en-US Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:18:22 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 15309395 0 Jim Steinman 0814320430 Jim 0 4.00 1988
author: Jim Steinman
name: Jim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at: 2019/05/17
date added: 2024/06/04
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]]> 43726585 The Stakes explains how the failure of the economy to serve ordinary Americans opened the door to a demagogic president, and how democracy can still be taken back from Donald Trump.


Either the United States continues the long slide into the arms of the bankers and corporate interests and the disaffection of working Americans—the course set in the past half century by Republican and Democratic presidents alike—or we elect a progressive Democrat in the mold of FDR. At stake is nothing less than the continued success of the American experiment in liberal democracy. That success is dependent on a fairer distribution of income, wealth, and life changes —and a reduction in the political influence of financial elites over both parties.


The decay of democracy and economic fairness began long before Trump. The American republic is in need of a massive overhaul. It will take not just a resounding Democratic victory in 2020 but a progressive victory to pull back from the brink of autocracy. The Stakes demonstrates how a progressive Democrat has a better chance than a centrist of winning the presidency, and how only this outcome can begin the renewal of the economy and our democracy.


A passionate book from one of America’s best political analysts, The Stakes is the book to read ahead of the 2020 primaries and general election.]]> 304 Robert Kuttner 1324003650 Jim 4 3.85 2019
author: Robert Kuttner
name: Jim
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/07
date added: 2020/03/08
shelves:
review:
An argument for the need for progressive Democratic strategy. Explains the failings of the political status quo and how it could be turned to better serve the 99%. The author offers a positive outlook while acknowledging the difficulty of reversing the anti-democratic movement that is embodied in the Republican Party of the last forty years.
]]> 36262373 One man's thrilling and transporting journey by canoe across Alaska in search of the king salmon

The Yukon river is 2,000 miles long, the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States. In this riveting examination of one of the last wild places on earth, Adam Weymouth canoes along the river's length, from Canada's Yukon Territory, through Alaska, to the Bering Sea. The result is a book that shows how even the most remote wilderness is affected by the same forces reshaping the rest of the planet.

Every summer, hundreds of thousands of king salmon migrate the distance of the Yukon to their spawning grounds, where they breed and die, in what is the longest salmon run in the world. For the communities that live along the river, salmon was once the lifeblood of the economy and local culture. But climate change and a globalized economy have fundamentally altered the balance between man and nature; the health and numbers of king salmon are in question, as is the fate of the communities that depend on them.

Traveling along the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through untrammeled landscape, Adam Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into indigenous cultures, and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world. Weaving in the rich history of salmon across time as well as the science behind their mysterious life cycle, Kings of the Yukon is extraordinary adventure and nature writing at its most urgent and poetic.]]> 288 Adam Weymouth 0316396702 Jim 4 4.04 2018
author: Adam Weymouth
name: Jim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/02
date added: 2019/12/02
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A well-written description of an English journalist’s four month canoe trip the entire length of the Yukon River.
]]> 35414701 Exactly What to Say, he delivers the tactics you need to get more of what you want.

Best-selling author and multiple award-winner Phil M. Jones is highly regarded as one of the world's leading sales trainers.]]> 148 Phil M. Jones 0692881956 Jim 2 3.66 2017
author: Phil M. Jones
name: Jim
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/10/21
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]]> 8317335 320 Gareth Dale 0745640729 Jim 4 3.84 2010
author: Gareth Dale
name: Jim
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/14
date added: 2019/10/14
shelves:
review:
A thoughtful examination of the mid-twentieth century thinker, Karl Polanyi, who explored the destructive effects of the neo-liberal based market and proposed ideas for a more socially constructive economic system. Admittedly those ideas were sketchy and difficult to implement in the real world. Nevertheless, the author of the study points out that blindly adhering to the status quo or the extension through technology of the current trends only points to its failings and the impending disaster.
]]> 43697186
As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own ceremony-- a celebration that ultimately never took place.

Unfurling the history of Melody's parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they've paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives--even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.]]> 196 Jacqueline Woodson 0525535276 Jim 5 3.96 2019
author: Jacqueline Woodson
name: Jim
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/09/17
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]]> 65339
Alan S. Trueblood annotates the individual poems, placing them in context and illuminating their allusions and undertones. In addition, he provides a substantial biographical and critical Introduction. This gives an overview of Machado's life, as a poet and teacher and wide-ranging commentator on cultural, political, and social affairs. (Forced into exile at the end of the Civil War, he crossed the Pyrenees on foot and died a month later.) The Introduction also discusses the qualities of Machado's predominantly quiet and reflective verse, as well as the development of the thought of this major poet.]]> 336 Trueblood 067404066X Jim 0 did-not-finish 4.04 1976
author: Trueblood
name: Jim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/09/04
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 13037156
Supreme Why the Supreme Court is Not a Court and its Justices are Not Judges presents a detailed discussion of the Court's most important and controversial constitutional cases that demonstrates why it doesn't justify being labeled "a court of law."

Eric Segall, professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law for two decades, explains why this third branch of the national government is an institution that makes important judgments about fundamental questions based on the Justices' ideological preferences, not the law. A complete understanding of the true nature of the Court's decision-making process is necessary, he argues, before an intelligent debate over who should serve on the Court―and how they should resolve cases―can be held. Addressing front-page areas of constitutional law such as health care, abortion, affirmative action, gun control, and freedom of religion, this book offers a frank description of how the Supreme Court truly operates, a critique of life tenure of its Justices, and a set of proposals aimed at making the Court function more transparently to further the goals of our representative democracy.]]> 240 Eric J. Segall 0313396876 Jim 4
This thesis is illustrated by an examination of the courts rulings in a series of controversial areas dating back to the Marshall court and up to the date of publication (2012).

The author criticizes both decisions favored by conservatives and liberals based on the imposition of judges values.

He ends by suggesting several reforms which like all reforms in this area are difficult to affect. As a last resort to change our undemocratic system he considers the possibility of the President announcing that he rejects the judicial overrule of laws passed by congress in some cases.

In his epilogue the author sums up the irrationality of our current system by saying that in designing a new government no one would advocate leaving the decisions on the issues of greatest public import to an unelected council of ultimate deciders serving life terms -- essentially the system we now have.]]> 3.96 2012
author: Eric J. Segall
name: Jim
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/17
date added: 2019/05/17
shelves:
review:
Book is critical of the role of the Supreme Court in our democracy. Author asserts that the justices act more like a supreme legislative council and that their decisions in most important cases are an expression of their values and preferences disguised as legal reasoning.

This thesis is illustrated by an examination of the courts rulings in a series of controversial areas dating back to the Marshall court and up to the date of publication (2012).

The author criticizes both decisions favored by conservatives and liberals based on the imposition of judges values.

He ends by suggesting several reforms which like all reforms in this area are difficult to affect. As a last resort to change our undemocratic system he considers the possibility of the President announcing that he rejects the judicial overrule of laws passed by congress in some cases.

In his epilogue the author sums up the irrationality of our current system by saying that in designing a new government no one would advocate leaving the decisions on the issues of greatest public import to an unelected council of ultimate deciders serving life terms -- essentially the system we now have.
]]> 34853478 US History 208 1131301463 Jim 4
The style is a bit folksy and dated, presumably due to the second author, but this does not detract from the value of the narrative and explanations.]]> 3.33 1988
author: DAVID B. In Collaboration with John T. Nevill STEINMAN
name: Jim
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/10
date added: 2019/05/15
shelves:
review:
Co-written by the designer of this longest suspension bridge at the time of its completion, this book describes the construction process and the design rationale in detail but at a non-technical level. It includes many anecdotes and illuminating diagrams.

The style is a bit folksy and dated, presumably due to the second author, but this does not detract from the value of the narrative and explanations.
]]> 37805219 "This work will become the defining text on progressive constitutionalism � a parallel to Thomas Picketty’s contribution but for all who care deeply about constitutional law. Beautifully written and powerfully argued, this is a masterpiece." --Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School, and author of Free Culture

Worried about what a super conservative majority on the Supreme Court means for the future of civil liberties? From gun control to reproductive health, a conservative court will reshape the lives of all Americans for decades to come. The time to develop and defend a progressive vision of the U.S. Constitution that protects the rights of all people is now.

University of California Berkeley Dean and respected legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky expertly exposes how conservatives are using the Constitution to advance their own agenda that favors business over consumers and employees, and government power over individual rights.

But exposure is not enough. Progressives have spent too much of the last forty-five years trying to preserve the legacy of the Warren Court’s most important rulings and reacting to the Republican-dominated Supreme Courts by criticizing their erosion of rights—but have not yet developed a progressive vision for the Constitution itself. Yet, if we just look to the promise of the Preamble—liberty and justice for all—and take seriously its vision, a progressive reading of the Constitution can lead us forward as we continue our fight ensuring democratic rule, effective government, justice, liberty, and equality.

Includes the Complete Constitution and Amendments of the United States of America ]]> 320 Erwin Chemerinsky 1250166004 Jim 4
Professor Chemerinsky begins with a brief analysis of "Originalism" which he reveals to be a form of sophistry.

Some of the positions he advocates seem a stretch but the need to advocate a Progressive agenda is convincing.]]> 4.09 2018
author: Erwin Chemerinsky
name: Jim
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/04/16
date added: 2019/04/16
shelves:
review:
A Progressive view of the Constitution for the 21st century. The author centers his analysis in the values he sees implied in the Preamble to the Constitution: Democratic government, Effective governance, Establishing justice, Securing liberty, and one additional value which he sees as evolving through our history -- Equality.

Professor Chemerinsky begins with a brief analysis of "Originalism" which he reveals to be a form of sophistry.

Some of the positions he advocates seem a stretch but the need to advocate a Progressive agenda is convincing.
]]> 37638266 "If anyone can save capitalism from the capitalists, it's Steven Pearlstein. This lucid, brilliant book refuses to abandon capitalism to those who believe morality and justice irrelevant to an economic system." --Ezra Klein, founder and editor-at-large, Vox

Pulitzer Prize-winning economics journalist Steven Pearlstein argues that our thirty year experiment in unfettered markets has undermined core values required to make capitalism and democracy work.

Thirty years ago, "greed is good" and "maximizing shareholder value" became the new mantras woven into the fabric of our business culture, economy, and politics. Although, around the world, free market capitalism has lifted more than a billion people from poverty, in the United States most of the benefits of economic growth have been captured by the richest 10%, along with providing justification for squeezing workers, cheating customers, avoiding taxes, and leaving communities in the lurch. As a result, Americans are losing faith that a free market economy is the best system.

In Can American Capitalism Survive?, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steven Pearlstein chronicles our descent and challenges the theories being taught in business schools and exercised in boardrooms around the country. We're missing a key tenet of Adam Smith's wealth of nations: without trust and social capital, democratic capitalism cannot survive. Further, equality of incomes and opportunity need not come at the expense of economic growth.

Pearlstein lays out bold steps we can take as a country: a guaranteed minimum income paired with universal national service, tax incentives for companies to share profits with workers, ending class segregation in public education, and restoring competition to markets. He provides a path forward that will create the shared prosperity that will sustain capitalism over the long term.]]> 256 Steven Pearlstein 125018598X Jim 5
The author contends that the worship of maximized shareholder value in the short run is destructive of our democracy, is based on fallacious theories, and in the end cannot even be shown to produce optimal long-term growth for the corporations that pursue it.

The author proposes a more balanced approach to the market and advocates some ideas for reform of laws and business practices which will reduce the extreme “inequality� of our current system. This tendency to inequality is shown to be a long-term brake on growth in addition to its corrosive effect on society.

The book ends with a sketch of the areas of reform and quotes one of Robert Kennedy’s last speeches in which he states: “[The Gross National Product] measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”]]> 3.88 2018
author: Steven Pearlstein
name: Jim
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/24
date added: 2019/03/24
shelves:
review:
This book examines the myths promoted by the apologists for “market justice� or the idea that some form of market capitalism is inherently good and that any tinkering with the so-called “free market� will inevitably lead to economic disaster. Although the author is not an economist or political scientist he has long experience writing on these issues and has consulted a range of thinkers and data sources.

The author contends that the worship of maximized shareholder value in the short run is destructive of our democracy, is based on fallacious theories, and in the end cannot even be shown to produce optimal long-term growth for the corporations that pursue it.

The author proposes a more balanced approach to the market and advocates some ideas for reform of laws and business practices which will reduce the extreme “inequality� of our current system. This tendency to inequality is shown to be a long-term brake on growth in addition to its corrosive effect on society.

The book ends with a sketch of the areas of reform and quotes one of Robert Kennedy’s last speeches in which he states: “[The Gross National Product] measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.�
]]> 1979688
The last battle of the Civil War wasn't fought at Appomattox by dashing generals or young soldiers but by middle-aged men in frock coats. Yet it was war all the same―a desperate struggle for the soul and future of the new American Republic that was rising from the ashes of Civil War. It was the battle that planted the seeds of democracy, under the bland heading "Amendment XIV." Scholars call it the "Second Constitution." Over time, the Fourteenth Amendment―which at last provided African Americans with full citizenship and prohibited any state from denying any citizen due process and equal protection under the law―changed almost every detail of our public life.

Democracy Reborn tells the story of this desperate struggle, from the halls of Congress to the bloody streets of Memphis and New Orleans. Both a novelist and a constitutional scholar, Garrett Epps unfolds a powerful story against a panoramic portrait of America on the verge of a new era.]]> 352 Garrett Epps 0805086633 Jim 5
The story is presented in a novelistic fashion which retains the readers interest rather than in an academic style.]]> 4.28 2006
author: Garrett Epps
name: Jim
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2019/02/28
date added: 2019/02/28
shelves:
review:
This is an engaging retelling of the events leading up to the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and the subsequent prolonged stunted interpretation and failure to enforce its provisions until the mid-twentieth century, particularly by the Supreme Court -- a trend which continues in some ways to this date.

The story is presented in a novelistic fashion which retains the readers interest rather than in an academic style.
]]> 36544891 160 Mark Lilla 0062697455 Jim 0 currently-reading 3.73 2017
author: Mark Lilla
name: Jim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2019/02/28
date added: 2019/02/28
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 58345 The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.

Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening.]]> 195 Kate Chopin 0543898083 Jim 0 to-read 3.69 1899
author: Kate Chopin
name: Jim
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1899
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 12232938
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.]]> 372 Alice Sebold 0316166685 Jim 0 to-read 3.87 2002
author: Alice Sebold
name: Jim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 18492556 520 Leonardo Padura 6074214662 Jim 0 did-not-finish 4.06 2013
author: Leonardo Padura
name: Jim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/09
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 23502999
"After Appomattox" argues that the war did not end with Confederate capitulation in 1865. Instead, a second phase commenced which lasted until 1871 not the project euphemistically called Reconstruction but a state of genuine belligerency whose mission was to shape the terms of peace. Using its war powers, the U.S. Army oversaw an ambitious occupation, stationing tens of thousands of troops in hundreds of outposts across the defeated South. This groundbreaking study of the post-surrender occupation makes clear that its purpose was to crush slavery and to create meaningful civil and political rights for freed people in the face of rebels bold resistance.

But reliance on military occupation posed its own dilemmas. In areas beyond Army control, the Ku Klux Klan and other violent insurgencies created near-anarchy. Voters in the North also could not stomach an expensive and demoralizing occupation. Under those pressures, by 1871, the Civil War came to its legal end. The wartime after Appomattox disrupted planter power and established important rights, but the dawn of legal peacetime heralded the return of rebel power, not a sustainable peace."]]> 352 Gregory P. Downs 0674743989 Jim 0 did-not-finish 4.05 2015
author: Gregory P. Downs
name: Jim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/09
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 49210 --Sean Wilentz, The New York Times Book Review

Nicholas Lemann opens this extraordinary book with a riveting account of the horrific events of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia of Confederate veterans-turned-vigilantes attacked the black community there and massacred hundreds of people in a gruesome killing spree.

This began an insurgency that changed the course of American history: for the next few years white Southern Democrats waged a campaign of political terrorism aiming to overturn the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and challenge President Grant's support for the emergent structures of black political power.

Redemption is the first book to describe in uncompromising detail this organized racial violence, which reached its apogee in Mississippi in 1875.]]> 272 Nicholas Lemann 0374248559 Jim 0 did-not-finish 3.92 2006
author: Nicholas Lemann
name: Jim
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/09
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 36949385
Friedrich Gorenstein's Redemption is a stark and powerful portrait of humanity caught up in Stalin's police state in the aftermath of the war and the Holocaust. In this short novel, written in 1967 but unpublished for many years, Gorenstein effortlessly combines the concrete details of daily life in this devastated society with witness testimonies to the mass murder of Jews. He gives a realistic account of postwar Soviet suffering though nuanced psychological portraits of people confronted with harsh choices and a coming-of-age story underscored by the deep involvement of sexuality and violence. Interspersed are flights of philosophical consideration of the relationship between Christians and Jews, love and suffering, justice and forgiveness. A major addition to the canon of literature bearing witness to the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, Redemption is an important reckoning with anti-Semitism and Stalinist repression from a significant Soviet Jewish voice.]]> 232 Friedrich Gorenstein 0231185146 Jim 0 did-not-finish 4.33 1979
author: Friedrich Gorenstein
name: Jim
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/09
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]]> 9574908 The Tunnel was championed by Albert Camus, Thomas Mann, and Graham Greene upon its publication in 1948 and went on to become an international bestseller. At its center is an artist named Juan Pablo Castel, who recounts from his prison cell his murder of a woman named MarĂ­a Iribarne. Obsessed from the moment he sees her examining one of his paintings, Castel fantasizes for months about how they might meet again. When he happens upon her one day, a relationship develops that convinces him of their mutual love. But Castel's growing paranoia leads him to destroy the one thing he truly cares about.]]> 140 Ernesto Sabato Jim 0 did-not-finish 3.92 1948
author: Ernesto Sabato
name: Jim
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1948
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/09
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 20821099 A preeminent constitutional scholar offers a hard-hitting analysis of the Supreme Court over the last two hundred years

Most Americans share the perception that the Supreme Court is objective, but Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the country’s leading constitutional lawyers, shows that this is nonsense and always has been. The Court is made up of fallible individuals who base decisions on their own biases. Today, the Roberts Court is promoting a conservative agenda under the guise of following a neutral methodology, but notorious decisions, such as Bush vs. Gore and United Citizens, are hardly recent exceptions. This devastating book details, case by case, how the Court has largely failed throughout American history at its most important tasks and at the most important times.

Only someone of Chemerinsky’s stature and breadth of knowledge could take on this controversial topic. Powerfully arguing for term limits for justices and a reassessment of the institution as a whole, The Case Against the Supreme Court is a timely and important book that will be widely read and cited for decades to come.]]> 400 Erwin Chemerinsky 0670026425 Jim 4 3.99 2014
author: Erwin Chemerinsky
name: Jim
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/12/22
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This book is by a constitutional law professor with long experience in representing clients before the Supreme Court. The author reviews the history of the Court from the adoption of the Constitution making the case that the Court has more often than not failed to protect the vulnerable, comforted the privileged, protected abusive officials, and undermined our democratic process. He offers several reasonable and moderate ideas for improving the responsiveness of the Court -- which, besides being difficult to effect given the rigidity of our Constitutional schema, are unlikely to be considered in today's hyper-partisan environment
]]> 5928572 668 Elsa Morante 8806136658 Jim 0 did-not-finish 4.33 1974
author: Elsa Morante
name: Jim
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/09/10
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 26195973
In Relic , William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe point to the Constitution as the main culprit. The framers designed the Constitution some 225 years ago for a simple, agrarian society. But the government they created, with a parochial Congress at its center, is ill-equipped to address the serious social problems that arise in a complex, postindustrial nation. We are prisoners of the past, burdened with an antiquated government that cannot make effective policy, and often cannot do anything at all.

The solution is to update the Constitution for modern times. This can be accomplished, Howell and Moe argue, through reforms that push Congress and all its pathologies to the periphery of the lawmaking process, and bring presidents -- whose concern for their legacy drives them to seek coherent policy solutions -- to the center of decision making. As Howell and Moe reveal, the key to effective government for modern America is a more powerful presidency.

Relic is a provocative and essential book for our era of political dysfunction and popular despair. It sheds new light on what is wrong with our government and what can be done about it, challenging us to reconsider the very foundation of the American experiment.]]> 256 William G. Howell 0465042694 Jim 3 3.38 2016
author: William G. Howell
name: Jim
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2016
rating: 3
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date added: 2017/01/11
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]]> 7869251
In The Living Constitution , leading constitutional scholar David Strauss forcefully argues against the claims of Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, and other "originalists," explaining in clear, jargon-free English how the Constitution can sensibly evolve, without falling into the anything-goes flexibility caricatured by opponents. The living Constitution is not an out-of-touch liberal theory, Strauss further shows, but a mainstream tradition of American jurisprudence--a common-law approach to the Constitution, rooted in the written document but also based on precedent. Each generation has contributed precedents that guide and confine judicial rulings, yet allow us to meet the demands of today, not force us to follow the commands of the long-dead Founders. Strauss explores how judicial decisions adapted the Constitution's text (and contradicted original intent) to produce some of our most profound accomplishments: the end of racial segregation, the expansion of women's rights, and
the freedom of speech. By contrast, originalism suffers from fatal flaws: the impossibility of truly divining original intent, the difficulty of adapting eighteenth-century understandings to the modern world, and the pointlessness of chaining ourselves to decisions made centuries ago.

David Strauss is one of our leading authorities on Constitutional law--one with practical knowledge as well, having served as Assistant Solicitor General of the United States and argued eighteen cases before the United States Supreme Court. Now he offers a profound new understanding of how the Constitution can remain vital to life in the twenty-first century.]]> 176 David A. Strauss 0195377273 Jim 4
As to the idea that nothing should change in constitutional law without an amendment -- that is unsustainable. The procedure for amendments gives veto power to the smallest states and they will never allow significant diminution of their power. Should a procedure adopted by people 225 years ago be considered infallible and eternal ?

Even the 13th (abolishing slavery), 14th (equal protection for all citizens), and 15th (granting the vote to all [male] citizens) amendments were only passed because the confederate states were forced to approve them before being readmitted to the union. If those states were allowed to vote freely would those amendments ever have been adopted -- maybe in 1964? Blacks would literally never have been given the vote in the South if the true procedure for amendments had been enforced. Republicans are still trying to suppress their vote today in 2016!

Only one or two amendments of other than those of purely procedural effect (i.e.. women's suffrage) have been passed after the first twelve which were essentially part of the original constitution.]]> 3.84 2010
author: David A. Strauss
name: Jim
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/01
date added: 2016/12/27
shelves:
review:
This book offers an alternative to the theory that "originalism" is a reliable and unbiased way to interpret the constitution and shows that this idea is seriously flawed. The "common law" method of judicial ruling is proposed as a more realistic way and in fact the method that is used in practice. "Originalism" is shown in most cases to be just another way to achieve the results that the judge wants.

As to the idea that nothing should change in constitutional law without an amendment -- that is unsustainable. The procedure for amendments gives veto power to the smallest states and they will never allow significant diminution of their power. Should a procedure adopted by people 225 years ago be considered infallible and eternal ?

Even the 13th (abolishing slavery), 14th (equal protection for all citizens), and 15th (granting the vote to all [male] citizens) amendments were only passed because the confederate states were forced to approve them before being readmitted to the union. If those states were allowed to vote freely would those amendments ever have been adopted -- maybe in 1964? Blacks would literally never have been given the vote in the South if the true procedure for amendments had been enforced. Republicans are still trying to suppress their vote today in 2016!

Only one or two amendments of other than those of purely procedural effect (i.e.. women's suffrage) have been passed after the first twelve which were essentially part of the original constitution.
]]> 13587012 336 Ray Raphael 1595588329 Jim 4
1) The primary objective of the framers of the constitution was to limit the powers of government.

2) The framers were particularly non-political and patriotically inclined.

3) The original intent or original meaning of the more abstract and general provisions of the constitution can be objectively determined and can form a consistent and unbiased key to interpreting the constitution.

These beliefs are examined and shown to be oversimplifications or just plain wrong.]]> 3.76 2013
author: Ray Raphael
name: Jim
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/11
date added: 2016/12/11
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Examines several popular beliefs about the constitution such as:

1) The primary objective of the framers of the constitution was to limit the powers of government.

2) The framers were particularly non-political and patriotically inclined.

3) The original intent or original meaning of the more abstract and general provisions of the constitution can be objectively determined and can form a consistent and unbiased key to interpreting the constitution.

These beliefs are examined and shown to be oversimplifications or just plain wrong.
]]> 18562106 527 Heidi Ravven 129971420X Jim 0 did-not-finish 0.0 2012
author: Heidi Ravven
name: Jim
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/10/28
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 3676373 211 Jorge Luis Borges 0828825556 Jim 0 to-read 4.50 1945
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Jim
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1945
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 11828292 From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a clear-eyed exploration of the career of Leon Trotsky, the tragic hero who “dreamed of justice and then wreaked havoc,� by a leading expert on human rights and the former Soviet Union

Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in southern Ukraine, Trotsky was both a world-class intellectual and a man capable of the most narrow-minded ideological dogmatism. He was an effective military strategist and an adept diplomat, who staked the fate of the Bolshevik revolution on the meager foundation of a Europe-wide Communist upheaval. He was a master politician who played his cards badly in the momentous struggle for power against Stalin in the 1920s. And he was an assimilated, indifferent Jew who was among the first to foresee that Hitler’s triumph would mean disaster for his fellow European Jews, and that Stalin would attempt to forge an alliance with Hitler if Soviet overtures to the Western democracies failed.

Here, Trotsky emerges as a brilliant and brilliantly flawed man. Rubenstein offers us a Trotsky who is mentally acute and impatient with others, one of the finest students of contemporary politics who refused to engage in the nitty-gritty of party organization in the 1920s, when Stalin was maneuvering, inexorably, toward Trotsky’s own political oblivion.

As Joshua Rubenstein writes in his preface, “Leon Trotsky haunts our historical memory. A preeminent revolutionary figure and a masterful writer, Trotsky led an upheaval that helped to define the contours of twentieth-century politics.� In this lucid and judicious evocation of Trotsky’s life, Joshua Rubenstein gives us an interpretation for the twenty-first century.]]> 240 Joshua Rubenstein 0300137249 Jim 3 3.67 2011
author: Joshua Rubenstein
name: Jim
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/12/11
date added: 2012/12/11
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]]> 286433 707 Robert C. Tucker 0393308693 Jim 4
Writing is clear and well-organized despite the large cast of characters.]]> 3.88 1990
author: Robert C. Tucker
name: Jim
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2012/11/26
date added: 2012/11/26
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A fascinating exploration of Stalin's warped psychology and his methods of imposing it on a whole nation.

Writing is clear and well-organized despite the large cast of characters.
]]> 3734439 204 Tom S. Blyth 3540761225 Jim 0 to-read 3.67 2000
author: Tom S. Blyth
name: Jim
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/09/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 109375
A revised and updated edition of an investment classic, The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need remains clear, understandable, and effective. This edition contains a new chapter comparing index funds, ETFs, and passive asset class funds, an expanded section on portfolio care and maintenance, the addition of Swedroe's 15 Rules of Prudent Investing, and much more.

In clear language, Swedroe shows how the newer index mutual funds out-earn, out-perform, and out-compound the older funds, and how to select a balance "passive" portfolio for the long hail that will repay you many times over. This indispensable book also provides you with valuable information about:

- The efficiency of markets today
- The five factors that determine expected returns of a balanced equity and fixed income portfolio
- Important facts about volatility, return, and risk
- Six steps to building a diversified portfolio using Modern Portfolio Theory
- Implementing the winning strategy
- and more.]]> 352 Larry E. Swedroe 0312339879 Jim 4 4.02 1998
author: Larry E. Swedroe
name: Jim
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2012/09/19
date added: 2012/09/19
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A convincing exposition of the advantages of "passive investing" -- investing in broad classes of assets without trying to predict market timing or select individual securities. Presentation is a little repetitive and dry.
]]> 13279543 396 Robert Courland 1616144815 Jim 3 3.80 2011
author: Robert Courland
name: Jim
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/08/21
date added: 2012/08/25
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A history on concrete from prehistoric times to the present. Romans are presented as masters of the use of this material, making structures that have lasted 2000 years. Vignettes of various key figures in the development of modern concrete are presented. Book is non-technical.
]]> 12987606 Ěý
A man of indomitable will and fierce determination, Georgy Zhukov was the Soviet Union’s indispensable commander through every one of the critical turning points of World War II. It was Zhukov who saved Leningrad from capture by the Wehrmacht in September 1941, Zhukov who led the defense of Moscow in October 1941, Zhukov who spearheaded the Red Army’s march on Berlin and formally accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender in the spring of 1945. Drawing on the latest research from recently opened Soviet archives, including the uncensored versions of Zhukov’s own memoirs, Roberts offers a vivid portrait of a man whose tactical brilliance was matched only by the cold-blooded ruthlessness with which he pursued his battlefield objectives.
Ěý
After the war, Zhukov was a key player on the geopolitical scene. As Khrushchev’s defense minister, he was one of the architects of Soviet military strategy during the Cold War. While lauded in the West as a folk hero—he was the only Soviet general ever to appear on the cover of Time magazine—Zhukov repeatedly ran afoul of the Communist political authorities. Wrongfully accused of disloyalty, he was twice banished and erased from his country’s official history—left out of books and paintings depicting Soviet World War II victories. Piercing the hyperbole of the Zhukov personality cult, Roberts debunks many of the myths that have sprung up around Zhukov’s life and career to deliver fresh insights into the marshal’s relationships with Stalin, Khrushchev, and Eisenhower.
Ěý
A remarkably intimate portrait of a man whose life was lived behind an Iron Curtain of official secrecy, Stalin’s General is an authoritative biography that restores Zhukov to his rightful place in the twentieth-century military pantheon.]]> 400 Geoffrey Roberts 1400066921 Jim 3 3.72 2012
author: Geoffrey Roberts
name: Jim
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2012
rating: 3
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date added: 2012/08/06
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]]> 3074943 384 Peter Fritzsche 0674027930 Jim 4 4.05 2008
author: Peter Fritzsche
name: Jim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2012/07/24
date added: 2012/07/24
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A well-written study of German attitudes toward Nazi racial policies. It concentrates on how people tried to rationalize their knowledge (admittedly very incomplete) of actions that would have been unthinkable in the pre-nazi era.
]]> 6435228 288 Martin Pollack 0571228003 Jim 4
Through research the author uncovers many details about the father he didn't know and even about living relatives who were complicit in racial hatred and Nazism.

A personal look at the creation of a war criminal.]]> 4.17 2004
author: Martin Pollack
name: Jim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2012/02/25
date added: 2012/02/25
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A "micro history" by an Austrian journalist whose father (who died when he was a small child) was a Gestapo and SS commander. The family belonged to a German minority in the Hapsburg region of Lower Styria where a culture of fanatical nationalism and racial hatred prevailed among the Germans of the "language border".

Through research the author uncovers many details about the father he didn't know and even about living relatives who were complicit in racial hatred and Nazism.

A personal look at the creation of a war criminal.
]]> 11044200 An award-winning psychologist draws on years of research to unveil “a simple but persuasive hypothesis for a new way to think about evil� (New York Times).

How can we explain both cruelty and kindness? To award-winning psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen, the explanation for cruelty is low levels of empathy, and the explanation for kindness is high levels of empathy. In The Science of Evil, Baron-Cohen draws on decades of research to develop a new, brain-based theory of human cruelty and kindness. He explores the social and biological factors that can influence our empathy levels, explains the key distinction between cognitive and affective forms of empathy, and shows how low empathy can lead to dehumanizing behavior.

Updated with a new introduction by the author, The Science of Evil will continue to challenge our understanding of human cruelty. Borderline personality disorder, autism, narcissism, psychosis, Asperger's: All of these syndromes have one thing in common--lack of empathy. In some cases, this absence can be dangerous, but in others it can simply mean a different way of seeing the world.

“Rigorously researched…[Baron-Cohen’s] discussion of how parents can instill lifelong empathy in their children is particularly useful.� �Guardian (UK)

�The Science of Evil contains a huge amount of useful information for a rather short read…it’s an important early step in building a more robust understanding of our species at its most horrific.� �Boston Globe

“Attractively humane…fascinating information about the relation between degrees of empathy and the state of our brains.��Financial Times]]> 256 Simon Baron-Cohen Jim 3 3.74 2011
author: Simon Baron-Cohen
name: Jim
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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date added: 2012/01/19
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]]> 208933
Pure mathematics, the area of Bourbaki’s work, seems on the surface to be an abstract field of human study with no direct connection with the real world. In reality, however, it is closely intertwined with the general culture that surrounds it. Major developments in mathematics have often followed important trends in popular culture; developments in mathematics have acted as harbingers of change in the surrounding human culture.

The seeds of change, the beginnings of the revolution that swept the Western world in the early decades of the twentieth century � both in mathematics and in other areas � were sown late in the previous century. This is the story both of Bourbaki and the world that created him in that time. It is the story of an elaborate intellectual joke � because Bourbaki, one of the foremost mathematicians of his day � never existed.]]> 272 Amir D. Aczel 1560259310 Jim 3
These contentions are not really backed up, but there are interesting sketches of many key members of Bourbaki and an overview of directions in modern mathematics.]]> 3.32 2006
author: Amir D. Aczel
name: Jim
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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date added: 2012/01/12
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An interesting look at a movement initiated by a group of French mathematicians to make a rigorous and complete exposition of many branches of mathematics. Instead of promoting themselves as individuals, the members published under the pseudonym "Bourbaki". The movement is alleged by the author to underlie developments under the heading of "Structuralism" in many fields including anthropology, philosophy, and literary criticism.

These contentions are not really backed up, but there are interesting sketches of many key members of Bourbaki and an overview of directions in modern mathematics.
]]> 12007122 - Brian Pontolilo, Editor, Fine Homebuilding Magazine The unforgettable memoir of a legendary builder. You don’t have to be a carpenter to appreciate this fascinating book that Publishers Weekly calls, “a first person timeline of 20th century American residential architecture� combining …two literary the memoir and the how-to book.� A moving story of that place we call home. An early advocate for building lean and green and an avid blogger, Larry Haun tells his unique story in terms of twelve homes � built over the last 100 years. These are homes he knows intimately, drawing the reader in with detailed descriptions and thoughtful observations. “Just like any good carpenter, Haun brings his own artistic flourishes to the job of storytelling�. But where Haun’s true personality comes across is when he describes the construction process for the many houses he has lived in and built―from his parent’s 1,000-sq. ft. wood-frame house and the adobe and cob structures of the Southwest to the mid-century pre-fabricated and tract houses, and the more recent Habitat for Humanity homes he has donated his time to help erect.�
Publishers Weekly , 6/13/2011 A delight to read. A great gift. This engaging memoir will appeal to anyone who appreciates a well-told story. Ěý A Carpenter’s Life As Told in Houses explores our love of home â€� feelings so deeply rooted that they go far beyond wood and plaster and shingles. Share the author’s deep connection to the natural world, his yearning for simplicity, and respect for humanity â€� and see why he believes that less is more.]]> 272 Larry Haun 1600854028 Jim 3 ]]> 3.77 2011
author: Larry Haun
name: Jim
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/01/09
date added: 2012/01/09
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A very humane book. Author tells of his youth on the high plains of Nebraska where some still lived in sod houses. He criticizes the shallowness and wastefulness of our consumer culture. Not a memoir but a series of sketches tied to different types of structures.

]]> 9011145 The Best Writing on Mathematics makes available to a wide audience many articles not easily found anywhere else--and you don't need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These writings offer surprising insights into the nature, meaning, and practice of mathematics today. They delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday occurrences of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today's hottest mathematical debates. Here readers will discover why Freeman Dyson thinks some mathematicians are birds while others are frogs; why Keith Devlin believes there's more to mathematics than proof; what Nick Paumgarten has to say about the timing patterns of New York City's traffic lights (and why jaywalking is the most mathematically efficient way to cross Sixty-sixth Street); what Samuel Arbesman can tell us about the epidemiology of the undead in zombie flicks; and much, much more.

In addition to presenting the year's most memorable writing on mathematics, this must-have anthology also includes a foreword by esteemed mathematician William Thurston and an informative introduction by Mircea Pitici. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in where math has taken us--and where it's headed.]]> 407 Mircea Pitici 0691148414 Jim 0 books-of-possible-interest 3.76 2010
author: Mircea Pitici
name: Jim
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/01/09
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]]> 8940504 The Civil War: The First Year brings together over 120 pieces by more than sixty participants to create a unique firsthand narrative of this great historical crisis.

Beginning on the eve of Lincoln’s election in 1860 and ending in January 1862 with the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, signaling a new energy and determination to the Union war effort, this volume collects writing by figures well-known—Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chesnut, Frederick Douglass, and Lincoln himself among them—and less familiar, like pro-slavery advocate J.D.B. DeBow, Lieutenants Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and Henry Livermore Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and plantation mistresses Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina and Kate Stone of Mississippi. Together, the selections provide a powerful sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, and urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Secessionist appeals by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown and Alabama legislator Stephen F. Hale give voice to the intense racial fears that helped drive the South toward disunion; Union corporal Samuel J. English and Confederate surgeon Lunsford P. Yandell evoke the shock, confusion, and horror of battle in Virginia and Missouri; memoirist Sallie Brock candidly records the impact of war on Richmond society; and Sam Mitchell recounts his liberation from slavery when the South Carolina Sea Islands fell to Union soldiers.

The Civil War: The First Year includes headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, endpaper maps, and an index.]]> 814 Brooks D. Simpson 1598530887 Jim 0 books-of-possible-interest 4.47 2011
author: Brooks D. Simpson
name: Jim
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/01/09
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]]> 9897152
America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the 3 percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad they're dirty, poor, unhealthy, crime ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly... Or are they?

As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book, cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live. New Yorkers, for instance, live longer than other Americans; heart disease and cancer rates are lower in Gotham than in the nation as a whole. More than half of America's income is earned in twenty-two metropolitan areas. And city dwellers use, on average, 40 percent less energy than suburbanites.

Glaeser travels through history and around the globe to reveal the hidden workings of cities and how they bring out the best in humankind. Even the worst cities-Kinshasa, Kolkata, Lagos- confer surprising benefits on the people who flock to them, including better health and more jobs than the rural areas that surround them. Glaeser visits Bangalore and Silicon Valley, whose strangely similar histories prove how essential education is to urban success and how new technology actually encourages people to gather together physically. He discovers why Detroit is dying while other old industrial cities-Chicago, Boston, New York-thrive. He investigates why a new house costs 350 percent more in Los Angeles than in Houston, even though building costs are only 25 percent higher in L.A. He pinpoints the single factor that most influences urban growth-January temperatures-and explains how certain chilly cities manage to defy that link. He explains how West Coast environmentalists have harmed the environment, and how struggling cities from Youngstown to New Orleans can "shrink to greatness." And he exposes the dangerous anti-urban political bias that is harming both cities and the entire country.

Using intrepid reportage, keen analysis, and eloquent argument, Glaeser makes an impassioned case for the city's import and splendor. He reminds us forcefully why we should nurture our cities or suffer consequences that will hurt us all, no matter where we live.]]> 352 Edward L. Glaeser 159420277X Jim 0 books-of-possible-interest 3.91 2011
author: Edward L. Glaeser
name: Jim
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/01/09
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]]> 10421718 224 Robert B. Ash 0486472205 Jim 0 to-read 3.80 1993
author: Robert B. Ash
name: Jim
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/07/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 9555284 Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there?

For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise—instead, they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list.

Academically Adrift holds sobering lessons for students, faculty, administrators, policy makers, and parents—all of whom are implicated in promoting or at least ignoring contemporary campus culture. Higher education faces crises on a number of fronts, but Arum and Roksa’s report that colleges are failing at their most basic mission will demand the attention of us all.]]> 272 Richard Arum 0226028569 Jim 0 books-of-possible-interest 3.36 2010
author: Richard Arum
name: Jim
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/07/20
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]]> 7947434 The Emperor’s New Mind and The Road to Reality, a groundbreaking book that provides new views on three of cosmology’s most profound questions: What, if anything, came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? What is its ultimate future?

Current understanding of our universe dictates that all matter will eventually thin out to zero density, with huge black holes finally evaporating away into massless energy. Roger Penrose—one of the most innovative mathematicians of our time—turns around this predominant picture of the universe’s “heat death,� arguing how the expected ultimate fate of our accelerating, expanding universe can actually be reinterpreted as the “Big Bang� of a new one.

Along the way to this remarkable cosmological picture, Penrose sheds new light on basic principles that underlie the behavior of our universe, describing various standard and nonstandard cosmological models, the fundamental role of the cosmic microwave background, and the key status of black holes. Ideal for both the amateur astronomer and the advanced physicist—with plenty of exciting insights for each�Cycles of Time is certain to provoke and challenge.

Intellectually thrilling and accessible, this is another essential guide to the universe from one of our preeminent thinkers.]]> 320 Roger Penrose 0224080369 Jim 0 books-of-possible-interest 3.96 2010
author: Roger Penrose
name: Jim
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/07/20
shelves: books-of-possible-interest
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]]> 9867149
Astronomers have determined that our universe is 13.7 billion years old. How exactly did they come to this precise conclusion? How Old Is the Universe? tells the incredible story of how astronomers solved one of the most compelling mysteries in science and, along the way, introduces readers to fundamental concepts and cutting-edge advances in modern astronomy.

The age of our universe poses a deceptively simple question, and its answer carries profound implications for science, religion, and philosophy. David Weintraub traces the centuries-old quest by astronomers to fathom the secrets of the nighttime sky. Describing the achievements of the visionaries whose discoveries collectively unveiled a fundamental mystery, he shows how many independent lines of inquiry and much painstakingly gathered evidence, when fitted together like pieces in a cosmic puzzle, led to the long-sought answer. Astronomers don't believe the universe is 13.7 billion years old―they know it. You will too after reading this book. By focusing on one of the most crucial questions about the universe and challenging readers to understand the answer, Weintraub familiarizes readers with the ideas and phenomena at the heart of modern astronomy, including red giants and white dwarfs, cepheid variable stars and supernovae, clusters of galaxies, gravitational lensing, dark matter, dark energy and the accelerating universe―and much more. Offering a unique historical approach to astronomy, How Old Is the Universe? sheds light on the inner workings of scientific inquiry and reveals how astronomers grapple with deep questions about the physical nature of our universe.]]> 384 David A. Weintraub 0691147310 Jim 0 books-of-possible-interest 4.17 2010
author: David A. Weintraub
name: Jim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/07/20
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]]> 3896923 336 Steven Holzner 0470381884 Jim 0 to-read 3.59 2009
author: Steven Holzner
name: Jim
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/06/20
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]]> 8724531 How can a theorem have more than one proof? Why does this one have more than two hundred-or is it four thousand? The Pythagorean theorem has even more applications than Ancient Egyptians used it for surveying property lines, and today astronomers call on it to measure the distance between stars. Its generalizations are stunning-the theorem works even with shapes on the sides that aren't squares, and not just in two dimensions, but any number you like, up to infinity. And perhaps its most intriguing feature of all, this tidy expression opened the door to the world of irrational numbers, an untidy discovery that deeply troubled Pythagoras's disciples.
Like the authors' bestselling The Nothing That Is and Chances Are . . . -hailed as "erudite and witty," "magnificent," and "exhilarating"- Hidden Harmonies makes the excitement of mathematics palpable.]]> 304 Ellen Kaplan 1596915226 Jim 0 to-read 3.58 2011
author: Ellen Kaplan
name: Jim
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/06/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1249311
Brooks Simpson examines the policies of each administration in depth and evaluates them in terms of their political, social, and institutional contexts. Simpson explains what was politically possible at a time when federal authority and presidential power were more limited than they are now. He compares these four leaders' handling of similar challenges—such as the retention of political support and the need to build a Southern base for their policies—in different ways and under different circumstances, and he discusses both their use of executive power and the impact of their personal beliefs on their actions.

Although historians have disagreed on the extent to which these presidents were committed to helping blacks, Simpson's sharply drawn assessments of presidential performance shows that previous scholars have overemphasized how the personal racial views of each man shaped his approach to Reconstruction. Simpson counters much of the conventional wisdom about these leaders by persuasively demonstrating that considerable constraints to presidential power severely limited their efforts to achieve their ends.

The Reconstruction Presidents marks a return to understanding Reconstruction based upon national politics and offers an approach to presidential policy making that emphasizes the environment in which a president governs and the nature of the challenges facing him. By showing that what these four leaders might have accomplished was limited by circumstances not easily altered, it allows us to assess them in the context of their times and better understand an era too often measured by inappropriate standards.]]> 288 Brooks D. Simpson 0700608966 Jim 3 3.62 1998
author: Brooks D. Simpson
name: Jim
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2011/06/20
date added: 2011/06/20
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A comparative analysis of the Reconstruction policies of four presidents. It emphasizes the difficulties they faced and the limits on their ability to affect change. The common view of Ulysses S. Grant as a bungler is refuted, although his failures are pointed out.
]]> 6604790 256 Miguel Delibes 8423341135 Jim 3 did-not-finish 3.31 1966
author: Miguel Delibes
name: Jim
average rating: 3.31
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at: 2011/02/01
date added: 2011/06/20
shelves: did-not-finish
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]]> 2818009 389 Juan Goytisolo 843970108X Jim 0 did-not-finish Didn't finish. 4.14 1966
author: Juan Goytisolo
name: Jim
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/06/20
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
Didn't finish.
]]> 2272880
By showing us the true nature of chance and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives us the tools we need to make more informed decisions. From the classroom to the courtroom and from financial markets to supermarkets, Mlodinow's intriguing and illuminating look at how randomness, chance, and probability affect our daily lives will intrigue, awe, and inspire.]]> 252 Leonard Mlodinow 0375424040 Jim 0 did-not-finish didn't finish 3.93 2008
author: Leonard Mlodinow
name: Jim
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/06/20
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
didn't finish
]]> 8432644 370 Robert Weissberg 141281345X Jim 2 3.17 2010
author: Robert Weissberg
name: Jim
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2011/05/01
date added: 2011/06/18
shelves:
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This is an iconoclastic look at the failure of our public schools. It is highly politically incorrect -- some would say racist. The author is a retired academic not in the education field. The book is repetitive and full of anecdotal details. Still it has some thought provoking ideas and challenges concepts such as the belief that everyone should be above average.
]]>