Average customer rating:
- enough to fire your enthusiasm
- a favorite.
- take it with a grain of salt
- 2 Helix as 1
- A dishonourment to Rosalind Franklin's memory
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The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James D. Watson
Manufacturer: Touchstone
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ASIN: 074321630X |
Book Description
By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.
Customer Reviews:
enough to fire your enthusiasm.......2006-08-09
I read this book as a new science teacher, and it made me realise that all research and teaching can be enlivened by the characters that populate the scientific world. It certainly is not just for academics. I recommend this to everybody - I loved every page. Both Watson and Crick were insufferably arrogant, loud, ostentatious, obnoxious - but it allows the reader to see that enthusiasm and shear pushiness gets places. One sees the boundries set in academic research, and understands also the content of their work. A MUST read. As relevent today as in 1968.
a favorite........2006-05-25
this is easily one of my favorite books. some dislike it for watson's dramatization of certain social elements in the story, and for the way in which crick and watson made their discovery. but i think the book should be appreciated as a text which makes science more accessible to the general public. and perhaps most impressive is how watson does manage to include some science in a way which i think will not distract the lay reader, or bore him.
take it with a grain of salt.......2005-11-24
While James Watson is not on the list of authors I'd generally recommend reading, this book is an exception. Those interested in the history of molecular biology should definitely read this book. Given the nature of the topic, it is light and enjoyable reading. Certainly this account is biased to some extent, which makes it necessary to read other books on the topic as well. Further reading on Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin, among other personalities mentioned in the Double Helix, are highly recommended, and necessary for fair balance.
2 Helix as 1.......2005-11-23
The Double Helix was a one of the books on my high school biology teacher's reading list for the class. The name itself, The Double Helix, had shied me away from reading it; it sounds like some boring old book that will describe the structure of DNA in some very big and boring words. However, after finally reading the book, I completely changed my thoughts on this book. I found the novel to be an easy and exciting to read in an almost fictious hero-like story.
Watson's story is not just a mere account of the events that occurred, but it also contains many of his personal thoughts and views of the events. Watson's purpose for writing The Double Helix was to explain that scientific research was a combination of "the contradictory pulls of ambition and the sense of fair play." Watson involves the reader in the "race" of the DNA structure with Linus Pauling and in the underhanded use of Rosalind Franklin's X-ray data. I, like many others, was sucked into the thrill of Watson's first-hand account of this dishonest race. During many points in the course of the novel, I was anxiously waiting to turn the page to see what Watson or Crick might do next. As Sir Lawrence Bragg puts it in the foreword, "I do not know any other instance where one is able to share so intimately in the researcher's struggle and doubts and final triumph."
The Double Helix was not only a good read, but also it has reinvigorated my spirit in the field of research, especially the active field of genetics. My first year of college courses in chemistry and biology had began to turn me away from research in particular areas, for the courses just did not seem to interest me anymore. However, this book has provided me with a new avenue into the exciting world and life of scientific research; I am again looking forward to going into the genetic research field.
I observed a very interesting point in the book, which is that all the data and diagrams that were discussed throughout the novel are also taught in our chemistry classes; it is in this fact that I find science's beauty, that only 50 years ago this data was used to solve the structure of a totally unknown molecule/idea and is now taught in elementary chemistry classes.
The Double Helix is an exceptional novel that I recommend to all.
A dishonourment to Rosalind Franklin's memory.......2005-11-18
This book is an innaccurate version of events in the the discovery of teh structure of DNA. What most people don't know is that Rosalind Franklin was crucial to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick actually stole most of her data via Wilson, her supervisor, adn passed it off as their own discoverery. She was a brilliant scientist and should have been an independent researcher at Kings College, but because she was a woman she was made an assistant to Wilson. She was extremely dedicated and plowed through all the obstacles at Kings College. However, her supervisor, Wilson, showed most of her data to his old friend Crick, who shared it with his partner Watson. They too were studying DNA, although they were on completely wrong track. The data that was pilfered included the famous photo 51, which Franklin obtained over a course of years' work and revealed the spiral shape of DNA. They also positioned the competent of DNA, such as the bases, exactly as she hypothesized. Watson, Crick, and Wilson received the Nobel Prize, while Franklin could not, because she died at the age of 38 due to radiation exposure from the X-rays she used to capture photo 51. The men only mentioned her in passing when accepting their prize, and definitely not as the source of the actual discovery. Then Watson had the gall to write a book that casts her in a horrible light, as an inferior person who was bad tempered and selfishly hoarded her information. He also calls her `Rosy' throughout the entire book, although she despised that name. He once even went up to Rosalind and demanded that she hand over her data. He was a complete bigot, and thought her inferior and was furious when she refused to share her own findings to him. He harps about her appearance in the book, and it is obvious that is the only way he perceives her, and not as a thinking person. And for the record, she was actually quite striking, and wore the latest in French fashions. She was extremely dedicated, and her level of determination would have been completely accepted in a man. That's why I give this book a one, and if I could I'd give it a zero. Watson is just begging for comeuppance for what he wrote in this book. I would reccomend reading other books about Rosalind's struggle, such as 'Rosalind Franklin: The dark lady of DNA'
Amazon.com
"When individuals are being tortured and everyone knows about it and no one seems able to do a thing to help," Lawrence Weschler writes, "primordial mysteries at the root of human community come under assault as well." Overthrowing oppressive regimes is not enough to resolve the crisis; the persecutors must also acknowledge what they have done. "True forgiveness is achieved in community.... It is history working itself out as grace, but it can only be accomplished in truth."
A Miracle, A Universe brings together two long nonfiction pieces, originally published in the New Yorker, which examine how citizens of Brazil and Uruguay have worked to "settle accounts" with their former torturers. Weschler uses historical background to supplement his powerful eyewitness reportage and interviews, bearing witness to those who seek to break through official denials of government atrocity. The efforts to build a democratic society in which people can have faith have rarely been portrayed with as much immediacy and insight as Weschler brings to these articles.
Book Description
During the past fifteen years, one of the most vexing issues facing fledgling transitional democracies around the world—from South Africa to Eastern Europe, from Cambodia to Bosnia—has been what to do about the still-toxic security apparatuses left over from the previous regime. In this now-classic and profoundly influential study, the New Yorker's Lawrence Weschler probes these dilemmas across two gripping narratives (set in Brazil and Uruguay, among the first places to face such concerns), true-life thrillers in which torture victims, faced with the paralysis of the new regime, themselves band together to settle accounts with their former tormentors.
"Disturbing and often enthralling."—New York Times Book Review
"Extraordinarily moving. . . . Weschler writes brilliantly."—Newsday
"Implausible, intricate and dazzling."—Times Literary Supplement
"As Weschler's interviewees told their tales, I paced agitatedly, choked back tears. . . . Weschler narrates these two episodes with skill and tact. . . . An inspiring book."—George Scialabba, Los Angeles Weekly
Customer Reviews:
A book to go back to again and again.......2006-03-14
On March 15, 1979, General João Baptista Figuereido assumed power as the fifth military president of Brazil and extended an amnesty for all political crimes, both by state security agents and by opponents to the regime. While this amnesty assured there would be no trials for human rights abusers, ironically, it provided an opportunity for the most serious movement to challenge the practice of torture by the regime itself, that of the Brasil Nunca Mais project. It is the story of this project that Lawrence Weschler narrates in the first half of this book. Weschler explains how, during a very limited period of access, the members of the Brasil Nunca Mais project team were able to photocopy the carefully catalogued archives of the Supreme Military Court in order to make them public to the world. They filled a void in Brazil in taking up activities that the state never would- mainly that of telling the truth about this dark period in Brazilian history. Of course, the resulting report, Brasil Nunca Mais, speaks for itself. But Weschler's account of how it came to be is illuminating and as relevant today as when it was first published. It is particularly poignant that only recently, in November of 2005, did the Brazilian government move to declassify dictatorship-era files. Perhaps this signals that the Brazilian government is willing to fully engage with the legacies of the dictatorship, but for the time being Weschler's book offers one of the few windows on this shameful past.
The section on Uruguay is also thoroughly engaging and recounts all the anxieties of a citizen-initiated campaign to bring former torturers to justice. Weschler's skillful eyewitness accounts make the reader feel as if the petition drive were happening right now, as opposed to two decades ago.
A Miracle, A Universe is a thoroughly well-researched and thoughtful contribution to general human rights literature and should be read by anyone with an interest in social movements and human rights activism, not just those with an interest in Latin America.
This book will have you knee deep in emotion!.......2005-02-03
Considering myself to be a young leftist, I had just read Michael Moore's books "Stupid White Men and Dude, Wheres my country?". Of course this was childs play to real writings and i decided to up myself a level. Being born in Australia of Uruguayan parents and living in Uruguay for a few years I already had some base knowledge on the tortures and dissapearences across Latin-America, this book told me more than I could of ever imagined. It opened my eyes to the reality of the situation and just how much the Brasilian and Uruguayan people had suffered, as well as all those other people who faced horrible fates at the hand of dictatorships. The author is completely nuetral and criticises both sides accordingly. This book was the turning point in my life, having always been one of those people that say, "I cant read books, i get to the 5th page and im bored". Now I read them by the dozen, my thirst for knowledge is unstoppable and i owe it to this book. Upon completion I had many emotions flowing through me, but one true desire overpowered them all...then and there I swore to do everything in my power to end these kind of abuses.
Very Interesting A Thorough Reporting Work........2003-04-29
This book reads like a work of journalism. It was good because it explained the economic and social conditions that spawn totalitarian regimes and military takeovers. Very good bibliography if you want to further your study. Good Interviews. Very Thorough and Fair. More than I would have been. Names, Dates, and the history behind the story is always given.
¡Nunca más! How the rest of the world has lived..........2002-10-24
An incredible book that describes a few horrific cultures of dictatorship that will hopefully be forever unrecognizable to people in the United States. The most fascinating parts of the book are the theories of how the dicatorships came to be (the Tupamaros in Uruguay and the backlash of the military, etc.); even more incredible is how the leaders of the respective dictatorships stayed in power out of necessary compromises with the government(some are still in power, which will be difficult to swallow after reading this book). It is, in the end, a hopeful book with a warning: "¡Nunca más!" The book asks "how do you come to terms with those that tortured?" (especially in the incredible situation of passing someone who tortured you in the street, described by someone in the book) Another point the author makes is that there can be forgiveness after such horror, and if there's not there may just be more torture. A very worthwhile read, but not for the squeamish.
Lastly, the book provides a good introduction to a much neglected country: Uruguay. There are very few accounts in English of Uruguay, and this is probably the best I've seen. I have also visited Uruguay; it is a fascinating country and well worth a visit. You get a real appreciation for the friendliness of the people after reading what a lot of them went through during "la dictadura."
A gripping, passionate work of reportage........2001-03-13
This is a magnificent book about a terrible subject. From the sixties through till the mid-Eighties, almost the entire continent of South America fell under the sway, or rather the boot, of military dictatorship. The dictatorships were, without exception but with varying degrees of vigour, active in torturing political prisoners. Weschler does a masterful job in describing the various forces that contributed to the overthrow of democracy throughout the Southern cone (not the least of which was American insistence on training Southern militaries and police forces in counter-insurgency in the hope that Castro's example would not spread further south), but the book's focus is not only the depravities of the two regimes -- Brazil and Uruguay -- but on the efforts of survivors of torture and imprisonment to make their oppressors see and recognise their evils.
The first section, 'A miracle, a universe' recounts the incredible efforts that went into collating and publishing the account Brasil: Nunca Mais (Brazil: Never Again), a book which set forth the policies of systematic torture and denial of due process practiced by Brazil's dictators. The truly remarkable aspect of the work was that all the material was obtained from the regime's own archives, over a period of several years, and at great personal risk to the authors. It's an inspiring story, and one that demonstrates the power of the written word.
The second and longer part of the book, 'The reality of the world', centres of the efforts of a committe in Uruguay to call those accused of torture during the country's decade-plus period of military dictatorship to account. In an effort to hasten reconciliation (or so they claimed), the civilian government declared an amnesty for those imprisoned for subversion under the old regime; later this amnesty was extended to those who tortured their political enemies. A group of concerned citizens began an exhausting referendum campaign to put the second amnesty to a vote. Weschler makes their task as exciting as a Hollywood thriller, without ever losing sight of the horror and tragedy which had been their inspiration. It's a beautifully structured, patient, and gorgeously written piece of work. An afterword makes some more general claims about the need to speak up on the subject of torture. 'The scream that comes welling out of the torture chamber is thus double -- the body calling out to the soul, the self calling out to others -- and in both cases, it goes unanswered. Torture's stark lesson is precisely that enveloping silence: it aims to take that silence and introject it back into its victim, to replace the flame of subjectivity with an abject, hollow void.' It is through reading books like Weschler's, and discussing and acting on his suggestions and the example of those in Brazil and Uruguay and elsewhere, that this silence can be partly drowned out. The book deserves -- indeed, demands -- a wide readership.
Amazon.com
"Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders," writes James Watson in The Double Helix, his account of his codiscovery (along with Francis Crick) of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick won Nobel Prizes for their work, and their names are memorized by biology students around the world. But as in all of history, the real story behind the deceptively simple outcome was messy, intense, and sometimes truly hilarious. To preserve the "real" story for the world, James Watson attempted to record his first impressions as soon after the events of 1951-1953 as possible, with all their unpleasant realities and "spirit of adventure" intact.
Watson holds nothing back when revealing the petty sniping and backbiting among his colleagues, while acknowledging that he himself was a willing participant in the melodrama. In particular, Watson reveals his mixed feelings about his famous colleague in discovery, Francis Crick, who many thought of as an arrogant man who talked too much, and whose brilliance was appreciated by few. This is the joy of The Double Helix--instead of a chronicle of stainless-steel heroes toiling away in their sparkling labs, Watson's chronicle gives readers an idea of what living science is like, warts and all. The Double Helix is a startling window into the scientific method, full of insight and wit, and packed with the kind of science anecdotes that are told and retold in the halls of universities and laboratories everywhere. It's the stuff of legends. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
The classic personal account of one of the great scientific discoveries of the century.
By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a brilliant young zoologist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest unsolved mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of the life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. He is impressed by the achievements of the young man he was, but clear-eyed about his limitations. Never has such a brilliant scientist also been so gifted, and so truthful, in capturing in words the flavor of his work.
Customer Reviews:
Which edition to get ?.......2007-04-18
I ended up getting copies of two different paperback editions.
The Simon & Schuster Touchstone Book, with a little bit of an introduction by Sylvia Nasar, has easy-to-read print and the photographs are pleasantly large. Good for reading in the subway.
But the Norton Critical edition, edited by Gunther S. Stent, is the one to get if you can only afford one. Its typeface leaves much to be desired, and, in my copy, some of the pages are hard to read because the printer seems to have run out of ink in the middle of the job. But the edition has materials that are indispensable for an understanding of this classic work of science. I enjoyed, most of all, Stent's essay "reviewing the reviews," showing both the wisdom (by some) and the foolishness (by others) with which the Double Helix was received by the scientific community.
DNA discovery.......2007-03-18
Excellent book formulating the personalities and egos behind the race for DNA. Interesting and well written. Add a star if you are in the field.
The drama behind the DNA.......2007-03-09
I read this as a requirement for a class but actually found it interesting. It show the human sides to the people behing the discovery of DNA and exposes the drama and gossip going on. It also shows just how difficult it was and is to be a woman scientist (Rosalind's story).
It is a short book, an easy read, I recommend it.
Understated Account of a Really Big Event.......2002-11-08
Clarification is in order. First of all, this is not a substantive science book. For all the significance of the discovery it chronicles, The Double Helix never bothers to explain how, for example, x-ray crystallography actually works, or what the difference between a keto- and an -enol is, or even why Watson's and Crick's discovery brought on a new era in the life sciences. Aspiring students of genetics and molecular biology are urged to inquire elsewhere for answers to these questions.
Second, to label The Double Helix a book on scientific method is almost equally misleading - the reason being that there is no room in the rarefied formalism extolled by the likes of Karl Popper for Watson's subjectivity and sarcasm, not to mention the latter's frequent excursions on nubile au pairs and the deplorable student housing market at Cambridge.
Third (not that it matters for an appreciation of the book, but it's a common misunderstanding), Watson and Crick did not discover DNA itself, or even the function of DNA. Rather, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for solving the molecular structure of DNA.
With those clarifications in mind, The Double Helix is a profitable read. Watson shows us non-scientists that the practice of science is "just" another human endeavor, and not some remote, sterilized activity conducted by emotional eunuchs in white coats. Watson's first-person narrative is downright conversational, as if he's talking shop over a pint of stout in an English pub. He is unabashedly honest about both his ambitions and his naivete (he was only 23 at the time the events in the book took place). And his sometimes scathing portrayals of his colleagues - in all their brilliance and banality - give the impression that working in a world-class research facility is a lot like working anywhere else.
Francis Crick comes across as that certain guy we all knew in college (wherever and whenever that was) - impish and boisterous, egocentric but big-hearted, who might be dapper if he didn't sleep in his clothes, whose eccentricity is the bane of faculty advisors, whose attention is everywhere but on task, whose breath sometimes smells like beer after lunch, and whose serendipitous genius comes through at all the right times. The supporting cast is equally colorful: Maurice Wilkins, the quintessential English academic stuffed corpse; Rosalind Franklin, a Freudian caricature of icy feminine competence in a man's world; the godlike Linus Pauling playing with his tinker toy molecular models in California.
And it wasn't just his colleagues who made Watson's work interesting. There were the aforementioned au pairs, the pubs and the parties and the formal receptions, there was the professional competitiveness between the English and the Americans - with Watson (a Yank in Cambridge) more of an American insurance policy against the Brits getting all the credit for solving DNA if Pauling wasn't fast enough. And there was the Cold War, which had an impact on research priorities and, sometimes, hampered communication in the scientific community.
But most importantly - although Watson never deigns to make this point explicit - The Double Helix is a fascinating chronicle of the scientific method in action, notwithstanding the politics, the distractions, and the idiosyncrasies of the protagonists. The task itself was daunting. Watson and Crick already knew what DNA was composed of, and they knew with some certainty the proportions in which the bases were represented, but there could only be one correct way to put all the pieces together and the haystack was a big one. The researchers were quick to offer and to accept criticism, and false leads were abandoned without regard to ego or sunk time. Even though each wanted to get there first, London shared their findings with Cambridge, Cambridge shared their insights with London, and England and California held nothing from each other for long - admirable examples of the "sociable competition" of science that expedites discovery.
In the end, Watson's and Crick's success relied heavily on Wilkins's and Franklin's crystallography, with important contributions from whomever happened to stop by the lab during the two year period, and insights from conferences and the textbooks and articles Watson happened to read at the time. Creativity, serendipity, and openness to the ideas of others eventually yielded hypotheses, which were tested using Pauling's modeling methods. It could not have been done alone, as Watson makes clear, and the structure of DNA would have been discovered sooner or later. While ultimately it doesn't matter who gets the credit for the discovery, the world seems a better place for James Watson's being involved, if only because The Double Helix is such an entertaining read.
The Double Helix.......2002-10-29
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA written by James D. Watson is a rather engaging with a easily readable down to earth style book on the discovery of the structure of DNA. James D. Watson and Francis Crick worked on the structure of DNA, as did other of the time L. Pauling and R. Franklin were hot on the heals of Watson and Crick.
This is the story of how they made history, a story by a scientist about scientists, this is a superbly human tale of how a very unusual 23 year old American saw his chance for scientific immortality and set out to seize it.
If you like reading about about discovery and how it was done, then you'll like this book. Written in a folksy mannor, this is a book that is thrilling as you get to experience the discovery firsthand. Here you'll read about observation, the suspense of making this discovery before others and the mounting tension associated with science. You'll feel Watson's brilliance come through the narrative, his frank tone mixed with humor all making this a fast read, but never boring.
You'll be transported back to college, Cambridge, off to London and Paris, experience things like wine, movies, and girls, but you'll feel the undertone of scientific politics at its finest. This is a very entertaining book about the beautiful experience of making a great scientific discovery.
Product Description
ONLY FULLY AUTHORIZED EDITION OF THIS RARE MANUSCRIPT It has been ordained that a select few must from time to time pass over the threshold that divides a mortal's present life from the future. Written well over a century ago, John Uri Lloyd was a visionary who spoke of far distant worlds, dead civilizations, other dimensions and in particular, a world few of us will ever get to visit. . . a world hidden beneath our feet inside the earth. Inspired by the fantastic -- in particular the art of alchemy -- the author reveal in this long lost manuscript how he joined a secret society and was introduced into the sphere of mysticism. A part of this spiritual journey included the opportunity to establish contact with a super-human, sightless being, inside a cave in Kentucky. Together they were transported to another realm filled with magic and wonderment. Some have placed it in the catagory of Alice in Wonderland...where does the mind magic start and end? You decide.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Story, Well Written, Flawed Typography.......2007-08-08
Lloyd's classic story about a truth seeker who finds himself escorted into the nether regions of inner earth ranks high on the list of enjoyable/fantastic tales. Written in a masterful, albeit a bit pedantic, style the book is unfortunately absolutely littered with typos, misplaced punctuation and various other typographic sins that detract from the reading experience. Old hardcover editions sell for a strong premium, so I guess we are stuck with this version. Perhaps the publisher will correct all the errors before reprinting. I hope so.
The book is nicely illustrated with surprisingly good black and white drawings depicting some of our hero's travels as he journeys ever onward toward his unknown, but inevitable, future. By all means buy this book and ignore the flaws. A cult classic, to be sure!
Wonderful book.......2007-03-29
For those that understand the inner earth exsists, the book opens up more and answers many questions. There is also a url for a download copy.
thought provoking.......2002-11-22
never have i read a book that blows you away like ETIDORPHA.
in ths book you will read sci-fi that later become science fact.
this book is hard to describe but you will truly never forget
it.its listed as fiction but i think not!
Book Description
Simultaneously a seat of government, a military base, a private residence, and a retreat for besieged locals, the medieval castle abounds in both history and romance. This evocative survey traces the rise of fortresses across England and Wales, with 200 photographs, drawings, and plans. Sites include York Castle, Conway Castle, Dover Castle, and Kenilworth Castle.
Average customer rating:
- Want to join the Foreign Service? Read this book.
- An insight into a foreigner's shallow thinking of Angola
- this is a great potrayal of angola
- US-Typical politically correct
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Angola's Last Best Chance for Peace: An Insider's Account of the Peace Process
Paul J. Hare
Manufacturer: United States Institute of Peace Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1878379801 |
Customer Reviews:
Want to join the Foreign Service? Read this book........2003-05-06
Mediation is harder work than the mainstream media is able (or at least willing) to let on. For that reason, a book like this is an invaluable resource for anyone thinking of a career in diplomacy. Historically speaking, Hare's book is outdated, since peace has come, gone, and come again in Angola since it was published in 1998. Nonetheless, it's a valuable study of a crucial period in the country's long road to recovery from civil war, from the perspective of a participant who had an almost-inside view of both camps in the dispute. I'm persuaded that the Angolan reviewers above have a point, that Hare is too much of an outsider to have a complete appreciation of what their country went through. What he does provide completely, though, is an insider's look at the realities of American diplomacy, how it works, and why it doesn't always work quickly. It's a great case study of a difficult case, valuable to students of both African and American politics.
Angola, still in the midst of a decades-long battle when Hare's work began, is a good example of the ultimate challenge in that field. Hare's style is a bit dry, but his accounts of the two steps up, one step back peace process is refreshingly straightforward and devoid of political spin, to a degree that has been almost unthinkable in America for quite some time now. Although Hare shows no sign of any political agenda beyond that dictated by his job, this study gives the lie to any argument that the Clinton administration's interest in Africa began and ended with Somalia or that it was inept on the international stage. The leaders of both sides of the conflict are presented in a surprisingly reasonable light given the circumstances, and Hare at least tries to account for the convoluted political lay of the land as the war appeared to draw to a conclusion. Some previous familiarity with recent Angolan history is certainly helpful in understanding the story, but all the basics are here. It ends on an appropriately uncertain note, but events since the end of Hare's account have demonstrated that the efforts weren't wasted.
An insight into a foreigner's shallow thinking of Angola.......2000-08-06
I bought this book because there are so few books written about Angola in English. It is both a delight and a huge disappointment. Granted, Hare concentrates on one topic only - his very valuable experience of 'peace' making in Angola. To this extent, the book is a very useful 'fact-checker' for anyone working in or on Angolan issues today. He provides a chronology of events of the negotiations for Lusaka that is written clearly and concisely. It is probably a good enough guide for a student of African affairs or international relations. However, for anyone who has lived or worked in Angola, it comes close to pure entertainment at times. His book reveals how narrow-minded Western diplomats and politicians can be when they are dealing with a region outside their own cultural boundary. He unwittingly shows how little he understands about the people of Angola, let alone their leaders such as Jonas Savimbi, UNITA's leader. Quoting phrases from his diary, Hare's analyses of why Savimbi behaved in a certain way or other serve to reveal how Hare failed to look at the Angolan crisis from any view other than his own. I have heard this book described as 'laughably bad' and as a 'perfect example of how the Americans get it wrong in Africa'. These are indeed perceptive comments. I would advise anyone interested in Angola today to read this, preferably with a few Angolans at hand to point out the absurd cultural assumptions that Hare shamelessly commits.
this is a great potrayal of angola.......1999-04-14
why does it take so long to get such a good book
US-Typical politically correct.......1999-04-11
This is one more typical politically correct description on Angola Crisis, by the US point of view. The history go further on the ground.
Book Description
What would it be like to grow up in a home suffused with three hundred years of another family's history? When Sarah Messer's parents impulsively purchased Red House from Richard Warren Hatch, the great-great-great-great-great grandson of the original owner, Walter Hatch, they acquired much more than a lovingly preserved colonial home. The house contained Hatch family journals, letters, and daguerreotypes, and Walter Hatch's last will and testament, which stated that the house was to be passed down “forever from generation to generation to the world's end never to be sold or mortgaged from my children and grandchildren forever.”
With a poet's eye for clever detail and an ear for the rhythm of place and language, Red House is a real work of living history, a story of America from its wild beginnings in colonial New England through nine generations of the Hatch family. Based on an award-winning article Messer wrote for Yankee Magazine about Red House, this is a book for those of us who love old houses, colonial history, and beautifully written family stories.
Customer Reviews:
Red House.......2007-08-05
This is a wonderful book down memory lane as I once lived in Marshfield. But it could be anywhere in New Enland. It's funny and poignant, historical fact, and so very interesting to read.
Red House is a love Poem to an imagined existence of a Real Home.......2007-01-11
Red House appeared to be a perfect book for me seeing it that is supposedly is a mix of New England history, an account of a remarkably old home (one of my passions) and family history. That said in reading this book I realized quickly that Sarah Messer was writing a fictional account of her family and fictionalizing the history of the house and the family that livied in for over 300 years. When read knowing that is is a work of myth making it is a nice read as the others spins a yarn about the people that kept the red house going through thin and thinner with the familiy owned mill and shipbuilding industries... She fantasises how the American Revolution affected the town and how the family moved into the modern era and the house endured... All of this while interjecting her own seemingly fictionalized account of her parents ownership and growth into the the home.
While the premise of the book is ineresting Messer makes grave historically inaccurate statements including the statement that forks were not invented by the late 17 century and that meat would be seasoned with saffron to a point in which people would have permanently orange stained hands. Also the author presumes that the early american homes were so drafty that water would freeze just a few feet away from the fire. this is simply not factual and makes the book seem more like a vain myth than anything.
On finishing the book I thought to myself why was this book worth reading. It is a book that doesnt explain anything important historically and is deeply personal and relates only to the author to a large degree. Then it hit me this book is not vanity simply because every story we tell and hand down through our families is something of a myth... Its something like those stories your grandfather tells: "When I was your age we walk to school - up hills both ways... when the sno etc etc" this book just puts that in writing and does so nicely. The house is the symbolic American house of the American family and the American need to develop a mythology about itself.
Great love story by an old house caretaker........2006-07-10
You have to love old houses to live in one. This was an impossible to put down book written by an old house lover, a caretaker of history. Having lived in a 200+ year old house, I can truly understand wanting to know who lived there before you and what transpired in their lives. Ghosts or no, the spirits of past residents permiate the entire house. What did they see when they looked out this very window that you are now looking out? What happened in the rooms, how did they live in this house over the generations? Sarah Messer did a remarkable job of bringing the Red House's history to the reader and intermingling it with her own family's lives in the house. Loved the book, couldn't put it down. Ms. Messer did a remarkable job in the telling of the story.
Red House..........2006-02-27
Humm... what to say, this book just could have been better, it was good but I thought it was more about the house the history and the transfer for each family as it came along. It seemed to me to be about the negative not the house, how sad when maybe it could have been approched in a different manor.
I Could Not Put This Book Down!.......2006-02-06
I started to read this book on a Saturday and invented excuses on Sunday so that I could stay at home and finish it. It will definitely merit a place on my shelf of favorites. The intertwining of the story of the house and the story of the Messer family is masterful, and the writing itself is so flowing that you just can't stop at the end of each chapter. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a love of New England history, old houses or just a good story!
Average customer rating:
- interesting, but much is left out
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Without Force or Lies: Voices from the Revolution of Central Europe in 1989-90 : Essays, Speeches, and Eyewitness Accounts
William M. Brinton
Manufacturer: Mercury House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0916515788 |
Customer Reviews:
interesting, but much is left out.......2003-09-07
Brinton's anthology of the revolutions of '89 is good, in that is contains much about the actual events of that magical year from throughout east and central Europe, with sources from a variety of perspectives and social strata. However, it has very little from the voices that proceeded the mass exodus of nations from the Soviet bloc - and for this reason I can only give it 3 stars.
To be fair, to go too far back would be out of the scope of the book. However, I am surprised at the lack of materials written by such well known dissidents as Vaclav Havel in the early 1980's, or even materials from the Solidarity strike in Poland. More recent events such as Hungary's graudal "warming" to the west (as "many roads to socialism" were advocated) would have also been appropriate. Nonetheless, it is a comprehensive look at a watershed year in history.
Average customer rating:
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Prepositions and Particles in English: A Discourse-functional Account
Elizabeth M. O'Dowd
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0195111028 |
Book Description
Elizabeth M. O'Dowd offers a new, discourse-functional account of the categories "preposition" and "particle" in English. She explains why certain words have membership in both categories, and solves many intriguing puzzles long associated with the syntax and semantics of these words. Based on linguistic data extracted from a series of actual conversations, O'Dowd provides new insights into how prepositions and particles are used, and how their meanings can change across different discourse contexts over time.
Books:
- The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
- The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
- The Ernst & Young Guide to Performance Measurement For Financial Institutions: Methods for Managing Business Results Revised Edition
- The Financial System and the Economy: Principles of Money and Banking (with InfoTrac®)
- The Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007 (Global Competitiveness Report)
- The Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006: Leveraging ICT for Development (World Economic Forum Reports)
- The Handbook of Human Rights Law: An Accessible Approach to the Issues and Principles
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes
- The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.
- The Motley Fool You Have More Than You Think : The Foolish Guide To Personal Finance
Books Index
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