1 comments about The Wright Brothers: The Remarkable Story of the Aviation Pioneers Who Changed the World.

1. This is a great book on the Wright Brothers. It is very detailed and well written. It takes you from their births to deaths and even discusses their father and siblings. If you want a comprehensive book on the birth of flight, this is it. It is a long book, 500+ pages but reads fast like a novel. The only negatives are, it needs more pictures and the writter is from New Zealand (which means he uses some funny words). This is a GREAT BOOK.

5 comments about Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae.

1. The other reviews summarize well some of the key accomplishments of Edwin Hubble. But this biography leaves both the nature of those accomplishments and his personality a bit abstract.
   
   Maybe this isn't the biographer's fault -- his subject was hardly a live wire. As Hubble's own wife remarked, in an inadvertently chilling quote near the book's end, other than smoking a pipe he had "no mannerisms" -- he never whistled, sang, drummed his fingers or gestured. He seems to have been something of a vain and self-centered guy, but his slights and injuries to other people seem to have been relatively mild and generally not malicious. (Pace another reviewer, we aren't told anything that could rank him as "one of the most unlikable men of all time;" he seems to have been no more, and maybe a bit less, of a jerk than many other vain, successful academics, and had many long-term friendships.) He exaggerated about his past experiences in law and the military, but these fibs seem not to have precipitated any crisis, much less catastrophe, in his life or caught up with him in any significant way. The main impression from the book is of a bland, pretentious Anglophile, Republican, with many of the racial prejudices of his day, who loved honors and attention and meeting famous people. His wife comes off as the same, though maybe slightly more prejudiced and pretentious (albeit once almost tempted to vote Democrat).
   
   Maybe the most vivid thing we're told about Hubble is how late in life he became very attached to a cat, his first permanent pet. The biographer is quite generous in his attention to this cat, BTW. He's also generous in details of who were the Hubbles' friends in Hollywood, what plays those friends or the friends' friends starred in, etc.; if you'd like to know what Hubble's wife, and her friend Anita Loos, thought of Carol Channing (an actress of whom you've probably never heard if you were born after 1960), you've hit pay dirt. There are a few character sketches of scientists that could interesting if you've heard of them before, e.g. James Jeans and Arthur Eddington. (Einstein, OTOH, is inexplicably ridiculed by GC for his physical appearance, notwithstanding that he was regarded as handsome in his day, and was kind of a rake: he's called "diminutive" (@205) and "gnomish" (@365).)
   
   What, then, made Hubble a genius? After reading this book, it's still a mystery to me. Although Hubble was famous for his studies of nebulae, there isn't even a single picture of one in the book. Hubble's work was intensely visual, and it might have been interesting to see some of the spectra or photographic plates that he used in his discoveries, but none are offered. Did Hubble's legal training during his time as a Rhodes Scholar have any role in his professional career, such as his style of writing scientific papers? No connections are drawn or even suggested. Some of the scientific controversies of the 1920s, e.g. about whether what we now call galaxies were within the Milky Way or beyond it, are explained well. But the strongest personalities in those dramas belonged to others, not Hubble. As for how "the greatest astronomer in 400 years" really ticked, one finishes the book knowing little.
   
   It may be difficult to allocate blame for that between Hubble and his biographer. But the apparent shallowness of Hubble makes this pleasant-enough read feel like a disappointment by the end.



2. For my physics class I was required to read a biography on any scientist I wanted...and I choose to read about Edwin Hubble.
   
   Before reading this book I had little knowledge of this great astronomer. While reading this book, I was generally impressed of the author's intense knowledge of Hubble's entire life. I soon found out his entire family social status, his early childhood, his success in high school and college sports as well as his interest in school and greatly respected work. His Rhodes Scholarship introduced him to a field of law which pleased his father but resumed his early childhood interest, once his father passed away. The rest is history....His system of classification (which is still used today) put Hubble on an International status but it doesn't end there. His studies of the Nebulae Red Shifts proved very useful and his data proved that the galaxy his greater than the Milky Way and later, was a key piece of information in the Big Bang Theory. Hubble's famous law V=Hd was so groundbreaking, that Einstein himself changed his General Relativity Equations to accommodate Hubble's law.
   
   Edwin Hubble, by Gale E. Christianson, is an extremely well written and well organized biography. However if a reader was not deeply interested into Hubble and his life work, he/she may find the book a little on boring side. Not to say Hubble did not live an eventful life, but I personally do not find astronomy deeply interesting.



3. Gale Christianson's biography on Edwin Hubble is the story of possibly the greatest astronomer of our time. The book includes interesting nuances about Hubble's life as well as all of his discoveries in his work. It was obvious that the author had a great amount of respect for Hubble's discoveries as well as a lot of fascination over his life. The book is extremely informative, sharing all of the details of Hubble's life as well as those of the people important to Hubble. The book is quite recommendable both as a biography, and also as an astronomy book. It teaches a significant amount on the basic terms and ideas of astronomy as well as touching on some of the more advanced concepts. The book is a wonderful account of the life of a great astronomer and the history of astronomy.



4. If you ever wondered why the Hubble Telescope is called the Hubble Telescope, I have a book that has the answer for you. In an age where all you have to do to have a highway or bridge or named after you is get elected to some minor office (the "Eric Winkler Parkway" ???) and where all you have to do to be referred to as a "genius" is guide an NFL team to a winning record ("Tampa sure has turned around since Smith arrived to handle the coaching chores haven't they Dandy? Yes Frank, they sure have, Coach Smith is a genius"), it is sobering to meet true genius -- warts and all.

   When I was in high school, I studied nothing but sciences - with a particular emphasis on Physics and Astronomy - As a child I dreamed of being an astronomer - I built my own telescope. But then fate intervened and I ended up studying English literature and becoming a music lawyer. But later in life, in my early forties, I returned to my first love via a series of general interest science books. One of those books was "Edwin Hubble, Mariner of the Nebulae".

   This compelling, lovely book was written by Gale Christianson, the author of an equally engaging portrait of Isaac Newton. Christianson is a Professor of History and writes with a down to earth, straightforward style. He writes for the general reader and does not presume that you are grounded in science or astronomy. So do not fear - dragons be not here.

   Hubble is easily one of the most important figures to have graced the 20th century - or for that matter all of history. If you think that is an overstatement, then factor this into your thinking. This one man is responsible, virtually single-handedly, for several of the most important discoveries of all time. It was with reference to a discovery of Hubble's that the famous Harlow Shapley remarked, "here is the [discovery] that has destroyed my universe".

   1. It was Hubble who confirmed the existence of other nebulae, what are now called galaxies, outside of the "Milky Way". This seems trite now, but it was not at ALL obvious at the time. Having discovered a Cepheid variable in Andromeda he was able to measure the distance to that body of stars -- the results of his calculation (using the period/luminosity relationship (discovered by Henrietta Leavitt in 1912) that makes Cepheids the standard candles of the universe) proved beyond a doubt that Andromeda was much farther away athan any star in the Milky Way.

   2. It was Hubble who proved that the universe was expanding (and worked out the famous "Hubble Constant")- an insight of incalculable significance that laid the cornerstone for the Big Bang theory.

   3. It was Hubble who developed the system of classification for galaxies that is used to this day.

   4. It was Hubble who brought forward evidence that the universe is homogenous - i.e., the same in all directions.

   Incredibly, he never won the Nobel Prize - he died before they got around to recognising him.

   But this is only part of the story. For Hubble was probably one of the most unlikeable men of all time. He was arrogant, unkind, a publicity hound, revoltingly condescending and patronising, and at times even dishonest. A considerable portion of the book is devoted to exploring his extraordinary "reinvention of himself". A polite way of saying that he made up stories about his past life to enhance his reputation - for example he claimed to have practised law.

   Shinning out of the pages of this book, like one of his Cepheid Variables, is the story of his truly extraordinary wife Grace who put up with everything and was constant and faithful to a fault.

   I guarantee that you will not be able to put this book down. You will be by turns elated, repulsed, amazed, disappointed, astounded and saddened. I very nearly wept during the achingly touching Epilogue. It is one of those special books that you will return to more than once.




5. One of the most remarkable astronomers of all time, and the one who generally gets the credit for the biggest revolution since Copernicus: Hubble was the one who recognized that the universe is expanding, and who first articulated the principle that bears his name, that of the expansion constant, the "Hubble" constant.

   This outstanding work does a good job of tracing his early years, a task made difficult by the fact that his wife destroyed many of his personal papers after his death. Hubble was enigmatic, aloof, and possibly disingenuous. He shed his Missouri roots and donned the polished exterior of a Brit. He was a shameless anglophile to the end of his life.

   He had a knack for asking the right questions at the right time, and being a talented enough observer to get the data needed to address those questions. (...)

   Christianson's work is an honest treatment of a difficult and complex subject. She doesn't gloss over the rough spots or try to sugar coat his scientific accomplishments. This is thoroughly researched and well written work.

1 comments about Fermi Remembered.

1. This book is based on a symposium held at the University of Chicago to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Enrico Fermi's birth on September 29, 2001. The editor, James Cronin, was principal organizer of the symposium. A distinguished list of speakers was assembled, and written versions of their reports are included in the book. Extensive research in the U of C archives produced many interesting documents, including letters to Fermi and by Fermi, and notes written in Fermi's hand on a wide range of topics. The results of this archival search are also included in the book.
   The decade immediately after World War II was a magical time for physics. The success of the Manhattan Project, Radar, and many other defence applications of physical science attracted much talent to the field. It seemed that almost everyone wanted a PhD in physics, and graduate schools like Chicago were mobbed. Fermi was the center of attention, and the students that he trained, both individually and in classes, went on to illustrious careers.
   This book covers many aspects of this exciting time. Space limitations in this review restrict my comments to only a few specifics. Fermi's computer program to calculate charged particle orbits in the cyclotron, written for the Los Alamos Maniac computer, is wonderful. It should be read by every programmer. The review talks by Fermi's colleagues, Richard Garwin, Murray Gell-Mann, and Marvin Goldberger, are not to be missed. The reading public interested in the history of 20th century science, in particular the period 1945-1954 when government support of peacetime research came into being, will find this book full of information not easily obtained elsewhere.

4 comments about The Forgotten Genius: Biography of Robert Hooke 1635-1703.

1. I found this review of the life of Robert Hooke to be quite fascinating. His breadth of interest and commitment to science was far greater than that of anybody else in that period. He laid out the pattern for our modern understanding of the universe. Interestingly, most scientists have never heard of him, or are only aware of his work in passing. The book is an eye-opener.



2. A thoroughly readable and enjoyable book about the intellectual colleague and contemporary of Christopher Wren and Isaac Newton in 17th century London. The writing is witty and engaging and provides a vivid look at the social, scientific and physical structure of London after the Great Fire. I especially enjoyed the author's humorous descriptions of the machinations behind the scenes of the Royal Society and the often dangerous and bizarre experiments that Hooke and others would perform for the Society. A great peep into the development of many engineering, physics, astronomical chemistry and architectural discoveries.



3. This book provides a great deal of information about Robert Hooke not only as a contributor to modern science, but as a person during his lifetime. The issue of Newton being an antagonistic force in Hooke's life is emphasized greatly, and helps the reader understand how much power Hooke had to exert in order to make his ideas and discoveries known.
   
   The book is enjoyable due to the fact that it does not solely focus on the science related aspect of Hooke's career. Having known little about him before I opened the book, I was surprised to find that he had a great deal of influence on structural architecture during the seventeenth century. The book provided me with a substantial amount of knowledge regarding Hooke's inventions and discoveries, as well as his personal feelings and reactions to certain people or occurrences, through the many quotations of his present throughout the reading.
   
   This book is a fantastic source for one who is interested in learning about every aspect of Hooke's life, from the contributions to science as a general subject to his contributions to architecture and his involvement in technology during his time period. Not only was I able to gain a better understanding of the scientist and inventor within Hooke, but I was also able to understand him as a person and his life as well.



4. As a physics teacher, I had been well aware of Robert Hooke. Every year I teach Hooke's Law of elasticity to my students. Additionally, I had been aware of the importance of his book Micrographia and, since I consider myself a bit of a student on Isaac Newton, I had known something of his conflict with Newton over the Principia. However, I admit my knowledge of Hooke was sketchy. As a student of scientific history, I wanted that rectified so I turned to this book. It was certainly a rewarding experience.
   
   Without a doubt, I learned much more than I ever knew about Robert Hooke and I gained a new respect for the man. Hooke's areas of interest were wide and his curiosity unbounded. I was completely unaware of his work with Christopher Wren and his own contributions to architecture and the reconstruction of London after the Great Fire. Additionally, I came to admire his willingness to stand behind the virtues of science (as in his prescient speculations on evolution) in the face of religious prejudice. And, apart from learning about Hooke, this book gives a deeper understanding of what it was like to be a working scientist in the early years of scientific exploration. It is certainly an excellent example of scientific biography.
   
   There are a couple weaknesses with the book that kept coming back to me as I read, however. The first has to do with style; particularly, the style that I've noticed most often in British histories of science. Namely, the overabundance of information. This book is packed with detail. Much more detail than is really necessary in telling Hooke's story. Inwood often used Hooke's diary to make excellent points about the man often with respect to his day-to-day life, relationships and personalities but he also used it to excess in describing the myriad details of Hooke's work and investigations. Fortunately, I'm used to this style of writing and even enjoy it to an extent but even I found some of the lists of Hooke's doings and travels tedious going.
   
   Still, it is the second flaw I find to be much more serious. One of Inwood's main goals seems to be to rehabilitate Hooke and give him his rightful place among history's great scientists. In this, I feel Inwood failed. In England this book was published as The Man Who Knew Too Much and this seems to me to be about right. But in America we say "a jack of all trades and a master of none." Hooke never comes across to me as a genius. Extraordinarily energetic and technically brilliant, he didn't seem to me to have the kind of mind that Newton and Huygens had. Perhaps if he had focused his abilities more he would have had their kind of triumphs but I doubt it.
   
   And Inwood did nothing to dispel the image of Hooke as a bitter man who tried to claim the better work of others as his own. The repetition of Hooke's own claims to priority in his diary, letters and in the Royal Society records are probably only a fraction of the claims he made in his life and these alone are tedious. Inwood tries to make the point that the bitter man history describes could not have maintained the kind of friendships Hooke did in his life but I find that to be an argument without merit. Even the worst men have friends and Hooke was by no means a bad man. Inwood's book gives a picture of a lower class man trying throughout his life to gain the respect of the upper class and basically failing. We can sympathize with Hooke's struggles but that does not change the fact that, though often unfairly treated, many of his problems were of his own making.
   
   In the final analysis, however, this is a very worthwhile book for anyone interested in the history of science. Hooke was, in his own way, an amazing man and it is fascinating to see this revolutionary time in science through the eyes of one of its most important supporters. In Hooke we see the forerunner of every man and woman who puts their all into science and tries tirelessly to make great discoveries. He may not be at the pinnacle but he deserves his place in scientific history.

5 comments about Wernher von Braun: The Man Who Sold the Moon.

1. My honest opinion on this book is that it is interesting. There is lots of detailed information about Wernher von Braun that sometimes I thought that they were unnecessary. But the story of his life was interesting enough that it was easy to disregard that unnecessary and sometimes excessive information. There were some missing stories about his early life in Germany, but it is understandable as many of that information were lost after the war and Wernher von Braun himself tried to avoid the subject. As I was reading this book I learned that there were more to history than just sending a man to the moon to compete against Soviet Union during Cold War. I always thought that U.S. was capable of building a rocket but only decided not to because they did not see the importance in it. I thought that the technology was available but wasn't put to use. This book showed me that I was wrong. All the people involved in developing the rocket had to put tremendous amount of time, money, and effort to build rocket capable of sending a man to the moon. The book covers a big part of the history that was never mentioned or taught in schools. The book shows us an important part of the history that all of us overlooks and take for granted. This book is worth reading just to learn how Wernher von Braun achieved his dream, but it also tells us a part of the history that has affected us all without us acknowledging or knowing it.



2. No one can deny Von Braun's achievements. He took rocketry from the simple missiles used by the military all the way through the space race years to finally achieving his dream of putting men on the moon with his Saturn V rocket. He was overall responsible for arguably humanity's greatest ever achievement, that of putting a man on the moon.
   
   Unfortunately, Dennis Piszkiewicz seems to have made it *his* life's work to smear Von Braun because of his SS officer past. But the only crime against humanity he is able to link Von Braun to is the fact that slave labor was used by the Nazis to manufacture the V2 rockets that Von Braun designed. Cue another best selling book about the Nazis.
   
   Unless you're vindictive and Nazi obsessed like our friend Dennis here try another book instead of this spiteful rubbish.



3. A brilliant and perfect analysis of the American period in the life of this very clever, organized,tough and "protected" man. The title suits perfectly the contents.
   It is a pity the author does not cover in some detail the first six months of 1.945 in the life of this person, this would have provided a more complete analysis of the biography of this German manager (more than engineer)and a better understanding of those aspects of his American biography not yet clearly explained.
   In any case it is a perfect analysis of the character.
   If this analysis be extrapolated to the German period of his life it would be easy to anticipate his authentic biography. A pragmatic and egocentric character. A potentially dangerous man.
   A very good book



4. Wernher von Braun (March 23 1912 - June 16 1977) is a two-sided problem for any writer. First, we know, he developed as a NASA-genius the Redstone rocket that placed Alan Shepard in suborbital flight in May 1961. Then he produced the great Saturn rockets that so successfully launched the U.S. manned flights to the Moon. But on the other hand over 5,000 of his V-2s were fired on Britain (V-2 for "Vergeltungswaffe 2", meaning "retaliation weapon 2"; a name invented by Josef Goebbels). These Nazi-rockets killed 2,724 people and badly injured 6,000. Moreover he was a major in the Nazi SS and one of Hitler's elite. Von Braun supervised the rocket's construction at the Nazis' Mittelwerk factory, which used slave labor from the nearby Dora concentration camp. In a letter to Mittelwerk's production manager, von Braun tells how he himself went to the notorious Buchenwald camp to arrange for the transport of more prisoners to Mittelwerk. At least 700 of them later died there. Survivors of the "hell of DORA" reported of burning corpse mountains, torture and for deterrence hanged prisoners at cranes. Dutch Sources report of 20.000 dead ones. Many slaves were murdered to eliminate any oral historical record of this new strange technology and the Nazi cruelties. Therefore von Braun also was a war criminal, and there must be a discussion of his culpability. The book of Dennis Piskiewicz tries to satisfy both sides of view. Not as satirical as the songwriter and verse-maker Tom Lehrer rhymed 1965 for a BBC television show: "'Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down? / That's not my department', says Wernher von Braun". Maybe there are character-similarities (and friendly helping connections) between von Braun and Hitler's architect and Minister of Armaments Albert Speer. Fragment of those ingenious conqueror characters (compare with the Howard Hughes Story THE AVIATOR) often are human abysses like success greed, triumphing and all controlling volitions (Von Braun adored Nietzsche), a drive to achieve goals at almost any price, pathological jealous (remember Eisenhower's personal dislike of the German rocket team). On the other hand: 118 German rocket scientists were brought from Hitler's Third Reich together with von Braun to the USA as part of a military operation called Project Paperclip (helping sift through the Pennemuende documents). Later on von Braun became the director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville. He developed the Redstone (used for the Persian Gulf War), Jupiter-C (first satellite, Explorer), Juno and Pershing missiles; he received a mandate to build the giant Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans 1969 to the Moon: Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins. The above mentioned Tom Lehrer criticized: "What is it that will make it possible to spend twenty billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon?" Von Braun diabolically used his rhetorical abilities to set the US senate in fear of the Soviet Union; that blowed up the financing of his rocket-budgets and the Cold War hysteria as well. Once von Braun answered (with regard to the Nazi-system): it has been important, how the golden cow would be milked most successfully. Now, he didn't change his behaviour-patterns in the USA. Very ironically WvB commented: "There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program - your tax-dollar will go further." Therefore it is not astonishing, that the last line of Piskiewicz's book is: "Sadly, because of his complicity with the Nazi cause, he also sold his soul to reach that goal." The rocket programs (in Germany and the United States as well) ate up scare resources that could have been better invested in other types of social responsibility and political care.



5. Wernher von Braun (March 23 1912 - June 16 1977) is a two-sided problem for any writer. First, we know, he developed as a NASA-genius the Redstone rocket that placed Alan Shepard in suborbital flight in May 1961. Then he produced the great Saturn rockets that so successfully launched the U.S. manned flights to the Moon. But on the other hand over 5,000 of his V-2s were fired on Britain (V-2 for "Vergeltungswaffe 2", meaning "retaliation weapon 2"; a name invented by Josef Goebbels). These Nazi-rockets killed 2,724 people and badly injured 6,000. Moreover he was a major in the Nazi SS and one of Hitler's elite. Von Braun supervised the rocket's construction at the Nazis' Mittelwerk factory, which used slave labor from the nearby Dora concentration camp. In a letter to Mittelwerk's production manager, von Braun tells how he himself went to the notorious Buchenwald camp to arrange for the transport of more prisoners to Mittelwerk. At least 700 of them later died there. Survivors of the "hell of DORA" reported of burning corpse mountains, torture and for deterrence hanged prisoners at cranes. Dutch Sources report of 20.000 dead ones. Many slaves were murdered to eliminate any oral historical record of this new strange technology and the Nazi cruelties. Therefore von Braun also was a war criminal, and there must be a discussion of his culpability. The book of Dennis Piskiewicz tries to satisfy both sides of view. Not as satirical as the songwriter and verse-maker Tom Lehrer rhymed 1965 for a BBC television show: "'Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down? / That's not my department', says Wernher von Braun". Maybe there are character-similarities (and friendly helping connections) between von Braun and Hitler's architect and Minister of Armaments Albert Speer. Fragment of those ingenious conqueror characters (compare with the Howard Hughes Story THE AVIATOR) often are human abysses like success greed, triumphing and all controlling volitions (Von Braun adored Nietzsche), a drive to achieve goals at almost any price, pathological jealous (remember Eisenhower's personal dislike of the German rocket team). On the other hand: 118 German rocket scientists were brought from Hitler's Third Reich together with von Braun to the USA as part of a military operation called Project Paperclip (helping sift through the Pennemuende documents). Later on von Braun became the director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville. He developed the Redstone (used for the Persian Gulf War), Jupiter-C (first satellite, Explorer), Juno and Pershing missiles; he received a mandate to build the giant Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans 1969 to the Moon: Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins. The above mentioned Tom Lehrer criticized: "What is it that will make it possible to spend twenty billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon?" Von Braun diabolically used his rhetorical abilities to set the US senate in fear of the Soviet Union; that blowed up the financing of his rocket-budgets and the Cold War hysteria as well. Once von Braun answered (with regard to the Nazi-system): it has been important, how the golden cow would be milked most successfully. Now, he didn't change his behaviour-patterns in the USA. Very ironically WvB commented: "There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program - your tax-dollar will go further." Therefore it is not astonishing, that the last line of Piskiewicz's book is: "Sadly, because of his complicity with the Nazi cause, he also sold his soul to reach that goal." The rocket programs (in Germany and the United States as well) ate up scare resources that could have been better invested in other types of social responsibility and political care.

1 comments about Goldberger's War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader.

1. The quality of the book is excellent. I received my order within 2-3 days. Thank you!

No comments about Anna Freud: The Dream of Psychoanalysis (Radcliffe Biography Series).

3 comments about A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics.

1. A word to the wise, heed the title and sub-title of this book. It is not a very good all around biography of Sir Francis Galton. The book does bring you up to his first accomplishment, African exploration, very directly. Other chapters occasionally touch on some of his life-milestones like marriage and his relationship with the Royal Geographical Society. The majority of the book discusses his theories and scientific achievements. The book delves deep when it arrives on Galton's ideas and experiments in the field of genetics and hereditary traits. The reader will wonder why the book takes such great pains to explain Galton's outdated Victorian genetic theory. A quick perusal of the author's bio shows that he is a professor of genetics.
   Sir Francis Galton does not have much name recognition today, but his name pops up in various books about the history of African exploration, statistics and genetics. He was one of a hand-full of renaissance type geniuses that Britain produced during the Victorian Age. They had wide ranging interests and consequently wide ranging discoveries. Galton is also credited with discovering the uniqueness of fingerprints to each individual. He began the modern type of data collection through scientific surveys and he correlated the results statistically. His improvements in the field of statistics are still used today.
   There are not too many biographical books about Sir Francis Galton
   This book may be a little too much for the casual reader looking for some general information . The reader must be prepared to skim over the deeper sections.



2. This biography of Sir Francis Galton is clearly well-researched. The difficulty, however, is that while the author writes individual paragraphs in an interesting, descriptive style, the paragraphs themselves come one after another in confusing sequence, with so much detail that it is difficult to follow or focus on the main thread.
   
   A much more readable Galton biography is the one published in 2004 by Martin Brookes, which obviously used the same primary sources and contains much of the same information (in some instances, almost word-for-word.) The Gillham book has the advantage of having visual representations of Galton's graphs, tables, etc., and contains a deeper level of scientific detail. If you are more interested in the life of the man, what made him tick, and his place in history, go with the Brookes version.
   
   Note: Gillham's version has an extensive index; Brookes' version has none.



3. A comprehensive life of Sir Francis Galton busting with detail. Unfortunately more about what he did than about what he was or how he came to be. In the later parts he is hardly mentioned in page after page while the abstruse arguments of his disciples are rehashed ad nauseum. There is a "tinge" of calling Galton a racist and he's connected to Herrenstein's The Bell Curve -- which dates this book. In truth, Galton was an amazing and varied genius who created much of statistics and the idea of "intelligence." One can't help but notice the incredible group of connections between Galton and other Victorian intelligensiae such as JBS Haldane, J Clerk Maxwell, William Kingdon Clifford (whom some think is the model for H.G.Wells' "Time Traveler") and others. On balance, a qualified recommendation. Lots of notes and a remarkable subject. Yet, I would have liked more information on Galton's own mental processes. The story reinforces the idea that the Victorian age was really interesting and chock-o-block with interesting people.

5 comments about Isis & Beyond: The Biography of Cecil E. Nixon.

1. One of San Francisco's last colorful eccentrics, Dr. Cecil Nixon (1874-1962) is perhaps the most interesting inventor, underground or renouned, to have existed. Starting out as a Stage Magician and retiring in his midlife as a Dentist, Dr. Nixon later went on to create some of the most amazing mechanical devices ever documented. Examples include Sesame, the hand-carved door which opened on voice command, The Zither-playing automaton Isis (whose playlist featured over one-thousand songs - all voice activated), and her incredibly more advanced, though sadly unfinished violion-playing counter-part Galatea. All of this long before the advent of the computer. Learn of Dr. Nixon's philosophies, interests, loves, triumphs, and tragic end, all in this slender volume. A quick and inspiring read. Gets four stars for length.



2. This slim volume is worth it's weight in gold. A glimpse into the life of a man who inhabited his own self-created world, a man out of step with the modern world of his own age. The author has done a masterful job of researching his subject, & this volume can only be described as lavishly produced. Like it's topic, the book itself seems to harken back to a bygone era. Dr. Nixon would no doubt be proud of this testament to his life, & despite it's brevity, it paints a very vivid portrait indeed. But for the research of Mr. Wittelsbach, Nixon may have become lost in the mists of time.



3. I bought this book because Cecil Nixon was Anton LaVey's mentor. There is some good behind the scenes stuff about Anton LaVey in this book. The author, Doran Wittlesbach, also puts out a magazine, called "Bloody Beautiful" that I love.



4. I lived in San Francisco for a while, and I love this book, which is kind of about the secret history of that city: The odd artists and debutantes that circulated there in the good old days. I just wish this book had been longer. But, the other review is right about the layout of the book: It looks great. I've got my copy on a stand on my bookshelf. I hope someone writes a longer book about Cecil Nixon someday.



5. A look at the life of magician, inventor, gadfly, Cecil Nixon! Well researched and amusingly written. I really love the ornate cloth binding: uniquely "high class" for an independant, small-press type of book

No comments about The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: Volume 15, 1867 (The Correspondence of Charles Darwin).