Humanities Books

I bought this book in 1992 and found it truly oustanding in terms of depicting the planet environmental realities in an informative yet user friendly way. Packed with accurate statistics, colourful maps, and valuable insights and opinions from highly regarded authors in the field of biological and environmental sciences. 10 years after -we are now in 2002- I am surprised there have not been further and updated editions to this book. It really makes me wonder! These are the kinds of books that humanity needs to become increasingly aware at a global scale of environmental and social threats and opportunities associated to life in our planet.

Where to find this? Would you read it if you could?

Hanson is like all the greats though - he could make dust mites seem like an epic encounter.

Read this man. You won't be sorry.

Koyre was one of the first historians to study the history of science philosophically, and he applies Husserl's insights on the "geometrization of space" to Galileo, supplying an historical supplement to Husserl's intuitive history. The transition of science from the "closed world to the infinite universe" is fascinating, and in the treatment of Galileo Koyre tells the story from the vantage of sublunar motion, artillery and bricks and bows and arrows. The supplanting of the distinction between "natural" and "violent" motion by motion per se and the geometrization of space is the destruction of the universe with a center circled by the visible divinities. The history of science is usually told as a story of idle theory replaced by experimentation, but Koyre shows that because the new science is based on an undemonstrable principle (inertia) and action at a distance, experimentation is superfluous: Galileo already knows the answers to the questions he puts to nature. Moreover, the introduction of force, which can only be demonstrated by equations (I've seen motion and distance, but never force), is not the triumph of observation but its supplanting. Koyre, by the way, was a teacher of Kuhn and Kojeve, who both turned Koyre's ideas into slogans and became world famous.

I first looked at this book because I had some old paintings
that I found in antique shop. They were signed by women, but I
couldn't find anything about who they were. In this book, I
found not only the names, but personal information about the artists, what had been written about them during their lifetimes,
and some scholarly, but very clear and interesting commentary
about women who painted in Victorian times and what their lives
and careers were like. It turned out that one of my paintings
is fairly valuable (I went to an art dealer knowing what I had!) but after I found out about the artist I liked the painting even more and wouldn't part with it. So the book was cheap at the price, and now is an important part of my antique-hunting library.

Detienne's book is a wonderfull and thought provoking book.
he presents a structuralist analysis of the myth of Adonis.
It is very hard to provide convincing structuralist interpretations to myths and it seems that in structuralism
the journey is at least as important as the end result
(see most of the work of Levi Strauss). However, in this case Detienne's analysis is rather compeling and provides the reader with amazing insights into greek thought about food, perfumes,
sex and all the other good things in life. If you wish to read just one structuralist work to get a feeling for this
fascinating and highly non trivial mode of analysis of human thought, I would recommend this book

Great book with very reasonable price thanks to Amazon.com. This is genuine encyclopedia on Vladimir Nabokov's works.

The Garland Handbook Of African Music is a single volume compilation of informative essays written by the leading scholars in the field of African music. This outstanding reference explores all aspects of African music as it explores the content and its many musical forms. Included is a thorough discussion of the issues and processes in the study of African music, illustrated by a number of regional case studies covering North, West, East, Central, and Southern Africa. The Garland Handbook Of African Music is enhanced with an accompanying 60 minute CD, a glossary, and guides to publications, recordings, films and videos. The Garland Handbook Of African Music is an invaluable, highly recommended addition to personal, professional, and academic multicultural and African music reference collections.

The Prologue is the summarized essence of ' The Canterbury Tales' It contains the descriptions of the pilgrims who are to each ideally tell two tales . Chaucer never completes this plan but he does in the prologue give us wonderful character sketches of everyone from the ideally virtuous Knight to the scandalous Wife of Bath . These small portraits outline clearly what is to come but in themselves reveal the world of the Tales . The Prologue is filled with humor and piety, with sacrasm and wit, with beauty of language and harsh social criticism.
It is the microcosm of the whole set of Tales which are to come. A masterpiece though marred to my mind as the whole work is by the Nun Prioress and her unfortunate blood- libel tale.

Robert Oliver's unique biography of George David Woods, who in 1963 became the fourth president of the World Bank, is based on dozens of in-depth interviews, as well as the historical record.

George Woods transformed the World Bank from a relatively passive investment organization into an active leader of world development. He pushed for greatly increased lending in support of agriculture and education, worked closely with the United Nations, and revived and greatly strengthened economic analysis in the Bank itself. He also initiated measures to expand the equity investments of the International Finance Corporation and sought annual funding of one billion dollars for the International Development Association, the Bank's soft-loan affiliate. He retired in 1968 after inducing Robert McNamara to be his successor.

Oliver's lively biography offers not only a full picture of Woods and his pivital contributions to the World Bank's development, but also reflects the changes that occurred in the 1960s within both the agency and the enviroment in which it functioned.
--- from books dustjacket

I actually took two classes with Dr. Tolzmann at the University of Cincinnati and that is how I came to know this book. I hadn't read the book in some years and picked it up again recently. Dr. Tolzmann is a fascinating man and clearly has a passion for his interests. This shines through in all of his work. I recommend this book highly to those with German heritage.