5 comments about The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung.

1. As you can see from the diversity of viewpoints expressed both here and in reviews of Noll's "The Jung Cult", this is a highly controversial history of Jung's work with an emphasis on aspects that Noll claims have been suppressed. When I was debating whether or not to buy this book, I found one seemingly scholarly review that called it "bad history" and, just now wondering whether I should say what I am about to write, I did further searches and found several other, seemingly reasonable reviews which take Noll to task for bad scholarship. So, as one should always, I will try to remain open to the possibility that I have been misled. But the diary extracts, letters, and other source material from which Noll's conclusions are drawn are carefully footnoted and mostly gleaned from libraries where anyone could easily show deception if that were the case. So, for the moment, Noll has convinced me that there is a dark side (both in the Jungian and conventional sense) to Jung.
   
   I came to this book with a very high regard for Jung and seeing him as a guardian of truth in standing up to Freud's dogmatic insistence on the sexual basis of all neuroses. I still regard Jung as brilliant and having made extremely important contributions to humanity, but I now see a more balanced picture. Freud may have been too focused on sexuality, but apparently so was Jung, although in a much more personal way. Noll provides a convincing picture of Jung as being secretly dogmatic that a form of free love is essential to psychological health. Jung's sexual relationships with patients and coworkers, and his advice to patients to have extramarital affairs seem incontrovertible based on the evidence presented here.
   
   I suspect that much of the criticism of Noll is based on his evidence that Jung was heavily into an Aryan world viewpoint, which immediately conjures up Nazi stereotypes in our minds. Noll repeatedly tries to counteract that understandable tendency, saying for example (last paragraph of the Introduction) "But the most troublesome part of this story comes from asking you, the reader, to do the morally impossible: to imagine a world - fin-de-siecle German Kultur - in which the words "Hitler" and "Nazi" and "Holocaust" do not exist."
   
   Along these lines, it helps to remember that many intelligent, respectable, well-meaning Americans (e.g., Lindberg, Joseph Kennedy Sr.) were early Nazi supporters, just as many were early Communist supporters. The horrendous evils perpetrated in the names of Aryanism and Communism were not present in their early philosophies. It also helps to remember that anti-Semitism and racism in general were the cultural norm througout the world until well into the 1960's or 1970's. It was almost impossible NOT to be prejudiced in Jung's time. (A related book that touches on psychoanalysis and anti-Semitism and that I highly recommend is Bakan's "Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition.")
   
   Another problem concerns Noll's evidence that Jung disparaged Christianity and secretly reverted to (as well as secretly proselytized for) an ancient, pagan, Aryan religion. Such a move will be seen through a highly distorting filter if viewed in the context of today's Christianity. Again, it is hard, but important, to view Jung's choices in terms of the dogmatic Swiss-German Christianity of the late nineteenth century.
   
   As with most movements that believe they have the secret to saving the world, many Jungians idealize their prophet and make him into a kind of god. In contrast, the picture that emerges from "Aryan Christ" is of a brilliant man -- but a man not a god and therefore with all the attendant human frailties. The danger is in forgetting Jung's humanity.



2. This book is an example of Richard Noll's self loathing. One writes a negative, critically dissective, slanderous account of another if and only if that individual has certain secrets or behavioral predilections that conjure an amount of resentment and regret in that individual's Self. Perhaps Noll's feminine half, his anima, or shall we say, his own aryan-poking-fun unconscious, meant to flash a slight knowing smile admitting such - while his self-righteous, or perhaps self-emulating, conscious half, and he is surely a half, not a whole, constructed this work of laughable fiction attempting to damage the personality of a man who understood more than Noll ever will.
   
   However, I'm sure Jung appreciates, as do I, a serious wannabe humorist. Who wouldn't? It is clear that Noll himself does not understand the projection of his own Aryan obsession though the character of Jung. Perhaps, one might suspect, Noll does not grasp the fact that Jung himself is an archetype, and his connect-the-dots method of observing himself as such was what gave him his objective/subjective analysis of reality.
   
   Of course Jung is limited; he is limited as anyone is by the personality by which others record the physical presence. Yet Jung admits this himself - frequently he refers to psychology as a modern version of alchemy. Jung persists in acknowledging that psychology is the beginning and the end of grasping the human psyche and what comes after. Words after all are words, and where ever you go, there you are. I'm sure Noll twists his lip at Wilhelm Reich as well.
   This is a good comedy.



3. As might be expected this book, The Aryan Christ, has caused considerable controvery in the US and in Europe. The argument is convincingly presented that Carl Jung's scientific description of the psyche and pyschoanalysis are based more on volkish notions prevalent in the late 19th century, coupled with assumptions from the likes of Max Muller about the truth of a deep "sun religion" behind the plethora of world religions, and all ginned up with allusions to Wagner's Parsifal and the Knights of the Holy Grail. Noll does well to present a plausible explanation of how Jung's theories were generated in the context of Jung's rather voracious reading in a range of fields including, not just comparative religion as it was construed in his day, but also the altogether wacky "fields" such as Theosophy, alchemy, and astrology.
   Naturally, this is just the problem for those who would like to keep Jung on his pedestal: it seems to be the case that Jung was VERY MUCH a man of his times and to read Jung and take away the sense that he represents a universally valid account of human subjectivity is to be nothing but silly. Put otherwise, Noll has significant evidence that Jung "found" in the unconscious a wide variety of things that were also found in his library (see p. 133 where Noll writes: "If so, the collective unconscious may still be said to exist, but only on the shelves of Jung's personal library"). And this seems to me to be critical for the 21st century to understand: Jung read a lot of half-baked accounts of religions around the world and then claimed, in good faith or otherwise, that he was finding just these same elements, themes, and symbols in his patients. Beside the audacity/arrogance to interpret and explain the Other, for all time, and in all traditions, there are two pressing problems: first, no credible figure in Religious Studies would hold up the 19th century works of Max Muller et al as reliable information; so, the specific elements that Jung is discovering to be universally relevatory of the deep truth of humanity are based on "scholarly" information that has long been discredited: in effect, Jung appears to have read a lot of books on religions, "found" these same symbols in his patients (many of whom were reading the same books), and then wrote a lot of books about just these symbols claiming, adamantly, that they didn't come from their reading. Thus, just like the joke that communism is the fastest way between capitalism and capitalism, Jung's writings are the fastest way between shoddy scholarship on religion and shoddy scholarship on religion. Second, if reading books is how this kind of religious symbolism is getting passed around, then the unconscious in the Jungian sense is a useless idea since what is getting passed around is a body of fadish symbols that both patient and doctor agree are deeply significant. Jung's theories will fall flat if it can be shown that the unconscious and the analysis that uncovers it are really a refraction of the best seller list of spiritual hits at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, in league with contemporaneous assumptions about the Germanic people and the dehumanizing effects of Judeo-Christianity, effects that stand in the way of Germans recovering their original identity.
   That said, I find Noll's qualities as a historian troubling in places. Let's agree for the thousandth time not to write about what other people are supposedly thinking or feeling, especially when we weren't there. Then, Noll doesn't do himself any favors when he seems to use Jungian categories to talk about Jung's troubled invention of Jungian analysis. Similarly, even if a book is being written for a popular audience, no one needs to read chapters that start with sentences such as " Without her, he might never have succeeded."
   And, also on the topic of Noll's sense of historiography, how about some admission of negative evidence? Is it just as Noll has it in this book, or are there spaces for doubt? Wouldn't the book have been stronger to let in some doubt about the narrative that Noll constructs for Jung's life, along with some room to debate the selection and interpretation of evidence? History _is_ interpretation, of course, with the substantiated facts and footnotes in view. And, in my opinion, I think Noll goes too easy on Jung's anti-semitism -- it's appalling what Jung said and wrote about Jews (and Christians for that matter), not to mention evidence presented in the French reviews of this book that Jung went on the radio in support of Hitler in 1932 or 1933. Arguably, this story could have been cast even darker than Noll has it.
   At the end of the book, I am left with the two sentiments. First, Noll has done us all a favor -- I read Jung in my early 20's and didn't know what he was talking about or how to contextualize him -- now, with Noll's assistance, I have a way to situate Jung in the milieu of the likes of Ernst Haeckel and Ernst Junger. Second, Jung now, justly, appears as a symptom of his time: another German writer desparate to recover his Germanness at any cost, and fired up with Goethe, Nietzsche, and Max Muller, hopes that the unconscious and Jungian analysis will be his highway to the Teutonic soul and salvation -- a rather pathetic and truly atavistic hope, all in all.
   Three questions remain: 1) why it took nearly 100 years to figure this out; 2) why modern readers find Jung so captivating - the answer isn't going to be flattering; and 3) what to do next in light of the deep influence that Jung has had on the formal study of religion in America and Europe, especially as refracted through the works of Eliade Mircea which, though tilting Jung's project somewhat away from the Germanic focus (Eliade's relation in the 1930's to the Romanian fascist group, the Iron Guard, is another matter to be dealt with), still share much of the basic plan of recovering archaic man and his chthonic spirituality in a quasi-Jungian effort to return to primitive homo religioso. Don't we really need to understand this phenomenon of "reactionary modernism" and see how problematic it really is? And, similarly, shouldn't we awaken the likes of Karen Armstrong and other who draw so heavily on Jung and Eliade, to the troubled tradition to which they belong, even as they promise to save us from ourselves?
   In sum, though I wish Noll wrote history with less purple prose, I am sure that his work will continue, deservedly, to be part of the self-evaluation that Religious Studies, at least in America, began roughly a decade ago.
   And, for the prospective buyer who has read my lengthy review: buy the book!



4. To some of us who have read widely and been around a long time, the "revelations" in this book consist less in its main theses than in the detailed evidence provided by the author. Jung's affections for the Nazis have been extensively documented elsewhere, so this is perhaps the least surprising of the major points Noll describes. In fact, the Jung Institute itself issued a book--Jung's Shadow--in an attempt to defuse at least some of the dismay arising from information dribbling out from behind the Archetypal wall.
   
   
   
   
   
   For some, the fact that Jung was more pagan than not in his spiritual leanings, will be hot stuff; to me, it's old hat; the interest, as I said, is in the specifics provided by Noll. The fact that Jung was not monogamous may similarly upset--or titillate--some people coming for the first time to know the man behind the mask, but once again, it's no great excitement to those who have read widely in psycho-spiritual literature.
   
   
   
   
   
   That Jung regarded himself as having been initiated and elevated to the rank of a god, depends on how 'god' is understood...and Noll does a good job of showing that this was intended in a pagan sense, and not a Judeo-Christian one.
   
   
   
   
   
   All in all, this is an informative book, one that provided documentation and detail--both things the Jung Archives try to prevent by keeping The Great One's original works and personal correspondence controlled and under seal.



5. As can be seen by the angry tenor of some of the negative reviews below, Carl Jung inspires strong feelings of loyalty in those who've been captivated by his ideas. This somewhat cultish personal devotion is what author Richard Noll plays off in this misleading biography of the "secret" Jung.
   
   I've enjoyed the works of Carl Jung in the past, but I'm not a slavishly devoted groupie nor an uncritical disciple of the man or his work. His co-opting by various New Age types have certainly insured that his ideas--if diluted--have become diffused into our popular culture. On the other hand, it's hard to swallow the sinister thesis that Noll advances in *The Aryan Christ.* I suggest reading this pseudo-biography with the veritable salt-shaker at the ready. Indeed, knowing anything about Jung, you'll need it to make what you'll read here palatable. Only by knowing what Jung himself actually said can you understand just how preposterous much of Noll's interpretation really is. It would be a shame for anyone with no knowledge of Jung to come to this book exclusively to get it. But as an "alternate what-if" biography of Jung it has its moments.
   
   Indeed, I found the first 100 pages of *The Aryan Christ* entertaining, providing as it did some interesting background of Jung's early years as a "spiritualist," as well as dishing on some of the important figures surrounding Jung as he rose to prominence, in particular, the brilliant but doomed Otto Gross. I enjoyed this book mainly for its recreation of the Zurich-Vienna rivalry and the turbulent early days of psychology as Freud and Jung jealously jockeyed for preeminence. The rest of *Aryan Christ,* alas, was largely a waste of time.
   
   In a nutshell, Noll contends that Jung's psychological insights were based on a proposed return to ancient pagan rites and symbols of primarily Germanic/Aryan origin that Noll does his best to make sound as racist, anti-Semitic, and pro-Nazi as possible while making the barest feints at objectivity. The title of this book--*Aryan Christ*--is "justified" only by the greatest stretch of credulity and the most tortured of interpretations of Jung's ideas. Nowhere does Jung call himself the "The Aryan Christ" and neither do any of his colleagues. Only through a great deal of laboriously twisted arguments and patched-together odds and ends does Noll melodramatically--and even at times comically--come up with even the slimmest of reasons for this sensational-sounding, but inaccurate sobriquet. He announces it often throughout the book in attempts at drama that almost enable you to hear the accompaniment of evil organ music. "Little did they know, but Carl Jung was about to become...(cue sinister organ music)...the ARYAN CHRIST!! mwah-ha-ha. Oh, it catches the eye alright, *The Aryan Christ,* which is no doubt the point. But for that matter, Noll might just as well have titled the book *Carl Jung: Baby Killer!* with not much less attention to accuracy. What's more, the subtitle, "The Secret Life of Carl Jung" is, unfortunately, no more accurate than the title. If Carl Jung had a secret life, it remained a secret to the author, or so we must presume, because he sure didn't impart it to us in this book.
   
   Fact is, there is very little about the life of Carl Jung here at all, secret or out in the open. Jung, as Noll acknowledges early on, remains elusive and many details of his personal life are still a mystery. As a result, Noll is reduced to hearsay of the most dubious sort. Something he doesn't acknowledge and that the reader only comes to realize around page 100 when *Aryan Christ* rapidly starts falling apart and at times hardly seems to be a book about Jung at all. At this point, *The Aryan Christ* deals with the observations of Jung through the eyes of a few of his "celebrity" followers. These are mainly wealthy patrons who were attracted to Jung because they were bored and often troubled. Noll uses the letters and diaries of these characters, such as the heirs and heiresses of the Rockefeller and McCormick dynasties, to provide behind-the-scenes insights into the world of Carl Jung. But picking and choosing snippets from the personal papers of these rich and mostly superficial dilettantes is hardly a sound foundation upon which to build serious scholarship. Nor is it a good idea, as Noll does in one instance, to provide the reader with a summary of Jung's psychology circa 1915 courtesy of a figure who the author himself repeatedly claims "had trouble thinking." What Noll has assembled here is not much better than gossip and gossip from unreliable sources at that. Noll's sources for re-interpreting Jung are neither very interesting nor very smart. They were only very rich and had some limited access to a thinker they no doubt didn't understand all too well.
   
   Noll claims that Jung was surreptitiously pushing an anti-Christian paganism while pretending to still be speaking as a Christian. Noll asserts this proposition as if it could offend anyone in this day and age but fundamentalists. At the same time he claims Jung considered himself Christ, albeit an Aryan Christ. That he was, in effect, attempting to resurrect Christianity with all its pagan antecedents intact and with himself as God. Well, its something like that Noll seems to be saying. Fact is, what Noll argues doesn't really make sense at all it's so rife with contradictions and so blatantly ignores what is relatively obvious: Jung sought the psychological roots of religion and attempted a synthesis of its most ancient manifestations in order to provide a formula that would enable each of us to authentically re-enchant our world and discover "god" within ourselves. If Jung wrote about finding god within himself it didn't mean that he literally believed himself to be God, the one and only. Indeed not even Noll seems to seriously consider such a blatant misreading of Jung, but he certainly allows the possibility of others to misread it as so. And that is where the intellectual dishonesty of this book principally resides, though it certainly also strolls all around the neighborhood. Noll purposely floats such an inflammatory thesis in the interests of the sensationalism that he and his publisher ultimately hope will translate into book sales.
   
   *The Aryan Christ* is kind of a joke that you only get if you already know something about Jung--the real Jung, not the fake so-called "secret" one misrepresented in this book. I note in the afterword that Noll is about to set his sights on fiction next. I think he got a head-start here.

No comments about Evolution And "the Sex Problem": American Narratives During The Eclipse Of Darwinism.

4 comments about Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington.

1. To have an element named for you while you are still alive is the rarest of honors and Adventures In The Atomic Age: From Watts To Washington by Glenn T. Seaborg is the story of a life worthy of that honor. Glenn T. Seaborg takes you on a trip through his life, starting with his boyhood in Michigan and his teen years in South Gate, California. Hard work gets Seaborg to UCLA and continued hard work gets him to UC Berkeley, the place where most of his academic life will take place. Seaborg was student, teacher, researcher, the Golden Bear's biggest fan, and chancellor. Seaborg quietly affected all of our lives as the head of the AEC, and, for the most part, we are better off for his rational leadership of that organization. He served on the committee that wrote the educational report 'A Nation At Risk' and served on the committee that recently reformed California's science curriculum. He is proof that a public education can be excellent and that you get out of your education what you put into it. The people who have heard of Professor Seaborg usually know him as one of the co-discoverers of the element plutonium, but this book should give anyone who reads it a wider view of a rich life. Glenn T. Seaborg is not the household name like J. Robert Oppenheimer or Edward Teller, but hopefully this excellent autobiography will be a step towards making this wonderful scientist and human being more widely known.



2. Adventures in the Atomic Age is a remarkably friendly book. It is Glenn Seaborg's autobiography (completed after his death by his son). He helped develop the atom bomb, won the Nobel Prize and had an element named after him and those are only a few of his many achievements. He also chaired the Atomic Energy Commission, was chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley and was a professor whenever there was a lull in his career. He worked to make science interesting and accessible to the public, especially to students. An idea of how well he succeeded is shown by the fact that this book actually makes the science of the atom bomb intelligible. This is a book that can be read on many levels. It can be simply a history of the atomic age for he was there at the very beginning. It can be a history of the changing political scene during his life. It can also be read simply as the history of a thoroughly decent person. Glenn Seaborg comes across as a nice guy, the sort of person you would want as a next door neighbor, and would definitely want as a teacher.



3. This was a very interesting book. You got to learn about the guy who was first able to separate plutonium not just a small bit at a time but on an industrial scale at Hanford. The story got me interested in Lawerence and the cyclotron and how some of the newer elements were used like the one they use in smoke detectors. He was an interesting character who tried to work within the system. By the end of the story you can see his democratic leanings because none of the Republican seem to know what they were doing but aside from that it is an interesting story which made me want to know more about nuclear power. I never knew about all the peaceful uses they tried that were explained in this book. This book made me want to know more of what actually happened which is why I read the new Rickover book by Frances Ducan. In his book he mentions Seaborg several times. The book has it's funny parts like when he was chancellor of Berkley how the male students council came to him and ask him to turn one of the dorms into a brothel so the guys could stay on campus and still relief some stress. Seaborg wore a lot of hats and his story coinsides with the times that he lived. This is shown by how he felt about working on the bomb during World War II. At the time Germany had taken most of Europe and Japan was all over China and the Pacific and if he didn't do something to stop them, they would rule the world. It made it seem less of a moral choice than one of survival.



4. I liked this book a lot. It reminded me so much of some projects I have worked on in terms of the happenstance and there you are. Seaborg was a kind, sane and good person, and it really comes across in this book.

   Such a contrast to so many today, and the politics have become so impenetrable these days. The UC system was nearly new then, it made me really feel how California was bubbling with new and great possibilities 70-50 years ago.

   I wish I had met the man. I hope I can be somewhere near as good a man as he was.

5 comments about The Bomb in My Garden: The Secrets of Saddam's Nuclear Mastermind.

1. The Bomb in My Garden was very easy to read and held my interest throughout. Although I did not know Dr. Mahdi as a student at Colo School of Mines, he was in school at the same time as I, graduating three years after me. That added to my interest in the book.
   
   It gives an insight into the kind of goverment Dr. Mahdi had to work under and give in to.



2. Once you get started you won't be able to put this book down. This oral hisory shows how honorable, intelligent people with the best intentions can be forced to do the work of a corrupt regime. Thank you, Mr. Obeidi, for coming forward with your story revealing the individuals and countries (including our own) that made the acquisition of nuclear-producing components possible, in spite of the nuclear ban. It makes the current situation of nuclear fuel enrichment in Iran and North Korea all the scarier. Thank you, Kurt, for organizing this story so well and making the scientific jargon so easily understood.



3. I just finish reading the book of Mahdi Obeidi.
   I found informative, interesting and entertaining.
   In his book the author manipulate us into being sympathetic and compassionated for his case.
   (just as Albert Speer would have done)
   I certainly do not deny that to work in an oppressive dictatorship is extremely difficult and that most of us one day or the other compromises our integrity for our job security or for the safety or the security of those we love.
   Nevertheless at the end we stand responsible and accountable for our acts, especially if we are men and women of faith.
   One day every one of us will have to give an account for his/her actions or in-actions.
   It will cost us; sometimes a lot or even everything to stand for what we know is right or is true, even our freedom or the live of these we love.
   DC Obeidi took the chance to have thousands or millions killed, thank to his efforts, to protect himself and his immediate family.
   The Nazi engineers did just the same.
   Would Dc Obeidi have had any pride at all if one of the atomic bomb, that he helped to built, had landed on Israel or another county and killed thousand or millions?
   I believe that he would have.
   Would he have turned down the honors and the rewards from the government he served?
   I believe that he would have not.
   Adolf Eichmann was very proud of killing millions of Jews very efficiently as good Nazi bureaucrat.
   Dc Obeidi is not different, he just did not had the chance to go to the end of the experimentation.
   To stand or not to stand is what distinguish a man from a slave.
   If nothing else Dc Obeidi was and still is a slave of his fears.



4. This book reads like one of the best spy thrillers, without the ending comfort of knowing it's only fiction.
   
   Obeidi's story puts into perspective the frail protection that exists against the development and use of nuclear weapons in the world today.
   A complex issue often over simplified is illuminated by this factual account of how close Iraq came to the development of weapons grade uranium and the bomb.
   
   This book should be required reading.



5. It is more than a cliche to say that Saddam Hussein was a madman, and in fact, it is an understatement. Mahdi Obeidi spent a major portion of his career as a scientist under the thumb of Saddam and his minions, and the twists and turns this imposed on his life would surely have broken a lesser man. Somehow Mahdi found the strength to persevere the horrific threats, forced isolation from his wife and children, the unbearably stressful, not to mention insane schedules he often had to work under, and much much more.
   
   Throughout the book he offers insights into the mind of Saddam Hussein that only someone who has experienced that brutal regime could truly comprehend. Try as we might, and as chilling as it often is, we can only imagine what it must have been like. As the top man in Saddam's nuclear program, he succeeded in enriching uranium and was well on the way to success in building a nuclear weapon. This fearsome weapon would have been in the hands of one of the world's true madmen, a tyrant whose only obstacle to surpassing Hitler in atrocities committed was his lack of power to do so. What if he had succeeded though in his nuclear ambitions? How does the world disarm someone like that? The prospect is chilling and it CAN happen again. Read this book, you will learn how and get a glimpse of what must be done to prevent it.
   
   Below is a short quote from the CIA website at https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/bombs_in_garden.html;
   
   "The Bomb In My Garden is not documented with sources, but the names, dates, and events discussed allow checking of key facts. Moreover, the former head of the UN Iraqi Survey Group, David Kay, and a number of American nuclear specialists find the story largely accurate and compelling as indicated by their comments in the book and on the dust jacket. Mahdi Obeidi concludes that Saddam came close to having an atom bomb in 1991 and probably intended to restart the program given an opportunity. As to the future, Obeidi warns the reader that "illicit nuclear programs share a common weak spot: they need international complicity" to succeed, and there are many unemployed nuclear scientists still in Iraq."
   
   In other words, it is likely in Obeidi's opinion that Saddam had a passion for the bomb that only his deposing and subsequent execution could stop...........

5 comments about One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey.

1. The book cover tells us that Wagener was a journalist for 30 years. This book makes me wonder what kind of journalist he was. The book is full of inaccuracies. Some examples: he calls cosmonaut Alexi Leonov Alexi Leonor; he states that Christa McAuliffe was selected as the Teacher in Space because she won a "Why I Want to Go Into Space" essay. (cheapening her hard work and ultimate sacrifice); he writes the shuttle's solid rocket boosters fall into the ocean and are never used again even though they are recovered, refurbished, and reused. There is no documentation for statements he makes that contradict other records. This is poorly written and researched book. I have told my wife, who is the director of our local library, not to waste money buying the book. I won't donate my copy to the library. Ignore the book and read the books written by those who were a part of the effort of going to the moon.



2. What a terrible biography! Leon Wagener's book is full of inaccuracies, is based upon "interviews" conducted with those tied to Armstrong that many of the interviewees claim never occurred, and is yet another shameful example of a writer with marginal talent propagating the same tired, FALSE urban legends about the first man on the Moon that have been circulating for decades. I look forward to the day when Mr. Armstrong will allow a true writer to accurately and justly tell his remarkable story. Leon Wagoner should stick to his day job as a writer for Star Magazine!



3. If you want to know about Neil Armstrong - the real man, not the man conjured up in some author's mind - read "First Man" by James Hansen. Hansen actually sat down for 50+ hours of interviews with Armstrong himself.
   
   As they say - "from the horse's mouth".



4. I found this book similar to modern movies that are all special effects and no substance. Almost everything is told in an over dramatic way. The author tries to build excitement by creating it himself, rather than just telling the story. This book pales in comparison with astronaut Michael Collin's excellent autobiography, "Carrying the Fire".



5. The author seems to have prided himself on his research and cites where he gets most of his information right in the text. This style disrupts the story telling, at least for me. But all in all, the book did a good job of telling the story of Neil Armstrong - the first man on the moon. I have not read any other biographies of Armstrong, but compared with biographies of other astronauts this book is fair.

No comments about Forgotten Ideas, Neglected Pioneers: Richard Semon and the Story of Memory.

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 Chemical Achievers: The Human Face of the Chemical Sciences.

4 comments about Tesla: Master of Lightning.

1. How could Margaret Cheney (Tesla : Man Out Of Time) and Robert Uth (Tesla : Master Of Lightning) improve upon their past individual works (a book and documentary video, respectively)? By combining their efforts to produce this wonderful book, that's how. The informative text is interspersed with 250 b&w and duotone images that show Tesla and the era in which he excelled (truly a man out of time). Also included are 36 sidebars that explain some of the technical aspects of Tesla's works. After reading several other books on Tesla, I thought I knew it all. I'm happy to say that this one proved me wrong. Not to be missed by true Tesla fans.



2. I found this book to be an excellent overview of Tesla's work and life. It's also a quick read. The book successfully conveys the image of Tesla as a remarkable inventor whose work and ideas were at the very forefront of the practical application of electromagnetic theory.
   
   The book plays along uncritically, however, with Tesla's apparently self cultivated image of being a Wizard / Scientist. Many of Tesla's more controversial ideas and clams that were never, and have never been substantiated through experiment, can be dismissed as poppycock. By contrast all of Tesla's successful ideas rest on very firm scientic foundations. The Author makes no attempt to discriminate one from the other. Instead, unsubstantiated claims are sprinkled liberally with vague references to missing documents and political intrigue.
   
   One excellent example of Tesla's tendancy for hyperbole is his claim of having built and tested an oscillator cable of creating earthquakes. Such a claim would have elicited knowing smirks even from 19th century scientists. Anyone doubting the foolishness of such a claim would do well to stay away from earth compactors and jackhammers, lest the Earth itself split in two! The Author(s)' failure to address Tesla's penchant for embellishment and hyperbole, and other odd aspects of Tesla's character (Other than frequent idle speculation on his sexual orientation) makes for a rather flat and onesided presentation.



3. Fascinating. Tesla was born Serbian Orthodox in what is now Croatia (formerly part of Yugoslavia). Came to New York as a young man and lived and worked in the U.S. from the 1890s into the 1930s. He is often described as being "ahead of his time": He envisioned, designed, and even patented electronic devices some of which are only today being practically realized. The supporting technology or scientific knowledge did not yet exist for many of them, though he accurately theorized that they would be possible.
   
   Various circumstances contributed to his being little known in America today (and not credited, even by scholars, with all that he accomplished). These include his unwillingness to work with wealthy corporate sponsors (as did Edison and Marconi) and the fact that much of his later work dealt with weaponry and thus was classified after his death. Also, his papers were returned to his native land and the ensuing Cold War prevented Western researchers from accessing them until recently. Many of his inventions-such as radio, AC electrical power, and radar-have long been credited to others. He foresaw-and his work contributed to the invention of-telephones, television, X-rays, satellite transmission, and directed energy weapons. He was also eccentric, probably suffered from OCD, and lived much of his life in poverty. This book downplays his eccentricities and paints him with an honest but very admiring brush.



4. This book about Tesla does not offer a very definitive overview about the man and the scientist.I thought this particular biography on the life of Tesla was rather weak.There are much better ones around.The best one being,'The Wizard'.The pictures are quite interesting,showing many of his inventions and social situations concerning the work and exhibits by Nikola Tesla.Yet,from a scientific technical point-of-view this book is light-weight on formulas and construction.Die-hard fans of the Tesla genre,would all agree,that this book could be better.Maybe the authors wanted to attract more readers ,by not scaring them off with too much scientific jargon. I would still recommend this Tesla book.

1 comments about Thomas Edison and Modern America: An Introduction with Documents.

1. "... The collection's strength is in the broad diversity of primary sources offered and the issues that Collins and Gitelman raise for student discussion. This is no mere biography of Edison the "Great Inventor." The sources include selections from Edison's memoirs, diaries, notebooks, and letters, as well as accounts of Edison and his inventions as presented by the popular media. We thus witness Edison fashioning his own self image-sometimes in contradictory ways-just as the press was turning him into a media hero. Laboratory records by Edison and his assistants chart the development of the phonograph and the use of electricity, while newspaper and magazine articles bear witness to the intense speculation surrounding the social effects Edison's inventions would create."

   David A. Reid, University of North Florida