5 comments about Paul A. Samuelson: On Being an Economist.

1. 
   The forward by Stiglitz is not very astounding. It doesn't help us to recognize Samuelson as a person beyond what we know him through his numerous contributions. I have started reading the subsequent chapters and hope to have a better idea of the man..particulalry his thought process - conception, clarity of thinking though a problem and taking it to a solution...



2. I recommend that this book be purchased.It gives an above average to very good overview of the life and times of Paul Samuelson,starting from his days as an undergraduate majoring in economics at the University of Chicago.It does an admirable job in covering the importance of Samuelson's unmatched textbook,Economics,as well as the surrounding historical and political conditions and controversies that occurred during the writing of the book.However,Samuelson's consistent core position concerning the interface between macroeconomics,microeconomics and the economics of Keynes, as expressed by Keynes in the General Theory(1936),in general and,specifically, in section III of chapter 24,is not covered at all.The reader,who finishs this book,will come away without grasping exactly what it was that Samuelson took away from his reading of the GT.It certainly was not Keynes's mathematical model of chapters 19,20, and 21.Samuelson had been convinced by the misleading claims of Richard Kahn,Joan Robinson and Austin Robinson that,while Keynes's new ideas and approach were fundamentally correct,he had made a technical mess of the formal,mathematical expression and exposition of his theory.Nevertheless,Samuelson did have a very deep understanding and appreciation for Keynes's approach,if not his technique. Samuelson viewed the study of economics and macroeconomics as the study of an economy as a whole.An economy is made up of a private sector and a public sector.There are micro-theoretical underpinnings to the decision making calculus in both sectors.Both sectors are vital to realizing the goal of economic growth and prosperity at full employment,non inflationary levels of gross domestic product.Both public goods and private goods are absolutely necessary.The concept of a completely private economy,operating under conditions of laissez faire,is a myth that was completely rejected by the founding fathers of the United States of America in 1787.The standard reference is The Federalist Papers ,written by Hamilton,Madison,and Jay.The economic system,AS A WHOLE,can be made to function as if it were an ergodic system IF,AND ONLY IF, the following policies are followed.These policies will create a stable,full employment level of output.First,an activist and interventionist monetary and fiscal policy is implemented.Second,a progressive taxation system is implemented.Third, continuous government spending on investment on infrastructure projects,public goods,and public works is implemented.These three policies will counterbalance and negate the highly variable,unstable,volatile,insufficient,unpredictable private sector spending on investment in fixed ,durable capital goods(plants,factories,machinery,computer hardware and software,etc.)that occurs due to the uncertainty(D. Ellsberg's ambiguity)of the future in all capitalist economies.Fourth,money wages and prices are sticky.Sticky does not mean rigid or inflexible.Fifth,introduction of more interest,wage,and price flexibility,combined with policies 1,2 and 3,will result in attaining the goal of full employment.The expansion of government to include activist,interventionist monetary and fiscal policy,and increased public sector spending on public goods and infrastructure,necessary to counter the shortfalls in required private sector spending on investment ,will mean that"...if our central controls succeed in establishing an aggregate volume of output corresponding to full employment as nearly as is practicable,the classical theory comes into its own again from this point onwards."(Keynes,1936,p.378).Samuelson has digested this point.His detractors have not.The authors of this book only discuss the strange and incomprehensible objections made by the authors of a two volume book called the Anti-Samuelson(1977)and libertarian anarchists believers in Laissez Faire,like Murray Rothbard and Mark Skousen ,who assume that there is no difference between consumption goods and investment goods or between fixed capital and circulating capital(inventories).Supposedly,investment is a completely stable,predictable function of the long run real rate of interest only.All of the empirical evidence shows that long run investment is not a stable,predictable or nonvolatile function of the real rate of interest.Another strange critic of Samuelson,not mentioned in this book, is Paul Davidson,one of the founders of the Post Keynesian School of economics.Davidson makes the unsupportable charge that Samuelson is not a Keynesian of any type.The reader of this review will discover that Davidson never cites or mentions Keynes's analysis in section III of chapter 24 of the GT whenever he criticizes Samuelson for not being a "true" Keynesian.In fact ,nowhere in the corpus of Davidson's published work ,going back to 1960 ,has Davidson ever dealt with this section of the GT except in dismissive one liners.Finally,none of the other schools of economic thought,such as rational expectations,monetarist,austrian,supply side,or real business cycles,have a clue to the fundamental problem of capitalism.Samuelson,following Keynes,realized that it is the shortfall in investment spending that is the crucial problem in introducing involuntary unemployment into a capitalist economy.Samuelson said it best:"When it comes to investment,the laissez faire system has no good thermostat".No good thermostat means that such an economic system is not self regulating or correcting.The Laissez Faire approach does not lead to full employment unless "we're lucky" .No economist has ever demonstrated theoretically or empirically that the laissez faire system has a good thermostat.



3. This is an engaging and readable encomium to Samuelson, a selective history of economic theory and an introduction to economics. Quite an accomplishment in 160 pages!
   I particularly enjoyed its informal conversational style and use of personal anecdotes. These really brought the reader to feel privy to important people and events. The text also successfully conveyed the Stiglitz' love of Samuelson - his excellence as a human being, over and above his accomplishments as a theoretician.
   Chapters 2 and 3 were quite informative to me, successful introductions to key aspects of the science of economics. In just a couple of pages Stiglitz succeeds in conveying the changes from feudalism to mercantilism to free market in a way which showed why a new understanding of economics was needed. He then goes on to show shortcomings in classical theory which called for Samuelson's contributions. The author's presentation of Samuelson's incorporation of mathematical modeling in economics and the revolution that brought was also clear and interesting.
   The sections at the end of each chapter "Additional Notes and Sources" are
   very helpful to this reader who is not a professional in economics.



4. Paul A. Samuelson: "On Being an Economist" offers the ability for a reader to embark on the life chronicles of PAS with bifocals; a broad view is offered of the influences contributing to Samuelson's master of prose, wit and thrilling ability to connect with an audience while powerfully maintaining focus on the extraordinaire responsible for the revitalization of economics as a discipline. The work projects a well supported analytical approach to the achievements of PAS while successfully encrypted with celebratory views of a legendary career. Furthermore, the narrative's current personifies a conversation with a broad audience of sophisticated, yet non-economist spectators fruitfully ignited by the importance of economic deliberation throughout the 20th Century. Without doubt, this work is a tribute to Samuelson; Praise is offered through an anthological retelling of education, achievement and tribulations ultimately filtering through to the doctrinaire contributing immensely to the study of economics. However, without avail, the style holds constant the ability to flicker economic theory and undoubted utile function in a comprehensible fashion avoiding the typical stray to technical and mathematical models for evidentiary purposes. The meat of the storyline is functionally outlined through Chapters 2 through 4 carrying the reader from Samuelson's philosophy, extrapolating the "mathematical language" of his methodology, and through to the kaleidoscope of Samuelson's celebrity (presenting both praise and criticism). A well captured account of the history behind the history made by Paul A. Samuelson.



5. Paul Samuelson has personified mainstream economics and is undeniably a great economist. In the book Paul A. Samuelson: On Being an Economist, I find very relevant parallels between his theories in microeconomics and the financial industry today. For someone like me who holds an advanced degree in Economics and then having branched out to a MBA in Finance and now working in the hedge fund industry, Samuelson's works have been a constant factor all through my educational and professional life. This book is a magnificent tribute to his contribution in the field. To have a book dedicated to the guru of Economics and authored by Joseph Stiglitz another leading authority in Economics, is a very rare and dynamic combination. I would recommend this book to all professionals in Wall Street today who deal with finance & economics as well as to individuals who have an interest in the field to expand their horizons. Once again... A MUST READ!

5 comments about Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss.

1. The double-authorship of the Barthelme brothers makes their recounting of their addictive past with gambling provides for a fascinating memoir. At first glance, this book may seem to be merely a pop-fiction story, but the journey these two brothers goes through is deep and many-faceted.
   
   I read this book as a required text for a college course on American culture, and how society views luck and chance. The book worked well as our final text, but it can also be read for entertainment! At times, it reminded me of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing (with the obscene amounts of drugs). Definitely a book to read, and then pass on to a friend!



2. Excellent! A wonderfully entertaining story, beautifully told. The only problem, I wish it had gone another 100 pages! This is one of those stories you wish someone would develop into a screenplay for a movie!
   Final thoughts: BUY THIS BOOK! You wont be disappointed!



3. First, the obvious: neither Barthelme brother would have cushy college-teaching jobs had not their eldest brother, Donald, been a trendy post-modernist icon. The younger brother, Steven B., has managed to publish exactly one (1) book of short stories; Rick, the larger, plumper one, has some sort of gossamer reputation among those who like trailer-park fiction. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of better writers with better qualifications who would kill and maim with gleeful abandon for jobs at Southern Mississippi -- and who would devote themselves to those jobs, and to their students, rather than run off two or three times a week to squander Daddy's money at the blackjack tables [disclaimer: the undersigned thinks she is one of those "better writers"]. That said, this slender volume does indeed fascinate: I read it straight through in five hours, and so will most readers of a literary bent. The brothers B. have in fact done me a service, one years of shrink visits and antidepressants have failed to do -- in one stroke, they have made me glad, glad, glad that I abandoned the academy, failed to obtain a Ph.D., and find myself teaching high school English thirty years after my Iowa fiction MFA. Theirs is a cautionary tale, of what may happen to smart people with minimal reality contact and few, if any, day-to-day responsibilities. The cavernous lack of common-sense knowledge they display in their forays to the Gulf Coast casinos would be inconceivable to anyone who's punched a clock or handled an insurance claim. They are actually surprised to find that casinos have a corporate identity! Gee, they thought those people were their friends ... gahh! As for the dead father they apparently despised, I felt sorry for D. Barthelme Sr. His hard work, his habits of deep thinking and attention to detail, become monstrosities in the ham-hands of his two youngest sons, who in fifty-plus years on this planet have not managed to obtain perspective one. The book is good -- the descriptions of gambling's intoxications, the minute processing of each foolish and silly and self-deluding thought as it arises, are executed with consummate skill -- and yet one can't help concluding, as the memoir shrinks down upon itself into a puddle of anticlimax, that six months or so in prison would have been good for these men, taught them a painful life-lesson or two. Crucial to an understanding of the brothers' plight is the fact that neither Barthelme bothered to have children, thus giving themselves the right to be babies forever. They are not so much perpetual adolescents as they are pre-pubescent (wife and girlfriend notwithstanding), mired forever in Fiftiesland where, if you want to be a cowboy, you just put on the hat and yell, "Bang-bang!" They are not intellectual -- or accomplished -- enough for the ivory-tower defense they so quickly assume; what they are, are second- and third-tier journeymen blessed with a famous name and a glib ability to sling the relativist Crisco. While one may end up wishing Barthelme Sr., who unlike his sons appeared to be able to distinguish right from wrong, had willed his inheritance somewhere else, this reviewer is grateful for the folly of his heirs. A job at Southern Mississippi may be gravy, but that thin gruel isn't nourishing. Real life is the real meat.



4. Double Down is a terrific book about loss. Frederick and Steve Barthelme are brothers who moved to Mississippi to become college professors. They come from a very close knit family, and when it is unwoven from the death of their Mother and Father, a gambling addiction is triggered. Steve and Frederick become regulars at The Grand, a local casino, and they start going at least once a week and spending the whole night there all the way into early morning. After blowing all of their inheritance from their parents, they are acussed of cheating. They were indicted and charged with a felony, and forever kicked out of their favorite casino. This didn't stop their gambling addiction, however it did slow it down. They make fewer trips, to another casino and are less intense gamblers.

   The book was well written and for the most part it kept my attention. Some parts they seemed to ramble off about their parents and family, and it gets slow. The accounts of their gambling binges keep you wanting more. They know they should stop, but keep throwing their money in anyway. I recommend this to everyone who is intrested in gambling.




5. Double Down, a book about two brothers who discover the world of gambling, has the suspense and drama needed for a good gambling story. The two brothers, who happen to be respectable college professors, move down South to Mississippi to be around their parents. The family, which has drifted apart through the years, has come together for their parent's final years. Soon after their dad die's, the inheritance money starts burning a hole in the brother's pockets. Riverboat gambling puts out the fire. The wild ride lasts for two years, until the Casino accuses them of cheating. Through it all, the brother's learn about themselves, family, and why people do the things they do.

5 comments about The Family Silver: A Memoir of Depression and Inheritance.

1. I read this book for the reasons I think most people would read a book with this subtitle - to see if I could identify with the author and perhaps gain some new insight from her experience. As I progressed through it, I was amazed by the congruence of our experiences, but felt a rising call to let the author know her conclusions left me wondering how she could have missed the bigger picture, the common denominations that make it possible for her to connect with people who do not have her specific family history. Ms. O'Brien traces her depression to Irish history, specifically to simply being Irish and a descendant of the town the famine hit hardest. But my own family history has not a drop of Irish in it and I turned down page after page of parallels in her experience and mine. I wanted to tell her, "forget the Irish, already, and focus on the feelings, the reactions to loss and shame that make us all human." Another thread in her story is her almost worshipful attachment to her father. My relationship to my own was similar and I also never married. Yet, when a therapist gives her some insight into how it has affected her, she rejects completely the opportunity to learn something from it and trashes the therapist. So... I am glad I read her book, to find there are others who have lived a life very much in many ways like my own, but I don't feel I was hearing wisdom from the writer and that disappointed me.



2. This is a fascinating account of growing up as an Irish American in the mid 20th century told with dark Irish humor but always with love. It is one of the best accounts of the true impact of depression on the family as well as the individual. One of the best books I have read in the past year.



3. I just couldn't put this book down. This helped me understand so much about myself and my family...and how we've all been shaped by the past. O'brien's humor and warmth stay with you long after you've read the book. A must read for anyone who comes from a family.



4. O'Brien has written a "Memoir of Depression and Inheritance" and she succeeds brilliantly in all of these intentions. This book works beautifully as a memoir, evoking in three dimensions, in colour and almost with smells and sounds, the world of upper-middle class expectations and genteel failure and the anxieties of her parents, and the alternative world of Elmira, which to me has the ring of a magic land. The people - mother, father, siblings, aunts - are whole and understandable and believable and sympathetic. The whole world within which the author strives to grow up is real and immediate on the page.
   
   More than a memoir, O'Brien has the ambition of understanding inheritance. Her book links behaviour and consequence and puts forward explanations and theories of action and traces the interconnecting threads that link relative with relative and past with outcome. This does not obtrude in the narrative: her skill in writing presents these insights as natural extensionds to the momentum of the absorbing story.
   
   The inheritance that is at the centre of O'Brien's understanding is the inheritance of depression. She addresses this with subtlety - she understands, and manages to present the complexity of inheritance and upbringing, accident and fate, biochemistry and environment, individual and social history. She is also alert to the accidents of everyday life that contribute to, and often trigger depression. I love her " `occasions of depression' which the vulnerable among us need to avoid or manage carefully." (p. 159) on the analogy of the "occasions of sin" that beset the unwary Roman Catholic.
   
   The framework for a real humane psychology should be biography, and the complex threads through which a biography is realized. O'Brien's beautiful book is a contribution to this true science of psychology. The fact that it is contained in this insightful memoir and is presented in superb language probably means that it will never feature in psychology reading lists, but it should (though the first reviewer here gives us hope!).



5. I LOVED this book. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down.
   
   I grew up in the same Boston suburb as the author, in a family spiraling in similar downward economic mobility, and I'm about the same age as the author, so many of her experiences mirrored my own. Her mirror brought me surprising clarity and compassion with regard to my parents' struggles and the impact their struggles had on my own growing up.
   
   I'm a psychologist now. When I look at this book from my professional viewpoint, as someone who treats and writes about depression, I also feel that it's a terrific resource. I will be recommending it to adults I treat for recurrent depressive episodes.
   
   The author's depressions started when she was an adolescent, and continued intermittently through much of her adult life. Watching her gain understanding and mastery over this depressive tendency gave me a deeper understanding of how I can help the depressed individuals with whom I work.
   
   BRAVO to the author, and thanks!

2 comments about Acting on Promise: Reflections of a University President (Polyglot Press Academic Edition).

1. I found Dr. Bruce's book to be a fascinating description of how a strong president can build a University through pursuasive and bold leadership while also allowing for concensus and collegiality. He provides a captivating model for others to follow. His personal stories, honesty and wit; the inclusion of various administrators, and his wife; and the obvious difficulty in retelling certain situations and events, bring the strategic planning and initiatives to life. His chapter on college athletics is compelling reading for anyone in higher education today.
   
   I think this book is critically important reading for college presidents and those aspiring to become presidents . It should also be on every college trustee's 'must read' list.
   
   I enjoyed it immensley.



2. Acting on Promise provides an important message for anyone pursuing a career as a college/university administrator. Without beating his own drum, Bob Bruce provides a seven step outline for effective senior leadership.
   
   1. Hire good people
   2. Define their roles
   3. Encourage dialogue and open expression of ideas
   4. Build a consensus
   5. Make sure everyone is on the same page
   6. Allow them to run their own divisions
   7. Hold people accountable
   
   His book also makes a convincing argument for the value of "strategic thinking" as a dynamic alternative to an institutional "strategic plan". Acting on Promise should be required reading for Doctoral programs in Higher Education.
   
   --Michael L. Mahoney, D.Ed.
   
   Acting on Promise was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Having been a junior staff member during the last eight years of Bob Bruce's administration it was interesting to see how Widener evolved into the dynamic institution it became under his leadership. The book is a valuable resource tool for all levels of administrators as Bob's leadership style revealed in the book serves as a blueprint on how to encourage, mentor and inspire. Acting on Promise reinforces and illustrates the `how-to' of successful leadership page by page, and I am proof of how a career has been positively shaped as a result of working for a most dynamic president who was vested in every person at Widener.
   
   --Susan Fumagalli

2 comments about Over Hill And Dale.

1. I enjoyed this book from the first word. It moves along with a very upbeat approach to life, pointing out the lovely, the poignant, and the humorous as the author goes about his interesting job inspecting village schools. As a teacher, I can verify the truth of his experiences, and he tells them in an engaging manner.
   
   The book does compare with James Herriot. If you enjoy Jan Karon,or Miss Read, Gervase Phinn will be pleasant reading, too.



2. This book will be enjoyed by anyone who has a love of children. In particular anyone with any contact with the teaching profession will recognise immediately the situations recounted in great depth by the author.

   As an HMI inspector visiting countless schools, Mr Phinn's perfectly captured descriptions of the children, their teachers and the everyday school activities were a joy to read. His exquisite perceptions of the children put the reader into the classroom observing the joys, laughter and at times touching moments which managed to put a lump into my throat. I was there stifling my laughter as a young boy covers him with paint, I was embarrassed as a harrassed young teacher mistaking him for a care worker asks if he has seen the inspectors yet? and I was reaching for my handkerchief as a young blind child recounts a touching version of her understanding of sight.

   A thoroughly charming read, which you won't want to put down.

5 comments about The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill.

1. For a wonderful read about a man I know, but thank you even more for articulating the hugh problem at the heart of academia today -- political correctness that has left a whole generation of students with a disfunctional inner compass. Thank God Charlie Hill decided to teach at Yale after he left the Foreign Service!
   Francie Bremer



2. Charles Hill is the consumate man behind the curtain - Worthen writes a bio worthy of close examination - her writing is just lovely and shows her wisdom. - Great job.



3. This biography is the first I've read of a man I've had the privilege to know. It's also the first review on Amazon I've felt compelled to write. I applaud Worthen's ability to peg Charlie Hill. Her characterizations are 100% in my experience of man who has lived a compelling life. I recommend this book to all students of foreign policy.
   
   Yes, you can marvel at the fact that a professor buys coffee at Starbucks. I feel sorry for those who've forgotten that.



4. I'm sorry but I've read this book twice now and I don't know when I've had a more amateur read. I'm with Publishers Weekly on this one, this author is smart and clever and in love with her own voice but she's not a natural writer, and her apparent infatuation with Professor Hill gets tiresome after only twenty-five pages. I can imagine that students who went to Yale and took courses with Hill might enjoy reading about him. Will anyone else? His family, perhaps. To the rest of us, even after Worthen's comprehensive look at his career, he seems like a nobody who somehow wound up at the top echelons of a corrupt government and now runs pretentious power courses from a cushy academic post. Worthen gives us a charming picture of campus life at New Haven, and how a lottery system insures everyone an equal shot at studying with Professor Hill.
   
   I got the impression also that Hill was flirting with Worthen continuously, but that his passion for Norma was making him "walk the line" as Johnny Cash used to say. Hill certainly seems unabashed by Worthen's curiosity about his romantic and sex life, even urging her on to ask him some unseemly questions even Bill Clinton might have balked at, though I didn't catch if he wears boxers or briefs.
   
   The revelations about Iran/Contra are minor ones, and debatable. I hate to break it to you, Molly Worthen, but your emperor has no clothes.
   
   The Grand Strategy course he teaches, she notes breathlessly, culminates in a "Crisis Simulation" day in which students are thrown into an imaginary crisis like an outbreak of Ebola or Muslim terrorists occupying the Senate chambers. It's like a Universal Studios tour ride putting you, the tourist, into Jack Bauer's shoes on "24." And out of such theme parks our foreign policy is born.



5. This is a fascinating book. Worthen was still an undergraduate at Yale when she began it, and she brings both the idealism of youth and a mature writing style to the page. Besides being a fly on the wall at some of the most important foreign policy events of the 20th century, the reader also gets an inside view of one of Yale University's most elite communities -- the Grand Strategy program, which trains future leaders in the art of statecraft. Followers of contemporary political events will be particularly interested, since two of the Grand Strategy professors -- John Lewis Gaddis and Charles Hill -- have close contacts with, and regularly advise the Bush Administration. This is no tawdry expose of secret societies (a la Secrets of the Tomb), but an insightful look into how an experienced diplomat mentors some of the most accomplished students in our country. It also is a moving coming of age story, as Worthen learns that her mentor is as flawed and human as the famous leaders he counseled.

5 comments about Darkroom: A Family Exposure (Associated Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction).

1. I confess I was drawn to this book by a)the inside jacket cover photo of the exceptionally attractive young female memoirist who seemed posessed of an enigmatic, almost haunted look, and b) the mysterious suggestiveness of the book title and partially obscured cover photo -- redolent of dark family revelations -- and I was not disappointed. 30-year old Jill Christman writes a searing account of harrowing family traumas, including her own recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse, the tragic auto accident that killed the young man who was the love of her life, her older brother's being nearly scorched to death by a freak shower incident, her near life-long estrangement from her father, and the wretched death in jail of a beloved uncle incarcerated for growing marijuana. All of these dark tales are leavened with ironic humor and described in superb detail. For me, the near 20 page account of Jill's preparation of a melted cheese sandwich for her frail grandmother, the ingestion of which led to her not untimely demise, was the piece de resistance.



2. If you have not read this book I suggest you do. I laughed out loud, cried, and was at a loss for words with this book. I really liked how the author used the nameless voice to bring out the questions and answers from the inside. I love to read and this is by far the best memoir that I've read.



3. I laughed out loud, cried, and was at a lost for words while reading this book. The element that sticks out is the second voice that appears throughout the piece. I encourage everyone who loves to read to read this book. I couldn't put it down once I started. I read it in one day. Job well done Professor Christman!



4. This book is a perfect example of the possibilities of creative nonfiction. Like the originator of the personal essay, Montaigne, Jill Christman chooses her self as her subject-the "I"-yet, in doing so, is really writing about all of us-the "we"-of humanity. Like more modern writers-Woolf, Stein, Eliot and so on-Christman also brings to her work a richness of prose, an understanding of arrangement and construction, and the confidence to employ such techniques as flashbacks, photo collages, and intertextuality. As a teacher of literature, I enjoyed this book for all of the reasons listed above. As a person who simply loves to read, I enjoyed this book because it is a GOOD READ! Sometimes sad, sometimes happy, sometimes terrible, sometimes funny-this book consistently had me turning the pages. I certainly recommend it.



5. Christman does a remarkably good job of solving the problems of telling about parts of her life and family in a creative new way. Like an outstanding photographic exposure, she brackets her frames by under exposing and over exposing in all the right places until she comes up with that perfect balance between light and dark, with remarkable shadow detail in the final image. She dodges and burns, weaves in and out, and through, the painful events in her life by the use of crisp transitions, and, in many cases, unexpected humor/irony. The accounts of her life experiences are compelling -- almost too much to take in even at proper viewing distances, but her clever use of photographic imagery and her references to technical aspects of the art during some of these transitions seem to require use of both sides of the readers' brain -- making the trauma somewhat easier to allow in. The clear presense of Christman's soul in this book keeps the reader engaged in a way that makes her/him feel as though s/he is there with her. So few people are willing to risk this exposure -- to allow others to see past a seemingly "circle of confusion" to the true image on the other side of the lens without hiding behind "fiction."

   Christman, a courageous woman, is also a master of her craft.

3 comments about Molder of Dreams.

1. Guy Doud was 1986 teacher of the year. Hailing from Brainerd, Minnesota, he writes of his difficult experiences growing up and how his teachers and peers affected him.

   Doud demonstrates that teachers are the molders or destroyers of dreams. All of us, then, are teachers and we are letters to others simply by our actions.

   As teachers, we can write letters of hope and encouragement or failure and distress, on the hearts of those we meet.

   Doud challenges the reader to ask whether they want to be remembered for a letter that is positive or negative.




2. This book was recommended to me after I was selected as high school teacher of the year for our school district. Being a Christian and an educator, I was so inspired by the feelings of this wonderful author and person. Doud shares his personal feelings about his students and his passion for teaching. It is easy to see how he eventually became national teacher of the year. I recommend this book to anyone who has a desire to make a difference in the field of education. It is truly inspiring.



3. I first saw Guy Doud's video Molder of Dreams a few years ago, and I was in awe of the passion he has for his career and for the students he reaches. I read this book after seeing the video and was gripped even more intensely by reading a more detailed account of some of the experiences his video touches on. Doud refers to himself as a 'feeler' in his field therefore trying to reach beyond just the 'three R's' of schooling. Doud is an excellent write and is an expert at touching heartstrings through his words. I was at the point of tears and laughing out loud at different places throughout this book. This is one of those books I've read several times--especially when I've gottne frustrated with the teaching courses I'm taking to become a teacher. I can't wait to read Doud's other works.

5 comments about In Plato's Cave.

1. If anyone wants to know what life was like in the literary world in the second half of the twentieth century, this is the book to read. It makes the intellectual struggles of those years come vividly alive for readers. _In Plato's Cave strikes me and several of my friends, English Professors all, as the best book we have ever read about our profession.



2. This was an excellent book. This is one of the only books that someone should read to learn something. This book teaches about how the world can and sometimes will react. Through a livid writing process, Kernan describes his amazing career. This is probably the last great book of the 20th Century.



3. Oh, come now, DC from California, don't be a curmudgeon. Anyone who dislikes students, critics, and the 1960s can't be all bad. Although I must admit that any writer so hackneyed as to title a moderately interesting memoir "In Plato's Cave" tends to put one off one's feed rather early on.



4. Enjoyed this! Kernan depicts the literary and academic influences of his life in great detail, inspiring one to get a hold of the greats in the Classics and Criticism (again). The book would be of special interest to professors or English scholars, as the phases of Literary criticism over the last part of the 1900's is elaborated (I found this very interesting although I know I still don't understand what existentialism, deconstruction, etc REALLY mean...). One understands how his love for literature and humanity outweigh the Machievallian nature and silly politics inherent in academic institutions.Lastly, the author's way of writing is masterful, as one would expect of a life steeped in the literary tradition.



5. Kernan recounts his career (Yale and Princeton)from undergraduate to emeritus. He is a passionate advocate of his school of LitCrit (New Criticism of the Brooks and Leavis varieties)and makes animadversions on all other views. His book contains some delightful anecdotes, and is worth reading for those alone, but his book lacks a central theme. If he wishes to show that somehow critical standards have decayed, he fails completely. A lifelong teacher, he has nothing but contempt for all students, whom he refers to as Smithers: stupid, ungrateful, altogether unworthy of Prof. Kernan's genius. He mentions his most famous pupils only to attack them (viz Greenblatt). Although other reviewers praise Kernan's "elegiac" view of a better time, I am hard pressed to see when that time was. The 1950's, I suppose. Kernan himself was the product of lowered standards: until the G.I. Bill, people like Kernan couldn't get into Williams or Yale, and many an old academic bemoaned the decline of standards. One might think that Kernan would have welcomed the greatest change to Yale and Princeton during his tenure, namely the opening of those schools to women, minorities, and the middle classes generally, with a corresponding increase in standards to match the increase in the applicant pool. Kernan regards such changes with distaste, without ever analyzing why he finds such things distasteful. There is room for a passionate defense of the Old School Tie, but one does not find it here. Before I read this book I thought of Kernan as an academic success story. Now I am not so sure.

   Another reviewer mentions plagiarism and such things. From Kernan's account, there was more plagiarism in the 40's and 50's than in the last 30 years. Likewise more drunkeness and hooliganism. Trust me to miss the fun. Some good comments on this book have appeared at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Certainly a type of liberal education was easier when GPAs and SATs were of little importance, and books have been written , by Hutchins and McNeil and others describing what is possible and what is not. If modern education has become too narrowly focussed on vocationalism, that is not the fault of the students, but of the (upper) middle class world they are obliged to join, and the idealists of the '60's would seem to Kernan's allies, not his enemies. In the final analysis, it is the students who maintain the quality of a university, not the faculty.

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