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 Introduction - an indispensable 'how to' guide forstudents and teachers alike - investigates the methods and aims ofhistorical study in the performing arts, from archival research tohistorical writing. Beginning with case studies on Shakespeareantheatre and avant-garde theatre, this study examines fundamentalprocedures and problems in documentary history and culturalhistory. It demonstrates how historians not only construct variouskinds of performance events but also place them in relation to thehistorical agents, the political and social conditions, artistictraditions, audience responses, and historical periods. Drawingupon scholarship in classics, literary studies, art history,performance studies, and general history, Postlewait shows how toask appropriate historical questions, construct evidence, use playsas historical documents, eliminate faulty sources, challengeunreliable witnesses, and develop historical arguments andnarratives. The book concludes with a survey of the 'twelve cruxes'of rese
This Companion is an essential guide to all aspects of the organand its music. It examines in turn the instrument, the player andthe repertoire. The early chapters tell of the instrument's historyand construction, identify the scientific basis of its sounds andthe development of its pitch and tuning, examine the history of theorgan case, and consider the current trends and conflicts withinthe world of organ building. Central chapters investigate thepractical art of learning and playing the organ, introduce thecomplex area of performance practice, and outline the relationshipbetween organ playing and the liturgy of the church. The finalsection explores the vast repertoire of organ music, focusing on aselection of the most important traditions.
Learn how to hot-pepper marmalade and make homemade itching powder and whoopee cushions among other time-tested pranks in this charming little book.
The philosophy of Immanuel Kant is thewatershed of modern thought, which irrevocably changed thelandscape of the field and prepared the way for all the significantphilosophical movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.This 2006 volume, which complements The Cambridge Companion toKant, covers every aspect of Kant's philosophy, with a particularfocus on his moral and political philosophy. It also providesdetailed coverage of Kant's historical context and of the enormousimpact and influence that his work has had on the subsequenthistory of philosophy. The bibliography also offers extensive andorganized coverage of both classical and recent books on Kant. Thisvolume thus provides the broadest and deepest introductioncurrently available on Kant and his place in modern philosophy,making accessible the philosophical enterprise of Kant to thosecoming to his work for the first time.
Some of the most innovative and spell-binding literature hasbeen written for young people, but only recently has academic studyembraced its range and complexity. This Companion offers astate-of-the-subject survey of English-language children'sliterature from the seventeenth century to the present. Withdiscussions ranging from eighteenth-century moral tales to modernfantasies by J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman, the Companionilluminates acknowledged classics and many more neglected works.Its unique structure means that equal consideration can be given toboth texts and contexts. Some chapters analyse key themes and majorgenres, including humour, poetry, school stories, and picturebooks. Others explore the sociological dimensions of children'sliterature and the impact of publishing practices. Written byleading scholars from around the world, this Companion will beessential reading for all students and scholars of children'sliterature, offering original readings and new research thatreflects the latest dev
Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail (英语) 精装 内容简介 Winner of the 2015 James Beard Award for Best Beverage Book and the 2015 IACP Jane Grigson Award. A revolutionary approach to making better-looking, better-tasting drinks. In Dave Arnold s world, the shape of an ice cube, the sugars and acids in an apple, and the bubbles in a bottle of champagne are all ingredients to be measured, tested, and tweaked. With Liquid Intelligence, the creative force at work in Booker Dax, New York City s high-tech bar, brings readers behind the counter and into the lab. There, Arnold and his collaborators investigate temperature, carbonation, sugar concentration, and acidity in search of ways to enhance classic cocktails and invent new ones that revolutionize your expectations about what a drink can look and taste like. Years of rigorous experimentation and study―botched attempts and inspired solutions―have yielded the recipes and techniques found i
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.