一些传记类书籍
http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/%7BD259CA67-0EBB-42D9-ADB0-3337C48DB0BE%7DImg100.jpgDispatches from the Edge
作者: Anderson Cooper
副标题: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival
ISBN: 9780061132384
页数: 212
定价: USD 24.95
出版社: HarperCollins
装帧: Hardcover
出版年: 2006-05-01
简介· · · · · ·
Few people have witnessed more scenes of chaos and conflict around the world than Anderson Cooper, whose groundbreaking coverage on CNN has changed the way we watch the news. In this gripping, candid, and remarkably powerful memoir, he offers an unstinting, up-close view of the most harrowing crises of our time, and the profound impact they have had on his life.
After growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Cooper felt a magnetic pull toward the unknown, an attraction to the far corners of the earth. If he could keep moving, and keep exploring, he felt he could stay one step ahead of his past, including the fame surrounding his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and the tragic early deaths of his father and older brother. As a reporter, the frenetic pace of filing dispatches from war-torn countries, and the danger that came with it, helped him avoid having to look too closely at the pain and loss that was right in front of him.
But recently, during the course of one extraordinary, tumultuous year, it became impossible for him to continue to separate his work from his life, his family's troubled history from the suffering people he met all over the world. From the tsunami in Sri Lanka to the war in Iraq to the starvation in Niger and ultimately to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Mississippi, Cooper gives us a firsthand glimpse of the devastation that takes place, both physically and emotionally, when the normal order of things is violently ruptured on such a massive scale. Cooper had been in his share of life-threatening situations before -- ducking fire on the streets of war-torn Sarejevo, traveling on his own to famine-stricken Somalia, witnessing firsthand the genocide in Rwanda -- but he had never seen human misery quite like this. Writing with vivid memories of his childhood and early career as a roving correspondent, Cooper reveals for the first time how deeply affected he has been by the wars, disasters, and tragedies he has witnessed, and why he continues to be drawn to some of the most perilous places on earth.
Striking, heartfelt, and utterly engrossing, Dispatches from the Edge is an unforgettable memoir that takes us behind the scenes of the cataclysmic events of our age and allows us to see them through the eyes of one of America's most trusted, fearless, and pioneering reporters.
书评：
安德森·库珀：回忆灾殃，面对死亡
康慨/刊于《环球时报》
教科书告诉未来新闻人的第一要务，便是时刻保持客观和冷静，不要让自己外露的感情冲击或误导公众对事实的判断。但安德森·库珀（Anderson Cooper）发现，每当置身于那些悲剧事件的现场，当眼中是硝烟，耳边是哭号，闻到的是尸臭时，他的内心总在受着煎熬。
2005年夏天，卡特里娜飓风横扫美国南方之后，作为有线电视新闻网（CNN）的一线记者，库珀采访了受灾地路易斯安那州的参议员玛丽·兰丢（Mary Landrieu），后者对他打起了官腔，顾左右而言他，一味赞扬布什总统领导有方，对灾区人民关怀备至，库珀不禁怒从心头起，直接打断她的话，说：“有个死人昨天就真真切切地躺在这城中的街上，被耗子啃咬，因为这女人已经在街上躺了48个小时。没有足够的工具给她收尸。对此你不生气吗？”女议员愕然，仿佛被人一巴掌打在脸上。
库珀越界了吗？他是否违犯了记者客观报道的戒律，将自己的情绪带入了工作？是的。但是他的鲁莽，恰恰道出了所有人的心声，不仅观众叫好，连同行也对他心生钦敬。节目播出后，他人气急升，很快在去年11月获得了在CNN的首个专有栏目“安德森·库珀360度”，并以100万美元的高额预付稿酬，与哈泼柯林斯公司签下回忆录的出版合约。此时，尽管头发早就白了，但他只有38岁。
此书于今年5月出版，名《边缘来信：关于战争、灾难和幸存者的回忆》（Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival）。由于其与日俱增的名声，以及同行的捧场，特别是脱口秀女皇欧普拉·温弗莉对他所做的访谈，以及《名利场》杂志的封面报道，此书很快登上了《纽约时报》畅销书榜，高居非小说类的头名。
《边缘来信》是库珀对自己不断面对战乱、天灾和死亡的15年新闻生涯的总结和分析。除了卡特里娜飓风，他还在书中回忆了在世界其他热点地区的见闻，如波黑、伊拉克、阿富汗、索马里，以及印度洋大海啸之后的斯里兰卡——本书便以此为开篇：
“我站在一堆碎石上。在我脚下，大地仿佛在移动，扭曲，翻腾。过了一会儿，我的双眼才适应过来。地面丝毫未动。那是蛆，成千上万。它们翻涌着，蠕动着，在看不见的肉身之上大快朵颐。附近，有条狗低垂着奶头，脸上沾着血肉的碎屑。她小心翼翼地躲着浪头，走在碎砖、游客的快照、中国餐盘、以及残骸杂物之间。 ”
这是人间地狱吗？而在饥殍遍野的尼日尔，看着灾民们一个个地死去，他更是怒火中烧，却又束手无策。他发现自己正在为了节目而寻找“最糟的事例”。库珀写道：“他们死，我活。这就是世道常情。”
他难免回忆起自己的前半生。他生于富家，父亲是著名的作家和设计师，母亲是铁路大亨范德比尔特家族的女继承人，纽约社交圈子里的名媛。
小库珀俊俏伶俐，从小便为拉尔夫·劳伦和卡文·克莱恩等时装品牌做模特，直到13岁。但他的家庭就像遭到诅咒一样，充满了厄运。他10岁时，父亲便死于心脏病。10年后，他哥哥又从自家大楼的14层跳楼自杀。这两件事对年轻的库珀影响巨大。他在书中充满感情的回忆，也为他赢得了更多读者的心。
出版商称库珀为“21世纪新闻人的典型……他在CNN富于创造力的报道，改变了我们看新闻的方式。”
黎以冲突爆发后，库珀再度飞赴危机中心地带，驾车深入贝鲁特的真主党控制区，制作名为《真主党探秘》的现场专题，他本想拍些残垣断壁，最后其重点却转向了真主党操纵西方媒体的纯熟手段。这一报道再度让他和他的节目成了美国近期的中心议题。
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Mother Teresa: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
特蕾莎修女传
By Meg Greene
* Publisher:Greenwood Press
* Number Of Pages:176
* Publication Date:2004-08-30
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0313327718
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780313327711
* Binding:Hardcover
Book
Description:
In this new biography, students will follow Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu from her humble Albanian birth to worldwide celebrity as Mother Teresa. The nun who attended to the dying and diseased in Calcutta, India, and established her Missionaries of Charity around the world is revealed to have a singular determination from a young age. As a woman in the patriarchal Catholic system, she had to prove to the hierarchy, even the Vatican, that she was capable of handling each project she proposed. Her vision to live and work among the "poorest of the poor" as one of them led to the founding of a new order that tended to society's outcasts. The narrative chronicles the expansion and success of the order and the eventual attention that was showered on her efforts. This increasing attention led to scrutiny and criticism of ideology, methods of care, and financing. Why did she reject better medical equipment for her patients yet receive the latest treatment and best care when she herself was ailing? Why did she take money from and try to help Charles Keating, a major player in the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s? The accusation of hypocrisy, among others, are discussed as is her controversial beatification. Readers will be challenged to consider for themselves whether Mother Teresa deserves to be sainted. Mother Teresa is characterized as being ordinary and her life as mundane. The biography suggests that she transcended her ordinariness with a singular belief that she was called to life's work. When this work brought fame, which she never sought, she used it to further her causes. In a global age, celebrity worship allowed her to work the system. She became an icon of service and selflessness, but her human flaws remained behind the saintliness.
来自豆瓣的一段话：
It's between you and God.
2008-10-11 13:28:43 来自: 桐剪秋风
Journal d'un curé de campagne / 乡村牧师日记的评论***
【其实这是我的一篇讲章。但是我觉得，这真的好像这部电影的注脚。所以我把它改一改，贴在这里。愿主耶稣基督的恩常在我们心里。】
特蕾莎嬷嬷在加尔各答孤儿院的墙上写了一首诗，叫做Do It Anyway。全文如下：
人们经常是不讲道理、没有逻辑和自我中心的
无论如何，你要原谅他们
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
如果你很友善，人们可能会说你自私、动机不良
无论如何，你还是要友善
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
当你成功了，就会有一些虚假的朋友
和一些真正的敌人
无论如何，你还是要取得成功
If you are successful, you will win some false friends
And some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
如果你是诚实坦率的，人们可能会欺骗你
无论如何，你还是要诚实和坦率
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
你多年来建造的东西
可能被人在一夜之间摧毁
无论如何，你还是要去建造
What you spend years building,
Someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
如果你找到了平静和幸福，他们可能会嫉妒你
无论如何，你还是要幸福
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
你今天做的善事，明天就会被人们忘记
无论如何，你还是要做善事
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Be good anyway.
即使你把最好的都给了这个世界
世界可能还是那么缺乏
无论如何，还是要把你最好的给这个世界
Give the world the best you have,
And it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.
你看，说到底，这是你和上帝之间的事
无论如何，这从来都不是你与别人之间的事
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It is never between you and them anyway.
其实这首诗不是她写的，是另外一个人。不过她写了最后那句话。那句话很重要，甚至，我认为比上面所有的都重要。因为那些都是让我们咋舌的好道理，但我们却要问上一句：凭什么？
而嬷嬷给了我们答案：因为说到底，那是你和上帝之间的事。我想，使徒保罗会赞同嬷嬷的这句话，事实上，他自己的一生就是这样，无论遇到任何事，他只对上帝负责。
http://www.douban.com/review/1521271/
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Rachel Carson: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
《寂静的春天》作者蕾切尔·卡森(1907-1964)传记
By Arlene R. Quaratiello
* Publisher:Greenwood Press
* Number Of Pages:168
* Publication Date:2004-08-30
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0313323887
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780313323881
* Binding:Hardcover
Book Description:
Few people have had as great an impact on the modern environmental movement as has the great writer and scientist Rachel Carson. This readable and up-to-date biography traces the famous environmentalist's development as a writer from earliest childhood through the publication of her best-known work Silent Spring (1962). Although Carson is now remembered almost exclusively for Silent Spring, which exposed the dangers of pesticides, this book was preceded by three best-sellers about the ocean environment: Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Edge of the Sea (1955), and The Sea Around Us (1951), which catapulted her to fame. In Rachel Carson: A Biography, Carson emerges as a talented scientist and exceptional writer who shared her "sense of wonder" about nature with both scientists and the general public. Carson's great love of both writing and nature emerged at a young age and enabled her to overcome numerous obstacles in her life. She made a critical decision to switch her major in college from English to biology, she suffered financial problems during the Depression, and family and work responsibilities left her little time to write. She struggled for years to become a writer, working in relative obscurity for 15 years at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service writing pamphlets and brochures. She also endured harsh criticism of Silent Spring toward the end of her life while terribly ill. This biography shows how Carson overcame these difficulties and persevered to become one of the most influential writers of the last half of the 20th century. Her legacy as a champion of nature continues 50 years after her death.
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True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen
By Lillian Hoddeson, Vicki Daitch,
Book Properties
ISBN: 0309095115
Title: True Genius: The Life And Science Of John Bardeen, The only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics
Author: Lillian Hoddeson
Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
Publication Date: 2005-05
Number Of Pages: 467
Average Amazon Rating: 4.5
Book Description:
John Bardeen was an unassuming man, a humble, soft-spoken Midwesterner whose life was filled with simple pastimes like a Sunday picnic with the family or a good game of golf. He was also a giant of modern physics, an extraordinary hero of twentieth century science. His seminal work earned him the distinction of being the only person ever to win two Nobel Prizes in physics -- both awarded for discoveries that were breathtaking in scope and responsible for advancing the course of human history.
Bardeen ranks among the most imaginative and inspired scientists of our time. But his genius was quiet and unobtrusive, hidden behind the fa鏰de of an average man, which perhaps why we know so little about him. As exuberantly talented as Albert Einstein, Bardeen had no desire to mug for the cameras or prove himself eccentric. Easily equal to the intellect of Richard Feynman, Bardeen was simply not irreverent and offbeat. As eccentricity and outsize personalities have come to symbolize the true nature of genius and creativity, Bardeen remains cloaked in obscurity.
Without Bardeen's first Nobel Prize-winning discovery -- the transistor -- the electronics revolution, which brought us desktop computers, supercomputers, and microelectronics, would still be the stuff of science fiction. His second great breakthrough -- the prevailing theory of electrical superconductivity which for years had stumped Einstein, Feynman, and many others -- promises to revolutionize twenty-first century technology with super-fast "mag-lev trains," supercolliding atom smashers, and other fantastic technological wonders.
Yet despite these achievements, this astonishing, though decidedly modest, Midwesterner was often overlooked by both the media as well as the public, simply because he differed radically from the popular stereotype of genius. Through an exploration of his science as well as his life, a fresh and thoroughly engaging portrait of genius and the nature of creativity emerges. This fascinating biography provides a whole new perspective on what it truly means to be a genius.
约翰·巴丁（John Bardeen），理论物理学家、美国科学院院士。
1908年5月23日，巴丁出生于威斯康星州麦迪逊城。1928年他获得威斯康星大学理学士学位，1936年获普林斯顿大学博士学位。此后，巴丁先后在哈佛大学、明尼苏达大学、海军军械实验室任职，1945年，巴丁来到贝尔实验室工作，1951年后任伊利诺伊大学教授。1959～1962年兼任美国总统科学顾问委员会委员，1968年任美国物理学会会长。
巴丁的研究领域包括半导体器件、超导电性和复制技术。1947年12月23日，巴丁与W.B.肖克莱和 W.H. 布拉顿制成点接触晶体管，共同获得1956年度诺贝尔物理学奖。1957年，巴丁离开贝尔实验室到伊利诺伊大学开始超导方面的研究。巴丁慧眼独具，意识到解决超导问题很可能需要用到量子场论工具，而他在这方面又不是很在行，于是他就寻找了一位精通量子场论，从事过原子核问题研究的博士后L.N.库珀。巴丁不仅安排他学习超导方面的知识，还鼓励他如何用自己所掌握的知识来解决超导中的问题。经过七年坚持不懈的努力工作，巴丁和L.N.库珀以及研究生J.R. 施里弗一起，创立了有关低温状态下金属超导性的微观理论，解决了当时最重要的科学难题。1972年他们三人因提出低温超导理论获诺贝尔物理学奖。在同一领域中一个人两次获得诺贝尔奖，这在历史上是罕见的。
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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)
别闹了费曼先生
By Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton,
* Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company
* Number Of Pages:350
* Publication Date:1997-04
* Sales Rank:4956
* ISBN / ASIN:0393316041
* EAN:9780393316049
* Binding:Paperback
* Manufacturer:W. W. Norton & Company
* Studio:W. W. Norton & Company
Amazon.com:
A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith
Book Description:
The outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original. In this phenomenal national bestseller, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman recounts in his inimitable voice his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums and much else of an eyebrow-raising and hilarious nature. A New York Times bestseller; more than 500,000 copies sold.
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Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth
甘地自传
By: Sissela Bok (Foreword), M.K.Gandhi (Author), Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Author), Mahatma Gandhi (Author)
ISBN: 0807059099
Publisher: Beacon Press - 1993-11-01
Paperback | Reprint Edition | 528 Pages | List Price: $15.00 (USD) | Sales Rank: 2392
Book Description
Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century. In a new foreword, noted peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok urges us to adopt Gandhi's "attitude of experimenting, of tesing what will and will not bear close scrutiny, what can and cannot be adapted to new circumstances,"in order to bring about change in our own lives and communities. All royalties earned on this book are paid to the Navajivan Trust, founded by Gandhi, for use in carrying on his work.
Amazon Reviews
In many ways, this is a somewhat unusual autobiography. It is as remarkable for what Gandhi decides to leave out as for what he includes. He obviously didn't intend to deal with every major event, and delve into every area. It is less a comprehensive narrative than it is a series of reflections on his life. Some have criticized the book because he often deals more intensely with questions about what kind of diet he would follow than many of the great historical achievements of his life. But Gandhi was who he was as an international figure because of who he was as an ethical individual. The moral seriousness with which he broods over his diet reveals a great deal about who he is as a person. As a side note, I should add that when I read this book, I had been thinking about becoming a vegetarian, and while I found no new arguments for doing so in this book, his moral example gave me the courage to do so.
The greatest quality about this book is one it shares with most of Gandhi's writing: when he writes you get the sense that he is giving us his unedited thoughts. During even the greatest crises in his struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi's writings have the quality of a transcription of what he is thinking. More than any figure I can think of, Gandhi revealed precisely what he was thinking. The almost complete lack of artifice in his writing is one of the most impressive aspects of his writing as a whole and of his autobiography in particular. One is struck by his honesty, by his humility, and by his intense, almost overwhelming, moral passion.
This is not a literary masterpiece. If one goes into it expecting it to rival such other autobiographies as Rousseau's CONFESSIONS or Nabokov's SPEAK, MEMORY or even Franklin's AUTOBIOGRAPHY, one will be disappointed. Although he was a prolific writer, Gandhi was not a great writer. He was unquestionably one of the towering figures of the 20th century, but it was because of what he did, not because of what he wrote. But for some of us, encountering so directly on the printed page such a fundamentally great soul can be close to overpowering.
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What can you say that hasn't been said about this man? A good read and a wonderful humanist perspective. I was amazed at his capacity and restraint to qualify his perspectives and avoid embellishments. It took a bit longer to read through this novel and left me to ponder. This should be on a list of books for suggested reading for everyone. I only understood the general history and concepts that he pursued in his life, which were admirable. This book allowed me to see why he was so exceptional.
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Barrister Gandhi, in his book "Gandhi and Autobiography: The Story of my Experiments With Truth" is a real account of experiments with truth or what is percieved to be the truth. Gandhi, the youngest of three sons was born and brought up in Porbandar, India. His love for truth and respect for all humanity was put in him by his father who was "...a lover of his clan, truthful, brave and generous..." His mother too left him with an "...outstanding impression ... of saintliness" as "she was deeply religious", a woman devoted to prayer and fasting. It's on this background that Mr. Gandhi built his life of Experiments on.
After reading the whole book I came out with the impression that he conducted the experiments to validate his parents' belief systems. One outstanding thing that jumped out at me is the fact that while his father, though uneducated, believed in literary education and sent him to school, Gandhi, though educated, did not believe in it. The result is that his boys, like their mother, never got a formal education as they were taught by their father at the "Tolstoy Farm" in Phoenix, South Africa. The hunger for literary education is seen in his eldest son who "...has often vent to his distress privately before me and publicly in the press..." about his lack of literary education.
Nevertheless, he used his education to teach everyone he came across. As a result, he helped start an organisation to help Indians in South Africa as well as led his Country to independence.
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Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy
by David Lindley
* Publisher:Joseph Henry Press
* Number Of Pages:392
* Publication Date:2004-02-10
* Sales Rank:569250
* ISBN / ASIN:0309090733
* EAN:9780309090735
* Binding:Hardcover
* Manufacturer:Joseph Henry Press
* Studio:Joseph Henry Press
Book Description:
LORD KELVIN. In 1840, a precocious 16-year-old by the name of William Thomson spent his summer vacation studying an extraordinarily sophisticated mathematical controversy. His brilliant analysis inspired lavish praise and made the boy an instant intellectual celebrity.
As a young scholar William dazzled a Victorian society enthralled with the seductive authority and powerful beauty of scientific discovery. At a time when no one really understood heat, light, electricity, or magnetism, Thomson found key connections between them, laying the groundwork for two of the cornerstones of 19th century science -- the theories of electromagnetism and thermodynamics.
Charismatic, confident, and boyishly handsome, Thomson was not a scientist who labored quietly in a lab, plying his trade in monkish isolation. When scores of able tinkerers were flummoxed by their inability to adapt overland telegraphic cables to underwater, intercontinental use, Thomson took to the high seas with new equipment that was to change the face of modern communications. And as the world's navies were transitioning from wooden to iron ships, they looked to Thomson to devise a compass that would hold true even when surrounded by steel.
Gaining fame and wealth through his inventive genius, Thomson was elevated to the peerage by Queen Victoria for his many achievements. He was the first scientist ever to be so honored. Indeed, his name survives in the designation of degrees Kelvin, the temperature scale that begins with absolute zero, the point at which atomic motion ceases and there is a complete absence of heat. Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was Great Britain's unrivaled scientific hero.
But as the century drew to a close and Queen Victoria's reign ended, this legendary scientific mind began to weaken. He grudgingly gave way to others with a keener, more modern vision. But the great physicist did not go quietly. With a ready pulpit at his disposal, he publicly proclaimed his doubts over the existence of atoms. He refused to believe that radioactivity involved the transmutation of elements. And believing that the origin of life was a matter beyond the expertise of science and better left to theologians, he vehemently opposed the doctrines of evolution, repeatedly railing against Charles Darwin. Sadly, this pioneer of modern science spent his waning years arguing that the Earth and the Sun could not be more than 100 million years old. And although his early mathematical prowess had transformed our understanding of the forces of nature, he would never truly accept the revolutionary changes he had helped bring about, and it was others who took his ideas to their logical conclusion.
In the end Thomson came to stand for all that was old and complacent in the world of 19th century science. Once a scientific force to be reckoned with, a leader to whom others eagerly looked for answers, his peers in the end left him behind -- and then meted out the ultimate punishment for not being able to keep step with them. For while they were content to bury him in Westminster Abbey alongside Isaac Newton, they used his death as an opportunity to write him out of the scientific record, effectively denying him his place in history. Kelvin's name soon faded from the headlines, his seminal ideas forgotten, his crucial contributions overshadowed.
Destined to become the definitive biography of one of the most important figures in modern science, Degrees Kelvin unravels the mystery of a life composed of equal parts triumph and tragedy, hubris and humility, yielding a surprising and compelling portrait of a complex and enigmatic man.
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Galileo Galilei - When the World Stood Still
Atle Naess
* Publisher: Springer
* Number Of Pages: 222
* Publication Date: 2005-01-12
* Sales Rank: 837264
* ISBN / ASIN: 3540219617
* EAN: 9783540219613
* Binding: Hardcover
* Manufacturer: Springer
* Studio: Springer
Book Description:
"I, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei, Florentine, aged seventy years ...kneeling before you Most Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinals ...I abjure, curse, detest the aforesaid errors and heresies."
Galileo Galilei in Rome, 22 June 1633, before the men of the Inquisition.
In the small village of Arcetri, on a wooded hillside just south of Florence, an old man sat writing his will. He had to make a journey to Rome and wanted to be prepared for every eventuality. If the plague did not get him on the road, the strain of travelling might finish him off; in addition he had been ill most of the autumn, with dizziness, stomach pains and a serious hernia. And even if he survived these difficulties, and the cold winter wind from the Apennines did not give him pneumonia, he had no idea what awaited him in Rome, only that his arrival was unlikely to be celebrated with a special mass.
The mathematician and physicist Galileo Galilei is one of the most famous scientists of all times. The story of his life and times, of his epoch-making experiments and discoveries, of his stubbornness and pride, of his patrons in the house of Medici, of his enemies and friends in their struggle for truth - all is brought vividly to life in this book. Atle N鎠s has written a gripping account of one of the great figures in European history
.
He was awarded the Brage Prize, the most prestigious literary prize in Norway.
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The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement
By Lance Hill
* Publisher:The University of North Carolina Press
* Number Of Pages:400
* Publication Date:2006-02-27
* Sales Rank:268955
* ISBN / ASIN:0807857025
* EAN:9780807857021
* Binding:Paperback
* Manufacturer:The University of North Carolina Press
* Studio:The University of North Carolina Press
Book Description:
In 1964 a small group of African American men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, defied the nonviolence policy of the mainstream civil rights movement and formed an armed self-defense organization--the Deacons for Defense and Justice--to protect movement workers from vigilante and police violence. With their largest and most famous chapter at the center of a bloody campaign in the Ku Klux Klan stronghold of Bogalusa, Louisiana, the Deacons became a popular symbol of the growing frustration with Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent strategy and a rallying point for a militant working-class movement in the South.
Lance Hill offers the first detailed history of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, who grew to several hundred members and twenty-one chapters in the Deep South and led some of the most successful local campaigns in the civil rights movement. In his analysis of this important yet long-overlooked organization, Hill challenges what he calls "the myth of nonviolence"--the idea that a united civil rights movement achieved its goals through nonviolent direct action led by middle-class and religious leaders. In contrast, Hill constructs a compelling historical narrative of a working-class armed self-defense movement that defied the entrenched nonviolent leadership and played a crucial role in compelling the federal government to neutralize the Klan and uphold civil rights and liberties.
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Hume (The Arguments of the Philosophers)
David Hume
(1711-1776)
Life and Works
. . Ideas
. . Belief
. . Cause & Effect
. . The Self
. . Skepticism
. . Morality
. . Religion
Bibliography
Internet Sources
Soon after completing his studies at Edinburgh, Scottish philosopher David Hume began writing his comprehensive statement of the views he believed would contribute to philosophy no less than Newton's had to science. But the public reception for the three books of his magisterial Treatise of Human Nature (1739) was less than cordial, and Hume abandoned his hopes of a philosophical career in order to support his family as a librarian, historian, diplomat, and political essayist, a course of action he described in the autobiographical My Own Life (1776). Hume's Essays Moral and Political (1741-1742) found some success, and the multi-volume History of England (1754-1762) finally secured the modest livelihood for which he had hoped. Although he spent most of his life trying to produce more effective statements of his philosophical views, he did not live to see the firm establishment of his reputation by the criticisms of Kant and much later appreciation of the logical positivists.
The central themes of Book I of the Treatise receive a somewhat more accessible treatment in An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748), a more popular summary of Hume's empiricism. Hume According to Hume, little human knowledge can be derived from the deductively certain relations of ideas. Since the causal interactions of physical objects are known to us only as inherently uncertain matters of fact, Hume argued, our belief that they exhibit any necessary connection (however explicable) can never be rationally justified, but must be acknowledged to rest only upon our acquired habits. In similar fashion, Hume argued that we cannot justify our natural beliefs in the reality of the self or the existence of an external world. Hume's grave From all of this, he concluded that a severe (if mitigated) skepticism is the only defensible view of the world.
Hume recast the moral philosophy of the Treatise's Book III in An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). In both texts Hume clearly maintained that human agency and moral obligation are best considered as functions of human passions rather than as the dictates of reason. In the posthumously published Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1780), Hume discussed the possibility of arriving at certain knowledge of god through the application of reason and considered defense of a fideistic alternative.
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My People, the Sioux (Bison Book)
By Luther Standing Bear
* Publisher:University of Nebraska Press
* Number Of Pages:288
* Publication Date:1975-05
* Sales Rank:165154
* ISBN / ASIN:0803257937
* EAN:9780803257931
* Binding:Paperback
* Manufacturer:University of Nebraska Press
* Studio:University of Nebraska Press
Book Description:
When it was first published in 1928, Luther Standing Bear’s autobiographical account of his tribe and tribesmen was hailed by Van Wyck Brooks as "one of the most engaging and veracious we have ever had." It remains a landmark in Indian literature, among the first books about Indians written from the Indian point of view by an Indian.
Born in the 1860s the son of a Lakota chief, Standing Bear was in the first class at Carlisle, witnessed the Ghost Dance uprising from the Pine Ridge Reservation, toured Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, and devoted his later years to the Indian rights movement of the 1920s and ‘30s. His story offers a rare inside view by an Indian who successfully made the transition from traditional tribal life to the white man’s world but never lost his pride in and identification with his Indian heritage.
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Arthur, King of Britons: From Celtic Hero to Cinema Icon (Paperback)
by Daniel Mersey (Author)
Review
A refreshing, sometimes irreverent, but essentially serious and erudite look at the life and times of King Arthur - who might, or might not, have existed. The author agrees with Winston Churchill that 'if he didn't, he should have'. There is no doubting not only Mersey's enthusiasm but his diligence. The breadth and depth of his research takes away the breath. The bibliography alone runs to 142 author's names, from Geoffrey of Monmouth and Thomas Mallory to T.H. White and Bernard Cornwell. Daniel Mersey is an archaeologist by training and here he leaves no stone unturned. He calls it a 'biography' but it is more than just the story of Arthur's life and times - more a companion to the story, including sections on the Historical Arthur, the Legendary Arthur, Arthur in the Modern World - and much more. It's a must-have for every Arthurian fanatic's bookshelf; constantly available for re-reading and reference. Really excellent, enlightened and enjoyable. (Kirkus UK)
Product Description
King Arthur, probably the most popular of British kings and one whose name is synonymous with courage, chivalry and romanticism. Arthur, King of the Britons, Arthur the medieval legend, Arthur the Celtic warlord, Arthur of the Pre-Raphaelites and Arthur of the movies...would the real King Arthur please stand up? Daniel Mersey explores the many faces, myths and theories surrounding this famous king.
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Barack Obama, the New Face of American Politics (Women and Minorities in Politics)
By Martin Dupuis, Keith Boeckelman
* Publisher: Praeger Publishers
* Number Of Pages: 184
* Publication Date: 2007-12-30
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0275991601
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780275991609
* Binding: Hardcover
Book Description:
Barack Obama's election to the U.S. Senate in 2004 is one of the most interesting and colorful political campaigns in recent history. His rousing keynote address at the Democratic National Convention that same year made his name a household word. The "Obama for Illinois" crusade offers important insights into American politics. The authors explore the role of money, political party, ethnicity, religion, and the issues facing our society today. Obama's straightforward policy recommendations, message of hope and inclusion, and charismatic style propelled him to the national spotlight. Obama has the potential to shape America and to reshape U.S. politics as he campaigns for the White House. Obama's state senate career and his decision to enter the U.S. Senate race are examined in this book. Despite a primary field of six competitors, Obama received more than half of the Democratic vote, defeating a multimillionaire and the state comptroller, a well-known figure in the Democratic Party. The general election imploded for the Republicans in the first few weeks of the campaign when it was revealed that their candidate was embroiled in a sex scandal. Alan Keyes, the ultraconservative, outspoken African American who had run for president twice and for the U.S. Senate from Maryland, was recruited to challenge Obama. But Obama, whose skill with the media and whose ability to raise funds was evident even in those early days of his career, easily won the race with 70 percent of the vote. The authors analyze Obama's ability to speak to the concerns of multiple constituencies by appealing to a coalition of voters that transcends race, class, and gender. At the start of his presidential run, Obama gives new meaning to the American dream.
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Augustine
(Blackwell Great Minds)
By Gareth B. Matthews
* Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
* Number Of Pages: 160
* Publication Date: 2005-01-31
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0631233474
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780631233473
* Binding: Hardcover
Product Description:
This lucid survey takes readers on a thought-provoking tour through the life and work of Augustine.
Explores new insights into one of antiquity’s most important philosophers Topics Include: skepticism, language acquisition, mind-body dualism, philosophical dream problems, time and creation, faith and reason, foreknowledge and free will, and Augustine’s standing as a ‘Socratic philosopher’.
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Louis XIII, the Just
By A. Lloyd Moote
* Publisher:University of California Press
* Number Of Pages:417
* Publication Date:1991-08-08
* ISBN-10 / ASIN:0520075463
* ISBN-13 / EAN:9780520075467
* Binding:Paperback
Summary: A Great Biography of a Little Understood King
Rating: 4
This book is a great biography. A. Lloyd Moote does a very good job of describing Louis XIII's life. He sets out to methodically and objectively analyze the sources pertaining to Louis XIII and his rule. Moote clearly states at the beginning of the book how he will analyze the sources, and what he hopes to achieve by doing so. Basically, his goal is to shed light on a king who has been alternatively portrayed as either incompetent or cruel, and sometimes both.
One of my favorite aspects of this book is Moote's description of Louis' relationships. He does a great job describing Louis's relationships with his father, mother, advisors, court favorites, and wife. He illustrates how those people influenced him. But at the same time, the author points out that Louis was not the puppet of other individuals, but rather the creation of his environment, of which the relationships were one part of. In my opinion, this is the strongest aspect of this book, and alone makes it a valuable read.
The book also did a very good job of making sense out of the early modern French court and society, clearly illustrating how it influenced Louis XIII and how Louis influenced them in return. Even though I found the book dry at times, it is extremely well written. It flows well, and I enjoyed reading it. The book also includes very helpful maps and a good selection of portraits of the main people discussed in the book.
One downside that I found with the book was its lack of discussion regarding European affairs and the political situation in France. This is more of a personal preference of mine, rather than a serious lacking in the book. The author does mention other countries and how France interacted with them, but I would have liked to see more. I also would have liked to see more written about the political situation in France. The estates general convened for the last time before the French revolution early in Louis XIII's monarchy. It would have been interesting to see more about how that affected France, the make up of the estates general and other political discussions. With the text of this book under 300 pages, these things could have easily been added without making the book too long.
Despite my few qualms with this book, the good parts far outweigh the bad. I recommend the book if you are interested in French history or early modern European history
.
Summary: The finest biography of a great king
Rating: 5
This 1989 biography, the first to appear in English, is the finest work on Louis XIII which I have read in twenty years' study. It studies the king's life in detail, examining the innate character, principles and environment which shaped him, and the ways in which he in turn shaped the political and social future of France. Moote demonstrates clearly that, far from being the caricature created by Tallemant and Dumas, Louis was an intelligent and effective king who developed his own ruling style and chose the best of servants - the great Richelieu, of course - to support him in his task. The work follows his life chronologically, departing from this in the final section to study thematically his legacy, looking at the warfare state, culture and his intimate life (an achingly sad part of the book for anyone who cares about him).
This is an insightful and sympathetic study, clearly written and a very easy read. My only regret is that it is not several hundred pages longer. It has an interesting selection of illustrations - pamphlets and medallions as well as the standard de Champaigne portrait of Louis from the Prado (which, incidentally, was done many years after his death). I highly - no, completely - recommend this book to anyone.
Summary: Excellent biography of an overshadowed king
Rating: 5
This proves to be an excellent biography on Louis XIII who usually don't get too much attention by historians since he was often totally overshadowed by Cardinal Richelieu or by his heir, Louis XIV. But this well written and easy to read biography, the author showed the Louis XIII was an equal if not a controlling element of a partnership that grew between him and Cardinal Richelieu. Through both men, France grew and became the next European super power. People of France suffered for that growth and men like Richelieu were often damned by later history as villians and monsters (Three Musketeers book for example). What was so interesting about this biography was the author make it so clear how politically and personally acute Louis XIII was in the first place. His support of Richelieu, during good times and bad, revealed a highly focus and mature mind. While his personality wasn't anything to bragged about, his quirks and eccentic behavior can be overlooked as long as he had his eye on the ball and kept on going. A book written with great insight, understanding and nicely researched, I am sure it will be a bit before this book will be surpassed.
Summary: An exhaustively detailed portrait of a king.
Rating: 4
From his boyhood until he became king at the age of 14, we have the explanation to his moods, that reflected on his growing personality.
Within a few years after he set the crown of France on his head, slowly but with determination he started to implement his views, dispite all oposition from his mother and the old feudal nobility, who didn't appreciate a slash on it's privileges.
Louis XIII and his chief-minister Richelieu formed a terrible but effective pair aimed at constructing a solid country out of several kingdoms.
What a diference from the week Louis XIII depicted on the classic "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas.
If it wasn't so exhaustive, particulary in the king's younger years, it would be quicly read.
Summary: Engrossing subject, superbly depicted!
Rating: 5
This is the best historical biography I have ever read.
That said, my one complaint is the failure to include genealogy charts for the French and Spanish royal houses. Readers need these charts.
On the other hand, there are several excellent illustrations, and the characters that they represent are so skillfully drawn in words that they assume truly human dimensions, a rarity in historical biography!
The characters in this history include the king's widowed mother (and bitter political foe); his wife Anne, childless for over twenty years before Louis XIV was born (she often befriended outrageous schemers and troublemakers); Cardinal Richelieu, Louis's brilliant partner (he attracted deadly hostility from many directions); and Gaston, Louis's brother, who threatened to overthrow the king. Louis's illegitimate half-brothers and sisters were reared at court and created problems as well.
The king's "favourites," both male and female, are a fascinating group in their own right. They could fill a book of their own. I will use the extensive bibliography to learn more about particular characters and events in the life of Louis XIII.
The main character was a king at the age of eight, following his father's assassination. Violence and insurrection threatened the king through much of his life. The story of his public triumph against political opposition, often at immense personal cost, is a gripping one. Military, political, and diplomatic events are described extremely well, while the court and its characters can almost be seen and felt. Professor Moote tells the life story of a complex and very human individual who occupied an extraordinary position. It is a moving story.
I hope that Professor Moote will write more about the history of France. Please!
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