Book Description
The greatest monument to love, and the lost world of the Agra gardens and their characterful owners, re-created through superb scholarship and evocative illustrations.
The Taj Mahal is the epitome of Mughal art and one of the most famous buildings in the world. Yet there have been few serious studies of it and no full analysis of its architecture and meaning.Ebba Koch is the only scholar who has been permitted to take measurements of the complex. She has been working on the palaces and gardens of Shah Jahan for thirty years and on the Taj Mahal itself—the tomb of the emperor's wife, Mumtaz Mahal—for a decade.
The tomb represents the house of the queen in Paradise, and the author shows how its setting was based on the palace gardens of the great nobles that lined both sides of the river at Agra. She leads the reader through the entire complex of the Taj Mahal, with an explanation of each building and an account of the mausoleum's urban setting, its design and construction, its symbolic meaning, and its history up to the present day.
The book features hundreds of new photographs plus drawings by the Indian architect Richard Barraud that include plans and reconstructions of Agra and the Taj complex as they looked in Shah Jahan's time.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book!.......2007-09-26
Having visited the Taj Mahal, I wanted to have an authoritative book on the history behind its construction and this book is not only an excellent souce, but also a very good photographic record of this amazing Wonder of the World!
A Ten-Star Book that Is Without Parallel.......2007-04-15
Having read a number of books about the Taj Mahal, including the recently published "Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius...," I would bet good money that if given a copy of Ebba Koch's book to preview, those truly interested in India's national treasure will buy "The Complete Taj Mahal," even if they have to skip lattes or lunches to afford it, even if they have already done so to afford Okada/Joshi/Nou's "Taj Mahal" with its stunning photography.
One reason, of course, is that TCTM is so complete. To others' overviews of the material covered, I would add only that Koch does not neglect the human element. For example, in eight introductory pages of text, Koch provides excellent background information about Shah Jahan, his wife and his predecessors; later, she details Jahan's passion for building. Koch also includes interesting information about the artisans, craftsmen and laborers who did the actual work as well as details about others associated with the Taj-related structures/gardens of Agra. Further humanizing the story of this garden city are colorful Mughal paintings of its nobility and rulers.
Another aspect of TCTM that makes it a must-have are the many photographs of sites, structures and architectural ornamentation, photographs "The Hindu" declared "often brilliant" as well as "judiciously chosen." Just how apt these descriptions are is suggested by the following: There were only seven pages of O/J/Nou's photographic extravaganza of the Taj complex that I photocopied to tuck into Koch's book, and of them, five were additional close-ups of floral inlays and calligraphy. Adding to the appeal of TCTM is that the camera goes beyond the splendors of the Taj complex. Of special interest to those who have been in Agra, for instance, will be the realistic photographs of the Taj Mahal peeking above the "agglomeration of haphazard constructions" that have "almost obliterated" its bazaar and caravanserai. Shown, too, are its architectural precedents as well as artisan workshops and quarries. Though most of the photographs in this book are in color, even those in black and white are revealing.
Also making TCTM next to impossible to resist are the "company drawings," most of which are in color as well. Forerunners of postcards, they were "made by local artists in the early days of the Raj" for European tourists, who bought them "to illustrate their journals." Works of art in themselves, often the drawings are so detailed that they could easily be photographs. But they do not serve as mere eye candy: many are of Taj-related structures that no longer exist or have been stripped of all that made them magnificent; some are juxtaposed with recent photographs to show the toll time has taken on the brilliance of color and intricacy of design. Evocative paintings and watercolors of the Taj Mahal by foreign artists are included as well.
What may ultimately sell people on TCTM, however, is that it is a book they will actually enjoy reading much if not all of. Not only is Koch's narrative writing fluid and easy-to-digest. Even her descriptions of architecture will be relatively easy for laymen to understand, provided that they are willling to refer to the glossary of terms and look at the many visual aids, including Barraud's "precise and clear" line drawings, that accompany the text. So well done is this book, in fact, that as "The Hindu" noted, even "information which is more technical and not at face value so interesting to general readers will, in fact, be found by them to be equally absorbing." (All I would personally exclude from this are the two pages of precise measurements of the Taj complex.)
To another reviewer's assertion that TCTM is a book that "should be in the library of anyone fascinated by the Taj Mahal, not just historians and architects," I add a thousand "Amen's."
Agra the Extraordinary.......2007-03-16
A superlative volume showing in detail and with historic drawings, maps, and photos, as well modern illustrations and reconstructions the unsurpassed achievements of the Mughal in residential garden architecture. The riverbanks of the Yamuna River as it passes through Agra was where this artistic impulse achieved culmination in the seventeenth century garden residences and tombs sponsored by the nobles and rulers of the Mughal state and built by the craftsmen of India. One of the signal contributions of this book is the inclusion of the stories of the architects, carpenters, and masons who left their signatures and marks on the individual elements of the overall project. The residential and tomb gardens which stretched along the river and are now mostly gone gave way at midpoint to the grandest residence of all, the Red Fort which remains today the second greatest landmark of Agra. And at the southern end of the development stands today the greatest tomb ever built, one of the architectural wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. The work is so complete that it documents not only the construction efforts but also the tourism that followed and the depth to which the Taj Mahal became embedded in the consciousness of the world. The culmination of three decades of meticulous research this substantial volume tells an engrossing story of the planning, development, and eventual decline of a unique garden city. It more than fulfills the adjective "complete" and should be in the library of anyone fascinated by the Taj Mahal, not just historians and architects. A truly extraordinary accomplishment.
Book Description
A simple walk through Washington, D.C. began a profound journey of personal discovery and renewal for Newt Gingrich, one of America's most influential politicians and commentators. At the National Archives, the immortal words from the Declaration of Independence that we "are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights," jumped off the page and into his heart with the simple truth that from day one in our country's history, the Author of freedom was not the state nor even the Founding Fathers. Our basic human rights and freedoms were-and are-"Creator-endowed." Gingrich sounds a clarion call for us to recognize that the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that we hold so dear are inseparable from a sincere and humble acknowledgement that these gifts are only the Creator's to give. As a bonus, the book includes a "walking tour" of Washington, D.C.
Customer Reviews:
America, the Christian Nation Under God .......2007-09-26
This book was another top notch, highly informative conservative-traditionalist volume that speaks the truth that America is indeed a Christian Judeo nation at heart.
It is so vitally important for American culture to return to our moral religious values, and seek the historical truth that indeed the Founders were very spiritual people who upheld very Christian ideals in springing to life the American nation.
While Thomas Jefferson was a Deist (not an Atheist but one who believed that God had sprung the universe into life with little involvement in the affairs of man), many of the founders themselves were personally brought up in the Christian tradition. I can recall the miracle on Christmas when George Washington crossed the Delaware River to storm the Hessian base camp, or his Thanksgiving Day prayer.
One can come to the logical conclusion that the inspiration of the American idea was spawned from the both the secular notions of the Enlightenment era, and the philosophies of Christianity.
Regardless of those extremists out there who try to twist history into something that it wasn't for PC reasons or their own personal contempt for American Christian ideals, there is no United States of America with out the traditions and philosophies of Jesus Christ.
God, the Ten Commandments, & the teachings of the lord Jesus Christ will always be apart of America.
This is one fantastic book worth your time and money.
Rediscovering God in America.......2007-09-10
The book is an excellent reminder of the source of strength and wisdom that all our founders looked to as they made decisions concerning the founding of America. There is a clear discussion of the separations issue and the foolish conclusion that our leaders did not want God a part of public life. It reminds us of the importance that all leaders in the first 100 years of the country place on Christian faith.
faith is still here..........2007-07-26
Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There
America is the MOST faith based country in the world....But ???
Newt is such an interesting guy...it is worth reading to get a sense of the history of how our country's founders and there on saw faith as part of America.....buy it, if you have faith in America as well...
Outstanding.......2007-07-21
I read with interest how our founding fathers consistently built buildings with the reminders that there is a Supreme being, God, who has blessed us with this country, our constitution, and our democracy. There are so many nihilists around us that would destroy all of this. Evil does lurk in this world. A well writtent book, succinct but accurate with historical facts.
Great CD!.......2007-07-16
This CD is very helpful for anyone visiting our nation's capitol. I wish we'd had it before our visit.
Book Description
Democracy identifies the general processes causing democratization and de-democratization at a national level across the world over the last few hundred years. It singles out integration of trust networks into public politics, insulation of public politics from categorical inequality, and suppression of autonomous coercive power centers as crucial processes. Through analytic narratives and comparisons of multiple regimes, mostly since World War II, this book makes the case for recasting current theories of democracy, democratization, and de-democratization.
Book Description
Generally regarded as the definitive work on totalitarianism, this book is an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political movements. Arendt was one of the first to recognize that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were two sides of the same coin rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. “With the Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt emerges as the most original and profound-therefore the most valuable-political theoretician of our times” (New Leader). Index.
Customer Reviews:
Got Time?.......2007-03-08
There's no question Arendt is brilliant and inspired, but I should read the Arendt for Dummies or choose a shorter book. I began to read this volume, which covers Origins of Antisemetisim and Origins of Imperialism also, and got bogged down, so I began skimming. Definitely important stuff in there, and I did glean information that was new to me, but in the end I shelved the book because it is too long. Choose it if you are "studying", not just an inquiring person.
More relevant than ever.......2006-12-24
Though this book was written in the 1950s, there is much in it that is relevant to politics as we know it today. In the wake of the disinformation we now know to be the basis for the debacle of the current war, some of the statements made by Arendt regarding totalitarian regimes sound a very loud warning bell. A case in point:
"Totalitarian politics....use and abuse their own ideologies and political elements until the basis of factual reality, from which the ideologies derived their strength...have all but disappeared."
There is a disturbing similarity between the refusal of some of our government officials to admit their mistakes and the description of some of the methods used by totalitarian leaders to manipulate facts and discernible reality in order to produce outcomes they have previously predicted. Totalitarian leaders never admit to error. If the reader finds no other relevance in this book but that, it will have been time well spent.
A Book to be read now.......2006-08-08
I'll keep this simple: look at what is going on in the US, in the MId-East, in China. If that doesn't alarm you, you need to read this book even more carefully than the rest of us, as Histaory is about to repeat itself because our xenophobia knows no limits. This is as critical today as it was when Arendt wrote it.
A real classic.......2006-03-24
This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding popular history, values, and structures of modern western society, and how they relate to modern political power in the twentieth and twenty-first century. It challenges many values that are often taken for granted in national and international power play and politics. The Origins of Totalitarianism will remains relevant to current events, and a warning to those who advocate change without taking into account the mistakes committed by our forbearer. This book explains in detail the dangers to liberal democracy that the scourge of racism has been and could be again. On a darker note it could also be used as blueprint by those who wish to abuse power. A true classic.
At first glance one could be drawn into making close parallels between modern Pan Islamist movements and the Pan European movements of the twentieth century, but the analysis would be far from complete. The Pan European movements where primarily tribal in nature, where as the Osama's Pan Islamist movement forms a superset without full integration of racial components. The dangers and the cold bureaucratic cauculas are similar, however Islam spans many races and cultures. Race therefore cannot form the primary glue required to hold it together. Also Islamist movements are not progressive, they are reactionary in nature. On the other hand close parallels can be drawn to the Pan Slavic movement with regards to Saddam's Iraqi nationalistic movement. Osama's concept of Pan Islam differs in many ways from Stalin's or Hitler's base, the primarily glue is religious ideology and fear, not race or nationalism. Furthermore his ideology is not anywhere close to being shared by the masses within Islamic countries, and as a result terrorism is a requirement from start, not so much against the west, but against moderate elements or differing sects within the countries where this movement thrives. This is not to say that they do not use terrorism in all of it's traditional roles. Euro style nationalism is counter productive to the Pan Islamist movement, and one of it's objectives is to break down nationalism. In short if one must make parallels, they can be made to the books third section and Osama's Islamist movement operations, but only very weak correlation to sections one and two.
This book is written in a way that requires the reader to work hard, but it is worth the effort.
A Frightening Warning about Mass Man and "Virtue" of Thoughtlessness.......2006-01-16
Haannah Arendt's THE ORIGINS OF TOTAITARIANISM(TOT)is both a thoughtful book and a frightening view of both the background of totalitarianism as well as the practical application of this political phenomena. The reader should realize this book requires time and careful thought to appreciate the book's importance.
The first section of the book deals with antisemitism which Miss Arendt argues was a cornerstone of later totalitarianism. She argues that the gradual development of mass culture and mass politics resulted in targeting and scapegoating any target minority such as Jews. She explains that antisemitism was a gradual political movement that exploded in the late 19th and especially in the 20th century. A different thesis could have been presented, but thus far this is the best one this reviewer has read.
Part two of the book explains how imperialism and racism merged especailly during the Age of Nationalism. Religious discord was replaced by sociological and political theories that not only extolled nation but also race and blood. This section deals with these two concepts both in Western Europe and Eastern Europe. One must remember that persecution of Jews was particulary lethal in Eastern Europe between World War I and World War II and espeically during The Second World War.
Part three of the book is the best section of THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM. If readers have difficutly with sections one and two of this book, they owe it to themselves to at least read section three.
Miss Arendt makes a frightening assessment that the liquidation (mass murder of people of race or class) was not so much personal vendetta as these mass murders were bureaucratic operations that were done as a matter of political policy and "normal" bureaucratic operations. She warns readers that totalitarian leaders changed enemies almost weekly. In other words, those who were innocent one time were "enemies of the state or people" later. In other words, totalitarian leaders never never exhausted their enemies' lists and kept the masses alert for supposed enemies regardless of the rapid changes in those designated for mass murder. One quote that should alert thoughtful readers is, "The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any." The serious implication is that totalitarian leaders suspect that thoughtlessness is a virtue which benefits the leaders of the mass political movements. The fact is that once innocent people were arrested, they were "non-persons" whose memories were altered and then forgotten.
This book is a serious warning to anyone who takes pride in individual liberties and appreciates individual achievement regardless of their religious convictions or ancestry. Miss Arendt is clear that totalitarian leaders do not recognize talent except as talented individuals may threaten their arrogant self importance.
Readers would do well to also read Orwell's 1984 and Hoffer's THE TRUE BELIEVER to have a better grasp of THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM. This reviewer highly recommends this book with the reservation that this book is not "light reading."
Amazon.com
There's a "Frank & Ernest" comic strip showing a chick breaking out of its shell, looking around, and saying, "Oh, wow! Paradigm shift!" Blame the late Thomas Kuhn. Few indeed are the philosophers or historians influential enough to make it into the funny papers, but Kuhn is one.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is indeed a paradigmatic work in the history of science. Kuhn's use of terms such as "paradigm shift" and "normal science," his ideas of how scientists move from disdain through doubt to acceptance of a new theory, his stress on social and psychological factors in science--all have had profound effects on historians, scientists, philosophers, critics, writers, business gurus, and even the cartoonist in the street.
Some scientists (such as Steven Weinberg and Ernst Mayr) are profoundly irritated by Kuhn, especially by the doubts he casts--or the way his work has been used to cast doubt--on the idea of scientific progress. Yet it has been said that the acceptance of plate tectonics in the 1960s, for instance, was sped by geologists' reluctance to be on the downside of a paradigm shift. Even Weinberg has said that "Structure has had a wider influence than any other book on the history of science." As one of Kuhn's obituaries noted, "We all live in a post-Kuhnian age." --Mary Ellen Curtin
Book Description
Thomas S. Kuhn's classic book is now available with a new index.
"A landmark in intellectual history which has attracted attention far
beyond its own immediate field. . . . It is written with a combination
of depth and clarity that make it an almost unbroken series of
aphorisms. . . . Kuhn does not permit truth to be a criterion of
scientific theories, he would presumably not claim his own theory to be
true. But if causing a revolution is the hallmark of a superior
paradigm, [this book] has been a resounding success." —Nicholas Wade,
Science
"Perhaps the best explanation of [the] process of discovery." —William
Erwin Thompson, New York Times Book Review
"Occasionally there emerges a book which has an influence far beyond its
originally intended audience. . . . Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions . . . has clearly emerged as just such a
work." —Ron Johnston, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Among the most influential academic books in this century." —
Choice
—One of "The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the Second World
War," Times Literary Supplement
Thomas S. Kuhn was the Laurence Rockefeller Professor Emeritus of
linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His books include The Essential Tension; Black-Body Theory and the
Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912; and The Copernican
Revolution.
Customer Reviews:
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.......2007-09-19
Frankly I found this book difficult to understand. It isn't hard to grasp the concept of the book, but forget trying to retain anything specific.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.......2007-08-06
I haven't read this book, so do not review the text, but say only that I bought it for a teacher in Meghalaya, India who is taking post-graduate studies and needs it for his own classes. He was extremely appreciative to receive this book and will use it to help him serve his community better.
The Paradigm of Paradigms.......2007-07-22
When a book has so many enthusiastic supporters and detractors, it's surely a classic. Kuhn delivered one of the all-time landmarks of the philosophy of science, with the potential to truly capture the interest of the informed layperson. However, it's far from foolproof, as if any work of philosophy could deliver ALL the answers. You can see many of the other reviews here for very specific critiques from the hardcore philosophy crowd. For the interested and educated general reader, Kuhn supplies an inherently fascinating historical focus on the way science has worked over the eons, and any reader could enjoy his highly plausible connections between the behavior of scientists and the structure of revolutions. He also gets credit for defining the term "paradigm" - which was once much more useful than today's trendy buzzword lovers could imagine.
However, I tend to agree with some of the biggest philosophical critiques of Kuhn's theory, particularly the fact that he was able to come up with very few examples of supposed scientific revolutions. Meanwhile, Kuhn's theory is completely at odds with the vast majority of scientific progress that is not necessarily "revolutionary." One could plausibly condemn Kuhn for coming up with his theory first, finding historical episodes that could be used as proof, and ignoring historical evidence that does not fit the theory. This is hardly the method followed by the groundbreaking scientists lauded by Kuhn. Also, while nobody should expect a work of philosophy to be generally accessible, Kuhn badly damages his interesting ideas with wooden prose that is nearly impenetrable, with entire sentences bordering on incomprehensibility. For example, "those questions will seem ever more urgent if we now note one respect in which the terms used so far may be misleading." In his introduction, Kuhn succeeds in obfuscating his major philosophical question to the point of absurdity, in asking "how could history of science fail to be a source of phenomena to which theories about knowledge may legitimately be asked to apply?" Kuhn immediately alienates many potentially fascinated general readers and sets himself up for severe criticism from the small body of professional philosophers who think that this kind of language is more insightful than the straight talk delivered by revolutionary scientists. [~doomsdayer520~]
A timeless classic!.......2007-07-09
Although written in 1962, this book is as valid now as ever, perhaps more so. Right now we are witnessing a paradigm shift. Move over Big Bang, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and mathematical anbstraction in general, and say hello to Plasma Cosmology and The Electric Universe!
Is this book proof that the world has gone mad?.......2007-06-05
Iconic? Absolutely. Influential? Undoubtedly. The source of an incredible amount of philosophical error and mischief? Yes - perhaps more so than any other book of the 20th century. Was this despite its many errors? I doubt it. I think it was precisely BECAUSE of its many errors it became so popular. But to explain...
The primary implication of "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is that science has no, and should be granted no, privileged standing amongst competing methods of ascertaining reality. It claims that knowledge is "created" merely by "assent" (not *discovered*), and likens the replacement of one theory with another - like Newtonian physics with Einsteinian - to "religious conversion" (an act regard by most critical thinkers as the example par excellence of irrationality).
That being the case, it is no wonder that the book should have become so popular amongst members of the softer sciences, like sociology, philosophy, political science, history, etc., as well as amongst the clearly insane, like astrologers, religious lunatics, and palm readers. To quote Kuhn himself, "as in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice - there is no standard higher than the assent of the relevant community". Well, of course not, once it has been adopted as a premise that nothing about the world-in-itself can ever be known. All "facts", in that case, only become a matter of *what "relevant" people decide are, or should be, the "facts" (it is no wonder that Steve Fuller has been able to make the case for Kuhn as a Platonic [in the worst way] elitist. See Fuller's "Kuhn vs. Popper" or his "Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History For Our Times").
Kuhn also argues that the idea that there has been an accumulation of objective knowledge about the world is a myth. I can only hope that those readers who may have noticed the existence of electricity, cell phones, air flight, radios, immunizations, and about three billion other discoveries and inventions over the past few hundred years, will regard Kuhn's claims as as ludicrous as they deserve to be regarded.
For an unsparing (and frequently hilarious) critique of Kuhn's philosophy (and that of Popper, Feyerabend, and Lakatos), I strongly recommend "Scientific Irrationalism: Origins of a Post-Modern Cult", by the late University of Sydney philosopher David Stove.
I hope this review has been of benefit to someone.
Good luck in your studies.
Book Description
The Perfect Summer chronicles a glorious English summer a century ago when the world was on the cusp of irrevocable change. Through the tight lens of four months, Juliet Nicolson’s rich storytelling gifts rivet us with the sights, colors, and feelings of a bygone era. That summer of 1911 a new king was crowned and the aristocracy was at play, bounding from one house party to the next. But perfection was not for all. Cracks in the social fabric were showing. The country was brought to a standstill by industrial strikes. Temperatures rose steadily to more than 100 degrees; by August deaths from heatstroke were too many for newspapers to report. Drawing on material from intimate and rarely seen sources and narrated through the eyes of a series of exceptional individuals — among them a debutante, a choirboy, a politician, a trade unionist, a butler, and the Queen — The Perfect Summer is a vividly rendered glimpse of the twilight of the Edwardian era.
Customer Reviews:
Edwardian social history .......2007-09-16
Examination of the summer months of 1911, the Coronation Summer of King George V. The author's style can be somewhat plodding, and there a few noticable errors of fact. For example, Queen Mary's Aunt Augusta was nearly 89, not 85, in June of 1911. And I thought it was Harold Nicolson who owned the car nicknamed Green Archie, not Vita Sackville West? (Funny that a relative would make that error?)
Just two examples -- I don't want anyone to think I read the book looking for errors, but there are more than these.
The book is interesting yet somehow not very insightful. Despite a substantial biliography, the book gives an impression of being lightweight. Perhaps that's caused by its focus being somewhat more on the lives of the English aristocracy than on the lower classes.
I can say with all honesty, while I didn't dislike this book and in fact found some sections very interesting (such as, the cost of a funeral for a lower class English person, and the information about the strikes that occurred that summer) I am glad I borrowed a copy from the library rather than purchasing it.
Twilight of an Era.......2007-09-08
I found this a fascinating book, extremely well-written and a sharply-focused peek into a bygone era. For history buffs it is especially valable as not only the breaking up of a world which was never more to be, but the mindsets of various segments of a society which was to be turned u.pside-down by a war that decimated a generation. I highly recommend it.
OK, but...........2007-08-26
Not very 'deep'. Interesting, light, almost frivolous, view of 1911, and a good way to understand the differences and struggles of the various elements of post-Victorian society, but does not assess the year in the setting of post-Edwardian, and pre-WW I history, or the growing challenge of Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany. R.K.Massey's "Dreadnought" or William Manchester's "The Last Lion" (Vol 2)do a better and deeper job of this.
Deja vu.......2007-08-14
As I was born in 1925 much of what is described as occurring in 1911 was still in existence in my growing-up years. Class distictions were still "upstairs and downstairs" although the establishments were not as opulent as in 1911. My father, a rural general practitioner, was called in to treat the sick servants but had to go to the tradesmens entrance while the "county" would have specialists come down from London to treat them; this and many other things described in this book were still true in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War. I really enjoyed this book
Recaptures the summer of Edwardian/Georgian transition.......2007-08-07
The author, granddaughter of Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicholson, and daughter of Nigel Nicholson ("Portrait of a Marriage'), has written really two books in one. Her focus is the summer of 1911, when things were going swimmingly for the British and their empire. What a difference the next few years would make, with the advent of the Great War. The first half or so of the book focuses upon, what Morley Safer used to call, "everybody's favorite eccentrics" the British upper class. Here the emphasis is on shooting parties, the upcoming coronation of George V, debutants, weekend house parties at country homes, and basically filling all that time when one had virtually unlimited money and nothing much to do. I enjoyed this section very much, as I find this topic quite interesting. But then the focus and tone change in the second half of the book--the author concentrates her attention on some of the more unpleasant aspects of this period when one percent of the population owned 60% of the country. Those topics include the way of life of the lower classes (30% fell below the level of barest necessity); labor strikes and disruption; and the very deprived condition of those "in service" (who constituted 16% of the labor force). These disparities are so severe one wonders if the Great War actually foreclosed some manner of domestic insurrection. There is also interwoven throughout discussion of some of the technical changes that Britian was undergoing: airplanes; cinema; automobiles; and subways for example. The book is not meant as a scholarly treatment, although the author's bibliography indicates the substantial amount of research she has undertaken. Also helpful are a listing of the "dramatis personae" so you don't get confused as to who is who, and some helpful illustrations. The author's style is most pleasant to read and the book is quite informative. An interesting book on a very crucial period in British history.
Book Description
Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and health services, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and cooperation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity.
Customer Reviews:
"Civic-ness" and Democracy.......2006-08-31
In the early 1970s, political power was decentralized in Italy. The power once held by the central government in Rome was reallocated to the newly created regional governments. Constitutionally, the regions possessed similar political institutions. However, the regions varied socially, economically and in political context. Putnam, seeing a ready laboratory for social science, chose to study the role of environmental factors on institutional performance in the new regional governments. Institutions serve as Putnam's independent variable, while a number of environmental factors act as the dependent variables. As such three main research questions emerged; 1) how does institutional change affect identity, power, and strategy of the regional political actors, 2) how is institutional performance a function of history, and lastly 3) which features of social context most powerfully affect institutional performance (8).
In examining the institutional impacts on identity, power, and strategy of regional politicos, Putnam builds upon the "new institutionalism" proposed by March and Olsen. According to the new institutional paradigm: intuitions reshape the identities of political actors, redistribute political power, and instill new norms for political behavior. Putnam argues that the identity of regional political actors has evolved to create a system in which actors experience an "ideological depolarization." Party identity has become less extreme and regional politicians have taken a more centrist stance than their counterparts in the central government. This has lead regional politicos to develop a more accepting attitude of rival parties and a system of consensus in which inter-party conflict has been replaced by cooperation. The author argues that such changes in political identity occurred due to the institutional structure of the regional governments. As regional institutions became more developed, regional actors saw loyalty to regional constituents as more important than party loyalty. As such, pragmatism replaced ideology in regional politics (39).
In addition, the institutional changes reshaped the distribution of political resources. Putnam says that once institutions are in place, they create their own momentum. With political actors gaining more autonomy from the central authority, regional leaders began to form coalitions and demand greater recognition and power from the government in Rome. As such, the distribution of political power was changed so that an increasing amount of control fell to the regional government.
Also, the changes in institutional structures at the regional level caused changes to the political norms previously held by the regional constituents. First, because of the decentralization of power, the constituents and regional politicos are closer in proximity, which made regional politics, "hands-on, face-to-face." Politicians became more administratively motivated than politically motivated. In addition to the close proximity, regional actors adopted more democratic sentiments and less elitist views of governing. They became more concerned with regional issues than vying for political power at the national level. Such a relationship has lead to an increased legitimacy for regional governments. Still, the efficiency of the Italian regional governments is relative. Putnam writes, "Popular legitimacy of new institutions, even successful ones, grows only gradually" (60).
In addition to examining the impact of institutions on political actors, Putnam seeks to examine the relative performance of the new regional institutions. In order to test institutional performance, Putnam looks at two areas, responsiveness to constituents and the efficiency in conducting the business of the public. The author divides the indicators of institutional effectiveness into three broad spheres: policy process, policy pronouncement, and policy implementation. Policy process examines the institution's decision making process. Policy pronouncement examines the government's ability to recognize social needs and offer solutions, and policy implementation serves as a measure of the ability of the regional government to implement policy in the major sectors of activity. In Putnam's study it was unsurprisingly discovered that effectiveness and responsiveness as measures of institutional performance are closely related. In measuring performance, Putnam discovered that although institutionally the same, some regions performed better than others. Putnam attempts to explain the differences between institutional performance through an examination of regional socioeconomic modernity (economic growth following the industrial revolution) and civic community ("civic involvement and social solidarity") 83. Although Putnam readily admits that those regions which had a "head start" economically, most notably those regions in the north, are likely to have more efficient institutional performance than their southern neighbors, socioeconomic factors may not explain the whole story of performance difference. Rather, Putnam concentrates on the development of civic community as a catalyst for successful institutional performance.
A healthy civic community, according to Putnam, is a driving force behind a successful democratic government. In his description, Putnam sees four main themes that accompany civic community: civic engagement, political equality, solidarity/trust/tolerance, and associations. Civic engagement includes active political participation by members of the community. Members of the civic group must be interested in public affairs and be willing to work towards better the community as a whole. Political equality also is imperative for a healthy civic society. According to Putnam, a civic society with political equality is characterized by a horizontal power structure, one in which all parties are equal, as opposed to a hierarchical structure in which patronage and dependency are prominent. In the realm of individual and group interactions in the civic society, actors must have a sense of solidarity, trust, and tolerance. The author readily admits that the civic community will be far from conflict-free, but so long as participating parties maintain the premises of solidarity, trust, and tolerance, negotiation and comprise will occur, hopefully promoting a utilitarian sense of good.
Putnam calls the aggregation of civic engagement, political equality, solidarity/trust, and associations, and region's "civic-ness." Regions with a high level of "civic-ness" are less apt to have constituents who use a preference voting ballot, are more likely to turnout for referendum voting, read newspapers, and have a large variety of civic associations. In addition, Putnam discovers that constituents in regions with a higher level of civic-ness experience a greater trust and contentment with their governments. The author finds that those living in a region with a strong civic group have a greater trust in their elected officials, feel a good deal of participation in the political process, and that political leaders are genuinely concerned with the well-being of the populous. As such, Putnam argues that regions with greater "civic-ness" have a better quality of democracy than their less civic counterparts.
In developing a sense of "civic-ness" the problem of collective action may emerge. Putnam proposes a number of solutions to the collective action problem. First, Putnam builds upon the "soft" solutions proposed by Robert Bates. Such solutions include community development and creating a sense of trust between citizens. Putnam proposes increasing community development through the promotion of human capital development. The author argues that investments in social capital help alleviate collective action problems. Like monetary capital, once an investment in human capital occurs, social capital will grow exponentially. He writes, "Other sources of social capital, too, such as social norms and networks increase with use and diminish with disuse" (170). As such, in order for a sense of "civic-ness," and subsequently, effective and equitable institutions to emerge, first an investment of social capital must occur.
A Classic Text of Modern Political Science.......2005-11-21
Robert Putnam's work has become a Political Science classic. His work is part of new area of research -- civic participation. During the past decade, this area has exploded from obscurity twenty years ago to being one of the most popular fields today. Putnam's works have had a profound impact on many other areas in the Political Science world, from local governance to international political theory. Regardless of whether you agree with his theories, if you are at all interested in Political Science, it is a must read. Moreover, either "Marking Democracy Work" or "Bowling Alone" are becoming standard texts used in most 100 & 200 level undergraduate courses.
trite conclusions, flawed methodology... but engaging prose.......2002-04-04
It's unfortunate that given the opportunity and resources to study the birth and development of regional government in Italy over the course of twenty years, the best conclusions Putnam was able to draw from his observations are hackneyed paraphrases from Tocqueville. Most of his most careful fieldwork yields results that are stultifyingly obvious; and it's hard not to think that his questions and indicators were not deliberately chosen to demonstrate foregone conclusions. Probably most irritating to me is Putnam's irresponsible use of history as a tool for proving continuities that are largely imaginary.
That said, Making Democracy Work is not a boring read, and its flaws at least encourage the reader to contemplate the million ways the book and the study it describes might have been better.
Beginning in 1977, Putnam and his colleagues studied the performance and reception of the 15 regional governments that had been first established in 1970. Given pre-existing disparities among the regions -- economic, cultural, political, demographic, nevermind linguistic and geographic -- it's little surprise that the researchers found that not all the regional governments developed the same way. While he found that the 'institutional socialization' of the new parliamentary bodies had a consistently positive effect on the regional politicians' growing professionalism and willingness to explore constructive compromises with ideological opponents, the governments were not uniformly effective or responsive, nor were their constituents uniformly happy with their efforts.
Ruling out economics as a determining factor in these disparities (through a series of statistical negotiations that show an appalling lack of understanding about basic economics), and drawing heavily from Tocqueville's ideas about the mystical cultural underpinnings for successful democracy, Putnam constructed a 'civic community index' -- a list of indicators including newspaper readership, membership in associations, and what might be called 'enlightened' (abstract, issue-oriented) versus 'parochial' (personal) voting patterns. Again, it's small surprise that he finds a close correlation between the regions' scores on this index and their constituents' relative satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their regional governments.
Trying to explain why this might be so, Putnam then launches into a heavily simplified -- at times almost fanciful -- exposition of 1,000 years of Italian history in which somehow economic development patterns, demographics, religious institutions, and systems of political organization experience enormous changes while cultural traditions of 'civic-ness' remain more or less consistent, wonderfully cohering to the boundaries described by the modern regions and their scores on Putnam's civic community index. He concludes that habits die hard -- whether these be 'good' habits of mutual trust and social reciprocity or 'bad' habits of atomistic self-interest and traditionalist dependency -- and that the effects of institutional change on social and cultural norms is gradual, perhaps so gradual as to be almost imperceptible within a single lifetime.
Stopping just a hair's breadth short of claiming that culture determines economic and political success in the modern world, Putnam does the next worst thing, which is to give credit for present-day disparities in wealth and power to 'historical trends' in cultural development that don't bear close examination by anyone even slightly familiar with Italian history. For example, given Putnam's assessment of the disparity between North/Central Italy (very civic) and the 'amoral' South (terribly un-civic), the first with its innovative and republican cultural of mutual trust and democracy, the second with its stubbornly backward vertical social hierarchies, one could be forgiven for imagining that the South must certainly have been the base of support for Italian fascism in the 30s and 40s -- while in fact it was the gloriously civic-minded North that provided Mussolini with his most consistent support.
On the surface, there's nothing wrong with Putnam's basic political belief -- that democracy is strongest when it's built on a foundation of social reciprocity and trust, civic engagement, etc. My criticism shouldn't be taken as a condemnation of efforts to build or strengthen civil society, or to promote participatory democracy -- far from it! The trouble with Putnam's argument is its methodology, and the pernicious cultural determinism that lurks behind his rhetoric about path-dependent history.
It's NOT the economy, stupid . . . it's civics!.......2001-02-23
The central concept of Putnam's study is "institutions," but he frames these institutions as both an independent and a dependent variable. Positing that institutions shape politics, but institutions themselves are shaped by history, Putnam is able to explain both the causes and the effects of political institutions among Italian regions. The "effects" portion of his study is the lesser of the two in importance; basically, the fact that all Italian regions got identical institutions in 1970, and yet the performance of these institutions varied widely across Italy, sheds much doubt on the questionable theory that formal institutional design itself is a primary determinant of government performance (although most Italians North and South agree that the new regional governments have been a change for the better).
But if institutional design has limited explanatory power, then what other variable can better account for institutional performance? This is the more important half of Putnam's work, for it is where he shows that "social context and history profoundly condition the effectiveness of institutions" (182), by unveiling his more controversial and powerful independent variable: civic culture. What is civic culture? It goes by many names and concepts for Putnam (civic traditions, political culture, civic involvement, social capital, republican virtues) but in its most basic form it is "norms of reciprocity and networks of civic engagement" (167).
In contrast with the existence of this civic culture in Northern Italy, identified as having a millenium-long pedigree due to the North's highly decentralized political history, Putnam uses the concept of "amoral familism" to characterize the civic culture (or lack thereof) in Southern Italy. Amoral familism implies that reciprocity and engagement are limited to family relations and to vertical networks of hierarchical power alone (in contrast to more participatory and egalitarian horizontal networks in the North), and that all other social relations, as a consequence, are characterized by material self-interest. Tracing the evolution of amoral familism to Southern Italy's monarchical past, Putnam finds that Southern regions have been doomed to institutional failure by their civic legacy, just as the North was guaranteed a relatively easy success by theirs. Putnam summarizes these two divergent starting points as "vicious and virtuous circles that have led to contrasting, path-dependent social equilibria" (180).
To prove this main causal argument, that civic culture determines institutional performance, one would obviously need adequate measures for both civic culture and institutional performance. As evidence of institutional performance, or "good government," Putnam chooses twelve indicators: cabinet stability, budget promptness, statistical and information services, reform legislation, legislative innovation, day care centers, family clinics, industrial policy instruments, agricultural spending capacity, local health unit expenditures, housing and urban development and bureaucratic responsiveness. Putnam then further evaluates the validity of these indicators by surveying both elite and public opinions regarding the institutional performance of their regional governments, to see if the public's perception matches his own.
For evidence of his primary independent variable, civic culture, Putnam proposes four indicators to put his finger on this elusive entity. These indicators are: voluntary associations, newspaper readership, referenda turnout, and (lack of) personalized preference voting. Putnam also correlates these "objective" measures with more opinion-based survey indicators of civic culture.
Most of Putnam's evidence coheres quite well with his causal argument. His quantitative indicators of both institutional performance and civic culture are relatively broad and accurate, with the minor exceptions that would be inherent in any attempt to quantify a complex, multi-dimensional concept like "civic culture". The strong statistical correlations identified by the measurement of his indicators, backed up with corresponding qualitative evidence (some, but not all of it historical), can probably be taken as reliable evidence of a meaningful causal relationship (in Italy) between civic culture and institutional performance. Perhaps the most striking implication of these results is that the ubiquitous relationship between economic development and democracy is actually shown to "disappear" in a statistical sense. In other words, Putnam has controlled for economic development and found that civic culture predicts both democracy and economic development, perhaps even better than economic development itself. This finding, if confirmed in other studies and settings, would obviously topple quite a few of the canonical theories in comparative politics.
Intriguing Thesis - with reservations.......1998-11-08
Putnam's thesis on the importance of social capital in engendering the successful functioning of democracy is an intriguing idea that merits serious reflection in our context today. His study of the community-organizations in Italy, and their effects on the effective workings of democracy on a regional and national level, highlight the importance of civic organizations and their ability to inculcate in their members a sense of civic duty - which consequently leads to a vibrant democracy. This book is perhaps especially fitting in the American context today in light of declining interest in politics, diminishing belief in the efficacy of governing institutions in solving problems, and the general ethos of apathy and frustration felt around the nation in the realm of democracy (something that the most recent election's low voter turnout indicated). Although the study is interesting, the idea is perhaps a little less useful in the pragmatic sense; one could run into the question of a chicken-and-egg scenario where there is a debate between which came first: vibrant democracy or civic organizations. Regardless, the book is one of the best in its subject area and a recommended read for any student interested in such issues.
Book Description
MiMo: Miami Modern Revealed is the first comprehensive survey of the rich postwar architecture that epitomizes the romance and energy that is Miami. Well-known for its revitalized South Beach Deco architecture, Miami's vibrant strain of modern architecture combines attention to space, form, and innovative design with a nuanced subtropical exoticism particular to the region, the gateway between the States and Latin America. From humble motels to sprawling oceanside resorts, this lively style also thrives in the city's civic, domestic, and commercial architecture. MiMo tracks the history and development of the Magic City from the days of nightclub acts and swank hotels to the advent of the crystalline downtown skyscrapers, including detailed overviews of work by Morris Lapidus, Gilbert Fein, and regional masters Alfred Browning Parker, Norman M. Giller, and others. Preservation-minded, the authors list the important buildings which did not survive decades of redevelopment, and conclude with a chapter on the effort to protect threatened MiMo masterpieces. Hundreds of recent and period photographs from the heyday of Miami glamour complete this celebration of some of the hottest architecture around.
Customer Reviews:
Miami Nostalgia.......2007-10-14
There's a school of thought, so to speak, about Miami that holds that no matter what it does it will be tacky in the end. Having grown up there, I sort of agree. This charming book, with smart illustrations, doesn't at all make one reconsider such a view, rather puts it in the mountains out of molehills category. Its pointless to think of the architectural spasms pictured therein as having artistic merit or not. I testify that I actually purchased this volume at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, where it was displayed showing the South Pacific Motel on page eighty-eight. Stopped dead in my tracks in by the sight of this book in the NGA bookstore in what is arguably not only Washington DC's greatest museum but perhaps the world's. Having grown up in the Morningside Neighborhood of Miami which is right off Biscayne Boulevard, I know a thing or two about not only the South Pacific Motel and but also the others. It's to this book's credit that it manages not to convey the character of these places, which from the priveleged world of Mornignside houses, so close yet so far away, always seemed nothing but completely sleazy. An Artforum online review of Art Basel referred
quite naively and stupidly to the idea of Miami in scare quotes.This makes no sense to anyone who knows Miami
because Miami has exquisitely beautiful houses, full of the best taste, which rely on the same stylistic tropes
as those buildings of the worst taste many of which are featured and cleverly described in the text. Miami in scare quotes --"Miami" -- would seem to fit this book if anything at all. The too-clever will see in all this an easy point about the erasure of standards, the triumph of kitsch and so on. Miami will always have poles between the classy places like the Rubell Collection and CasaLin , and the pseudo-classy like the the new concert hall they put up on Biscayne, a place that deserves scare quotes if there ever was one, This book makes clear that some of the architectural elements were borrowed from Las Vegas. Doesn't that lend credence
to the idea that these distinctions are fatuous when applied to such places. Washington DC is known for its John Russell Pope buildings, Miami for its Morris Lapidus creations. Doesn't that say it all? Lapidus' famous stairway to nowhere at the Fountainbleu is perhaps the best representation of all this. You can make distinctions, ascend or descend on the stairway of taste, but this stairway does not get you any higher than you've been before.
Exactly what I expected!!.......2007-02-23
As an architecture student in Miami, I absolutely love this book. It's extremely useful to help understand some of the SoBe culture and architectural history. A great reference!
Tried to Like It, I Really Did.......2006-07-27
Less weighty than I had hoped, and because of its chatty style much more difficult to read than I had hoped (don't people employ editors any more?) But the ideas are interesting and engagingly presented.
This could have been a really good book.
Rediscovering an era.......2004-10-03
America's mid-century modern architecture spans three decades of the post World War II period, from the Atomic Age through the Space Age. An architecture that mainly revolved around the seriousness of the International Style, its theories peaked in 1958 with the New York City Seagram Building, a glass-covered, steel skeleton-framed skyscraper. Mies van der Rohe's "less is more" principle became the guiding light for a large majority of American architects in the mid-twentieth century.
In response to the perceived dogma and humorlessness of the International Style, a Popular Modernism began to take hold in Southern Florida. An "Architecture of Joy" was born, which of course was decried as frivolous and crass by the architectural establishment. In Miami Beach, resort architecture was already well underway, and its vacation state of mind easily stepped into this style. It was uniquely American, futuristic, and fun, full of audacious angles and lines, pastel colors, synthetic materials, cheese-hole and accordion folded walls, stainless steel, boomerangs and stairways to nowhere.
Popular Modernism is known by various names, including Populuxe (popular and deluxe) and Googie. In Miami and Miami Beach, it is called "MiMo," an abbreviation of Miami Modern.
This is a wonderful book that covers its subject well. Its not so large that it becomes uncomfortable to read while sitting in an easy chair but still large enough to deserve it's place on the living room table. The layout is exceptional and reflects the playfulness of the subject without becoming a confusing mishmash. The font is a bit uncommon but lends itself to the spirit of the endeavor. The text by Eric Nash and Randall Robinson is crisp and informative. Oh, and the photos are a great!
Once in a while an architecture book comes along to show us how it's done and this book is one.
MiMo Survey.......2004-09-23
Excellent survey of MiMo architecture, past and present. Valuable resource for those with an interest and user-friendly enough for the coffee table.
Book Description
By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.
Customer Reviews:
enough to fire your enthusiasm.......2006-08-09
I read this book as a new science teacher, and it made me realise that all research and teaching can be enlivened by the characters that populate the scientific world. It certainly is not just for academics. I recommend this to everybody - I loved every page. Both Watson and Crick were insufferably arrogant, loud, ostentatious, obnoxious - but it allows the reader to see that enthusiasm and shear pushiness gets places. One sees the boundries set in academic research, and understands also the content of their work. A MUST read. As relevent today as in 1968.
a favorite........2006-05-25
this is easily one of my favorite books. some dislike it for watson's dramatization of certain social elements in the story, and for the way in which crick and watson made their discovery. but i think the book should be appreciated as a text which makes science more accessible to the general public. and perhaps most impressive is how watson does manage to include some science in a way which i think will not distract the lay reader, or bore him.
take it with a grain of salt.......2005-11-24
While James Watson is not on the list of authors I'd generally recommend reading, this book is an exception. Those interested in the history of molecular biology should definitely read this book. Given the nature of the topic, it is light and enjoyable reading. Certainly this account is biased to some extent, which makes it necessary to read other books on the topic as well. Further reading on Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin, among other personalities mentioned in the Double Helix, are highly recommended, and necessary for fair balance.
2 Helix as 1.......2005-11-23
The Double Helix was a one of the books on my high school biology teacher's reading list for the class. The name itself, The Double Helix, had shied me away from reading it; it sounds like some boring old book that will describe the structure of DNA in some very big and boring words. However, after finally reading the book, I completely changed my thoughts on this book. I found the novel to be an easy and exciting to read in an almost fictious hero-like story.
Watson's story is not just a mere account of the events that occurred, but it also contains many of his personal thoughts and views of the events. Watson's purpose for writing The Double Helix was to explain that scientific research was a combination of "the contradictory pulls of ambition and the sense of fair play." Watson involves the reader in the "race" of the DNA structure with Linus Pauling and in the underhanded use of Rosalind Franklin's X-ray data. I, like many others, was sucked into the thrill of Watson's first-hand account of this dishonest race. During many points in the course of the novel, I was anxiously waiting to turn the page to see what Watson or Crick might do next. As Sir Lawrence Bragg puts it in the foreword, "I do not know any other instance where one is able to share so intimately in the researcher's struggle and doubts and final triumph."
The Double Helix was not only a good read, but also it has reinvigorated my spirit in the field of research, especially the active field of genetics. My first year of college courses in chemistry and biology had began to turn me away from research in particular areas, for the courses just did not seem to interest me anymore. However, this book has provided me with a new avenue into the exciting world and life of scientific research; I am again looking forward to going into the genetic research field.
I observed a very interesting point in the book, which is that all the data and diagrams that were discussed throughout the novel are also taught in our chemistry classes; it is in this fact that I find science's beauty, that only 50 years ago this data was used to solve the structure of a totally unknown molecule/idea and is now taught in elementary chemistry classes.
The Double Helix is an exceptional novel that I recommend to all.
A dishonourment to Rosalind Franklin's memory.......2005-11-18
This book is an innaccurate version of events in the the discovery of teh structure of DNA. What most people don't know is that Rosalind Franklin was crucial to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick actually stole most of her data via Wilson, her supervisor, adn passed it off as their own discoverery. She was a brilliant scientist and should have been an independent researcher at Kings College, but because she was a woman she was made an assistant to Wilson. She was extremely dedicated and plowed through all the obstacles at Kings College. However, her supervisor, Wilson, showed most of her data to his old friend Crick, who shared it with his partner Watson. They too were studying DNA, although they were on completely wrong track. The data that was pilfered included the famous photo 51, which Franklin obtained over a course of years' work and revealed the spiral shape of DNA. They also positioned the competent of DNA, such as the bases, exactly as she hypothesized. Watson, Crick, and Wilson received the Nobel Prize, while Franklin could not, because she died at the age of 38 due to radiation exposure from the X-rays she used to capture photo 51. The men only mentioned her in passing when accepting their prize, and definitely not as the source of the actual discovery. Then Watson had the gall to write a book that casts her in a horrible light, as an inferior person who was bad tempered and selfishly hoarded her information. He also calls her `Rosy' throughout the entire book, although she despised that name. He once even went up to Rosalind and demanded that she hand over her data. He was a complete bigot, and thought her inferior and was furious when she refused to share her own findings to him. He harps about her appearance in the book, and it is obvious that is the only way he perceives her, and not as a thinking person. And for the record, she was actually quite striking, and wore the latest in French fashions. She was extremely dedicated, and her level of determination would have been completely accepted in a man. That's why I give this book a one, and if I could I'd give it a zero. Watson is just begging for comeuppance for what he wrote in this book. I would reccomend reading other books about Rosalind's struggle, such as 'Rosalind Franklin: The dark lady of DNA'
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating!.......2005-01-21
I don't care for (or much understand) economics. And I often find history to be very dry.
This book, however, was a VERY enjoyable read. I originally checked it out of the library because I needed some information for a paper I was writing...and I was hooked enough to buy this books and others by this author.
Braudel sees the big picture AND the details -- and not only that, he writes in such an interesting manner that I was able to assimilate a vast amount of information before I knew it.
Books:
- The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers
- The Evolution of Future Consciousness: The Nature and Historical Development of the Human Capacity to Think about the Future
- The Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of 400 Years of New York City's History
- The Jamestown Project
- The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850
- The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (Oxford Books of Prose & Verse)
- The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story
- The Oxford Companion to United States History
- The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich (Hist Atlas)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor
- Blown Film Extrusion: An Introduction
- Rustic Revisited: Innovative Design for Cabin, Camp, and Lodge
- The Limits of Freedom of Contract
- The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
- Beyond Positive Thinking: A No-Nonsense Formula for Getting the Results You Want
- A Deadly Yarn: A Knitting Mystery
- The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History
- The American Vignola: A Guide to the Making of Classical Architecture
- Flower Fairies of the Countryside
General
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The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857
Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire
Princely Rajasthan: Rajput Palaces and Mansions
Taj Mahal
Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797
