5 comments about On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo.

1. Nietzsche's complex sequel to Beyond Good and Evil is a remarkable achievement of philosophy, philology, and history. It laid the groundwork for such 20th century thinkers as Foucault and Deleuze, though they would never reach Nietzsche's complexity and moral sophistication. In the preface to the book, Nietzsche proposes the project of investigating the origins of morality on the grounds that human beings are unknown to themselves. He is ultimately concerned with the development of moral prejudices, and the value of morality itself. He criticizes mankind in its acceptance of moral principles, and writes: "we need a critique of moral values, the value of these values themselves must first be called in question-and for that there is needed a knowledge of the conditions and circumstances in which they grew, under which they evolved and changed" (456).
   Nietzsche begins the essay (Good and Evil, Good and Bad), with a philological examination of the words and roots of the words related to good and evil, and a delimitation of their evolution. He makes a connection between the creations of words and places them within the historical context of rulers and nobility. Linguistically, Nietzsche has discovered that the `good' is linked with nobility. He writes: "everywhere `noble,' `aristocratic' in the social sense, is the basic concept from which `good' in the sense of `with aristocratic soul,' `noble,'" (464). Alternatively, words associated with the `bad' invariably were linked with the `plain,' `simple,' and `low.' In this way, morality as a human construction is an extension of power, wealth, and civilization. The origin of evil is intertwined with priestly aristocracies.
   Nietzsche moves into a discussion of a shift in the history of morality, in which the morality of the priestly aristocracy is superceded by Jewish morality. For Nietzsche, the Jews inverted the morality of nobility and established a system which places value on the lower order of mankind. He indicates that the Jews believed "the wretched alone are the good; the poor, impotent, lowly alone are the good; the suffering, deprived, sick, ugly alone are pious, alone are blessed by God" (470). Nietzsche describes this turn as `the slave revolt' of morality. He describes the triumph of Judeo-Christian morality over the previous system of values, and indicates that this turn is a triumph for the herd instinct, and for ressentiment. He writes: "The slave revolt in morality begins when ressentiment itself becomes creative and gives birth to values: the ressentiment of natures that are denied the true reaction, that of deeds, and compensate themselves with an imaginary revenge" (472). Noble morality develops as an affirmation of itself, while slave morality always says No to what is external to it. For Nietzsche, the need to constantly turn outward to an external `other' and place judgment on it is the essence of ressentiment.
   In the proceeding section of the treatise, Nietzsche discusses civilization's taming of man the animal. Here he writes: "Supposing that what is at any rate believed to be the `truth' really is true, and the meaning of all culture is the reduction of the beast of prey `man' to a tame and civilized animal, a domestic animal, then one would undoubtedly have to regard all those instincts of reaction and ressentiment through whose aid the noble races and their ideal were finally confounded and overthrown as the actual instruments of culture" (478). Nietzsche insists that Europe's taming of man is a tremendous danger, for we are made to be weary of our own being. For Nietzsche, this weariness and fear of man has compelled us to lose our love for him, to turn our backs on our instincts, to reject affirmation.



2. This is a complex, often confusing, yet a very important book, because it gets at the bottom line of one of the thorniest conundrums ever to face man: The problem of where his morals originate. Although several books have readdressed this issue in light of new findings in psychology (Freud in his Civilization and its discontents), social psychology (Robert Wright's Moral Man), and Anthropology (Ernest Becker, Angel in Armor) just to name my three favorites, none have done so with either the emotional intensity or philosophical depth as has Nietzsche.
   
   In this, Nietzsche last book, he locates the origins of morality at the intersection of man's transition from hunter-gathers to agrarian societies. With the advent of agrarian societies, there was a crossover in the survival value of violence versus that of cooperation: man's instinct for violence cease to have the survival value equal to that of cooperation. And as a result, he was forced to learn to outwardly suppress his violent instincts by more and more turning them inward. This conversion of outward violence into an inner struggle, allowed man to use his conscience to carve out an inner life, which was a mixed blessing as there were both collateral benefits and penalties. Along with guilt and bad conscience, man also acquired a sense of beauty. The upshot of his inner struggles was that they eventually got resolved through the development of religion: Bad conscience and moral guilt could be redeemed or forgiven through the grace and mercy of a higher, morally perfect, being.
   
   With this as introduction, Nietzsche's story of morality takes place in three parts over the span of three essays, each of which elaborates a different aspect of the details of his theory.
   
   The first essay deals with Good and Evil, and examines the evolution of two different kinds of moral codes: that of the master and that of the slave. The second essay deals directly with guilt, bad conscience and related moral concepts and issues. Here, Nietzsche notes that initially guilt lacked moral overtones, and was more like a monetary debt, in which the debtor was due payment and the debtor, was punished. The third essay struggles with the question of: What is the meaning of Ascetic Ideals, or, with why different cultures pursued a life of self-denial. Nietzsche's answer is that self-denial gives the individual more power and control over himself and is therefore life affirming rather than life denying.
   
   Nietzsche's writing is dense and not for the faint-hearted, but ultimately rewarding. Five stars.



3. I read On the Genealogy of Morals for a graduate seminar on ethics, and in particular his writings regarding the virtue of courage. I found Walter Kaufmann's translation the best of several I looked at. Often regarded in philosophical circles as the first "postmodern" philosopher, Nietzsche is very critical to all of modernity's philosophical attempts to create a scientific or rationally based approach to ethics. Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals is in part a refutation of Kant's ethical theory, arguing that Kantian ethics as well as other modern ethical theories were more interested in defining ethical values and not concerned with questioning their usefulness or whether they were derived from what Nietzsche believed were irrational psychological forces feeding people's illusions. Another purpose of the Genealogy is to examine the history of how morals were created in Western culture. Nietzsche's extensive philological studies of ancient Greek literature led him to argue that there needed to be a historical and psychological approach to understanding how ethical values came into existence. Thus, one of Nietzsche's goals in his Genealogy is to provide a critique of ethical values, such as courage, and to examine, "...the conditions and circumstances in which they grew, under which they evolved and changed." (456, GM I, 6). Another important aspect of Nietzsche's Genealogy is found in Nietzsche's ethical notions finding common ground with Aristotelian virtue ethics. Only Aristotelian virtue ethics can fit well with Nietzsche's moral ethics. Thus, I find that an interesting outcome of Nietzsche's examination of Greek culture leads him down a path back to the first evolutionary stage of the virtue of courage in particular, and to the classical Greek inception of virtue ethics in general. Nietzsche enthusiastically followed this path and reintroduced the world to the critical need for the classical Greek interpretation of the virtue of courage to help shape the "postmodern" world.
   
   Nietzsche recognized in ancient Greek poetry that heroes are not content with just living, but are compelled to perform courageous acts even at the peril of their own lives. In fact, for Greek heroes, gaining fame and glory at the expense of often suffering a courageous death seemed to be their raison d'être. Nietzsche recognizes this phenomenon in Greek poetry, which alerts him to the notion that the ancient and classical Greek citizens accepted the idea that part of the nature of life was that it could be tragic, dark, and foreboding; however, the Greeks who were noble of character did not despair. This notion was readily accepted by Aristotle but not by Plato, who thought that Greek tragedy taught the citizenry the wrong lessons about life. They knew that to be virtuous was to engage in a constant agon or [contest] to overcome the pitfalls of life. This literary fact causes Nietzsche to understand that like the ancient Greeks, the best of contemporary society, such as philosophers and artists whom he calls the "masters," have to rely on their virtues, such as courage, to constantly struggle to overcome life's limits. Nietzsche's observation of Greek culture leads him to define a theory of master and slave morality, which lays the foundation for his notion of returning to the classical Greek virtue of courage.
   
   Nietzsche understands master morality as the ideals of virtuous characteristics epitomized by the best of Greek aristocracy. On the other hand, slave morality according to Nietzsche, grew out of the Judeo-Christian ethic supporting love and justice over power. Master morality acknowledges "good" and "bad" in the world; while slave morality acknowledges "good" and "evil." Nietzsche recognized the masters as "active" people, and whatever helps them achieve greatness is good. Thus, Nietzsche defines the good and bad characteristics in master morality in the following way. Character traits such as courage, conquest, aggression, and command that engender the feelings of power in people are deemed `good,' while traits of weaker people such as cowardice, passivity, humility, and dependence are deemed `bad.' Furthermore, Nietzsche argues that within the master and slave morality what is good can only be good for the master, because the slave morality is essentially based on a number of opposing ideals from the master morality. Therefore, an important argument for Nietzsche is, that according to slave morality, anything that opposes, destroys, or conquers is evil and should be eliminated from human relations. Nietzsche argues that slave morality espouses humility, selflessness, and kindness as ruling traits for all people as a condition of self-perseverance against master morality. These are all character traits central to Judeo-Christian morality, and are diametrically opposed to the aggressive character traits of the master morality, which were central to the power of the Roman Empire when Christianity was conceived. Against the backdrop of master and slave morality, Nietzsche examines the classical Greek cardinal virtues, and he specifically looks into the virtue of courage, which is so central to master morality.
   
   When Nietzsche contemplates the future of virtues, he laments the lack of courage displayed by people in modern society. Nietzsche sounds a clarion call for artists to once again courageously take their place as masters of society. Nietzsche sees courage as something which is good for the people who have it, in that it enables them to win contests which they would lose without it. In addition, Nietzsche recognizes that in order for people to act courageously, they also need to overcome their emotions of fear. "But there is something in me that I call courage; that has so far slain my every discouragement." Once again, Nietzsche is using Aristotle's virtue ethic model of practical reasoning to show that a person with noble intentions, or in Nietzsche's parlance, a master can will themselves to overcome their fears. After examining Nietzsche's extensive writings on the history of ethics, I find that his description of courage fits well within the classical Greek model of the virtue of courage.
   
   Nietzsche's philosophical project pertaining to the virtue of courage is centered on the idea that those who were the masters in Greek society actually desired to face and conquer dangerous situations. In essence, Nietzsche demilitarized the Greek emphasis on battlefield courage and applied it to the people he thought could be the masters of society of his time and into the future--artists and philosophers. The power Nietzsche yearns for is the power of creative activity. Creativity is the "will to power" that this much maligned philosopher was truly advocating.



4. I should note up front that my review refers to the Vintage edition--the review and the rating pertain to Kaufmann's translation only, not to Nietzsche's text. Nietzsche's work is a classic and should be read by anyone with an interest in philosophy or related fields. That point, I think, goes without saying. What does need to be said is which translation you should choose to read it in. Kaufmann's is, pretty much, the standard translation. And, for the most part, his translation is true to Nietzsche's German. But it suffers in one important way, and that is how it conflates Hegel's idealism and Nietzsche's thought through the use of a Hegelian, idealist vocabulary. To be sure, Nietzsche draws on Hegel a lot, but Kaufmann's translation misleads the reader into thinking that there are more similarities than there actually are. It also makes this translation unbearably difficult to read.
   
   The second problem I have with this particular edition is that Kaufmann's notes are so shallow, and not really helpful at all. A perfect example is on the first page of the first essay, where Nietzsche abandons his native German for a moment and refers to the English Psychologists pushing the "partie honteuse" of our inner world into view. Kaufmann leaves the phrase untranslated, as he ought, and lets a note do the work of translating it. His note says simply, "shame." In my view, it may be as if he had just omitted the note altogether, because this tells me almost nothing about what Nietzsche means, and doesn't even attempt to get at his metaphor. If one were to turn to Clark and Swenson's translation, put out by Hackett (On the Genealogy of Morality), however, one would learn that the phrase means "shameful part" and when pluralized it is equivalent to the English phrase "private parts." This is a helpful note which explains Nietzsche's metaphor and the connotations he's aiming for.
   
   I'll give this edition three stars because I have to compare it to others, such as Clark and Swenson's, above, or Douglas Smith's translation in the Oxford World Classics edition (On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic. By way of clarification and supplement to my last book Beyond Good and Evil (Oxford World's Classics)). In many ways Smith most avoids the "Hegel-ization" of Nietzsche (although it is possible to overdo it, and Smith might be guilty). But in my estimation, Clark and Swenson's is the best, deserving five stars, and Smith's is a close second, perhaps deserving four and a half, or four and three-quarters, not least because Clark and Swenson's notes are better. (Smith's would get five stars if I reviewed it.) Kaufmann's is so far behind these that I cannot justify giving it more than three stars. For a more formulaic, objective approach, you can subtract one star from the translation for at times confusing Nietzsche's thought, and doing so in a confusing way, and subtract one from the edition in general for having mediocre notes. Then you also end up with my three-star rating.



5. "The Genealogy of Morals" is one of the most intriguing of Nietzsche's philosophical works, and is also one of his most straightforward. It is a sustained focus on a single topic - the origins of morality - and is comprised of three related essays which explore morality and the nature of "ressentiment," or "suppressed resentment." According to Nietzsche, "ressentiment" is the fundamental motive force, the "will to power," of the religious (specifically the Christian)temperament and character, and results in moral and spiritual corruption: hence Nietzsche's inverted claim that Christianity is the greatest of all evils because it fosters, nurtures, and embodies "ressentiment." Although Nietzsche's diatribes against the Christian religion sometimes get tedious - it's a little like listening to a concert violinist playing a one-string concerto -- his psychological analysis of the origins of morality is insightful and intriguing.
   
   The companion piece in this edition, "Ecce Homo," is one of the most entertaining and fascinating autobiographies ever written. Nietzsche recounts events, people, and places that were important to him personally and significant for the development of his philosophy; he offers summaries and "humble" appraisals of his philosophical works (appraisals which are as provocative as they are "humble"); and he claims to have destroyed Christianity and invented psychology -- and while these claims sound exaggerated, they're true from a Nietzschean perspective. With Nietzsche's own explanations of and commentary on the meaning and significance of his many books, "Ecce Homo" is a wonderful introduction to his philosophy, a "treasure of world literature" (to use Walter Kaufmann's wonderful words), and a literary experience.

4 comments about The Official Guide to Ancestry.com.

1. The book is a good reference to have on hand to clarify a point or search a question.



2. I am of two minds when it comes to an "official guide" to any site on the World Wide Web. First, a website can consist of as many pages as necessary to cover the subject, and there can be as many interconnections between pages as necessary to guide the user. Second, the nature of hyperlinking is such that any properly designed website shouldn't need a guide. It should be so logically organized that navigation is obvious, and it should include its own internal "help" system. At least, that's the theory. In practice, even a site as generally well designed as Ancestry (and it is well designed) can eventually become so large, with so many layers, that it can be daunting even to an experienced genealogical web surfer.
   
   George Morgan, a well-known Florida genealogist, book author, and columnist, began doing research back in the 1960s, when "research" meant many trips to the courthouse and the library and waiting for replies to correspondence. Recent, younger converts to the hobby may find it difficult to imagine such a thing, but that's how it was. Ancestry was one of the earliest multi-database resources to appear online and is now part of the Generations Network, a huge conglomerate (in genealogical terms) that includes nearly a dozen previously separate database sites, plus Family Tree Maker and Ancestry Publishing. The Ancestry site itself includes more than 23,000 databases and transcribed books, with many more being constantly added, and the company has done the online researcher the service of making the templates nearly identical that give access to them. This book follows the obvious logical structure of devoting a chapter to each broad category: Census records, birth/marriage/death, immigration, directories and membership lists, newspaper and periodicals, court records, land, military, PERSI. maps, and local and family histories. Other chapters give advice on starting your first family tree on the site itself (something I don't recommend for reasons of access and lack of backup), on how to work with the many kinds of digitized records at Ancestry (much improved over the early days), using the Learning Center (lots of freebies here), and how to most efficiently spend your money at the Ancestry Store. The text of the book is generally well thought out and the sales pitch (Ancestry itself is the publisher, don't forget) is reasonably subtle.
   
   One thing: Don't forget that Ancestry is not a free research service, it's a business. If you live in a small town far away from large research libraries -- and especially if you need to do research in a far corner of the country -- a subscription is going to be far cheaper than gasoline. Plus, you can work online at any time of the day or night. But also don't forget that in many states the state library makes available a subscription to Ancestry to city and county libraries all around the state, and that anyone with a library card can therefore access any database at Ancestry for free by visiting their local library. (But no, you generally can't logon to the library's access point from home.)
   
   I can recommend this volume to anyone new to the websites it describes, although most of what is available on the site can be discovered simply by "walking around." It would especially make a good auxiliary gift if you're planning on giving someone in your family a gift subscription to Ancestry for Christmas.



3. I have been using Ancestry for a couple of years, but needed some help figuring out how to accomplish certain tasks. This book had the relevant information. I would recommend it to both new and old users of Ancestry.com



4. tHIS IS A REFERENCE BOOK TO KEEP RIGHT BESIDWE YOU WHEN YOU ARE WORKING WITH [...]. tHEY HAVE SO MUCH INFO AND YOU NEED HELP TO FOLOOW THE TRAILS. tHIS IS AN EXCELLENT MAP.

5 comments about Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People.

1. The author brings genetic research to bear on the history and identity of the Jewish people, their epic migrations and struggles, and their relationship to other populations. He has done a prodigious amount of research and has managed to present arcane scientific concepts in a way that is understandable. Among the fascinating ideas I learned from the book: Jews who claim descent from the priestly line (Cohanim), often with variants of the surname Cohen, have a high incidence of a specific genetic marker on the Y-chromosome, passed down from father to son.
   
   There is more to this book than genetics. The migration of peoples, religious history, the Spanish inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain, the crypto-Jews emerging from centuries of obscurity in places like the American southwest, the tortured history of the concept of "race" and the political difficulties of studying population genetics, s survey of "Jewish" diseases, and appendixes on human migration and the major genetic strains of our species. Not to mention the ten lost tribes and the questionable story of the conversion of Khazaria.
   
   Author Jon Entine writes well, and the reader is swept along in the torrent of information and theory. This is a hard-to-put-down book. If it has any flaw, it may be that the author tries to cover too much, that he mixes scientific findings with speculation, political ruminations, questions of faith, and Israeli-Palestinian issues. I wish he had delved a bit deeper into fewer areas. Still, I enjoyed Abraham's Children and I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.



2. Jon Entine, author, lecturer, producer and executive with NBC News and ABC News, international columnist, adjunct fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, consultant on business and media ethics, and author of the controversial Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It has now added another very interesting book to his collected writings, Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People. In this latest tome Entine draws on many historical sources touching on a multitude of disciplines in order to address a wide range of issues in science, history and religion, including Christianity and Islam.
   
   Entine's motivation for his writing of this book was deeply personal and was prompted by the misfortunes that DNA has visited his family. His mother, as well as other members of his family, were victims of cancer and not as a result of bad luck but rather of a bad gene. After his sister Judy underwent a genetic test, Entine was to discover that the deceased members of his family as well as his sister were born with a mutation of one of their genes.
   
   It was only ten years ago that this mutation was identified as BRCA2, or Breast Cancer 2 mutation 6174delT, one of the breast cancer mutations that are particularly common among Jews. As Entine, informs us, he previously had written about the DNA revolution in previous books on genetic engineering in agriculture and on the role genes play in influencing which races do best in sports. However, now it became a personal matter, as he also carries the cancer mutation and it is possible that his own daughter likewise inherited the same bad luck.
   
   As mentioned in the book, Jews are excellent candidates for genetic study due to the fact that from the time of their expulsion from biblical Palestine to all four corners of the world, they have gathered together in many closely knit but intricately related communities. In fact, for the most part, they were endogamous or in other words they rarely married outside of their religion, at least until the twentieth century. Consequently, this has proven to be a gold mine for DNA researchers. Called "Jewish Genetics," it has been the focal point in trying to solve the puzzle of disease and unlock the back-stories of humanity. As Entine states: "It's the genetic equivalent of history's Dead Sea Scrolls."
   
   The book divides itself into three parts, Identity, History, and Race. These are in turn bring up a number of issues that are subdivided into such topics as the Dead Sea Scrolls of DNA, Eve and Adam, finding Aaron, wandering tribes, the crystallization of Jewishness, Sephardim or the vanishing Jews of Spain, Ashkenazim or perhaps converts of Abraham's children, Jews and race, the end of race, disease and identity, Smarts Jews: Jewish mothers or Jewish genes, and Abraham's contested covenant. Also included are appendices concerning migration maps, haplogroup descriptions, tracing your ancestry and family history using DNA, a case study concerning the DNA of Father William Sánchez and Jewish diseases.
   
   Entine does well in drawing on his own personal memoirs and travels to Israel and Jordan as well as his vast research into the fields of genetics, history, spirituality, biblical history, and religion to weave a fascinating story as he endeavours to search for answers to questions such as if Abraham, Aaron, Moses and David really exist and what about the lost tribes of Israel? Is it possible for some Jews to trace their descendants to the Jewish Priests or Cohens? How about the Spanish Jews or Sephardim when they were expelled from Spain? Then of course we have the debate over who is a Jew and what determines Jewishness?
   
   There is certainly some fine writing and extensive academic research here. However, what Entine does best is to connect some of the genetic and history dots where readers are transported to biblical times and beyond. As he states, DNA is at once an atlas and time machine and furthermore the Israelite ancestry or Muslims, Christians and Jews is now open to all of us. "Genetic anthropology has awakened us to the shared roots of civilization and the promise of designer therapies to target diseases." It should be pointed out that considering how vast and complex a subject matter Entine tackles here, readers may suffer fatigue, however we are forewarned in the Author's note where it is stated: "that some aspects of this book may be either too simple or too complex, and for that reason, I apologize." Nonetheless, this is a first-rate exposé as it lays out information to which many of us will find extremely intriguing and educational.
   
   Norm Goldman, Bookpleasures



3. The first half of this book was really dry, I must admit. But I got through it and as it started getting more interesting, it all tied together so well. If you are interested in a little science and how it ties to history, this is the book for you. Not only that.. this book explains how genetics show us when and where some traditions in Jewish culture occured- FACINATING. It really opened my eyes up to the history of all the world religions and how politics and war were the primary factors in how many of us view our religions today. Entine goes into the start of Catholiscm and uses science to show how many of us, regardless of religion, are really connected through ancestory. One of the my favorite books of all time...



4. Item being reviewed
   Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People



5. I bought this book as a birthday present for my brother. I know he will really enjoy reading it. It arrived promptly and in excellent condition. Thanks.

5 comments about Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.

1. This culturally significant novel is a must for anyone interested in American studies, labor issues, oral history, etc.. The author, Studs Turkel is a prominent Chicago figure that has interview 9,000+ people about their jobs. This is well worth the read. Turkel interviews a variety of interesting people ranging from actors, flight attendants, CEO's, and even a call girl.



2. I read Working in 1986, when I was 23, and chose my profession based on one of the interviews (I'm a piano tuner/repairman). I am so grateful to Mr. Terkel and his subjects; without them I may have floundered in life, but because of their inspiration, I found work which I have enjoyed and learned from for more than two decades.



3. I was actually recommended this book by my advanced acting teacher as a senior in college. We had been talking about different places to find monologues for auditions other than plays. I had heard of the musical "Working" that had been inspired by this book, but had never looked into the literary reference. The second I opened this book, I was hooked.
   
   Not only did I find a countless number of potential monologues (sometimes three or four within one interview) but it also completely opened my mind to the people around me I often look past. I never took the time to consider the woman at the grocery register, like B. Secoli. Reading this book was ultimately life changing. Of course, after time one sinks back into their own self-absorbed existence, but every now and then, when I need a little perspective, I return to Studs Terkel's "Working" and rediscover the rest of humanity.



4. As I have done on other occasions when I am reviewing more than one work by an author I am using some of the same comments, where they are pertinent, here as I did in earlier reviews. In this series the first Studs Terkel book reviewed was that of his "The Good War": an Oral History of World War II".
   
   Strangely, as I found out about the recent death of long time pro-working class journalist and general truth-teller "Studs" Terkel I was just beginning to read his "The Good War", about the lives and experiences of, mainly, ordinary people during World War II in America and elsewhere, for review in this space. As with other authors once I get started I tend to like to review several works that are relevant to see where their work goes. In the present case the review of Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day And How They Feel About What They Do serves to reflect on a time a couple of decades ago when people may have been resigned about their working career but had a feeling that it did not express all of what they were. Given today's uncertain economic climate and the wider fears about the effects of the long term trend "globalization" which particularly threatens many lower- skilled or easily transferable jobs I am not sure that such interesting reflections on their work experiences would be forthcoming from today's working population.
   
   Although Terkel has cast a wide net on the range of occupations and types of work that he presents here it is weighted toward blue collar working people: the waitresses, bartenders, service personnel and the like with whom he had such affinity. The most interesting aspect of this effort is that almost universally the work that people do does not reflect on their capacities. In short, the job is not the measure of the person. That said, I believe, intentionally or not, this little treasure trove of interviews is one of the great arguments for socialism: the creation of a society where an energetic waitress or a well-read steelworker, for example, could break out and become a leader of society. A place where every cook can take a turn at governing. That is the real message that these interviewees are trying, unsuccessfully for the most part, to articulate. How to successfully do that, however, is a separate and frustratingly hard politcal and organizational question that I have argues about elsewhere.
   
   One thing that I noticed immediately after reading this book, and as is true of the majority of Terkel's interview books, is that he is not the dominant presence but is a rather light, if intensely interested, interloper in these stories. For better or worse the interviewees get to tell their stories, unchained. In this age of 24/7 media coverage with every half-baked journalist or wannabe interjecting his or her personality into somebody else's story this was, and is, rather refreshing. Of course this journalistic virtue does not mean that Studs did not have control over who got to tell their stories and who didn't to fit his preoccupations and sense of order. He has a point he wants to make and that is that although most "ordinary" people do not make the history books they certainly make history, if not always of their own accord or to their own liking. Again, kudos and adieu Studs.



5. This book is OK. Some of the interviews are interesting, but a lot of them aren't, and many of them are just completely irrelevant in the 21st century. Not exactly a page turner.

5 comments about Deep Ancestry: Inside The Genographic Project.

1. I'm an avid reader but I rarely read a book from front to back, but this one I did. It reads like a mystery thriller with Spencer Wells revealing clues and answers. A great read. For the egoists on certain racial origins it must be a shattering blow, but for the spiritually minded it warms the heart to think that we -- the human race -- began 60,000 years ago with a single family in an African Valley.
   But this prompts some intriguing questions: Where did the family originate? Why? How? And what force, influence or motivator put it there? Perhaps God, the Universal Mind, visitors from a distant cosmic realm? Was that single family planted as a seed? If so, are we being observed? If so, who is doing the watching, and why? Hopefully Dr. Wells and the Genographic Project will discover some answers. Meanwhile we wait for the next episode.



2. This book served me well as a review of the ideas in Wells' "The Journey of Man", with the added benefit that it also references the findings from analyses of women's mitochondrial DNA, finding consistency between those findings and the findings based on men's Y chromosome. At the same time it is disappointing in that it offers no fresh insight into whether there was some genetic great leap forward in the last 50,000-75,000 years, corresponding to the cultural leap forward. Nor does it make me any more comfortable with the fact that Eve lived so much earlier than Adam. It suggests this may be due to the fact that the men with the most reproductive success can be responsible for a relatively large proportion of children (Genghiz Khan has a huge number of descendants), but that is not sufficient in my mind. At the very least, I would have expected some simulations to test various assumptions which might lead to the Eve/Adam conundrum.
   
   The reader also needs to be aware that Wells, probably for simplicity, tends to make the most likely scenarios more certain than they are: letting in uncertainty only when you get to the the future areas of research, and the detailed discussion of the haplogroups.



3. "Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project" by Spencer Wells. National Geographic, Washington, DC. 2006. ISBN 10: 0-7922-6215-8, HC 248 pgs., Index 6 pgs., Illustrations.
   
   A well-written, largely original dissertation on discovering and documenting the origin and migrations of earliest Man (Homo sapiens) utilizing mutation points in the genome as relative, fixed-time events and categorized as haplogroups (ancestral clans).
   
   A previously published researcher, Wells obtained Ph.D. (Harvard) & studied under Luca Cavalli-Sforza (Stanford), population geneticist. Wells' genetic studies used Y chromosomal DNA for paternal and mt DNA (Mitochrondrial) for maternal linkages. For exposition in this book, Wells performed computational analyses of c. 10,000 participants from diverse parts of the world. Based on assumption that mutations are rare, he and co-workers studied both mt DNA and Y chromosomes for evidence of mutation sites, frequencies, and they were, thereby, able to develop maps of earliest haplogroups (ancestral clans). Illustrations show his mapped and inferred migratory paths for ancestral "Eve" and "Adam" using mt-DNA and Y-Chromosome respectively. Improved data necessitates use of more subjects, i.e. 100,000.
   
   This book is written for a large general audience in mind and fortunately is not overly stuffed with scientific jargon. The many illustrations and maps are invaluable. This study is part of the 5-year, 40-million-dollar research Genographic Project launched in April 2005 (completing in 2010), using cheek swab specimens contributed by voluntary public participants who purchase kits to obtain cheek swab samples (cost c. $100) and each will be provided haplogroup ID. Contact info: [....]
   
   finis



4. Good basic read on DNA tracing, but nothing much new here if you've read other Wells books or have watched the National Geographic programs on the Genome Project.



5. "Deep Ancestry" is the 2006 follow-up to "The Journey Of Man" which Spencer Wells wrote in 2002. The author has a more complete treatment of the overall subject in his earlier book. This later version is a companion to the genetic test kit which can be ordered through the National Geographic Store online. Some of the study progress and updates are included, though even more could be updated now in all likelihood.
   
   Unlike some others I preferred this book to JOM. It's much more focused and specifically addresses the genetic test which, if you buy the kit, is helpful for understanding your results. About 4/5ths of the way through there is an Appendix which summarizes the different haplogroups, each with its own heading, so you can quickly, easily look up your group and what it means to fall into that group. These haplogroups are for both maternal [mtDNA] and paternal [Y-DNA] groups, even though the study focuses only on the paternal side of things. There's also a glossary of terms following the Appendix which is helpful to understanding what is being discussed.
   
   The Genographic Project, as it is called, is scheduled to wrap up sometime later this year [2010] but no firm deadline has been set so far that I know of. So there's still time to order a kit and test your family DNA to discover which line of descent, which haplogroup, your paternal or maternal lines descended from. Even though the Genographic Project is paternal focused, you can choose to have your maternal DNA tested instead if you want. Or both, but you will need 2 kits for that.
   
   I've seen kits offered above here on Amazon for Deep Ancestry under "Collectible" for $100. You can also buy one at the National Geographic Store online for $100, OR you can order one through the National Geographic Store online (the EXACT same test) for $77. Just Google "Genographic Kit" and both options will pop up. I ordered the $77 kit and it was just fine. S/H is a rip though at $17 ($23 for two). If you want to test both maternal and paternal lines you'll need two kits. If you're thinking of ordering a test kit to go wtih Deep Ancestry you might want to check out the Genographic Project website for the latest information and possible information on when the study is slated to end.
   
   I recommend Deep Ancestry as a companion to the DNA test kit, and vice-versa.

5 comments about The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

1. I bought this book as a required reading for school. It was very easy to read and covered many interesting topics. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning more about the urban environment.



2. Living in Detroit in 2009 I find the book quite relevant since we are now on a journey to remake the city.



3. Jacobs argues masterfully against the popular assumption that urban density leads to slums and decay. Instead she describes how a dense concentration of people gives a city vitality and provides a built-in source of security through "eyes on the street". Throughout the book she discusses various ways to achieve this density and manage the vitality it brings, all the while challenging misconceptions about how cities work.



4. My son is a college senior who is taking a seminar class in urban studies. He was born in Manhattan so it was not a surprise that he should develop an interest in the subject. While I was purchasing another 'leisure read' to send to him, I saw this book as a suggested other possibility. It got very high marks in all the reviews and I thought it would be a great addition to his collection of books in this area. I was not wrong. He loved the book and when he brought it to class, his professor was delighted that he had a copy and called it "the classic for studies of cities". He has even introduced me to Jane Jacobs' work as he reads more and more of this book. I hope to read it from cover to cover when he brings it home from college later this year.



5. In spite of the modest shortcomings that have emerged with age, I still have a deep and abiding fondness for this book... after all, it is what decided me on a career change into urban planning. And unlike much of the specialist literature that I've had to read since then, this book is thrilling, passionate, accessible, and inspiring.
   
   For me, at a certain point -- probably about 2/3rds of the way through Death and Life -- Jacobs seems to start to repeat herself a bit, but many of her insights as to what creates vibrant neighbourhoods and vibrant cities remain as applicable today as they were when she was feuding with Robert Moses over the future of the West Village. This book should be required reading for all planners, highway engineers, and developers; many neighbourhood associations would also probably be the better for having a copy to hand.
   
   But Jacobs' greatest strength, I believe, is that she combines great insight with clear prose that is devoid of the 'fancy' specialist terminology that practicing planners and academics use to talk about the forces driving change in neighbourhoods, towns, and metropolises. Anyone can read this book, and everyone should.

5 comments about Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.

1. koolhaas is a bit over-the-top for me, but this I think is is best work. it's worth checking out if only for the story of coney island. once you get past blisteringly pretentious phrases like "coney island is a fetal manhattan", you'll find it gloriously entertaining as both a narrative and theoretical work.



2. A very inventive concept of New York's "culture of congestion" and how people are affected by the architecture they create. It is heavily researched and exhaustive, and after pretty much the third page I agreed with his concept of NY being "totally fabricated by man". What could of been a fascinating article becomes a spastic, heavy-handed read with a sledgehammer effect to your brain. (However,for those of us reading it for school, there are plenty of pictures that fill up the almost devastatingly vast 300+pages quickly.) It will scramble your brain with its thousands of nearly bumper-stickerish statements ("It hides life." "The Mountain MUST become architecture.") written with pretentious glee. However, I believe an independent scientific study has concluded that when pretending to read this book on the train people around you will assume your IQ is 40% higher than truth.



3. through the exhaustive historiography of the phases of congestion coney island brought to manhattan, koolhaas provides a rather cynical view of the Grid as being an ulimatley neutral zoning system of constraining ideas that represent the continual decline of a phantastically realistic civilization, represented as mutated symbols of architecture in the "void" of repeated "pregnancies."
   
   it's really well written. funny. uses, like above, a somewhat inefficient vocabulary but remains in the same vein throughout. it is also a graphic design hubris consuming every page, even the left-justified text, showing off koolhaas's interpretation of the importance to combine scholarship and marketing.
   
   buy it. it's a very good book.



4. While "Delirious" has its fair share of archispeak, Mr. Koolhaas pulls off an intelligent, fun and thought-provoking take on the early 20th century building culture of New York.
   
   One of the quirkier (and frankly, awesome/bravadoish) aspects of "Delirious" is Mr. Koolhaas's analysis of Coney Island: an "incubator for Manhattan's incipient themes." As a reader, one initially questions the inclusion of such a trashy place in such a lofty manifesto. However, as the chapter progresses, you start to see Mr. Koolhaas's iconoclastic brilliance. He pays an amazing homage to "the laboratory" that was Coney Island, illuminating the vital role it played in the building philosophies that would emerge later in Manhattan.
   
   Scattered throughout "Delirious," also, are compelling supporting images that Mr. Koolhaas clearly spent a lot of time digging up. In fact, flipping through the book for the images alone makes for a near-equivalent, and fun, learning experience.
   
   However, unlike his tasteful use of images, Mr. Koolhaaas's flamboyant use of scholarly English makes his writing difficult to digest at times:
   
   "It is probably inevitable that a doctrine based on the continual simulation of pragmatism, on a self-imposed amnesia that allows the continuous reenactment of the same subconscious themes in ever new reincarnations and on inarticulateness systematically cultivated in order to operate more effectively..."
   
   Given Mr. Koolhaas's journalism background (and assumed mastery of writing), I suspect he made the conscious decision to remain somewhat inaccessible to preserve his "lofty" image. While such a decision may be understandable, his brilliance as a writer often gets overshadowed by the sheer irritation of trying to understand him.
   
   Ultimately, "Delirious" proves itself to be a very intelligent synopsis---just as delirious and congested the themes Mr. Koolhaas puts forth. For the most part, it's a pleasure to read, and it also reflects the exhaustive research on Mr. Koolhaas's end. Much like Mr. Koolhaas's buildings, "Delirious" is on the cusp of being as grand as it intends to be.



5. The author presents in concise fashion his own version of New York City's urban development history.
   
   One may or may not be convinced by his thesis that there is a specific New York City psyche that is reflected over time in a wide variety of constructions.
   
   But one can only be enthralled by his intimate knowledge of the City and of projects ranging from Coney Island to the Empire State Building to the 1964 World Fair.
   
   The surprising and at times bizarre illustrations add to the incredibly rich text. They include for instance a vintage photograph of famous architects actually costumed as their own creations: the Fuller Building, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Squibb Building, the Chrysler Building, etc.
   
   Written over 30 years ago and thus also a reflection of the 1970's, this work is definitely a classic well worth reading today for anyone interested in New York or in cities in general.

5 comments about 100,000 + Baby Names: The Most Complete Baby Name Book: Including 300+ Fascinating Lists, The Latest Naming Trends, Key to Gender-Neutral Names.

1. I was very satisfied of how quickly i received my product and the shape it was in. I will order from this person again if they have available my future needs!



2. We didn't get our first child's name from this book however we did our daughter. We love how it breaks down the names in so many different categories. You too will enjoy it. Strongly recommend for those of you that are about to be first time parents or those of you with so many kids you've run out of ideas lol!



3. The next baby name book I buy will have less names in it. There's too many names that I've never heard of, never would of thought were names or are from weird countries. I'd like to know more about what the names mean, and how they came to be. The "300+ Fascinating Lists" are actually not fascinating at all, and aren't that accurate in my opinion. You might as well search the internet for the lists if you want them (i.e. - handsome boy names, cute girl names, geeky names, studious names, etc).



4. It does have a LOT of names, but 90% of them are pretty ridiculous and I can't see many parents actually choosing these names for their children. I wonder if someone just sat down and made up tons of names just to give it the title "100,000+". Next time, instead of going for a baby book with a large quantity of baby names, I'll be looking for a specific genre of baby names that I like to be more specific, like "traditional baby names" or "unique baby names" ect.



5. This book is filled with names for even the most picky Mommy or Daddy. It has helped name our son. Thanks!

No comments about Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History.

5 comments about The Everything Guide to Online Genealogy: A complete resource to using the Web to trace your family history (Everything Series).

1. This book is great. It tells a lot of stuff I already knew about researching family history, but I also learned a lot just in the first Chapter! This is a must have for serious researchers!



2. I am a librarian and have bought a lot of books on genealogy but this one is fantastic. It is loaded with websites and ideas and to have it all in one place is just staggering. The author did a great job.



3. THIS HANDBOOK IS A GREAT ASSET TO SOMEONE JUST STARTING OUT IN GENEALOGY (AS I AM). IN FACT, I PURCHASED 2 COPIES; ONE FOR ME AND ONE FOR MY SISTER. NOW WE BOTH CAN BURN UP THE NET!



4. This was my first book on Genealogy I purchased and it has been a big help, after I had started my family tree. It's packed with great information and on-line resourses and also, some samples of family tree research. A must have for your Genealogy library.



5. Started researching family history a couple years ago, but was't making much headway. This book really has helped me get going and is improving my results. I purchased the book along with the Family tree maker 2010 software which is a much better than the previous editions. A great book to buy.