Embedded Systems Design using the Rabbit 3000 Microprocessor: Interfacing, Networking, and Application Development (Embedded Technology)

Book Description

The Rabbit 3000 is a popular high-performance microprocessor specifically designed for embedded control, communications, and Ethernet connectivity. This new technical reference book will help designers get the most out of the Rabbit's powerful feature set. The first book on the market to focus exclusively on the Rabbit 3000, it provides detailed coverage of: Rabbit architecture and development environment, interfacing to the external world, networking, Rabbit assembly language, multitasking, debugging, Dynamic C and much more!

Authors Kamal Hyder and Bob Perrin are embedded engineers with years of experience and they offer a wealth of design details and "insider" tips and techniques. Extensive embedded design examples are supported by fully tested source code. Whether you're already working with the Rabbit or considering it for a future design, this is one reference you can't be without!

* Let the experts teach you how to design embedded systems that efficiently hook up to the Internet using networked core modules

* Provides a number of projects and source code using RabbitCore, which will make it easy for the system designer and programmer to get hands-on experience developing networked devices

* Accompanying CD-ROM contains useful tools and software for embedded network design

Customer Reviews:

Truly - A Stunning Book .......2005-05-26

It's extremely rare for me to find a technical book that is as captivating as this one. I'm truly shocked at how well written it is and how inspiring the words are. I literally can't put this book down. Strongly recommended.

Excellent Book!.......2005-05-03

The book has been written by people with a lot of experience in the industry.... in various sections, it goes beyond just building hardware or writing code and offers practical advice that one gains only after a couple of decades in the industry.

Although the title may lead the reader to think the book is focused only on the Rabbit microprocessor, there is useful and practical advice in there for just about any embedded systems designer.

Great for beginners.......2005-05-03

As a relative beginner to the world of embedded systems I was very pleased with the readability and accessibility of this book. From coding examples provided in so many languages, anyone with coding experience can find one they identify with, to real world usage examples that make sense. This book is a great place to start for anyone looking for information on how to use, integrate, or program for, the Rabbit processor. It's also a great place to start for anyone looking for information about how embedded processors can be used.

EXCELLENT BOOK! .......2005-04-26

I have been using Rabbit microprocessors for years. I started out with the Rabbit 2000 and now use the Rabbit 3000. This book addresses a lot of the problems I came across while developing software and integrating hardware for the Rabbit. I truly appreciate the authors taking the time to put together such a great book. The CD that came with the book includes all of their project's sample code and compiles the first time (unlike other publishers which require modification to compile and run properly). This book is also a great reference and will not collect dust on my bookshelf!

FYI: My last robot was powered by a Rabbit 2000:

http://www.robotdirectory.org/details.cfm?id=194&cat=4

Have fun developing for the Rabbit 3000!

Ingo Cyliax, Contributing Editor, Circuit Celllar Magazine.......2005-04-13

Excellent reference on all there is to know about the Rabbit 3000. I found the chapters on interrupts and interfacing to the external world especially usefull resources. Overall, the book is well researched and written and enjoyable to read. I wish all technical books were this good.

Book Description

Describes both financial and physical hedging strategies and programs applicable to almost any industry. Shows how to use hedging strategies to capitalize on market volatility, while minimizing the effects of unfavorable market swings. Addresses theories of hedging and cross-hedging, cash-and-carry or ``repo'' programs, the ``perfect hedge,'' and the hedging paradox and also offers comparative approaches supported by examples.

Customer Reviews:

This is a superb book for people interested in finance........1999-05-11

I am a business minor and this book has helped me greatly. It has served as a terrific resource to me.

Excellent Book!.......1999-02-01

Great book for anyone interested in hedging or finance. It helped me a great deal.

Book Description

This special volume of Studies in Law, Politics, and Society takes up a subject of an enormous import for law and legal scholarship, Guilt. At the center of our belief in law is the hope and expectation that law can differentiate the guilty from the innocent. But as the articles in this volume show law's relationship to guilt is more complex and vexed than that. Law constitutes us as guilty subjects and law itself is a guilty subject. The articles in this volume explore law's guilt about literature, various domains in which bodies of guilt appear, and historical perspectives on the subject of guilt. Taken together they exemplify the way interdisciplinary scholarship opens up new questions and new avenues of inquiry about the social and cultural life of law.

Book Description

Current Topics in Developmental Biology provides a comprehensive survey of the major topics in the field of developmental biology. The volumes are valuable to researchers in animal and plant development, as well as to students and professionals who want an introduction to cellular and molecular mechanisms of development. The series has recently passed its 30-year mark, making it the longest-running forum for contemporary issues in developmental biology.

Neural Development, the most recent publication in the series, covers the most up-to-date discoveries and developments of the brain. This volume touches upon topics such as the fly retina, telencephalon development, glia-neuron interactions in the nervous system, midbrain and cerebellum development, synapse formation from visual behavior screens, the role of MEF2 proteins, and much more.

* Over 35 tables and figures in full color with detailed illustrations
* Includes 10 riveting chapters of the most recent discoveries in neural development
* Discusses such topics as the role of glial cells, susceptibility of damage to the brain, the developing visual cortex and much more

Book Description

Muddy coasts are land-sea transitional environments commonly found along low-energy shorelines which either receive large annual supplies of muddy sediments, or where unconsolidated muddy deposits are being eroded by wave action.
In providing 21 case studies in different parts of the world this book provides an up-to-date review of the state of the art in muddy coast research. Issues dealing with hydrodynamics and suspended matter transport, erosion, deposition, and sediment budgets on tidal flats, primary production, nutrient fluxes and mineralization in lagoons are treated in a multi disciplinary manner. Most articles deal with issues which are of relevance with respect to global warming and future sea level rise.

Book Description

In the twenty-first century, few of us can imagine life without cars, microwave ovens, televisions, and computers, yet how many of us actually stop and think about the science behind them? When you turn on your computer to surf the Internet, do you question why it works? When you watch your favorite TV program, do you ever think about the technology that makes this relaxation possible? If you are like most people, the answer is probably "no."

The truth is that many of our most treasured technological marvels have sprung from quantum physics and a radical paradigm shift that led to their invention. QUANTUM LEGACY is the provocative and intriguing story of the physicists who made the quantum leaps that have so altered our world. And there is no better person to describe the history of this quantum revolution in terms that everyone can understand than award-winning science writer and physicist Barry Parker.

Parker deftly paints fascinating portraits of all the major players in this history, offering interesting biographical details that shed light on their important discoveries: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger, Louis de Broglie, Paul Dirac, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and many others. Parker also discusses Einstein's objections to quantum theory ("God does not play dice with the universe."), its philosophical implications, and "quantum weirdness." The book concludes with a delineation of the seemingly miraculous practical applications of quantum theory--in lasers, transistors, integrated circuits, computer technology, nuclear energy, and genetics.

Parker's gift for turning the subtle complexities of subatomic physics into clearly understandable language while conveying the excitement and wide-ranging importance of quantum exploration makes him the ideal guide to a field that continues to transform our world and ultimately our universe. Readers interested in learning the science behind how modern technology works will surely find this eminently absorbing volume difficult to put down.

Customer Reviews:

Quantum Legacy by Barry Parker.......2002-09-27

I liked it. A number of the things that are described in this book happened in my life time, or somewhat before I was born. So, a lot of discoveries and advances discussed in Qunatum Legacy are meaningful to me.

Average customer rating:

Hollywood fun

A book for the beach bag!

A less memorable version of "The Devil Wears Prada"

I loved this book

About Average

The Second Assistant: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder
Clare Naylor , and Mimi Hare
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The First Assistant: A Continuing Tale from Behind the Hollywood Curtain

Wolves in Chic Clothing: A Novel

The Right Address: A Novel

Everyone Worth Knowing

The Gift Bag Chronicles: A Novel

ASIN: 0670033073
Release Date: 2004-05-03

Amazon.com

If contemporary fiction has one thing to teach us, it's that working for the rich and glamorous is a living hell. This simple truth has already been revealed by such books as The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada, but for those who feel that the message bears repeating, Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare's The Second Assistant: Tales from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder offers yet another enjoyable (though fairly forgettable) lesson.

The heroine of this gossipy tale is Elizabeth Miller, a young, former campaign worker for a US congressman who finds herself between employment opportunities. Unable to obtain any more socially responsible work, Lizzie is lured into the job of second assistant to an executive at a glitzy Hollywood agency. Once there, she's hit with all the "pick-up my dry cleaning," "walk my dog," "hire strippers for my party" torment that the higher-ups can dish out. At first Elizabeth is isolated, out-of-place, and underdressed in her new world, but she makes friends, builds her wardrobe, and eventually grows to care for her menial job, her Ritalin-snorting boss, and the entertainment industry in general. Finally, she reaches the conclusion that thousands of other Californians have before her: what she really wants to do is produce. At times, Lizzie seems far too naïve to survive long in the shark-infested waters that the authors describe, but there can be only one kind of ending to such a light-hearted book, so we know she will somehow muddle through. Hare (who was once a Hollywood executive herself) and Naylor throw in a dreamy guy and a few plot twists that most readers could see coming from space, stir, and serve. Of course, a little frivolity is not a bad thing, and The Second Assistant is certainly an entertaining addition the new underling subgenre of modern fiction. --Leah Weathersby

Book Description

No political science degree could ever prepare Elizabeth Miller for her new job as second assistant at The Agency, whose clients include everyone you've never met—but you know who they're sleeping with. A former congressional intern in Washington, Lizzie makes a bid for a life change that lands her a job a world away, where ethics and First Amendment debates take a backseat to pleading the Fifth for ritalin-snorting boss Scott Wagner, the hottest young agent in Hollywood who devotes his days to playing online poker—that is, when he's not closing a $30 million deal for one of his AAA-list clients. And while getting six hundred dollar highlights from Cameron D's colorist or organizing the strippers for George C's party come close to causing heart failure for this East Coast girl, the real dangers lurk elsewhere. But Lizzie is a survivor, and no Machiavellian assistant, lecherous producer, or power struggle at The Agency can douse her nascent dreams of climbing up the Hollywood ladder. But first she has to run down to the Coffee Bean to pick up that triple espresso, or Scott is going to throw something....

For anyone who loved The Nanny Diaries or The Devil Wears Prada, The Second Assistant is a compulsively readable novel and a gleeful skewering of Tinsel Town packed with outrageous, thinly veiled stories about the deranged, the dastardly, and the unspeakably glamorous that will have tongues wagging from coast to coast.

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"No political science degree could ever prepare Elizabeth Miller for her new job as second assistant at The Agency, whose clients include everyone you've never met-but you know who they're sleeping with. A former congressional intern in Washington, Lizzie makes a bid for a life change that lands her a job a world away, where ethics and First Amendment debates take a backseat to pleading the Fifth for ritalin-snorting boss Scott Wagner, the hottest young agent in Hollywood who devotes his days to playing online poker-that is, when he's not closing a $30 million deal for one of his AAA-list clients. And while getting six hundred dollar highlights from Cameron D's colorist or organizing the strippers for George C's party come close to causing heart failure for this East Coast girl, the real dangers lurk elsewhere. But Lizzie is a survivor, and no Machiavellian assistant, lecherous producer, or power struggle at The Agency can douse her nascent dreams of climbing up the Hollywood ladder. But first she has to run down to the Coffee Bean to pick up that triple espresso, or Scott is going to throw something.... For anyone who loved The Nanny Diaries or The Devil Wears Prada, The Second Assistant is a compulsively readable novel and a gleeful skewering of Tinsel Town packed with outrageous, thinly veiled stories about the deranged, the dastardly, and the unspeakably glamorous that will have tongues wagging from coast to coast."

Customer Reviews:

Hollywood fun.......2007-08-15

It is so great to get lost in a book. I enjoyed this book. It is very entertaining - doesn't take much to read. It was an easy book to enjoy.

A book for the beach bag!.......2007-04-26

If you are looking for fun, entertaining chick-lit, then this is definitely the book for you. I liked this book and the ending much more than the Nanny Diaries, which is a good comparison. The main character Elizabeth Miller was a bit one dimensional, but the Hollywood characters she meets along the way help to add flavor and spice to the story. The author, Mimi Hare, got her start in Hollywood at a very young age, probably much the same way Elizabeth did, so I felt like she based her "fictional" story line on actual experiences that she may have had. I would recommend this book for your beach bag this summer. I am definitely going to read the sequel on my vacation!

A less memorable version of "The Devil Wears Prada".......2007-03-22

Twenty-something Elizabeth Miller's just transplanted herself to LA, eager to embark on a new life as the second assistant for a big-time Hollywood agent.

Very quickly, Lizzie learns her job encompasses anything and everything -- she's less than nothing in the eyes of her superiors -- and her only consolation is seeing how many other Hollywood hopefuls are in similar straits. You see, Lizzie's determined to become a producer (aren't they all?) and she just *knows* that if she hangs in long enough to meet the right people, her dream will become a reality.

While on a coffee run for her co-workers, Lizzie meets barista Jason, an aspiring scriptwriter. The two collaborate on his project, and she's determined to use her fledgling connections to make things happen for both of them.

Of course, nothing is ever what it seems...nor are even the people Lizzie's come to consider her new friends...

This isn't a fantastic book, even for its genre; in my opinion, both "The Devil Wears Prada" and "The Nanny Diaries" did a much better job of covering the "slavedriving boss, poor aspiring twenty-something" circuit. Still, it was entertaining enough; if you want a quick, trashy read, this is just the thing.

I loved this book.......2006-11-15

I can't remember the last time I've had so much fun reading a book. I laughed a lot, loved the characters and since I worked in the entertainment industry for years I could relate to the characters. If you're a fan of The Devil Wears Prada or any of those type of books I think you'll enjoy this chick-lit book. I rarely read this kind of book but something told me to buy it when I went to Target for some book browsing and I'm so glad that I did. No this is not some literary masterpiece that will win Nobel prizes but it wasn't intended to be anything but fun. Everytime I had to put the book down, I couldn't wait to get a chance to pick it right up and find out what was going to happen next to Lizzie. The ending has some interesting twists that I didn't see coming and although it was a typical "wrap-a-bow-around" the ending type of Hollywood ending I still enjoyed it. It's a great summer read and I look forward to reading more from these authors -- Jeff Rivera [...]

About Average.......2006-11-09

This book has me a bit confused on how I feel. It started off very quickly, dumping you right into the life of Elizabeth Miller, second assistant to a huge Hollywood agent. There really wasn't much set up or character building, but after a few chapters, I really began to get into Elizabeth's life. She met celebrities daily and planned huge Hollywood parties, attended premiers and was asked out by some of the most powerful men in the world. It turns out her ambition, after giving up a life in politics, is to become a producer on an indie script she feels passionate about.

She learns her way through the industry and makes some excellent contacts, some a little more personal than others. The story has a great plot but comes to such a quick and abrupt ending, which is a little disappointing. But it implies there will be a sequel - which I will most likely be reading as well. :)

The Second Assistant: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder

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The Second Assistant: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder
Naylor, Mimi, Clare Hare
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000FFJUQ0

UC - Second Assistant, The - abr cass: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder

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UC - Second Assistant, The - abr cass: A Tale from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder
Mimi Hare , and Clare Naylor
Manufacturer: Penguin Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0142800783

Book Description

First time in paperback, with a new Introduction and final chapter

World affairs expert and intrepid travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan braved the dangers of war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s, living among the mujahidin—the “soldiers of god”—whose unwavering devotion to Islam fueled their mission to oust the formidable Soviet invaders. In Soldiers of God we follow Kaplan’s extraordinary journey and learn how the thwarted Soviet invasion gave rise to the ruthless Taliban and the defining international conflagration of the twenty-first century.

Kaplan returns a decade later and brings to life a lawless frontier. What he reveals is astonishing: teeming refugee camps on the deeply contentious Pakistan-Afghanistan border; a war front that combines primitive fighters with the most technologically advanced weapons known to man; rigorous Islamic indoctrination academies; a land of minefields plagued by drought, fierce tribalism, insurmountable ethnic and religious divisions, an abysmal literacy rate, and legions of war orphans who seek stability in military brotherhood. Traveling alongside Islamic guerrilla fighters, sharing their food, observing their piety in the face of deprivation, and witnessing their determination, Kaplan offers a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of a people and a country that are at the center of world events.

Customer Reviews:

The Many Worlds of Afghanistan.......2007-08-03

I read Soldiers of God at the same time that I read The Bookseller of Kabul (for book club) and found Soldiers to be an enlightening companion read because while Bookseller focused on one family in Kabul, its interpersonal dynamics, and how religion and culture affected its members, Soldiers gave a broader view of various groups and their political and personal dynamics in Afghanistan. Also, both books were written by Western journalists, which gave the books a somewhat similar (though by no means identical) perspective on Afghanistan, although differing in scope.

Specific to Soldiers, I enjoyed Robert Kaplan's story telling (part travelogue, part reportage), his ability to gain access to some very insular groups, and his obvious desire to present them and their goals as accurately as possible. It was compelling reading for me as I knew little about the country, its myriad elements and history.

A first rate book on Afghanistan.......2006-06-10

Kaplan is an American journalist who made several trips into Afghanistan during the time that the Soviet Union had occupied Afghanistan and was intent on turning Afghanistan into a communist country.

In his trips, Kaplan experienced and describes the life common to all mountain peoples, the cruelty and gruesomeness of war especially in its counter-insurgency edition, and the traditions of the different Afghan tribes. He describes the leaders of the resistance, except for the Islamist factions, who are all but ignored, and the various rather eccentric Europeans and Americans who joined their cause.

This book is moving - what else would one expect of a people that was willing to sustain a million fatalities in order to maintain their customs and not be occupied by a foreign power?

To use a colossal understatement, Afghanistan is a very colorful place, nothing at all like American suburbia. Anyone who wants to understand Afghanistan must recognize this fact. The best parts of the book, which alone are worth the price of the book, are the many thumbnail descriptions of the eccentric people and surreal situations that Kaplan found in Afghanistan.

zzzzzz..........2006-04-29

As a college student, I am required certain books for my history class. The firsthand account books I have read this semester have been very enjoyable (Kaffir Boy & Son of the Revolution). However, even though Soldiers of God is a firsthand account of Robert Kaplan traveling in Afghanistan & Pakistan during the Soviet invasion & occupation, it was one of the most boring books I have ever read. I could barely read 3 pages without beginning to doze off. The action is limited and sporadic and the commentary is less than stellar. If you are looking for another Kaffir Boy this book is not the one to pick.

Very Good.......2005-09-10

Great book about the Russian-Afghan War and preread to Taliban by Ahmed Rashid. Very good read for anyone wanting to know about Central Asian/Afghan history and Afghan/Pakistani relations of recent years.

A war forgotten and rediscovered.......2005-09-05

September 11 offered an obvious answer to why Afghanistan mattered, and several books have examined the interaction between the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the rise of militant Islam. Last year, Steve Coll was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Ghost Wars," a twenty-year history of America in Afghanistan. But save the exception of Taliban published by Ahmed Rashid, Afghanistan was consistently conspicuously absent from the Western booklist.

When Robert Kaplan first published this book, in 1990, he meant to shed light into a war whose geopolitical importance was inversely related to its attention in the press. "Soldiers of God" is a typical Kaplan book that interweaves the author's first-hand account of the region with a deep interest in understanding its history and a solemn sense of realism that pervades the narrative.

In telling his story, Mr. Kaplan begins with an introductory chapter on the war's barbarity-particularly the impact that Soviet mines had on the war and the country's landscape. He then looks at Peshawar, the Pakistani city that acted as the war's staging room, at least for the mujahedin side, before examining the tribal dynamics of the war, and specifically the Pathans' men relationship to their women.

It is in chapter 3 that Mr. Kaplan makes his trip into Afghanistan and gives a first-hand account of the Khyber Pass that connects Pakistan to Afghanistan; from then on, the reader gets an intimate and intricate image of the war's first line of attack, just as the portraits of the mujahedin get enriched with more detail and precision.

The greater image that emerges is how America let the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI, run this war and how this jeopardized the subordination of American interests to Pakistan's own geopolitical priorities. Mr. Kaplan is very somber about this: "In the end, the mujahidin's willingness to suffer to a nearly unimaginable degree eventually overcame, and thus masked, the awful mistakes of American and Pakistani policy makers."

The revised edition includes a new chapter, "The Lawless Frontier" which marks Kaplan's return to the region (in the spring of 2000), and which narrates the way that Pakistan promoted the Taliban as a substitute for Gulbuddin Heykmatyar's inability to consolidate his power in Afghanistan and thus serve Pakistan's interests.

If there is an easy way to explain this complex dynamic between Afghans, Pakistanis and Americans, "Soldiers of God" is it. But in the end, Mr. Kaplan would shy away from any grandiose statements; "For American policy makers, there may be no reliably applicable lessons of the Afghan war except that you win some and you lose some," he writes. A sad conclusion to a war that cost 1.3 million lives.

Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan

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Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Robert D. Kaplan
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MC34VI

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Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Robert D. Kaplan
Manufacturer: Vintage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J14W8Q

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Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Robert D. Kaplan
Manufacturer: Vintage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J13N3Q

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Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Robert D. Kaplan
Manufacturer: Vintage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J17D1Y

Amazon.com

Feeling a bit "elf-shot" these days? Perusing this recent addition to the Writer's Digest's Writer's Guide history series will take your mind off such troubles. It has information on everything from Shakespearean-era postal systems to waterways to holidays to diets; it also defines contemporaneous lingo like the aforementioned supernatural malady. It's the next best thing to a time machine.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful resource.......2005-09-23

I bought this book years ago because I love stories set in the Medieval and Renaissance periods. What I loved about this book, is that it helped me to get a wide variety of information in short period of time. It provides information about clothing, food, money, the law, and royalty. I used it to create a 30 page story in college.

Because of the amount of information, as well as bibliographical listings for you to expand upon your research, it makes a great reference when you are writing a story set in this period. If you are writing a novel or a feature-length screenplay, you'll need more information than is covered in this book, but for a short story or to supplement information that you have, it is fabulous. You can also use it when you have no idea where to begin your research. The bibliographies are designed so that you can find out information on a specific subject quickly rather than researching the whole period in general.

It could do with more illustrations..........2003-01-01

Most Americans who would be interested in such things, after all, have probably visited a Colonial reconstruction (like Williamsburg) at some point, and seen the artifacts of the period up close and personal, so it doesn't matter too much that the volume this series offers about Colonial America isn't too well supplied with pictures. But visual recreations of Elizabethiana are thinner on the ground, and it would have helped to have been able to see something of the objects described (I had to haul out one of my costume references to comprehend the description of Anne Boleyn's trademark headdress, for example). That much said, the book is packed with useful information ranging from plots against the Virgin Queen to how much things cost to education, language (including the Scots dialect), and witchcraft. And it offers sizeable bibliographies of other books to seek out in connection with various specialized subjects. On balance, I have to say that I got a lot out of it, and would recommend it as a good jumping-off place for students as well as writers.

Great series!.......2001-03-17

Not just for writers, but historians, hobbyists, and anyone interested in the small details of life in other times. This volume, like the others in the series, includes chapters (with figures and illustrations) on food, clothing, family life, work, education, religion, leisure activities, social and political history, etc. Great for browsing, great for research. Recommended.

An excellent resource.......2000-01-09

If your interest in the Renaissance centers on 16th century England, then this book's for you. With chapters arranged by broad subjects, such as Everyday Life, Government and War, and Society, it's easy to locate topics. If you are looking for a quick reference tool specific to the English Renaissance, this book belongs in your collection

How cool is this book?.......1999-03-25

The Writer's Guide to Renaissance England is a fantastic resource for everything to Elizabethan clothing, to what they ate, what they believed in and anything you need to research an aspect of English Renaissance culture. It's descriptive, thoural, and extreemely helpful.

Handbook To Life In Renaissance Europe (Handbook to Life)

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Handbook To Life In Renaissance Europe (Handbook to Life)
Sandra Sider
Manufacturer: Facts on File
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0816056188

Book Description

In this engrossing book, two world-renowned scholars compare and contrast the cosmology, science, and medicine of China and Greece between 400 B.C. and A.D. 200. In the process they cast new light not only on these two rich civilizations but also on the evolving character of science.

Customer Reviews:

Culture and Its Contents.......2007-08-23

A fine exploration of two different cultures and how cultural distinctions impact all areas of life--even science. We see the world--natural and man-made--through "blinkers"; No area of human effort is immune to the selectivity which culture imposes: attention,valuation,investigation.

An interesting dichotomy, but underdeveloped and repetitive........2003-11-20

This book has an interesting conceit: two leading historians of science, one of Ancient Greece, one of Ancient China will examine the sciences of both great civilizations and provide an comparative outlook. It looks at a period from roughly the fifth century BC to the end of the second century AD. Nathan Sivin looks at China and Geoffrey Lloyd looks at Greece. There is a discussion of the social background to science, followed by one of the leading scientific concepts. The basic contrast between the two can be simply stated. Chinese scientists lived in a system of patronage, originally to the various warring states, then as bureaucrats to the emperor. Patronage was capricious, and it was limited, but the result was a society that thoroughly accepted highly conservative and authoritarian attitudes. Higher education per se did not exist in the way Greek academies did. Books were slower to develop than in the Greek world. Learning was based on the understanding and memorization of philosophical classics. Most striking of all was the way that scholars did not encourage debate; instead there was a firm emphasis on consensus and agreement, and an uncontested idea of serving the great ruler. The world of Greek scientists was very different: this was a world of city states, many of which were very democratic. In the absence of consistent state patronage and vigorous debate, especially in the field of law, Greek scientists engaged in their own constant debates as they competed with each other and sought to demonstrate the truth as they saw it.

The results were distinct scientific attitudes. The Greeks saw the world in causes and in elements, while the Chinese invoked "the Way," yin-yang, and the five phases. The Greeks spent much of their time dealing with the difference between appearance and reality, while the Chinese did not. Interestingly, the authors note how the Greeks sought to search for mathematical like certainty in other sciences where such certainty was not and is not possible. The Greek emphasis on causality and nature reflects the intensely confrontational nature of the classical world. Chinese scientific theory emphasized, instead of utility or accuracy, its historical lineage. In discussing the cosmos some Greek thinkers argued for the independence of key elements, not unlike the way they stressed in the political sphere the "independence" of the free from the slaves they depended on. Chinese cosmological discussion, on the other hand, stressed the interdependence of the elements of the cosmos, again like Chinese political theory. In contrast to some Greek theories of medicine, Chinese theories emphasized not simply monarchical authority over the body, but the body as governed by a harmonious and wise bureaucracy.

Such anyway is the thesis. What can be said for it? It seems interesting, and accurate so far as it goes, but it is somewhat repetitive. The book is written at a high level of abstraction, and this can make reading somewhat difficult. For a western reader such as myself, it seems hard to imagine that how Chinese science could advance with such a narrow-minded commitment to orthodoxy and a refusal to debate. But this is not a book that compares the successes of the two sciences. If you did not know much about the achievements of Chinese science before reading the book, you will know little more after it. Apparently the Chinese studied astronomy a lot (the state subsidized work on the calendar) and had a complex medical tradition. But you will not learn anything about Chinese mathematics or zoology or botany or physics. Indeed, one may read the book and wonder whether Chinese science achieved anything at all. This is a discussion of science that does not seek to explain what a layman would be most interested in, to wit, how "accurate" ancient science was. We know that Euclidean mathematics holds good for ordinary everyday use and that Ptomelian astronomy is fatally flawed, but the authors do not discuss how accurate their Chinese counterparts were. There appears to have been a larger gap in Chinese society between scientists and inventors. We know that China has a glorious history of invention, but it is not one that the authors discuss. All in all, this is an account that only covers the surface, padded out by many repetitions.

logos and tao---Chemical Heritage magazine.......2003-04-12

I would have thought that to be an expert on early Chinese science was enough to occupy at least one lifetime, and the same can be said about expertise in early Greek science. Only amateurs would claim to know enough to write about early science in both civilizations and make comparisons. And yet, in this slim work, a leading authority on ancient Greek science and an equally knowledgeable China expert have talked and corresponded and shared drafts with each other and with other scholars at conferences over a ten-year period resulting in a truly pathbreaking work. Geoffrey Lloyd (now Sir Geoffrey) is emeritus professor of ancient history at the University of Cambridge and author of definitive works on early Greek science. Nathan Sivin is professor of Chinese culture and of the history of science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is probably the world's leading expert on Chinese science and has written extensively on most of its aspects. He is the author of the section on the theoretical background of Chinese alchemy in volume V part 4, and edited the medical volume, volume VI part 6, of Joseph Needham's monumental Science and Civilization in China. The dustcover begins our education depicting an ancient Chinese character for tao, the Way, and the Greek ëïãïò, logos, the Word. The Way carries with it the sense of process, of change, which is not implicit in the Word. The chapter headings give us pause for they suggest, though erroneously it turns out, that the book is assembled from individual writings by the two authors. The chapters are: Aims and Methods; The Social and Institutional Framework of the Chinese Sciences; The Social and Institutional Framework of Greek Science; The Fundamental Issues of Greek Science; The Fundamental Issues of the Chinese Sciences; Chinese and Greek Sciences Compared. Although the headings suggest sharp separation, every chapter includes significant comments regarding corresponding characterisitics in the other civilization. There is no change in style when a Chinese chapter gives way to one on Greece, a truly remarkable achievement. If readers are looking for a description of early Greek and Chinese scientific and technical achievements, they will be disappointed. The three classic Chinese innovations of gunpowder, printing, and the compass without which, according to Francis Bacon, the modern world would be unthinkable, cannot be found in this book. They all came later than the period 400 B.C. to 200 A.D. that the book discusses. Bacon of course had no idea those novelties came from China. Nor can one find more than a mention or two of some of the many dozens of innovations known to the Chinese centuries before the West as described by Joseph Needham. No, the purpose of this book is not to summarize what is already well known. Rather The Way and the Word tries to understand how two independent civilizations managed to create scientific worldviews whose basic approaches, presuppositions, and concepts were fundamentally different, and yet which ordered their awareness of the natural world in ways that led to major advances we would still call scientific. We can no longer ask which of the two is superior. In fact, the authors inform us, historians today trace the ancestry of modern natural science to "the cosmopolitan blend of Syriac, Persian, ancient Middle Eastern, Indian, East Asian, and Greco-Roman traditions that formed in the Muslim world" (p. xiii). Long before the book reaches the concepts of the sciences, the authors ask about the social, political, and institutional aspects of the two cultures and these not as separate entities. The authors realized that the interactions that united these aspects into a single whole had to be studied also. The authors speak of a cultural manifold as the context of the emerging sciences. This is cultural history at its best. Within that manifold they place those individuals who chose to devote their time to scientific questions. They ask what social strata these persons came from and how they earned their living. One fascinating and unexpected emphasis is the fact that in Greece thinkers kept on thinking of new alternative ways of looking at natural phenomena because only in this way would they gain recognition, students, a following, a livelihood. In China, controversy tended to be avoided and new views, although equally frequent, were carefully tailored to look like essential consequences of classic formulations. We can no longer say that the Greek view of nature was a particulate view, the atomistic, granular picture of Leucippus and Democritus, because the alternative continuous picture of nature also had its proponents. And wheras Plato's Timaeus builds nature from a few defined triangles Aristotle's concept of nature is qualitative rather than geometric. Still there is a fundamental divide between Greek and Chinese conceptions characterized by the tao and the Word. Helpfully an appendix outlines the evolution of the Chinese consmological synthesis showing how, within the tao, the cycles of yin and yang and of the five phases (often mistaken for elements) became ways to characterize the activity of ch'i. The Chinese cosmology turns out to be enormously appealing, as it unites macrocosm and microcosm, seeing the heavens, earth, society, and the human body as existing in or straining towards harmonious resonance. It is the underlying worldview of the modern ecologist. Until I read this book, my own picture of Chinese science was granular, staccato, disjointed. I had dipped into numerous books and articles that gave me insights into the astounding achievements of Chinese thinkers and doctors. Never did an overview of the Chinese world emerge. This book finally gave me that overview not only of the Chinese but also of the classic Greek world. To help the reader, a chronology of Chinese and Greek historical events covering the book's six-hundred year timespan is included. It is a book that I strongly recommend. It will greatly enlarge our understanding of the world we live in.

The way and the word. Science and medicine in early China and Greece [A book review from: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science]

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The way and the word. Science and medicine in early China and Greece [A book review from: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science]
C. Cullen
Manufacturer: Elsevier
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Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RQZQ38

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This digital document is a journal article from Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece

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The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece
Nathan Sin, Geoffrey Lloyd Nathan Sivin
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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ASIN: B000ORXHGI

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The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece
Geoffrey Lloyd
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORWUM0

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