Book Description
Banish awkward silences, boring weather talk, or (worst of all) the embarrassing conversation gaff with this pithy, hilarious guide to effortless party banter.
We’ve all been there. You’re at a party, surrounded by the most important people in your life. You’re cool. You’re casual. You’re witty and urbane. Until suddenly, quite unexpectedly, things take a turn for the worse when a subject thought to be common knowledge is lobbed your way. A hush falls over the room and every head seems to swivel expectantly in your direction.
[ART: SET THESE OFF IN A DIFFERENT COLOR?]
“Rasputin. Sure, Rasputin. The Russian guy, right? Who . . . who . . . whooooo was Russian.”
“Che Guevara? You mean the dancer?”
“Oh my God! Mao Tse-tung? They have the best chicken with cashews!”
The Concise Guide to Sounding Smart at Parties was written with just this moment in mind. In fourteen pain-free, laughter-filled chapters, authors David Matalon and Chris Woolsey brush away years of cobwebs on subjects as wide-ranging as the typical round of Jeopardy: war, science, politics, philosophy, the arts, business, literature, music, religion, and more.
Armed with The Concise Guide to Sounding Smart at Parties, you’ll know that Chicago Seven wasn’t a boy band, Martin Luther never fought for civil rights, and Franz Kafka isn’t German for “I have a bad cold.” You’ll be the smart one who’s the center of conversation—and nothing beats that feeling.
Customer Reviews:
Fun Practical Knowledge.......2007-04-23
What I really loved about this book is that I was actually laughing out loud while I was learning something new. Unlike a lot of these "did you know" books, this book gives easy to read and complete summaries of events or peoples lives and was chock full of useful info I could actually use in conversation (not just a jumble of funny facts). I also loved the "how to bring it up" suggestions at the end of each entry. The best thing was that after reading the book I was able to put my new "sounding smart" skills to work that night at a party I went to. I read some of the other reviews here and I suppose if you're one of those pseudo-intellectual know-it-alls you'll find some flaws in just about anything, but if you're normal person like me, I think you'll find this a fun, entertaining, and informative read.
Funny AND Intelligent?! .......2007-04-22
Flat out, this book is great. It is funny without trying to imitate or be pretentious - while also being informative. Well worth the purchase.
Such a Smart Idea.......2007-04-21
I had so much fun reading this book that I handed it out as presents at a dinner party I just gave. All my friends who were there thought it was so clever and easy to read. Much better than doggie bags. I thought it was not only fun to read but didn't make me feel stupid for not knowing all that stuff.
witty, fun, useful and perfect material for the can..........2007-04-20
This book is my brother's favorite (and now mine) for reading in the bathroom, for those long visits. Both sitting in the tub, or just sitting, this is the kind of information in a fun package that I can really get behind. I don't dig history dry and from a weighty tome but I do like to feel like I'm patching up some of the holes in my somewhat sketchy liberal arts education. I loved the commentary and I think the authors are geniuses. A TERRIFIC christmas or birthday gift for your Mom or Dad. It been fun to quiz one another on all the info, too. Buy it.
Concise is the key.......2007-04-20
I think the book helps fill in the gaps (and we all have them) of knowledge in so many areas. I know I had a few Fridays when I could have payed closer attention in class. Now I don't feel so bad. On top of it, these guys are alot funnier than were any of my teachers.
Book Description
Marie Curie’s story has fascinated and inspired young readers
decades. The poor Polish girl who worked eight years to be able
to afford to attend the Sorbonne in Paris became one of the
most important scientists of her day, winning not one but two
Nobel Prizes. Her life is a fascinating one, filled with hard work,
humanitarianism, and tragedy. Her work with her husband,
Pierre – the study of radioactivity and the discovery of the
elements radium and polonium – changed science forever. But
she is less well known for her selfless efforts during World War
to establish mobile X-ray units so that wounded French soldiers
could get better care faster. When she stood to profit greatly
from her scientific work, she chose not to, making her methods
and findings known and available to all of science. As a result,
this famous woman spent most of her life in need of money,
often to buy the very elements she discovered.
Marie Curie’s life and work are given a fresh telling, one that
also explores the larger picture of the effects of radium in world
culture, and its exploitation and sad misuse.
Customer Reviews:
A great read!.......2007-09-28
I purchased this book for my grandniece, to demonstrate what women can achieve, and ended up reading it first. I loved how the author presented Marie Curie and her discoveries. I loved how she presented all of the hardships she encountered along the way, yet prevailed in her work. I learned a lot about Madam Curie from this very wonderful book. I hope my grandniece and other young girls will get inspiration from the story and the woman it is about.
Delightful Reading!.......2006-12-19
I always say that if all history-based textbooks were written like some of the best nonfiction books I've read in my day (ON THE REZ by Ian Frazier, FS&G, being one of them), then kids would gobble up history in school! Carla McClafferty's SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING is one of those books. It reads like a STORY, in a delightful but informative way that painlessly imparts the facts about Marie Curie and her life's work. I read it straight through, like I would an entertaining novel! I would recommend this book to kids looking for a biography to read--and to adults, too. Excellent job.
Radium: It slices. It dices........2006-10-17
The biography for children is rarely done well, if at all. It's too easy to take the life of someone famous, slap a few facts together, and then sell copies of your newest creation to countless school libraries around the country. When it comes to bios for small fry there are two modes of thought. Either you're going to do the least interesting, simplest biography (thereby boring both your child reader and yourself), or you're going to put some work into your creation and place the subject of your biography within the context of their times. Ms. Carla Killough McClafferty has opted for the latter. "Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium" starts slow and then builds and builds until you find yourself in a remarkable world of radium drinks, pills, and miracle cures. McClafferty is no stranger to the world of radiation, having penned a history of the X-Ray for kids before. Now she turns her sights to one of the greatest female scientists in the history of the world. From stage frightened Polish child, to Parisian researcher, to her death at the age of sixty-six, Marie Curie's life is propped before us with just the right combination of kid appeal and facts.
She was born a poor Polish girl on November 7, 1867. Smart from the start, Marie Curie, born Marya Sklodowska, dreamed of someday being given the chance to study at the University of Paris. After many years of saving and unpleasantness, she was able to come to France to fulfill this dream. While there, she met and married Pierre Curie and together the two of them set about discovering a couple elements and the true nature of that most mysterious of substances, radium. Author Carla McClafferty takes Marie's discoveries and counterpoints the rise in radium popularity with the high-profile Marie reluctantly had to adapt to. She was a celebrity of her time so that just as radium caught on with the public, so too did Marie's personal life. Remarkable in more ways than one, this is a story of a scientist who broke with convention to become extraordinary. This telling matches her in magnificence.
I admit that in my ignorance I didn't think there'd be much to say about Marie Curie in a book for kids. I mean, she grew up, married Pierre Curie, discovered radium, and died of radiation poisoning, right? I thought maybe Ms. McClafferty would have a chance to make a long book if she simply stretched out Marie's early life for as long as possible. So when I got to page 32 and found the book's subject already studying uranium rays, I couldn't help but yell at the narrator, "Slow down, McClafferty! There isn't much more to say! You're going too fast!" Of course, she wasn't. This book goes at exactly the right speed, never dwelling on a dull factoid or pulling to inordinate length a moment in Mrs. Curie's life that needed no stretching. And while I knew the basic "first woman" facts surrounding Marie, I had no idea what a great person she was as well. This is someone who refused to patent radium because she felt the element belonged to the world and not just the people who happened to find it. A woman who drove mobile X-ray units into war zones to aid doctors. Who named a new element Polonium after her beloved Poland. I knew none of this before and with McClafferty's snappy writing helping me along, I feel any kid that reads this book will learn so very much.
A couple years ago I had a chance to visit Minneapolis, Minnesota's now defunct Museum of Questionable Medical Devices. Besides the exhibits featuring ear candles and phrenology machines, there was a large section of the museum dedicated to the radium fads. It never would have occurred to me to think that Marie Curie had an indirect connection to the bottles of Radithor or the Revigator jars on display under glass cases. Even the Museum, though, didn't have half the fascinating items shown in photographs in this book. Radium was the original glow-in-the-dark paint, making everything from watch dials to crucifixes shine when the lights were low. The most frightening of all of these? The "Atomic `Bomb'" ring. Says the book, "You could see tiny flashes of light come and go as individual atoms of a radioactive material gave off energy and lit up the zinc sulfide in the ring." McClafferty knows to pepper her book with stuff of this nature, giving the book just the right amount of zing and zazz for the kiddies reading it.
One problem I do have with the book is that McClafferty doesn't really drill home the danger of all these radioactive consumer products. Take, once more, the Atomic Bomb ring. Was it really dangerous to kids or was it as harmless as the manufacturers said? Obviously McClafferty wouldn't be able to say just how harmful each and every product shown in this book was (there are, after all, quite a lot of them) but I would have liked a little clarification on a couple points. It isn't until we get to the end of the book that we learn exactly what it is that radium poisoning does to the human body. Even then, to what degree is radium outside of the body dangerous? We hear that when someone wants to view the original notebooks of the Curies they must, "sign a form releasing the library from responsibility for any `possible risks of radioactivity'". But to what extent would those notebooks be dangerous? A little more clarification on contact with radium without ingesting it would be welcome in this title.
And yet nothing eases my fears faster than an author who knows the importance of displaying their source materials. Right from the start a "Note to the Reader" explains why the author chose one spelling of Marya Sklodowska over another. Later on, Ms. McClafferty gives us copious Source Notes, a rather impressive Selected Bibliography, Illustration Credits, an Index, and (most impressive of all) a wonderful list of well-selected Recommended Web Sites. Kudos all around. What I want to get through to you is that this book is equal parts fun writing and great factual info. Sure it's chock full of great info about this great woman. But it also happens to be a gripping read and a great story to boot. Marie Curie appears here to be the kind of woman authors dream of writing biographies about. Ms. McClafferty just happened to be bright enough to tie in Mrs. Curie's life to the world around her and the fads that came about due to the radium hype. A great book and well worth adding to any and every collection in the country.
Easy To Read Fascinating Biography.......2006-06-08
I've always loved to read biographies. If you have a middle reader, you'll appreciate Something Out of Nothing. Carla McClafferty has combined solid research with excellent writing.
In the final pages of this book, she writes, "The life of Marie Curie demonstrates that one person can make a difference in the world. She overcame obstables of poverty, fear, depression, discrimination, personal grief, and public humiliation to accomplish groundbreaking scientific work."
The storytelling combined with photographs will make this a valuable book for any young reader. It's an ideal addition for any library or home.
Average customer rating:
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Pierre and Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radium (Uncharted, Unexplored, and Unexplained) (Uncharted, Unexplored, and Unexplained)
Kathleen Tracy
Manufacturer: Mitchell Lane Publishers
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Book Description
Marie and Pierre Curie remain two of the most important scientists of the 20th century. Their pioneering work in the study of radioactivity led to the discovery of the elements radium and polonium. Later, they identified how atoms give off, or radiate, energy which would be the foundation for modern nuclear physics.
But for as successful as they were as scientific partners, theirs was also a love story. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, Marie grew up in politically repressed Poland and suffered the loss of a sister and her mother as a young girl. Pierre enjoyed an idyllic childhood and was educated at home by his brother and father. Although their friendship was initially based on their shared passion for science and research, it soon grew into a romantic love that would lead them to a personal relationship and professional partnership that would literally change the world.
Book Description
The best-selling, "excellent…poignant—and scientifically lucid—portrait" (New York Times Book Review) of the remarkable Marie Curie.
The myth of Marie Curie—the penniless Polish immigrant who, through genius and obsessive persistence, endured years of toil and deprivation to produce radium, a luminous panacea for all the world's ills including cancer—has obscured the remarkable truth behind her discoveries. Curie's shrewd though controversial insight was that radioactivity was an atomic property that could be used to discover new elements. While her work won her two Nobel Prizes and transformed our world, it did not liberate her from the prejudices of either the male-dominated scientific community or society. Here is an all-too-human woman trying to balance science, love, and the family values that constitute her legacy.
Using original research (family interviews, diaries, letters, and workbooks that had been sealed for over sixty years) to peel away the layers of myth and reveal the woman behind the icon, the acclaimed author and historian Barbara Goldsmith offers a dazzling portrait of Curie, her amazing discoveries, and the price she paid for fame. 15 photographs. Reading group guide included.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderfully Demystifies Marie Curie.......2007-07-25
Growing up, I hung a picture of Marie Curie along with those of other scientists on a wall in our living room. Until I picked up this book, I was only briefly aware of her early struggles, nobel prizes and her scientific contributions. Like for many others, she has been my role model and inspired me to dream big and overcome many socio-economic hurdles.
With this book, I have rediscovered some of the Marie Curie I knew as a child, some images of Marie Curie as an ideal career woman have been shattered but I have been able to perceive the pieces of Marie Curie that I can choose to be or not be in my remaining life. This book is much more than a chronicle of one scientist's life- you will read about Marie's jealousy and meanness towards another leading woman scientist of her time, Lise Meitner, you will perhaps wonder whether everyone who has ever won the Nobel Prize deserved it and also whether some who did not ever win actually deserve it more. The craze and myth that came to surround Radium at that time will sound all too familiar for those keeping up with new technologies of our time.
This is a great book for everyone (wo/man, non-/scientist) who has ever been curious about Marie Curie and the people behind the evolving story of particle physics at that time.
Great read.......2007-03-26
I read this book for background on Marie Curie because I'm working on a project related to her - this book far surpassed my expectations. It was engaging, informative, and a great story.
Obsessive - Yes. Genius - Yes.......2007-02-01
The title is both descriptive, and very apt, for it sums up the story of this remarkable lady in two words. Barbara Goldsmith gets under the façade of Marie Curie, and gives some thoughtful insights into her life, and perhaps the reasons she worked in the way that she did. For, make no mistake, here was a very purposeful, driven lady.
Most would know Curie as a scientist, the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize (in 1903, jointly with her husband and Henri Becquerel) but also one of very few to have been awarded this accolade twice. Her second award was an individual award (after the untimely death of Pierre), announced just before a scandal broke in France concerning her relationship with another in the field of radioactivity. Goldsmith gives a more rounded picture than the usual view, concentrating both on her achievements, and her short-comings.
After her rise to prominence with the isolation of radium and polonium (named in honour of her homeland and beloved Poland), Curie was there to be shot at. She was successful, and she was a woman. Society delights in bringing such individuals down, but Curie's behaviour would have attracted scant attention in a man. Goldsmith goes some way to disentangling the woman from the myth, which was perversely a myth that Marie Curie deliberately fostered.
Curie is remembered for radium, but Goldsmith also highlights her contribution to the development of x-ray technology, particularly mobile x-ray in the First World War. She was also a noted peace activist, and a campaigner for women's rights, and is held aloft as an inspiration to women the world over. But Curie was intensely driven, at the expense of both her family, and those she worked with. A reader is also tempted to ask if Curie was aware of the dangers of radiation exposure, and if she was, would she have acted in the same way. Goldsmith does not ask this question directly, but leads readers to ask it for themselves. I would postulate that she would have acted in the same way, and was aware of some of the dangers, and still acted as she did.
Curie achieved remarkably results in spite of the fact that she was a woman. She had continually to overcome prejudice because of her ethnicity or gender. Goldsmith convinces me that it was not easy to work with this woman, or have her as a mother. Part of her legacy is that the elder of her two daughters was the second woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Even though this was after Marie Curie's death, Goldsmith intimates that she would not have been surprised or pleased. She would have expected it!
Obsessive. Yes. Genius. Yes. That sums up Marie Curie very well
Peter Morgan (morganp@supanet.com)
precise and brilliant!.......2006-10-08
I just have good words for this wonderful book. A concise book with just the information you need to know and a story, the real story of this remarkable woman. The life of Marie is kind of sad, but the accomplisment she made, outstanding. This books is also, a good portrait of the story of particles and radioactivity.
Obsessive Genius.......2006-04-17
Marie Curie tried to lead a private and austere life causing many myths to be formed around her life story. Many revered Curie for her remarkable work as a woman in a male-dominated science community, thereby causing people to see her as the ideal mother, wife, and scientist. Fans at the time went so far as to credit her with curing cancer. In her book, Obsessive Genius, Barbara Goldsmith sets the story straight using such sources as Curie's journal, accounts from friends and families, and old letters. Goldsmith shows the complexity behind the personality of the woman known for her discovery of radioactivity and the elements polonium and radium.
Born in Russian-occupied Poland, Marie Curie was raised by her parents who taught her dedication, a desire to learn, and strong patriotism towards Poland. Suffering from a lower social class, Marie struggled to teach herself in physics and chemistry before she finally had enough money to move to Paris where she enrolled in the Sorbonne as one of twenty three women in the School of Sciences. Throughout her career, Curie battled sexism which presented itself in critics of her work. In the late 1800's, Curie was studying Becquerrel rays when she discovered radioactivity, a new property that could be used to identify elements. At the same time she discovered two new elements. When the Nobel Prize was given for the discovery of radioactivity, it was originally suggested that it be given solely to Marie's husband and Henri Becquerrel and several scientists made claims that her polonium and radium were not elements but rather compounds. As Marie Curie's ideas were accepted, they paved the way for future discoveries concerning artificial radioactive elements and medical treatment. Scientists such as Lise Meitner, Neils Bohr, and Ernest Rutherford would use Curie's research as background for their own.
In presenting Curie's life story, Goldsmith clearly explains the science behind Curie's experiments as well as others at the time. She does not write her novel as a scientific and technical biography, but presents the story behind the superhero. This book is an easy read but fascinating at the same time. It gives a new appreciation for the difficulties in the science community particularly during this time period. I strongly recommend Obsessive Genius for anyone with any interest in Marie Curie or her discoveries.
Customer Reviews:
no title.......2005-11-28
I had mixed emotions on this book and so did many of the numerous reviews I read. While trying to celebrate Marie Curie in light of our feminist times - a motivating factor in the book's writing, I'm sure - the author spends far too little time on the actual physics of Curie's accomplishments and instead dwells on her love affair with a married collegue, on household matters, trivial matters of her everyday life that may make her seem more approachable to the book's readers, but do nothing to clarify her position in historical physics or her winning, jointly, the Nobel Prize, admittedly then in its infancy. I felt Curie to be an extremely passionate woman, both in her work and in her bed. But I wanted much more detail of the physics than was given.
Quinn: Marie Curie.......2005-08-06
This book has excellent historical information about Poland and Marie Curie's family before she was born and after. It gives a very good description of her life growing up and her family, as well as personal experiences gleaned from unpublished letters. It brings information hitherto unpublished about her personal life, and it presents her career in a fascinating way. I cannot rate the book highly enough.
For Mr. Howarth.......2005-03-31
Marie Curie A Life by Susan Quinn takes you on a journey as you discover the life of Marie Curie. From her difficult days under the Russian repression in Poland, to the sexism she faced in Paris, her two Nobel Peace Prizes, and the scandal that almost lost her everything. I especially liked this biography because it was to the point and it did not over glorify Marie's life. The fact of the matter is that Marie's life was full of hardships and this book depicts all of them. I think the author wanted to write this story because she wanted to depict the life of Marie Curie who was an inspiration to several women, and who contributed a great deal to the scientific community. I believe that the author however, wanted to portray her in a real light, so while other biographies might be a little bit more glamorous this one is more realistic. This is an extremely fascinating biography and you should read it because it shows how Marie's life was filled with obstacles, and how she overcame them all.
A wonderful history of Poland as well as a biography.......2003-03-04
Susan Quinn does a wonderful job of describing the hurdles that Curie's family had to overcome during the occupation of Poland by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The interesting fact is that all of her siblings were bright and well educated despite the denial of public education. Reading this book has been a delightful experience.
Marie Curie.......2003-02-05
This book did an very good job in explaining the science of Marie Curie to the average reader, However it's not a book I would read for fun. This book was long and tedious with extensive descriptions of things that often seemed almost completely unrelated to her life and work. If you're looking for a book that will make you like who Marie Curie was this is not it. It depicts her as cold, aloof and almost neglectful of her children. It also seems to end abrubtly. There isn't a conclusion of any sort to a book that goes on for 433 pages.If you need to know about her life and work this book certainly does a more than adequate job in covering it, but it's a long slow read that you have to force yourself through in parts of it.
Book Description
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Customer Reviews:
Good book for young readers.......2002-10-18
This is an interesting book and I liked it a lot. I think that this book is one of the best for beginning readers because it is not only easy to read, it is informative and interesting. I highly recommend this book.
Book Description
The Human Chain Reaction That Led To The Atom Bomb
On December 26, 1898, Marie Curie announced the discovery of radium and observed that "radioactivity seems to be an atomic property." A mere 47 years later, "Little Boy"exploded over Hiroshima. Before the Fallout is the epic story of the intervening half century, during which an exhilarating quest to unravel the secrets of the material world revealed how to destroy it, and an open, international, scientific adventure transmuted overnight into a wartime sprint for the bomb.
Weaving together history, science, and biography, Diana Preston chronicles a human chain reaction of scientists and leaders whose discoveries and decisions forever changed our lives. The early decades of the 20th century brought Einstein's relativity theory, Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus, and Heisenberg's quantum mechanics, and scientists of many nations worked together to tease out the secrets of the atom. Only 12 years before Hiroshima, one leading physicist dismissed the idea of harnessing energy from atoms as "moonshine." Then, on the eve of World War II, the power of atomic fission was revealed, alliances were broken, friendships sundered, and science co-opted by world events.
Preston interviewed the surviving scientists, and she offers new insight into the fateful wartime meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr, along with a fascinating conclusion examining what might have happened had any number of events occurred differently. She also provides a rare portrait of Hiroshima before the blast.
As Hiroshima's 60th anniversary approaches, Before the Fallout compels us to consider the threats and moral dilemmas we face in our still dangerous world.
Customer Reviews:
The Dawn of the Nuclear Age .......2007-04-24
BEFORE THE FALLOUT: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima
--By Diana Preston Reviewed by Philip Henry
"My God, What have we done?"
With those words, the crew of the "Enola Gay" summed up their feelings after dropping the A-Bomb that obliterated Hiroshima. The history of the Atomic (and later, Hydrogen) bomb permeates the history of the past century: from 1895, when Roentgen discovered the X-Ray, through the pioneering experiments of Einstein, Edward Teller, J. Robert Oppenheimer; Leo Szilard (the often-overlooked main ingredient in the Manhattan Project) through efforts to control nuclear proliferation and the Cold War.
That's a lot of ground to cover, but in "Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima" Diana Preston attempts, and to a large degree succeeds, in doing so.
While Richard Rhodes' monumental two-volume history (The Atomic Bomb, and "Dark Sun") will remain the Industry Standard for the nuclear history cottage industry, Preston has done an admirable job of encapsulating the excitement, paranoia, and regrets of the Nuclear Founders.She does an excellent job of giving credit where credit is due to some of the neglected major players in the drama: Leo Szilard, who was prescient about the political and military consequences of nuclear energy; Werner Heisenberg, who directed the Nazi nuclear project although he wasn't a Nazi; and Niels Bohr.
The tension between J.Robert Oppenheim, the brilliant physicist (he got his PhD at 22) and developed the Black Holes in space theory) and Edward Teller is the material for books that stand on their own in reporting it: "American Prometheus", for one.
This is fascinating stuff for all of us: those in "The Greatest Generation" who fought WWII; those of us in the Baby Boomer generation who grew up under the shadow of the bomb and remember "duck and cover" drills in elementary school; and the Public Leaders who should read, and digest, this material CAREFULLY!
My only reservations are the speculative "What If's" that she includes in her Epilogue. Sure, its fascinating to speculate on what might have happened if Hitler had used the intellectual genius of Heisenberg and others to build the bomb.. but he didn't.
I give this four and a half stars.
History....even the history of science... is inherently about people.......2006-08-19
Diana Preston combines the exciting story of the individuals responsible for the scientific discoveries of Atomic Energy with the race for the Atomic Bomb. She traces the fifty year journey of discoveries which culminated in Hiroshima's destruction. The book is one of biography, science (well told and easy to understand), and the history of this unique quest for knowledge. The book is a broad overview of the subject which along the way presents material that surely could be expanded into many different books and even a few movies. For example the story of the two attempts to destroy the Nazi's Norwegian source of Heavy Water reads like the film "The Guns of Navarone".
I have had the pleasure to meet Diana Preston and hear her speak at the Los Angeles Times Book Fair. She is a regular attendee. I have read all but her first book and have felt her "Lusitania" her greatest achievement but this, her newest, is just as wonderful.
The book is well organized and has many characters that you find easy to follow via each mini biography throughout the narrative. The book ends with really two epilogues. (I do like a good epilog too.) The first tells what happened to each participant after WWII and the last is a "what if" analysis this is most interesting as it puts many of the events in the book into a broad context and points out the individual difference each scientist made. I just loved Preston's comment at the end of the book... "History....even the history of science... is inherently about people, how they thought, what they did with their thoughts, and how they interacted with the individuals immediately around them and then with society and the greater world order. All involved in this story....regardless of race, sex. creed, age, or intellectual ability... had the potential to act individually. In thinking about history but, above all, about the future, we should not depersonalize situations but remember our individual responsibility for them and the consequences fro others." I know you will find this book amazing even if you feel the subject might be dry and to scientific. (High Schools please add this one to your required reading list.)
Diana Preston has done it again!.......2006-02-17
Since reading Lusitania three years ago, I have devoured every Diana Preston book that I can get my hands on. I wasn't sure that I would enjoy Before the Fallout as much as the others since science is not my specialty, but once again her book has totally captured my attention. The way Preston weaves the history with the science (but not too technical) with the personal lives of the people involved is fascinating. Certainly the development of the atomic bomb is one of the defining events of our lifetime, and the story behind that event as told by Diana Preston is so intriguing that I would recommend this book to anyone! My only disappointment is that now that I'm done, I'm going to have to wait awhile for her next book!
An Overview for the Layperson.......2006-01-06
"Before the Fallout", while lacking the technical detail presented in Richard Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", presents some interesting personality sketches (the degree to which these are subjective remains unresolved). Preston presents an interesting collection of missed opportunities on the road to the discovery of fission. One may be left with the feeling that body of the book serves only as a platform for the epilogue and its litany of "what if"s.
The Biggest Story of the Twentieth Century.......2005-09-16
I saw Diana Preston on CNN Book TV, lecturing about her book, presented on the day of the 60th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bomb. That day, several author's were featured who had written books on the atomic bomb. She is a brilliant speaker and a superb author. My vocabulary has been expanded as a result of reading this book.
This is a big story, of mythic proportions. I've always been drawn to the story of the Manhattan Project and the events of World War II. Preston does a thorough job describing all the of characters involved in the science leading up to the making of atomic bomb. Before reading this book, I had some vague recollection about Einstein's involvement. Now I know the real players, and how Einstein was used merely for his "star power" to get an introduction to the President.
There has been a lot of second guessing about the decision to use the atomic bomb. Preston concludes her book with a "What If?" chapter, getting into questions like this.
My one complaint is I feel that Preston did not give proper coverage to the combat experience of the battles in the Pacific - Okinawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Tarawa. The book to read is "The Story of World War II" by Miller and Commanger. In that book, I was overwhelmed by the personal narratives of those who fought in the Pacific. The gruesome facts of that war are something most Americans were shielded from. Preston's book lacks the passion that Miller's book conveyed of the difficult combat conditions and the overall feeling of futility experienced by the soldiers, both American and Japanese. In this one sense, I was a little disappointed in the political correctness of her "What If?" chapter.
She did provided a famous passage from a 21 year old second lieutenant that bears worth repeating:
"When the bomb dropped and the news began to circulate that the invasion of Japan would not, after all, take place, that we would not be obliged to run up the beaches near Tokyo assualt-firing while being mortared and shelled...We were going to live. We were going to grow up to adulthood after all."
Also, she relates that, ironically, some of the Japanese authorities felt that the use of bomb may have saved Japanese lives, by giving Emporer Hirohito a reason, justifiable in his mind, to surrender. To my own thinking, the bomb must have been so incredible - so "Godzilla" like - that it was something that Hirohito could bow down to and admit defeat. It was an enemy that equalled his own ego.
In political matters such as this, there are no "right answers". There only a "pile of rights" versus a "pile of wrongs".
And parents: This book is a GREAT READ FOR PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY STUDENTS!
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Marie Curie: Pioneer Physicist (People of Distinction Biographies)
Carol Greene
Manufacturer: Childrens Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding
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ASIN: 0516032038 |
Customer Reviews:
Amazing.......2000-12-10
I love this book! I had to do a project on Marie Curie and this helped me a lot! I love how she was a women physicist and how brave she was. And to be one of the first physicists, wow. I think this woman rocks!
Book Description
Challenging, controversial, and frequently eloquent musings from an impressive, `all-history' lineup of groundbreaking scientists and philosophers.
Those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely go as far as fact. --Thomas Henry Huxley
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New Elements: The Story of Marie Curie (Profiles in Science)
Della Yannuzzi
Manufacturer: Morgan Reynolds Publishing
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Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 1599350238 |
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