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

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.

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw anextraordinary flowering of arts and culture in Germany whichproduced many of the world's finest writers, artists, philosophersand composers. This volume offers students and specialists anauthoritative introduction to that dazzling cultural phenomenon,now known collectively as German Romanticism. Individual chaptersnot only introduce the reader to individual writers such asFriedrich Schlegel, Novalis, Eichendorff, Heine, Hoffmann, Kleist,Schiller and Tieck, but also treat key concepts of Romantic music,painting, philosophy, gender and cultural anthropology, science andcriticism in concise and lucid language. All German quotations aretranslated to make this volume fully accessible to a wide audienceinterested in how Romanticism evolved across Europe. Briefbiographies and bibliographies are supplemented by a list ofprimary and secondary further reading in both English andGerman.

Join the world's hottest pop star on his rollercoaster ride tosuperstardom!plus FREE wall poster, just for you! His debut albumhas already gone platinum. He's sung for the President of theUnited States. His screaming fans have stormed TV studios and shutdown shopping malls. Justin Bieber is a global superstar and now,for the first time ever, he's going to tell all in his very ownbook. Justin's story is the stuff that every kid dreams of. Growingup an only child in Ontario, Canada, Justin had a natural talentfor music; he was forever singing around the house and taughthimself to play drums, guitar, piano and trumpet. He entered alocal singing competition and despite not having had any vocalcoaching, Justin came second aged only 12 years old. But it waswhen he posted homemade pop videos on YouTube that Justin's dreamsreally came true: the videos quickly became a word-of-mouthsensation, garnering an astonishing 10 million hits. Months later,Justin was spotted by top music manager Scooter Braun who laterjoined f