Book Description
Before Barry Bonds, before Reggie Jackson, before Hank Aaron, baseball's stars had one undeniable trait in common: they were all white. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke that barrier, striking a crucial blow for racial equality and changing the world of sports forever. I Never Had It Made is Robinson's own candid, hard-hitting account of what it took to become the first black man in history to play in the major leagues.
I Never Had It Made recalls Robinson's early years and influences: his time at UCLA, where he became the school's first four-letter athlete; his army stint during World War II, when he challenged Jim Crow laws and narrowly escaped court martial; his years of frustration, on and off the field, with the Negro Leagues; and finally that fateful day when Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers proposed what became known as the "Noble Experiment" -- Robinson would step up to bat to integrate and revolutionize baseball.
More than a baseball story, I Never Had It Made also reveals the highs and lows of Robinson's life after baseball. He recounts his political aspirations and civil rights activism; his friendships with Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, William Buckley, Jr., and Nelson Rockefeller; and his troubled relationship with his son, Jackie, Jr.
Originally published the year Robinson died, I Never Had It Made endures as an inspiring story of a man whose heroism extended well beyond the playing field.
Customer Reviews:
A moving story of one of the great athletes and men of the century........2006-12-29
I read this book when I did a research paper on Jackie Robinson in 11th grade English class back in 2003. It was a great autobiography and I couldn't put the book down. Not only tells the story of the man as a baseball player, but it tells how he struggled being a "black man in a white world." If you are interested in baseball, civil rights, or even just want to read a good book and learn more about the time, I highly recommend this book.
Best Baseball Autobiography Ever!.......2006-09-10
This was just dynamite. Jackie holds nothing back. I've read a lot of baseball books, and I've read a lot of autobiographies. This was hands-down the best, period! If you only want to read about his baseball accomplishments, go elsewhere. He covers his entire life, and there was a lot more than just baseball. The incidents from other episodes of his life serve to quantify what an advocate he was, and how difficult it was to take the abuse heaped upon him in his first two seasons with the Dodgers without responding. Bravo to a well-lived life, Jackie!
WOW.......2006-01-11
The autobiography of Jackie Robinsons Life "I never had it made" was an inspiring book to not stop trying. I enjoyed this book as a learner of the old ages and as a young fan of baseball. Jackie inspired millions of African Americans to do what they always have dreamed of doing. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars was because I thought they talked too much about his life after he retired from baseball. The book talks about the hardships Jackie went through and the journey he made to become such a phenomenal athlete and role model. Some of the people that Jackie worked with were greats known as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. After retirement Jackie opens up his own charities and organizations to help the not so fortunate African Americans of today's society. I recommend this book to anyone that has trouble with their self-confidence because this book makes you appreciate your life more. Unfortunately Jackie will be remembered just because of his baseball accomplishments and not what he did off the field.
thank you Jackie for your grace .......2006-01-04
They say to whom much is given, much is expected. In Jackie's case he didn't ask to take on this feat- but nonetheless he accepted the mission and gave it his all- and succeeded- perhaps at the expense of his own personal life and serenity. This man had a huge task and he never shirked when it seemed to be insurmountable...the crux of the challenge was that jackie was told that he would be up against jeering crowds, small minds, hostile people that would do their best to get his goat- and that it was imperative that jackie did not resist and defend- and he upheld his end of the bargain.Jackie shows us all the high road.I am no sports fan but I did love this book- because it is about focus, strength and grace in the face of opposition, and a trailblazer personality that lit the way for many many people.
Not for everyone.......2005-08-03
I bought this book to learn more about Jackie Robinson's baseball career. I assumed that would be the major focus. Unfortunately, by the time the book is half-way through, Jackie has retired from baseball and moved on to other things.
The rest of the book focuses on Jackie's various projects, jobs, associations, etc, mainly revolving around civil rights issues. There are a couple of heartbreaking chapters that detail the issues he had with his son, Jackie Jr.
All-in-all, this is worth reading but not quite what I was looking for.
Average customer rating:
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I Never Had It Made,
Jackie Robinson
Manufacturer: Putnam Publishing Group
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ASIN: 0399110100 |
Book Description
In the middle of the last century, Norbert Wiener-ex-child prodigy and brilliant MIT mathematician -founded the science of cybernetics, igniting the information-age explosion of computers, automation, and global telecommunications. Wiener was the first to articulate the modern notion of "feedback," and his ideas informed the work of computer pioneer John von Neumann, information theorist Claude Shannon, and anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. His best-selling book, Cybernetics, catapulted him into the public spotlight, as did his chilling visions of the future and his ardent social activism. So what happened? Why is his work virtually unknown today? And what, in fact, is Wiener's legacy? In this remarkable book, award-winning journalists Conway and Siegelman set out to rescue Wiener's genius from obscurity and to explore the many ways in which his groundbreaking ideas continue to shape our lives. Based on a wealth of primary sources (including some newly declassified WW II and Cold War-era documents) and exclusive interviews with Wiener's family and closest colleagues, the book reveals an extraordinarily complex figure, whose high-pressure childhood, manic depression, and troubled relationships had a profound effect on his scientific work. No one interested in the intersection of technology and culture will want to miss this epic story of one of the twentieth century's most brilliant and colorful figures.
Customer Reviews:
100,000% Shovelware.......2007-08-18
From a historical and economic and sociological perspective, this book is utter propaganda.
For example, from page 340, "To date, India's engineers and entrepreneurs have had the most success following the path Wiener chartered for their country's advancement, and while their numbers are still small compared to the whole of their population, they are reaping many of the benefits Weiner envisioned without the drawbacks of older models of industrialization."
WHAT A F--KING JOKE!!! I'm dying of laughter!
There is categorically no relationship between India's newfound economic success and Norbert Wiener. None. Na-da. Nothing. Zip-0!
And that was just a single sentence from this text. Just imagine what else lurks in 400 pages of writing from what are two absolute fools. Flo conway and Jim siegelman are the stupidest writers ever!
A tale of what might have been.......2007-06-02
My own introduction to Wiener was through the extraordinary insight and published works of Stafford Beer (acknowledged by Wiener as the inventor of Management Cybernetics). Beers insights into Industrial Engineering, Operations Research and Management Cybernetics, seem to have more and more relevance for managers, as the world we live in becomes more and more complex.
I am of the opinion that Cybernetics provides a Philosophical and Technical Framework that helps to explain why the widely practiced and innovative business-improvement approach of Lean - Six Sigma has been so successful.
This is what Beer had to say about Wieners seminal text on Cybernetics "Difficult, quixotic, immensely stimulating (then and now), Cybernetics split the scientific world (for those who read it) down the middle. Think of it like this: the great man (he really was) holds forth to his friends after dinner, ruins the tablecloth by scribbling mathematics all over it, sings a little song in German, and changes your life. It is tough going; you have to stay the night"
Beers review grabbed my attention and encouraged me to learn more about Wiener; and then a couple of years ago I was troubled by the following review from the prolific, oftentimes, acerbic polymath Cosmo Rohilla Shalizi A Professor Of Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University - . "A science which seems to have dissolved into the others. A lot of good science was done under this banner; it just doesn't seem to hold together ......As a study of abstract machines in general, it becomes identical with dynamics, or computation theory, or some amalgam of both; algebra, even. As a more limited science of "communication and control" it suffers from the fact that communication and control in animals is, when you get down to blood and guts, rather different from communication and control in machines, and neither resembles the mechanisms of C&C in society..... It may be that we haven't exhausted the potential of a science of communication and control, but I think at this point the burden of proof would be on the optimists. Dissolved? Not entirely. There's an old joke that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate, and not everything associated with cybernetics has gone into solution. Caked on the bottom of the reaction vessel we find: A prefix which seems indispensible to marketroids; the occasion for a great deal of vaporizing in the social sciences and humanities; and a peculiarly navel-gazing sub-sect of systems theory, which isn't exactly God's gift to the advancement of learning in the first place."
Clearly Cosmo is no ones fool. Are, those of us who still think that the work of Wiener and Beer is relevant for today's problems, really part of a peculiar naval gazing sect?
As far as Management Cybernetics is concerned, irrespective of what old Cosmo thinks, Management Cybernetics really does provide all of us who deal with systems and organisations - I guess that's every one of us - with insightful and practical solutions for managing complexity. Beer like his mentor Wiener has been a neglected and oftentimes maligned prophet - just look at his poor reviews on this site. Management Cybernetics is, however, very much alive and well. One of the fastest growing consultancies in Europe, and a much respected competitor to my own practice - The Malik Group in Switzerland - have built their business model on cybernetic principles and are providing truly innovative solutions for their blue chip clients. Interestingly they have people with the title cybernetician on the pay role - Norbert still rules as far as they are concerned!
As for Cybernetics contribution to main stream science - Cosmo is, sadly, correct. In mainstream academia Cybernetics has been largely subsumed by other disciplines. But, until I read this book it puzzled me why. Why, given the impressive start and promising march towards becoming a truly systemic and integrative scientific discipline, was Cybernetics stopped dead in its tracks?
Conway and Siegleman's provide us with the answer to this question, and, by the way, it has absolutely nothing to do with science or logic!
Hopefully their tale will leave you, as it did me, with a profound sense of what might have been, had cybernetics progressed in line with the Philosophy and Vision of the Original Knights of Circular Causality.
This is a brilliant biography.
Dark Hero of the Information Age recounts his life and discoveries - and the consequences of his discoveries........2006-11-06
Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Nortbert Wiener the Father of Cybernetics tells of an ex-child prodigy and MIT mathematician who founded cybernetics - and then spent the rest of his life warning the world of the consequences of the new technologies he helped foster. Surprisingly, his works and his warnings are relatively unknown today - despite the fact many of his concerns and predictions came true. Dark Hero of the Information Age recounts his life and discoveries - and the consequences of his discoveries.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
superbly researched and quite interesting.......2006-08-10
Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman have put an immense effort into writing an exhaustive review of Norbert Wiener, one of the great geniuses of the last century. Wiener spoke an ungodly number of languages, got his PhD from Harvard at the age of 19, made immense contributions to mathematics, biology, computer sciences, medicine, political thought - even in McCarthy's heyday he had no qualms about speaking his mind -, etc, etc.
As generally is the case with biographies of Wunderkinder, the authors ultimately are not equal to their subjects, not for lack of effort, but for lack of having the intellect necessary to understand and do justice to an über-prodigy. And so it is with this book; rather than to analyze and judge Wiener's various accomplishments and beliefs, which range from phenomenal scientific accomplishments to believing that he had been reincarnated, the authors prefer to "tell it as it was" and let the reader draw his or her conclusions.
Despite these inevitable limitations, this book is well worth reading, albeit thoughtfully.
I was there as Prof. Weiner's Student.......2005-10-11
When I first saw the title "Dark Hero of ...." I had to chuckle with the image it engendered of Norbert, dressed in a floppy Batman constume, goutee, thick glassed over his mask which of course hid his identy waddling down the corridors of Building 2, fighting crime in Tauberian Theorems.
The authors wrote a magnificent opus on a great man who, in today's environment, would have been classified as a victim of child abuse. Their facts and presentation carried me back to that era. But, I am uncomfortable with the intensionality that the term 'Dark' might leave in the reader so grant me the right to give an added facet.
As a senior at MIT during the 1959-1960 semesters I had the honor working with Weiner. Up front, my review arises from an unabashed gratitude and affection for a man whose influence and help were instrumental for all the good things that later transpired in my life over the last 45 years.
One day in the fall of 1959 I was walking near Weiner's office after having come out of Dirk Struik's office from a discussion of an item in the Advanced Tensor Analysis course I was taking from him. Just as I was passing by his office the classical Norbert Weiner yelled out " young man, can you come in and finish the calculations on the board". Honestly, I was totally naive and did not know anything about him except having seen him in the corridors.
"Sure" I said. As I entered the office he walked out. There on the dusty chalk board were a facsimile of a spread sheet, with rows of numbers scribbled across the board. I could not admit that I had no idea what the numbers represented, let alone what I was to do. Ego is a wonderful goad for creative problem solving. Seeing a number that looked like the sine of 30 degrees I quickly deciphered that the alternating lines were discrete values of the sine function, the parallel lines were filled with some varying numbers from a seemingly smooth function, and the next line looked like some multiplication/ addition of both. Norman Levinson's course in Complex Anaylsis came to the rescue. Weiner was performing a discrete fast Fourier Transform. Ten minutes later Weiner came in and saw that I had almost completed the spread sheet.
Looking over his glasses he asked "What are you doing here?". "Helping you, Professor" I responded, startled. "Can you come back tomorrow for some more work?" "Sure"
It turned out that he was perfroming a spectral analysis on a section of EEG readings Dr. John Barlow had given Weiner.
I eventually had to hand read the red graph and number the amplitudes. The picture appears in CYBERNTETICS 2nd edition.
One Saturday he directed me to "sit down and write". After a few lines I had the timerity to inquire what the heck was I doing.
His answer: "I'm dictating the upgrade to my book CYBRENETICS". My mistake was to inform him that I could touch type. Zap! Three hours later I threw in the towel. From then on, after math classes I would be sitting typing and learning more ideas and mathematical insight than any of the past 3.5 years. Note, no word processor, no electric type writer. The old fashioned finger toughening for Karate thrust kind.
My many mistaken sheets were then handed over to Weiner's secretary who produced a finished draft.
When the galleys came out I, among many others, reviewed and corrected them.
Weiner informed me that he considered "his students as colleagues" and he gave me the honor and respect that it entailed.
I noticed over the years that the truly great and self assured, including Doc Edgerton in Electric Engineering, treated with respect f those 'under' them. The not so great and their undeserved pomposity are legion in all walks of life.
A few vignettes of his Puckish sense of humor which were seen quite often are in order.
One Saturday, Weiner, who had to check his urine for sugar, came into the office to check it. "Good, all is well", he smiled, "Here, take it and dispose of it".
My response was as brash as anything I had ever done "Prof. Weiner, I have the deepest respect for you. I have had my rump fall asleep while tying your manuscript for hours. But, you take your G.. D....d sample yourelf"
Weiner burst out in laughter "Well, I tried." and waddled off. I just keeled over with laughter.
Weiner was subject to many folks who came to 'worship at his feet' and try to have him help on hair brained schemes.
Once such soul came in one day and proceded to blather. Norbert rose, took him by the elbow with a "I know someone who will really be able to help you", and dumped into Struick's office. From across the hall we heard Struik's Dutch yelling, while chasing the man out. Then, flushed faced, Dirk leaned into the office and hissed "Norbert, stop dumping your garbage into my office!" , and popped out. Norbert broke into a loud chuckle, looke at me, and just smiled.
A few years later Mrs. Weiner called and told me that Norbert was in Mass.General as he had fallen down and done serious damge to himself. I overcame my deep antipathy to hospitals and took my self over.
She informed me that the Professor was in a bad way and Prof. Lee had just left, totally depressed at seeing his mentors state. She told me not to stay too long but to see if I could get him to respond.
Entering his room, I heard Norbert moaning, leaning away from the door. How the wonderful inspiration came to me I have never figured out.
As I walked to his bed , in my most stentorian voice, I said "What 14 carat plated phoney!" He moaned, tried to turn, and went back to moaning.
"There is nothing wrong with you. I know you well enough to know that you faking it, just to avoid being drafted".
Much as he tried not to, he let out a loud laugh. I continued "I bet you are pestering all the doctors like Barlow, that Fourier Anaylysis and Tauberian Theorems can solve all medical problems. They have to listen to you!"
At that he slowly sat up, reached for his glasses and then went into a long story of how indeed he had such ideas, etc.
Mrs. Weiner was clearly taken aback at my brashness and when Norbert sat up she did not know what to do. While happily pontificating Norbert said "Margaret, light up a cigar for me". She lit up one his 'stinkies', handed it to him, and Norber was on his way. Soon after Frau Professor chased me out but I was elated beyond words.
That was the last time I ever saw Weiner but this wonderful book captured so many facets of this rare, great human,
My gratitude. I was there
John C. Kotelly MIT '60
Book Description
The Dark Ages are often considered a mysterious era. Once paid little interest by scholars, this period has yielded astonishing discoveries about its events and the people who lived through them. Based on the classic BBC television series, In Search of the Dark Ages embarks on an enthralling investigation of the mysterious centuries following the demise of the Roman Empire. Richly illustrated and highly engaging, In Search of the Dark Ages is sure to entertain as well as enlighten.
Coverage includes:
* Archaeological evidence for Queen Bodicea's terrible war of resistance against the Romans
* Evidence for the shadowy resistance leader who fought against the Germanic hordes after the fall of Rome-and who may have been the real King Arthur
* The discovery of the Sutton Hoo, a ship that offers intriguing clues about the origins of English kingdoms
* Ofaa, Alfred, and Althelsan, three great kings who laid England's political foundations
* The pivotal and fateful confrontation between King Harold and William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.
Customer Reviews:
Cries out for Maps.......2007-04-14
I like the way Michael Wood presents history. His BBC documentaries are excellent. "In Search of the Dark Ages" reads like a TV series (and apparently is based on one), as its chapters are a series of vignettes of some of the most important British historical figures during the period of the first millennium (and in the case of William the Conqueror, just beyond).
Wood tells us about the Celtic warrior queen Boadicea; the defender of Roman Britain King Arthur; the Anglo-Saxon chieftain buried at Sutton Hoo, the Anglo-Saxon rulers Offa, Alfred the Great, and Athelstan; the Viking Eric Bloodaxe; the long-reigning failure Ethelred the Unready; and the Norman William the Conqueror, who ended Anglo-Saxon Britain with his invasion of 1066.
This is a book aimed at Britons, as there are things taken for granted that non-Brits may not understand. The biggest flaw is the total lack of maps. This book cries out for them, especially for those of us with a less than total understanding of English geography.
The only other weakness is that in an attempt to be relevant when the book was written in 1981, Wood often describes events in the past with modern counterparts. We get Vietnam references to guerilla warfare (and he probably would have used the term "ethnic cleansing" in some places had the book been written after the wars in the former Yugoslavia). Some of these references might be a bit dated, but the fact that most aren't is a sign that much of the brutality of history is still with us.
There is also a Postscript, written in connection with the 2006 paperback edition, that mentions a few modern archeological discoveries that basically just support the stories in the original edition.
And those stories are fascinating! Each chapter is necessarily short (and could each be a book in itself). But we are taken on an enthralling journey from the Celtic resistance to the Romans through the Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions, to the arrival of the Normans. It should be an encouragement to read more.
But it desperately needs maps!
Brings Forth Form From the Dark.......2006-09-01
This is a well-written and concise account of England in the Dark Ages. Author Michael Wood seems especially qualified for this sort of subject since he is amazingly proficient in dealing with a time period that has conflicting and missing sources - as he was also with the Trojan War. While the history of the Dark Ages is obscure - in more ways than one - he manages a very clear, concise and accessible narrative. As he was previously only known to me as the host of historical TV shows, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of his writing. (When it comes to history, he is evidently the king of all media.) I particularly like Wood's diligence in trying to reveal history without a lot of personal opinions or filling in gaps with conjecture masquerading as fact.
In this fairly short book the casual historian will almost certainly acquire a significant amount of interesting new knowledge about Dark Age England. My favorite is the chapter on Althelstan (of whom I'd previously never even heard), an enlightened king who conquered the entire island of Britain - something even the Romans never accomplished! The amazing story of Alfred the Great, while less obscure, also makes great reading.
There is a surprising amount of relatively unknown and important history packed into this slim book. This is a period of time when reality was often hazy even for the contemporaries. The borders of now largely-forgotten kingdoms shifted and disappeared as people of different cultures, religions and languages clashed over and over. The results had a profound impact on our present day culture and language. (How different things would have turned out if Alfred had not, against all odds, refused to give up!) While many may know how England and the British Empire helped shape the modern world, this book tells you a lot about what shaped England.
My one criticism is that the title is misleading. In this book you won't find out much about the world in general, or even continental Europe, during the Dark Ages. It is almost entirely concerned with (what is now) England. But that was enough to make it a very interesting piece of work to me.
Meticulously Pieces Together A 1,000-Year Puzzle.......2005-03-28
This book was conceived as a companion volume to the author's 1981 BBC documentary series of the same name, and it stays current with a postscript penned in 2001. IN SEARCH OF THE DARK AGES tackles some of the same territory of at least two of Wood's subsequent books, DOMESDAY and IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND, though his objectives and lens are different each time.
Wood's Dark Age parameters are framed by the Roman triumph over the last, first century A.D. Celtic rebellion led by Boudica (that's right; "Boadicea" was a misreading of the calligraphy in the original source) and the Norman Conquest of 1066. In between, he selects a pageant of personages to elucidate succeeding generations and the overlay of first Roman, then Anglo Saxon, Viking and finally Norman cultures: King Arthur, the nameless Sutton Hoo man, Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Eric Bloodaxe, and Ethelred the Unready. The Dark Ages are quite the challenge in which to go looking for the truth, thickly crusted as they are with the opacity caused by too few extant primary sources and too many Medieval fictions, as well as so many change-ups in cultures, language and leadership. Wood does a quality job of reading the sources, critiquing the fictions and sorting out contemporary scholarship and archeological finds.
Wood writes in an astoundingly lucid voice that rings with wonder. The immediacy of his tone, though unsensational, does leave you feeling blood-soaked as you emerge from these violent times. Despite the ruinous invasions and battles, you can see a shift in values, the coloring of what would become the English language and the evolution of a nation. This is an excellent book for general readers wishing to shore up their knowledge of western civilization.
A great accessible introduction to this field.......2002-05-27
I loved the care this book took not to become too dryly academic, but at the same time to provide good, useful information. Interesting topics and figures in early English history such as Eric Bloodaxe, Stonehenge and Sutton Hoo are introduced in an engaging way, with many intersting illustrations and maps. This is the perfect book for someone looking to find out more about this subject, but not wanting to be put to sleep.
We can only hope that the television series upon which it is based will someday become available for purchase as well.
Excellent "easy" history.......2001-06-27
Wood is best known as a BBC "presenter" of the PBS variety, but he's also an Oxford-trained historian. His books (and television series) are solid history but still accessible. This book and his Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England are almost two halves of a whole, an investigation of what happened in England between the departure of the legions and the arrival of William's Normans, and why, and what the effects were on the further development of the "English" (. . . Celtic, Danish, Norwegian, Norman French . . .) people. Lots of maps and illustrations, lots of archaeological plats, and a nice turn of phrase in nearly every paragraph.
Book Description
Here Mr. Hall interprets an extraordinary work by St. John of the Cross. Written over three hundred years ago, it deals with Christian symbolism on a mystical level. Its early insights are invaluable for modern man's continuing growth.
Average customer rating:
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Dark Storms, Golden Journey: A Remarkable Spiritual Search for Inner Peace
Allison Demarco , and
Lindsay Fairgrieve
Manufacturer: Mainstream Publishing
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ASIN: 1840181516 |
Book Description
Alison Demarco has always seen life differently from others. She found that even as a child she could identify colored auras around every living thing. This book tells the story of her life, from when she was young and bullied by her peers, to her successful struggle with anorexia and cancer.
Average customer rating:
- Another superb work from Sutherland
- In Search of the Picts
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In Search of the Picts - A Celtic Dark Age Nation
Elizabeth Sutherland
Manufacturer: Trans-Atlantic Publications
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ASIN: 0094750106 |
Customer Reviews:
Another superb work from Sutherland.......2002-11-02
Elizabeth Sutherland, former curator of Groam House in Rosemarkie, Rose-shire, was responsible for establishing the museum as a Pictish Centre. She had published several novels, a guidebook for the Highland life, and other books on the Picts.
There are excellent photographs, maps and drawing to help illustrate her text presentation.
She begins by tracing the origins fo the picts from the neolithic nomad-farmer, coming of bronze age, moving into the invaders from Rome, covering Mons Graupius. The next part of the text goes into the 'foundation myths', the Kings List, St Columba. Also it covers the forts and palaces. She dedications a section to the stones and symbols, especially Pictish-Christian interaction. The 5th sections covers the important people in a Pictish tribe, the warlocks, hunters, monks and touches on Pictish Lore. Section Six dealing with what has been left behind, Language, writing, jewellery. Seventh section dealing with the everyday life in a Pictich Settlement. Finally the last section deals with the Viking invaders, later Viking settlers and the Rise of Kenneth mac Alpin.
The Only fault I find in the work was she lightly skipped over Kenneth's slaughter of the Pictish royal houses in order to cement his matriarchal claim to rule the Picts. Other than that, I found the work very well done and would be of interest for someone wanting a bit more detail about these fascinating people that formed the backbone of the Highlands.
In Search of the Picts.......2000-04-17
A very readable book that responsibly explores the questions about the Picts, without getting too much into the egg-head stuff that usually makes books on these subjects dreadfully dull. The Picts were the inhabitants of Northern Scotland whose unique culture prior to 800 AD contributed greatly to our wealth of Celtic Art, mainly in the form of stone carvings. I wish more books were written in this style as it assumes a popular readership without dumbing down the subject or wafting off into New-Age fantasies.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, published by Institute of General Semantics on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 433 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener the Father of Cybernetics.(Book Review)
Author: Terence M. Ripmaster
Publication:
ETC.: A Review of General Semantics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Institute of General Semantics
Volume: 63
Issue: 1
Page: 120(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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- History: Fiction or Science
- Discovering Natural Israel
- Frontiers in Health Policy Research: Volume 7
- Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction
- Brainstorming: How to Create Successful Ideas
Jackie Robinson: A Biography
Promises To Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America
Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy
I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story
Stealing Home: The Story Of Jackie Robinson (Scholastic Biography)
