House of Rothschild: The Worldªs Banker 1849-1999

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THE INVISIBLE ROTHSCHILDS

Rothschild the world's banker

Way too detailed

Disappointed:

The House of Rothschild

House of Rothschild: The Worldªs Banker 1849-1999
Niall Ferguson
Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Business | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Banks & Banking | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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The House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848

The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000

The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family

The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance

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ASIN: 0756753937

Amazon.com

Continuing the sweeping narrative that he began with The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets, 1798-1848, Oxford University historian Niall Ferguson conjures up a world in which widespread change and utter uncertainty held sway in the place of carefully ordered dynasties and universally observed mores. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic revolution, European Jews had been able to move within dominant societies somewhat more freely. Of no family was this more true than the Rothschilds, whose branches lived in Germany, France, Austria, and England, and whose vast financial empire enabled them to act as diplomats and power brokers throughout the world. Their influence was enormous. When Spain wanted to build a railroad, its ministers approached the House of Rothschild. When the Confederate States of America sought to be recognized by the states of Europe, it sought--unsuccessfully--the Rothschilds' support. When Ferdinand de Lesseps broke ground for the Panama Canal and Cecil Rhodes broke ground for his vast diamond and gold mines in South Africa, Rothschild funds backed them.

Until the 1920s, Ferguson demonstrates, there was almost no economic, technological, or political development in Europe in which the House of Rothschild did not play some role. The rise of nationalist and national socialist movements and of official anti-Semitism, coupled with the rise in the Jazz Age of a new generation of Rothschilds that cared more for the good life than for the hard work of maintaining their holdings, led to a substantial decline in the family's authority and wealth. But even today, as Ferguson writes in this richly detailed but eminently readable history, the Rothschilds figure in European finance, continuing a legacy that Ferguson's two volumes trace from the Middle Ages to the new millennium. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Niall Ferguson's House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets 1798-1848 was hailed as "definitive" by the New York Times, a "great biography" by Time magazine, and was named one of the Ten Best Books of 1998 by Business Week. Now, Ferguson concludes his myth--breaking portrait of one of the most powerful families of modern times at the zenith of its power. From Crimea to World War II, wars repeatedly threatened the stability of the Rothschild's worldwide empire. Despite these upheavals, theirs remained the biggest bank in the world up until the First World War. Yet the Rothschild's failure to establish themselves successfully in the United States proved fateful, and as financial power shifted from London to New York after 1914, their power waned. At once a classic family saga and major work of economic, social and political history, The House of Rothschild is the riveting story of an unparalleled dynasty.

Customer Reviews:

THE INVISIBLE ROTHSCHILDS.......2007-07-03

What has Ferguson not told about the Rothschilds in this second volume of his seemingly exhaustive two volume set?

He all too facilely dismisses Victor Rothschild's being the fifth man in the World War II Soviet spy ring of Blunt, Burgess, et. al. He dosen't discuss the Rothschilds' connection with Freemasonry at the highest level, and their gift to Israel of the Supreme Court building, a New World Order artifact, heavily laden architecturally with Freemasonry symbolism. Likewise, glaringly absent from note are Illuminati activities, which the family has been widely thought to be involved with. History Professor Ferguson could fill in his blanks on some vital but shady Rothschild history from Henry Makow, a researcher and writer--and a Jew.

According to an article on Ferguson in Harvard Magazine (May/June '07), he is about to take on biographical writing of Henry Kissinger, at Kissinger's request. This should generate caution. Could Kissinger's "papers" be entirely relied on? Kissinger probably saw what sheen Ferguson could put on the Rothschild's archives as raw material, ignoring or minimising important but dark concerns.

Same question on the Warburg's family papers that he is availing himself of. What will Ferguson tell us about Paul Warburg's role in establishing the egregious Federal Reserve, and Max Warburg financing the Bolshevik revolution?

Let's hope that Ferguson can either put this and other allegations to rest once and for all or illuminate them if true--but now that he's shown his colors with the Rothschilds, I doubt that he will, either way.

It seems that sympathetic academic interest in these elitist families and individuals is inevitable in part because that is where the big bucks for research and publishing would be, especially for a scholar who professes to have, as he says in the Harvard Magazine article, "become a thorough philo-Semite".

Is there a whiff of opportunism here at the expense of objectivity?

Rothschild the world's banker.......2006-08-23

A very complete book, a mine of facts but the author was unable to sort what is important from miscellaneous. The mix of general european history, business history and family events is by moments as indigestible as porridge por a non-scot.

Way too detailed.......2006-07-17

This book was just way too detailed for me. It contains lots of facts and figures about biz transactions but it is just too much. It was to the point of who cares? Niall Ferguson really did his home work as far as that is concerned but it made the book boring. To me it felt like it was written by an accountant. It is the story behind the facts and figures and how they came about which make for interesting reading. But I have to give him credit for the time he spent putting this book together is unimaginable.

Having said that I would have enjoyed it more if it had some stories where they made 1.2 million on this deal or lost 500,000 on that deal but it wasn't there. Just an accounting at the end of the year saying this was what they had at the end. No exciting stories like the robber barons trying to take over a railroad or JP Morgan putting together large trust deals in the US. Although chapter 11, which tells of the Rothschild involvement with mining and Cecil Rohdes and De Beers was very interesting and by far the the best chapter in the book, although it was not enough for me to give it a better rating. But that chapter for me made the book.

I skimmed more of this book then I did the first one. There are a few more interesting stories in here but not enough to really keep you interested. If you like well written interesting biographies this is probably not for you.

Disappointed:.......2004-03-15

I agree with one of the critics that the book had many facts and details that broke up the pace of the book for me. Ferguson presumes that the reader knows a fair amount about bonds, consuls and other financial mechanisms. He would have done well to slow down a bit and explain a few of the terms and concepts. And I think that Ferguson tells an utterly superficial and innocuous history of the Family. Long awkward sentences make for labored reading. That having been said, this was no doubt a delicate and ambitious undertaking.

The House of Rothschild.......2003-07-24

Ferguson insults the purchaser of the Penguin Paperback by omitting the bibliography and only providing sketchy footnotes. "Serious scholars" who desire these items are advised to buy the Harcover edition. Other than that, it is a good read

Amazon.com

Given golf's sad tradition of relegating women to secondary status in the grill room and non-prime times off the tees, it's not surprising--though hardly defensible--that the wisdom of the game's best women teachers has largely been pushed into the rough as well. And this isn't just a loss for women golfers--it's every golfer's loss. Mona Vold, on her way to becoming a teaching pro herself, seeks to remedy this slight in Different Strokes. In the mold of Harvey Penick's inviting collections, this is a wonderful accumulation of tips, insights, and anecdotes from some of golf's best female instructors. Their names--Gloria Armstrong, Peggy Kirk Bell, Kathy Whitworth, Debbie Massey, and Betty Jameson--might not all sound familiar, but their knowledge and their ability to pass it on are breathtakingly real. This is much more than an instructional, though. Different Strokes is a plaintive and powerful journey--a journey made quite personal through Vold's own quest to meet and learn from these matriarchal masters--into one of the overlooked chambers of golf's heart. "I set out east, west, south and am greeted repeatedly with generosity and kindness," Wisconsinite Vold reports. "'You learn so much by being asked a question,' the great amateur and now 79-year-old pro Betty Jameson tells me. 'Everyone needs a listener--something more than a seashell. We aren't just Proettes. Our days, our swings, our games, our minds are full. We have things to tell....'" And there isn't a golfer alive who won't get something out of listening to them. --Jeff Silverman

Book Description

"As everyone knows, all good golf swings are alike in that the club must make certain motions as it passes through a short space. The angle and speed of the clubface at the moment it strikes the ball are the test all swings must take. The golf club doesn't care if it is being swung by a woman or a man."

-- HARVEY PENICK

For as long as golf has been played, it has been played in roughly equal measure by men and women. Yet in America, when we tell the history of golf over the last century, we tell the tales of great men who have made golf a sport rife with legends. But for every Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, or Jack Nicklaus that has come along to inspire us with his accomplishments, there has also been a Betty Jameson, Wiffi Smith, Polly Riley, or Kathy Whitworth to amaze us and help us understand all that is great in the game of golf.

Until now, however, the stories of those women who have contributed to the aura of the sport with their words, wit, and wisdom have largely gone untold. But in Different Strokes, Mona Vold -- for the first time -- takes the reader on an unparalleled journey to the very soul of golf and reveals to us the remarkable lives and teachings of the game's wisest women. By giving voice to the women who have helped shape golf in the twentieth century, Mona Vold has given voice to every woman who has played the game -- from the weekend amateur to the pro on the LPGA Tour.

Much like the mystical golf master Shivas Irons in Michael Murphy's classic Golf in the Kingdom, the women in these pages offer up golf as an overarching metaphor for life. It is through a master's appreciation for the game and all of its magic that women of all ages come to understand the subtle beauty of the game with all its risks and rewards, frustrations and joys.

Through stories from and about these remarkable women, Mona Vold gathers the collective wisdom of a lost generation -- women whose swings were every bit as technically perfect as those of Byron Nelson or Sam Snead, whose battles to overcome injury were every bit as heroic as those of Ben Hogan, and whose achievements were every bit as impressive as those of Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, and the other heroes of the men's game.

Complete with delightful portraits, sound technical advice, and inspiring nuggets of wisdom, and written in a beautiful, inimitable style, Different Strokes does for women's golf what Harvey Penick's Little Red Book did for golfers of every generation.

Customer Reviews:

Different Strokes: The Lives & Teachings of the Game's Wisest Women.......2007-09-26

Two books are tops for those who love the game and choose to continue learning how to play it well: this one and Every Shot Must Have a Purpose: How GOLF54 Can Make You a Better Player The stories, experiences, tips, and memories are superbly inspiring. Worth re-reading every year!

A unique gallery.......2001-04-03

"If a person has any greatness in them, it comes to light , not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of their daily work." Beryl Markham "West with the Night"

The women Mona Vold writes about in her book, "Different Strokes", are national treasures worthy of any reader's time. And although the common thread of their journeys is the world of golf, the passion of their hearts, the clarity of their minds and the strength of their voices both dig deeply into and transcend that rich and humbling game.

Without reservation, I highly recommend this wise and thoughtful book.

Inspirational reading for all golfers.......2001-02-17

Fun to hear what the other half has to say about the game. Great stories a good read for any golfer. Not to sure about the technical information. You might want to purchase GOLF IS A WOMAN'S GAME to set you straight on that. Both books really elevate women's golf.

Top Book on Women's Golf.......1999-10-27

This book has it all....contemporary history of women who love the game and made the LPGA what it is today, nostalgia, technique and lots of food for thought. Any woman who has a passion for golf must read this one. I seldom read a book more than once...I'm on my third time through in less than three months. Do yourself a favor by buying it and keeping it near your nightstand to refer to again and again.

Loved this book!.......1999-09-09

I don't play golf but I LOVED Ms. Vold's book, read every word, hated to have it end! I would recommend this book to anyone whether they play golf or not.

Different Strokes: The Lives & Teachings of the Game's Wisest Women

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Different Strokes: The Lives & Teachings of the Game's Wisest Women
Mona Vold
Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0756768101

Product Description

For as long as golf has been played, it has been played in roughly equal measure by men & women. Until now, however, the stories of those women who have contributed to the aura of the sport with their words, wit, & wisdom have largely gone untold. Here, Mona Vold, who teaches golf & coaches a girls' high school team, reveals to us the remarkable lives & teachings of golf's wisest women. Through stories from & about these remarkable women, Vold gathers the collective wisdom of a lost generation. This beautifully written book is complete with delightful profiles, sound technical advice, & inspiring nuggets of wisdom. Includes: Shirley Spork, Jackie Pung, Pat Lange, Debbie Massey, Wiffi Smith, Polly Riley, Pia Nilsson, Winged Foot, & many more.

Book Description

The first half of the twentieth century was a golden age of American storytelling. Mailboxes burgeoned with pulp magazines, conveying an endless variety of fiction. Comic strips, with their ongoing dramatic storylines, were a staple of the papers, eagerly followed by millions of readers. Families gathered around the radio, anxious to hear the exploits of their favorite heroes and villains. Before the emergence of television as a dominant—and stifling—cultural force, storytelling blossomed in America as audiences and artists alike embraced new mediums of expression.

This examination of storytelling in America during the first half of the twentieth century covers comics, radio, and pulp magazines. Each was bolstered by new or improved technologies and used unique attributes to tell dramatic stories. Sections of the book cover each medium. One appendix gives a timeline for developments relative to the subject, and another highlights particular episodes and story arcs that typify radio drama. Illustrations and a bibliography are included.

Customer Reviews:

Well written - brings back memories.......2005-04-21

I am amazed this book is not in the top echelon of Amazon's sales. It is obviously because of the price the publisher has placed on it. But I assure you it is worth the price. Reading this book not only brought back memories of old comic strips and radio drama's but drove me to the internet to check some of this out. Tim is an engaging writer. He isn't just writing history. He is making it interesting and exciting. You will discover facts about old forms of media and specific programs that you didn't know before. There is not a boring paragraph in the book. If the publisher is reading this - lower the price and with a little promotion you have a best seller.

Pulp and Radio Origins of TV and Comicbook Heroes.......2005-02-15

A wonderful and engagingly written overview of the origins of iconic heroes and TV/movie dramas looking back at their genesis in the pulp, radio and comic strip forms of the early twentieth century. Many suprises such as the radio versions of Dragnet and Gunsmoke long before the TV series. Great overviews of all of the major genres of storytelling (detective, western, action, mystery/horror, sci-fi, jungle) with revelations on every page. Serial storytelling in comicbooks and TV owe a huge debt to the decades of stories already explored in the pulp and radio serials. This book is a terrific intro to these somewhat forgotten forms. It is too bad this slim paperback is SO expensive, but if you bite the bullit it is a genuinely rewarding read.

A Fun Romp through the History of Popular Storytelling .......2004-08-03

"Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio" is an easy-reading, fun romp through the history of popular storytelling in America. You can feel DeForest's enthusiasm for his subject on every page-he has obviously read everything he writes about and has no qualms about expressing his critical feelings about what he has read. While reading I found myself wanting to hunt down copies of the stories under discussion to see if I felt they were as great or as rotten as the author believed they were. Did I hunt them down? Well, that's another story.

"Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio" is an excellent survey of how storytelling has thrived in America through the various media that were popular at different times in our history. DeForest believes everybody loves a good story whatever its form of delivery, be it written, oral, or visual. Coverage includes dime novels, adventure stories, crime and detective stories, science fiction and strange stories, radio drama, and story based comics. An emphasis is placed on the role that changes in technology and economics played in the survival or demise of particular media. Particularly interesting is how many of America's greatest writers were involved, and how many, if not most, of America's favorite TV and movie heroes and heroines were born in the pulps, comics and radio shows of decades ago.

This book is probably best for those with little to average knowledge of the subject. Diehard pulp, comics and radio story fans, like DeForest, would probably not learn much here. They know it all already.

The only faults I find with this book are the high price tag (get your local library to buy a copy) and that DeForest blatantly omits the romance genre of his subject. So all of you women out there who might be interested in the history of the romance pulps and comics, you won't find it here. Deforest is too busy swashbuckling to swish you off your feet.

I have to admit that I actually did read this book and that I know the author and that I am one of the uncultured Philistines of Friday Snack Time mentioned on the frontispiece of the book. Therefore you can believe that I wrote this favorable review under threat of an ugly alien monster's death ray (which I didn't) or that it is all absolutely true (which it is).

It's a crying shame that this book was not priced at 10 cents so that everyone could afford to buy a copy.

Allen Novak, Librarian
Ringling School of Art and Design

Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America

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Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America
Tim Deforest
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MUFCYM

Amazon.com

This third omnibus collection from former New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Weng offers 200 more Sunday-sized puzzles created by many of America's favorite crossword puzzle constructors. Featured are the often-devious minds of such greats as Louis Sabin, Mary Murdoch, Tap Osborn, Henry Hook, William Lutwiniak, Dorothea Shipp, and many more. Puzzle difficulty ranges from the reasonably challenging to pull-out-all-the-reference-books. And, of course, the famous Weng sense of humor is well represented in many a humorous theme.

Book Description

From one of America's best known--and best-selling--puzzle editors, a giant book of two hundred Sunday size puzzles.

New York Times Crossword Puzzle Omnibus, Volume 3 (NY Times)

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New York Times Crossword Puzzle Omnibus, Volume 3 (NY Times)
Will Weng
Manufacturer: Random House Puzzles & Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 081293539X
Release Date: 2003-07-08

Book Description

200 classic crosswords from the pages of The New York Times. A super value package for puzzle fans, this series is sure to satisfy the most voracious crossword appetites!

Book Description

With the initial release of the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft introduced ADO.NET, the evolution of ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO). Designed to natively support XML as well as traditional datasets, Microsoft ADO.NET offered improvements in performance and scalability. In .NET Framework 2.0, data access is enhanced not only through the addition of new data access controls, services, and the ability to integrate more seamlessly with Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005, but also through improvements to the ADO.NET class libraries themselves. Now you can teach yourself the essentials of working with ADO.NET 2.0 in the Microsoft Visual Studio® environment—one step at a time. With STEP BY STEP, you work at your own pace through hands-on, learn-by-doing exercises. Whether you're a beginning programmer or new to this version of the technology, you'll understand the core capabilities and fundamental techniques for ADO.NET 2.0. Each chapter puts you to work, showing you how, when, and why to use specific features of the ADO.NET 2.0 rapid application development environment and guiding as you create actual components and working applications for Microsoft Windows®.

Customer Reviews:

It works for this beginner.......2007-09-16

I'm new to ADO, and ADO.NET 2.0. I found this book to be a useful learning tool. I'd purchased two other ADO.NET 2.0 books before this one, and tried using them. But realized I needed a beginner's book. I've just finished the 1st four chapters. And I'm happy with the book, and what I'm learning. I'll finish this book, before returning to the other two I've purchased.

I find the book well written.

A key issue for me is that Rebecca shows how to create components both manually and through the GUI. I find this quite useful, as now I can relate hand wired code to that generated by Microsoft. Also, I didn't know my way around the many ADO menus as well as I thought I did.

I was able to install the database, and the samples work.

If you're truly a beginner to ADO.NET 2.0, I strongly suggest this book (I'm new to ADO, but lots of experience with .NET forms, C/C++, realtime programming, COM, etc. - to give you an idea of the context in which I found the book useful).

Save your money, don't buy this book.......2007-06-26

How can put this politely, dont' buy this book, don't buy this book, don't buy this book.
It does not live up to it's title.

Look elsewhere.......2007-06-19

I was thinking that Microsoft Press would be the best place to look for a book about ADO.NET. However, this book is terrible. There are numerous typos throughout the book, the code examples are very incomplete and refer to code samples. The code samples are poorly, no, NOT commented at all. So, the background about the code is totally missing.

It is not worth my time to continue listing the reasons NOT to buy this book. Just look somewhere else for ADO examples.

A Great Introduction to ADO.NET 2.0.......2007-04-20

My college textbook coverage of ADO.NET left me with more questions than answers, so I searched for other resources. I thought I had learned how to read the book reviews on Amazon.com and have used them as a guide for buying in the past. So when I read the review for this book, I initially gave it a pass and purchased "Programming Microsoft ADO.NET 2.0: Core Reference" by David Sceppa. The Core Reference is excellent, but after reading most of it I felt that it was a just a little over my head. What I first needed was a good introduction to ADO.NET.

So, I purchased this book, have read most of it and have worked the tutorials. It has been excellent for my needs. The writing style is clear and thorough, and now I have a much better understanding of how the various components of ADO.NET work together.

I had no trouble installing the code samples; just followed the instructions in the Introduction.

ADO.NET 2 in plain english........2007-03-15

This book is brilliant. I hadn't used VB since ODBC was the way to talk to databases. I found all the ADO.NET 2 stuff bewildering but this book explains it all really well and in plain english. It has helped me to become productive while also helping me understand what what I need to do and why. ADO seems straightforward to me now, thanks to this book. The examples on the CD all worked fine too.

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Sublime Historical Experience (Cultural Memory in the Present)
F.R. Ankersmit
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Historical Representation (Cultural Memory in the Present)

The Practice of Conceptual History: Timing History, Spacing Concepts (Cultural Memory in the Present)

A New Philosophy of History

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The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation

ASIN: 0804749361
Release Date: 2005-03-03

Book Description

Why are we interested in history at all? Why do we feel the need to distinguish between past and present? In this book, the author argues that the past originates from an experience of rupture separating past and present. Think of the radical rupture with Europe's past that was effected by the French and the Industrial Revolutions. Sublime Historical Experience investigates how the notion of sublime historical experience complicates and challenges existing conceptions of language, truth, and knowledge. These experiences of rupture are paradoxical since they involve both the separation of past and present and, at the same time, the effort to overcome this separation in terms of historical knowledge. The experience unites feelings of loss/pain with those of love/satisfaction, and thus is in agreement with how sublime experience is ordinarily defined. The experience is also precognitive since it precedes (the possibility of) historical knowledge. As such it is a challenge to traditional conceptions of the relationship between experience and truth or language. It compels us to disconnect the notions of experience and truth.

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Sublime Historical Experience.
Frank Ankersmit
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UYFZ3S

The sublime triplets of historical consciousness.(On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath)(Stranded in the Present: Modern ... Review) : An article from: Criticism

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The sublime triplets of historical consciousness.(On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath)(Stranded in the Present: Modern ... Review) : An article from: Criticism
Susan A. Crane
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Criticism, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 5412 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The sublime triplets of historical consciousness.(On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath)(Stranded in the Present: Modern Time and the Melancholy of History)(Deja vu: Aberrations of Cultural Memory)(Book Review)
Author: Susan A. Crane
Publication: Criticism (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Page: 499(12)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Sublime Historical Experience.
Frank Ankersmit
Manufacturer: Ankersmit, Frank. Sublime Historical Experience. (Cultural Memory in the Present.) Stanford University Press, 2005. Quality paperback. 481pp. Very good condition.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TADOBI

Book Description

Tomaz Mastnak's provocative analysis of the roots of peacemaking in the Western world elucidates struggles for peace that took place in the high and late Middle Ages. Mastnak traces the ways that eleventh-century peace movements, seeking to end violence among Christians, shaped not only power structures within Christendom but also the relationship of the Western Christian world to the world outside. The unification of Christian society under the banner of "holy peace" precipitated a fundamental division between the Christian and non-Christian worlds, and the postulated peace among Christians led to holy war against non-Christians.

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Does history repeat itself or does it generate a sequence of unique events?

Time's Arrow Time's Cycle

curve ball that looks like a slider

Meet the mythmakers

Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time (The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures)
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Geology | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Historical | Geology | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Geology | Earth Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0674891988

Book Description

Rarely has a scholar attained such popular acclaim merely by doing what he does best and enjoys most. But such is Stephen Jay Gould's command of paleontology and evolutionary theory, and his gift for brilliant explication, that he has brought dust and dead bones to life, and developed an immense following for the seeming arcana of this field.

In Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle his subject is nothing less than geology's signal contribution to human thought--the discovery of "deep time," the vastness of earth's history, a history so ancient that we can comprehend it only as metaphor. He follows a single thread through three documents that mark the transition in our thinking from thousands to billions of years: Thomas Burnet's four-volume Sacred Theory of the Earth (1680-1690), James Hutton's Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charles Lyell's three-volume Principles of Geology (1830-1833).

Gould's major theme is the role of metaphor in the formulation and testing of scientific theories--in this case the insight provided by the oldest traditional dichotomy of Judeo-Christian thought: the directionality of time's arrow or the immanence of time's cycle. Gould follows these metaphors through these three great documents and shows how their influence, more than the empirical observation of rocks in the field, provoked the supposed discovery of deep time by Hutton and Lyell. Gould breaks through the traditional "cardboard" history of geological textbooks (the progressive march to truth inspired by more and better observations) by showing that Burnet, the villain of conventional accounts, was a rationalist (not a theologically driven miracle-monger) whose rich reconstruction of earth history emphasized the need for both time's arrow (narrative history) and time's cycle (immanent laws), while Hutton and Lyell, our traditional heroes, denied the richness of history by their exclusive focus upon time's Arrow.

Customer Reviews:

Does history repeat itself or does it generate a sequence of unique events?.......2006-07-10

Does history repeat itself or does it generate a sequence of unique events? This is the fundamental question "Time's Arrow and Time's Cycle" asks. It is my third favourite Gould book, after "Wonderful Life" and "Bully for Brontosaurus". From a literary and philosophical point of view, it's possibly his best book, being more tightly focused than WL and more developed than the essays in BfB.

You'll find here many standard Gould devices such as fascinating segues and the rehabilitation of discredited thinkers. For instance we read the story of how James Hampton built his masterpiece, his throne to the glory of God, out of discarded junk (it's now at the Smithsonian). Gould also rehabilitates the 17th century thinker Thomas Burnet and his unsubstantiated cosmological theories. He also presents two more orthodox thinkers, James Hutton and Charles Lyell, and contrasts their gradual uniformitarianism with the sudden catastrophism of Burnet.

Gould explicitly dismisses Burnet's scientific credentials but still uses Burnet's vision as a starting point. It is by opposing Burnet to Hutton and Lyell that Gould asks the question as to what history is: repetive and uniform, or cyclical? The answer of course is a little of both. Again, Burnet's vision provides the clue to the answer. There are cycles, and within the cycle there are shocks and catastrophes. Or is it the other way around? Clearly Time is a difficult concept to grasp!

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Time's Arrow Time's Cycle.......2002-10-08

Time's Arrow Time's Cycle written by Stephtn Jay Gould is a book that takes human thought to a new level in comprehending geology's vastness of history... the discovery of deep time. Gould works this book's major theme in the role of metaphor in the formulation and testing of scientific theories as the directionality (narrative history) of time's arrow or the immanence of time's cycle (immanent laws).

This book is both an account of geology's greatest discovery and philosophical commentary on the nature of scientific thought. As this thought takes us from thought of time in thousand of years to billions of years, inspired by empirical observation of rocks in the field.

Gould follows a single thread through three documents that mark the transition in our thinking: Thomas Burnet's four-volume "Sacred Theory of the Earth" (1680-1690), James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charle Lyell's three-volume "Principle of Geology (1830-1833). Gould shifts through these writings giving the reader a history and background needed for a progressive march to the truth of the geological history through an enlightened observation.

Reading this book will captivate the curious reader and helps the human mind understand the vastness of time and the struggle to understand it.

curve ball that looks like a slider.......2000-12-05

The title of the review is an homage to Gould's oft mentioned love of baseball. This book is a cogent explanation of how European scientists (natural philosophers) recounciled the narrative tradition of history inherited from the Judeo-Christian template with the eternal return perspective of the Classical civilizations. Both view points-as-metaphors shed light on interpretation of the geological record. There are both serial and cyclic elements in the history of the earth, so the scientific community found truth in spite of the fact that individual scientists tended to emphasize one perspective over the other.

Gould exposes the 'cardboard cut-out' Whig version of history that most working scientists have received uncritically as hurried historical preambles to their study of geology per se. James Hutton, for example, is held up as a paragon of the field geologist who supposedly preceded his assertion of the existence of 'deep time' with countless hours in the field. Not so, says Gould. In fact, Hutton did his field work after he conceived the idea of a lengthy earth history and merely used his field observations to bolster his claim. Thomas Burnet, author of the much made-fun-of Sacred Theory of the Earth, is revealed to have been a champion of uniformitarianism before Hutton even conceived of it. Burnet refused to advance causes for events described in the Bible that could not be explained by the laws of physics as advanced by Isaac Newton. Finally, Charles Lyell is exposed as a master of rhetoric who conflated methodological and substantive aspects of uniformitarianism in order to sway his audience. No member of the scientific community contemporary to Lyell clung to the Mosaic timescale. He merely used it as a strawman. It was Lyell who managed to mate the narrative and eternal return perspectives into a coherent view of Earth history. First he did so by insisting the apparent progress observed in the fossil record was caused by the immense scale of the cycles of Earth history. Eventually he conceded the reality of evolution and allowed for the existence of an arrow of time whose path did not curve.

Gould's book is modified from a series of lectures, which is probably why there is so much uncharacteristic repetition of themes and ideas in this book. It was the only aspect of this book that I found irritating. Gould is also candid about his pride at uncovering various inaccuracies in the received wisdom and unearthing original themes to explain patterns in the history of geology. I have heard other people complain about this personality trait. I have no problem with it and believe that his satisfaction with his own cleverness is quite justifiable.

Meet the mythmakers.......2000-05-14

Stephen Jay Gould's love of science history really shows through in this work, which focuses on changing ideas about time and geology. It's well-researched and makes some very intriguing points about science in general, but if you have no patience for geology you probably won't get that far - it's nowhere near as accessible as his essay collections, but that's only to be expected. Every science major should read this book, and so should anyone who likes to think of themselves as well-informed about history and science.

Time's Arrow Time's Cycle Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time

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Time's Arrow Time's Cycle Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Harvard U.P.
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Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J13DR2

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Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle : Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NXETB0

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This digital document is an article from Endangered Species Update, published by University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1041 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Refuges are a flight path to recovery.(protecting endangered species)
Author: Lauri S. Munroe
Publication: Endangered Species Update (Newsletter)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources
Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Page: S12(2)

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