3 comments about Percival Lowell: The Culture and Science of a Boston Brahmin.

1. Strauss' historical look at Lowell is extremely engaging and I found this book hard to put down. Some great historical context about Boston and Japan really give you the feeling of what is was like to be there back in the 1800's. I recommend this to all.



2. Strauss is not content with telling us the story of Lowell's fascinating life--he portrays each milieu in which Lowell worked and lived with a complexity that gives us the tools to understand Lowell in context. For example, he gives us piquant details about life in the upper reaches of Boston Brahmin culture. One of the more interesting stories is Lowell's move from prominence in academia to the position of crank and critic of the increasing professionalization of astronomy.

   This is the portrait of a restless mind, worth delving into.




3. The first fully satisfying biography of a man who helped to change astronomy, sustained its popularity and mystery, and tested the wills of mainstream astronomers.

No comments about Fritz Muller: A Naturalist in Brazil.

5 comments about Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Great Discoveries).

1. It's interesting that so many of the defining moments in history involved Uncentering something from something else. For instance, Thomas Willis realized that the seat of reason and intelligence was neither the heart nor the soul, but a lump of jelly in the skull. Darwin first figured out that the homo sapiens is just one twig in the tree of life. And before Willis and Darwin there was Copernicus, who is credited with discovering that the Earth, far from being the center of the universe, revolves around the sun along with all the other planets.
   
   There's something about human psychology that resists Uncentering, and back then the gecocentrists had mountains of religious and philosophical text to back them up. Needless to say heliocentrism was an unpopular idea, and in 16th century Europe people with unpopular ideas were burned along with their books. Copernicus was spared this fate, partly because of an apologetic (and unauthorized) preface, and partly by the fact that he died of natural causes shortly after the publication of his book in 1543. Copernicus's successors, Bruno and Galileo, ended up taking a lot of the flak.
   
   William T. Vollmann is an excellent writer, and he does a fabulous job of summarizing Revolutions. Using limited astro-jargon and a few figures, Vollmann explains how Copernicus calculated the positions and trajectories of the planets, often arriving quite close to modern estimates without the benefit of a telescope or even binoculars. He also describes how Copernicus had to grapple with the prevalent Ptolemaic system and its philosophical roots. Remarkably, Copernicus, despite his revolutionary worldview, could never bring himself to abandon the philosophical tradition that valued circles for their asthetic appeal. His heliocentric system thus featured circular orbits, and was consequently almost as complicated as Ptolemy's geocentric model. It would be another 50 years before Kepler cleaned up the mess by introducing elliptical orbits to the heliocentric model.
   
   In the end Copernicus was successful in uncentering the Earth. This was a real breakthrough, and not just because he was right about heliocentrism. The Uncentered viewpoint is just the idea that things in the universe can be studied objectively and empirically, without recourse to mysticism. Today we just call it science.



2. If you are interested in what Copernicus did, save your money and time and don't buy this book. Instead, get ahold of Thomas Kuhn's masterful account "The Copernican Revolution".
   
   This book is one of a series in which non-scientists present popular accounts of mostly great episodes in science. I say mostly great because there seems to be a certain amount of political correctness in the choice of scientists to write about in the series. But I digress.
   
   Some of the books in this series are successful, for example the one by Madison Smartt Bell on Priestley, Lavoisier, and the chemical revolution. But when you have fiction writers expounding technical subjects, there is potential for trouble, and that is what we get with Vollmann's book on Copernicus.
   
   Vollmann's explanations of the technical aspects of Copernicus' work are superficial and hard to grasp. Kuhn is much better. Vollmann also has a complusion to say snotty things about everyone involved, about their thoughts, motives, habits of mind. One would think that the ancients who constructed early science and astronomy were a bunch of idiots who had to wait for Copernicus to come along, who of course was a dolt because he was "obedient" to Aristotle for the most part, and was incapable of writing clearly to boot. Kuhn is incomparably better at explaining the philsophical, religious, scientific, and historical contexts in which the ancients, Copernicus, and the other early moderns worked. For example, you get a real sense of why the ancient earth-centered system was the reasonable system, that the ancient heliocentric precursors of Copernicus didn't have much in the way of evidence or reason on their side. You get a sense from Kuhn of just what it was that made the heliocentric theory attractive to Copernicus -- the changing context of observational astronomy, and above all the clarity which the heliocentric view gave to the matter of the oddities of the motion of certain of the planets.
   
   If you really want a sense of the greatness of ancient scientific thought, of ancient astronomy, of the magnificence of the accomplishment of Copernicus and his followers in the modern scientific revolution, get ahold of Kuhn's book.



3. This is the most uninteresting book on science or a scientific personality that I have read in recent times. I was looking forward to reading about the middle ages, the environment in which Copernicus grew up, the scientific world view at the time, the social mileu, what Copernicus himself was like, what his religious beliefs were, how he arrived at his conclusions, and what his book meant in terms of courage and conviction in that time. And, of course, a lot of actual science.
   
   Instead we get such hard to read, boring, insipid prose dissecting the text of his work that it's a real effort to turn each page. I felt like giving up at every turn till I was half-way through but only sheer will and expectation that it would get better kept me going. But I gave up at the half-way mark.
   
   I had learned very little that stayed with me and I had hardly enjoyed it. For those interested, Bill Bryson's "A short history of nearly everything" is one that succeeds quite well at this attempt to dispense science to the laymen.



4. I bought this book with high hopes of finding an interesting and illuminating look at how Copernicus revolutionized astronomy. I was so disappointed that I did something I virtually never do: after about 90 pages, I put the book away with no intention of finishing it. Vollmann is a writer of note, but in this case his writing is so mannered and his exposition seemingly so convoluted that the reader quickly grows fatigued. At least, this reader did.



5. 
   
   I completely understand the negative reviews this book has received. But I would like to defend this book, which I believe is worth the time and effort.
   
   This is a disappointing book if you are reading it for the wrong reason. The wrong reason is if you are reading this book as an astronomy buff who wants to learn more about Copernicus. Again, that is a very understandable mistake to make. By all appearances, it looks to be a serious academic discussion of the work of Copernicus and its role in the scientific paradigm shift.
   
   The right reason to read this book is not as an astronomy buff but as a William T. Vollman buff. I can't get enough of Vollman's writing. And he can't seem to stop writing so it's a good match (this is a writer, for example, who has completed an over 3,000 page essay on the nature of violence). Vollman has the gift of being able to encompass the full depth of the human experience in every sentence he writes. When he writes of ecstatic happiness, he manages to imbed it with hints of cruelty and suffering. When he writes about tragedy and death, there are twisted traces of sweetness and cathartic joy.
   
   I'm a fan of the history of science and good science writing too. And while this book might not be the most straightforward way to learn about Copernicus, there is factual information here about Copernicus' "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres." We are also given Vollman's meditations on the nature of scientific revolutions and the way science as a process will always be hampered by human imperfection, by our individual investments in our beliefs, and by the stubborn drag of institutional momentum. "'Revolutions' was profoundly dangerous in its epoch, and hence profoundly necessary."
   
   Why would Vollman take on this task? He tells us this book is the result of an "exercise in explicating a subject slightly beyond my intellectual competence." But, when he marvels at the effort, "the immensity of the force required" and the "solitary years" behind Copernicus' work, we get a sense of the parallel process driving Vollman's own desires to nudge the universe.

No comments about Tatiana Proskouriakoff: Interpreting the Ancient Maya.

5 comments about Hilbert.

1. "Hilbert" is justly famous as one of the best mathematical biographies around. Constance Reid, who also wrote a biography of Hilbert's student Courant, initially ran into some resistance from Hilbert's associates when she started work on this book. Max Born was not keen on the idea of a woman, who was neither German nor a mathematician, writing a study of Hilbert's life. Born was enthusiastic about the final product, however, and it has become a classic.

   Hilbert took over from Poincare the title of the most famous mathematician in the world. His mathematical achievements are numerous and varied; Reid does a good job of providing an overview of the impact Hilbert had on many different fields, and of his style; his strengths and weaknesses. There is a good deal of coverage of the famous twenty-three Hilbert problems, presented to the Second International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris in 1900, including a large section of the talk Hilbert gave.

   Reid paints a vivid picture of the mathematical circle at Gottingen, a luminous collection of talents. Minkowski and Hilbert were close friends; Klein was the director of the institute there; Emmy Noether was there; Hurwitz; Zermelo; Landau; the list is long and impressive. It's all the more sad to read about the way the Institute was destroyed by the Nazis in the name of racial purity. Almost without exception the leading mathematicians emigrated, one by one, to America. Hilbert, who had retired in 1930 (retirement at age 68 was mandatory) was forced to watch as the work of decades was dismantled. The last years, of age, fading memory and the privations of war, are mercifully given less than a dozen pages.

   Hilbert's life leads from the great days of the mid-nineteenth century to the Nazis and the atomic bomb. Reid has done a wonderful job of capturing the feel of Germany over his long life, and the mathematic impact and importance of his work. A compulsory book for those interested in modern mathematical history.




2. David Hilbert was arguably one of the greatest mathematicians
   ever!. He contributed to several branches of mathematics,
   including functional analysis, mathematical physics,
   calculus of variations, and algebraic number theory.
   (Everyone knows what a Hilbert space is right!)

   At the turn of the 20th century, Hilbert enumerated
   23 unsolved problems of mathematics that he considered worthy
   of further investigation. To this day, very few of these, including
   the 10th problem, on the finite solvability of Diophantine
   equations, have been resolved! (thanks to
   Yuri Matiyasevich, Martin Davis and Julia Robinson!).
   Besides, Hilbert was also a character (read the section
   when Norbert Weiner of cybernetics fame, came to give
   a talk at Gottingen, and .... :-)).

   Incidentally the author Constance Reid is the sister of
   Julia Robinson (of Hilbert's 10th problem fame!),
   hence there can no one better to write about
   Hilbert!. Besides Constance Reid is a well known chronicler
   of mathematicians lives (this one is a tour de force and
   her best!).

   No one can can call himself/herself a mathematician without
   having Reid's book on his/her bookshelf. Strongly
   recommended!




3. David Hilbert was arguably one of the greatest mathematicians
   ever!. He contributed to several branches of mathematics,
   including functional analysis, mathematical physics,
   calculus of variations, and algebraic number theory.
   (Everyone knows what a Hilbert space is right!)

   At the turn of the 20th century, Hilbert enumerated
   23 unsolved problems of mathematics that he considered worthy
   of further investigation. To this day, very few of these, including
   the 10th problem, on the finite solvability of Diophantine
   equations, have been resolved! (thanks to
   Yuri Matiyasevich, Martin Davis and Julia Robinson!).
   Besides, Hilbert was also a character (read the section
   when Norbert Weiner of cybernetics fame, came to give
   a talk at Gottingen, and .... :-)).

   Incidentally the author Constance Reid is the sister of
   Julia Robinson (of Hilbert's 10th problem fame!),
   hence there can no one better to write about
   Hilbert!. Besides Constance Reid is a well known chronicler
   of mathematicians lives (this one is a tour de force and
   her best!).

   No one can can call himself/herself a mathematician without
   having Reid's book on his/her bookshelf. Strongly
   recommended!




4. A excellent biography of the German mathematician David Hilbert. Particularly poignant is the loss of Minknowski and the decline of mathematics at Gottingen following the Nazi prosecutions.



5. Constance Reid is a non-mathematician author, so she is the best person who can explain the 'abstract' modern math to the curious non-mathematicians. By following the book on the Greatest mathematician in 20th AD, the readers can understand the major development of Modern Math evolved around Hilbert and all the world's top mathematicians gathered in Gottingen before WWII.
   Most of us learn abstract math without knowing the background from which these abstract concepts were derived. In this book (chapter VI: Changes) I learn from Reid the simple yet revealing explanation of 'Ideals' being born out of conflict of 'Algebraic Number Field' with the 'Fundamental Law of Arithmetics', and Kummer's Ideal Number, Kronecker and Dedekind's complicated 'Ideal Primes', and finaly David Hilbert's great contribution in the 'Ideal Primes' theory.

No comments about Galileo (Grandes biografias series).

2 comments about Unshakable Faith.

1. John Perry has delivered the goods as a researcher and biographer. In this book about two luminaries of the 20th Century, who brought the light of their torches from the 19th, we have a book that will inspire everyone. There are places where it will not leave you tearless.

   Balance, honesty and contextual historicism are characteristic of Perry's work.

   Most reading it will concur with this reviewer that Perry has found a niche in reminding us of those persons of sacrifice who are such a rare type of leader in this 21st century.

   Take time to read this book and discover Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver whose lives transcended racial prejudice, reviling, misunderstanding and jealousy.




2. I am reminded by people like George Carver and Booker Washington that I have done so little, while they accomplished so very much. Besides the awe inspiring historical accounts of these two saints, the book is written with a kind of zeal that is obvious to the reader. It is obvious that the author loved writing it as much as we enjoy reading it (either that or he fakes it really well).

   I have only a few books that I will make my children read (when they come of age)....this is one of them.

No comments about Cosmic Anger: Abdus Salam - The First Muslim Nobel Scientist.

5 comments about Everybody Wins! A Life in Free Enterprise.

1. We need more business leaders and managers who embrace and practice Mr. Cain's brand of business and general living. very pragmatic, down-to-earth, no-frills, seeing things for what they are -- Very ZEN.

   Mr. Cain is a hero, not so much for the wealth he created for himself and many others, but the way he lived his life when he did not have alot of money.

   Involved in a number of his transactions from the banker's role, Mr. Cain has set an example for all of us who call ourselves capitalists. Unfortunately, the corporate scandals of the day get the headlines whereas the true successes that create value for everyone, including the employees get little or no attention.

   Integrity, Accountibility and Maximizing Long-Term share-holder Value -- not going for the quick buck at the expense of others is what is all about -- it allows us to discover, explore, educate, entertain and enjoy the life before us -- society progresses as a result. Everyone Wins.

   High recommend this read to everyone -- whether or not you have an interest in business becasue it is the true story of one man's journey who just happened to become a successful businessman through a series of "happy accidents.




2. Gordon Cain led a fascinating and exemplary life. This book is well written and comprehensive. Well worth reading.



3. I had the pleasure and blessing financially to work for two all two short years for Gordon Cain, back in the 1980s. The man was both a gentleman and a genius. The title of the book sums up how he lived his fascinating life. As Gordon gracefully recounts his story, he leaves the business reader with wisdom of great value. His precepts are simple: Manage rationally with a human hand, make everyone an owner and a potential winner, engineer your product and processes to meet customer needs that are more important than your own, leave office politics behind. This stuff really worked, as deal after deal recounted in this book showed. It is a great mystery to this reviewer why american business rarely follows these precepts; since they always work. Post note to the book: Gordon shared the financial benefits with thousands of people and gave all his money away to build rural hospitals before he died.
   
   Further the book is well written in Gordon's plain style of speaking. It shows how one man took the cards he was dealt with in life and played them not only well, but with dignity over the course of a long and interesting life.



4. Gordon Cain tells his impressive story in a modest and matter of fact way. This book paints the broad strokes of his life. He shows some detailed financial data for his transactions but doesn't delve too much into the story. I think the book is most useful when combined with some additional research, you need to spend the time looking up information about the individuals and companies he references.



5. The late Gordon Cain was a legend in the chemical industry, first as a successful engineer and manager for various multi-national petrochemical and fertilizer firms and then as a very successful LBO architect and entrepreneur. Mr. Cain bought unwanted plants and divisions from chemical giants such as Dupont, Conoco, and Monsanto, and made them stand alone success stories. His strategy was simple, buy at the bottom of the cycle, find unwanted but well run plants, eliminate corporate overhead, and make sure that everyone shares in the gains.
   
   Mr. Cain wrote this book to let everyone, especially his grandchildren, know that one does not need to be a ruthless raider like the boys at Apollo or Drexel to succeed in business and there is nothing inherently wrong with debt or leverage. Some deals even require subordinated debt, unfortunately called junk bonds. Mr. Cain's deals were all successful, mostly because of his keen sense of the cycles of the industry, and all participants went home happy. His biggest problem was managing the success, dealing with issues like whether an LBO should be re-leveraged or go to IPO in order to get liquidity for the participants.
   
   An interesting lesson for Mr. Cain was that it is easier to do a large deal than a small one, since in the large deal, one can negotiate directly with a motivated and empowered seller. A key point for us is that Mr. Cain never became an owner until he was in his 70's. An early attempt at entrepreneurship in his 30's failed miserably, mostly because he went into it for the wrong reasons. Cain in his 80's continued to look for new business opportunities, stretching into airlines and biotechnology.
   
   As a chemical industry veteran myself, I know some of these plants and people, but wanted to hear Cain's story from the man himself. While some of these companies have not done well in the last 10 years, there are plenty of people who paid their mortgages and sent kids to college with Cain's help. Mr. Cain is no longer with us, but has made an impact on our business and has done much good with his charitable work, especially at his alma mater LSU.

5 comments about My Life as an Explorer: The Great Adventurers Classic Memoir (Kodansha Globe).

1. I concur with NDylanRay@aol.com. This book is exceptional. I could hardly put it down. You feel the excitement and intensity of his adventures, you begin to understand the force that drives him (and you respect him for it), and you meet the people and the places that make Turkestan and Tibet 100 years ago like no place that you could ever imagine.



2. This is a tale wonderfully told of an explorer's quest to fill in the blank spots on the map of Asia. Not only does Hedin present a clear and highly entertaining view of his travels, but he also gives us a portrait of his character. He shows us that he is a man with high goals and is undeterred in achieving those goals, even when all odds are against him. He shows us that he is also a very caring man, very much concerned about the welfare of his men and his animals. He also is a man that is awestruck by nature and is very concerned about not unduly intruding upon it or unnecessarily destroying it.

   But most of all, this is an adventure story that is just plain fun to read.

   A suggestion to readers who are not very familiar with the geography of central Asia would be to have on hand some good maps as the ones Hedin draws are quite limited and often fail to give the perspective that may be desireable.




3. (This refers to the National Geographic Reprint edition)

   This is truly a great book, full of the amazing adventures of an incredible explorer. You have to admire Hedin's determination and stubborness, although sometimes I wonder about his planning. It seems like every trip all his animals die, and the men are on the verge of starvation. And as for his trips in the desert, I would have thought the concept of "take some extra water" would have occured at some point!
   Hedin is a fine writer, and his descriptions are not only accessible to the average reader, but often quite poetic as well.
   Nevertheless, I only reluctantly give this a full 5 stars, because I feel that National Geographic missed a great opportunity to make this an almost perfect book, and it wouldn't have been that difficult to do. As a previous reviewer mentioned, some good maps could have helped. There's almost no excuse for NG not to have included some decent maps of Central Asia in their edition. Furthermore, one tends to forget (although Hedin mentions in the text), that he also took photographs on many of his travels. These might have been included as well. (To see some, refer to the Photos section of the website of the Sven Hedin Foundation, "http://www.etnografiska.se/hedinweb/htmsidor/organi.htm"). Aside from the simplistic drawings that are included, Hedin also did many detailed sketches and potraits on his travels. Now one can assume that none of these were included in the original, and this is only a reprint, but nevertheless, it is a missed opportunity. The introductory chapter by A.Brandt also adds little insight, and might as well have been left out as well.
   However, despite the lost opportunities, this book is highly recommended.




4. The Swede Sven Hedin was the last great explorer we will see on this well-traveled planet. Hedin was born in 1865 and this autobiography describes his life up until 1908. Hedin's career was hardly finished, however, as he continued to traipse down the old Silk Road in Central Asia until the 1930s when he was 70 years old.
   
   In a happy trait that should be copied by more auto-biographers, Hedin doesn't spend much time on his childhood. By the third page of his narrative he is 20 years old and off to the Caucasus Mountains which only whets his appetite for the little-known peaks and deserts of Tibet and Central Asia. He spent the years between 1893 and 1908 exploring these regions and filling in blank places on the map.
   
   National Geographic's "Traveler" magazine put this book on its list of 100 best adventure books and, truly, the tales of Hedin's adventures make for good, exciting reading. Hedin displays both charm and generosity in his account. He traveled without the company of other Europeans and he enjoyed the companionship of his local helpers and the dogs he adopted along his way. He draws many clever portraits of the people he met in his travels. Hedin, however, was no mere adventurer. He was a serious, sober scholar who produced dozens of scientific studies of his findings.
   
   One of the most hair raising tales in the book concerns Hedin's first expedition into the sands of the Takla Makhan (desert) of China in which he and his companions nearly died of thirst. A second high point of the book is the account of his attempt to visit Lhasa, the forbidden capital of Tibet. He failed after getting nearly to the gates of the city and was denied the honor of becoming the first foreigner to visit Lhasa in half a century. Amidst the plethora of adventures, the stoic Swede brushes over incidents others would consider high -- or low -- points of their lives. "Fever kept me in Kashgar a long while" is his complete description of one serious illness.
   
   The book is illustrated with many of Hedin's drawings, including his hand drawn maps. I suggest that you read the book with a good modern map at hand so as to trace his routes with more precision as his constant tooing-and-froing can be confusing.
   
   Smallchief



5. When you think of an "explorer" you think of a guy like Hedin. From an early age he ventured again and again into large swatches of Asian geography where few or no Europeans had ever trod. Hedin graphically and realistically portrays his travels with such detail that you can feel the cold, the heat, the parched throats, the curious indigenous eyes and the scenery staggering in its beauty. When you come to the end of this book, you will be all "adventured" out, for on almost every page there is a suspenseful, fascinating episode. Hedin was truly an explorer's explorer. His greatness is dimmed, however, by his fervent support of Naziism during WWII. As someone has writen elsewhere, Hedin knew about the death camps and never disavowed them. He was a solid Nazi partisan. In an epilogue to this book, author and admirer Peter Hopkirk urges us to look at Hedin's many and major contributions and to forgive his pro-German activities in both world wars. I'm not quite willing to forgive, but I will segment my views of Hedin into Hedin the explorer and Hedin the Nazi sympathizer. Anyhow,if you're looking for a fascinating book about exploration in the most forbidding sectors of our planet at the turn of the 20th century, this is a book for you.