Edmund Morris's "Colonel Roosevelt" is the third volume of his acclaimed three-part biography of Theodore Roosevelt. This installment covers Roosevelt's later years, including his time as a writer and conservationist. Morris provides a detailed and insightful account of Roosevelt's personality, his political strategies, and his impact on American society. The book is meticulously researched and beautifully written, offering a compelling portrait of one of America's most influential presidents. Morris's biography is a must-read for anyone interested in American history and the life of Theodore Roosevelt.
In 'Learning to Breathe Fire', J.C. Herz explores the rise of CrossFit from its underground beginnings to its global popularity. The book delves into the science behind high-intensity workouts and the cultural significance of CrossFit, highlighting its impact on modern fitness and society. Herz vividly portrays the athletes, coaches, and culture that define this intense fitness movement.
The Clock of the Long Now by Stewart Brand explores the concept of long-term thinking and the construction of a mechanical clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years. The book delves into the importance of considering the distant future and the legacy we leave behind, encouraging readers to adopt a long-term mindset to address global issues like climate change and resource depletion.
In 'Whole Earth Discipline', Stewart Brand challenges traditional environmental thinking by embracing urbanization, nuclear energy, genetic engineering, and geoengineering as necessary tools for addressing climate change and other global issues. He argues that these technologies can help create a more sustainable future, despite initial resistance from many environmentalists. The book emphasizes the need for a pragmatic approach to environmental challenges, combining scientific rigor with innovative solutions.
This book provides an in-depth look at the MIT Media Lab's vision for the future of media and technology. It explores the lab's innovative projects and their potential impact on society, highlighting concepts such as synthetic holograms and personal newspapers. The book also delves into broader societal implications of emerging technologies.
In 'The Rational Optimist', Matt Ridley presents a bold and provocative interpretation of economic history, arguing that the innate human tendency to trade goods and services, along with specialization, is the source of modern human civilization. The book covers the entire sweep of human history from the Stone Age to the Internet, highlighting how life is improving at an accelerating rate through increased food availability, income, and life span, while disease, child mortality, and violence are decreasing globally. Ridley emphasizes the role of free trade, individual rights, and innovation in enhancing human prosperity and natural biodiversity despite potential setbacks[2][4][5].
In this book, Jared Diamond explains why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others. He argues that differences in societal development arise primarily from geographical causes. The book details how agricultural societies developed immunities to deadly diseases, advanced in technology, and formed centralized political structures, ultimately leading to the conquest of other societies. Diamond also discusses the impact of germs, domesticated animals, and environmental factors on human history[2][4][5].
In this book, Huxley recounts his first psychedelic experience with mescaline in May 1953. He describes how the drug altered his perception of the world, making ordinary objects and experiences take on profound aesthetic and philosophical significance. Huxley draws on various philosophical and spiritual traditions, including those of William Blake, Meister Eckhart, Plato, and Buddhism, to contextualize his insights. The book challenges conventional views on perception and reality, suggesting that certain substances can reveal deeper aspects of existence that are normally filtered out by the human brain's 'reducing valve'[1][2][4]
The novel centers on two Chinese American siblings on the lam after their sometimes abusive father dies, leaving them to survive in a dreamscape that blends historical and mythological elements. The story is narrated by a sister whose gender is more fluid and includes elements of ghost narratives, gold, and tigers. Zhang's work challenges the traditional white-centered narratives of the American West, incorporating elements of her own cultural background and childhood experiences.
This book proposes that buildings adapt best when constantly refined and reshaped by their occupants. It argues that architects can mature from being artists of space to becoming artists of time. The book covers a wide range of architectural examples, from connected farmhouses in New England to I.M. Pei’s Media Lab, and discusses the evolution of various architectural styles. Brand emphasizes the importance of flexibility and adaptability in building design, criticizing modernist approaches that prioritize form over function and human needs. He also highlights the different layers of a building (site, structure, skin, services, and space plan) and how each layer has a different lifespan and requires different maintenance strategies[2][3][5].
The Whole Earth Catalog was published between 1968 and 1972, and sporadically thereafter until 1998. It was designed to provide 'access to tools' for newly dispersed counterculture communities, back-to-the-land households, and innovators in technology, design, and architecture. The catalog featured product reviews, essays, and articles on various topics including sustainable design, experimental media, and community practices. It played a significant role in the environmental movement and was influential in shaping the cyberculture of the time. The catalog won the National Book Award in 1972 for its 'Last Whole Earth Catalog' edition.
Theodore Rex is the second volume of Edmund Morris's trilogy on the life of Theodore Roosevelt. It chronicles Roosevelt's two terms as President, from his assumption of power after President McKinley's assassination to his departure from office in 1909. The book details his energetic and reform-minded presidency, including his trust-busting initiatives, labor relations, conservation efforts, the construction of the Panama Canal, and his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Morris portrays Roosevelt as a dynamic leader who balanced his impulsiveness with pragmatism and significantly reshaped the office of the presidency to meet the needs of the new century.
Published in 1962, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' is a seminal novel by Ken Kesey that delves into the dehumanizing effects of institutionalization and the struggle for individuality. The story, narrated by Chief Bromden, a half-Indian patient, takes place in an Oregon psychiatric hospital where the strict and oppressive regime of Nurse Mildred Ratched is challenged by the arrival of Randle P. McMurphy, a charismatic and rebellious patient. The novel explores the boundaries between sanity and madness, conformity and rebellion, and questions the power dynamics within institutions. It became a symbol of countercultural resistance and has had a significant impact on discussions surrounding mental health and societal treatment of the mentally ill.
This book is the first in a trilogy by Edmund Morris and details the life of Theodore Roosevelt from his birth in 1858 through to 1901. It includes his family history, his turbulent childhood illnesses, his education at Harvard, and his early involvement in politics. The biography explores Roosevelt's passion for learning, his various roles such as New York State Assemblyman, Civil Service Commissioner, New York City Police Commissioner, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy. It also covers his leadership of the Rough Riders in Cuba and his eventual rise to the Vice Presidency, setting the stage for his future as President of the United States.
This book is an edited collection of reminiscences by Richard Feynman, based on recorded audio conversations he had with his friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton. It covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life, including his work on the Manhattan Project, his critique of the science education system in Brazil, and his various hobbies such as safe-cracking, painting, and playing the bongo drums. The book also includes his famous 'Cargo Cult Science' lecture, where he cautions against the superficial appearance of scientific investigation without a self-critical attitude. Feynman's stories are lighthearted yet insightful, reflecting his high intelligence, curiosity, and humor.
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is a novel that defies traditional genre classification, incorporating elements of fairy tale, literary criticism, political tract, musicology, and autobiography. Published in 1979, it was Kundera's first major international success. The book is set in postwar Czechoslovakia and explores the lives of several characters as they navigate the complexities of memory, history, and personal relationships under the shadow of totalitarianism. It delves into themes such as the struggle of memory against forgetting, the nature of laughter, and the interplay between public and private lives. Kundera's unique narrative style, which includes philosophical asides and surreal elements, challenges readers to reconsider their assumptions about history, love, and human identity[2][4][5].
In 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed', Jared Diamond examines the collapse of past societies, such as the Anasazi, the Maya, and the Norse colonies on Greenland, due to factors like environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trading partners, and the society's response to these challenges. Diamond argues that environmental concerns are crucial to a society's success and that the way a society responds to its environmental problems is often the decisive factor in its survival or collapse. The book also draws parallels between historical collapses and current global issues, offering practical lessons and solutions to avoid similar catastrophes in the present and future[1][3][5].
In this book, James P. Carse distinguishes between finite and infinite games. Finite games are instrumental activities with clear rules, boundaries, and winners, such as sports, politics, and wars. Infinite games, on the other hand, are authentic interactions that aim to continue the play, changing rules and boundaries as needed. Carse explores how these concepts apply to various aspects of life, including culture, religion, sexuality, and self-discovery. He argues that finite games offer wealth, status, and power, while infinite games provide something more subtle and grander, such as true freedom and endless possibility. The book offers insights into how approaching life as either a finite or infinite game affects one's choices, satisfaction, and success[2][4][5].
In 'Homo Ludens,' Johan Huizinga argues that play is a fundamental element of human culture, essential for the generation of culture. He traces the contribution of play from ancient times through the Renaissance and into modern society, highlighting its role in law, science, philosophy, and the arts. Huizinga defines play against a rich theoretical background, using cross-cultural examples to illustrate its universal significance and its civilizing functions[2][3][5].
Paula Whyman's "Bad Naturalist" chronicles her journey from a city-dwelling insect enthusiast to a dedicated ecological restorationist. The book details her ambitious project to revive native plants and wildlife on her 200-acre Virginia mountaintop. Whyman confronts invasive species and challenges the conventional view that nature preservation is solely the domain of national parks. She emphasizes the crucial role of individual landowners in conservation efforts, highlighting the vast privately owned lands in need of stewardship. The book offers a personal and inspiring account of ecological restoration, emphasizing the importance of small actions and the potential for hope in environmental conservation.
The book is a firsthand account of the experiences of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, a group of psychedelic enthusiasts who traveled across the United States in a painted school bus called Furthur. The narrative, written in the New Journalism style, later referred to as Gonzo Journalism, details their use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs, their 'Acid Tests' parties, and interactions with notable figures of the 1960s counterculture, including the Grateful Dead, Hells Angels, and Allen Ginsberg. The book also explores Kesey's exile to Mexico, his arrests, and his impact on the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
Stewart Brand (@stewartbrand) is the president of The Long Now Foundation, established to foster long-term thinking and responsibility. He leads a project called Revive & Restore, which seeks to bring back extinct animal species such as the passenger pigeon and woolly mammoth.
Stewart is very well known for founding, editing, and publishing The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC), which changed my life when I was a little kid. It also received a national book award for its 1972 issue.
Stewart is the co-founder of The WELL and The Global Business Network, and author of Whole Earth Discipline, The Clock Of The Long Now, How Buildings Learn, and The Media Lab. He was trained in biology at Stanford and served as an infantry officer in the US Army.
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