Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family

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In the town of Sunnyvale, in the heart of Silicon Valley, every day brings sunshine and progress, and everything is supposed to work out okay. Not surprisingly, this thoughtful and deeply affecting memoir tells the story of a family that falls apart (or rather "off the Norman Rockwell easel") in the midst of this fantasy. When Mrs. Goodell decides to get a divorce, she blasts off from Planet Marriage and hitches her future to the embryonic Apple Computer company. The other family members, however, quickly unravel. Jeff, the oldest son, quits his Apple job for the casinos of Lake Tahoe, fully believing he is "leaving behind a bunch of nerdy machine heads who were destined to live small, narrow lives empty of romance or mystery." His father, a landscape architect and a family man devastated by the divorce, finds himself becoming an anachronism in the Silicon Valley chip-and-code culture. And the sensitive youngest son, Jerry, plunges into drugs, alcohol, and sexual experimentation.

While there are amusing anecdotes about what happens in the cubicles of the computer industry, Goodell focuses his clear eyes and likable style on the powerful relations of family members in crisis--on the corrosive power of competition between siblings, the disillusionment of seeing a parent fail, the despair of witnessing a loved one self-destruct, and the inevitable backlash that happens when we try to run away. Goodell himself is party to this universal irony for, despite trying to flee Silicon Valley culture, he's became one of its best-known chroniclers. And in the Valley, he finds the greatest metaphor for escape:

I feel like I'm looking down into the heart of a vast electronic hive, where the honey is time: faster chips, faster software, faster wires. It's not about efficiency--it is about cheating death. Dreaming of speed is the way engineers dream of immortality.

The men in Goodell's family are, in their own ways, at odds with this reigning faith. Goodell has given us a powerful and ultimately redemptive example of a family caught in the vortex of rapidly changing times and the tragedy wrought on those left behind. --Lesley Reed

Book Description

"Hi, it's Jeff." Silence. "Your grandson," I added.
"Oh. Yes. Jeff. How are you?"
I told him I'd like to stop by and introduce him to my wife.
"Great," he said, sounding genuinely surprised. "Why don't you come by and pet the robots?"

In Sunnyvale, California, in 1979, Jeff Goodell's family lived quietly on Meadowlark Lane, unaware that their town was soon to become ground zero in the digital revolution. Then one day his mother announced that she and his father were divorcing after twenty years of marriage. Big deal, thought Jeff. "Everybody we knew was splitting up-it was the romantic equivalent of the pet-rock craze." Over the next decade, Silicon Valley boomed, and the Goodell family unraveled. Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family is the story of a fragile, all-too-ordinary family caught at the epicenter of one of the great economic, cultural, and technological explosions in recent history.

After the divorce, Goodell's mother went to work for a little company called Apple Computer and began her ascent into the new world; his father, a landscape contractor who valued plants and trees over bits and bytes, found himself alone and falling farther and farther behind. For the Goodell children, the aftershocks brought pain and confusion: Jeff ran off to Lake Tahoe and the fast track to nowhere; his younger brother, Jerry, began a nightmarish descent into drugs, alcohol, and sexual experimentation; and eleven-year-old Jill bounced between two houses, struggling to make sense of her shattered world.

Watching it all was grandfather Leonard Goodell, a Westinghouse ur-geek who-even in his late seventies-still had enough mental horsepower to work as a lead engineer in a robotics factory. But as Leonard watched his son's family fall apart, he realized his worldly success had not come without a human cost, and near the end of his life he began his own quest for forgiveness and redemption.

Sunnyvale is a portrait of a way of life that is no more, in a place where progress runs wild. It is about individuals struggling to make lives for themselves in a brutally Darwinian world. Above all, it is about what we owe to the people we love. A unique and compelling family story, it is also a resonant document of our age.

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In Sunnyvale, California, in 1979, Jeff Goodell's family lived quietly on Meadowlark Lane, unaware that their town was soon to become ground zero in the digital revolution. Then one day his mother announced that she and his father were divorcing after twenty years of marriage. Big deal, thought Jeff. "Everybody we knew was splitting up -- it was the romantic equivalent of the pet-rock craze." Over the next decade, Silicon Valley boomed, and the Goodell family unraveled. Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family is the story of a fragile, all-too-ordinary family caught at the epicenter of one of the great economic, cultural, and technological explosions in recent history.

After the divorce, Goodell's mother went to work for a little company called Apple Computer and began her ascent into the new world; his father, a landscape contractor who valued plants and trees over bits and bytes, found himself alone and falling farther and farther behind. For the Goodell children, the aftershocks brought pain and confusion: Jeff ran off to Lake Tahoe and the fast track to nowhere; his younger brother, Jerry, began a nightmarish descent into drugs, alcohol, and sexual experimentation; and eleven-year-old Jill bounced between two houses, struggling to make sense of her shattered world.

Watching it all was grandfather Leonard Goodell, a Westinghouse ur-geek who -- even in his late seventies -- still had enough mental horsepower to work as a lead engineer in a robotics factory. But as Leonard watched his son's family fall apart, he realized his worldly success had not come without a human cost, and near the end of his life he began his own quest for forgiveness and redemption.

Sunnyvale is a portrait of a way of life that is no more, in a place where progress runs wild. It is about individuals struggling to make lives for themselves in a brutally Darwinian world. Above all, it is about what we owe to the people we love. A unique and compelling family story, it is also a resonant document of our age.

"A touching family portrait as well as an acute look at the social implications of the information age.... Anyone who has ever had a family or a computer can relate to Goodell's story."
    KIRKUS REVIEW

"This is a riveting memoir, hard to stop reading and hard to forget. It is slyly presented as being about life in the high-tech economy, but it's really about Life."
    JAMES FALLOWS

Front-of-jacket photograph courtesy of the author

Customer Reviews:

modern American family tragedy.......2006-08-14

It sounds completely trite, but I could not put this book down. The true story of the author's family, this is a story that most middle-class Americans can relate to. It's a story of divorce, coming of age, confusion, madness and family bonds. It's heartbreakingly honest and a cautionary tale for how things can spiral out of control.

A pleasant surprise........2002-09-10

I didn't know anything about this story or author when I picked up this book; I just wanted to read it because I grew up in Sunnyvale (and still live in the Bay Area). I found that the story moves along quietly and rather gently while describing serious subject matter: a family is broken apart by divorce. Meanwhile, the vast promise of the Silicon Valley is the background. It was a very honest portrayal of life and troubles in this area, very authentic to me: my father was an immigrant, drawn to California and the Bay Area as the promised land, and he was very much like the men in this book, wanting success, to make something of himself, expecting the best from his children, pressuring them to succeed because how can you possibly fail when you live in an Eichler home in a place called Sunnyvale in the place that created the technological revolution? Like the author himself, I was not the least bit drawn to the computer industry, wanting instead to be artistic and creative. Therefore, I never belonging here. I've been trying to get out of this area for years; in the book, the lead character/author moves to New York. I never realized that those of us who grew up in Sunnyvale could have similar life experiences despite differences in ethnicity, family background, etc. Your hometown influences you and your family and every part of your life. How nice to read a book that illustrates this so effectively.

Vivid portrayal of the valley.......2002-03-12

I felt so connected to "the valley" while reading this book. I grew up in Sunnyvale and surrounding towns and knew exactly where the author was when he described the area. What for me seemed like "Anywhere, USA" became unique in my eyes for the first time. It has been an experience watching the area explode with change thoughout my life.
Goodell does a great job of describing the pain in ordinary lives, and I could feel his honest emotion shine through without any gushiness or corniness: the experience of being human in our modern times. Thanks, Mr. Goodell for a great, meaningful book!

Shakespearean tale set in Silicon Valley.......2001-08-30

According to the dust jacket, "Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of Silicon Valley Family," by Jeff Goodell, is "a portrait of one family's fate in a brutally Darwinian world" and that doesn't even begin to describe this incredible book.
Think your family's got problems? Think you're stuck in the middle, enmeshed between feuding siblings and parents? You've got nothing on the Goodell clan. Set against a backdrop of the growth of the Silicon Valley, from sleepy little slow-paced orchard-filled bedroom community to the congested frenetic center of the new economy, Sunnyvale reads as a Shakespearean tale of a deposed King trying vainly to keep his dynasty together. And it's all true.
In this stunning memoir Goodell contrasts his father's downfall in the old world of landscape design and construction to his mother's rise in the new world of bits and bytes, and the disastrous effects it had on their children. Throw in a couple of divorces, plenty of drugs, enough alcohol to fill the San Francisco bay, cancer, AIDS, and the prodigal return of a robot building grandfather, and you've got one hell of a good book.
This is truly "can't put down" reading at its best. Jeff Goodell is also the author of The Cyberthief and the Samurai. I give a strong recommendation for Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of Silicon Valley Family.

Great story of a nuclear family.......2001-07-10

I grew up in the bay area and really enjoyed the story of how the events and mindsets of the late 1970's changed the author and his families world. Written in a way that brings divorce and its effects on a family to life I found myself rooting for all the characters and identifying with about everyone of them!

Book Description

This is a book of stories about sports persons: sports stars, less-known athletes and relatively unknown physical education teachers and sports scientists. More exactly, these 13 essays all deal with problems associated with writing sport biographies - how does an author navigate among myths and truths? Why do some athletes live on in the public mind while others, whose achievements may have been greater, fade from memory? Are sports biographies different from those dealing with people from the non-sporting realm? The subjects range from direct theoretical explorations of writing sport biographies to discussions of biographies themselves. Topics include the following: The German-American sports- and physiology scientist Professor Ernst Jokl; Danish gymnastics pedagogue Niels Bukh; two studies of physical education teachers, including Martti Silvennionen's work on autoethnographical pedagogy in PE teacher training; women's sport in Denmark's intermediary period of 1920-1950; writing about women and sport, and the Finnish worker sports movement experience from a woman's viewpoint. Another essay observes the contrasts in the legends of two sports stars in twentieth century Britain, the English footballer Jackie Milburn and the Olympic athlete, Godfrey Brown. Other topics include the English sports hero from the 1940s and '50s, Denis Compton, the Swedish footballer Lennart "Nacka" Skoglund and the Danish cyclist Niels Fredborg. Writing Lives in Sports provides lively discussions of individual sporting lives as well as important methodological and conceptual questions for writers and biographers of sport figures and other genres.

Book Description

In this pioneering and entertaining book, Roz Kaveney examines the crucial films and television shows in the teen-driven genre and reveals the inner workings of their consistent themes. From John Hughes early films, to the cheerleaders of Bring It On, the films and their characters deal with sex and gender relations, presenting a picture of the hidden life of teenagers. Hit teen films can also promote products, launch bestselling soundtrack albums, and be career-makers for young actors. Kaveney also shows how the teen genre has absorbed classic material in the case of Clueless, has made up gender etiquette manuals like American Pie, and how teen films and television series deal with the tragic and comic undersides of the American dream.

Customer Reviews:

Poorly written, poor edited.......2007-06-17

There are many factual errors in this book, which immediately drove holes into its credibility. The author is smug and unlikable. I had to read this for a book club; otherwise I would not have finished it. Not worth reading.

Interesting analysis of Teen movies.......2006-11-05

This book contains an interesting analysis of teen movies and television. It mentions 86 films&shows, and of these the following get an in-depth treatment:
10 things I Hate About You
Adventures in Babysitting
American Pie
Bend It Like Beckham
The Breakfast Club
Bring It On
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Clueless
Cruel Intentions
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Girl Next Door
Heathers
Mean Girls
Popular
Pretty In Pink
Saved!
She's All That
Sixteen Candles
Some Kind of Wonderful
Veronica Mars
Weird Science

There's an index, which considerably increases the books usefulness. Reading the book once from cover to cover gives an overview of the genre and made me decide to check out some movies I hadn't seen, while the index let's you find the analysis for a specific movie.

Yippee! Everything teen is new again!.......2006-08-30

Finally! A way to explain to non-believers why we LOVE teen movies, no matter our age. I had almost as much fun reading this book as I have when I watch the films it's critiquing. Roz Kaveney deftly balances postmodern feminist and queer theory with her patently clear enjoyment of the genre of teen films. For anyone who's gone head over high heels for Heathers, or ape over American Pie, this is the book that will allow you to watch your fave films yet one more time with a deeper understanding of their context and social significance... not to mention all the hidden fun moments you missed the first time. Ms. Kaveney doesn't miss a trick, and after you've read this book neither will you.

Book Description

This thematic reader explores the interplay of two compelling themes: identity and culture. The eight units are based on the categories of information one encounters on a standard information form: name, age, appearance, etc. Students explore these areas by making connections and finding greater meaning as they progress.

Customer Reviews:

i loved it.......2002-11-18

although i never was fortunate enough to meet jose greco, i knew his wife. i was always fascinated with the idea that she was married to a famous flamenco dancer. after his death i decided to find out more about him and i came across this book. i loved it. i read it in a matter of hours and now the man is not such a mystery to me. he lead a fascinating life and i only wish i had a chance to meet him before his untimely death. i recommend this book for anyone interested in spain or spanish culture, jose greco or dance in general. it also gives the reader an inside look at history through the eyes of a struggling artist.

This legend will be missed.......2001-06-09

Jose Greco was my cousin. A distant cousin, but a cousin nonetheless. I had heard many stories about him during family reunions and over steaming plates of pasta at my grandmother's house. We never met, although many of my relatives were lucky enough to see him and his dance troupe perform. After his death, I found this book and only now have gotten to 'know' Jose and all he accomplished in the world of dance, his amazing life experiences, and the many colorful people who were lucky enough to grace his life. The dance world has lost a tremendous founder and talented artist. Now, I will seek performances by his son's dance troupe so that I can experience his gifts first-hand. This book is wonderful reading for young dancers, as it shows what wonderful things can happen when you work hard, take chances, and live to the fullest. Jose was so honest about his successes and his failures, that this book is empowering to all of us regardless of whether or not we can dance at all. Jose Greco will be missed, but his legend will live on in print and during those pasta dinners with family.

Book Description

How to make a living speaking, training, and running workshops and seminars

Expert Bob Bly shares his secrets for earning $1,000 to $5,000 a day, or more, as a self-employed speaker, lecturer, or trainer. He shows readers, step-by-step, everything they need to know to become polished speakers, create winning presentations, find a market niche, set fees, get bookings, and much more. Aspiring speakers will learn about the corporate training market-who buys training, what the hot topics are, how to package and sell training courses, and what to charge.

Bob Bly (Dumont, NJ) is an independent copywriter, advertising consultant, bestselling author, popular lecturer, and highly successful trainer.

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Expert Bob Bly shares his secrets for earning $1,000 to $5,000 a day, or more, as a self-employed speaker, lecturer, or trainer. He shows readers, step-by-step, everything they need to know to become polished speakers, create winning presentations, find a market niche, set fees, get bookings, and much more. Aspiring speakers will learn about the corporate training market--who buys training, what the hot topics are, how to package and sell training courses, and what to charge.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2006-02-03

A great book for someone contemplating entering the speaking/seminar business. I discovered the National Speakers Association through this book.

Bly provides excelent overview.......2004-12-08

Any aspiring to mid-career speaker will find most of this book's content highly useful.

Lacking.......2004-09-14

Nothing new here. For basic advice it is a passable book, but hardly of much value for serious candidates.

Some good info..........2003-12-01

If you've not had any exposure to the process of managing a speaking career, this would be a good overview book for you. Good information, easy to read, and some practical examples. The last 100 pages or so are sample letters, lists of associations, etc. which may or may not be useful to you.

Not much help........2003-05-04

This book will not lead you to a single speaking engagement. If you are serious about the speaking business contact the National Speakers Association.

Book Description

This book is essential and accessible reading for all teachers and professionals who are working with sign bilingual deaf children. It considers the background and theory underpinning current developments in sign bilingual education and the implications for policy and developing classroom practice. Practical teaching strategies are suggested and evaluated. The authors draw on their own experience of working in sign bilingual settings as well as current good practice and relevant research.

This book is the first UK book that describes sign bilingual education (beyond policy). It is also the first book to support sign bilingual practice dealing with current educational issues. The authors draw together relevant research and practice in sign bilingual education and present practical strategies for teachers.

Knights templar tactics and drill, with the working text and burial service of the orders of knighthood, as adopted by the Grand commandery of the state of Michigan. By Ellery Irving Garfield.

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Knights templar tactics and drill, with the working text and burial service of the orders of knighthood, as adopted by the Grand commandery of the state of Michigan. By Ellery Irving Garfield.
Michigan Historical Reprint Series
Manufacturer: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | History | Historical Reproductions | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1425515398
Release Date: 2005-12-20

Product Description

This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.

Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics (Working Class in American History)

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Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics (Working Class in American History)
Leon Fink
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Labor Policy | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Encyclopedias | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0252012569

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Working at a Zoo (Working Here)
Bertram T. Knight
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Careers | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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Warm and Witty, Highly Recommended

Working Knights
Edwin K, II Leap
Manufacturer: Booklocker.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Medical | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1591136296

Customer Reviews:

Warm and Witty, Highly Recommended.......2005-01-25

Warm and witty, this eclectic collection of stories, poems, and essays immerse the reader in the life of an emergency physician in rural South Carolina. Although there is plenty here to cause medical personnel to chuckle, there's moments of laughter and pensiveness that many will be able to identify with: watching over sleeping children, coping with fears, driving down country roads. Highly recommended.

The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century

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A new theory of American Exceptionalism

The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century
Kim Voss
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

Labor Unions | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0801481198

Book Description

Why has the labor movement in the United States been so weak and politically conservative in comparison to movements in Western Europe? Kim Voss rejects traditional interpretations--theories of "American exceptionalism"--which attribute this distinctiveness to inherent characteristics of American society. On the contrary, she demonstrates, the American labor movement had much in common with its English and French counterparts for most of the nineteenth century. Only with the collapse of the Knights of Labor, the largest American labor organization of the century, did the U.S. movement take a different path.

Customer Reviews:

A new theory of American Exceptionalism.......2000-07-07

As noted in the book description, the author offers a new theory of the development of America's distinctly conservative labor movement. The book admerably combines historical case studies and a statistical review of the formation and collapse of Knights of Labor locals in the New Jersey. Both of these methods reject a view that America was somehow fundimentally different than Europe (France and England are used for comparison) prior to the collapse of the KoL. Further, she does not find evidence for the typical explinations of the Knights' failure such as craft conservatism, ethnic diversity, industrial diversity and middle class influence. Rather, she finds that the main cause of the Knights' decline was employer opposition, which she found to be much more profound than in ENgland or France, coupled with the lack of an activist government. These conclusions are well supported by her evidence, however, her most interesting assertion is also the least well argued. She points out that even strong employer intransigence cannot fully explain the fall of the Knights, as both English and French unions suffered significant numnerical setbacks in this period. However, those unions rebounded and the Knights did not. The author argues that the Knights' ideology cast the blame for their failures fully onto their own organizations, which left little ideological space for recovery. This argument, with its emphasis on the from of organizational conciousness is provocotive, but requires additional supporting evidence. Overall, an important and thoughtful book on a long standing topic in American Labor History. And for those who don't with to slog through the statistical analysis, parts one and three provide a thoughrow introdustion, overview and conclusion.

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Better Working Eight in One
Anne, Knight ,Andrew, Woods, Alexandra De Felice
Manufacturer: Spinnaker Software
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ND5EKA

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COMMON PEOPLE
Martin Knight
Manufacturer: Mainstream
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1840183322

Economic Reform in Socialist Countries: The Experiences of China, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia (World Bank Staff Working Paper)

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Economic Reform in Socialist Countries: The Experiences of China, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia (World Bank Staff Working Paper)
Peter T. Knight
Manufacturer: World Bank
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Production & Operations | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0821302299

From the Knights of Labor to the New World Order: Essays on Labor and Culture (Garland Reference Library of Social Science)

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From the Knights of Labor to the New World Order: Essays on Labor and Culture (Garland Reference Library of Social Science)
Paul Buhle
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Industrial Relations | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor Unions | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This collection brings together the labor and cultural studies of the author over the past 20 years, during which time the fields of social history, women's history, ethnic studies, public history, and oral history have all been transformed. The essays, some rewritten or newly available and the rest original to this volume, offer important examples of historical analysis, comment on changing scholarly perceptions, and the public uses of history. By drawing upon his own research in popular culture, Yiddish periodicals, interracial unionism, oral history and a variety of other sources, the author demonstrates how the field of labor specialists has become the domain of social historians exploring a rich American past.

Customer Reviews:

Concise, precise, illuminating, celebrational: a must-have.......2004-07-05

"2. Benjamin Banneker, a Negro astronomer, made the first clock made in America in 1754...

"3. The word 'coffee' comes from Caffa, Ethiopia, where it was first used and where it still grows wild...

"5. The Negro arrived in the New World free from tuberculosis and syphillis or other venereal disease...Syphillis originated in Europe in 1494, when there was a great epidemic of it...

"14. The Ganges, the sacred river of India, is named after an Ethiopian king of that name who conquered Asia as far as this river...

"42. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and father of the Declaration of Independence, was the father of a large number of mulatto children. His wife protested loud and long to no avail..."

J.A. Rogers
100 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT
THE NEGRO
WITH COMPLETE PROOF

"Immensely entertaining and even more instructive. There is something new on almost every page, and you present it with the utmost effectiveness...a very competent job."

H.L. Mencken
on SEX AND RACE
by J.A. Rogers

J.A. Rogers has been an unsung hero of anthropology and African-American culture of the early to mid twentieth century in much the same way Paul Robeson's cultural legacy of the same time is today. The majority of his work, dating from the early 30s to the mid 1950s, is ironically ignored inverse proportion to the degree his conclusions are proven accurate.

The beauty of this seventy-one page book, however, is the egoless nature of it all. A mental giant and world traveler, J.A. Rogers could have easily written several tomes the likes of which would be ignored by both the general public and the academic world, cutting off his nose in spite of his face for the benefit of proving the voluminous nature of his education and little else. 100 AMAZING FACTS is the exact opposite of this.

"63. The word 'slave' was originally applied to white people. It comes from 'Slav', a Russian people captured by the Germans.

"66. In 1670, Virginia passed a law forbidding Negroes from buying white people...Free Negroes bought white people in such numbers in Louisiana that the state made a similar law in 1818.

"74. The Rock of Gibraltar, the symbol of stability, is named after a Negro ex-slave. It is a corruption of 'Gebal-Tarik' or 'The Mountain of Tarik'. Tarik, who was a Moor, captured the Rock which was then called Calpe, in 711 A.D. Later he conquered Southern Spain..."

J.A. Rogers
100 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT
THE NEGRO
WITH COMPLETE PROOF

The carefully, brilliantly chosen facts which make up the first half of the book are designed to be a combination of enlightening, surprising, disturbing, provocative, even paradigm shifting...yet simultaneously always entertaining. The second half consists of essentially his bibliography, where all of the proof of every fact can be found and authenticated. Perfect for everyone from teenagers (my father first gave me his copy when I was about twelve; I bought it for my fourteen year old son just recently) to interested adults to scholars and educators, you will never spend so little money (less than ten dollars at its highest price anywhere) to get so much knowledge from such a little, entertaining book.

100 AMAZING FACTS is the perfect symbol of J.A. Rogers himself: a complete, concise, well-spoken, honorable treasure--and a gift.

Powerful book.......2002-12-08

sometimes when you want too know about Your Culture&Roots you ahve too explore things for yourself&thank goodness a book such as this brings fourth so many important facts&Historic events that have Shaped the course of America.I Really enjoyed all the Information provided.

opens up the door to further research and study.......2002-02-10

Very easy to read list of interesting facts regarding black people with references. This opens up the door to further study because some of the things seem so fantastic that one may want to look up some of the items using the references provided.

Excellent reading for the youth of today.......1999-02-02

This book should be incorporated into the mainstream of our educational system. I am still amazed at how the truth to these facts aren't recognized or known by Americans today. For instance: Just last year it was acknowledged that Thomas Jefferson had decendants that were black. This book was written in the 50's, and on page 8, fact #42 it relates how he along with other slave owners during that time often had extramarital affairs with their slaves. This was written over 40 years ago and it's now coming to pass. Please read this book to experience the truth that has for so many years been underground.

100 Amazing Facts About the Negro. With Complete Proof. A Short Cut to the World History of the Negro.

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100 Amazing Facts About the Negro. With Complete Proof. A Short Cut to the World History of the Negro.
J. A. Roger
Manufacturer: Helga M. Rogers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N5MJ2E

Amazon.com

Given the opportunity to watch the inner workings of his own brain, Steven Johnson jumps at the chance. He reveals the results in Mind Wide Open, an engaging and personal account of his foray into edgy brain science. In the 21st century, Johnson observes, we have become used to ideas such as "adrenaline rushes" and "serotonin levels," without really recognizing that complex neurobiology has become a commonplace thing to talk about. He sees recent laboratory revelations about the brain as crucial for understanding ourselves and our psyches in new, post-Freudian ways. Readers shy about slapping electrodes on their own temples can get a vicarious scientific thrill as Johnson tries out empathy tests, neurofeedback, and fMRI scans. The results paint a distinct picture of the author, and uncover general brain secrets at the same time. Memory, fear, love, alertness--all the multitude of states housed in our brains are shown to be the results of chemical and electrical interactions constantly fed and changed by input from our senses. Mind Wide Open both satisfies curiosity and provokes more questions, leaving readers wondering about their own gray matter. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

In this nationally bestselling, compulsively readable account of what makes brain science a vital component of people's quest to know themselves, acclaimed science writer Steven Johnson subjects his own brain to a battery of tests to find out what's really going on inside. He asks:

How do we "read" other people?
What is the neurochemistry behind love and sex?
What does it mean that the brain is teeming with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs?
Why does music move us to tears?
Where do breakthrough ideas come from?

Johnson answers these and many more questions arising from the events of our everyday lives. You do not have to be a neuroscientist to wonder, for example, why do you smile? And why do you sometimes smile inappropriately, even if you don't want to? How do others read your inappropriate smile? How does such interplay occur neurochemically, and what, if anything, can you do about it?

Fascinating and rewarding, Mind Wide Open speaks to brain buffs, self-obsessed neurotics, barstool psychologists, mystified parents, grumpy spouses, exasperated managers, and anyone who enjoys speculating and gossiping about the motivations and behaviors of other human beings. Steven Johnson shows us the transformative power of understanding brain science and offers new modes of introspection and tools for better parenting, better relationships, and better living.

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"BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, MIND WIDE OPEN IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. In Mind Wide Open, Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I?

Customer Reviews:

Journey into the workings of the brain.......2007-08-29

Part of this book is focused on the author's curiosity about the workings of the brain which led him to conduct experiments on himself and monitor what happens in his brain and in what parts of his brain when he is involved in different activities. Part of this book attempts to cover discoveries from neuroscience and delves into what part of the brain processes what kind of information as well as how different hormones and neuro-chemicals influence thinking, feelings and behavior.

The Wide-Open Field of Neuroscience.......2007-03-02

This is not a technical science book. It is a work of narrative non-fiction that profiles a tool every one of us has: the brain. Johnson provides an excellent layman's understanding about the way the brain works. He subjects himself to all kinds of neurological tests (like any good journalist covering the brain should), and writes about his experiences. Johnson tries out neuralfeedback helmets, takes an fMRI brain scan, talks to "mind-reading" experts, and tries out many other things. The author is obviously fascinated by the brain and its abilites, and this fascination comes through in the writing. After reading Mind Wide Open I have been motivated to dig deeper into this fascinating subject. If you treat this book as a primer on the fascinating world of neuroscience, you can't go wrong.

not too thought provoking.......2007-02-26

what appeared to be a good read from the description, in all reality, proved to be a bunch of poorly connected ideas that all in all did nothing to enhance my understanding of the functioning of the human mind.

It can be understood just by neuroscientists........2007-02-21

I am a software engineer and I like to read about other sciences, but this book has disappointed me to have ideas about neuroscience. In my reading experience I found it as the most confusing book, the author talks about his life more than the science indicated in the title of the book.

waste of time.......2007-01-20

Rather bland and boring; covering overly general neuroscience topics. Many better neuroscience books have been written covering the same material.

Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life

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Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
Steven Johnson
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NR4DOO

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