Reading this book helped lift my customary electoral depression.
Jeffrey Toobin's book offers a wonderful balance between the specific
and the general. Concrete discussions of court cases, the drama of
nominations, and the unique lives, habits and biases of the justices
are more than just fascinating and entertaining. These details help
the reader to understand and appreciate two general forces informing
our democracy--the force to compromise moderating the divisive
tendencies of the extremes on the right and the left. For now, it
seems the drive to the center is still winning out in the supreme
court, and this does a lot to cheer me up in this season.
One recent personal event related to this book also helped to lift my
spirits. I was reading the book on board a flight when the attendent
stopped to ask me how I like the book. When I told her I liked the
book a lot, she said 'that's good to know, because I'm planning to
read it myself.' Somehow, its comforting to know that there are
people like the flight attendant who are at least as well read as
one of the vice presidential candidates. With an electorate like this
I'm sure we'll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff on election day.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Einstein. His Life and Universe.
Walter Isaacson's biography (Simon and Shuster, 2007) of Albert Einstein has been frequently reviewed and praised. What seems especially valuable is Isaacson's analysis of the roots of Einstein's creativity. Like most great scientists, he had great curiosity. He also cherished an almost religious belief in the underlying primacy of natural law. As he drew his last breath he was still struggling to pull back the curtain even further on the hidden principles that embody a predictable universe.
Embracing the uncertainty of quantum behavior, many of Einstein's contemporaries were bemused by what they felt was his stubborn adherence to an old-fashioned 19th century positivism. Einstein himself probably relished the role of outsider.
This tendency to rub against the grain becomes understandable when we consider Einstein's core values: freedom, independence, flexibility, simplicity and solitude. Whether these values were the cause or the effect of his creativity is difficult to say, but there is little doubt after reading this book that without these values, Einstein would not have been the man he was.
Like his countryman, Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein found refuge in the United States. Each also contributed a son to the faculty at UC Berkeley. Someone once said Thomas Mann was the last great 19th century German author, one might say the something similar of Einstein.
Embracing the uncertainty of quantum behavior, many of Einstein's contemporaries were bemused by what they felt was his stubborn adherence to an old-fashioned 19th century positivism. Einstein himself probably relished the role of outsider.
This tendency to rub against the grain becomes understandable when we consider Einstein's core values: freedom, independence, flexibility, simplicity and solitude. Whether these values were the cause or the effect of his creativity is difficult to say, but there is little doubt after reading this book that without these values, Einstein would not have been the man he was.
Like his countryman, Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein found refuge in the United States. Each also contributed a son to the faculty at UC Berkeley. Someone once said Thomas Mann was the last great 19th century German author, one might say the something similar of Einstein.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
James Garfield
James Garfield, by Ira Rutkow, Henry Holt, New York, 2006.
It is President Garfield's unique tragedy that he should be remembered more for his dying than for his living. This biography does little to change that legacy. Half of the pages are devoted to his final days of suffering. But could we expect less from an author who is also a clinical professor of surgery?
This a book for anyone interested in the presidential history of that neglected period known as the Gilded Age. The ins and outs of Republican Bossism; the emblematic American saga of a boy born in a log cabin who educates himself and rises to Union army general, congressman, and finally, president--these subjects are meat enough for any book. But perhaps most gripping is the detailed accounting of the ideological battle Garfield's physicians wage over his festering wound. From the day he is shot til the day he dies they dispute one central question: is there such as thing as a germ, and why should we care?
It is Garfield's unique tragedy that he should be best remembered as a case study of a turning point in medical history. His life depended on who won out: the medieval old guard or the followers of Jenner. Unfortunately for him, it was the old guard.
It is President Garfield's unique tragedy that he should be remembered more for his dying than for his living. This biography does little to change that legacy. Half of the pages are devoted to his final days of suffering. But could we expect less from an author who is also a clinical professor of surgery?
This a book for anyone interested in the presidential history of that neglected period known as the Gilded Age. The ins and outs of Republican Bossism; the emblematic American saga of a boy born in a log cabin who educates himself and rises to Union army general, congressman, and finally, president--these subjects are meat enough for any book. But perhaps most gripping is the detailed accounting of the ideological battle Garfield's physicians wage over his festering wound. From the day he is shot til the day he dies they dispute one central question: is there such as thing as a germ, and why should we care?
It is Garfield's unique tragedy that he should be best remembered as a case study of a turning point in medical history. His life depended on who won out: the medieval old guard or the followers of Jenner. Unfortunately for him, it was the old guard.
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