Benjamin Franklin : An American Life Editorial Reviews Benjamin Franklin, writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a formal portrait. What's more, Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege. That broadly democratic sensibility allowed Franklin his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, Franklin wasn't shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn't shy from enumerating Franklin s occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keepi

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Growing Up: Stories about Growing Up, Meeting Challenges, and Learning from Life Editorial Reviews About the Author Jack Canfield is co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which includes forty New York Times bestsellers, and coauthor of The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. He is a leader in the field of personal transformation and peak performance and is currently CEO of the Canfield Training Group and Founder and Chairman of the Board of The Foundation for Self-Esteem. An internationally renowned corporate trainer and keynote speaker, he lives in Santa Barbara, California. Mark Victor Hansen is a co-founder of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Product Details Series: Chicken Soup for the Soul Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul; 1 edition (July 29, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 193509601X ISBN-13: 978-1935096016 Product

Society Of Mind 内容简介 Marvin Minsky -- one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT -- gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?" Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter -- on a self-contained page -- corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination. 编辑推荐 For some artificial intelligence researchers, Minsky's book is too far removed from hard science to be useful. For others, the high-level approach of The Society of Mind makes it a gold mine of ideas waiting to be implemented. The author, one of the undisputed

The Second Curve: Thoughts on Reinventing Society 内容简介 Charles Handy is one of the giants of contemporary thought. His books on management including Understanding Organizations and Gods of Management have changed the way we view business. His work on broader issues and trends such as Beyond Certainty has changed the way we view society. In The Second Curve, Handy builds on a life's work to glimpse into the future and see what challenges and opportunities lie ahead. He looks at current trends in capitalism and asks whether it is a sustainable system. He explores the dangers of a society built on credit. He challenges the myth that remorseless growth is essential. He even asks whether we should rethink our roles in life as students, parents, workers and voters and what the aims of an ideal society of the future should be. Provocative and thoughtful as ever, he sets out the questions we all need to ask ourselves and points us in the direction of some of the a

Over the last two decades, free markets have swept the globe,bringing with them enormous potential for positive change. Buttraditional capitalism cannot solve problems like inequality andpoverty, because it is hampered by a narrow view of human nature inwhich people are one-dimensional beings concerned only with profit.In fact, human beings have many other drives and passions,including the spiritual, the social and the altruistic. Welcome tothe world of social business, where the creative vision of theentrepreneur is applied to today's most serious problems: feedingthe poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick and protecting theplanet."Creating a World Without Poverty" tells the stories of someof the earliest examples of social business, including Yunus' ownGrameen Bank. It reveals the next phase in a hopeful economic andsocial revolution that is already under way - and in the worldwideeffort to eliminate poverty by unleashing the productive energy ofevery human being.

Facing down mercenaries in Africa, Jason Bourne witnesses thedeath of an art dealer named Tracy Atherton. Her killing dredges upsnatches of Bourne's impaired memory, in particular the murder of ayoung woman on Bali who entrusted him with a strangely engravedring??-an artifact of such powerful significance that people havekilled to obtain it. Now he's determined to find the ring's ownerand purpose. But Bourne never knows what terrible acts he'lldiscover he committed when he digs into the past. The trail will lead him through layers of conspiracy to a viciousRussian mercenary, Leonid Arkadin, who was also a graduate of theCentral Intelligence training program Treadstone. A covert coursedesigned to create ruthless assassins for C.I., it was shuttered byCongress for corruption. Yet before it was dismantled, it producedBourne and Arkadin, giving them equal skills, equal force, andequal cunning. As Bourne's destiny circles closer to Arkadin's, it becomes clearthat the eventual collision of these

This book answers the most obvious, the most important, yet the most difficult question about human history: why history unfolded so differently on different continents. Geography and biography, not race, moulded the contrasting fates of Europeans, Asians, Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, and aboriginal Australians. An ambitious synthesis of history, biology, ecology and linguistics, Guns, Germs and Steel is one of the most important and humane works of popular science.

A great master of the early Renaissance, Piero della Francescacre-ated paintings for ecclesiastics, confraternities, andillustriousnobles throughout the Italian peninsula. Since the earlytwentiethcentury, the rational space, abstract designs, lucidillumination,and naturalistic details of his pictures haveattracted a wide audi-ence. Piero's treatises on mathematics andperspective also fasci-nate scholars in a wide range ofdisciplines. The Cambridge Com-panion to Piero della Francescabrings together new essays thatoffer a synthesis and overview ofPiero's life and accomplishmentsas a painter and theoretician. Theyexplore a variety of themesassociated with the artist's career,including the historical and reli-gious circumstances surroundingPiero's altarpieces and frescoes;the politics underlying hisportraits; the significance of clothing inhis paintings; theinfluence of his theories on perspective andmathematics; and theartist's enduring fascination for modernpainters and writers.

The bestselling author and psychologist whose books havetopped 240,000 copies in print now addresses the trait of “highsensitivity” in children–and offers a breakthrough parentingguidebook for highly sensitive children and their caregivers. With the publication of The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aronbecame the first person to identify the inborn trait of “highsensitivity” and to show how it affects the lives of those whopossess it. Up to 20 percent of the population is born highlysensitive, and now in The Highly Sensitive Child, Aron shifts herfocus to highly sensitive children, who share the samecharacteristics as highly sensitive adults and thus face uniquechallenges as they grow up. Rooted in Aron’s years of experience as a psychotherapist and heroriginal research on child temperament, The Highly Sensitive Childshows how HSCs are born deeply reflective, sensitive to the subtle,and easily overwhelmed. These qualities can make for smart,conscientious, creative children, but with the wr