Book Description
In Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties.
From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. Tesla: Man Out of Time is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.
Customer Reviews:
I agree with Carlberg.......2007-09-15
My title says it all. I just wanted to make sure that there was more balance to this book review.
Great Read .......2007-09-05
This is a great book. I never new much about Tesla and now my whole world has changed.
a work of love.......2007-08-15
Tesla was shoulder to shoulder with Newton, leibniz and Einstein. This one man was responsible for the 20th century. Wireless, as in internet, the radio, Alternating Current, Neon and fluorescent light, energy transmission without wires - this guy seems like he came from another world. Margaret obviously loves Tesla and it is hard to blame her. After the idiot Edison did every horrible thing he could do to destroy Tesla because of Edison's rival Direct Current, including, possibly having Tesla's lab burnt down amongst other devious acts. When Margaret wrote this book, Tesla wasn't wildly popular as he is in
the oughts. There are more coherent books out there on Tesla, but this book is a work of love. Good going Margaret.
very informative.......2007-05-14
a great look into the past of one of, if not the greatest inventors of all time.i learned soo much about tesla i didn't know.you won't believe how many inventions still being used today, and some not yet used were from him.a must have.
On the Shoulders of Giants.......2007-04-21
It is hard to imagine that there is anyone who does not know the names Edison and Einstein. The same should be true of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of the alternating current motor, radio, X-rays, radar and more, yet somehow Tesla's name has slipped into history, largely forgotten. As Margaret Cheney reveals in "Tesla: Man Out of Time", there are several reasons that Tesla's legacy has suffered: he didn't market himself as well as Edison, and he left no wife or children to promote his interests after his death. Although a naturalized American citizen, his ashes were returned to Croatia, the land of his birth, as were also his papers and writings. A world war and a cold war later entombed his memory.
Bizarrely enigmatic yet definitely brilliant, Nikola Tesla is one of the giants of science. He was an under-educated inventor who explored the nature and properties of electricity with a rare vision and trial and error. He was lauded in his time, an on-and-off national hero, but could do little as his patents were raided by other inventors. His life is fascinating and worthy of study. Margaret Cheney took the initiative to pull together all the separate, obscure treatises on his life and weave them together into one complete narrative, but her delivery is dry and her narrative devices stumble. She, for instance, tries to create suspense and expectation by presenting portions of Tesla's life out of sequence, by referencing back to journal entries or setting up cause and effect relationships between present and past events. These devices don't work and leave the reader confused as to why, suddenly, a decade or more has passed in Tesla's life. She also laces the narrative with Tesla's science--the properties of electricity--with no explanation at all. Why were alternating current motors so important? Just what the heck WAS a Tesla coil? What does electricity jumping an air gap do? If you do not already know the answers to these questions, this book will not answer them for you. But even though the narrative is clumsy and dry, "Tesla: Man Out of Time" still stands as a good, single-volume study of Tesla's life.
Amazon.com
The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth century was how to determine longitude. Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to determine an east-west position. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward.
Book Description
During the great ages of exploration, "the longitude problem" was the gravest of all scientific challenges. Lacking the ability to determine their longitude, sailors were literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Ships ran aground on rocky shores; those traveling well-known routes were easy prey to pirates.
In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment--from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton--had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on....
Customer Reviews:
An Unexpected "Couldn't Put it Down".......2007-10-16
A "simple" invention that literally opened the world and a man who spent his entire life figuring our how to make it happen, made for a fantastic story ... and a rare book that I really couldn't put down.
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.......2007-08-31
A mediocre book , the author clearly has no scientific knowlegde and drags the story out as if it was a Soap opera . No diagrams / drawings / patent descriptions are included , meagre technical information . NOT worth the effort of reading . this publication is an insult to the intelligence . ABSOLUTE RUBBISH . ( and I have read it ). William Asquith .
An interesting read, but not exceptional........2007-06-27
Dava Sobel's 'Longitude' makes for a quick, light read. The story covers an interesting slice of history, but Longitude hardy distinguishes itself as being a great book. The largest problem is that the "lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time," John Harrison, is not a man about whom very much is known. Everything that is known about him could be fitted onto one of the (paperback) book's 175 pages. It's a bit remarkable that Sobel was able to milk a book from minimal and disjointed known facts. The story is really about the longitude problem itself, and the Harrison 'enemies' long-running success in undermining Harrison's solution, a precision chronometer that could maintain accuracy under the widely varied environmental conditions encountered by mariners.
Sobel's 'Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love,' is, in every way, a better book. For those interested in a fast-paced historical exposition of "a lone genius" advancing science but meeting maddening resistance from England's celebrity scientific elite (yes, it's a theme that parallels Sobel's 'Longitude'), by all means secure a copy of Tom Standage's 'The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalry and the Pioneers of Planet Hunting,' the story of John Couch Adams' startling genius and the developments of planetary astronomy from William Herschel to our current spectroscopic and mathematical hunt for distant exoplanets.
Not a bad book, but not great either.
Not a boring science textbook.......2007-06-23
Sobel brings science to life in this tell of the quest to solve the navigational conundrum of measuring position. Her writing is visual and fluid. The book tells a gripping story that brings in bits of politics, geography, economics, philosophy, and many other disciplines. It proves that fact can be stranger than fiction. This is a great read for anyone of any age and with any area of interest.
A Great Story.......2007-06-12
Longitude and latitude tell a sailor or aviator or hiker where in the entire world he or she is. If latitude is known, one knows how far north or south of the equator he or she is. But that's a circle all the way around the earth. To find the point on that circle, the sailor's longitude must be known. Without longitude, ships missed resupply islands in the south pacific by a couple of miles or by hundreds of miles - and never knew it. They crashed into rocks wandering around like you would in a dark room - the door is on the other side but, where?
The earth is round and, therefore, there are 360 degrees in the circumference. The earth makes one rotation every 24 hours and the sun stays put. That is, the earth rotates at the rate of 15 degrees per hour. So, if I know the time at some point in the world and I know the local time, I can calculate where I am on the circle of latitude. I can determine local noon and then I look at my very accurate clock and determine the time in, say, London. If it's four hours earlier in London, I know I am 4 x 15 or 60 degrees around the world from London. I shoot the sun with my sextant to find my latitude and now I know where I am.
The problem was - how do I know what time it is in London when I'm in the south pacific. Even on land, clocks were not even close to accurate - they'd lose several minutes a day. Many solutions were proposed - my favorites were the "sympathetic dogs" and the line of cannon firing ships. The dog solution involved having a dog in London and a dog on the ship. Since it was well known that dogs communicate telepathically, if the dog in London was pinched, the dog on the ship would feel it and yelp. So - pinch the dog at noon and - voila! That didn't work so the next idea was to put a string of ships across the oceans beginning in London. Put them at one mile intervals and have the crews listen. At noon a cannon would be fired in London and the first ship would fire its cannon. The second ship would hear it and fire its cannon. and so forth across all the oceans. When a cruising ship heard the cannon, the captain knew it was noon in London. Too many ships, too much money and what to do during a storm.
Harrison's first clock was accurate to 1/2 second per day. That's in the mid seventeen hundreds. That's better than most clocks and watches made anywhere in the world up to about 30 years ago. He ultimately made a large watch - about five inches across - that was able to keep London time so accurately the British Navy could go anywhere and find what they were looking for and the way home. But think of the problems - the ship is rolling and pitching so a pendulum won't work. The temperature and humidity change so the mechanism slows or speeds up or rusts. There were no computer chips or quartz crystals. And there were many important people saying, "God is the answer - look to the heavens."
It's a story about something we take so easily for granted today. Our throwaway watches are more accurate than anything imaginable when Harrison started. An atomic clock measures time to the billionth of a second and we think nothing of it - but without those clocks we would have no satellite communication, no weather satellites, no space program. It's a story about a man who didn't know the answer but was determined to find it. Harrison had no computer, no modern machine tools, no precedent. His story is absolutely amazing. And it is told wonderfully by Dava Sobel. I've read it three times and have enjoyed it each of them.
Customer Reviews:
Do not waste your Money.......2007-03-16
If you want to read a good biography of Nikola Tesla I would recommend you two books: Man out of Time or Nikola Tesla: A spark of genius...
Worst book on Tesla ever!.......2007-01-27
This is by all means the worst book on Nikola Tesla ever! This book portrays Tesla in a way that he never was, a confused lunatic with confused visions and a hard line nationalist attitude. It is no wonder that one reader nicknamed huh concluded that Tesla was stupid and was not able to finish most of his inventions (by the way, this guy sounds like someone from Edison's camp). Tesla was born in an environment of constant clashes between Croats and Serbs, and Ottoman empire (not "Asian barbarians" as this author constantly portrays this great Empire) had nothing to do with Tesla's departure to US. Teslas's father was orthodox priest (a hardliner) who wanted to see his son in the Serbian army (it is the same army who completely escaped into Greece which is unknown example of cowardice in the history and whose king also escaped to England leaving his nation to German mercy, thus Tesla did not see anything great in this "great army"). Tesla refused going to Serbian army and he refused being hard-line nationalist. Tesla once said:" I am proud of my country Croatia and my Serbian nationality". This indicates best that he was not hard-line nationalist (keep in mind that Serbian nationalist even today claim that Croatia is occupied Serbian territory and that it will be wiped off the map). This author actually invented many stories of Tesla's life and even more of them are from second or third hand, totally untrue.
On the technical aspect of this book it is not even worth any comments. Someone who does not know anything about electrical tech must be wondering, what the heck did this guy Tesla invent anyway (hence huh reader again)? I would describe the technical portion of this book as a good joke; even Mr. Bean would do it better. Author just could not sustain a certain hatred for Ottoman empire, which by the way was not much different then eg. Roman empire. Stay away from this book, you will not learn anything from it and could be infected with serious hate.
This book is a zero mark!
The Best on Nikola Tesla.......2006-11-06
Without a doubt the most comprehensive book I have read on Mr. Tesla's life. This edition is meant for that reader who wants very detailed events and accomplishments about the scientist life. Mr. Seifer's research about Nikola Tesla's early life, his early school years, formal education and subsequent acquaintances establishes an overall base on which the reader can reference easily as the book progresses into Mr. Tesla's later years. The author brings to the reader's mind the fact that Nikola Tesla called his "close friends" the most amazing scientists at the turn of the 19th century who themselves became icons in the scientific community. However, Mr.Seifer, illustrates as well the human side of Nikola Tesla thereby keeping in focus the frail aspect of this incredible scientist and those devils his amazing intellect had to fight. I strongly recommend this book to those who wish to literaly know about Nikola Tesla's life. It is truly a manificent tome.
A great biography of Nikola Tesla.......2006-06-15
As you'd expect from a psychology professor, this biography is an extremely good biography of Tesla as a person, and a very good biography of his life and times. As with most scientific prodigies, the biographers are not equal to their subjects' scientific accomplishments, which leads to a certain amount of benign neglect. The book would not suffer under a few more historical mises en scène. All in all though, it is an extremely good book.
The Best Biography of Nikola Tesla.......2005-04-27
I value this book highly because of its even-handedness in its treatment of Nikola Tesla. Virtually every thing stated by Mr. Seifer is documented. After all, this book is the result of his doctoral dissertation.
The subject of the book is treated as a believeable human being. Assuredly, he was a genius; but the author fairly points out when Tesla may have missed the mark. The author neither blindly worships nor blindly condemns Nikola Tesla.
Because this is a biography, it does not go into depth about Nikola Tesla's inventions; Enough information is presented as is necessary to the story.
I am thankful that I have encountered this book because it is based upon truth.
Book Description
On its 10th anniversary, a gift edition of this classic book, with a forward by one of history's greatest explorers, and eight pages of color illustrations.
Anyone alive in the eighteeth century would have known that "the logitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution.
The scientific establishment of Europe--from Galileo to Sir Issac Newton--had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep percise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is a dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
Customer Reviews:
Knowing where you are at sea.......2007-08-23
A fascinating biography of an self-educated diligent and talented man who beat the academic snobs with his invention of a new way to determine longitude.
Inspiration for thwarted problem-solvers.......2007-04-07
Dava Sobel is a natural-born storyteller. She has given herself a huge topic to cover (the discovery of a way of establishing longitude at sea, the endowment and administration of a Longitude Prize, and the pursuit of that prize by various people in the 17th and 18th centuries); she has deftly described the scientific issues that make the problem seemingly impossible to solve; and she vividly brings to life the many key figures who had a hand in how the discovery eventually played out--the good, the bad, and the petty. I think it is Sobel's unjaundiced eye, her ability to examine human nature clearly and without apology that makes this book so appealing. Time and again I found myself saying, "Notthing has changed. People are still like that!" Human beings continue to be motivated by greed, ego, and envy. We continue to bend rules when it suits our need and we continue to sabotage the best efforts of others. The 18th century practice of slandering one's professional foes in pamphlets certainly has its equivalents in blog-smears. Character assasination seems to be one of humanity's most abiding pastimes. But in the end, Sobel's story is one of human ingenuity, personal sacrifice, and total commitment. In this instance at least, the good guy wins. And with Sobel's popular account of John Harrision, the inventor of the first successful chronometer, she manages to drag this obscure inventor's name out of anonymity and give him the recognition he clearly deserves. "With his marine clocks, John Harrision tested the waters of space-time. He succeeded, against all odds, in using the fourth--temporal--dimension to link points on the three-dimensional globe. He wrested the world's whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch."
There is an edition of LONGITUDE that includes many illustrations. I've seen it in stores and can vouch for its quality. But Sobel's writing is so visual and impactful that I would recommend choosing the edition without picutures. Let your imagination do the work. This is a great read.
Worth reading for better appreciation of navigation methods today.......2007-04-02
This book was the choice of one of my book club memebers who got a little tired of all the novels that have been chosen over the years. It's a short book - about 175 pages - and, we were assured, an easy read. The Introduction by Neil Armstrong was fascinating and set the tone for a most interesting narative about the invention of the chronometer and its impact on marine navigation. My ancestors were whalers, and I've read several books about expeditions and voyages pre-nineteenth century. Still, I had no clue how important the ability to determine longitude was.
Dava Sobel has a scientific mind, yet is able to make her information palatable to the non-scientific reader. I highly reccommend this book; it will broaden your horizons and make you appreciate those who came before. You will think differently about the amazing world we take for granted today with GPS navigation on our cell phones and the dashboards of our cars.
Humorously Informing.......2006-11-28
It gave good details on the characters involved, and it had humor to go along with it. This probably wouldn't catch many teenager's attention, but it did catch my attention because of the wittiness. If you want to learn more information on the history of Longitude this would be a good book to read!
If History Class was like this..........2006-07-27
I would not go so far as to say I hated history in school, but it was far from my favorite subject. As I read Longitude I found myself wanting to search out more information and explore the people and science on my own. Heck, if Dava Sobel had been writing our text books, I might have been a history major. I would reccommend Longitude to any and everyone - the budding history scholar, the salty old sailor, the astronomy buff or the normal joe looking for a good read. The science is approachable, the history intriguing and the story of Harrison's drive and determination inspiring. I would especially reccommend the edition with the plates showing the actual clocks/watches built by Harrison.
Average customer rating:
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Time For Kids: Benjamin Franklin: A Man of Many Talents (Time For Kids)
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ASIN: 006057609X
Release Date: 2005-07-26 |
Book Description
Take a close-up look at Benjamin Franklin, a jack-of-all-trades who served his country well. Interviews with experts and lively writing deliver the accurate reporting you expect from TIME For Kids®. Historical reproductions and contemporary photographs capture the life of this ingenious man and show how he made life better and safer for Americans today.
Read about more remarkable Americans:
Customer Reviews:
Great!.......2007-04-07
Benjamin Franklin: A Man of Many Talents is well written and easy to read. The book quickly covers many of the important events from Franklin's life. The artwork is relevant and colorful. This book will make a great addition to any family's or school's history library!
Ben.......2006-06-05
Ben Franklin was a very talented man. His inventions were great! I think everyone should read this book. It has great information and illustrations too. All kids can learn a great deal from this most accurate information of Benjamin Franklin's greatest accomplishments.
Book Description
Athlete, magician, marketing genius, millionaire- A. C. Gilbert was all of these, but he made his name by refusing to grow up. In 1913 Gilbert poured his boyish enthusiasm into a new toy. He called it the Erector Set, and the A. C. Gilbert Company sold 30 million of them. In this engaging book, award-winning journalist Bruce Watson tells the story of this amazing toy and its remarkable inventor-who, in 1918, became "The Man Who Saved Christmas" by convincing the U.S. War Resources Board not to ban wartime toy sales. Going beyond biography, Watson asks important questions about toys, boys, girls, science, and the way our perception of each has changed. The result is a quintessentially American tale of ingenuity, enthusiasm . . . and a marvelous invention that fit industrial America like a nut fits a bolt.
Customer Reviews:
A Toy Lovers' Hero.......2006-03-27
This book is being hawked to book club types who read widely if not deeply, but it seems to have missed its intended audience. The first clue is it has two subtitles. The second appears when you crack the cover. Watson seems to have reprised the successful writing style of his other books. What results is neither fish nor fowl.
The few black and white pictures will have toy collectors salivating for more. Any serious? afficianados will be put off with Watson's frequent recourse to pop psychology and his continual penchant to restate the obvious. What this book makes you want is a full scale, photo-drenched guide to the A.C. Gilbert toy company and especially erector sets.
Erector sets also have a long, speckled history, being bought at one point by Meccano, the British equivalent, and recently reissued by various companies who apparently just bought the name. As with Johnny Lighting, Aurora Models and Lionel Trains, Erector longs for some toy lover to bring back the real thing: kits that build various structures and vehicles and especially robots, not those currently in vogue with nostalgic adults (but ignored by creative kids) that only construct one rickety model.
That said, this book does a great job of recreating the possible environment of A.C. Gilbert's company and how he lived and breathed toys. As one subtitle suggests, he ought to be every toy lovers' hero for the way he saved Christmas in 1918 from a proposal that would force parents to buy war bonds rather than toys for their kids. Rather than appearing in circulating libraries and book clubs, this book needs to be redone with far more graphics and toy pics and aimed at toy collectors who would discover in A.C. Gilbert a mentor and hero.
Erectormania.......2006-02-25
Although I was born too late for the Erector set boom, I, for the most part, enjoyed this biography on toy magnate A.C. Gilbert. Part man, part boy, part inventor, part showman and all business, this gave good insight into the man behind the legendary toys. Again, I'm a little out of the loop as far as Gilbert's toys go, but I'm willing to wager that this would be much more enjoyable for somebody who grew up with Erectormania.
Required reading.......2003-09-12
This book should be required reading for industrial designers, toy designers and anyone else involved in design, marketing or production of consumer goods. This is a very important look into market forces, consumer behavior and the importance of placing the consumer first amd foremeost in your product design.
The book may be a biography, but is also a textbook for every enlightened designer and marketer. I will make this required reading for the Industrial design grad student I am mentoring.
Add to the fact that the author's style is at times hilarious, sometimes matter of fact, and the bottom of page 208 and page 209 will bring tears of joy and pride to your eyes.
Well written, entertaining and incredibly informative.
Examines how toys help avert or discharge childhood violence.......2003-02-09
A.C. Gilbert wore many hats: athlete, magician, and self-made millionaire - but he made his money by creating the Erector set toy back in 1913, making an invention which changed how boys played. The Man Who Changed How Boys And Toys Were Made isn't just a biography of an inventor; it examines how toys help avert or discharge childhood violence, how high-tech toys may serve a different purpose, and differences between how both sexes play.
Great book, well done.......2003-02-01
Bruce Watson takes the reader from AC Gilbert's childhood to his days at Paradise. He explains how this industrial legend developed and advertised his "Toys for Boys". And Mr. Watson explains the reasons why Gilbert's toys were not as popular for the 60"s child. A good read.
Book Description
Readers of Cheaper by the Dozen remember Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972) as the working mom who endures the antics of not only twelve children but also an engineer husband eager to experiment with the principles of efficiency -- especially on his own household.
What readers today might not know is that Lillian Gilbreth was herself a high-profile engineer, and the only woman to win the coveted Hoover Medal for engineers. She traveled the world, served as an advisor on women's issues to five U.S. presidents, and mingled with the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart. Her husband, Frank Gilbreth, died after twenty years of marriage, leaving her to raise their eleven surviving children, all under the age of nineteen. She continued her career and put each child through college. Retiring at the age of ninety, Lillian Gilbreth was the working mother who "did it all."
Jane Lancaster's spirited and richly detailed biography tells Lillian Gilbreth's life story-one that resonates with issues faced today by many working women. Lancaster confronts the complexities of how one of the twentieth century's foremost career women could be pregnant, nursing, or caring for children for more than three decades.
Yet we see how Gilbreth's engineering work dovetailed with her family life in the professional and domestic partnership that she forged with her husband and in her long solo career. The innovators behind many labor-saving devices and procedures used in factories, offices, and kitchens, the Gilbreths tackled the problem of efficiency through motion study. To this Lillian added a psychological dimension, with empathy toward the worker. The couple's expertise also yielded the "Gilbreth family system," a model that allowed the mother to be professionally active if she chose, while the parents worked together to raise responsible citizens.
Lancaster has woven into her narrative many insights gleaned from interviews with the surviving Gilbreth children and from historical research into such topics as technology, family, work, and feminism. Filled with anecdotes, this definitive biography of Lillian Gilbreth will engage readers intrigued by one of America's most famous families and by one of the nation's most successful women.
Customer Reviews:
Mercy maude, what a biography!.......2006-06-09
"This is funny, you might like it."
That suggestion from a long-ago English teacher introduced me to a book called "Cheaper By The Dozen," which in turn kicked off a lengthy fascination with the Gilbreth family and their other books. Along the way, I got a taste of the fact that Lillian Moller Gilbreth was among the more important women of her generation, up there with Marie Curie and Eleanor Roosevelt. But, as other Gilbreth-philes surely know, her children's writings only hinted at that importance, concentrating instead on her role as the family matriarch. This, the first full-length biography not written by a family member, is therefore a welcome addition to the already sizeable collection of books about the Gilbreths.
Jane Lancaster's research is very impressive, as is her ability to overcome the surviving Gilbreth children's noted concern for their privacy. Through over a century's worth of private letters and papers, she provides a surprisingly vivid look at the family you thought you knew as a kid. More importantly, she provides a well-rounded look at Lillian Gilbreth, who even in early life was not nearly the demure introvert so often portrayed elsewhere.
Though very much a product of her 19th century upper crust California childhood, she was quite independent minded from the beginning, as reflected in her decision to go to college, get married and move East while most of her siblings never left home. A lifelong Republican and a close friend of Herbert Hoover, she was nonetheless an early and effective advocate of workplace safety regulations, paid breaks, eight-hour workdays and, of course, women's right to work outside the home. (Oddly, Lancaster makes no mention of Gilbreth's views on women's suffrage, by far the most prominent feminist issue of the era.) In earning a PhD, she overcame not only sexism and the responsibilities of a large family, but a "lost" dissertation as well.
There are also more stories of the children, although few of them are as lighthearted as the ones you already know. Chances are you'd already figured out that "Cheaper By The Dozen" and "Belles On Their Toes" were a couple of idealized memoirs, but if not, prepare to have your bubble burst! Lillian's long absences from home after Frank's death were quite hard on some of the younger children, and Lancaster suggests (without going into much detail) that many of their childhood memories were not all that rosy. Still, Lillian's heroic role in keeping the large family together through hard times comes through everywhere.
I do find Lancaster's thesis - that Mrs. Gilbreth's reputation was shortchanged through her simplistic portrayal in "Cheaper" - slightly unfair. As at least four generations of middle-schoolers know, that book ends with Mother choosing to soldier on with Dad's business after his death and to continue raising all her children on her own. That was no small undertaking for a woman in 1924 or for a single parent of eleven children in any era. (If anything, it gives her slightly more credit than is due: Lancaster reveals here that she briefly sent one daughter to live with her grandmother in California.) The admittedly less-remembered "Belles On Their Toes" and "Time Out For Happiness" are both loaded down with accolades for her achievements both at home and professionally. Also, engineering is not like music, sports, art, or literature - the geniuses of the field, male or female, are generally remembered only by people who practice it. Still, Lancaster does have a point that this pioneering giant of her profession is too often remembered only as a doting mother. And she's done a great job of helping to change that.
Single Mom, Eleven Children - WOW!.......2005-08-25
When you think of Lillian (Cheaper by the Dozen) Gilbreth you can help but think of her more as a mother than anything else. The movie presented a story of a wonderful mother, but none the less, just a mother. As is often the case reading the book gives one a much better, much more complete story of her life.
You don't think of a female engineer from her time. Engineering was something that a man did. Yet she was an engineer of some reknown. And being left after her husband's death with eleven children under nineteen she had to face many of the same problems that women have to face today.
To see how she faced them so many years ago is enlightning. Just to see that all of that many children graduated from college is rather amazing even in our world.
Carefully scrutinized, very well written.......2004-08-15
The work of the Gilbreth couple has been influencing the way people work both in industry and at home since the beginning of the last century; and this influence has been quite underestimated, mainly because of the lasting succes of the books "Cheaper By the Dozen" and "Belles on Their Toes". The time has come to write a both thorough and neutral review on this work and to show the driving forces behind it. I am very pleased to say that Jane Lancaster with her book "Making Time" wrote this perfect review, which is carefully researched from the scientific point of view and very well written for the reader's pleasure.
Ms Lancaster delivers several things: (1) A precise and complete description of the life of both Gilbreths (which of course is mostly the life of Lillian M. Gilbreth, because she survived her husband by almost 50 years). (2) A neutral evaluation of this work, where she points out that most of Gilbreth's work was outlined and carried out by Lillian M. Gilbreth, although Ms Gilbreth kept herself in the background during the life of her husband. (3) The creation of a well-deserved attention for the work of Ms Gilbreth beyond her (not neglectable at all!) role of a mother of 13.
Having dealt with the work of the Gilbreth couple for more than 20 years, I highly recommend Jane Lancaster's book both for reading pleasure and for scientific work. "Making Time", in my opinion, sets the standards for the research on the work of the Gilbreth.
Wonderfully Written.......2004-08-10
I just finished the book. Lillian led an exhausting life of lecturing, travel and endless writing. As the mother of 13 children, she puts us all to shame (with many fewer children)because of her unbelievable work schedule. This book does a great job of paying tribute to her life's work which is clearly well-documented.
Although she did not promote herself as an activist for Women's Rights, Lillian Gilbreth took giant steps for all women because of her dedication to her family, husband, and her monumental career.
Jane Lancaster has a beautiful command of the English language. This book is well-written without being intimidating. I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in juggling family and/or career.
Excellent bio of a woman well remembered for the wrong thing.......2004-06-27
Lillian Moller Gilbreth is well remembered today as the patient mother of "Cheaper by the Dozen". This book makes it clear that this was the least of her attributes.
Dr. Gilbreth spent over a half century as one of America's leading engineers. First colloborating with her husband, Frank Gilbreth, she spent the first forty years of her widowhood on an intense schedule of conferences, consulting, and teaching, finally retiring near her ninetieth birthday.
While the primary focus of this book is on Dr. Gilbreth and her engineering career, and the conculsion makes clear author Jane Lancaster's bitterness that Dr. Gilbreth is best remembered for the fictionalized mother of "Cheaper by the Dozen", fans of the book will find material to satisfy them. Several chapters deal with the family's life. Few of the many footnotes are simply to "Cheaper" or its sequel, "Belles on their Toes"--appropriate, as a later chapter deals with how "Cheaper" came to be, and that it was written not as non-fiction, but rather as things should have been. For example, the episode in "Cheaper" where Dr. Gilbreth spent a day in bed, and the children were convinced that a new baby was due, having associated Mother's brief bedstays with childbirth, was based on Dr. Gilbreth giving birth to a stillborn, thirteenth child.
Jane Lancaster gives life to this pioneering woman engineer, unfortunately typecast by her children's books. Highly recommended.
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God's Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time
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God's Clockmaker is a biography of England's greatest medieval scientist, a man who solved major practical and theoretical problems to build an extraordinary and pioneering astronomical and astrological clock. Richard of Wallingford (1292-1336), the son of a blacksmith, was a brilliant mathematician with a genius for the practical solution of technical problems. Trained at Oxford, he became a monk and then abbot of the great abbey of St. Albans, where he designed his clock. His achievement is a striking example of the sophistication of medieval science, based on knowledge handed down from the Greeks and the Arabs.
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Must be good.......2006-02-25
This book was recommended in a clock magazine. It describes the making of a medieval astronomical clock in England. It must be excellent, because ordered on Jan 4, it has not yet arrived (February 24). Evidently it is in great demand, or very short supply. Amazon, in inviting me to write this review, apparently does not know that it has still not arrived. Finally, ordering it elsewhere (it was delivered within a week!) I can confirm that it is excellent, though it reuires good math skills.
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