In the past year I reread this book. I don’t know about other people, but the current state of political discourse in the US is deeply depressing for me.
There is a level of animosity if not hatred that I do not remember 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago. And as one who has lived his adult life in a deeply blue highly intellectual community but who grew up in an equally deeply red fundamentalist community, I am often aghast at how people seem to simply talk past each other, and how people view the other with contempt. Haidt’s book gives an excellent if not inspiring take on these divides.
And it feeds into my underlying assumption that if people disagree with you, even on core values, they are extremely unlikely to be either evil or stupid, but are simply seeing the world in a different way.
'A landmark contribution to humanity's understanding of itself' The New York Times
Why can it sometimes feel as though half the population is living in a different moral universe? Why do ideas such as 'fairness' and 'freedom' mean such different things to different people? Why is it so hard to see things from another viewpoint? Why do we come to blows over politics and religion?
Jonathan Haidt reveals that we often find it hard to get along because our minds are hardwired to be moralistic, judgemental and self-righteous. He explores how morality evolved to enable us to form communities, and…
Before reading this book, I did not know that much about Catherine the Great.
I knew that Euler-the dominant force in 1700’s mathematics-spent the last part of his life under her sponsorship. In addition, a few years ago, I enjoyed watching on Netflix a Russian-made mini-series on her early life. So last year, when I saw that this book was a Kindle Daily Deal, I was more than willing to risk a few bucks.
Her story is fascinating. She somehow managed to turn herself from being mere the daughter of a minor Prussian nobleman to becoming the empress of all Russia, in an almost bloodless coup. How she did this, while at the same time aspiring to become the type of monarch that the 18th century Enlightment Philosophes dreamed of, is the bulk of the book.
And this book does not shy away from how she ended up believing that Russia was not yet ready for such an “enlightened” leader.
The fascinating true story behind HBO's Catherine the Great starring Dame Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great.
Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution.
Robert K. Massie brings an eternally fascinating woman together with her family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers and enemies - vividly and triumphantly to life.
I knew that Stein and her life partner Alice B. Toklas were American expatriates living in France for most of the first part of the 20th century. I knew that they were at the center of the modernist movement in Paris and that Stein was one of the key American modernist writers, though I had until now never read anything that she had written. I knew that Stein and her brother Leo were major collectors of modern art, especially cubists. These types of facts I knew.
But reading this book made it all far more real. For example, I did not know that she and Picasso were best friends. In fact, many of the well-known stories told about Picasso stemmed from this book. But more so, it is impossible not to conclude that this circle of people truly believed in the importance of art and of what they were doing. To that extent, it was inspiring.
People who are starting graduate school in mathematics are full of hopes and dreams of becoming great mathematicians. That's good. But most are suddenly confronted with the cold hard fact that they are expected to know a daunting breadth of mathematics, a breadth that few actually have or even could have had. This book is an attempt to help my younger future colleagues. Each of its twenty chapters cover a key part of the math needed for graduate school. All beginning graduate students know the math in some of the chapters. Hardly any are comfortable with the material in all of the chapters. This book will help them “get into the game,” concentrating on why the math in each chapter is important and pointing them to resources to learn more.
