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http://chris.erway.org cce3@cornell.edu |___/
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ugh, i just made a table and now i feel all dirty. i am going to finish this later. this is really annoying.
okay, this is mostly for my own use, because i keep all these
scribbled post-it notes with call numbers and book titles and stuff, and this
is better. i guess.
Francis Fukuyama cements his reputation as a wide-ranging public intellectual with this big-think book on social order and human
nature. Following his earlier successes (The End of History and the Last Man and Trust), Fukuyama argues that civilization is in the
midst of a revolution on a par with hunter-gatherers learning how to farm or agricultural societies turning industrial. He finds much to
celebrate in this cultural, economic, and technological transformation, but "with all the blessings that flow from a more complex,
information-based economy, certain bad things also happened to our social and moral life." Individualism, for example, fuels innovation
and prosperity, but has also "corroded virtually all forms of authority and weakened the bonds holding families, neighborhoods, and
nations together." Yet this is not a pessimistic book: "Social order, once disrupted, tends to get remade again" because humans are
built for life in a civil society governed by moral rules.
We're on the tail end of the "great disruption," says Fukuyama, and signs suggest a coming era of much-needed social reordering. He
handles complex ideas from diverse fields with ease (this is certainly the first book whose acknowledgments thank both science fiction
novelist Neal Stephenson and social critic James Q. Wilson), and he writes with laser-sharp clarity. Fans of Jared Diamond's Guns,
Germs, and Steel and David Landes's The Wealth and Poverty of Nations will appreciate The Great Disruption, as will just about any
reader curious about what the new millennium may bring. This is simply one of the best nonfiction books of 1999. --John J. Miller
see my old page for other stuff...
booklist.
(anti-)technology
As the author says in the introduction, "This book attempts to describe when, how, and why technology became a
particularly dangerous enemy." Not just about computers, but technology in general.
Author is a respected guy, but his other book about how we should society should return to
the Enlightenment
period ("Building a Bridge to the 18th Century") is kind of silly.
Excellent stuff! Brown is the Chief Scientist at Xerox and director of Xerox PARC, so
he really knows what he's talking about. Duguid is a historian and social theorist from UC
Berkeley who also works a bit at PARC. This book is my new favorite. It makes a strong
argument
against the typical Internet-crazy futurist's prediction of an information-driven utopia,
and that social concerns about technology are woefully overlooked by the typical "Wired"
magazine info-happy prediction-maker.
David Noble is one of a last few Luddite scholars around. He used to work at MIT but was
fired for his ideas -- he sued MIT and won, and the American Historical Association later
condemned MIT for firing him. He's now at York University, Toronto. This book was written
around the time of the early-90's "recession," so it's mostly about automation, unemployment,
economic inequality, and technology. I'm not really into that kind of stuff, but it's
good for what it is. David Noble is also one of the most outspoken critics of distance
learning, and has published a few essays online about the shortcomings of distance learning
with which I, for the most part, agree.
This is the David Noble book I really want to get my hands on, but it's currently
"missing" at our library. It looks really good. Oh well.
Here's the Amazon review. Haven't read it yet, but the review is pretty good already!
music
I really want to take this book home, but it's a reference book! All about the csound program.
David Baker is a composer and musician not just of "jazz" music, but of "contemporary" 20th-century music. He's a genius in my view
and was one of the greatest jazz trombonists until an accident rendered him inable to play trombone. He's now a cellist, composer, and
music professor. This book is in essence simply a discography of hundreds of "jazz" trombonists, with transcribed and analyzed solos, short
biographies, and important recordings listed for each one.
David Baker's improvisation method.
Transcribed J.J. Johnson solos.
Okay, not a book. A documentary on the life and work of jazz musiscian Eric Dolphy, featuring his last recording session in Hilversum on June 2, 1964.
hapa
All about half-Asian people.
Looks good. Need to check it out...
Same author. Recalled..
Woo ... another book I want to read.
chinese
Chinese slang, dirty words, etc.