Synopses & Reviews
Capital, as Marx once wrote, comes into the world “dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.” He might well have been describing the long, grim history of rubber. From the early stages of primitive accumulation to the heights of the industrial revolution and beyond, rubber is one of a handful of commodities that has played a crucial role in shaping the modern world, and yet, as John Tully shows in this remarkable book, laboring people around the globe have every reason to regard it as “the devil's milk.” All the advancements made possible by rubber—industrial machinery, telegraph technology, medical equipment, countless consumer goods—have occurred against a backdrop of seemingly endless exploitation, conquest, slavery, and war. But Tully is quick to remind us that the vast terrain of rubber production has always been a site of struggle, and that the oppressed who toil closest to “the devil's milk” in all its forms have never accepted their immiseration without a fight.
This book, the product of exhaustive scholarship carried out in many countries and several continents, is destined to become a classic.Tully tells the story of humanity's long encounter with rubber in a kaleidoscopic narrative that regards little as outside its rangewithout losing sight of the commodity in question. With the skill of a master historian and the elegance of a novelist, he presents what amounts to a history of the modern world told through the multiple lives of rubber.
Review
"A little masterpiece of exegesis."-Nature,
Review
"A little masterpiece of exegesis." - Nature
"An excellent non-technical account of the substance of Gdel's celebrated paper." - Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
Review
"An excellent non-technical account of the substance of Gödel's celebrated paper."-Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society,
Review
“What people did to rubber was interesting, but more interesting still was what rubber did to people.”
-Vicki Baum,Novelist
Review
“Think of our industrial structure as a living thing, the skeleton of which is composed of metal and cement, the arterial system of which carries a life stream of oil, and the flexing muscles and sinews of which are of rubber.”
-Paul Litchfield,Former President of Goodyear
Synopsis
In 1931 Kurt Gödel published his fundamental paper, "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of
Principia Mathematica and Related Systems." This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Gödel received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he was awarded the first Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences—perhaps the highest award of its kind in the United States. The award committee described his work in mathematical logic as "one of the greatest contributions to the sciences in recent times."
However, few mathematicians of the time were equipped to understand the young scholar's complex proof. Ernest Nagel and James Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation to both scholars and non-specialists of the main ideas and broad implications of Gödel's discovery. It offers every educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to understand a previously difficult and inaccessible subject.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the original publication of Gödel's Proof, New York University Press is proud to publish this special anniversary edition of one of its bestselling and most frequently translated books. With a new introduction by Douglas R. Hofstadter, this book will appeal students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of mathematics, computer science, logic and philosophy, and science.
Synopsis
An accessible explanation of Kurt G del's groundbreaking work in mathematical logic
In 1931 Kurt G del published his fundamental paper, On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems. This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. G del received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he was awarded the first Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences--perhaps the highest award of its kind in the United States. The award committee described his work in mathematical logic as one of the greatest contributions to the sciences in recent times.
However, few mathematicians of the time were equipped to understand the young scholar's complex proof. Ernest Nagel and James Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation to both scholars and non-specialists of the main ideas and broad implications of G del's discovery. It offers every educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to understand a previously difficult and inaccessible subject.
New York University Press is proud to publish this special edition of one of its bestselling books. With a new introduction by Douglas R. Hofstadter, this book will appeal students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of mathematics, computer science, logic and philosophy, and science.
Synopsis
In 1931, Kurt Godel published his fundamental paper that challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Nagel and Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation of the main ideas and broad implications of Godel's discovery.
About the Author
Dr. John Tully is lecturer in politics and internationalstudies at Victoria University in Melbourne Australia. He is author of four books:
Cambodia Under the Tricolour: King Sisowath and the 'Mission Civilisatrice,
1904-1927; France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia,
1863-1953; A Short History of Cambodia: From Empire to Survival; and a novel,
Death Is the Cool Night.
Douglas R. Hofstadter is College of Arts and Sciences Professor of computer science and cognitive science at Indiana University and author of the Pulitzer-prize winning Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.