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Forget all those New Left memoirs: for readers who want to know what it is to be a revolutionary in America, this is the book to read. At the turn of the 20th century, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was probably the most hated woman in her adopted country. (She emigrated from Russia at age 17.) It was bad enough that she was an anarchist, accused of complicity in the 1901 assassination of President McKinley. But her vehement espousal of women's rights--including birth control--really enraged upright citizens. Goldman's marvelously militant autobiography gives ample evidence of her gift for bearing a grudge and inability to mince words--she decries fellow leftists at least as often as the bourgeoisie, especially after she is deported to the Soviet Union in 1919 and discovers that the Bolshevik Revolution is not what she hoped for. But Goldman's blazing honesty and unflinching commitment to unpopular causes make her a larger-than-life heroine. She does display the occasional human weakness, including a lengthy romance with a man whose infidelities torment this advocate of free love, but they're less interesting than her heroic challenge to America to live up to its ideals. Whether or not she was literally a bomb thrower remains a matter of debate. For posterity, her words are incendiary enough. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Reviews (7)

One of the most important books you'll ever read
This is the best autobiography I've ever read, because her life was lived with such commitment & independence. Certainly, she was hugely influential in her time, but her success was scratched out of nothing, with no support, and huge opposition. The difficulties and the times are conveyed amazingly well. The book will make you look carefully at your own life ... in ways that can only change it for the better.

bewat
NOTE:THIS IS VOLUME ONE ONLY!It's a great book but it is not labeled as just the first half of the memoir.

Enjoyable book, fun to read, informative
I could not disagree more with Goldman's ultimate philosophical conclusions, but I enjoyed this book, and volume II as well.Her essential humanity emerges, and it is a good case study and an interesting read, historically, philosophically and personally.She is no Mark Twain or Billy Faulkner, but her life was interesting and her prose adequately conveys the milieu she became enmeshed in.A fair degree of antecedent historical knowledge is necessary to fully enjoy this book, but you most likely have that or you wouldn't be reading about Emma to begin with.If you don't, or find that you are getting lost in the history and sequence, it would pay to do a little research to better understand what she lived through.It will also help you spot bias on Goldman's part.I heartily recommend this book.It is informative, enlightening and entertaining to boot. ... Read more

Isbn: 0486225445
Subjects: 1. 1869-1940 2. Anarchism and anarchists 3. Anarchists 4. Biography 5. Biography / Autobiography 6. Biography/Autobiography 7. General 8. Goldman, Emma, 9. History & Theory - Radical Thought 10. United States 11. Women's Studies - General

$10.85

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (New York Review Books Classics)
by Alexander Berkman
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Paperback (01 September, 1999)
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Reviews (6)

the best anachist memoir
This is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. Berkman, as you probably know, tried to kill Henry Frick in an ill fated (and stupid) solidarity action with a group of strikers. He went to jail for it, and his immature poltics underwent an amazing transistion.

But instead of coming out of jail reformed, he came out with a more complex sense of who he was and what he had to do and returned immediately to his poltical work. Berkman's writing style changes as he changes as a person, starting out ultra doctrinare and ending up a more well rounded and likeable human being. Highly recommened, even if you aren't interested in the politics.

"Inhumanity is the keynote of stupidity in power" (p. 299)
The book is the account of the anarchist Alexander's Berkman's experiences in prison after his botched attempt to assassinate the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, the monster who "legally" slaughtered workers during the Homestead strike of 1892.Although Berkman never abandons his anarchist principles, he does soften his moral repugnance for criminals whose crimes were not motivated by political or humanitarian aims.If anything his friendships with prisoners deepen his anarchist insights about how exploitation and poverty are the principal causes of criminal behavior.Like his lover Emma Goldman, he spends his prison years advocating for the needs of his fellow inmates, often being punished for his advocacy.Berkman details the brutality, graft and corruption of the prison establishment.

Anticipating Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Berkman shows that those who view their punishment as a part of a larger purpose are best equipped to survive the inhuman treatment and conditions of prison life.The book is not all seriousness, however.It often has lighter moments, as when Berkman describes the quixotic attempt by his friends to tunnel into the prison to free him.Berkman's sub rosa argument, made to Goldman, that Leon Czologosz's assassination of President McKinley lacked redeeming social value, unlike his (Berkman's) attempt to assassinate Frick, while though interesting fails to be convincing.Those interested in the relationship of these remarkable people (Goldman and Berkman) will especially want to read that section.

The book is worth reading not merely for its historical value but for its literary qualities as well.It is intelligently written and difficult to put down.Although it is 518 pages, I read it all in three days.It is just that riveting.

Beyond Terrorism
In 1892, Alexander Berkman burst into the office of Henry Frick, an overseer at Carnegie's steelworks, and attempted to gun him down to foment a revolutionary uprising. Frick survived. Berkman went to jail. Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist is Berkman's account, not only of the revolutionary ardor which drove him to assault Frick, but also of the horrors of incarceration and the transformation of his own thinking while behind bars.

We get plenty of revolutionary and anarchist theory from Berkman. He opens a door into the thoughts and feelings of people struggling for economic and social justice 100 years ago. More than that, he opens a door into the mindset of a fanatic, one which may help us understand the motivations of those who flew their planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11/2001:

"Could anything be nobler than to die for a grand, a sublime Cause? Why, the very life of a true revolutionist has no other purpose, no significance whatever, save to sacrifice it on the altar of the beloved People." (p. 12)

"My own individuality is entirely in the background; aye, I am not conscious of any personality in matters pertaining to the Cause. I am simply a revolutionist; a terrorist by conviction, an instrument for furthering the cause of humanity." (p. 13)

"True, the Cause often calls upon the revolutionist to commit an unpleasant act; but it is the test of a true revolutionist-nay, more, his pride-to sacrifice all merely human feeling at the call of the People's Cause." (p. 12)

Berkman, the purist, disdains his fellow prisoners. He sees himself as better than they are, a Servant of Humanity, not a petty criminal, a predator on the poor. But, life in prison, although it does not shake his revolutionary and anarchist convictions, does bring him down from his ivory tower. Berkman begins to see that:

"The individual, in certain cases, is of more direct and immediate consequence than humanity. What is the latter but the aggregate of individual existences-and shall these, the best of them, forever be sacrificed for the metaphysical collectivity?" (p. 403)

His revolutionary understanding also shifts. He begins to differentiate between the autocratic despotism of Europe and the despotism of republican institutions:

"The despotism of republican institutions is far deeper, more insidious, because it rests on the popular delusion of self-government and independence. That is the subtle source of democratic tyranny, and, as such, it cannot be reached with a bullet. In modern capitalism, exploitation rather than oppression is the real enemy of the people ... the battle is to be waged in the economic rather than the political field." (p. 424)

This is not, however, a political manifesto (for that, one can read Berkman's ABCs of Anarchism). Berkman reveals his inner processes during fourteen years of incarceration. We discover, not only the horrors and corruption of the prison system, but also wander intimately through Berkman's mind. We visit his childhood, soften at unexpected gentlenesses behind bars, and begin to appreciate something as simple as the sunrise.

Although Berkman did not write the memoir until after he left prison, it has a sense of surreal immediacy. He wrote in the present tense, but that alone does not account for the way his text grips, and drags the reader into the maelstrom of his experience. We run with him through childhood memories, daily brutality, fantasies of escape and suicide, and the ideals that keep him sane. His longing for Emma Goldman shines through the text. He enthrones her almost as the guardian of his sanity through the years. Little can compare with the poignancy of his fantasy of mailing himself to his beloved Emma, escaping prison and finding himself with her again. (p. 135-137)

Five stars. Absolutely brilliant work, as relevant today as it was nearly 100 years ago. In her autobiography, Living my Life, Emma Goldman recounted how Berkman saved his sanity and his life by writing this memoir. The deep introspection, the flights of fancy, the accounting of prison life-all deeply illumine the best and the worst of human nature. This book is required reading for anybody who wishes to understand the fanatical, terrorist mindset, for Berkman describes that aptly. Far more importantly, he shares the experience of survival and transformation. He, who entered prison a fanatic, left those iron gates more committed than ever to his cause, but no longer a fanatic. His story tells of graduating from terrorist to humanist, from monomaniacal fanatic to a deeply committed human being. If you read nothing else this year, read this book.

(If you'd like to dialogue with me about this book or review, please click the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!) ... Read more

Isbn: 094032234X
Sales Rank: 197229
Subjects: 1. 1870-1936 2. Anarchism 3. Anarchists 4. Berkman, Alexander, 5. Biography 6. Biography / Autobiography 7. Criminals & Outlaws 8. Historical - General 9. History 10. History: American 11. Pennsylvania 12. Penology 13. Prison Life 14. Prisoners 15. United States 16. United States - 19th Century 17. Berkman, Alexander

$10.47

Manufacturing Consent
by EDWARD S. HERMAN, NOAM CHOMSKY
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Paperback (12 September, 1988)
list price: $18.95 -- our price: $18.95
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Editorial Review

An absolutely brilliant analysis of the ways in which individuals and organizations of the media are influenced to shape the social agendas of knowledge and, therefore, belief. Contrary to the popular conception of members of the press as hard-bitten realists doggedly pursuing unpopular truths, Herman and Chomsky prove conclusively that the free-market economics model of media leads inevitably to normative and narrow reporting. Whether or not you've seen the eye-opening movie, buy this book, and you will be a far more knowledgeable person and much less prone to having your beliefs manipulated as easily as the press. ... Read more

Reviews (64)

Quality Paperback Book Club
This is a fictional introduction to an interview with Noam Chomsky.All the quotes and facts are non-fiction.

"Good evening.My name is Bernie Dwyer.Tonight we have with us a man the New York Times calls 'arguably the most influential intellectual alive,' Noam Chomsky.

Indeed, there is a wide consensus in the United States regarding Chomsky's importance and influence.According to the NNDB database, Chomsky is "a profoundly influential voice".The New Statesman argues, "For anyone wanting to find out more about the world we live in...there is one simple answer: read Noam Chomsky."In addition, we all must agree with the words of Business Week, which says "With relentless logic, Chomsky bids us to listen closely to what our leaders tell us--and to discern what they are leaving out."

Mr. Chomsky is an extremely popular lecturer around the United States, speaking on U.S. foreign policy, Mid East politics, and related subjects.He has authored more than 30 books on political subjects, and has been a political icon for three generations of the American Left.For example, The Village Voice notes "Chomsky's early books criticizing U.S. policy in southeast Asia were bibles of the Vietnam anti-war movement." His book "For Reasons of State," concerns the upheavals in domestic and international affairs of the 1970s. The New York Times Book Review noted that it "Displays those qualities which exemplify the finest traditions of intellectual responsibility." An anthology of his writings, "The Essential Chomsky" has sold more than 45,000 copies, and was lauded by The Quality Paperback Book Club.

In over 30 years of writing, Chomsky's antipathy toward the U.S. government has never wavered.

His political thought has been the subject of several serious monographs, among which are M. Rai, Chomsky's Politics (London: Verso, 1995); P. Wilkin, Noam Chomsky: On Power, Knowledge and Human Nature (New York: St. Martin's Press Inc., 1997); A. Edgley, The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky (London and New York: Routledge, 2000).

He is not merely an ivory-tower intellectual, however.As the socialist website MarxMail.org has stated, "The Marxist movement can learn much from Chomsky, most of all how to speak to the ordinary citizen."

His message is spread on tapes and CDs; he is promoted at rock concerts by superstar bands such as Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, and U-2 (whose lead singer Bono called Chomsky a "rebel without a pause"). He is the icon of Hollywood stars like Matt Damon whose genius character in the Academy Award-winning film Good Will Hunting is made to invoke Chomsky as the go-to authority for political insight.

On the Web, there are more chat room references to Noam Chomsky than to Vice President Dick Cheney and 10 times as many as there are to Democratic congressional leaders Richard Gephardt and Tom Daschle.

In short, according to The Observer, he is "the Elvis of Academia."

Uniquely among political writers, Mr. Chomsky has three books in Amazon.com's Top 2000.

Mr. Chomsky's book "9-11" is a best seller (it has made the best-seller lists of The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice and Amazon.com) with over 300,000 copies sold.According to Michael Massing, the book's genesis was the huge number of interview requests made to Mr. Chomsky after the attacks of 9/11.He was unable to keep up with all the media demands on his time, and so published an anthology of interviews on the subject.

In fact, there seems to be a great demand among the heretofore slumbering American public for works critical of their government.I am happy to report that "9-11" is just one successful book, according to The Village Voice, among many that "assail the Bush administration as hypocritical, incompetent, and corrupt.Stupid White Men by Michael Moore now has 500,000 copies in print and is still number five on the New York Times Top 10."It is a very good sign that publishers see the opportunity to make money off the criticism of Bush's policies.As one publisher said,"No one wants to miss the next Stupid White Men."

Another example of this hopeful trend is "The Best Democracy money can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters," written by Greg Palast.The Village Voice quoted Palast as saying, "What I'm happy about is that with no money, no marketing, and a completely amateur operation, you can get 40,000 copies sold in the U.S.-- if you've got something to say."Palast has just sold the paperback rights to his book to American publisher Penguin Putnam for an undisclosed, but reportedly very high, amount.

In summary, Palast's story can be seen as emblematic of a new generation of American political critics.As the Village Voice puts it, "The rise of Palast's media star--he's putting his Observer column on hold to work on films and books, and will be contributing to Harper's--is coinciding with the expanding of America's appetite for unsanctioned perspectives."

Chomsky's "9-11" has been more successful than these other two books, however, perhaps because of his higher profile and more intense media coverage of his work in general. (Chomsky's publisher keeps its eyes on the bottom line: even the small pamphlet "What Uncle Sam Really Wants" has sold over 160,000 copies.) Mr. Chomsky's publisher took out front-page ads in national newspapers and magazines, and, according to The Village Voice, the book "received prominent placement in bookstores upon its release." In light of its controversial claims,

"...the mainstream media came calling on the
iconoclastic Chomsky. After profiles ran in The New York
Times and The Washington Post in May 2002, he faced off with
arch-conservative Bill Bennett on CNN's American Morning
With Paula Zahn, an appearance that created a definite spike
in sales, according to Greg Ruggiero, Chomsky's editor."

Chomsky's book "Manufacturing Consent," published in 1988, was also wildly popular. The book bravely identifies the fact that "America's government and its corporate giants exercise control over what we read, see and hear." The book was reviewed very favorably in the New York Times, which called it "[A] compelling indictment of the news media's role in covering up errors and deceptions in American foreign policy of the past quarter century."

Four of his books have been made into films, among which "Manufacturing Consent" has been called (by Inroads magazine) "among the most viewed documentaries of all time."

Chomsky is among the American media's 100 most-cited intellectuals, according to Inroads Magazine.According to the Chicago Tribune, Noam Chomsky is "the most often cited living author. Among intellectual luminaries of all eras, Chomsky placed eighth, just behind Plato and Sigmund Freud."In fact, an entire network of left-wing media - Z Magazine, Pacifica Radio, South End Press - repeat virtually his every word.

He is a winner of the Orwell Award for "Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language." (Ted Koppel of ABC News is another distinguished recipient.)

Mr. Chomsky's main thesis, in all his political works, is that the American media filters out points of view that are critical of the United States government.

Mr. Chomsky, thanks for being with us tonight."

Beware:Out of date facts
Beware:Even the new 2002 edition uses out-of-date facts.It seems the only "updating" the authors did from their original 1988 edition was a brief introduction with some new developments and facts.The main body of the book has completely useless charts and tables such as "Wealth of the Control Groups of 24 Large Media Corporations, February 1986."Media conglomeration has proliferated so much in the last nineteen years that these numbers are meaningless.There are only 5 or 6 major media companies left nowadays.

Too good to miss

The whole book tries to demonstrate how the mainstream media works within a propaganda framework, following the directrices from its government and only allowing criticism in very narrow grounds.

For the excercise on hand, they focus on three areas: Central America during the 80's , Indochina (Vietnam war) and the attempted murder of the Pope.

From these 3 cases, the Vietnam war is no doubt the most astonishing. Chomsky and Herman point out in the book (referring to the broad consensus in the media that the U.S. went there to do good when in fact the U.S army killed few million people for cynical reasons):

"We cannot quite say that the propaganda model is verified in the case of the Indochina wars, since it fails to predict such extraordinary, far-reaching, and exceptionless subservience to the state propaganda system (...) Even more revealing with regard to Western intellectual culture is that the simple facts cannot be perceived, and their import lies far beyond the bounds of the thinkable"

... Have a read, it will not let you down. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679720340
Subjects: 1. 1975-1985 2. 1985-1995 3. General 4. Mass Media - Electronics Media 5. Mass media 6. Media Studies - Electronic Media 7. Political aspects 8. Politics - Current Events 9. Sociology 10. United States 11. World politics 12. Current Events / Mass Media

$18.95

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
Average Customer Review:

Paperback (01 February, 1999)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Editorial Review

What is most notable about this funny, touching, memorable first novelfrom Stephen Chbosky is the resounding accuracy with which the author captures the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensityof a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recentsuicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings:

I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why.

With the help of a teacher who recognizes his wisdom and intuition, and his two friends, seniors Samantha and Patrick, Charlie mostly manages to avoid the depression he feels creeping up like kudzu. When it all becomes too much, after a shocking realization about his beloved late Aunt Helen, Charlie retreats from reality for awhile. But he makes it back in due time, ready to face his sophomore year and all that it may bring. Charlie, sincerely searching for that feeling of "being infinite," is a kindred spirit to the generation that's been slapped with the label X.--Brangien Davis ... Read more

Reviews (1074)

Perks of a Wallflower
This book is about a teenage boy, Charlie, who needs someone to listen to him.So he starts writing letters to a person who doesn't know him.He tells about his first year in high school with very detailed letters. In the end, he learns to appreciate himself and knows that he will be okay.

Page turner
Perks of being a wallflower is one of those books you just can't put down. The way Stephen Chbosky told the life of high school so well, all the characters were so great and amazing. I really enjoyed reading this profound novel, it really makes you think.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
This book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, was simply amazing, it had to do with everything that seems to be going on in my life and my friends.I finished the book in less than 12 hours, because it was that good.This book forever changed my life and made me realize that I wasn't the only messed up teenager out there.This is the type of book where each page there's something else exciting waiting to happen. This author should continue it or something.

This book dealt with growing up, rape, teen sex, pregenancy, abortion, molesting, depression, homosexuals, and so many other topics that would help any kid that has experienced one or more of these topics.

I know this review wasn't very helpful, but it was the best I could do. Now go out and buy this book! ... Read more

Isbn: 0671027344
Subjects: 1. American First Novelists 2. Bildungsromans 3. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12) 4. Epistolary fiction 5. Fiction - General 6. General 7. Juvenile Fiction 8. Social Situations - Adolescence 9. Social Situations - Death & Dying 10. Social Situations - Homosexuality 11. Fiction / General

$10.40

Nationalism and Culture
by Rudolf Rocker, Ray E. Chase
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Paperback (01 December, 1997)
list price: $28.99 -- our price: $19.13
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Reviews (2)

A splendid work
This book is magnificient. Rudolph Rocker, Anarchist, Syndicalist and libertarian thinker managed to put together in my opinion one of the all-time greatest works on the topics of Nationalism and its relation to culture. The product of over 30 years of work, this is Rocker's magnum opus. He disects the national state in all its manifestations to show how historically it has stifled cultural progress and is thoroughly reactionary in nature. Book 1 goes about tracing the evolution of nationalism and the creation of a centralized state with the race theory as its base to its logical conclusion in Nazi Germany. Also examined is the use of religion by Kings and Rulers of history as a tool in the exploitation of their subjects and the use of state power by religious leaders to cement their control. In Book 2 he demonst.rates how the great achievements of history have come about not as a national creation but precisely the opposite through the sharing of cultural achievments by different peoples. He presents a conclusive argument that the level of cultural achievement of a people is inverse to the level of political centralization of any area, using the examples of ancient Greek culture and the political system used there and the Roman empire with its vast, all powerful state, devoid of free expression and lack of original thought and artistic creation. Since this work is so extensive, I can hardly begin to point out everything said in it.While this may seem to be a dry philosophical book, it is not. Rockers style is lively and enjoyable. This book is a treasure of free thought in an era of extreme persecution(originally published in exile shortly after Hitlers rise to power) and demonstrates that if we as a people are ever going to achieve freedom and the flowering of culture it is going to be at the expense ofNational States and how the solution to the problems of the authors time and ours is a non-statist, anti-capitalist anarchist way of organizing society.Highly Recomended!

This review is based on the previous 1978 edition of N&C.

Amazing insight -- pre WW2 !
Rudolf Rocker foresaw what would happen in Nazi germany and hence the title of the book. If the important people of his time would have had this much insight ... lots of bloodshed would have been avoided.These days itis especially interesting to see the USA foreign policy and US televisionhelping a cultural holocaust along. The nationalism in the USA is horrible.This book points out what nationalism is and does. ... Read more

Isbn: 1551640945
Sales Rank: 938243
Subjects: 1. General 2. Political Science 3. Politics/International Relations 4. Sociology 5. Sociology - General

$19.13

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924
by Orlando Figes
Average Customer Review:

Paperback (01 March, 1998)
list price: $25.00 -- our price: $16.50
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Editorial Review

Written in a narrative style that captures both the scope and detail of the Russian revolution, Orlando Figes's history is certain to become one of the most important contemporary studies of Russia as it was at the beginning of the 20th century.With an almost cinematic eye, Figes captures the broad movements of war and revolution, never losing sight of the individuals whose lives make up his subject.He makes use of personal papers and personal histories to illustrate the effects the revolution wrought on a human scale, while providing a convincing and detailed understanding of the role of workers, peasants, and soldiers in the revolution.He moves deftly from topics such as the grand social forces and mass movements that made up the revolution to profiles of key personalities and representative characters.

Figes's themes of the Russian revolution as a tragedy for the Russian people as a whole and for the millions of individuals who lost their lives to the brutal forces it unleashed make sense of events for a new generation of students of Russian history. Sympathy for the charismatic leaders and ideological theorizing regarding Hegelian dialectics and Marxist economics--two hallmarks of much earlier writing on the Russian revolution--are banished from these clear-eyed, fair-minded pages of A People's Tragedy. The author's sympathy is squarely with the Russian people.That commitment, together with the benefit of historical hindsight, provides a standpoint Figes take full advantage of in this masterful history. ... Read more

Reviews (44)

Amazingly broad coverage of the Revolution; very impressive
As a person only familiar with the basic outline of the Russian Revolution, I found this book simply entrancing.I have long intended to read a work on this crucial event and period in world history; I am glad this was the volume I selected.

While the length and subject matter of this book is somewhat daunting, Figes presents this history in a highly readable fashion without skimping on fascinating detail.Part of how he does this is by interspersing historical detail with personal histories of both famous and everyday Russians.Figes foes beyond just describing the key events but analyzes why they happened and how it impacted the Russian people at all levels of society.Importanty, Figes also stresses how the history of Russia formed its people and how these people formed the Revolution and the resulting disaster of Bolshevism. He goes into great detail concerning the other key political groups of this era.Figes scope and knowledge of his subject matter is amazing.I feel much wiser for having spent a couple weeks plowing through this important tome.

I would say if you read only one book on the Russian Revolution, this is the one.However, this is the only book I have read on the subject.So, with that qualification, I will say that--in my opinion--this is a darn good book for someone looking to better understand one of the most important events of the twentieth century.

Lenin the bodybuilder.
What makes great historical events "great" is the way they are perpetually refought by each suceding generation and are perpetually revaluated in the light of changing perceptions.I knew this would be a liberal-conservative account of the Russian Revolution and I was prepared to accept it as it was. Specially because I read this after reading Richard Pipes' two-volume history and, having to cope with Pipes' throughly rightist viewpoint - his demonologies about evil Bolsheviks craving for raw power- I felt it would be a lighter, less offensive (from a Left viewpoint such as mine, that is) read. Instead, it wasn't.

Figes has a light, interstingly tongue-in-cheek mode of writing that makes his reading all the more easier, only, writing in a post-Cold War setting, and seemingly imbued with the Post-Modern certainity that all "great narratives" are bunk, he simply fails to take the Russian Revolution very seriously - and that is what makes his history far _less_ readable and _more_ offensive for a Leftist to read, as compared to Pipes, who, being a staunch Cold warrior anti-communist, at least takes the Bolsheviks very seriously, if only as evil geniuses.

Figes, instead, writes with a somewhat flippant attitude, and sometimes seems to be bored to death with the complexities posed by the Russian Revolution, and therefore has a tendence for developing - and indulging in -a taste for the anecdotal, the frivolous, even the downright irrelevant. For me, the epitome of this tendancy of his was his appraisal of Lenin, which at a certain point reads thus (pg.389): "Lenin did weight training to build up his muscles. It was all part of the macho culture (the black leather jackets, the militant rethorics, the belief in action and the cult of violence) that was the essence of Bolshevism". Sure, Figes is a child of his -ours- postmodernage, an age in which bodybuilders _do_ enter politics as bodybuilders; but then, to treat Lenin as somekind of Schwarzenegger's forerunner is to lack historical perspective, i.e., the yearning to know in which way the past was _different_ from our present (not to speak of the fact that Figes does not offer references in footnotes for this particular vignette).To put it short: what is most ideological in Figes history is his refusal to appear as ideological.

There are many good things about this history, above all Figes' clear, interstingly- and very British, in the best sense of the word - writing style, but then it's all so "contaminated" with a postmodern, Foucault-esque lack of awareness of any hierarchy of the various causative factors, that one could say that his is a history intent on ending all histories.

Finest all-around history of the Revolution
One of the difficulties in selecting books on Russia, is that so many come with a built-in perspective and ideology. Facts which support a thesis are included, those which do not are conveniently ignored.
Of all the histories of Russia for the period prior to and during the Revolution, in my view this is the finest. From Figes we certainly get the big picture, and not only the key events, but also insight into Russian culture and the personality of its people, from the peasant through the professionals and the nobility.
But Figes has an eye for telling detail. The book spans a half-century, and as the text develops, he follows the lives of ordinary and extraordinary Russians during this time, in little insets within text body. As the major events unfold, we see the lives of individual humans unfold, and their thoughts and feelings evolve.
If I could only read one book on the Russian Revolution, this would be the one. ... Read more

Isbn: 014024364X
Subjects: 1. 1917-1936 2. Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union 3. History 4. History - General History 5. History: World 6. Nicholas II, 1894-1917 7. Revolution, 1917-1921 8. Russia 9. Soviet Union

$16.50

Calculus Made Easy
by Silvanus P. Thompson, Martin Gardner
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Hardcover (08 September, 1998)
list price: $21.95 -- our price: $14.93
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Reviews (61)

One of the best math book
This is a book I definitely would keep for a long time, even until I go to college. I'm HS junior and taking AP calculus, with only algebra 2 as preparation from last year. I found this book is very easy to understood even for a self-taught person like me. I would recommend this book for every body who is taking calculus with or w/o proper preparation.The sample question covered broad type of calculus question you might face in the exam. I actually borrowed this book from my school library,and found it's worth to have it one at home. Now I'm gonna purchase it.

You won't really understand Calculus without this book!
Most calculus courses are taught to college freshman by graduate students who really didn't understand the course when they were freshman being taught by graduate students who didn't understand it when they were taught, etc, etc.Once you realize that most college instructors aren't proficient in the course to teach it, then you start to realize that if you're ever going to truly understand calculus, then you better find an alternative source of knowledge.And this book is exactly that source.

Read this book before you enter one of those imposing lecture halls (or at least the appropriate chapter of this book).Then and only then will you begin to at least recognize what the instructor is saying.And hopefully you will recognize when they're saying something that is not quite right.

Calculus is not hard; it's just not easy. This book probably should have been titled Calculus Made Understandable, or Caculus Made Fun, but it wasn't.So read the book and do the problems.It will open up a whole world of enjoyment that will last a lifetime.

Remember this very important point.Math was never learned in a lecture hall --- it's only truly learned in a study hall or library doing problems over and over and over.

Calculus made Easy
I am now finished with Calculus II and I still don't understand the content of thisbook. It is extremely complicated and poorly written. It makes it seem that Calculus is so easy, but it's just easier studying the old fasioned way, doing homework problems.I really don't recommend this book, at least for undergrads. ... Read more

Isbn: 0312185480
Sales Rank: 15298
Subjects: 1. Calculus 2. Mathematics 3. Science/Mathematics 4. Study Aids / Study Guides

$14.93

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
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Paperback (April, 1999)
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Editorial Review

Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years. ... Read more

Reviews (699)

There is no master race
The western colonising pioneers have left a legacy of racial bias to their descendants. Wherever white folk have taken civilisation to the savage native populations the indigenous peoples have suffered destruction of their own cultures (which were invisible to the colonizers or regarded as proof of the natives' savagery)and racial vilification. The superiority of western culture, as perceived by Europeans, has been taken as proof of the superiority of Europeans themselves and the inferiority of the colonised peoples. Surely, the arguement goes, if they had been as intelligent, hard-working, creative or favored by God as the Europeans, they would have developed advanced cultures as the Europeans have done.
Diamond's book is a brilliant riposte to that racist arguement. He shows how domesticatible plants and animals were the key factor in the development of farming allowing the abandonment of a hunter and gatherer existence. He shows that the so-called inferior cultures lacked those resources. He shows that the development of farming allowed specialisation in production, the development of an army and resistence to disease through close contact with farm animals which are the ultimate source of most human infections. He shows that colonising forces were able to subdue indigenous populations by infecting them and carving them up with their superior weapons.
Once again science demonstrates the folly of racial supremacy theory. Good on you, Jared!

Guns, Germs and Steel
An interesting book, which tries to explain the emergence of western civilization as the dominant culture in our times. Revealing though it is; it failed to explain a lot that defied the views postulated. A great read though. Collapse, Disciples of Fortune, The Third Chimpanzee are other interesting books to read.

A highly informative book with an intersting title ...
Sometimes back I read "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond. No doubt a fantastic book which deserves five stars ... It talks about how the environmental factors contributed towards the evolution of humans.

Some of the questions he tries to answer ...

1. Why some Hunter-gatherers in some places moved on to farming and others did not?.

(The author suggests that when cost-benefit analysis is done, in some cases hunting-gathering was better(for example ... it takes time to plant and grow the plants) and other cases it was not.The author emphasizes that the benefits of planned farming were enormous ... it enabled humans to grow more food in per square unit of an area. This in turn enabled population growth.)

2. Why only some plants/vegetables were domesticated?

3. Why the Eurasians were more successful in plant domestication (b'cos of their latitudinal layout) whereas not that successful in African/American continent (due to to longitudinal layout)?

4. How plant domestication lead to Trade?

5. How reading/writing/languages got propagated all around the world?

The book has wealth and wealth of information backed up with real evidence pointing towards facts. Highly, highly enlightening book ...

-Sachin ... Read more

Isbn: 0393317552
Subjects: 1. Anthropology - General 2. Archaeology / Anthropology 3. Civilization 4. Ethnology 5. History 6. Human Geography 7. Life Sciences - Evolution 8. Social Science 9. Social evolution 10. Sociology 11. Evolution 12. Sociology, Social Studies 13. World history 14. Reading Group Guide

$11.53

The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating
by David M. Buss
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Paperback (01 February, 1995)
list price: $17.00
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Reviews (34)

Thank you for an excellent work
A quote from Buss which appeared in the New York Times brought me to his book. I've spent years doing divorce work as an attorney. I also spent a considerable amount of my own time studying the elements and mechanics of relationships. This text and the research behind it helped explain many unanswered questions. Thank you for a work well done.

Let's pretend that Darwin was (pretty much) right.
From the reviews: "Women and men are often at cross-purposes in mate selection, sexual relations and affairs."And "men have a much greater proclivity for promiscuity than do women."I'm confussed.In a species at evolutionary equilibrium, how possibly can the genders be at "cross-purposes?"And what purpose can a "greater proclivity for promiscuity" serve a man if there is not a woman to serve that man's desire?

In the first instance, a gender under natural selection that is disadvantaged will evolve to overcome this fate.Certainly, the other gender will move to counter.But at equalibrium, neither will have, on average, an advantage,

In the second instance, a desire for a greater number of sexual contacts is fruitless if those contacts are not reproductive and hence heterosexual.Without a woman to engage a man's greater proclivity for promiscuity that proclivity is meaningless. So what's the point?

I understand that there are different ways that men and women approach mating.But these ways cannot possibly be divergent.They must work together even if they are not pretty.

Men want skinny women, and for marriage, beautiful too
I just read the reviews of a book called something like: "How to find a husband if you are over 35" or something like this by a woman with a Harvard MBA.If anyone is looking to find out about what makes a man tick, forget the pseudo-self help crap, read this book.I am not sure if I agree with what women want, per Buss, but I do agree with the major points of the book:

1) Men and women inevitably end up long-term mating (i.e., marry) people with whom they are comparable in "worth" in the open-market.Chances are, if you are ugly, then so will be your mate.It's not necessarily true in present day, that a beautiful woman will marry an ugly guy if he has money.It's criteria such as how much money you have; how accomplished you are; what social class you come from; how attractive you are; and so on, that will be used to attract and retain your most compatible long-term mate.
2) Men will lower their standards significantly to hook up with less desirable women but they would not consider these same women as long-term/marriage material.
3) Men generally desire thin (ratio of waist to hip), younger, and pretty woman.If you are a beautiful, thin woman, you have a great chance of finding a long-term mate.If you are a beautiful, thin woman, and have a wonderful personality (kind, nurturing) then you will have a better chance of finding a better mate than a woman who is merely beautiful and thin but with a bad personality.The more you have, the better your long-term mate will be (attractive, accomplished, kind).There is no free lunch here.Denial or self-reinforcements, without actually knowledge or your worth in the open market will not get you any where.
4) Women want kind and faithful men who are as attractive as the woman could possibly attract.
------ Bottom line...
If you are a woman, if you are thin, attractive in the face (make up, hair, we can all be attractive), educate yourself, and become kind/nurturing/good/moral/loyal, then you could have your pick of the men out there.But, if you are fat, don't spend time on hair and wardrobe, eat better and go to the gym.Don't watch Oprah and try to justify why fat is beautiful.You are only going to deny yourself a chance to find a long-term mate.

If you are beautiful, thin, and smart, but have bad luck with men, try being loyal, kind, nurturing, and learn to cook.You will stop meeting cheaters or abusive men.I know that this isn't politically correct, but do you want politically correct or the truth?Loved this book.Sorry for the typos, I am just so excited about the book.

... Read more

Isbn: 0465021433
Sales Rank: 175224
Subjects: 1. Human Sexuality 2. Psychology 3. Sex 4. Sex (Psychology) 5. Sexual attraction 6. Sexuality 7. Sociology

How the Mind Works
by Steven Pinker
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Paperback (01 January, 1999)
list price: $17.95 -- our price: $12.21
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Editorial Review

Why do fools fall in love? Why does a man's annual salary, on average, increase $600 with eachinch of his height? When a crack dealer guns down a rival, how is he just like Alexander Hamilton, whoseface is on the ten-dollar bill? How do optical illusions function as windows on the human soul? Cheerful,cheeky, occasionally outrageous MIT psychologist Steven Pinker answers all of the above and more in hismarvelously fun, awesomely informative survey of modern brain science. Pinker argues that Darwin pluscanny computer programs are the key to understanding ourselves--but he also throws in apt references toStar Trek, Star Wars, The Far Side, history, literature, W. C. Fields, Mozart,Marilyn Monroe, surrealism, experimental psychology, and Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty and his 888children. If How the Mind Works were a rock show, tickets would be scalped for $100. This bookdeserved its spot as Number One on bestseller lists. It belongs on a short shelf alongside such classics asDarwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and theMeanings of Life, by Daniel C. Dennett, and The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are:The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, by Robert Wright. Pinker's startling ideas pop outas dramatically as those hidden pictures in a Magic Eye 3D stereogram poster, which healso explains in brilliantly lucid prose. ... Read more

Reviews (145)

Excellent, motivating
An excellent walk through cognitive science and evolutionary psychology. It gives a new perspective on many questions of the culture and of our way of thinking- for a non expert in the area (as I am), but I can imagine that it is for an expert even more interesting. Good to read, consequent. I very much recommend it to read. The book moved me to look after some of the references. The breadth of the view of the author is impressing.

An excellent book, although some sections ramble a bit.
Steven Pinker's book makes an attempt to describe "how the mind works."But does he succeed?Pinker does not discuss the mind at length in this book and offers few revoluationary theories on how the mind actually works.Instead, the title serves as a useful way of obtaining the reader's attention, which makes sense.In reality, this book is about evolutionary psychology, why people think the way they do, and the advantages that have accrued to our ancestors for believing and thinking the way they did then -- and the way we continue to this day.

One of the best areas of Pinker's book is his discussion of evolutionary psychology.In that section, Pinker answers a lot of important time-old questions, such as why do we have friends?What is the purpose of war?Why does every culture have religion and marriage?Why do men seem to value virginity in the women they are marrying? Why are parents very protective of their children?Why are brothers and sisters rivals?

A good shot at a moving target...
How does a bicycle work? Perhaps that's too complicated since it needs a rider to be in a state of working. Then, how does a windmill work? Yes it needs wind, but let's take the wind for granted here. Also, let's lay aside the knowledge there are different types of windmills all designed by different people. Let's assume we know one when we see one. So how does it work? We are immediately confronted by style and method and purpose. There are many ways to describe the workings of a windmill. Is any one enough? Are all descriptions necessary for truth? And what do we mean by "work" anyway?

If thinking about a relatively simple mechanical device raises so many questions, how many more are raised by thinking about the thinking thing itself - the mind? Why does thinking about how the mind works make predicting the lottery each week seem plausible? Why is "mind" so hard to pin down?

Kudos to Steven Pinker for taking this on in such a pleasurable, readable, thought provoking way. As he says in the preface, this account is a bird's eye view of how the mind works, a survey, It is both for the specialist and the thoughtful layperson.

As a survey the book is broad but the access to it is specific, Mr. Pinker says, "...the mind is a system of organs of computation designed by natural selectionto solve the problems faced by our evolutionary ancestors..." He then elaborates adroitly for the next 565 pages. This book is engaging and thought provoking. I recommend it to you. Since you read this far in a review, I am sure the book itself will be of interest to you.

I wrote much marginalia in my copy of this book, often taking a different position and questioning assumptions. My one outstanding argument with Mr. Pinker comes from a statement he makes near the end of the book, "Psychologists and neuroscientists don't study their own minds; they study someone else's." In the margin I wrote, "Too bad, they should." By this I meant that eastern traditions of contemplation, reflection, and meditation provide tools for studying the mind. These tools would be a welcome addition to western science.
... Read more

Isbn: 0393318486
Subjects: 1. Cognitive Psychology 2. Cognitive neuroscience 3. General 4. Natural selection 5. Neuropsychology 6. Psychology 7. Science 8. Science/Mathematics

$12.21

A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion
by Randy Thornhill, Craig T. Palmer
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Paperback (01 May, 2001)
list price: $20.00 -- our price: $20.00
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Editorial Review

Evolutionary psychology often stomps where other branches of science fear to tread. Case in point: A Natural History of Rape.Randy Thornhill, a biologist, and Craig T. Palmer, an anthropologist, have attempted to apply evolutionary principles to one of the most disgusting of human behaviors, and the result is a guaranteed storm of media hype and debate. The book's central argument is that rape is a genetically developed strategy sustained over generations of human life because it is a kind of sexual selection--a successful reproductive strategy. This runs directly counter to the prevailing notion--that rape is predominantly about violent power, and only secondarily about sex.

The authors base their argument partly on statistics showing that in the United States, most rape victims are of childbearing age. But disturbingly large numbers of rapes of children, elderly women, and other men are never adequately explained. And the actual reproductive success of rape is not clear. Thornhill and Palmer's biological interpretation is just that--an interpretation, one that won't withstand tough scientific scrutiny. They further claim that the mental trauma of rape is greater for women of childbearing age (especially married women) than it is for elderly women or children. The data supporting these assertions come from a single psychological study, done by Thornhill in the 1970s, that mixes first-person interviews with caretaker's interpretations of children's reactions.

While Thornhill and Palmer claim that they are trying to look objectively at the root causes of rape, they focus almost entirely on data that support their thesis, forcing them to write an evolutionary "just-so" story. The central problem is evident in this quote, from the chapter "The Pain and Anguish of Rape":

We feel that the woman's perspective on rape can be best understood by considering the negative influences of rape on female reproductive success.... It is also highly possible that selection favored the outward manifestations of psychological pain because it communicated the female's strong negative attitude about the rapist to her husband and/or her relatives.

Women are disturbed by rape mostly because they are worried about what their husbands might think? In statements like this, the authors repeatedly discount the psychological aspects of rape, such as fear, humiliation, loss of autonomy, and powerlessness, and focus solely on personal shame.

A Natural History of Rape will no doubt have people talking about rape and its causes, and perhaps thinking about real ways of preventing it.In fact, the authors suggest that all young men be educated frankly about their (theoretical) genetic desire to rape. And it reopens the debate about the role of sex in rape. But without more and better data supporting their conclusions, Thornhill and Palmer are doing the very thing they criticize feminists and social scientists of doing: just talking. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Reviews (66)

This book is a disgrace.
A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion. All I can say is how can anyone think this way? It certainly is not based on scientific research. Children are not of child bearing age yet there are thousands, male and female, raped all over the world every year. How can the authors explain that? Is the act of raping children practice for men wanting to sharpen their rape skills in anticipation of raping an adult woman for sexual or reproductive reasons?

I do not know the root cause behind the act of rape but I am only too familiar with its consequences. The authors attempt to scientifically legitimize such violence against women and children was completely unconvincing. Now days it seems anyone can write a book and get paid for it. The more extreme and bazaar, the title and content, the better it sells. The authors surely had that on their minds when they came up with this absurd hypothesis. Just think of all the men buying this book. Now they can rape and feel justified by spending just a few dollars to clear their conscience. This book is ludicrous and dangerous in my opinion.

technical
A technical book intended for those conversant with modern ideas in biology (sexual selection, evoltionarily stable strategies, genetic linkage, etc). The scientific background is not explained, because this is not a book for the general reader.

Unscholarly, pop-science
I study evolution with a strong focus on the evolution of the sexes. I was initially attracted to this book because I am interested in exploring the evolutionary aspects of sexual violence. Investigating this topic from an evolutionary perspective is complicated by the fact that human sexual violence often works against natural selection, unlike in other species.Despite the interesting nature of this rarely talked about subject, this particular book was not based in good science.The evolutionary links were weakly drawn. The few studies he cited did not address the full scope of sexually violent acts, they were inconclusive, and even contradictory to his own points. The conclusions he drew were opinion, though he did occasionally make that fact clear. The author did not scientifically examine his own cultural biases and the result is a book that asserts his personal agenda. I also found this book lacking in that the author did not include studies of Bonobos, considering they are the primates genetically closest to humans (closer to us than they are even to other primates) and they are one of the few species that do not commit rape and infanticide.

A book that studies the connections between evolution and sexual violence would need to be researched far better than this, and in order to draw well informed conclusions it would need to take into account all forms of sexual violence against women, children, and men.In addition, when studying the biological aspects of human behavior there must also be attention paid to the sociocultural aspects of the behavior.Most behaviors are functions of both genetics and nurture. This is true for both humans and animals.As humans we are subject to our biological drives, but we are also intelligent beings who function within free will, choice, and consciousness.... If you are interested in evolution please continue your education beyond this book.... There is so much to learn.Evolution and human behavior are fascinating subjects. ... Read more

Isbn: 0262700832
Subjects: 1. Criminology 2. Life Sciences - Evolution - Human 3. Physiological Psychology 4. Science/Mathematics 5. Social Science 6. Sociology

$20.00

A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution, and Cooperation
by Peter Singer
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Hardcover (April, 2000)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $14.00
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Editorial Review

Philosophers don't have to be arcane and out of touch. Princeton's Peter Singer gives 21st-century liberals and radicals something to think about with the slim but powerful volume of Darwinism Today titled A Darwinian Left. Long noted for holding controversial bioethical beliefs related to animal rights, abortion, and euthanasia, Singer tends to quickly polarize his readers. This time, he chooses to antagonize those most sympathetic with his positions, arguing that the political left should re-evaluate its dependence on Marxism and its shunning of Darwinism. His writing is lucid and pulls no punches in examining the consequences of 20th-century answers to poverty; fans of the welfare state are in for some discomfort.

But Singer sees making a few liberals squirm as crucial to stealing Darwinism from the right and combining the noble desire to help the helpless with a realistic view of human nature and evolution. He builds a compelling line of thought, peppered with examples, that shows how our competitive "survival of the fittest" conception of evolution falls far short of modern scientific thinking. Instead, Singer suggests we incorporate a Darwinian ethic of cooperation into our political thought and reflect carefully on the consequences of our remedies for the evils of the world.--Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Welcome but not new
It's certainly welcome to see these ideas espoused by as prominent a thinker as Peter Singer. One caveat though to those rushing to hail Singer's "original" and "bold new" ideas: the idea that Darwinism, correctly interpreted, implies social cooperation (rather than Spencerian competition) was the central theme of the philosophy of the 19th-century anarchist Peter Kropotkin, as argued in such books as Mutual Aid. (Singer is of course aware of this and makes no claims to the contrary.) For those interested in something less abstract, Ursula Leguin's utopian novel The Dispossessed makes life in a Kropotkin-inspired (and I suppose now we must say "Singerian") anarchist utopia concrete and realistic enough to shift the question about anarchism from "Could it work?" to "Is it desirable?" Her characters are recognizably human, not angels, and she makes their humanity a source of uncertainty over how well such a society would function in the long haul. This may make it sound too pedantic and it does have its speechifying moments, but it's also a good novel in its own right.

The Left Needs A New Paradigm
For the health of any movement, who can argue against a call to reappraise the body of thought that lies behind it? Singer raises legitimate and important questions for Marxists and others of the left.

As singer points out, Marx is essentially quoted as saying that behavior is determined not by nature but by the social relations surrounding the individual: "...the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations." Scholars of Marx will counter that Marx's beliefs about the nature/nurture relationship is far more nuanced than characterized by Singer's quote - and that is true.

But Singer's theme on Marx is solidly supported elsewhere including W. Peter Archibald's "Marx and the Missing Link: Human Nature" where Archibald recommends that even though much guesswork has to be done in order to pinpoint Marx's beliefs about human nature because Marx left that territory largely unclarified, Marx essentially did not acknowledge any impediment to restructuring society (that would not go away after the restructuring) arising out of qualities inherent in human nature.

To suggest, as Singer, does that modern social movements generally share the assumption that humanity is a "blank slate" upon which society and culture may write unimpeded is not without merit and should be acknowledged by the left as a legitimate concern.

The concern is that it seems naive to assume that nature will not impede social restructuring. Additionally, it seems convenient to assume that social ills arose not from nature but from specific groups in power. Both of these assumptions are challenged by modern evolution that demonstrates instinctual behavior and inherent propensities in all species including our own - and social relationships shaped and influenced by inherent conflicts of interest.

Singer's comments indirectly expose a potential flaw in the body of thought of the left: that Marxist, femminist and other perspectives could appeal to disadvantaged individuals (or those who would champion them to gain status) because they give that individual a sense of moral and intellectual superiority over those whom they feel inferior to or exploited by. If this is valid to any degree, then even some of the most scholarly of the left may hastily dismiss ideas that challenge their paradigm because they are not any more neutral about scientific discovery than their opponents.

Singer doesn't resolve the conflict of whether evolution has been hijacked by the right which overemphasizes Hobbsian competition or what evolution truly implies about social relations. But he does accomplish a wake-up call to the left to stop dismissing evolved dispositions/human nature/instinct as a nonfactor in the quest to achieving a better society.

Owing to the further popularization of studies on subjects such as human hierarchies and mate selection, Singer, if heeded by the left, could avert some substantial embarrassments and errors.

A better society might be far more complicated to create than has been suggested. The culprit of social ills may be far more diffused than specific groups in power.

Good, But...
This book is, as another reviewer put it, definitely worth reading.Singer brings to light several important issues that the left certainly needs to address.However, it is not without its flaws.

For one, Singer misrepresents some of Marx's ideas.Marx clearly *did* have a concept of a fixed human nature, albeit that interacted dialectically with its social surroundings.For more on this view, see Marx's Concept of Man by Erich Fromm and The Dialectical Biologist by Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin.

Also, Singer relies to heavily on the discredited reductionist approach to biology championed by Dawkins and company.
There is no "nature vs. nurture".There is no linear relationship between genotype and phenotype.Almost everything results from nature *and* nurture.Take, for example, even a simple thing like height:we all have different genetic potentials for growth, but only with proper nutrition can those potentials by fully realized.And today, there are even limb lengthening operations, allowing for the phenotype to be further altered -- without genetic manipulation.One can only imagine the multitude of ways in which environment must, then, impact social and psychological development.

Similarly, Singer uncritically accepts Derek Freeman's attack on Margaret Mead.But, as Martin Orans argues convincingly in his Not Even Wrong:Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman, and the Samoans, there's ample reason to doubt Freeman's thesis.

But read it, and make up your own mind. ... Read more

Isbn: 0300083238
Subjects: 1. General 2. Human evolution 3. Life Sciences - Evolution - Human 4. Philosophy 5. Political 6. Politics - Current Events 7. Right and left (Political scie 8. Right and left (Political science) 9. Social Darwinism 10. Social Organization 11. Socialism

$14.00

Fashionable Nonsense : Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science
by Alan Sokal, Jean Bricmont
Average Customer Review:

Paperback (29 October, 1999)
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Editorial Review

In 1996, an article entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" was published in the cultural studies journal Social Text. Packed with recherché quotations from "postmodern" literary theorists and sociologists of science, and bristling with imposing theorems of mathematical physics, the article addressed the cultural and political implications of the theory of quantum gravity. Later, to the embarrassment of the editors, the author revealed that the essay was a hoax, interweaving absurd pronouncements from eminent intellectuals about mathematics and physics with laudatory--but fatuous--prose.

In Fashionable Nonsense, Alan Sokal, the author of the hoax, and Jean Bricmont contend that abuse of science is rampant in postmodernist circles, both in the form of inaccurate and pretentious invocation of scientific and mathematical terminology and in the more insidious form of epistemic relativism. When Sokal and Bricmont expose Jacques Lacan's ignorant misuse of topology, or Julia Kristeva's of set theory, or Luce Irigaray's of fluid mechanics, or Jean Baudrillard's of non-Euclidean geometry, they are on safe ground; it is all too clear that these virtuosi are babbling.

Their discussion of epistemic relativism--roughly, the idea that scientific and mathematical theories are mere "narrations" or social constructions--is less convincing, however, in part because epistemic relativism is not as intrinsically silly as, say, Regis Debray's maunderings about Gödel, and in part because the authors' own grasp of the philosophy of science frequently verges on the naive. Nevertheless, Sokal and Bricmont are to be commended for their spirited resistance to postmodernity's failure to appreciate science for what it is. --Glenn Branch ... Read more

Reviews (60)

True Natural Sciences versus False, Phony, Sham Humanities
True Natural Sciences versus False, Phony, Fraud Humanities

Anyone who has been to a good college knows that the domain of human knowledge are in three broad categories.

#1.Natural Sciences(Nature, true knowledge from observation and/or experiment.

#2.Social Sciences or "soft" sciences, social studies.(Scientific study of human society.)

#3.Humanities.(Human creation. i.e. art, music literature.etc.)

We all know the only true form of human knowledge is in the Natural Sciences.

Natural Scientists uses public experiment, public facts and public evidence to make their case for the true-false-undetermined nature of their claims.

However, when it applies to social studies and humanities, there has not been nor will there ever be an "objective" method to ascertain the true-false nature of any claims. Take politics, if you ask 20 people about politics, you will get 20 answers.

Take basic mathematics, if you ask twenty people, you should get 20 identical answers if they are experts in mathematics.

Alan Sokal is an academic trained in the most vigorous, fundamental of all the sciences:Physics. You cannot be a dummy and be an expert in physics. However, the coffee-house, deconstruct pinhead crowd cannot tell the difference between true physics from witchcraft.

Hence, we have Alan Sokal exposing the literary, arts, farts, pompous, arrogant, hubris-laden, literary crowd for what they are:a group, illiterate, know-nothing pinheads.

This a great book for all those studying humanities and social sciences:you are being brainwashed. Not to mention that a degree in humanities has no market value.You will most likely be working at Taco Bell or Burger King.

This book is great read on how the humanities pinheads of the academy have misguided us.

A funny encounter with the postmodern pompous fools
Alan Sokal became famous for his hoax - a ridiculous article about "Hermeneutics of quantum gravity" that was accepted for publication in Social text, a renowned postmodernist journal published by Duke University. His article included many funny comments: for example, the value of pi became a result of political pressures - and other facts in physics were interpreted as consequences of the interactions between the genders, and so on.

It was accepted because it sounded cool to the editors of that journal - in fact, they found the article flattering - and the fact that it was nonsense did not change anything about their decision to accept the article. In another journal, Sokal had simultaneously announced that his article was a hoax.

The full text of this article is contained in this book as an appendix and some explanations of the article and its meaning have been added. However the book by Sokal and Bricmont, two mathematical physicists, contains much more interesting material about all these marvelous people such as Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Paul Virilio, and many others. Many of them, but not all, are French.

You will see how these authors misuse scientific concepts. For example, one of these postmodernist intellectuals will explain you that neurosis is connected with the topology of torus. It's just incredible how much weird stuff they could find - and most likely, there exists much more of it. Sokal and Bricmont provide you with elementary explanations of the relevant scientific concepts, and they will make you sure that the social scientists have no idea what they're talking about, even though they deny it.

It seems extremely unnatural for me to call these people "social scientists". Let me call them simply morons. You will see that these morons are only capable to use the scientific terms as sequences of letters, but they can't imagine any objective or verifiable reality behind these letters. In fact, these morons don't believe any objective reality - they imagine that science is analogous to the dances of primitive tribes in Polynesia. They believe that our conclusions whether a scientific theory is correct or not has "social causes". This book, however, will show you much more. It will show you what sort of "social causes" they mean, and you will have to laugh. Various theories in natural sciences have been accepted because of their male and racial features, for example.

Alan Sokal wrote his hoax article - and also this book - because he was deeply concerned with the fact that the political left wing is penetrated by these far-left anti-scientific bigots. Alan Sokal himself is a left-wing person and he feels that it's exactly these postmodernist bigots who make the Left much weaker.

Well, he's definitely right - but their book has not changed much in the long term. The cargo cult soft scientists and feminists continue to pursue their "theories". The scientists as well as the ordinary people with common sense know why these "theories" are ludicrous, and these extreme far-left weird intellectuals may have contributed to Kerry's loss in 2004. Sokal and Bricmont are definitely correct, but the people who are uncapable to understand why they're correct will never understand it - that's a tautology.

Intellectual Morons
Fashionable Nonsense grew out of the famous hoax in which Alan Sokal published a parody article in the American post-modern journal Social Text. The article was filled with non-sequiturs and nonsensical quotations about maths and physics by prominent French and American intellectuals, yet it was published unaltered. Sokal then revealed that it was a deliberate parody, to the great consternation of the editors of Social Text.

This book extends the investigation to show how intellectuals such as Lacan, Kristeva, Irigaray, Baudrillard, Deleuze and Guattari have repeatedly abused scientific concepts and terminology. They have either used these ideas completely out of context without justification or they have thrown scientific jargon around with no regard for its meaning or relevance, obviously to try to impress their readers.

The introduction provides the history of the Sokal Hoax and the response to it. The major part of the book consists of an analysis of various texts by Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Bruno Latour, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and Paul Virilio. Brief explanations of the relevant scientific concepts plus references to popular and explanatory texts are provided. Sokal and Bricmont also investigate certain philosophical and scientific confusions behind much of postmodernist thinking, like cognitive relativism, certain misunderstandings concerning chaos theory plus so-called postmodern science.

Appendix A provides the full text of the famous hoax article: Trangressing The Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. Appendix B consists of comments on the parody and Appendix C serves as an afterword on the hilarious incident. This amusing and illuminating book concludes with a 14-page bibliography and an index. Intellectual Impostures is an amusing read that will have you rolling on the floor at times. I also highly recommend The Illusions Of Postmodernism by Terry Eagleton, The Anti Chomsky reader by David Horowitz and Peter Collier, and Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas by Daniel J. Flynn.

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Isbn: 0312204078
Subjects: 1. History & Surveys - Modern 2. Metaphysics 3. Philosophy 4. Philosophy & Social Aspects 5. Science 6. Philosophy / Metaphysics

$11.20

e: The Story of a Number
by Eli Maor
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Paperback (04 May, 1998)
list price: $18.95 -- our price: $12.89
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Editorial Review

Until about 1975, logarithms were every scientist's best friend. They were the basis of the slide rule that was the totemic wand of the trade, listed in huge books consulted in every library. Then hand-held calculators arrived, and within a few years slide rules were museum pieces.

But e remains, the center of the natural logarithmic function and of calculus. Eli Maor's book is the only more or less popular account of the history of this universal constant. Maor gives human faces to fundamental mathematics, as in his fantasia of a meeting between Johann Bernoulli and J.S. Bach. e: The Story of a Number would be an excellent choice for a high school or college student of trigonometry or calculus. --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Reviews (41)

A must for students of Mathematics
This book was written well, and every student interested in Mathematics or pursuing a career in engineering or the sciences should read this.You really don't need to be a math genious to enjoy this book.I would recommend that high school Math teachers and even college professors assign a little reading each day of the history of their profession.This is one of those history books.

Great book Great author - Worth Reading!!
This is great book. Besides `e' it covers all the history and good stories about calculus. I did not get bored at all. This explains all the difficult concepts with great detail and fun to read. I never got bored. Maor does wonderful job of bringing together maths, fun and history.
From Napier to Newton he covers everything. It gives the insight to the common used notations today. This books is collectors item.

Never a boring moment.
How much have computers changed our lives?John Napier spend 20 years from 1594 to 1614 performing calculations for his logarithm tables.Today, that entire body of work is easily reproduced in minutes, using Microsoft Excel.But Napier'sinvention quickly spread around the world, creating a calculation revolution that empowered grateful scientists with speed they could only imagine before.I suppose it was the greatest computation breakthrough since the abacus.

From Napier forward, the story of e proceeds, eloquently recounted by Maor.There is not a boring moment in the book.
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Isbn: 0691058547
Subjects: 1. History & Philosophy 2. History Of Mathematics 3. Mathematics 4. Number Theory 5. Science/Mathematics 6. History of Science and Medicine, Philosophy of Science 7. Mathematics / History

$12.89

The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance
by Ernst E. Mayr
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Paperback (01 March, 1985)
list price: $27.95 -- our price: $27.95
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Reviews (6)

Biology as it Should be Presented
Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was an institution in the science of biology.Around long enough to contribute significantly to the development of synthetic theory, Mayr made at least some of the history he reports on in his monumental "The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance."While any book of this scope is bound to have some blank spots, this is by far the most comprehensive history of biological thought ever published and it is fitting that it should get as much praise as it has.

Mayr had his weak points (as all people do), but they were certainly not in depth of knowledge.Starting as an ornithologist (he could identify the local birds around his home in Germany by the time he was ten) he built a solid reputation as an evolutionary biologist. He early on (correctly, I believe) took the view that the "nature-nurture" argument was not valid, as genes and environment can never be separated.He is also the author of numerous quotable statements on the scientific method, biology and evolutionary thought, such as "...most scientific problems are far better understood by studying their history than their logic," a statement he backs up in this huge tome.

Indeed, Mayr is right; to understand scientific problems one needs to understand the history of thought involved.For example, Mayr first proposed punctuated equilibrium, as noted by S. J. Gould and Niles Eldredge, and defined much of the evolutionary landscape of speciation. Without the knowledge of Mayr's contribution and contributions made by other biological giants, starting with Darwin and going on through Sewell Wright, George Gaylord Simpson, the Huxleys, Dobzhansky, George Williams and many others, the rich development of biological thought is almost indecipherable.In essence, we really need to know how a particular idea was derived in order to understand its significance (It was not until I was taught the significance of the history behind cell theory that I really appreciated it!) This is how biology should be taught and this is a good book with which to start.I recommend it highly.

essential refernce history
This is an absolutely superb history of biological thought.If you want to know what Aristotle thought, the details about van Leuvenhook as he turned his crude microscope on a drop of water (revealing the existence of teeming microorganisms), and the neo-darwinian synthesis (of Darwin and Mendelian genetics), this is your book.It is unfailingly accurate, beautifully written, and laid out so that it is easy to find what you want at the moment you need it.I have used this as a reference for years when I needed just the right fact or idea in some article or review.It is simply first rate, but it is a book to use and apply more than one to read straight through.Finally, Maye is one of the great biologists of the 20C, a leader in the development of neo-Darwinism, which is a special treat to the reader.

Recommended.Its excellence will stand the test of time.

Not quite comprehensive
While Mayr took on a monumental task in researching the history of ideas in 3 important areas of biology, this book feels limited.The most glaring weakness I found is the heavy Eurocentrism displayed throughout.It gives no mention to the large contribution made by scientists in Asia to many of the issues it addresses.The book also feels highly repetitive in some areas, explaining the same concepts every few pages at times.I feel that it would have been better served as a series of books, each one more detailed in the branch of biology with which it is concerned. ... Read more

Isbn: 0674364465
Sales Rank: 80316
Subjects: 1. Biology 2. Biology (General) 3. History 4. Life Sciences - Biology - General 5. Philosophy 6. Science 7. Science/Mathematics

$27.95

Evolution: The History of an Idea
by Peter J. Bowler
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Paperback (01 February, 1989)
list price: $24.95
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Reviews (2)

The evolution of an idea
This history of evolutionary thought is good at showing how the idea developed in Darwin's particular society, influenced by thinkers before Darwin such as Malthus.The book, also shows how Darwin's thinking evolved, how the idea itself evolved from outside influences (particularly plate tectonics and cosmology), and how it influenced non-biological thinking (such at utilitarianism, capitalism, Marxism) sometimes in scary ways such as eugenics.

Throughout the book, it seems like philosophers (at least in the West) desired a purpose and direction of evolution, if not a Director.Lamarckianism (inheritance of acquired characteristics) also seemed to have continual appeal and in the later editions of the Origin of Species, Darwin himself was leaning more that way. The continual difficulty of direct evidence and incomplete fossil record, leads to ongoing speculations.

Although generally dry/scholarly there are a few fun side-diversions, such as Kammerer's midwife toad.Bowler also highlights other key figures such as paleontologist Georges Cuvier and "Darwin's bulldog" Thomas Huxley. I would have like more history of how the general public accepted the idea, perhaps by tracing the teaching in schools or textbooks.Readers of this might also enjoy Dawkins "The Blind Watchmaker".

For those with serious interest in "the history of an idea"
Peter Bowler is an Irish historian of science who is known for his studies of evolution as an "-ism".This is undoubtedly his magnum opus and is one of the best introductory texts on this subject available.But,a word of caution- reviews on this website are full of superlatives.Manybooks are advertised by reader-critics shouting "everyone should readthis book!"Setting aside the obvious absurdity of that statement, Iwill state quite clearly that this book is not for everyone.With notesand index, it comes to 432 pages, and, as Bowler himself notes in thepreface, it is intended for undergraduate students or as a survey text forthe