological phenomena and its social landscape. He studied coal deposits, and collected rocks and fossils. He showed how the Niagara River formed its dramatic gorge. He rode to the top of Mount Washington. And he assessed the sophistication of the geological sciences in North America through conversations with his American counterparts.

In his travels, Lyell also made insightful observations about American society and the continent's pronounced regional differences. Traveling along the entire Atlantic coast and as far inland as the Mississippi River, he and Mary saw villages, towns, and cities of every size and temperament, and they met and came to know many Americans. Lyell marveled at the prosperity and rapid growth of pioneer settlements into flourishing cities, as well as at the vigorous enterprise of the American people. He enjoyed the speed and comfort of the river steamboats and the friendliness of the people. In the South, he studied slavery and challenged many of the racist suppositions of white intellectuals there, pondering how the institution of slavery might be ended. Lyell in America provides the first detailed exploration of Lyell's pivotal years of American travel using previously unpublished letters and journals, together with Lyell's published writings. Through the eyes of Charles and Mary Lyell, Leonard Wilson provides a vivid portrait of antebellum America and of Lyell's contributions to American geology.

Product Description
This book began with the aim of telling the almost forgotten story of Thomas Hancock, the rubber developer who in his own day was acknowledged as one of the great scientific pioneers of the Industrial Revolution. But as research progressed, it was clear that Thomas and his five brothers, the Hancocks of Marlborough, together constituted a unique family which made a tremendous yet virtually unknown contribution to nineteenth-century science and art. Walter designed and ran the first steam carriages to carry passengers on the common roads of England and so began the age of mechanized transport. Thomas founded the UK rubber industry when he discovered how to vulcanize rubber reliably; his company survived for some 120 years before being taken over. Charles was a well established painter who was also instrumental in the manufacture of gutta percha-coated undersea cables, used by the electric telegraph to begin the global information highway. Other brothers, John, James and William all made significant contributions to the development of Victorian science and culture. This book tells the story of the family and the remarkable people in it, from the Great Fire of Marlborough in 1653 to the present day, using the Hancock family archive of many unpublished and previously unknown documents. ... Read more

Product Description
Modern is a word much used, but hard to pin down.In Inventing Modern, John H. Lienhard uses that word to capture the furious rush of newness in the first half of 20th-century America.An unexpected world emerges from under the more familiar Modern. Beyond the airplanes, radios, art deco, skyscrapers, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Buck Rogers, the culture of the open road--Burma Shave, Kerouac, and White Castles--lie driving forces that set this account of Modern apart. One force, says Lienhard, was a new concept of boyhood--the risk-taking, hands-on savage inventor.Driven by an admiration of recklessness, America developed its technological empire with stunning speed. Bringing the airplane to fruition in so short a time, for example, were people such as Katherine Stinson, Lincoln Beachey, Amelia Earhart, and Charles Lindbergh. The rediscovery of mystery powerfully drove Modern as well.X-Rays, quantum mechanics, and relativity theory had followed electricity and radium.Here we read how, with reality seemingly altered, hope seemed limitless.Lienhard blends these forces with his childhood in the brave new world. The result is perceptive, engaging, and filled with surprise. Whether he talks about Alexander Calder (an engineer whose sculptures were exercises in materials science) or that wacky paean to flight, Flying Down to Rio, unexpected detail emerges from every tile of this large mosaic. Inventing Modern is a personal book that displays, rather than defines, an age that ended before most of us were born.It is an engineer's homage to a time before the bomb and our terrible loss of confidence--a time that might yet rise again out of its own postmodern ashes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Overall View
Lienhard's book is a personal account of the age of Modern, a term he defines as more a state of mind than an actual event or time.The operative word is personal. It is difficult to fully interpret biographical events as part of the epoch-changing phenomenon he calls "Modern".

"Modern", which began in the 19th century, affected not only the physical world but how we viewed that world. The author opines as to how an object or idea is either pre, post or actually modern. The range - from architecture to art to war to electricity and inventions - cover the gambit.

Lienhard believes "Modern" denotes a societal mindset, one we no longer possess. He is absolutely correct. Our society is awash in waves of data that can be neither integrated nor understood.Our spirit (for lack of a better word) is unlike the Modern pioneers.We've lost our innocence, our belief that technology will better our lives. Nor do we seek knowledge for its own sake. This is illustrated by popular myths: The environment is degrading, the economy is collapsing, chemicals are lethal, life is drugery, etc. The facts are, the UN again rated the US #1 for clean water and safe food, we are richer than ever, we have unprecedented free time and access to virtually any entertainment, news or information at our fingertips.In this post-modern age, the cry is for something different.

The author IS correct that "Modern" stopped in the 1950's.We define "modern architecture" as Frank Lloyd Wright, "modern art" as Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko, "modern cars" as snazzy Vets.Yet biotechnology, space travel and new inventions may usher in a new age he calls "Expanded".Recommended for serious readers.

Artifice Vs. Artifact
This is modern archaeology at its best.John Lienhard writes a thoughtful, moving book encircling our history through the eyes of an engineer.Inventing Modern traces the watershed inventions of the twentieth century, cataloguing their importance in the arc of our civilization.Without invention, the author argues, there are no artifacts of history.Taking a scientist's erudite perspective and infusing it with a healthy dose of playfulness and an artless sense of history, Lienhard tells us what it is to be American, modern, nuclear, analog, and even digital.Lienhard sees invention with a sense of irony, tragedy and pure joy."Inventing" is not a dialectic dismantling of our Dionysian times but rather a surprising and hopeful and even dreamy look at the (recent past and) future of civilization from the perspective of a crafty engineer unafraid to stare down that elusive American improvisational spirit. You can read Arthur C.Clarke for fantasies of an alter-universe, but to get down to the nuts and bolts of the history and the scholarly soul of the space elevator project (for example) currently in its planning stages off the coast of the Pacific, read Lienhard.His is a most eloquent telling- an optimistic, un-patronizing work with a very strong vision of mankind's makings. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (15)

In the arms of the oppressed
Anyone who's read The Forest People or The Mountain People by Colin M. Turnbull would benefit from reading Grinker's biography of Turnbull. Exhaustively researched and enviably well-written, In the Arms of Africa provides a tour of Turnbull's life that not only helps us better understand Turnbull's writings but also tells a profoundly human story that, with its high and lows, will resound with many readers. It gives a vivid account of how early childhood and youth experiences shape us as people and determine the direction of our careers and the quality and intensity of our passions. For those reasons alone, it makes for good reading. But furthermore, as a biography of one of the 20th century's most controversial anthropologists, the book itself is a remarkable contribution to anthropology, in the broad sense of being `the study of man'. I highly commend Roy R. Grinker for the hard work he's done and recommend this book to anyone interested in anthropology, ethnography, psychology, sociology, religion, Africa, India, or biographies in general.

For some readers it may be worth mentioning that the book contains pervasive sexual themes. Turnbull had a thirty-year homosexual relationship, and Grinker includes diary entries and other sources written by Turnbull and his partner, Joe Towles, that are of an intimate and occasionally graphic nature. Upon reading the biography, it should become clear why including these details adds to the story. For the most part, it was done as tastefully as possible. Some readers, though, may find some of it offensive.

Despite some bizarre eccentricities and a rather dismal end, Turnbull's life is an inspiration. Turnbull's passion was to find `truth, beauty, and goodness' in the world, and he upheld love as that which makes life sacred. He brought this emotional and idealistic pursuit of truth to the field of anthropology, which in his day and much more in ours, tends to distrust and even disdain such ethereal notions as `truth, beauty, goodness' and to strive for some level of scientific objectivity and neutrality. In so far as anthropology (and any scientific discipline) is both a `science' and an `art', Turnbull shows us what it looks like as an art. And because of that, he popularized the `study of man' for thousands, and his books, as unscientific as they may be, will vastly outlast most scientific tomes describing people groups around the world. True, some of his writing erred either by idealizing the people or defaming them, and occasionally his writing veered into fiction altogether. However, no one can deny the emotive impact of Turnbull's aesthetic and philosophical sensitivities as they were enhanced by some human societies and offended by others. In his writings, his humanity bleeds through, and it is just that that is so memorable. In brief, Turnbull was a gifted and tormented individual whose biography is as haunting as the books he wrote that some of us know all too well.

Another fallen idol!
In the preface of a book which I published a year or so ago,I mentioned how much Turnbull's famous "The Forest People" influenced me.One reader alerted me to Grinker's biography. I am not sure my evaluation of it is as much a comment on the book as on Turnbull's life.It has been exactly forty years since I read about the Mbuti.I had just returned from canoeing in the Arctic and my faith in life in Cambridge Massachusetts where I taught was deeply shaken by my experience in the wild.In Colin Turnbull's Pygmies I found some kind of solace.I don't remember if I later read "The Mountain People."If I did, it has left no trace.

Plain and simple, I don't like Colin Turnbull, as a human being, nor do I like this biographyof him.Reading Amy Wallace'sbiography of Carlos Castaneda confirmed what I suspected after his third volume, "Journey to Ixtlan," that he was a con man and moreover a destructive person despite his early genius.When it was first published I used "The Teachings of Don Juan" in a graduate field methods class I was teaching and its effect on the students was so profound that they could not discuss it.In retrospect it is clear that Castaneda made most of it up and by the third volume admitted his own failing at the Zen-like lessons he was trying to teach.After that, what he wrote only appealed to his cult followers.Those (particularly women) who got close to him, he abused, and he failed his much vaunted teachings about making death an ally.

As did Turnbull's early anthropological critics, I now see that his writings are Castaneda-like.They offered a needed critique of current society but neither author lived up what they advocated in their works and both were extreme narcissists. Both used the people around them and did not give some who were very important to their achievement credit.Turnbull wrote some of his coworkers out of his works. Of the two Turnbull was much more deft and had a greater diversity of experience.He must have been a cross between some kind of genius, both social and intellectual, and a sociopath, bending people to his desires while maintaining a narcissist's self absorption.Because he put this narcissism on a stage I wonder about Grinker's motive in writing this bio.Grinker seems to be a good man, having written about African natives, Korea, and now autism, but there is some level at which Grinker misses the failure of Turnbull in his spiritual quest.Early on Grinker says that because in his youthful bravado he was so intellectually critical of Turnbull that he, Grinker, turned down Turnbull's offer to help him with his Africa studies.The books seems like an apologia for his spurning of what he later realized was Turnbull's generous offer.There are significant parts of Turnbull's life that were inaccessible to Grinker.Turnbull only left an autobiographical manuscript eulogizing his homosexual partner.A number of people who knew Turnbull well would not talk to the author, including some of Turnbull's family, contemporary academics and the Tibetan Buddhist teacher who encouraged Turnbull to take some vows but who eventually broke with him in an unexplained incident.I know Grinker's dissertation and first book reexamined Turnbull's work among the Mbuti.And Grinker says that Turnbull's field notes are excellent anthropology.But in this volume we are given only an overview of the contributions and criticisms of Turnbull's work while we are treated to, from my point of view, too many stories about Turnbull's sexuality and the chaos of his personal life with his partner.It seems like Grinker abetted Turnbull's wish to keep his inner motives hidden while putting his partner in center stage.

Although it hard to discern Turnbull's relationship to his spiritual teacher in India when Turnbull was in his twenties, Turnbull's time in Tibetan robes at the end of his life was a failure, and Grinker doesn't seem to recognize that.Turnbull complains about Westerner's in Dharmsala when he was there in the early nineties: how superficial they were.This is more of his narcissism.There had been westerners practicing there for twenty years before he arrived and Western monastics and lay persons who not only had thoroughly studied Tibetan ideas but who had achieved high levels of practice.Grinker doesn't realize that Turnbull's comments that the Mbuti were somehow much more naturally spiritual than the Buddhists indicate how little Turnbull (and Grinker) understood what the Buddhist agenda is.Even though one can find some analogue between Buddhist ideas of emptiness and impermanence and Mbuti attitudes towards existence, the two are not comparable,A good place to explore this is Gananath Obeyesekere's book, Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth, or mine.

So where does that leave us with this biography.To start I suppose on needs to go back and read Turnbull's books on the Mbuti and the IK.He loved the former and thoroughly disliked the latter, even advocating their deracination.Then read Turnbull's contemporary advocates and critics and Grinker's own work, Housesin the Rainforest: Ethnicity and Inequality Among Farmers and Foragers in Central Africa.That is a lot of work just to set the record straighter for a felled idol and to see how adequate the biography of him is.Somehow Malinowksi's journal entry, "living among the niggers and hating them," jaundiced me to his anthropology ever since.Similarly the apt criticisms of Turnbull that his books are more projections of himself--- projection of authenticity and alignment with nature on to the Mbutiwhich fed my soul once and inhumanity on to the IK--- have soured me on his work.And as Turnbull's partner pointed out, Turnbull's selfishness in not lifting a hand to help the starving IK was inhumane even though rationalized as scientific objectivity, an objectivity he didn't seem to adhere to with the Pygmies he adored.The one point in Turnbull's life I think I would have liked to have witnessed was at the beginning of his partner's AIDS when the two of them were occupying the same academic lecture stage and engaged inlively discussions of their different takes on the IK and the forest people.

Since I am not much of a theatre person, I don't know what to make of Turnbull's relationship to Peter Brook who Grinker says was the most talented stage director of the last century.In dramatizing IK starvation Brook and Turnbull may have put the issue before the public in an effective way, even though, as his critics pointed out, Turnbull made the causes of IK behavior cultural and did not compare their responses to people undergoing analogous depravations like concentration camps or other famines.To redeem Turnbull's life it may be better to see it more as a piece of theatre than a search for truth.Finally Turnbull's denial of his own AIDS endangered people around him.This was a deadly selfish act.

Charlie Fisher, emeritus prof. and author ofDismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

Like an abstract painting, this picture of Colin & Joe will leave you thinking.
Minutes ago I was in a coffee shop fighting back a tear as I read the last sad words of this book that so effectively made me feel like I actually knew these guys, Colin and Joe. It was sad to observe their painful ends. I frankly--and rather surprisingly--don't know what to think of this book; it was powerful, to be sure, yet doesn't lend itself to a quick and tidy analysis....

As I mentally rescan the record of these two lives, the word "profundities" comes to mind. What does a life mean, in the end? What makes life profound? How are we to process its mysteries? To what extent were these two guys crazy? Or would it be the observer who is "crazy" for thinking them essentially unusual? As the last line of the book alludes, to what extent did their lives and deaths matter?

I must confess to identifying with Colin Turnbull perhaps more intimately than the average reader, given my own similar interracial attractions, interests in social betterment and travels to, and fascination with, tribal Africa. More than a few times, I could put myself directly into Colin's shoes as he navigated his relationship with Joe--and it was uncanny. I'm not so sure even his biographer could relate as deeply to certain instances which I think nearly defy understanding by outsiders. At any rate, for me, the bottom line is that this book and these lives have truly become a small part of what is me (how could anyone forget them!). It's like they lived their lives "wrong side out" and we got a rare look at how humans actually work, thus helping us to understand how we ourselves work. Normally we don't see such a depth in others by which to juxtaposition our own lives for dissection and comparison.

But enough of philosophizing. More specifically, this book is fascinating because Colin Turnbull was a complicated man of disparate interests--a world traveler, investigator of philosophies and searcher for love and the elusive understanding of it. At a young age he knew there was something he wanted and set off to find it; perhaps he even knew something of what it was. He made things happen. He savored immersion into whatever were his interests and his emotions. His "bizarre" placement of his own empty casket next to Joe's is an example of that. It doesn't seem so bizarre when you know Colin. He immersed. He wished to wring out the last drop of emotion and taste it fully.

In today's carefully nuanced judgments of what constitutes a proper motive for helping the indigent, or for a fascination with the exotic, or for traveling to tribal areas and deigning to "help" the natives--even for the act of photographing them--it is disarming to see Colin's (and the biographer's) direct confrontation with all this mental gauze.

Perhaps what furrows the brow in trying to assess this book after the last page is turned is that the typical biography frames and displays a life we might largely want to emulate--or not--and the lessons are usually easy to peg. But the picture of Colin and Joe is more abstract; it's not so much good or bad, it just is. And, like abstract art, what we take from it depends on how we look at it, given our own life experience.

informative yet rather strange
This is an informative biography, no question on that, but one wonders what the relationship was between the author, Roy Grinker, and his subject, Colin Turnbull.Both did doctorates in anthropology at Harvard, and both studied the same peoples in Africa (does getting a PhD in anthropology absolutely necessitate studying pygmies in Afriac?sure seems like it...).From what I've read in other sources, Grinker turned his back on Turnbull's "approach" to pygmie culture, only to regret this after Turnbull's death.One wonders whether or not this book is a too-late tribute to the author's academic father-figure.

Curiosity Satiated
I have been curious about Colin Turnbull ever since I read the "Mountain People" several years ago.As an anthropology student, I identified with Turnbull's willingness to "learn" the lifeways of the "other", and in doing so, reshape his own worldview.I am afraid that this book may have told me a little more than I wanted to know however...
Turnbull's relationship with Joseph Towles is a critical part of the story, and I appreciate and acknowledge that.I had to wonder exactly how the biographer knew the very intimate gastroenterological details that were included in the text.It is just a matter of personal taste, but that is the only reason that I did not give the book a complete five star rating. The book does give us a much needed, intimate portrait of an important anthropologist and human being. ... Read more