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How do I treat a work with bits of sparkle mired in Jabberwock? On page 9 how do I feel about cats who can't do calculus, or frogs without a space program? But on page 10 we are told how we humans "...paid for [our] lofty[erect] vision...with backaches and stiff necks. Women paid extra..." since our babies have heads too big for our poorly designed little birth canals. Before our great "leap", Harari tells us (page 11) that we "...dwelt in constant fear of predators..."---OR, are the Kung! "Bushmen" right when they roll over laughing at White Men(like Harari?) who panic when a merely curious lion comes by? Also, on page 11, we get the fashionable "natural arms race" of the ever faster, ever more powerful, ever "...more bad tempered" planetary fauna...more...more...more. But, we are now number one, Harari notes on page 12, instead of "underdogs..[we] are now like a newly minted "...banana republic dictator [but] full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous." Page 15 treats us to a fashionable,but common,map of the Earth titled "Homo sapiens conquers the globe", which could have been the title of this book about we precious,extra-special,runamuck humans,dissing a planet & more. Beware the Jabberwock!

Like a high quality novel of the time-traveling sort: You are there with these Yankee-reporters,crossing the Confederacy in 1863-1865. Mainly with Junius & Albert in Confederate prisons or during their escape across largely anti-Confederate western NC & eastern TN. Puts flesh onto bare bones history, military and civilian. Plenty of poor White & Black-slave encounters.

This book complements "The People's History of The United States" by the esteemed populist historian Howard Zin. Isenberg considers the centuries old origins of terms like "crackers" and "white trash"[the later since 1850]. She looks at colorful figures like the "hill-billy" President Andrew Jackson and his circle, on up to recent personalities such as Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin. All being considered as belonging to the often disrespected, sometimes bullied, white underclass which has always verged on being the majority of Whites. I am mystified,however,by Isenberg's failure to discuss Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's great Black ally, Frederick Douglass recognized Lincoln's poorly regarded origins. The eminent Black intellectual W.E.B. Bubois,in 1922 wrote of Lincoln as "...a Southern poor white,of illegitimate birth, poorly educated & unusually ugly, ill-dressed. He liked smutty jokes." Lincoln's contemporary, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio privately wrote that Lincoln was "...born of poor white trash and educated in a slave state(Kentucky)". Perhaps half of the Whites who have lived in, or are living today in The United States could be considered as living "hand-to-mouth". Whether any eventually become rich or President,or not,is no reason to diss them. Self-respect comes from or is part of respecting others, regardless of fickle "success".

There are ill-logical idea-attitudes aplenty herein. If we grant (page 4) that "...there is no obvious plan or purpose to the world we find ourselves living in. Our existence was not preordained, but appears to be a curious accident." And, if we believe that: "...'God' DOES appear to play dice with the universe, or universes." And, if we, therefore, conclude that "...our luck may not last forever." And, if we believe that pre-modern humans were so naive or thought-less as to believe that there is NOT "...more to the universe than meets the eye." If we grant the above observations of Lawrence Krauss to be true, we might still note Krauss' faith in science as exemplified by Newtonian & quantum mechanics and the current near-consensus regarding natural selection. However, in an "...impersonal, apparently random, universe...A universe without purpose...( page 6 )", I can't help wondering how any being,born of and coming from such a universe, could imagine that or come to believe that he or she could have such an "heretical" purpose. "Something from nothing" may be an article of faith to some,not very literalistic creationists--or to some scientists enamored or the Big Bang singularity ( singularities are unscientific guys! ). If no sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules, or on up in tem-place size-scales to galaxies, have a raison d"etre or anything beyond luck or ill-luck (no-draw) change, how could humans or any other so-called "intelligent" beings ever come to exist? How does a boot pull itself up all by itself? Krauss' favorite section of Plato's "Republic" is the allegory of the cave( page 11). Perhaps Krauss believes that humans---More likely "pre-humans" in Krauss" view--came from an up-to billions of years lineage of entities (like "particles"), who, from the beginning were, in effect, imprisoned inside a cave their entire lives and forced to face a blank wall "...seeing only moving shadows of the "real world" which exists, out of sight, behind them. I believe Krauss twists Plato's intent: Plato did not have faith in a thought-less prehistory of humans. Plato believed, rather, that humans were capable of remembering( "Plato's anamnesis" ) what they were all about. Plato was more logical than Krauss, probably more logical than most of today's scientists. The implications of an amoral, Kraussian, universe are profoundly dis-functional: If the universe is an "accident" then right & wrong, health & ill-health, having no basis, are invalid options. Even the healing of our badly wounded planet becomes a foundation-less idea-attitude. However, science does not have to be based, indeed cannot be based upon, such a purposeless, essentially empty, concept. I have more faith in The Original Parent or Origin and all the di-con-vergent offspring or "children". The one-creator gave rise to our whole Creatas of all size-scale/tem-places of creatures or beings. Or, as Jeremiah [ 1:5 ] heard it: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew/was intimate with...you". Looking back we are all---all beings are---capable of seeing ourselves as "twinkles in The Universal Parent's eye". I see that "twinkle" now, and I'm looking backwards-&-forward to seeing that twinkle then as well as through eternity. See you "here-&-there"/"now-&-then".

Correction to my first review: Yeltsin,not Gorbachev, was given the "red button" in 1995.

No mention by Brands of "The Week The World Almost Ended..." How did Brands miss the "Operation Able Archer" story? Brands' "Reagan" book,first published in May,2015,has no mention of what Slate Magazine,in its cover story of April 13,2017,entitled:"Reagan's Cuban Missile Crisis:The Week The World Almost Ended". This was a glaring omission by Brands,one of my favorite American historians:Despite the fact that this near-debacle had been prominently noted years before Brands' book was first published. For example,on May 28,2013,The Atlantic published "The USSR & US Came Closer to Nuclear War Than We Thought:A Series of War Games Held in 1983 Triggered the 'Moment of Maximum Danger of the Late Cold War'. And,earlier,in February,2013,The Journal of Strategic Studies published "The 1983 Nuclear Crisis...". P.S.:In 1995, with Clinton in charge, there was another near nuclear wipe-out: Gorbachev's finger was put within range of his "red button"! How many other near nuclear wipe-outs have we actually had since 1945, besides the Kennedy-Khrushchev,Reagan-Andropov,& Clinton-Yeltsin near catastrophes?

Great read for anyone,male or female,though most readers are probably younger females. I am an older male who enjoyed and appreciated the psychological sensitivities of the author. The heroine, Lucy, is depicted very realistically as one of us flawed humans who really tries to be fair to both herself and the men[and women] she is involved with. The time travel was also a turn on: I learned a lot about several famous amorous men. The author is British and the story is mainly set in London but also in Geneva, etc. There are a few non-American expressions but these do not detract from the insights of this sophisticated but fun "chick lit" masterpiece which should [also] be great for almost any male/female couple to read together.

Still going in his 90s Herbert Levi & I helped each other in the 60s, he mainly helping me to study spiders. This handy little book is still by far the best U.S. & Canadian [plus European & other species] guide to spiders, plus the other arachnids[scorpions etc],centipedes & millipedes. For example, 12 species of wolf spiders are lovingly depicted in color by the artist Nicholas Strekalovsky. In addition to the full body view,diagrams of faces & eyes[usually 8] are neatly displayed;& webs also. Both children & adults can,with this book,safely admire 17 of the world's several hundred species of scorpions,one species{Africa] reaching 7 inches in length.

I have been relying on the largest/best,version of "Webster's New World Dictionary"[WNWD]from its second to its current fifth edition. In 1980 I took a course in Proto-Indo-European linguistics, for which this was one of two dictionaries that we could use. The other, optional, book was "The American Heritage Dictionary"{AHD]. I bought both then and buy each new edition of both; the fifth,2014 WNWD is the latest,while the newest AHD is 2011/also fifth edition. Both have great etymological[word origins & histories]information. The largest/best AHD is nearly twice as big & heavy as the WNWD, but has a [great] appendix of Indo-European & Semitic root words. I often consult both books because linguists do not always agree. If you are curious or care about original origins and changes in word definitions, then these are the only two dictionaries worth buying--Get the biggest formats[AHD 8 pounds]! Did you know that the Germanic word "love" is closely related to "belief";or that the Latin-derived word "nice",not so long ago was a negative word[meaning foolish or ignorant]-- or that "silly" 500 years ago meant "blessedly happy"?

Narrative[story style]reads smoothly,like an historical novel. Begins at around or just before Nat Turner's birth in 1800 in tidewater southeast Virginia,and goes on to his rebellion and execution in 1831; plus continues story up to the Civil War. Not always a "fun" story but helped flesh out my general education. There are many "mysteries" here such as:"Was Nat Turner merely insane or was he provoked?". Also, did the insurrection runamuck or was this the only way these slaves even had the slightest chance to become free? And: Was the Civil War inevitable due to the "poison pill" of slavery firmly embedded in the constitution? ---If so was it better to bring on the Civil War sooner rather than later so that the 600,000 lives lost in that war was not even higher? OR: Since slavery was obviously dying out rapidly almost everywhere[e.g. Mexico in 1829],did lack of vision and patience cause 600,000 unnecessary deaths? After all,even Jefferson Davis lived long enough to see slavery abolished in many Muslim countries as well as the last Western country,Brazil in 1888--Only 23 years after the end of our horribly bloody Civil War! Finally, there is always the question, due to the failure of Reconstruction, as to whether abolishing slavery, as it was done at the end of the Civil War, was better, worse, or no major change for the formerly enslaved Americans.

The beauty of this book is not its translations of the Torah,New Testament,or Quran[Koran],but, rather, its masterful essays preceding each of the three sections, especially the essays[37,8,&12 pages respectively] on the Zoroastrian influence on the three scriptures:Not just "Eden", or "paradise"[from an Avestan Persian word] but, to some extent, "angels", and many other concepts. The influence of the Judaic Torah on the New Testament and the Quran is also outlined, as is the influence of the New Testament on the Quran.

Sharon Foster's second book on the famous slave rebel of 1831 tells it like it was to grow up "second class"[or less] and yet know you are an equal to anyone. No spoiler here but did Nat deliberately,in his own,perhaps peculiar,but perhaps still spiritual way, help speed up an inevitable Civil War? Also,though I like this second book better,the first of Foster's books shows how covertly [somehow I want to also say "screamingly"] hierarchical both white and black society had become in tidewater Virginia,by the time Nat was a boy of 12. This ugly chapter in American history was brought on by the development of many,if not most,white indentured servants in the Tidewater,into ludicrous sociopaths within just a few generations of the White and Black arrival in Virginia. Sharon Foster,a black female author of great skill,has an ear to the past.

Vonnegut is widely recognized as one of the top ten post WWII American authors. However,most attention is paid to the novel of his prisoner of war experiences: "Slaughter House Five [Schlachthof-funf in German]"; far fewer readers are aware that V's earlier 1959 "Sirens" book is of equal literary worth. Read it to see how Saturn's moon, Titan, became, long ago,so important to the history of Earth,according to Vonnegut's story--by riding,in the 22nd Century,a chrono-synclastic infundibulum. "Greetings" indeed! From page one: "Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself....[but]less than a century ago..mankind,ignorant of the truths that lie within every human being,looked outward---pushed ever outward...Mankind flung its advance agents ever outward.... Eventually it flung them out into space,into the colorless, tasteless, weightless sea of outwardness without end..It flung them like stones."

An expert's insights into rock history,back two billion years and including much paleontology,such as trilobites from the Cambrian Period,500 million years ago. Much of this well-illustrated book focuses on the massive Pleistocene glaciations and their carving effects on the mountain range with its 26 peaks over 13,000 feet high. The Uinta Range stretches out 150 miles, west to east,in northeast Utah and, though mainly wilderness, has a lovely,paved scenic road that snakes over in a roughly south to north direction. Ample camping at up to over two miles high is nearby amidst the thousands of lakes formed by the glaciers. This usually uncrowded place encourages thinking and being thoughtful,whether sitting or hiking. Depending on the winter's snowfall the high passes on the road may not open until mid summer.

Perhaps the best "artistic" way into 14th Century England's winter countryside and its beauty and horror. The young heroine's twisting adventures in a medieval "Wonderland" are interspersed with an older hero's somewhat similar adventures in 2048 Oxford. The first 100 or so pages in this long book are a little puzzling but one soon notes that the book's characters are just as confused as you are as mysteries accumulate. Stay in there for "the ride of a lifetime".

This is the 3rd volume in a 3,000 page opus on The Enlightenment which has its "radical" roots[i.e. is deepest]in the work of the Dutch-Jew/European free-thinker Spinoza. Can be read on or from any page for an almost 'You Are There' experience. This 3rd volume is centered on the Spinozist Diderot & D'Holbach[1770 "Systeme de la nature"] but in this volume American thinkers are here too,plus the Atlantic Thomas Paine whose 1776 "Common Sense" is based in large part on French thinkers:Note D'Holbach's abridgement of his "Systeme..." titled "Le Bon Sens",1772. The 1770 "Histoire philosophique [philosophical history--of the world]" by Diderot is, with D'Holbach's 1770 "Systeme...",the other central book of the democratic enlightenment: A tipping point was achieved in 1770 which quickly snowballed into major political revolutions. "Occupy the World?"--Europe's far flung invasions at long last had to answer up to morality. Human morality needs be as law-abiding as Newton's laws. "Extra-specialism"[my term] should give way to the understanding that everything in the universe,God included,is special or equivalent,of equal value or worth,but nothing is,in healthy reality,"extra-special". Consider my own feeling that one cannot be friends with a "superior" or "inferior" being. So,if Jesus is your friend... J.I.,like any thinker is prone to error. I found a "near-typo" error on page 423:In two places the word "climactic" is used where it is clear the "climatic" is the correct choice. Just a caution,in this case don't get confused or come to the wrong conclusion due to this "quasi-typo". A good book stimulates creativity. In the case of this "trilogy" I am struck by the insight I am confronted with. Insight which even a Charles Darwin,a relative specialist,only a science-philosopher---cannot match. Darwin,after all,took Malthusian economics out of its more enlightened matrix. The events of 2011 in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria,etc show that the rights of "equivalents" cannot be violated with impunity. The roots of European thought include Hebrew, Greek, Reformation, & Enlightenment religious, political, historical, economic, scientific, artistic,etc philosophies or idea-attitudes. If we remember that philosophy might best be tranlated as "the wisdom of love" rather than "the love of wisdom"[read Plato-Socrates-Diotima's "Symposium"]---if we remember what's healthy---we can be inspired like Spinoza and Diderot to try to do the least evil,try to help the healing,try to reduce the damage. Try to face in the direction so that the planet can get out of it's human-built jail. And help clean up the junk. If you are not sure if you would be helping or hurting do something else,something most or at least more likely to help. ~~~