5 comments about Stephen Hawking's Universe.

1. I was fullly please with my order... My expectations have been met in every angle.



2. Stephen Hawking's Universe by John Boslough is an introduction to the life and works of one of the most remarkable scientists of our time, Stephen Hawking. Boslough, whom has delved deep into his life, depicts Stephen Hawking in the book as a man, and not as a brilliant scientist. This depiction also sets the tone for the rest of the book as Boslough uses his own personal, creative flair to explain scientific theories surrounding such topics as quasars, quarks, black holes, the Big Bang, and the universe into easily understandable terms. For the large task given, Boslough's attempt is quite admirable as he uses a series of everyday examples to simplify the technical jargon for the half-enthused readers, such as myself. Boslough's explanations give the readers truly wonderful insights into the subject of cosmology, a subject that was otherwise likely never to be comprehendible to me. Boslough has created a biography that is both humble and flattering of Stephen Hawkings for his discoveries are always connected to the forbearers of the field such as Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein, whose contributions are all discussed within the book. After reading the book, it is not hard to tell why John Boslough was compelled to recount the story of Stephen Hawking. The scientific breakthroughs that have come from a man confined to his wheelchair will alter anyone's ignorant perception of the universe and isolated thinking of the world. I recommend this book to anyone who is not already an expert on cosmology and looking to indulge one's mind into the intricacies of the universe without overly complex reasoning. Plus, a reader may come across a very interesting individual in doing so.



3. This is one of those very FEW books that I have actually read more than half a dozen times (yes, call me crazy)! A good book is difficult to put down, but a great book is difficult to not re-read!

   I have always had an interest in Physics, particularly cosmology, black holes, and the Big Bang theory. This is one of the first books I've ever read on such topics. Boslough has a way of presenting his material in a concise, enjoyable, interesting way. This is one of the best science/physics books (for the layperons) I've ever read! This is THE book that got me hooked on further and continued readings about physics, cosmology, the Big Bang, quantum theory, and so on. Were it not for this book, I'd still be dreading the physics classes I took in college more than 15 years ago!

   This book also laid a lot of the foundation work for my research into black holes in preparation for the writing of my science fiction novel "Temporal Armageddon".




4. This small book, originally written in 1984, was and is still revealing.
   Firstly, on a personal level, Hawking admitted already at that time that "As far as theoretical physics are concerned, I'm already ... quite far over the hill'.
   Secondly, it gives an excellent explanation of Hawking's contribution to theoretical physics (black holes and their similarities to the beginning of time).
   Thirdly, Hawking has outspoken opinions about the anthropic principle (against), the universe of Eastern mysticism (an illusion), the many universes theory (not meaningful) or determinism ('Even if we do achieve a complete unified theory, we shall not be able to make detailed predictions in any but the simplest situations').

   This booklet offers also excellent examples for the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics and contains Hawking's Inaugural Lecture 'Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?'

   Although this book is, from a theoretical point of view, out of date (no superstrings), it should not be missed.




5. As a non-science-type-person I read this book with the sense of shame and guilt that was customarily heaped upon purchasers of "Cliff Notes" by our school English teachers. This is a layman's guide to Hawking for people who are too intimidated to read Hawking, but as such it is a very good piece of work, and the discussion of the Big Bang, black holes, pulsars and quasars are well interspersed with aphoristic comments by Hawking himself.

No comments about Zeldovich: Reminiscences.

2 comments about Galileo: Decisive Innovator (Cambridge Science Biographies).

1. Book: Galileo: Decisive Innovator, 262 pages
   
   Author: Michael Sharratt
   
   In Galileo: Decisive Innovator, author Michael Sharratt portrays Galileo Galilei as a complete being, beyond the typical textbook and famous discoverer Galileo. Sharratt writes the truth and writes it vividly, with no added fluff or mythological misconceptions about Galileo, such as Galileo invented the telescope. In fact, Sharratt first introduced Galileo saying that, Galileo did not invent the telescope and that rather Galileo improved the Dutch invention and was the first to point the looking glass up towards the skies. Also Sharratt makes it a point that Galileo is one of the few scientists called by his first name, a reason why he, Sharratt, wrote the book referring to Galileo using his first name only.
   
   There are a number of reasons for readers to bother reading this book. Some of the strongest points of this biography include: organization of content, personal facts, and accurate content. There are countless other books on Galileo, but this biography was organized in such a way that even someone new to Galileo or the concepts of science discussed, were to read this book, they would be able to get a full account the same way a scientist would have. Instead of consistently going in the typical, time-based chronological order of events and explanations, Sharratt divides up Galileo's life and his "ripple effects" into ten sections (with subchapters), which are located in the table of contents.
   
   The first chapter is not about Galileo's early life, but about "The Strangest Piece of News," talking about Galileo's turning point in life with the telescope and the beginnings of his support for Copernicus' theory. In the middle of different chapters, Sharratt makes references to other time periods in Galileo's life, events, people, things that were relevant to his current writing topic. Also, Sharratt is able to give many details concerning Galileo's events. No significant event is easily overlooked; the book provides many details about Galileo's feelings, environment, and other people's lives during Galileo's important events. In Sharratt's discussion about significant events in Galileo's life, such as the Dialogue and its condemnation, Sharratt is clear to identify whom Galileo was truly fighting. It was not the Church, but the stifling paradigm of natural philosophy, whose practitioners, rather than systematically observing nature, sought recourse in Artistotle. These methods help the reader get a lively feel for everything written about Galileo and not just boring fact after fact. There are also, black and white illustrations; intelligently placed, relating to the context around it (Sharratt included a list of illustrations following the table of content). Also there is a ten-page compilation of notes in the back, to refer back to, not to mention the small-print, eight-page bibliography, a good source for further readings.
   
   Sharratt was most likely compelled to recount this story, due to his expertise and profession in this field as a philosophy professor and a Roman Catholic Priest. Just the fact that Sharratt is a Roman Catholic Priest gives his last chapter, "Rehabilitation," a stronger thrust than other authors, methodically deconstructing the legal underpinnings of the case and identifying the true issues and personality conflicts of Galileo.
   
   Sharratt offers an effective and manageable method of dealing with the immense life of Galileo in his 262 pages. It is effective in putting an emphasis on Galileo's ideas rather than a collection of anecdotes and it is manageable because the biography, despite its details, is a succinct account of influences on Galileo and in turn his influences on the world, that shaped his life.



2. To all of us who have had romantic rushes with astronomy, the name Galileo is deeply revered. It is a matter of faith among us that Galileo invented the telescope and consequently a spate of remarkable objects in the heavens, particularly the rings of Saturn. We know he performed wizardlike scientific demonstrations from the leaning Tower of Pisa. If we had the benefit of a good liberal arts education, we came to understand, albeit dimly, that he got in trouble for all this with the Church.

   Biographer Michael Sharratt did a wise thing. He describes Galileo's adventures with the new telescope in the very first chapter of his biography, because he knows this is what we want to know first. It is a compelling chapter, although there is no way to tell the story without a certain measure of demythologizing. Galileo did not invent the telescope; the instrument was in common use in the Dutch Republic, though our hero certainly improved upon it. He never had a telescope strong enough to identify the rings of Saturn [another Dutchman, Huygens, gets credit for that.] And perhaps most depressing, Galileo first conceived of a telescope as an instrument of naval intelligence and tried to market it as such.

   Sharratt's book is not for curious little boys, but for the thoughtful grownups they became. The bulk of this book is not about the dramatic discoveries, but the wonder and dismay they precipitated. This work has a certain jargon true to its time. Galileo by trade was a mathematician. As the times did not require the high precision math of the nuclear-computer age, mathematicians, at least the good ones, served society by promulgating what we might call the sciences of organization: logic, the structure of accurate thought, and physics, the predictability of causes and effects.

   By Galileo's time, the early seventeenth century, traditional logic and physics were under assault by a number of independent scientists whose hypotheses and improved observation methods were bending the old medieval synthesis to the breaking point. Under particular assault were two venerable systems: Ptolemy's concept of the universe in which the sun, planets, and stars circled the earth; the other. Aristotle's complex synthesis of observable matter and motion.

   Sharratt traces with considerable detail Galileo's early disenchantment with both Ptolemy and Aristotle. Although questioning whether the Tower of Pisa events were quite the spectacle they were reported to be, Sharratt examines Galileo's method of disproving Aristotelian truisms such as the tendency of heavier objects to fall faster than lighter ones. Galileo, like many of his contemporaries, romanced the theories of Copernicus, whose theory of a sun centered universe better explained the retrograde motion of planets as observed from the earth. It was Galileo's eventual marriage to the Copernican system that would cause him so much trouble with the Church.

   The new telescope in the hands of a Copernican newlywed was an almost dangerous union. Galileo used his early observations virtually exclusively to attempt to prove the validity of the Copernican system [though Keppler, with all his number crunching, did a more thorough job of this.] Galileo's discovery of four moons revolving about Jupiter established at least that the earth was not the center of motion. The crescent face of Venus made a strong case, as he saw it, for a sun-centered universe. Perhaps most damaging to traditionalists, the discovery of mountains and valleys on the moon implied that heavenly objects could, for all practical purposes, undergo the same secular critiques as earthly matter and principles.

   Sharratt depicts Galileo as a gregarious man with many friends who, like most struggling artisans, knew how to ingratiate himself to influential patrons for financial support and connections. He could be jealously protective of his prerogatives and he did not suffer fools gladly. Sharratt's research leads him to believe that Galileo ran afoul of the Jesuits, or at least some of them, who were only too happy to provide Robert Bellarmine and the Roman Inquisition with disquieting interpretations of Galileo's works.

   The Inquisition's public dispute with Galileo involved the latter's teaching of Copernicanism. Put simply, adherence to Copernican theory in 1616 was tantamount to a denial of Biblical inerrancy in the eyes of the Catholic Church, then deeply enmeshed in struggles with Protestant reformers over, among other things, Biblical interpretation. However, there can be no doubt that Galileo's dismemberment of the Aristotelian system was viewed as an equally inimical threat to the unity and soundness of Catholic doctrine, also under fire from Protestants. In 1616 a somewhat friendly and informal encounter with Bellarmine and Pope Urban VIII resulted in an avuncular warning that Galileo refrain from public advocacy of Copernicanism. Sharratt reports that there was some confusion over precisely what these men agreed to. Hence, when Galileo published his masterpiece The Dialogue in 1632, in which he enhanced and reinforced earlier writings, he was arrested by the Inquisition for reneging upon the instruction of 1616. Sharratt's description of the trial is terse and brief; Galileo lived his remaining years under house arrest.

   Somewhat misplaced is the final chapter on Galileo's rehabilitation by John Paul II in 1992. This chapter has the marks of an afterthought or editorial recasting. The author himself admits that the "rehabilitation" was of the Church, not Galileo. More tellingly, Sharratt makes no mention of present struggles between Church traditionalists and modern day Galileos, and he would have needed to look no further than to reproductive science. One need only consider the present state of Catholic sexual ethics to see that the microscope has replaced the telescope as an object of terror for today's Bellarmines.

5 comments about Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life..

1. If you want to enrich your picture of where the theory of evolution came from, how men saw it emerge "on the ground," rather than in specimen jars and private laboratories, this is a great complement to any life of Darwin. Wallace was a much wider and woollier adventurer than Darwin. As a professional collector he had to be, and he lived in strange parts of the world rather than just drop by on cruise as Darwin had the luxury to do. I was especially moved by the story about Wallace's experience adopting and trying to sustain the life of an infant orangutan in Borneo or thereabouts. Wallace must have been a much more restless man than Darwin, more of the brew of industrial revolution and 19th century culture in turmoil.Take Me With You When You Go



2. As the great scientist Newton said " I see further for I stand on the shoulders of giants". Wallace may have seen further than Darwin when he suggested that we have souls that make us human. Ofcourse these kinds of things are hard to emperically observe by scientists that is the reason why they are skeptical but not everything has to be observed. It is true that "observation is the key to knowledge" but Einstein said that "imagination is much more important than knowledge". Probably Wallace knew that not everything could be explained by science because not everything could be observed. So even though Darwin was right about his observations of the process of evolution, Wallace saw further when he imagined that most probably we have souls that make us not only the highest form of animal but the only animals that has a soul, a human. Science cannot observe everything....there are things meant to be imagined along with our observations, that is how we could see further.



3. an elegant and fascinating account of a true pioneer of natural history and evolution. One must really be curious and patient to get into this book, as there are innumerable details given on not just this man's life but his actual work. The book proves to be an illuminating academic biography that deserves its place among other excellent biographies in your collection.



4. Victorian Britain was a time of exploration, industrial advance, social and political experiments and scientific speculation. Although many key figures appeared, few covered so many elements of this dynamic as did Alfred Russell Wallace. From almost desparately poor beginnings, Wallace became a dedicated explorer and specimen collector. Raby's sympathetic portrayal of this complex character is a good introduction. Wallace travelled and collected far more widely than did his contemporary Charles Darwin. That both developed the same concept, evolution of species by natural selection, was the result of keen powers of observation. Wallace's wide-spread interests took his attention into areas Darwin either ignored or avoided. Unlike the retiring Darwin, Wallace was at the forefront of many issues, speaking and writing on many issues. Some of these, as Raby carefully recounts, led him into difficulties, both financial and intellectual.

   Raby traces the development of a man who almost beggars analysis. Wallace's life was dogged by near penury due to family commitments and lack of regular employment. His decision to explore the upper Amazon basin was almost an act of desparation, but it led to a lifelong interest in nature and "primitive" people. Overcoming the loss of four years of exploration and study, he recovered deftly with a long-term examination of the East Indies archipelago. Early flirtations with socialist ideals gave him a more sympathetic view of indigenous people than the average Victorian Briton. He adopted a strong sense of independence from authoritarian measures, leading him to oppose land enclosures and vaccination, which he saw as doing more harm than good. The great issue in his later years was spiritualism. This last proved a stumbling block to his scientific ambitions. Although many authors disparage this interest as demeaning, in Raby's view it is simply another aspect of Wallace's probing intellect.

   The primary concern with Wallace remains his co-authorship of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's insight occupied his thinking for two decades while he considered evidence. Wallace had been considering the issue for several years, finally synthesising his ideas during confinement from a malarial attack. Wallace never disputed Darwin's priority nor his superiority as a scientific genius, although recent historians have taken up his "cause" in an attempt to erode Darwin's reputation. Raby examines these claims in some detail, either refuting them or questioning the validity of the evidence. Wallace diverged from Darwin's version of natural selection in some details, most notably over human evolution. In line with his spiritualism, Wallace insisted the human mind could not be an adaptation and must be the result of influence by a "higher power". He wasn't alone in that view either then or now.

   Raby's examination of the life of another "tormented evolutionist" is an engaging read and fluent introduction to this charismatic figure. With his long life encompassing an era of many new ideas, Wallace doesn't stand out in the history of science nearly as much as is his due. This book goes far in restoring his image. Raby's prose style is clear and expressive without descending into unnecessary adulation of his subject. The greatest lack is in his failure to place Wallace more fully in the context of his times. Since that would cover the whole of the Victorian era and beyond, we may forgive this curtailment. There are, after all, numerous works providing that overview. A valuable summary for the reader interested in exploration, natural science and Victorian personalities. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]




5. Bronowski's Ascent of Man acquainted me with the main facts of Wallace's life. Frankly, that sufficed... Raby did not delve deeply enough into aspects of Wallace's character or contributions. The value of Raby's detailed biography lies not in learning more about Wallace's travels or seances, but in his careful, evenhanded examination of the relation between Darwin and Wallace.

   Anybody pondering accusations of conspiracy would be well advised to read this book. The ending is particularly well done.

2 comments about The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius.

1. THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND THE PURSUIT OF GENIUS comes from a history professor at Harvard, who shows how Franklin's evolving status as a scientific genius lends to appreciating his works and the evolution of science as a whole. There have been many biographies of Franklin over the years; but this is the first to narrow the focus on his scientific investigations and how they led to his political prominence. All of his scientific research is considered, linking science works with problem-solving at the social and political levels. New research into documents from his early career and those of his colleagues lend to a unique discussion here.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. Let me start by saying up front that it pains me to give this book a low rating, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Thanks for that, however, go to Mr. Franklin, not Ms. Chaplin. Franklin was a fascinating figure with an interesting life, and it would be difficult to write an uninteresting book about him. This book, however, is rather poorly written and at times gives the impression of trying to stretch a little information a bit too far. To me, it felt as though she decided to write a book on Franklin the scientist, found she didn't quite have enough science material to fill a book, and decided to stretch it with repetitive, somewhat pretentious interpretation which added little too the book besides pages. At points I felt as though she was trying a little too hard to keep the book from becoming a biography of Franklin, staying completely focused on the science aspect when a little information on his life in general was need to place the science in context. The writing was frequently a little clunky and tiresome.
   
   Overall, worth reading, at least if you have a specific interest in the subject, but not worth buying in hardcover.

1 comments about The Man Who Flattened the Earth: Maupertuis and the Sciences in the Enlightenment.

1. The Man Who Flattened The Earth: Marpertuis And The Sciences In The Enlightenment is the story of Maupertuis and his scientific interests in the early to mid 1700s and who represented Enlightenment thinking. Mary Terrall re-creates 18th century European society and science alike as she surveys the man who began his career as a mathematician in Paris, only to form controversial theories about the Earth, physics, and even astronomy. Maupertius used his social connections to enhance both his science and his position in society: this provides a lively account of his achievements.

3 comments about The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in Science.

1. I definitely like the idea behind this book which I thought was to help understand the lives/struggles that the women elected into the National Academy went through. I also liked the way the book was grouped into women born within specific time periods since they seemed to have more in common with each other. But along with all survey books, this one lacked a focus or goal. The author who conducted the interviews seemed very passive and not willing to explore problems the scientists were going through. Wasserman hints at problems/solutions, but I was looking for more.



2. Parts of this book are absolutely first rate -I thoroughly enjoyed the introductory & concluding sets of chapters that "place" the interviews- and some of the biographical pieces are also intriguing and insightful. Unfortunately one gets the feeling that Wasserman has tried to both stretch too far & at the same time go too deep in some areas. In the cases of scientists where we actually get enough material to sense a "conversation" the book cannot be faulted (the interview/section on Ruth Patrick was marvellous for instance), but in some cases we have little more than an expanded extract from some sort of "Great Women & Men in Science" dictionary. Fewer and longer entries would perhaps have served better. This breadth/depth problem is in a sense highlighted by a striking shortage of ecologists (there is the Patrick interview mentioned already & a disappointingly short blurb on Jane Lubchenco) & an absence of behavioral ecologists (what of the likes of Sarah Hrdy etc.?)while at the same time it seems we get lots of biochemist/genetics/& physical science types. A number of authors have noted the greater success that women have had in penetrating the Life Sciences, and perhaps Wasserman feels that this area needs less attention, but a more detailed analysis of WHY things have been better in Biology would be of interest. Other than these complaints I enjoyed the book and will have no problem encouraging my students (female and male alike) to read it.



3. This book succeeds on so many different levels. Above all, it is a fascinating introduction to the lives of thirty seven remarkably successful women. It is a "good read" for anyone interested in a personal glimpse into many different worlds of scientific discovery. It offers varied templates to young scientists seeking alternative approaches to scientific careers today. It suggests some unconventional wisdom about possibilities for career progress for women and men in any organization. And finally, it provides compelling evidence for employer policies and programs to support employee efforts to balance professional productivity with personal and family commitments.

   Wasserman offers a unique perspective on all careers based on the life experiences of women scientists elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. She draws on personal interviews, correspondence and biographic materials of thirty seven women(of a total of eighty six elected women scientists) to portray their experiences, often in their own words. Wasserman undertook this project based on personal questions about her own career, which led from research scientist (PhD chemist)to academic administration to the practice of law. She describes her career path in the context of family interests and commitments as well. For this study she sought to understand what differentiated the lives and paths of these remarkably successful scientists from the paths of others with similar interests and potential. In presenting a consistent set of questions to each of her subjects, she looked for similar patterns and notable differences within this group of women and between this group and others. Her interview material is organized into age clusters and is thus informed by societal characteristics of each cohort's era.

   Wasserman's work yields lessons about career success far byond the world of scientific research she depicts. For these women initial career decisions were most often based on interest, talent and encouragement from family plus special teachers at critical juncture points. Yet these initial decisions were then modified and shaped by circumstance and opportunity, for better or for worse. As with each of us, each of these women faced numerous barriers and hurdles as she moved along a path. As with each of us, the path was often unclear. Yet each of these women found her way to make unique contributions to scientific knowledge. Despite barriers and hurdles each was remarkably successful in her scientific career.

   Among the barriers and hurdles faced by many of these women, one persists, and that is the dificulty in balancing between professional and personal commitments. Here the lives of these scientists shared challenges similar to the ones faced by men and women at all phases of their professional development. How to balance a strong commitment to work with a strong commitment to family and/or personal life remains a daily struggle for so many of us. It is a struggle we hear about from men and women in corporations, government and academic life as well. It is a struggle anticipated by young people as they embark on their careers and by men and women in mid-career as they live their daily lives and consider their future directions. Each struggle is characterized by much that is personal and unique and much that is universal as well.

   In her summary chapters Wasserman highlights the balance between professional interests and personal lives as a key opportunity for organizations to affect lives and careers. She suggests that organizational policy could enhance productivity by becoming more flexible in demands on people and more generous in the resources provided to help support the balance between professional and personal commitments. Her exploration of policy and program implications is especially cogent for today's workforce and in today's workplace.

No comments about The Hero of the Herd: More Tales from a Country Veterinarian.

4 comments about William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles.

1. One of the great stories in American history was the transformation of Los Angeles from a sleepy, anarchic California town into the megalopolis of today. And in any history of this transformation, the figure of William Mulholland looms large, for it was he who almost single-handedly brought about this transformation by providing Los Angeles with the one thing it needed to grow: an abundant water supply. This was accomplished by building an aqueduct to divert water from the Owens River to L.A. But this was no peaceful project; residents of Owens Valley, farmers and ranchers, felt the water had been appropriated from them through cronyism and legal bullying. They retaliated by blowing up sections of the aqueduct in 1924 and 1927. Mulholland himself met his own downfall with the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, a disaster that killed over 500 people and destroyed Mulholland's career.
   
   These are but parts of a great story in American history, but one would never know it from reading his granddaughter's tome, for the vivacity of the times is thoroughly lost in needless detail; almost a year by year survey of her grandfather's accomplishments. Instead she is more intent on refuting the critics' charges, painting Mulholland as a pragmatist guided by a progressive vision of what Los Angeles could become. Because of this stand, her arguments are not altogether convincing; the Owens Valley residents tend to be painted as villains exploited by villains on the press that seek Mulholland's downfall. In the Preface we are given warning of this bias when she takes previous books on the subject to task. Her attempt at exonerating her grandfather for the St. Francis Dam disaster is also unconvincing, almost as if she were attempting to refute the movie "Chinatown", itself a piece of fictionalized history.
   
   If by reading the above paragraph one thinks this biography is lively, think again. The best way to obfuscate an issue is to bury it in details, and the book covers its subject almost year by year, which is a shame given the subject matter and the presence of Mulholland, a mover and shaker who, unfortunately, became a prisoner of his own vision. Mulholland's life is akin to a Greek tragedy, and this is the stuff of which history is made, not the mere recitation of facts. The tragedy is that, given the subject matter, this book could have been so much more than it turned out to be.



2. This book follows the entire sequence of events that lead the city of Los Angeles from a small agricultural town with a population of 10,000 in 1880 to become one of the major cities in North Americia. I thought that I knew about Mulholland before I read this book. Even today he is a minor legend in southern California. The real story is presented here. This book is well organized, well written, and very objective.



3. Catherine Mulholland sets the tone of the book in the preface, where she focuses on putting previous publications in their place, and states her reliance on newspapers of the time. As pointed out in an earlier publication (Water and Power by W. Kahrl) newspapers are an unreliable source of information because they tend to reflect the bias of the publisher at the time. Mr. Kahrl relied on official records and documents whereas Ms. Mulholland relied more on newspaper accounts and less on official documents.

   In large part the book covers the life and times of William Mulholland, but it certainly leaves the reader with the impression that he did only good in his lifetime. Unfortunately the book ignores or does not respond to much of the criticism heaped upon Mr. Mulholland by more contemporary publications, and instead focuses on his positive contributions. In this respect the book is not entirely well balanced. Although well written I fear that this book is an attempt by the family to have the final word on the history of a complex man who was more dimensional than the author allows.




4. You would think a biography by a grand-daughter may tend to the less objective side. Catherine Mulholland's work is a referenced account of the fight for municipal control of water, and subsequently power, in the early 1900's in Los Angeles. Mulholland takes you by the hand, almost as if you were on an tour with "The Chief", through Willaim Mulhollands childhood, departure from Ireland, to eventual settlement in Los Angeles. From there she cronicles the water needs of the pueblo (pop. 10,000); Mulhollands rise from digger to the designer of the Los Angeles Aquaduct; his management of the political arena to the St. Francis Dam. It was the 'over success' of Bill Mulholland to bring water to a desert that allowed the expotential growth of Los Angeles in area and character. Discriptions of the water works are fascinating - some surviving parts of it still are in use. If you have ever wondered what the real story was behind the film "Chinatown", this is it.

No comments about Internal Fire: The Internal-Combustion Engine 1673-1900.