5 comments about J. Robert Oppenheimer: And the American Century.

1. How does one trump a tour de force? Not easily. I greatly admired Cassidy's biography of Heisenberg in which he displayed great sensitivity for his subject, his work, and his times, not an easy task for the complex world of early quantum physics held against the backdrop of Germany's self-destruction. I therefore approached Oppenheimer and the American Century with gusto. Unfortunately, Cassidy has a `problem with Oppenheimer which he did not have with Heisenberg; he detests the man. Consequently, his book contains a disoncerting assortment of irritated criticism and faint praise.
   
   Cassidy takes Oppenehimer to task on a number of points: That he was a snob, that he was fickle, that he was aloof, that he was cowardly, and that he failed to realize his potential as a physicist, to name a few. In fact, Oppenheimer only succeeds after he has been skewered at the hands of the Gray committee. He then enters- and only just- Cassidy's hagiography. Moreover, Cassidy holds Oppenheimer to modern academic standards which include a healthy disdain for government in all its manifold guises. For example, while it may be fair to criticize Oppenheimer for not having been more vociferously opposed to the H-bomb, can Cassidy really fault him for having run the Mnahattan project at a time when Hitlerism threatened to engulf the world? Is it fair to assume that the war against Japan could have been won without the A bombs and still have avoided staggering losses?
   
   Cassidy also minimizes the fear generated by Stalin's usurpation of all eastern European governments save Yugoslavia. He has ostensibly forgotten that Stalin was a bona fide madman who had eliminated at least 20 million of his own people. Casidy suggests instead that there was an equation of sorts between the USSR and USA. I am not interested in apologizing for the lunatic extremes of McCarthyism, but I do think that one ought to look at the whole picture and not just those parts one wants to see.
   
   All in all this is a lackluster performance strewn here and there with occasional discussion about Oppenheimer's science and very little more about the man. Cassidy wants to berate Oppenheimer more than comprehend him. Oppenheimer may not have become all that he might have and he may have been riddled with flaws. All the more reason to grasp the essence of the man.



2. In 'J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century', acclaimed biographer and writer David C. Cassidy (Author of the highly readable 'Uncertainty: The life and science of Werner Heisenberg') spins a riveting and extremely interesting tale which puts this great man in context, in the middle of a century that witnessed great upheavals. In these, he was the observer as well as the participant. The most striking general scientific paradigm of the century, apart from the revolutions that were breathing new life into the fabric of the cosmos and of life, was the beginning of 'big science'. It was also the beginning of the 'American century' as we know it, spurred on by the advent of science and technology, and the fortuitous happenstances that the unfortunate act of war brought upon this country. People like Oppenheimer were right in the middle of this prophetic change. Although this particular subject with specific reference to Oppenheimer has been tackled in a disconnected way in many of his other biographies and books, Cassidy is probably the first one to weave the man and his times together into a coherent and insightful whole. In many ways, Oppenheimer defines the scientific and moral personality at the heart of those times. In a way, 'Science' and 'Morality', both in a general way provide a good description of the time that was the twentieth century.
   
   Growing up in New York, Robert attended the Ethical Culture School, a school whose strikingly moral looking philosophy believed in the inherent importance of ethics and the noble constraints of morality aimed at the betterment of mankind, independent of creed and religion. However, this institution was torn between the dictums of morality and the callings of practicality when war broke out in Europe. It had to reconcile itself with the Wilsonian Ideal of 'the morality of the victors'. Cassidy lucidly depicts this institution, and the changes which forced it to revisit its professed philosophy, something which has been rarely seen in detail elsewhere. Young Robert was also affected by this philosophy, and later on, coupled with the austere messages from the Bhagavad Gita which he read, it turned his personality into a strange and at many times, tortous, conglomerate of right and wrong.
   
   In the 1920s, Oppenheimer was most fortunate, and well poised to participate in perhaps the greatest revolution that science had seen, the twin package of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. In those days, the focus of scientific excellence was in Europe, with Copenhagen, Cambridge and Gottingen being the greatest centers of learning in the world. There, people like Niels Bohr, Ernest Rutherford, Arnold Sommerfeld and Max Born were training an entire generation of outstanding physicists and chemists, and Oppenheimer was fortunate to be one of them. However, war leaves its deep and far reaching scars, and as the shadow of totalitarianism extended across this magnificent continent, the reins of science became free to be harnessed by men and women who were causing ripples in the scientific world. The practical mindedness and 'can-do' spirit of the American psyche first became apparent in those times. A country that was struggling with depression slowly but surely rose to the cause. The foresight and action that has always characterised American science and business first emerged during those times. Foundations like the Rockefeller foundation started sending promising young men to Europe to quarry in the exquisite knowledge that was being created there. These men and women came back to their country, with a determination to make it second to none in science. Universities forged alliances with industry, unheard of amounts of money started to be donated by wealthy philanthropists for scientific research. The University became the archetypal epitome of discovery and scientific freedom. Men like Oppenheimer and his colleague, Ernest Lawrence, were among the initiators of this wave of technological excellence that can be seen today. Everything suddenly became big; 'big science', 'big machines', like Lawrence's magnificent cyclotron, 'big money', and big America. Cassidy profiles this period of unprecedented progress very well.
   
   Then came war. First and foremost, it brought the United States a windfall of the most brilliant scientists of the time; Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, John Von Neumann, Edward Teller, and the biggest fish of them all, the austere sage Albert Einstein. As someone said, 'The Pope of Physics has moved'. His home became the new Vatican of physics. All of these great men and women came to their adopted country to escape the ravages of racial discrimination and fanatic nationalism initiated by Hitler and Mussolini. Europe, as they knew it, was on the wane. Their beloved continent was never to be what it was before. On the other hand, they had arrived in the new land of opportunity. American science would start booming, and American leaders of science would be ecstatic. A whole group of 'scientific managers' (another creed that would be the legacy of big science) took the administrative responsibility of steering their country's scientific resources, in their hands. Among these were Robert Millikan and Arthur Compton, both Nobel Laureates, Vannevar Bush, a close confidant of Roosevelt, and James Bryant Conant, president of Harvard. They made sure that research was well-funded and scholarships were doled out to bright young people without reservations. Promising American men and women of science would no longer have to leave their nation in order to become scientific apprentices at the meccas of learning. They could now rely on their own leaders, extraordinary men who were poised for breakthroughs in science and technology. Undoubtedly leading this remarkable generation, at least in physics, was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his tutelage and guidance at the University of California, Berkeley, America's best physicists now had a home of their own, and a father figure whom they idolized. Almost every theoretical physicist of the time who later went on to high deeds, sometime trained under Oppenheimer.
   
   Then came war, and ironically, it brought the United States good tidings, at least in the beginning. More brilliant emigres. And more money to fuel the great machine of technological progress. War production suddenly galvanized into action all that work force that had laid dormant during Depression times. The United States had become the most resource rich and advanced nation in the world. All that 'big science' that had begun could now be put to good use. As if being called to such a cause, an event came to the notice of scientists, one that would change America and the world forever. Fission, and then Pearl Harbour gave an impulsive and unforseen impetus to the nation's scientific and political establishment. The rest is history. Oppenheimer became the head of the world's most top secret laboratory. The war amassed the American work force and capital power as never before. The most expensive project in history produced the most destructive weapon the world had ever seen, obliterating entire generations in a heartbeat. Although it ended the war, it stirred up many more problems and questions than it had solved or answered. Politics had finally become inextricably enmeshed with science, another legacy of the American century. America was a superpower now, although the threat of communism would always be a thorn, in no measure small, in her side. The state of the times was also driven home when Oppenheimer had his security clearance taken away by men from the Government having a perverse sense of patriotism, another instance of the unfortunate but permanent amalgamation of politics and science.
   
   Cassidy's book portrays this century well. It WAS an American century, there is no doubt about that. It changed many things forever. Scientific research would no longer be the same, requiring and engendering intense competition between giant institutions for unheard of funds, a trend that is all too obvious today. It also produced technology that we have yet to psychologically come to terms with, and maybe never will. And it raised eternal and tortous questions of morality that continue to be harrowing. Robert Oppenheimer, in a way, epitomized all of this, many times as an initiator. He and his avuncular predecessor Niels Bohr, both struggled to cope with the paradoxical nature of the most destructive weapon that would possibly end all wars. It did not turn out to be that simple, though, as the years showed, and we permanently became mortals walking a devious precipice. Oppenheimer's brilliance, versatility, and moral persona put him in a position where he could influence the world around him, and he did. But he raised many many questions that he would grapple with till the end, regarding the complex and deep repurcussions which his science had produced in the form of a terrible weapon. Because of his unusual intelligence and foresight, he was in a unique position to be a part and a questioner of those important times. The American century, inspiring as it is, is also sobering. Oppenheimer's life is a telling representative of the problems that we have solved in our quest for scientific as well as moral truth, and the many more new problems that we have created. Most importantly, Cassidy's book and Oppenheimer's life both tell us that whatever else happens, we must never cease to explore.



3. Oppenheimer was born to a wealthy family in NYC. The family owned a fabulous estate and yacht on Long Island. He wrote poetry prior to later in life achieving greatness in physics.
   
   He went to Harvard and later received his doctorate in theoretical physics overseas. He taught at Cal Tech and Berkeley prior to joining the Manhattan Project during World War II.
   
   The biography then covers the period during the 1940s when Oppenheimer was a principal in the development of the atomic bomb and the dropping of 2 atomic bombs on Japan.
   
   Following the war the USA entered the cold war era. Overnight, nuclear physicists became heros. They had won the war. He was a top scientist on the leading government scientific committees in Washington.
   
   Next, Oppenheimer and other scientists were opposed to building the Super, the hydrogen bomb. However, about a month later on the advice of Teller and others President Truman ordered that the hydrogen bomb be built.
   
   This biography explains how later in life Oppenheimer was denied his security clearance due to his opposition to the building of the hydrogen bomb.



4. The life of J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of great mystery and fascination. His role in the development of the atomic bomb and his subsequent role in shaping America's nuclear policy, as well as his rise and fall during McCarthy has been the subject of countless books. David Cassidy, Hofstra University professor, has written an excellent account of Oppenheimer's life and the development of theoretical physics in America during the early part of the 20th century. The parallelism between the life of Oppenheimer and the rise of American science is an intriguing tale that is captured in this book.
   
   This biography is a detailed and beautifully written work. Cassidy expands beyond the traditional scope of a biography and expertly explores the surrounding environment that shaped Oppenheimer's life. He draws upon previously untapped primary documents, and shows the importance and character of Oppenheimer's early education on the rest of his life. Cassidy examines the conflicts between Oppenheimer's liberal education from the Ethical Culture School and the culture that he found at Harvard. Oppenheimer's time in Europe is also recounted.
   
   The book does not become overly focused on the Manhattan Project, but covers the time on "The Hill" in enough detail to keep the story in context. He instead offers insights to the periods before the war, when Oppenheimer taught at Berkeley and Cal Tech. Oppenheimer's genius and ability to inspire his students is shown, allowing us to gain insight into the man before the events that would be the foundation of his legacy.
   
   The 1954 Atomic Energy Commission security review that disgraced Oppenheimer, and stripped him of his security clearance for alleged "red ties," are explored with the same thoughtful insight. Recent documents and information regarding those events are thoroughly and conclusively discussed.
   
   Oppenheimer: and the American Century is a welcome addition to the history of science. (by atomicarchive.com)



5. I was disappointed to find nothing in this work I hadn't already read in several other Oppenheimer biographies. Dr. Cassidy seems to have taken upon himself the mantle of chief apologist for Dr. Oppenheimer, dismissing any and all evidence for his leftist connections while consistently leveling equally specious charges against his accusers. In short, if you want fresh insights into this complex personality you will be disappointed. If, however, you share Dr. Cassidy and Dr. Oppenheimer's political bent, you should find this a rewarding read.

No comments about Edwin Lincoln Moseley (1865-1948): Naturalist, Scientist, Educator.

No comments about George Miksch Sutton: Artist, Scientist, and Teacher.

5 comments about My First Summer in the Sierra.

1. This is an excellent, honest write. Muir reluctantly dictated this book while walking around a northern California estate. The wealthy owner of the estate loaned his secretary while Muir walked and talked and the secretary took dictation. Muir had the benefit of good editors. It is a great read because Muir is walking through forests while he recounts his first summer in the Sierra Nevada. We feel it through his eyes.
   
   Muir's later writing efforts came hard, with much editing and rewrites. He worked in his "scribble den" in Martinez with "lateral, terminal and medial moraines of paper arranged about the room ready to cascade forth and bury him."
   
   The original manuscripts show much of the book was written in pencil, with at least five editings (Muir made corrections and alterations). Graham cracker crumbs are embedded in the paper (Muir ate while he worked. Eating graham crackers is a carry over from his student days at the University of Wisconsin).
   
   This is the genuine John Muir, fresh, crisp, articulate (okay, his descriptions can be a bit wordy at times) and alive with a child-like fascintation for learning and inspiration.
   
   I own an original first edition copy with the dust cover and gold leaf on the hard bound cover. I reread the book from time to time. What a great story.



2. Gretel Ehrlich provides the introduction. It is noted that John Muir walked first, wrote later. In 1868 he was thirty years old and had walked a thousand miles. He was a seeker in self-exile such as D.H. Lawrence, Rockwell Kent, and Basho. Muir chronicles a rite of passage. The summer described began in June, 1869. Forty-one years later the account was pieced together.
   
   Muir worked for Mr. Delaney as a sheepherder. He had a St. Bernard dog as a companion. Mr. Delaney encouraged Muir to sketch and pursue his naturalist studies. He was to learn that sheep cannot be governed when hungry. Bushes are stripped. The sheep resemble locusts in their destructive potential.
   
   Two kinds of squirrels are evident, the Douglas and the California Gray. The wood rat is more like a squirrel than a rat. He bulds large striking looking houses. Sheep camp bread is baked in Dutch ovens. Descriptions of silver firs, Sierra juniper, yellow and sugar pines, Douglas spruce, sequoia, hemlock, and dwarf pines appear in the account of the summer. Nature is extravagant. The group follows the Yosemite trail.
   
   Mules flee from bears, and dogs want to. Bears are very shy. Indian patience is required to see them. Making sheep cross a stream is a challenge. Once one goes in, the others push in pell-mell. Lake Tenaya was named for one of the chiefs of the Yosemite tribe. Sierra mosquitoes are nearly an inch long. Sierra chipmunks are arboreal and squirrel-like. Grouse and woodpeckers are abundant in the vicinity of Mount Hoffman.
   
   On August third Muir found Professor Butler, his teacher at the University of Wisconsin, because, sensing his presence, John Muir made inquiries at the only hotel in the area and was directed to go to the Vernal Falls. Professor Butler and his party were astonished that John Muir found them.
   
   In times of hunger the dogs, men, and sheep are confronted with lions, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and panthers. The names of places are exciting and descriptive--Moraine Lake, Mono Desert, Soda Springs, Unicorn Peak, Cathedral Range, Tuolumne, Hetch-Hetchy Valley. Muir's self-directed studies in botany clearly account for some of the strengths of this nature narrative. In the end Mr. Delaney tells Muir he will be famous some day.The author describes himself as an incredible wilderness lover. September twenty second ended Muir's first excursion.
   
   The book is a marvel. Sketches and photographs are included and enhance the work.



3. I am going to resign from critiquing this book on a literary scale, and just say that I didn't enjoy this book for the same reason a couple others mentioned - its boring and repetitive. Maybe its because I'm not used to aimless - albeit eloquent -landscape descriptions, or maybe it's the fact that NOTHING happens for 264 pages, but reading this book felt more like a chore than an enjoyable reading experience. Case in point: Casual readers beware!



4. John Muir might be the finest author of the "naturalist" genre there ever was. This book is based on his field notes he wrote while he spent his first summer in the Sierra Nevada as a shepherd. He always seems to find the perfect words to describe all that he sees. He was the consumate observer of the natural world and this book is all that. It is a must read for anyone who ever wondered what his life was like, how the Sierra Nevada appeared in the late 1800s, and how he became America's savior of public lands.



5. John Muir was born in 1838 and at a young age emigrated from Scotland with his family to a Wisconsin farm. He escaped the hard labor of the farm and his father's backward Biblical obsessions by displaying great powers of visualization. From principles learned from books, he whittled and fashioned barometers, thermometers, clocks and other marvels from the barest of materials. But he repudiated his inventive genius, which could have made him rich, after an industrial accident left him temporarily blinded; and he took off for the wilderness to discover plants and the natural world.
   
   This book is a journal account of Muir's finding a place for himself in Yosemite after some dangerous wandering through the hazards of reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. It's a book of discovery. Although flocks of sheep like Muir's employer's were allowed to overrun backcountry meadows, and gold miners had ripped apart the lower river beds, the Sierras then were still a place that had many aspects that had not yet been explored or understood. The backcountry was much more vulnerable to exploitation (though in many ways less endangered) than today, but there was freer and unfettered access for one who sought out it's mysteries and wanted to learn. This book shows Muir's powers of visualization in his beginning to formulate the role that glaciers play in the formation of the landscape. No one at that time had come to a solid understanding of what had made Yosemite Valley. And, although it might seem quite clear in retrospect, it took a strong mind of one who up until that time had been adrift in the world, a wanderer who studied plants, to visualize his theories and make them known to the world.
   
   Anyone who has not experienced the Sierra first hand cannot really appreciate this book. There are lengthy and numerous descriptions of plants and animals, loving descriptions in Muir's fashion, that can only be understood by one who has reveled in the same places and likewise wants to examine all the details. It's not a purely intellectual appreciation. It's something felt with the whole body, with all the senses alive. Muir always writes of being drawn into Nature, of never turning back, as in the case of his foolhardy venture to the brink of Yosemite Falls, "I therefore concluded not to venture farther, but did nevertheless". There's also this kind of breathless anticipation of tomorrow- if only I will be given a chance to explore its fountains...

1 comments about Rachel Carson: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies).

1. Most readers will know of "Silent Spring", however, this biography from the Greenwood series, is an apt and well formulated summary of the epitomy of the cirumstances that created Rachel Carson's legacy.
   It is a quick read that provides cursory insight. My only criticism is that the intensity that is the persona of Rachel Carson comes off somewhat languid and apolitical, although this is understandable in the intent of composing a brief biography. Highly recommended to accompany any high school student's project on the history of environmentalism, or on the naturalist movement.

4 comments about Brandy, Balloons, & Lamps: Ami Argand, 1750-1803.

1. This is a beautiful book, lavishly produced on fine paper, with 46 colored plates and many black and white photos. This is the story of Ami Argand, inventor of the greatly improved oil lamp in 1780. Argand lived an interesting life, and knew some of the main characters in the industrial revolution, such as James Watt, Matthew Boulton, and the Montgolfier brothers. His story had been mostly forgotten, though, and Wolfe has done the world some good in bringing it back to life.
   
   The lamp Argand patented was actually an important invention. It was no small thing to bring a much improved, cheaper source of light to the homes and shops of an industrializing West. The Argand lamp became the standard configuration until about 1850 when the kerosene lamp more or less replaced it. Many of them were real works of art, eagerly sought by collectors today. They were more or less on the edge of what could be mass produced at the time, and Argand experienced many trials and tribulations in bringing it to market. Even the renowned Boulton factories had trouble producing them.
   
   This is a wonderful tale of the Industrial Revolution, and I much enjoyed it. Thank you Mr. Wolfe!



2. Tremendous book. Beautifully researched and filled with staggering illustrations. I bought it as a reference as I collect lamps. As a reference and piece of scholarship it ranks with the work of Florence Montgomery, John Bivens and Catherine Lynn. What was the most pleasant surprise is that it is beautifully and compellingly written. A truly fascinating story of a fascinating man who lived during a fascinating era. No serious collector of lighting or 18-19th century decorative object should be without this work. Any major decArts library would be remiss not to own it. At $59.95 it is probably underpriced.



3. John Wolfe portrays the poignant story of a brilliant, gentle, and naive 18th century inventor, Ami Argand. Wolfe's exhaustive research rewards the reader with an intimate view into the life and thinking of Argand and other 18th century luminaries. This book engages your sense of histroy, science, intrigue, and lighting. I really enjoyed it.



4. An invention of an oil lamp has revolutionized the world. Finally, a lamp has been created that produced a good light without the annoying smoke that has plagued the social life of people over thousands of years. The value of the inventions is immediately recognized and the demand for the new lamp is overwhelming. A commercial opportunity of enormous proportion has emerged. Can a single person protect his invention and satisfy the demand for the new light against the competitive spirit of free market? It is the year 1784, the rumblings of the French Revolution, of the Napoleon wars, and of restructuring of the social systems are not yet heard. It is the time of technical innovations. The steam engine has already advanced manufacturing industry and the dream to conquer the air has just become a reality, the balloon of the Montgolfier brothers graces the sky. John J. Wolfe's book provides an initiate picture of Ami Argand, the Genevese citizen who perfected distilleries for Brandy, invented the two-air draft burner for oil lamps, and assisted the Montgolfiers in flying balloons. Its is a also the story of greed, deceit and unhappiness, and a story of an unfortunate hero and of successful villains. For the first time, an authoritative account is given for the life of Argand; a brilliant scientist who is immortalized by his invention, the Argand lamp, but also a person who sought recognition and wished to persevere in business. The combination of a spell binding story and never published pictures of early lighting promotes this book as a must for students of history, technology and lighting.

1 comments about Notable Women in Mathematics: A Biographical Dictionary.

1. This is a very good book, not only informative, but it kept me interested where so many other books on the subjects of math or women mathematicians could be real yawners. It includes lots of information, the biographies are short and don't drag on, and books like this could be very inspirational to young women interested in pursuing careers in math. The book introduces all sorts of women in math, most of whom I was not familiar with before reading it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about math-related careers, the growing importance of women in the field, or is just looking for some good non-fiction to read. It's worth it!

1 comments about Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir.

1. Muir was a naturalist, a wanderer, making his home in the wilderness throughout much of the U.S. and parts of the world. He brought the need for conservation to a consensus, not only hear but around the world. When he was a boy his family moved from Scotland and settled in Wisconsin near the Fox River, a few miles from Portage. In his early years he built a number of ingenious inventions. His schooling came from the UW Madison, where finally his academics led to geology. His main interest was the study of glaciation. He also became a gifted writer. He was complex, and somewhat of a misanthrope.
   
   Well written, Wolfe makes it interesting, especially Muir's travel exploits. She uses quotes from him and information taken from his journals. Muir was an amazing man, a rugged individualist, a natural man of the wilderness, with a passion to save the great forests from destruction. He awakened the masses with his conservation methods. He also helped initiate the National Parks, and went beyond to be charitable. He played a strong role in starting the Sierra Club, but it was nothing like the political and radical organization it is today. This is the authors' conception of Muir in the Preface: "who with all his planes and contrasts was a strongly individualized, consistent human being.......far from being a effeminate plaster saint, all sweetness and light.......he was in truth red-blooded and intensely masculine; a mystic, yet a realist with his feet on the ground; frugal in supplying his own needs, but lavishly generous to others.......".
   
   Muir was raised Christian by an overly strict father, only later to rebel. We discover Muir mixed spiritualism and naturalism. He developed a tension----a dilemma----where his philosophy of the world is actually irrational. I believe he was a true conservationist, though a bit of an anti-capitalist. I don't believe he would have accepted the environmentalism of today. I also find it interesting: Muir described the thinning out of glaciers as early as the late 19th century. I don't think government owned and run land is the answer; what starts out as a good thing ends in mismanagement, and making certain areas off limits to the populace.
   
   Wish you well
   Scott

No comments about Making Medicine Scientific: John Burdon Sanderson and the Culture of Victorian Science.

4 comments about Voices of Truth.

1. Loved this book! There's something here for everyone. I've been giving copies to friends as gifts. It's unusual to read such honest in-depth interviews with well known people. Unlike other works of this kind, this book is refreshingly direct, has no hype, and really gets to the bottom of some important and often controversial ideas without sounding preachy or defensive. In her conversation with physicist Michio Kaku, the author even manages to make advanced physics not only understandable but exciting, ironic, and amusing.



2. If you've ever wanted to have a conversation with someone whose work or ideas intrigued, then Voices of Truth is a great book for you. When you read it, you feel as though you are the one engrossed in the conversations. Journalist Nina Diamond asked 14 of our world's most intriguing people the same kinds of questions I would have asked had I been there. This book was the next best thing. She tackles very thought provoking issues and ideas often with humor and great wit that makes you feel each of her subjects--from James Redfield to Arun Ghandi-really opened up. Interesting and easy to read.



3. One of the most reader-friendly attributes of Voices of Truth is that you can read it - be entertained - and be informed while still having the ability to PUT IT ASIDE before you've finish it cover to cover. The writer's collection of interviews is assembled in such a way that while on a recent business trip, I was able to read selected segments completely from beginning to end - feel fulfilled - go on to other things and then come back to the book - over and over until I had completed reading the entire colletion of interviews. The Q & A style of this book made it seem as though I was in the room with the author and the interviewees. Quite extraordinary! Kudos to the author for presenting such a grand collection of impressive subjects!



4. Here is a collection of in-depth interviews with some of today's most visionary and progressive figures. From "the usual suspects" (Deepak Chopra, Carolyn Myss, et. al.) to folks like Arun Gandhi (grandson of the Mahatma) and pioneering neuroscientist Deborah Mash, these lengthy interviews provide a superb glimpse into the minds and thoughts of these controversial "truth-speakers." Most charming of all is author Diamond's down-to-earth, conversational, and at times genuinely humorous style. Don't miss her questioning Arun Gandhi about his grandfather's loincloth! Highly recommended.