1 comments about Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer Among the American Romantics.

1. This book tells the improbable but true story of a woman--Maria Mitchell--who grew up in a poor family of 9 children in Nantucket to become one of America's most notable astronomers and scientists of the 19th century. Mitchell's big break comes when one night in October 1847 she peers through a telescope on her roof to discover a comet (the kind that will visit us once and never again return to our solar system). Despite unsought fame resulting from her discovery, she continues to live in Nantucket working as a librarian at a classic "athenaeum" for learning and accepting a post as official navigational "computer" of the movements of Venus, before eventually traveling to meet other great intellects in Europe and serving her later years as a professor at the newly created Vassar College (where she lived spartanly for years on a cot in the observatory). Renee Bergland seamlessly stitches an intriguing account of life in old Nantucket, the emergence of astronomy as a true scientific and mathematic discipline, and the daunting challenge facing Mitchell--and women in general--to gain acceptance as scientific inquest increasingly professionalized from the "parlor" to more formal academic settings. Mitchell herself reflects in her diary on the character it takes to maintain intellectual independence against the pressures of indolence and social conformity: "When we consider ... how short is life and how much shorter are the petty vexation of life, it seems strange that we should not act up to our convictions of duty and disregard what may be said of us by our fellow men. For what is my neighbor more than that I should succumb to his view in preference to my own? And what possible good can come to me from such submission? I cannot please him for very possibly his expressed opinion is not his own but that of some other neighbor of whom he stands in awe. ... And so we have a chain of ignoble submission reaching perhaps around the world. I cannot suppose it comes from cowardice and I therefore suppose it comes from a still more despicable weakness--that of indolence. Thinking is hard work." I was transported to a bygone era by this provocative and enlightening book!

2 comments about Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964 - The Story of a Remarkable Friendship (Concord Library).

1. I loved this book. It gives an inside look into the life of Rachel Carson. You get a sence of who she was and her passion for nature. I recomend it.



2. You don't have to have read any of Rachel Carson's books in order to fully appreciate the letters she wrote to her best friend. These letters (nearly 3/4 written by Rachel) show the love and intensity of her friendship with Dorothy Freeman; they offer a glimpse of what life was like in the 1950s and 1960s - particularly the world of publishing and environmentalism; they show her fear and courage during her fight with breast cancer. She doesn't go into much detail about the writing process she went through with "Silent Spring," but it's clear that the fact that she wrote it and published it at all is something close to a miracle. Her fight against breast cancer would be an inspiration to anyone. Even with everything that goes on within these letters, what is paramount is her love for Dorothy. Few of Dorothy's letters were saved, but the few that were included in the book show why she and Rachel were such good friends. These letters bring to life many emotions: fear, grief, euphoria, anticipation, dread, anger, confusion, apprehension, appreciation and love.
   
   This book is a narrative of what friendship should be.
   
   Also, the footnotes are absolutely wonderful! Instead of being at the back of the book or at the end of the letters, they are in the margins - so there's no inconvenient flipping back and forth. It's a small detail, but it was one I really appreciated.

4 comments about Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature.

1. Lear's detailed biography offers an unmatched look at Carson's personal and professional life. This book takes the reader behind the scenes of Rachel Carson's brilliant works in order to demonstrate the difficulties that dogged her every day existance. Lear chronicles Carson's personal perservance and dedication to the environmental cause in an immensely readable format. A wonderful and inspiring book to read!



2. The first reviewer, Shari Just, has captured perfectly the quality, scope and value of Lear's biography. If you have ever wondered "can one person make a difference" this is the proof. A readable blend of history, place, people and events describing a modest scientist that loved to communicate scientific findings to a wider audience.



3. How many people today remember Rachel Carson? When you see an eagle or a falcon or a hawk, you can than k Rachel Carson. Her book "Silent Spring" incited action almost immediately against irresponsible pesticide use, including DDT, and launched an ecology movement that led to the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. This is quite an accomplishment for an author of natural history books; Rachel Carson must have been larger than life, practically immortal, in order to have pulled this off.
   
   But...as Linda Lear documents in extraordinary detail, Rachel Carson was entirely mortal, and all too human, and was not lacking in the faults most of us possess. Success came to Carson late (almost too late), but Carson's love of nature and her dogged determination allowed her to complete what is, perhaps, the most important book of the 20th Century before she succumbed to breast cancer. Lear's detail is incredibly deep; over and again she recounts instances from Carson's life that seem trivial and mundane until the reader feels bogged down in the excess of it. But this detail is critical, because Carson's life itself seemed mundane and trivial, that is until the last decade of it. Carson was a regular person-she was no superstar-and Lear's depth of detail is necessary in order to explain Carson's journey from a less-than-middle-class upbringing to government functionary to the preeminent nature writer of her time. Carson's life evolves slowly and ends tragically; she never married and she never had children-it is almost as if she was born to deliver "Silent Spring" at exactly the right moment in history, when it was needed the most, and then pass on.
   
   In "Witness for Nature", Linda Lear does not allow Rachel Carson to become a cardboard icon of an earlier time; Lear recreates Carson as a complete person with loves and fears and faults. Carson's greatness rises on its own from Lear's writing.



4. An absolutely fabulous book on an environmental pioneer, "Witness for Nature" offers up three very important reminders: (1) We must never forget the prophetic contribution of Rachel Carson; (2) we must carry on her bold and visionary mission, never backing down from, as the book described them, the "powerful adversaries" of the chemical industry, corporate agriculture and others that seek to impose their technological will on the rest of us; and (3) we must treasure every day we have left and take the time to cherish our gifts in the natural world. I only wish Rachel Carson had lived to be 100 so she could have carried on her ecological vision for many more decades.

1 comments about On High: The Adventures of Legendary Mountaineer, Photographer, and Scientist Brad Washburn.

1. The biography of Brad Washburn makes a terrific yarn, even for us armchair adventurers. This is a well-told tale, with a transcribed "oral history" from Mr. Washburn, interspersed with the narrative supplied by Mr. Smith. The significance of Mr. Washburn's life, and what makes this book worth reading, is that his mountaineering adventures were part of the 20th century's final conquest of high places in this world. The high mountains were the last frontier, and Mr. Washburn lived it, wrote about it, mapped it, and (more importantly) photographed it. Fortunately, National Geographic chose to include a variety of Mr. Washburn's best photographs. His friendship with, and admiration for, Ansel Adams is apparent. Buy this for the read, but also buy it as a coffee table book.

No comments about Inventor of the Disposable Culture: King Camp Gillette 1855-1932 (Short Lives).

3 comments about Wilhelm II: Prince and Emperor, 1859-1900.

1. History books aren't typically easy to read. This one was well written and pretty easy to follow. For someone interested in WWI or German history it would be a nice book to help with the subject.



2. Wilhelm II, Prince and Emperor 1859-1900, was a hostile biography. This is the first of a 2 volume series, so it ends in 1900 even though Wilhelm lived in exile in Holland until 1941.
   
   [The sequel is: Wilhelm II: Emperor and Exile, 1900-1941 (Cecil, Lamar) Publisher: University of North Carolina Press (October 1996) ISBN: 0807822833]
   
   We are led to believe that Wilhelm II was a bizarre and incapable sovereign because he didn't work hard, wasn't a good listener, was isolated from outside influences, picked associates for their loyalty, and thought that the government should be composed only of those who agreed with him. Isn't this a universal set of attributes for all government leaders? We could have assumed all of the above, and then gone looking for differences that set our subject apart from the pack.
   
   Wilhelm II considered socialists or radicals "to be criminals unworthy of his grace and favor." My guess is that the author has leftist or Anglophile leanings which were the basis for his criticisms of Wilhelm II.
   
   Wilhelm II was manly and robust, spoke frequently of religious manners, and was polite and friendly as well as very civil in social matters. Naturally, all of this would be unacceptable to a leftist.
   
   The author faults Wilhelm for being callous in his emotions, and further castigates him for not having a more compassionate feeling about his subjects-but then he also blasts him for allowing momentary impulses and personal feelings to govern his actions. So, which is it?
   
   Kaiser Wilhelm II planned to ameliorate the condition of the working class, both as a religious duty and as a bulwark against socialism. He correctly perceived that socialist dogmas were incompatible with Christian ethics and impractical in execution and ruinous to both individuals and society. And this guy is "foolish"?
   
   Industrialists were dedicated solely to maximizing profits, and exhibited no concern for the working class. Wilhelm wanted a mutually advantageous relationship between employer and worker. Wilhelm was convinced that if management did not make timely concessions, violence and socialism would result. He wanted to use the power of the crown to protect workers against unscrupulous employers. He was sympathetic to the eight-hour day. The progressive Wilhelm II wanted abolition of Sunday work unless absolutely necessary, no night employment for women and children, no work by women in the last 3 weeks of pregnancy and for a similar period after delivery, a pause in the workday for women to accomplish their domestic chores, and limitation of labor by children under fourteen.
   
   Compared with those of similar position, Wilhelm II was a benevolent and farsighted ruler. This was a very good book. Perhaps the author should read it.



3. Sometimes psychologizing great players in history is a waste of time, or worse; with Wilhelm it's part of the territory.
   
   Wilhelm's relations with his mother over her Anglophilia, etc., would largely appear to stem from his childhood and the treatments for his withered left arm, contrasted with the hagiography for his grandfather, Wilhelm I, vs. the younger Wilhelm's liberalizing father, Friedrich.
   
   Cecil doesn't break any new ground here, but does have a little more detail of Wilhelm's childhood than a one-volume biography would.
   
   Where he does have more depth, not just detail, is how this affected his relations with Great Britain when he was Kaiser, and how he personalized his problems here through deliberate affronts to people such as Edward, Prince of Wales, and Prime Minister Saulsbury.
   
   Cecil also goes into details on Wilhelm's relations with his government ministers, and especially his chancellors, and how they attempted to "handle" him.
   
   I haven't read Volume 2, but have my appetite whetted.

No comments about Charles Darwin (Blackwell Great Minds).

No comments about Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics..

2 comments about Grand Eccentrics: Turning the Century : Dayton and the Inventing of America (Ohio).

1. Mr. Bernstein does a great job bringing to life the interactions among the Wright Brothers, Boss Kettering, and John Patterson in turn of the century Dayton, Ohio. Did you know John Patterson (founder of National Cash Register)invented the canned sales pitch and direct mail marketing? And the way the book covers the five year period it took the Wright Brothers to concur flight is spellbinding. I have purchased five copies of this book to give to various friends, all of whom loved it.



2. Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright, James Cox, John Patterson, James Ritty, and other men have brought many great inventions and insight into the world of business, politics, and science. These guys are known mostly for their contributions to human progress but they also have one more thing in common: they all grew up and/or lived in the city of Dayton, Ohio, when they achieved greatness. Author Mike Bernstein wrote this book in 1996 to commemorate the bicentennial of the city of Dayton and to celebrate the many native men who helped change the world.

   Much of this book is spent talking about John Patterson, the former head of NCR (known as National Cash Register in those days), and his business practices and personal conduct that thrust him into the national spotlight. The Wright Brothers also get extensive coverage in this book, with Bernstein talking about not only the invention of powered flight, but also the personalities that made the Wright Brothers unique. You complete your reading feeling like you know about them as people and not just as two guys who were good mechanics.

   Bernstein includes many black and white photos throughout the book, showing some of the factories, the people, and the inventions that put Dayton, Ohio, on the national map. He doesn't include any color photos. He gives the book an historic feel by including photos exactly as they were taken in the early part of the twentieth century.

   Dayton, Ohio is still known by many as the birthplace of aviation. But it was also a hotbed of other activities and inventions. Author Mike Bernstein explains these complex men and the ambition and drive that propelled each of them to national prominence. These men were all unique and important to the progress of mankind. But most of all, they were "grand eccentrics"- men who were out of the ordinary and who didn't allow conventional thinking to stand in the way of innovation. This book describes them well, showing how the combination of determination and zeal led these inventors to accomplish so many great things.

No comments about Scientists at Work: Profiles of Today's Groundbreaking Scientists from Science Times.