Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History

Book Description

For this important new volume, Donald N. McCloskey has assembled twenty-four essays by leading economic historians who argue that commonly accepted perceptions of our economic past can be wrong and, therefore, misleading. The essays reevaluate various issues and events that influence today's economic thinking, thus examining the past as a way of preparing for the future. Such notable contributors as Robert Higgs, Julian and Rita Simon, Elyce Rotella, Terry Anderson, Barry Eichengreen, Price Fishback, Susan Phillips, and J. Richard Zecher address a wide range of issues, including the Teapot Dome scandal, banking regulation, "new" immigration problems, ATandT and deregulation, Third World development policies, the role of "big" government, technological innovation, and property rights. Specially written for this collection in clear, nontechnical prose, the essays that comprise Second Thoughts fully explore the role of government policy in the outcome of events. This book is an essential reference for all who are interested in how our economic past and the way we interpret it determine the directions we will choose for our future.

Customer Reviews:

Superb Collection of Eloquent Essays.......1999-07-16

This collection of short essays packs astonishing punch per page. Nearly every paragraph bursts with revealing insights and germane facts. This book is one of the quickest routes by which the open-minded, but uninformed, person can become well-informed about the state of the world.

Superb Collection of Eloquent Essays.......1999-07-16

Second thoughts : myths and morals of U.S. economic history / edited by Donald N. McCloskey

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Second thoughts : myths and morals of U.S. economic history / edited by Donald N. McCloskey
Donald N. (ed.) McCloskey
Manufacturer: New York : Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VZSWTA

Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History. (book reviews): An article from: American Economist

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Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History. (book reviews): An article from: American Economist
Robert Whaples
Manufacturer: Omicron Delta Epsilon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00092URFW
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Economist, published by Omicron Delta Epsilon on September 22, 1993. The length of the article is 743 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: Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History. (book reviews)
Author: Robert Whaples
Publication: American Economist (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1993
Publisher: Omicron Delta Epsilon
Volume: v37 Issue: n2 Page: p91(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History

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Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History
Donald N. McCloskey
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKGNZW

Book Description

The statutory provisions designed to impede the laundering of money are complex and wide-ranging. The complexity of the law is partly due to its originating in legislation which spans several areas of activity, including prevention of terrorism, drug trafficking and criminal justice. This book links these statutory provisions in a cohesive form, with subject matter explained by a commentary. It is intended for use by all who require a practical guide to the legislation, including lawyers, law enforcement professionals, the financial services industries, and also by students as a basis for further study.

Book Description

This volume contains a comprehensive collection of methods for the isolation of platelet membranes, subcellular organelles, the cytoskeleton, and for the assay and purification of platelet receptors.

Key Features
* Platelets are cellular elements with the highest density of receptors per membrane surface area involved in binding of adhesive molecules, clotting, enzymes, and vasoactive amines
* Platelets are essential for the arrest of bleeding and for formation of intravascular thrombi contributing to heart attacks, strokes, and disseminated intravascular coagulation, and are involved in immune complex disease
* Platelets are useful for studying the processes of cell adhesion, neurotransmitter uptake, stimulus-response coupling, including signal transduction and secretion

Platelets: Receptors, Adhesion, Secretion, Part B, Volume 215 : Volume 215: Platelets Part B (Methods in Enzymology)

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Platelets: Receptors, Adhesion, Secretion, Part B, Volume 215 : Volume 215: Platelets Part B (Methods in Enzymology)
Academic Press
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OH6X00

Book Description

This compact desk reference is the new single-volume abridgment of the world-renowned "bible" of chemical technology, the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemcial Technology. Masterfully distilling the essence of this larger work into a useful daily tool, it makes the parent Encyclopedia's comprehensive, authoraitative, and lucidly-written data instantly available in an extremely convenient and user-friendly form.
Like it's predecesor, this indispensible A-to-Z reference features over 1,000 lucidly written entries spanning the entire field of chemical technology and all the important chemical industries. Coverage includes biotechnology, analytical techniques, environmental concerns, fuels, solid-state chemistry, materials, process development and design, regulations, patents and licensing, marketing and economic data and more.

Customer Reviews:

I wish I could own this........1999-05-16

Throughly intellegent comprehensive technical but good for non chemical reader.

the premier information source in its area.......1999-01-26

For twenty five years, the Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology has been a very valuable reference source for a non-chemist. As a toxicologist who must have some basic knowledge of chemical technology on a wide variety of subjects, this reference has been invaluable.

A masterpiece in the field of chemical technology.......1998-09-08

Any one single topic if put into a practically operating production unit, the total cost of book will be just a token value. Well done. Accept compliments for such a sincere work to be remembered. Mahmood Ahmed, A chemical Engineer from Pakistan. Chief Executive,Techni-Chem. International E-213 St.6 Cavalry Ground, Lahore-Cantt. Pakistan Sept.7,1998 .

Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World through the Language of Mathematics
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Clear Exposition of Mathematics and its Use in Science

great book

Power of mathematics in physics

Great overview of the influences on Einstein

The Precursors of Modern Astronomy.

Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World through the Language of Mathematics
Robyn Arianrhod
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell

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The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry

ASIN: 0195183703

Book Description

Imagine you are fluent in a magical language of prophecy, a language so powerful it can accurately describe things you cannot see or even imagine. Einstein's Heroes takes you on a journey of discovery about just such a miraculous language--the language of mathematics--one of humanity's most amazing accomplishments. Blending science, history, and biography, this remarkable book reveals the mysteries of mathematics, focusing on the life and work of three of Albert Einstein's heroes: Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and especially James Clerk Maxwell, whose portrait hung on Einstein's laboratory wall and whose work directly inspired the theory of relativity. In this engaging book, Robyn Arianrhod bridges the gap between science and literature, portraying mathematics as a language and arguing that a physical theory is a work of imagination involving the elegant and clever use of this language. Her narrative centers on the work of Maxwell, the first scientist to embrace the ambiguous relationship between language and reality--the first to accept that, in a very real sense, language is reality. The heart of the book illuminates how Maxwell, using the language of mathematics in a new and radical way, resolved the seemingly insoluble controversy between Faraday's idea of lines of force and Newton's theory of action-at-a-distance. In so doing, Maxwell not only produced the first complete mathematical description of electromagnetism, but actually predicted the existence of the radio wave, something utterly unexpected, teasing it out of the mathematical language itself. Here then is a fascinating look at mathematics: its colorful characters, its historical intrigues, and above all its role as the uncannily accurate language of nature.

Customer Reviews:

Clear Exposition of Mathematics and its Use in Science.......2007-02-23

Despite its title, this book's central themes are: the work of James Clerk Maxwell and the expression of scientific principles in the language of mathematics. In discussing Maxwell's life and work, the author allows a few excursions mainly into the work of Newton and Faraday - work related to that of Maxwell. In addition, the book contains a few digressions on some extremely basic mathematical principles, e.g., basic geometry, basic algebra, elementary graphs, etc. - material that is likely covered at the junior high school level if not earlier. Other material is presented on more advanced concepts such as vectors and vector spaces. The explanations are so clear, basic and painless that this book should be very popular among those who are mathematically challenged but who would like to know more about important scientific developments that have a mathematical flavor. As stated, the prose is quite clear, friendly and engaging. Science buffs that are better versed in mathematics should also enjoy this book because of its fascinating historical and biographical information.

great book.......2006-11-10

full of information, history and math. great anedoctes about Maxwell and a demonstration of scientific collaboration. I read this book very quickly for a book about science.

Power of mathematics in physics.......2006-10-30

The earlier reviews of this book give a good idea of its contents, but I would add that the author's larger point is that the greammer of mathematics can lead scientists to come to conclusions that would be by no means obvious. For example, James Clerk Maxwell did not expect his mathematical formulation of Faraday's idea of electrical and magnetic fields to indicate that these fields propagate at the speed of light. This result lead Maxwell to hypothesize that light was electromagnetic radiation, and that it should come in forms other than familiar, visible light.

Great overview of the influences on Einstein.......2006-02-21

This book gave a valuable overview of the influences of Newton, Faraday, and Maxwell, and how their discoveries led from Newton's inverse square law of gravitation, Faraday's electric and magnetic fields, and to Maxwell's work that mathematically described electromagnetic waves are the same as light waves. The book contains a few equations, but those do not need to be understood to appreciate the discoveries and contributions of the scientists who contributed to our current knowledge.

I will further my knowledge by digging deeper into the mathematics of these scientist to further my knowledge, but this book was a great start for me.

The Precursors of Modern Astronomy........2006-01-10

Physics is the science of describing the physical world at its most fundamental level, and math is the language physicists use, the world of equations. "Mathematics is our language -- a sublime creation of the human mind, built by countless generations from all parts of the world. A language of unity, both culturally and philosphically. It has given us a synthesis of waves and particles, energy and matter, language and reality, just as it embodies in its very grammar and symbols a synthesis of intellectual contributions from the East, the Middle East and the West. And it has changed forever the way we think about reality, and about our place in the universe."

Albert Einstein is considered the father of modern physics. His equations showed that the universe was created in an explosion called the Big Bang theory. Although his "general relativity theory predicted the existence of black holes and the Big Bang, it cannot tell physicists what happens at the center of a black hole, or what happened at the moment of the Big Bang. It works on the cosmic scale, describing the origin and evolution of the universe itself." No one will ever be able to prove beyond doubt that mathematical creations like black holes exist, and that the Big Bang actually happened "because we can never return from an exploratory trip into a black hole."

Sir Isaac Newton's predictive theory of physics is "the mathematical law -- an equation -- that accurately described the effects of this ubiquitous but little understood downward pull." The most astounding part of Newton's theory was its use of math to prove a brilliant and radical hypothesis "that laid the foundations of the modern science of astronomy" -- the hypothesis that gravity is a universal force, not just and earthly one ...and that the ancient mystery of why the planets move through the sky can be explained by assuming the Sun's gravity is responsible for holding them in their orbits."

She gives the ancient history of the field of astronomy of Copernicus, Gailileo, Aristarchus, Hipparchus, Ptolomy, Kepler and others who paved the way for William Thomson, the most famous physicist of his day, who took James Clark Maxwell under his tutelage. It was his work which primarily inspired Einstein's special theory of relativity in 1905, and his portrait hung on the walls of Einstein's lab. The 100th anniversary of this discovery has just been observed by MIT as the era of modern physics. His general theory of relativity was developed in 1915.

Many scientists, still riding on Newton's wave of success, had turned to science rather than religion for answers to the important questions about the nature of the universe and our role in it. Maxwell saw science as a means of "understanding...creation." Charles Darwin developed his theory of human evolution by natural selection, which would bring "renewed heat to debates about God's role in designing and creating the universe. Meanwhile, in an Apostles essay on the nature of the evidence for design by an intelligent Creator, Maxwell wrote (following Kant) that 'our understanding of nature is limited by the structure of our brains,' so that the very belief in design 'is a necessary consequence of the Laws of Thought acting on the phenomena of perception.'"

Einstein is quoted as saying, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Whatever the ultimate reality of our origins, "and whatever the fate of relativity theory itself, physicists have learned an incredible amount about the universe over the past century, guided by Einstein's mathematical theory of gravity." The high success rate of various tests of Newton's theory over the previous 160 years had made astronomy 'the most glamorous and prestigious of the sciences.' Einstein also said, "The discovery of nuclear chain reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind any more than did the discovery of matches. We only must do everything in our power to safeguard against its abuse."

Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World Through the Language of Mathematics

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Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World Through the Language of Mathematics
Robyn Arianrhod
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKR68U

Book Description

During the period in which these essays were written, Woolf published Night and Day and Jacob's Room, contributed widely to British and American periodicals, and progressed from straight reviewing to more extended critical essays. "Excellently edited, the essays reconfirm [Woolf's] major importance as a twentieth-century writer" (Library Journal). Edited and with an Introduction by Andrew McNeillie; Index.

Customer Reviews:

More essays by Virginia Woolf.......2000-10-03

This is the third of a (yet uncompleted) series of collections of Virginia Woolf's essays edited by Andrew McNeillie. Of the projected series of a total of six books of Woolf's essays only four have been published so far. When this great undertaking has finished, we will at last have at our disposal the first COMPLETE publication of all the essays and reviews of one of the best-read women in the western world. This series is of immense significance to Woolf scholars,students and lovers, of which they are increasingly many, not only because all her essays will be collected in a neat series but also, and more importantly, because in all the books of the series, including this volume, there are/will be non-fiction pieces by Woolf which are no longer available to the 'common reader' as they can only be found in the archives of the newspapers, journals and magazines that Woolf wrote for in her times. Till recently, apart from her well-known essays 'A Room of One's Own' and 'Three Guineas', Woolf's talent and importance as a critic had not been fully appreciated. This volume, along the others in the series, is both one of the factors and the effects of the recent surge of interest in Woolf's critical art, and is an extremely valuable contribution in that it makes manifest the whole range of writing of a literary figure who excelled not just in fiction but was also an equally masterful essay writer and polemical commentator and reviewer of modern times.

Essays of Virginia Woolf : 1919-1924 [Vol 3]

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Essays of Virginia Woolf : 1919-1924 [Vol 3]
Andrew [Editor] Mcneillie
Manufacturer: Harcourt Brace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LZO1I6

Book Description

The innovative format of Exploring Civil War Wisconsin makes it easy for Civil War buffs, genealogists, and students to find and effectively use the vast array of historical materials about the Civil War found in archives, military and census records, published firsthand accounts, newspapers, and even on the Internet. This lively, illustrated guide focuses on Wisconsin in the Civil War, but is broadly applicable to Civil War research anywhere. Images of original documents and historic photographs illustrate every chapter, acquainting readers with both the Civil War and its sources. The easy-to-use and informative text is unlike anything else currently on the market.
Throughout the book, boxed features and sidebars provide background information and tips on how to do research. Author Brett Barker explains how to uncover the history of an individual soldier, his regiment, and his role in the Union Army using rosters, military records, pension files, and memoirs. And, he shows how to explore the home front during the war using the census, newspapers, city directories, and government records.

Customer Reviews:

A "must-read" for dedicated Civil War enthusiasts.......2003-05-22

Compiled and written by Brett Barker, Exploring Civil War Wisconsin: A Survival Guide For Researchers is a practical, step-by-step guide presented especially for Civil War enthusiasts, genealogists, students, and other researchers. Offering tips, tricks, and techniques for taking maximum advantage of resources in the libraries, military and census records, published primary sources, newspapers, and the useful yet sometimes unreliable wealth of information to be found on the Internet, Exploring Civil War Wisconsin is enhanced with black-and-white illustrations combined with down-to-earth, practical advice, making it a "must-read" for dedicated Civil War enthusiasts and Wisconsin History researchers.

Product Description

The 1605 Catholic plot to blow up King and Parliament is one of the great real-life dramas in British history - and the unfortunate Guy Fawkes was just one member of its huge cast. Set against a backdrop of nationalist tension and medieval paranoia, the tentacles of conspiracy encompassed noblemen and priests, women and lawyers, servants and spies. The action swings from the heart of London to the rural Midlands, but in such a climate of ambiguity and intrigue, the borders between plotter and politician became less and less clearly defined. Gunpowder tells the story of the events of Oct 1605 to May 1606 through its key players and the original documentary evidence in which they appear. Illustrated with contemporary portraits, engravings and original, unpublished documents, this perilous and fragmented world challenges our perception of the past.

Understanding the Present: Science and the Soul of Modern Man
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Freedom from the Monster

Bracing Critique of Materialist perspective and Modernity

Integration Not War

Interesting, Yet Overly Pessimistic

Extremely inciteful - Read it more than once!

Understanding the Present: Science and the Soul of Modern Man
Bryan Appleyard
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief

The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, And What's Behind It All

Jesus of Nazareth

ASIN: 0385420714
Release Date: 1993-02-01

Book Description

In this thrilling and compelling exploration of the human con-dition, Appleyard exposes the central role of science in shaping our lives and our beliefs, tracing the history of science from Copernicus, Newton, and Descartes to Einstein, Feynman, and Hawking. He argues that the birth of environmentalism and the diminished importance of religion and philosophy in today's society are direct results of science's 400- year assault on our view of ourselves and the universe. Understanding the Present reflects views regarding the progression of science that are held by many people, especially non-scientists. With issues such as cloning and 'designer' babies coming to the forefront of the scientific debate, one question is repeatedly posed: 'How far should science go?' This valuable book explains why this question is being asked and provides the non-scientific reader with an accessible history of the discipline-and its place in society.

Customer Reviews:

Freedom from the Monster.......2007-08-30

Science has been good to me.

Not only has it provided the tools to have a life that would have been unimaginable when I was born, but also the fruits of science helped save me when I had a surprising medical challenge. And it became a building block of a successful career.

But I have also been beset by nagging worries about the direction of the scientific enterprise and by the disinterest of most scientists in the implications of what we are doing.

In discussions with many prominent scientists, most go blank or shrug when asked about the philosophical underpinnings of science, or the practical implications of unfettered and unaccountable scientific experimentation.

Enter Bryan Appleyard's excellent book. Bryan is a journalist who writes mainly for the Sunday Times in London, though he has some other outlets: if you are interested, I subscribe to his wonderfully iconoclastic weblog - Thought Experiments - through mine: RichardGPettyMD.blogs. You will have to work out the final part of the address: this review will not allow me to post the whole link!

This is a book about the "appalling spiritual damage that science and how much more it can still do." Not the physical damage of rampant technology, but from an inner desolation.

Attacks on science are two-a-penny, but rarely do they come from someone birthed into a family of engineers, who taught him to respect science and its handmaiden: technology. He does not want some return to nature of like Rousseau or the Luddites: he wants to restore balance into human affairs.

As he says, despite the admirable intentions of most scientists, "science, quietly and inexplicitly is talking us into abandoning ourselves."

He goes on to say that,
"Science is not a neutral or innocent commodity which can be employed as a convenience by people wishing to partake only of the West's material power. It is spiritually corrosive, burning away ancient authorities and traditions. It cannot really co-exist with anything... As it burns away all competition, the question becomes: what kind of life is it that science offers to its people?.... What does it tell us about ourselves and how we must live?"

Though most scientists tend to disclaim responsibility for social and spiritual matters, they cannot continue to do so.

The trouble he says, is not with science, which is simply a method and a tool, but scientism: the belief that science is, or can be the complete and only explanation for life, the universe and everything. But explaining everything means understanding everything that exists, and that is a tall order.

So "scientists inevitably take on the mantle of the wizards, sorcerers and with doctors," and they have become the preferred authority on matters of morality and spirituality. Bryan cites a troubling quotation form the former Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru: "
"It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening of custom and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited by starving poor... Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid... The future belongs to science and those who make friends with science."

The trouble is that science by its very nature is designed to be objective, and when scientism rules supreme, Nature and the universe are no longer seen as a living whole with purpose and meaning, but is instead dead material for study. Science provides us with descriptions of the universe that contain everything except us.

Subjectivity is not an illusion, even though we constantly see people who claim that all of our thoughts and emotions are simply reflexes.

So what are the solutions?

Bryan believes that understanding the limitations of science and of what it can explain is all to the good. After pointing out the limitations of a purely objective science, he believes that our thoughts and feelings, our relationships with others and the meanings that they create are the bedrock of existence. He also alludes to the idea of a new science that will se beyond the objective and may contribute to the development of a new spirituality.

In this he presages the fascinating work by Alan Wallace who is creating a "contemplative science" that incorporates contemplative practices and contemporary neuroscience to arrive at an extraordinary synthesis.

The myth of an all-seeing all-knowing science that insists that we are simply bio-molecular machines is dangerous in that, if taken too far, it strips us of some of the key components of our humanity.

Although this book was originally written several years ago, its arguments are even more important today, and I recommend it to anyone with any interest in the philosophical foundations of the modern world.

Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life

Bracing Critique of Materialist perspective and Modernity.......2003-04-29

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is the modernist or skeptic's assault on modernity in general and the regime of science specifically. As limited as this view must be relative to a traditional or symbolist perspective (i.e., from someone not using the methods criticized to criticize them), I have not read a more accessible book on the subject. If you want to know how much and in what ways our present time (as all times) are an 'Age' with peculiar blind spots, graces, and misconceptions, this is the place to start. Ignore the two reviews below that offer apologies for the regime and accuse Applyard of pessimism; the man who sees the train about to roll over him - rolling over him? - is not a pessimist. Guenon's The Reign of Quantity and Upton's System of AntiChrist are this book's betters but they assume much more on the reader's part; please find this book and delight in his illumination of the ideas that frame our shallow and narrow worldview in the present time. Then read Swift's Battle of the Books and see that this fight is an old one each person must come to terms with.

Integration Not War.......2001-07-03

I found this book to give a spirited overview of the paradigms of modern science and the place of man's sense of self within these paradigms which is no place at all. However, I am not as pessimistic as Appleyard in that I believe science and spirit can be integrated. After readers get aroused by Appleyard they should read Ken Wilber's "The Marriage of Sense and Soul"and E.O. Wilson's "Consilience" for ideas on how these two apparently conflicting worldviews can be integrated. For example, Wilber suggests the method of science can be applied to both the subjective and objective domains of knowledge.

Interesting, Yet Overly Pessimistic.......2001-02-23

I picked this up in a bargain bin thinking it was a pop science book. A few pages in, it became apparent that the book was a criticism of science's failure to provide a sense of comfort about the big issues ("what is our purpose in life" etc). The author compares science to olde time religion and comes to the conclusion that religion is a lie that makes people happy, whilst science is a truth that saddens.

While this may be an accurate description of the general metaphysical discomfort caused as religion loses ground, it seems a bit presumptuous to suggest we devalue truth and return to the dark ages. As some ancient Roman guy once said, "the desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise". Instead of seeking wonder, purpose and freedom in a godless universe, Appleyard invites us to throw in the towel. And that is what makes this book so morbidly interesting...

Extremely inciteful - Read it more than once!.......1998-08-27

Bryan Appleyard's indictment of science as the "Frankenstiens Monster" of our day is well written and very inciteful. He explains very succinctly how various luminaries of the Enlightenment have tried to deal with science and its unwillingness to co-exist with other types of knowing about our world, and ourselves. The author places the major part of the blame on science's effectiveness at solving problems through its "handmaiden", technological development, and the awareness that modern man has of these solutions as universal in nature, rather than cultural. His argument relies heavily upon the evidence that the structure of our modern, liberal-democratic societies is due mainly to our underlying philosophical beliefs about reality as they have been formed by science in the modern era. He provides a well thought out argument for why we should put science back in the cultural box, so that it will be forced to co-exist with other forms of knowing, such as religious faith. He believes that most of us already do this to some extent, and that what needs to happen is we must simply become aware of why we do this, to counter the "appauling spiritual damage" that we have allowed science to wreak upon us. For those people out there who have always wanted an intellectual basis for their belief that there is meaning to our existence that science has no right to judge, I highly recommend this book. But beware! It is not light reading. You will probably have to read it at least three times over (as I did) in order to see the poignancy of his arguments clearly. (I would have given this book a five-star rating if the arguments could have been fully grasped by a single reading, but this is not the author's fault, it's the subject's.)

UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT: SCIENCE AND THE SOUL OF MODERN MAN.

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UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT: SCIENCE AND THE SOUL OF MODERN MAN.
BRYAN. APPLEYARD
Manufacturer: P/B
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O5H6P8

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UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT: SCIENCE AND THE SOUL OF MODERN MAN.
Bryan. Appleyard
Manufacturer: BCA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O8U6R0

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UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT: SCIENCE AND THE SOUL OF MODERN MAN.
Brian. Appleyard
Manufacturer: BCA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O9HFXC

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