Humanities Books

This highest praise I can give to this wonderful series by Joy Hakim is that my 11-year old son asks me every night, "Can we read some history?"

The books work magic in making history engaging. The well-written text, the illustrations, the text boxes with small but fascinating anecdotes -- all contribute to draw readers' interest. I have learned many new pieces of United States history from these books.

One small aspect of the books won me over from the start. In the introduction, Ms. Hakim tells readers that the Puritans, the founding fathers, the Native Americans are a part of every American, no matter how or when your family came to the United States - a "history of us." My children are binational, and reside overseas. I could tell when we read this part that the author's words spoke to them in a way few history books do.

"Liberty for All? 1820-1860" is the fifth volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US," and focuses on the question of how slavery could exist in the land of the free. While this book clearly sets up the next volume, "War, Terrible War 1855-1865," which covers the Civil War, it also has some significant overlap with the previous volume, "The New Nation 1780-1850," which ends with the Compromise of 1850 that put off the coming war for a decade. There is not a neat and simple way of dividing up American history when covering the first half of the 19th-century, so it is not like there is an obvious solution to Hakim's problems of deciding where to end one book and begin the next.

Whereas "The New Nation" looks primarily at the on going political experiment that saw the creation of parties and the peaceful transition from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans, "Liberty for All?" is more about the slavery question in the context of the young nation's expansion. The volume begins with the story of Westward expansion along the Santa Fe Trail and other routes and ends with the story of the Underground Railroad. In between Hakim tells young readers about Mormons moving to Utah, Texas joining the Union, and gold being discovered in California. Opening up Japan to American trade and the Seneca Falls conference on the Rights of Women are also part of this period of American history.

This volume covers a lot of different topics from this time period. "The New Nation" has a much clearer sense of structure because it follows the administrations of the first presidents, but I think you can see four significant units in this book. The first (Chapters 1-20) deals with all the myriad aspects of western expansion, from the Mississippi to the west coast and beyond to Japan. The second (Chapters 21-26) focuses on the conditions faced by women and children during this time. The third (Chapters 27-31) focuses on the impact of the transcendentalists on philosophy and literature, from Thoreau and Melville to Whitman and Dickinson (including some choice poems) as well as Audubon and Caitlin. The final section (Chapters 32-38) is rather powerful dealing with the "Amistad" case, the Compromise of 1850, Stephen Douglas's "popular sovereignty" solution, the Dred Scott decision, and the idea that the entire issue of slavery was coming to head.

These books are all richly illustrated, almost exclusively with historic paintings, etching, drawings, cartoons, and the like. The margins are crammed with mini-biographies, definitions, lines of poetry, and suggestions for places where young readers can find more information about a topic. This series has a deserved reputation among parents who are home schooling their children because not only is it very informative, but Hakim makes a concerted effort to engage her young readers. She is constantly asking them to put themselves in the perspective of the people being written about, whether they are pioneers heading over the Rocky Mountains or slaves trying to find their way North to freedom. More importantly, Hakim has an innate ability to anticipate questions from her readers; you can count on her to explain "why" at the point where a student in class would be raising their hand to ask that very question.

Joy Hakim's entire series is a homeschoolers dream. The books are written so well and the pictures are so nice that interest is kept by both student and teacher.

I bought this series for my wife so she could better understand the history of the US and improve her English language skills in an area of intense interest for her. In the end, I pored over these books and gave my wife little time with them. Written for kids but fabulous for adults with little time. Buy the index and you can find sources if you're interested in diving a little deeper on a particular topic. I hope to keep these books for out future child(ren?) and am sure they will find them intriguing. The series lets us know how magnificent a country we really live in and how dramatic the history really is. With all the turmoil and all the diversity, how do we manage to keep it together? And, there are plenty who take umbrage at the extensive coverage of race and gender equality but they really are at the root of so many of our societal problems, historically speaking.

"Liberty for All? 1820-1860" is the fifth volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US," and focuses on the question of how slavery could exist in the land of the free. While this book clearly sets up the next volume, "War, Terrible War 1855-1865," which covers the Civil War, it also has some significant overlap with the previous volume, "The New Nation 1780-1850," which ends with the Compromise of 1850 that put off the coming war for a decade. There is not a neat and simple way of dividing up American history when covering the first half of the 19th-century, so it is not like there is an obvious solution to Hakim's problems of deciding where to end one book and begin the next.

Whereas "The New Nation" looks primarily at the on going political experiment that saw the creation of parties and the peaceful transition from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans, "Liberty for All?" is more about the slavery question in the context of the young nation's expanasion. The volume begins with the story of Westward expansion along the Sante Fe trail and other routes and ends with the story of the Underground Railroad. In between Hakim tells young readers about Mormons moving to Utah, Texas joining the Union, and gold being discovered in California. Opening up Japan to American trade and the Seneca Falls conference on the Rights of Women are also part of this period of American history.

This volume covers a lot of different topics from this time period. "The New Nation" has a much clearer sense of structure because it follows the administrations of the first presidents, but I think you can see four significant units in this book. The first (Chapters 1-20) deals with all the myriad aspects of western expansion, from the Mississippi to the west coast and beyond to Japan. The second (Chapters 21-26) focuses on the conditions faced by women and children during this time. The third (Chapters 27-31) focuses on the impact of the transcendentalists on philosophy and literature, from Thoreau and Melville to Whitman and Dickinson (including some choice poems) as well as Aubudon and Caitlin. The final section (Chatpers 32-38) is rather powerful dealing with the "Amistad" case, the Compromise of 1850, Stephen Douglas's "popular sovereignty" solution, the Dred Scott decision, and the idea that the entire issue of slavery was coming to head.

These books are all richly illustrated, almost exclusively with historic paintings, etching, drawings, cartoons, and the like. The margins are cramed with mini-biographies, definitions, lines of poetry, and suggestions for places where young readers can find more information about a topic. This series has a deserved reputation among parents who are home schooling their children because not only is it very informative, but Hakim makes a concerted effort to engage her young readers. She is constantly asking them to put themselves in the perspective of the people being written about, whether they are pioneers heading over the Rocky Mountains or slaves trying to find their way North to freedom. More importantly, Hakim has an innate ability to anticipate questions from her readers; you can count on her to explain "why" at the point where a student in class would be raising their hand to ask that very question.

If one wants to understand the debacle or "quagmire" know as the Vietnam War, look no further than this riveting account! In "The Making of a Quagmire," David Halberstam pin points all of the failures of the system years before the first official U.S. troops splash ashore at Danang, Vietnam. His account, a collection of observations about Vietnam under the Diem presidency, is refreshing while at the same time shocking in its findings. While many observers insisted that efforts in Vietnam were progressing so well from 1961-63, Halberstam sees the light. His expose of all the failings of the system includes candid words about the inept south Vietnamese leadership and the American advisors who grow increasingly frustrated with their mission. Most importantly though, Halberstam offers a glimpse into the life of a journalist caught in his own war of censorship.

Before reading this book, my knowledge of the Vietnam war was limited to the movies I had seen on the subject, until recently when a friend recommended this book to me after a brief discussion of the war, its political agenda and its intrigue. Making of a quagmire is an extensive and thourough account of the events in 1961 and 1962 that lead to the eventual full american involvemnt in Vietnam. Halberstam provides an unbeleivable and at times jaw-dropping first hand account of the political and military events of the period, and translates with remarkable skill the frustration of the vicious circle that was the american policy in Vietnam. A must read for any one with even a slight interest in the subject

Halberstam's work is a classic, outlining the dilemma that Vietnam posed to American policymakers in the early 1960s, and written in lucid, newspaper-reporting style. The author's perceptiveness is particularly striking when one considers that he wasn't even 30 years old when he covered Vietnam.

Unfortunately, this McGraw-Hill edition abridges Halberstam's masterpiece. Most of the essential pieces of the story remain, but much of the rich, colorful narrative, which makes this such a fascinating book, is lost. Hopefully, a complete version will return to print soon.

In the early 1960s, David Halberstam was a New York Times correspondent who initially viewed the U.S. political and military-advisory roles in South Viet Nam as a necessary stance against the Communist menace (as defined by Dwight Eisenhower's "domino theory" in Southeast Asia).

But his pessimism grew during tours of the nation, interviews with American military advisors and his concerns surrounding the corrupt South Vietnamese government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. His criticism became so much of a problem to the Kennedy Administration that the president himself lobbied NYT editors to have Halberstam yanked out of South Viet Nam if his reporting continued to run contrary to the government's optimistic pronoucements.

The abridged edition - to make the text more accessible to those not familiar with this history - is a classic retrospective on how Halberstam grew to question the policies of Diem and Kennedy. It also importantly takes the reader through a journey on how he had to walk gingerly through the web of censorship that is played out between the government & the news media.

I read this book when I was a Cadet at West Point. It changed the way I looked at U.S. policy.

This work has influenced just about everyone who was anybody during the previous century.The first published work by Korzybski, emanates with enthusiasm towards humanity, hobeit somber some of the observations contained in it. It is rather simple; yet makes the reader think anew about long forgotten questions he/she might have had at one time or other. And there are some good answers in it; some of them can be seen as timeless.

In "Manhood Of Humanity" a vision of our future begins, fired in the trenches of World War I. Here in print Korzybski begins the task of solving the problems of the world, each page radiating optimistic humanity.
The problem comes down to whether human 'nature' can change, involving an accepted definition that 'man is an animal'. Indeed our political-social institutions, etc., operate with an animalistic, ruthless tooth-and-claw "survival of the fittest" as the 'strongest'. Despite that Charles Darwin(1859) in his "survival of the fittest" meant a survival of the best adapted, not 'strongest'. Therefore Korzybski decided that a functional re-definition became necessary, in order to better differentiate the evolutionary development. Where plants have an equivalence to Chemical-binders: capacity to convert energy(for example, photosynthesis) into growth, etc. Next that animals have an equivalence to Space-binders: capacity to move to find food. While humans have an equivalence to Time-binders: capacity to improve on the accumulated abstractions of others then transmitting it for future generations. From which has developed Philosophy, Sciences, Engineering, our libraries, etc.
This led as a result to new explanations involving predictions upon old problems, ultimately having surprising consequences. For example, why do revolutions along with wars happen? Well because Science, Engineering, etc., as a time-binding process progresses geometrically, whilst our moral, social 'opinions'('prejudices'), etc., progresses arithmetically, non-empirically. For example, on many occasions people in discussion groups have protested against technological progress, yet it is not the technology that becomes the problem but their uses due to mis-evaluations. Further that our values for power(charisma as in leadership or-both exchange as in wealth), status(esteem), life-style, etc., remains based on a duplicity which involves the subjugation of the living by prostituting the time-binding knowledge created by the dead.
Instead Korzybski advocates co-operation in place of 'competition'; whilst self-improvement in place of 'greed', 'territorialism', 'capitalism', etc.
Thus Korzybski argues that humans are not by 'nature''fixed innate', but changeable through nurture; however to discover how this becomes possible, further why we 'copy animals in our nervous reactions'(the consequences)- required further research, culminating in "Science And Sanity".

If you need a book to rip a new one in your economics or philosophy professor or even just to put the average schmuck on the street in their place, this is it.

In manhood of humanity, Korzybski tears all of modern economics, and every religion and system of ethics ever created to shreds simply by starting off with a new classification of life and humanity. The classification is simple and straight forward and based on an extensional approach to life and humanity rather than an intensional approach based on systems of metaphysics. You can see the foundations for what would later become general semantics (see Science and Sanity) being developed throughout this book.

It is undeniable that there would be much less poverty and pain in the world if everyone read this book. My only reservation is that Korzybski, in his conclusions, suggested that the government be the institution that helped to increase time-binding. I think that this was a little naive on his part since under his own definition of ethics, government is the one greatest evils that has ever been done to mankind, second only to religion.

In 1921, Alfred Korzybski, a mathematician and scientist, classified Life with precise and accurate operational definitions of plants, animals, and humans. He defined the plants as energy-binders, the animals as space-binders, and we humans as time-binders. Korzybski explained that:

The plants adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of energy. The animals adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of space. And we humans adapt to our environment through our awareness and control of time.

Plants are energy-binders. The power of energy-binding is transformation, growth, and organization.

Energy-binders have the ability to transform solar energy to organic chemical energy. The plant is a solar collector. It spreads its leaves and harvests the ultraviolet rays directly from the sun.

Energy-binders have the power of growth.The plant draws water and minerals from the soil organizes this energy and nutrients into growth through cell division. The growth of the energy-binder and its self-propagation through progeny are the resultant of cell division - if the cells remain together we have growth; if they split off into a separate entity we have progeny. Energy-bindings have the power of organization. Organization possible through the ability to time the release and binding of energy. Timing based on knowledge - energy knowledge.

Animals are space-binders. The power of space-binding is mobility - the ability to move about in space. This is not the simple motion of plants. This is mobility - running, jumping, leaping, swinging, swimming, creeping, stalking, crawling, diving, and flying.

The space-binder moves towards a specific and attainable goal - water, food, a mate, shelter - and in any direction. The mobility of the space-binder is not just motion, it is controlled motion. The space-binder moves in search of food. For grazing animals the quest is continuous; for predators, occasional but more strenuous. And all animals are under constant threat from natural enemies. The animal, therefore, requires sense awareness - awareness of the space in which he lives. It is imbedded in just about every thing associated with humans and yet most humans are unaware of the very power that makes them human. We humans catalogue and store our various knowings in libraries, universities, colleges, data banks, and information services. We are time-binders and the mark of human power is everywhere.

This book explains why we (humans) see so many things being done by our religious and political leaders that do not make sense. We are not the ones that are ignorant, just gullible.

This book has a lot of great myths in it. I enjoyed using this book as a text book for a class.

This is a great book for an upper level anthropology class.
I'm reading it for my "Anthropology of Religion" class and it's been a very interesting book.

This was a book that I read for a Mythology and Folklore class. I liked the book because it was easy to read and it contained a lot of history. Having the background information to accompany the stories was helpful and made the reading more interesting. Highly recommended.

Though many have attempted such a feat, in Myth & Knowing, Leonard and McClure have finally written the foundational textbook for comparative mythologies, and, in doing so, have also created a remarkable text for exploring the transition from oral tradition to written text. As the title suggests, Myth & Knowing moves beyond a simple reiteration of the stories by grouping them into conceptual chapters (Creation Myths, The Female Divine, The Male Divine, Trickster Myths, and Sacred Places)which not only invites direct comparisons but creates archetypal structures that become the critical basis for analyzing modern mythologies and even modern epistomologies. I have used this text with great success in introductory mythology, religion, and literature classes.

Myth and Knowing was used for my Mythology in Literature class at University and it was a great book. The chapter divisions are helpful for the way my class was taught. The chapters are divded into groups like; The Male Divine and Creation Myths. In this format you can look at the many many different creation myths out there all in one section to see the differences and similarities. The book covers a huge range of cultures in the stories used for examples about the topic at hand. From Iceland to Africa and America it offers stories on how the many people groups of the world view the divine.

This is an excellent first book for nonparametric statistical methods. It is a cookbook, but is a good introduction to the many nonparametric techniques for assessing data. These are oftentimes much better suited for your data than the standard stuff you get in intro to statistics. The book by David J. Sheskin or by Conover should your next book.

In the 1960s Siegel's book was the most popular and the most often cited. This is because except for Fraser it was the only useful test available to researchers. The book was written in a somewhat non-technical manner in order to be accessible to social scientists. At the time it became the standard book for all researchers. Theoretical books such as Hajek and Sidak's "Rank Tests" Came out at the end of the decade and the other good statistical books such as Hollander and Wolfe; Conover,; Lehmann; and Randles and Wolfe didn't come out until the 1970s.

So Siegel's book has historical significance but now the pratitioner and the theorists have many other good books to choose from. The text has been revised many times presumably to keep up with the research advances that have practical use for social scientists.

Speaking as an MPH level student, (i.e. not a real mathematician) this is about the only usable book on nonparametric stats I have encountered, so I ended up buying it despite the rather high price for a not terribly large book. But, as happens frequently in healthcare and social sciences, when faced with data that can't be analyzed with the normal mean and standard deviation stuff (i.e. survey answers, etc.) this book offers a lot of possibilities beyond the standard chi square test, and more importantly, is clear about what test is appropriate, and how to apply it.

This is (together with Empirical Methods for Artificial Intelligence by Paul R. Cohen) the best of the statistics books I read.

For a non math major (or stats major) user, this book offers an easy way to have works done quickly. But be cautious, an first-class cookbook does not necessarily yeild a first-class meal on your table.

Despite performing in professional productions from the age of 11, despite a great high school theatre experience (thanks, JMO!), and despite a university degree in theatre, I suddenly realized how much I needed to know (but didn't!) when faced with my first high school directing job! I learned the director's craft and art from hard experience, from consultations with my own high school director (JMO again), and from reading everything I could get my hands on. This book would have saved me YEARS of trouble had it been available 'way back in the late 1970s!

David Grote knows his stuff. He has worked with actors of all ages and appreciates the special problems confronting the high school theatre director. His advice is solid, practical, and workable. He is, in short, eminently qualified to write on this subject.

If you can buy only one book on directing, buy this one. It's great--and a heck of a lot better than the textbook we used in my university-level directing course!

I bought this book the minute I read "The 7 Myths about Musicals. Myth #1: Musicals are fun." (He goes on the qualify that they are fun to watch and be in, but hard hard hard to direct.) I knew then I had found a kindred spirit, someone who loved theater with all his soul but wasn't sugar-coating all of the pettyness and brouhaha that accompany running a program in a high school. This guy is straight forward, no nonsense, and he believes that high school theater directors are real directors and should behave and be treated as such. His advice is smart, sharp, and on the mark. He includes very useful chapters on how to run and maintain a theater program and how to select plays. It is above and beyond better than any other "how to direct a high school play" book. Buy it, then tell all the theater teachers you know to buy it. This is the real thing.

A terrific work that "lays it on the line." I especially liked the sections about dealing with censorship in the high schools and the role of the high school musical in a drama program. An excellent work, worthy of being read by novices and experts alike.

I recently student produced the play Little Women at my high school for my senior project, and I wish that I had read this book before I put on the play. In it there are great suggestions for choosing a play, analyzing the script, prepairing for production, blocking, casting, rehearsal, acting and student actors, recurrent problems, directing the musical, and building a theater program. Everything Grote said I could identify with, and I nearly always agreed. In one section he gives great specific ideas for helping students understand how to portray their part, and I found this section particularly helpful. The only negative thing that I could say about the book is that in the chapter on "recurrent problems" he didn't metion the number one recurrent problem: personality conflicts between cast members! Which anyone ever involved in a drama program would know is nearly always a problem. Overall, however, this book was insiteful, and quite useful. I recommend it for anyone who will be directing a play in a school situation.

I read this book to get some new and different ideas for upgrading the Drama Dept in the HS where I teach, and it did not disappoint. While obviously not every suggestion will work in every school situation, the author's years of experience naturally lend themselves to some excellent advice. Of particular help to me where the chapters on how to run auditions, and how to select a play to perform. I highly recommend this book to all teachers and staff in the school setting who are responsible for theatrical productions.

As the title hints, this is a book filled with guarded optimism that humanity can wake-up to the devastation it's causing on Earth and that wake-up will cause a "bounce" in it's perception of reality moving towards a "paradigm shift" from the old paradigm of environmental parasitism and destruction, to a new sustainable , loving relationship with Earth and all it's myriad life forms and life-support cycles.

This is a close parallel to E. O. Wilson's thoughts outlined in his engaging book, "The Future of Life", where humanity is passing through the "bottleneck" of converging circumstances- a long history of environmental destruction, out-of-control population numbers which are depleting the Earth's resources faster than can be regenerated. In both books, education and adherence to vastly more sustainable lifestyles will be the determining factor as to whether we make it past the 21st century and into the future or we will not heed the call to reform and end up going the way of the dinosaurs.

"We have met the enemy and he is us"- Pogo. Now that we know, will we change our destructive ways?

We have arrived at what Elgin calls "Hitting the Evolutionary Wall" (beginning of chapter 2, p.15) and "Are We Are On A Collision Course With Nature?", so it was fitting that this chapter begins with two good quotes:

"What is difficult is to imagine how to get out of the situation we're in right now in a time frame that is in line with the rate of deterioration that we're seeing."- Paul Hawken ["Natural Capitalism"]. And:

"If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed." Indeed!
Ancient Chinese Proverb.

Chapter 3 begins with the mechanisms for change needed for our survival and that is: "A New Perceptual Paradigm: We Live In A Living Universe", we are interconnected to all life and need to realize that we do not live in a human-only world. Our life-styles immediately effect all other life and we need to adopt a much smaller "footprint" to insure the health and safety of all life. Realizing the dynamics and requirements of life for a healthy, rewarding existence vs. "living as just not dying" can be absorbed from meditating on a quote from Teilhard de Chardin: "The whole of life lies in the verb seeing" (p. 43). We might then ad to that: "...and feeling and doing."

Elgin posits that "Voluntary Simplicity" or again, reducing one's footprint and impact on the environment is the most immediate and helpful thing we can do to help lessen the load we place on Nature. Do we really need to be lead around by advertisers constantly telling us that we need this or that to be happy? Or can we learn to get by just fine by acquiring only what is necessary for a comfortable living? On that thought it helps to keep in mind, "The price of anything is the amount of life that you have to pay for it."- Henry David Thoreau (p 71).

"Promise Ahead" is a beautiful collage of thoughts and parallels to Theodore Roszak's "The Voice of the Earth", Thomas Berry's "The Dream of the Earth" and "The Great Work", et al.

Duane Elgin has put together a substantial amount of data on life-style changes needed to help humanity "bounce" past the current "juggernaut" or "bottleneck" we are facing to insure a reasonable transition to an integrative existence with all life for a brighter future. His books include, "Awakening Earth" and "Voluntary Simplicity", et al. His website is an info central for more information on sustainable living and education [...].

Duane Elgin's book "Promise Ahead" holds out hope for humanity in these dark times, as the Bush administration continues its obstinate pursuit of global domination and exploitation. Though Elgin is fully aware of the possibility of an "evolutionary crash", he also sees the deepening crisis as leading toward an opportunity for an "evolutionary bounce". The result would be similar to the "planetary society" envisioned by John Stewart in "Evolution's Arrow".

Elgin sees humanity as presently in its "adolescent" stage, with the crisis of the next generation becoming an ordeal of "initiation". To Elgin "our evolutionary challenge is to consciously retain the lessons of each era while moving on to the next". The next era, if we avoid the crash, will be marked by a "compassionate consciousness" for the "Earth and all its inhabitants".

The threat of crash or collapse comes from ecological factors like resource depletion, over population, pollution, and loss of biodiversity, but also from social inequality and injustice. Elgin was well aware of Peak Oil before most people paid any attention. He also cites Jared Diamond's study of the collapse of civilization on Easter Island.

This is balanced by the hope illustrated by successful experiments in sustainability like the village of Gaviotas in eastern Columbia. He sees the media as enabling the creation of a "common purpose for humanity". He has personally conducted "electronic town meetings" and proposes the distribution of "Earthvisions" to counter consumerism.

Duane Elgin sees humanity becoming a "self-organizing planetary family" as it emerges from its coming trials by fire. Yet, if the book has a weakness, it is its lack of a realistic of vision of how all this might come about. For example, what specific institutional changes should we pursue and what strategies should we adopt for this pursuit? For some of us, new institutions and practices of democratic global governance are an obvious place to start, however visionary this may seem in the current political climate.

Deliberative democracy, to be effective, needs knowledge of viable means, as well as of desirable ends. Elgin's crusade for "voluntary simplicity" has helped promote a new morality, which I and many others are now attempting to practice. However it has not offered an alternative global politico-economic system to the current one based on over exploitation of resources for the over consumption of the world's affluent few. I suspect, in fact, that it won't be until "voluntary simplicity" becomes "necessary simplicity" for the affluent world that this alternative system will begin to take form. If Elgin were to team up with some progressive economists for his next book, we might be better prepared.

Humanity is at an important point in history. Duane Elgin, author of the 1993 classic, VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY, observes in his new book that the human species is in its reckless, rebellious, "teenage years" (p. 1), more concerned with appearance, instant gratification, and "us versus them" thinking and behavior (p. 2), than searching for a deeper meaning and purpose in life (p. 5). Elgin examines several "adversity trends" that could result in an "evolutionary crash:" global warming (pp. 18-23); population growth (pp. 23-26); mass extinction (pp. 26-28); depletion of natural resources (pp. 28-32) and world poverty (pp. 32-37). "Instead of supporting a flourishing and robust biosphere," he writes, "humans are busy cutting down forests, overfishing the oceans, paving over the land, and pouring toxins into the water, soil, and air. The net result is decimation of the community of plant and animal life on the Earth. The health of the planet is in jeopardy as industrial activity is causing the mass extinction of animal and plant species" (pp. 26-27). Twenty-percent of the world's population holds 82.7 percent of the world's total income, Elgin notes, while "grinding poverty and the absence of opportunity are the way of life for the majority of human beings today" (p. 33). According to Elgin, now is the time for "growing up."

To turn an "environmental crash" into a "spectacular bounce," Elgin encourages us to "live lightly in a living universe" (p. 67). "If life is nested within life, then it is only fitting that we treat everything that exists as alive and worthy of respect. Our sense of meaningful connection expands to the entire community of life, including past, present, and future generations. Every action in a living universe is felt to have ethical consequences as it reverberates throughout the ecosystem of the living cosmos. The focus of life shifts from a desire for high-consumption lifestyles (intended to provide both material pleasures and protection from an indifferent universe) toward sustainable and simple ways of living (intended to connect us with a purposeful universe of which we are an integral part)" (pp. 67-68). In contrast to "the dark side" of the American Dream, Elgin advocates a life of voluntary simplicity, in which a rich inner life takes precedence over getting rich. The "hallmark" of voluntary simplicity is that "life is too deep and consumerism is too shallow to provide soulful satisfaction" (p. 73). For Elgin, a promising future is also contingent upon our ability to communicate (p. 95) with "mature and soulful compassion" (p. 113).

This is not a pessimistic book of revelation. Despite its sobering statistics, Elgin's thought-provoking book is filled with promising possibilities for the unknown future of planet Earth. However, given the serious "adversity trends" plaguing our planet, it is challenging for me to share Elgin's optimism, and many of his simple and idealistic solutions are not entirely convincing. Still, Elgin's book is a "Promise" worth keeping, together with Thomas Berry's, THE GREAT WORK (2000). Keep both books close at hand through these troubling times for our planet.

G. Merritt

This is a well-written book which provides deep hope, in a realistic way, for the future of human society. Good insight into the historical development of human culture and the evolution of personal consciousness. Really puts its finger on the main developmental challenge as the personal and cultural transition from adolescence to adulthood. Read this together with another excellent book on the potential of adulthood for the planet: A Conscious Life: Cultivating The Seven Qualities of Authentic Adulthood, by Fran and Louis Cox.

What an aptly named book! In a brief 200 pages, the author delves deeply into key issues facing humanity at an important juncture in human history. The book describes where humankind is along our evolutionary path, the global environmental and social problems confronting us, and the opportunities before us for charting a better future. Be forewarned -- if you read this book, you might just find yourself overwhelmingly compelled to make changes in your life that will ripple out to others. It has the ability to transform the way you view people and the world around you. It is a must read for anyone concerned about where humanity is headed, and wants to roll up their sleeves and make a difference. Enjoy!

I read this book after picking it up at an ISNA convention and was simply blown away by the amount of force the ideas he puts forth held, my favorite reflections were upon nationalism and the conflicts between a faith maintaining a political goal of attaining a nation-state and fulfilling its commandments of moral ethics and beliefs, the argument of the dangers of zionist ideals permeating other faiths, not just judaism, was, in my opinion, profound and provided a unique perspective of how any religion can fall vulnerable to the lure of nationalism.

An excellent true story of an African-American mother who endures her American life to rear a most unusually strong, and righteous son. It was hard to put this down even though I knew how it ends. It's a moral tale and a good read.

Scattered Pictures, a compilation of Imam Zaid Shakir's articles, is a welcome contribution to the emerging discourse on the American Muslim experience. While the essays selected for this volume are tailored toward an audience that shares Imam Zaid's religion, they can also benefit readers from other perspectives who hope to listen in on the internal Muslim conversation. Imam Zaid Shakir is one of the leading voices in contemporary American Islam.

Imam Zaid Shakir is one of the most brilliant thinkers of our time. His writings prove to be a source of clarity in a time of confusion for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is quite rare to find an individual who is well versed in both the Islamic and the Western traditions. In Scattered Pictures he has compiled some of his most thought provoking essays from the past few years. He has dealt with both traditional issues such as the true meaning of Jihad to the more contemporary issues such as the challenges faced by American Muslims after September 11th. This book will give you a glimpse into Islam, which is rarely seen in today's world. I highly recommend this book.

In his book Scattered Pictures: Reflections of An American Muslim, Imam Zaid Shakir confronts a myriad of provocative issues facing the contemporary muslim. His elegant style in writing his essays convey the insight and clarity sought by muslims confused on how to define Jihad, or how to define Human Rights within the Islamic tradition. In short, this is a great book that provides the inspiration for religious minded individuals in America and abroad.

It is easy today to get depressed about mankind. Bronowski demonstrates that there is hope for us yet. He also demonstrates that we, perhaps know more and are capable of more than we thought.

Bronowski's "Science & Human Values" should be purchased with A.J. Ayer's "Language, Truth & Logic" --the quintessential explanation of the "verifibility criterion of meaning". Just as the Russell/Whitehead "Principia Mathematica" sought to ground mathematics upon a foundation of pure logic, the "verifibility criterion of meaning" sought to provide an empirical basis for all scientific enquiry. However, the inescapable conclusion is that ethical imperatives (sentences containing the word "ought" or its equivalent) are non-sensical. However logical, this position may be untenable from a practical standpoint. Jacob Bronowski's crtique of the "logical positivist" position in his "Science and Human Values" pointed out an underlying social injunction implied in the positivist and analyst methods. That implied imperative is: "we OUGHT to act in such a way that what IS true can be verified to be so". Ironically, Bronowski's critique may have saved logical positivism from its own inflexible consistency, placing its edifice not upon an unassailable axiom but rather upon an "ought statement" which will not admit of proof by the very method which is its logical offspring.

This is a small but profound work. The three chapters" 'The Creative Mind'
'The Habit of Truth' ' The Sense of Human Dignity' taken together constitute an argument against modern positivistic philosophy and logical analysis regarding the absolute separation of 'is' from 'ought'. As Bronowski understands it the sense of values pervades and in a sense brings together the major realms of creative life. The special values of Science itself are for Bronowski 'independence and originality, dissent and freedom and tolerance; such are the first needs of science; and these are the values, which , of itself, it demands and forms."
Yet Bronowski also strongly emphasizes the evidence- based nature of Science in its search for Truth. And he speaks of the process of its development ," the view that our concepts are built up from experience, and have constantly to be tested and corrected in experience." Here is the great distinguishing feature of Science not only its quest for truth but in its power to transform the world.
What Bronowski does in another sense is cut across the 'Two Cultures' divide posited by C.P. Snow. A person of both literary and scientific background himself he finds that ' the exploration of likenesses' through symbolic concepts define creativity both in literary and in scientific realms.
Bronowski is in a very deep sense a humanist who defines and dignity of mankind in its search to understand and transform the world.
There is much to be thought and said about this very important book.

While Bronowski's book, Science and Human Values is often lauded as a critique of logical positivism, I found it to be much more than just that. Bronowski launches a critique on a more pervasive foundation of western philosophy, that of dualism. Bronowski seeks to reduce the dualistic view that somehow science and technology are antithetical to the human spirit. The book is constructed as an extended essay consisting of three distinct, though closely related arguments:

a) The Creative Mind - an argument that the human mind operates creatively whether engaged in logical constructivist activities or in more subjective expressions of thought. In short, Bronowski argues here that the Poet and the Physicist have much more in common than we allow ourselves to believe.

b) The Habit of Truth - an argument that both the right (creative) and left (analytic) sides of the brain are doing the same thing, seeking truth, in the generative process.

c) The Sense of Human Dignity - an argument that the objective exploration of science and technology are just as "human" as the quest for introspective or subjective understanding of the human condition.

Epilogue) The volume also contains an interesting fictional dialogue titled The Abacus and the Rose, held between a public servant, a scientist and a literary figure regarding the nature of their thought processes.

Bronowski emphasizes the notion that the outcomes of science and technology are mere tools and artifacts, it is the spirit and creative energy behind them form the basis for human values and ideals. For Bronowski human values are what drive scientific discovery just as they drive public policy or artistic creativity. We get into trouble when we try and separate these ventures from human values, and thus confuse means and ends. In this way Bronowski offers a compelling argument that is less a critique of positivism than a call for a more holistic vision of human development and the creative spirit.

The essay is well written and easy to follow and provides some solid insight on the ever more difficult task of linking scientific and technological progress with human value systems.

"Whether our work is art or science or the daily work of society, it is only the form in which we explore our experience which is different; the need to explore remains the same." (Bronowski, 1965, p. 72)

This was required reading for me in a required Social Sciences survey course required for my B.Sc. in chemistry over forty years ago (I hold an earned Ph.D. in chemistry in additon to a later acquired law degree). I still regard it as one of the most influential books in my life. I understand the essays in this small book to be a critical examination of various scientific philosophies. However what I found to be most illuminating was Bronowski's study of values in a scientist's search for truth; how the values necessary to enable the search for scientific truth in the cooperative enterprise of science are human values ratified by the great religions of the world. What this meant to me as a callow (at that time) intellectual who was more of an agnostic than an atheist at that point in my life was that many of the value systems espoused and shared by the great religions were independently derivable by the values necessary to succeed in the quest for "truth." This resonanted with me personally more than any thundering proselytizer in a church pulpit and my faith began to grow. This is a small book to have such a large effect and it is worth reading for many reasons - some well elaborated by other reviewers. I think Dr. Bronowski would be pleased with its effect on me.

OUtstanding service. It came before time announced and was in mint condition. Thanks,

This is one of the best books I've ever read about understanding how organizations really work. Since we spend most of our waking lives inside organizations, that's pretty useful. Weick is an academic and you'll have to work a bit to get his points, but no where near as much as the average in academia. Most of the stuff you'll find in the average business section on organizations is either wrong or a watered down version of Weick's thinking. Why not go to the source?

Of all the books on my shelf referring to organizational life, Weick's classic is the only one in which almost all the pages are highlighted in yellow! This book is superb. Not only does it provide provocative fodder for discussion amongst academics, it rings true with managers who have experienced organizational life in all its dimensions. It is a must-read for anyone who is a student of organizations or for anyone who wishes to succeed within them. And since organizations pervade our lives, understanding them better translates readily into making sense of the often overwhelming complexity and contradiction they create.

Weick book is based on a few simple principles: organising is a kind or reiterated, continuous, evolutionary process of interaction. All kind of simple theories on processes are true, most of all the process of calling something "true". Its is true because it has been called so. Our goal: reduce equivocality, equivocality introduced by (external) changes. The book contains examples, case studies, facts, theories and cartoons on the way we organize organizations. It has even picture you may finish yourself! Somebody stole my edition years ago - or thought i had agreed on a long lease contract -, and that book was loaded with annotation, dirty and used. Need i say more?

Weick in his brillant book shows how different is organizational practice from what we try to believe in. He suggests a completely different from traditional approach to organizations - he claims, that in organizations people attach sense to their actions AFTER they perform them, but afterwards try to reason they 'had decided' before. Unclear as it may seem, it is pretty easy to grasp from the book. Weick also develops a notion of 'organizing' rather than 'organizations' and shows how processes are important in describing actions performed by organizational actors. The book is old, but is worth studying for researchers, scholars and even the consultants.