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
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
Mission and Money goes beyond the common focus on eliteuniversities and examines the entire higher education industry,including the rapidly growing for-profit schools. The sectorincludes research universities, four-year colleges, two-yearschools, and non-degree-granting career academies. Manyinstitutions pursue mission-related activities that are oftenunprofitable and engage in profitable revenue raising activities tofinance them. This book contains a good deal of original researchon schools' revenue sources from tuition, donations, research,patents, endowments, and other activities. It considers lobbying,distance education, and the world market, as well as advertising,branding, and reputation. The pursuit of revenue, while essentialto achieve the mission of higher learning, is sometimes in conflictwith that mission itself. The tension between mission and money isalso highlighted in the chapter on the profitability ofintercollegiate athletics. The concluding chapter investigatesimplications of the anal
