This book breathes life into the very complex figure who is a progenitor of Science, and to an extent, Western civilization as we know them today. From Newton's correspondence and the memoirs of people who knew him, Christianson tells the story of the quiet child who revolutionized theories of light and mechanics, invented calculus (or did he? read!), served brilliantly as Master of the Mint, and presided over the Royal Society while privately holding heretical views and practicing alchemy. I got a great sense of the interrelatedness of the works of Newton and his contemporaries such that he seems neither untouchable and divine nor merely "in the right place at the right time", fashionable traps for biography. His interaction with many other contemporaries, such as Halley, Leibniz, and (Johann) Bernoulli were a reality check for my notions of genteel integrity among the lights of the age.

This is the first work of history and biography I've read in a long time. I'm now inspired to find more reading of this caliber. If only my formal education in history could have been this engaging!

Macmillan, please print this again so I can have my own copy!

Every one has heard of Isaac Newton. His laws of motion, how an apple fell on his head to help him understand gravity, etc. Those who go on to college to study science or engineering hear more of his work in optics, calculus, and a myriad other fields. When you understand how his work is at the very foundations of modern science, you begin to appreciate his genius.

This book by Gale E. Christianson is based on about 4 millions words (approximately 8000 pages on a standard 8 inches by 11.5 inches paper) written by Newton himself. The author succeeds in presenting everything that is known about Newton in less than 600 pages. Throughout the book, considerable amount of time is spent in outlining the external environment (political, religious, social and scientific) in England to help the reader understand Newton's life better.

The book starts off with Newton's ancestry and his own very difficult birth (prematurely born). His life is traced all the way to his education at Trinity College (University of Cambridge) and beyond as a Professor of Mathematics. The controversy regarding who is the originator of Calculus (Leibniz being the contender) is addressed in great detail. Everything you may want to learn about the origins of 'Principia Mathematica' is also covered in this book. Of course, there is no substitute for reading a copy of the original 'Principia Mathematica' itself if you are interested in exactly what it comprised.

I have yet to finish reading the entire book and it has been about 10 years since I purchased my copy. I skipped a few chapters when I first read the book and I have never been able to find the time to go back and fill in the blanks. The 600 pages are quite daunting to read yet thoroughly enjoyable if you can relate to his life in any way. Even otherwise, the life of one of the greatest abstract thinkers of all times is absolutely fascinating. What makes the book difficult to read is not the complex mathematics or physics (there is none of that in this book) but the pages and pages devoted to painting a picture of life in England at that time. There is so much information that you also need to find British History interesting in order to appreciate the entire book.

If you are deeply interested in Physics or Mathematics, you will enjoy this book thoroughly. Otherwise, it will make a good addition to your biography collection. The effort that the author spent on putting this book together is absolutely monumental. I plan on keeping this as part of my library collection and someday pass it on to my progeny. I hope you find it as enjoyable a book to read as I did.

Although not very detailed on the scientific aspects of Newton's work, this biography places him very well in his historic period, where we find a tadpole spectacle-between two worlds--of an age in transition, and the arch-innovator, shaking the foundations. That said, and the tale makes it clear, Newton was still very much a man of another age, if not another world, and we can also forget his discretion towards what he had achieved, never mistaking it for a complete metaphysical system. The theologian competes with the tinkerer turned blazingly sharp intuiter of the method of fluxions. The issue is important because the monumental genius of his deed tends to induce imitation in the sciences to come, but this never suceeds, for a reason Newton might have found obvious as he expended a majority of his labors poring over theological and alchemical treatises. I shan't further, as is my wont, crack jokes about 'mad scientists'. Newton was the real McCoy, and so much more compellingly fascinating than the caricature. We might learn his system of the world, but never grasp the 'system' of his mind, where sanity and madness integrate as a mystery. The depiction in the book of the world of Newton's England, Cambridge, and in the period of a classic political passage, leaves only wonder at the pinnacle of accomplishment starting from such rough-scrabble beginnings.

This was my first Lonely Planet book and I could not have made the trip without this very informative and helpfull book. I highly recommend any Lonely Planet books to any one traveling abroad.

This is the best lonelyplanet guide book I've ever had. Normally, I find them OK but irritating. Miraculously, this one is different.
Firstly, it's not too big (unlike, say, the Indian one) and is not afraid to leave some good stuff OUT. Secondly, it's very well researched, which is impressive in Bangladesh because information isn't all that readily available. Nor is it patronising in tone!
Best of all, though, is that reference to women travellers isn't restricted to a nauseating passage on what women "shouldn't" do because of the dangers, and then special women's diseases. Instead, it actually suggests that there are advantages to being a woman and special places to visit (such as women's development programs) that might interest women in particular. Yay! Welcome to the 21st century LP! I don't know what this sudden change in tone is due to, but I hope it spreads throughout the LP philosophy.
Otherwise, the information is helpful and up-to-date. The maps are a bit dodgy and could do with some work. For example, Thanchi does NOT lie between Ruma and Keokradung, and nor is Keokradung the highest peak in Bangladesh. The Chittagong map, in particular, is fairly useless.
Still, a very nice job. Very impressive. Very interesting and well written.

I found this guide to be very informative and helpful. The maps are a very good basis for getting a sense of where various sections of the cities are located. Some guidebooks are sorely outdated but this book is still quite current. Many of the places mentioned are still in existence. We plan to take several of the recommended trips from this guidebook as well as cycling trips. Since moving to Dhaka I have used this book continually for a reference book. I would highly recommend reading this book before coming to visit Bangladesh!

The Clarks make no bones about it: Sir Issac Newton was one of the greatest scientific minds of the his time. Of all time, in fact. Newton was the symbol of the triumph of science over superstition.

But Newton had a darker side. Despite the fame and recognition he had received, Newton refused to let anyone threaten to overshadow him or stand in his way of greater achievements.

Reverend John Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal - a position he held for 44 years serving under 6 kings. He spent his night in the observatory of Greenwich gazing through telescopes, cataloguing the stars. Newton wanted this information to figure out a better way to navigate to oceans, a major problem in his day. He was convinced Flamsteed was holding back the critical information he needed. For that, Newton used all the considerable power at his disposal to end the career of Flamseed. He almost suceeded. It was only because of the dedication of Flamsteed's widow that his 3-volumn Historia Coelestis Britannica was published.

Today, because of Flamsteed's work, we measure longitude from the place he accomlished his work - Greenwich.

The work of Stephen Gray is less known. A commoner trained as a dyer, he was a most unlikely member of the Royal Society.

Gray was a long time friend of Flamsteed. He carried on a regular coorespondence with the elder scientist, sharing with him his own celestial observations.

But it was Gray's pioneering work in using electricity for communications that earned him immortality. Work, that if not for Newton, may have been accomplished 20 years sooner.

Humans need heroes, and those prominent in any field are often portrayed as ideals no matter how flawed they may be in real life. The Clarks, scientists from the UK, have written a fascinating historical study of Isaac Newton, Astronomer Royal Flamsteed, and amateur scientist Gray with the intention of demythologizing Newton and giving Flamsteed and Gray what the authors consider to be their proper place in the development of 17th- and 18th-century science. Gray's contributions to the field of electricity and electrical communications and evidence for Newton's suppression of Gray's work are discussed in some detail together with Flamsteed's work in astronomy; the relationships between Flamsteed, Newton, and Gray; and the political and social climates of the times. The book was not written to demean Newton's accomplishments; the authors devote a fair amount of space to a discussion of Flamsteed's personal foibles that made the feud (concerning Flamsteed's astronomical data supplied t o Newton) between him and Newton difficult to avoid. In the words of the authors, "His [Newton's] genius would survive any detailed scrutiny, but the failure to recognize his aggressive character and his tyrannical behavior meant that the genius of others, including Flamsteed and Gray, was not recognized." All levels.

This is a quick read that is both well-written and well-organized. The authors take few diversions - historical, rhetorical, or empirical - from describing the relations among the characters in the title: the credentialed Newton, the laborious Gray, and the intermediary Flamsteed. The result is a concise and enjoyable report on what is known and what can be reasonably surmised about the relative contributions of these men. There is sufficient detail (and sufficient lack of colouring) to make the book of interest to scientists, and to historians and sociologists of science. But there the book is sufficiently accessibile, and the subject matter sufficiently finite to make it equally appealing to anyone with interest in such topics as politics, organizations, and astronomy, not to mention Newton and his era.

As a lesbian anthropologist who spent several years summering in Cherry Grove and getting to know the then-aging members of its first gay pioneers, Esther Newton was uniquely placed to write the history of America's first (and for long, only) predominantly gay and lesbian community. The documentation and the historical depth are impressive; what struck me more, however, was the extent to which gay and lesbian life existed in the United States before Stonewall (1969), even if it was often constrained by a combination of public disapproval and intermittent enforcement of oppressive laws. As someone born after Stonewall, the pre-1960s history of marginalized groups, like homosexuals, is largely unknown. This book goes a long way to redressing that gap in American social history.

Newton organizes her book into three main eras. The "country-club" time of the first gay, lesbian, and sexually ambiguous individuals who came out from the New York theatre and artistic circles, began in the 1930s and continued through WW II and into the anti-gay witch hunts of the McCarthy era. The second period, beginning in the 1960s, saw the expansion of the upper-class WASP definition of gay identity to include new perspectives from "ethnic" whites, mainly Jews and Italians of middle- and working-class backgrounds. Finally, the 1970s and 1980s saw a transformation of the Grove, post-Stonewall, post-advent of AIDS, in which a newly militant gay identity was forged nationwide through the rhetoric of civil rights and in response to the devastation of HIV. Each era has seen conflicts between straights and gays, between owners, renters, and day-trippers, between men and women, and along lines of class and ethnicity. Often these factions have aligned in unexpected ways, and as an older renter, a woman, and a person of Jewish heritage, Newton is unusually placed to see the shifting fault lines.

The weakness of the book lies in a certain lack of analysis, on the one hand, and a certain political positioning on the other. Newton is an anthropologist by profession, but the analysis of social groupings in this book rarely goes beneath a simple description of what happened, in which factors of class, gender, and ethnic identity largely determine the political history of Cherry Grove. One could hope for a bit more analysis -- for instance, camp culture and drag (both of which changed substantially in conception with the changes of generations) are rather central to her description of Cherry Grove's history. Yet there is little attempt to analyze the psychology or motivations for either. The second issue is that Newton very strongly identifies herself as a politically liberal lesbian of a certain generation; this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. On the one hand, she sees and describes what might be invisible to someone who accepted the class identity of the first generation, to someone who accepted the assumed whiteness of the first two generations, or someone who accepted the current gay assumption that "gayness" is an identity primarily of white, middle-class males under the age of 40. On the other hand, the narrative is somewhat shaped by her identification (and criticism of) particular groups within Cherry Grove. She also has a fondness for camp humor which is somewhat alien to many people who have grown up since Stonewall, and which identifies her as a member of a particular generation. It is a pity she does not take more effort to explain it, as she seems to think it central to an understanding of Cherry Grove's first thirty years. (She may do so in her earlier book, Mother Camp, based on her dissertation work.)

All in all, this is a very good history of gay life in a culturally significant American community.

As a student of the natural sciences growing up in an era in which most Americans have already learned the lessons of AIDS and Stonewall is becoming a distant recollection of the founding moments of a move that is today alive and strong, I have had little opportunity to learn about the history of the gay and lesbian rights movement in America. Thus, in anthropological texts on this subject, such as Newton's, I seek a book which is easy to read from a lay-person's perspective (having no training in anthropology myself) and capable of providing a well-balanced look at how significant historical events have shaped the movement with which I am familiar today. Cherry Grove, Fire Island performs superbly on both of these points.

The book focuses on the small queer community of Cherry Grove which managed to develop in the mid-1930's on the remote sand bar of Fire Island, just off the coast of New York. Newton notes that perhaps it was in such a remote place that the first development of gay community in America happened because this was the only place it could happen-removed from mainstream life. Newton's book follows this community through the major eras in its development, carefully noting the important roles of major events both on the island and the mainland. Changing economic structures on the island (including the introduction of mafia-owned discos!), the developing gay rights movement on the mainland, the AIDS pandemic, sexism and racism in The Grove, day-tripping visitors, public sex, and competition with other Fire Island communities are only a few of the topics Newton explores in her comprehensive study.

Newton based her book on interviews of forty-six informants that she gathered while spending five years in The Grove during the 80's. She formulates the text as the story of a community with a focus on some key characters and places throughout. At times, it reads much like a novel with charming characters and situations almost too enchanting too believe. Indeed, Newton's book may be an anthropological record, but it reads like anything but the dry, sterile picture that such classification invokes. Nonetheless, Newton has done a careful job of keeping the "big picture" of gay rights and identity in mind while telling her story and it is not difficult to see how most of what she recounts is historically important in this scope as well. Finally, it is notable that one shortcoming of anthropological work in general is that much of it seems generally lacking in a balance between focus on gay men and lesbians. Despite the fact that The Grove was primarily a gay male community throughout most of its early years (something that has slowly been changing), Newton manages to do an admirable job of maintaining a sense of balance, even managing to draw extensively from interviews of some of the lesbians who did manage to visit Cherry Grove in its early years.

If there is one shortcoming of Newton's book, it is perhaps that the subsection of the gay community on which it focuses is a rather affluent one. Of course, this focus is more a result of the nature of the community itself and we can hardly fault Newton for it. On the whole, then, Cherry Grove, Fire Island is a well-written and informative portrayal of early gay and lesbian life in America.

Richard "Bullhead" Nelson is a bully on a mission. A voice in his head prompts him to push other kids around and he relishes in the power that he has over them. When the voice promises him all the power and respect that he can ever imagine, he will stop at nothing to ensure that he gets it.

Willie Lepet is a popular teen. While he may be small in stature, he makes up for it with his big heart. Despite his size and fears, Willie is the first person to stand up to Bullhead, although he is injured as a result. To "save face" and prove his strength, Willie is forced to perform the ultimate dare, one that may forever change the world, as we know it.

Unbeknownst to the teenage boys, there is an ancient evil force, Shawawneekee, that is controlling their actions and destinies in an attempt to revitalize his human form, to make the world one of darkness, chaos, and evil. Within the novel, Shawawneekee is a "living" spirit, but is also symbolic of fear and how destructive fear can be.

The Dare is a suspenseful horror novel that is as informative as it is frightening. Newton Streeter takes the reader on a history lesson of Chicago beginning with the Native Americans that were its first inhabitants to the modern day poverty-stricken ghettos. The book gives social commentary on how people can be just as evil and deadly as spirits. This is African American horror at its best.

Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy

Newton Streeter's The Dare is a real page turner. The character development and story telling are excellent. This book is very visual and flows like a good movie. If you like suspense you'll really like this book.
The story is set in Chicago, and boy what a picture he paints. I have to admit, I was amazed at how vivid the story location was, I was sure I'd seen the building while I was in Chicago. And the characters, I knew someone just like Willie, Janet, Kenny and especially Kathy. Very real...
I won't give anything away - but I will say this one is a "Definite Buy"!!!

I liked this book because it shows how two people can talk about baseball for hours at a time even though the boy is in his teens and his aunt is in her 70's. I also liked the book because Tate the boy had to adjust to a new lifestyle after his all his family members had passed away in a plane crash. I didn't like the book because the story just talked about his aunt's life and her traveling with this baseball team.

I loved this book, it kept me interested all the way. I just read SIGHTS by susanna Vance, and it was good in the same way too. Hard times done well and a sense of magic in the setting.

Mr. Newton's compilation translation of Ost Front tactics was quite good. Descriptions of tactics in a wide varity of situations and locations , both on offense and increasingly on defense, are included. These are not broad, sweeping action reports,but rather on the divisional level and below by largely unsung "heroes" of the eventually defeated forces of the Wehrmacht. The resourcefulness and determination of these leaders gives a birds' eye view as to why Germany nearly won the war with Russia and, perhaps more importantly, why it took Russia over two years after Stalingrad to defeat them. Along with General Raus' narrative recently published, one can now grasp the desperate but brilliantly organized actions prosecuted by the Wehrmacht on the Ost Front. I highly reccommend this work to focused students of military history, but only to them. It is far too dry for casual reading.

do you enjoy reading about the german army and WWII? because if you do then you'd LOVE this book. It talks about how the germans manuvered and routed several russian armies. It is constantly maving and very hair raising.

I would agree on the rather high quality of the present
book, as pointed out in the other review.

However, the books seems not appropriate for a first contact
with Newtonian mechanics.

While the book makes every effort to introduce the reader to
modern concepts used in Mechanics, notably its setting in a
differential geometric context and an introduction to nonlinear
dynamical systems, the very basis of vector mechanics receives
only attention from one chapter.

This is clearly inadequate and a thourough understanding of
elementary vector mechanics and a good round of problem solving
is certainly essential before addressing even the simplest
Lagrangian mechanics.

The reason I want to point this out, is that the book is used
at an early level in German universities.

That is scary. I can well imagine people attempting to walk
through tangent spaces, but not able to integrate a simple
dynamics problem in R^2.

Please be careful!

For the listed price of $38US this book is indeed a bargain. It is clearly written with a rational organization of topics and most sections are accompanied with meaningful examples. I especially enjoyed the development of the Hamiltonian. On the other hand, this is not an easy text - you may not be able to watch Jerry Springer as you read it; a basic familiarity calculus, vector analysis and physics will be needed to make any head way at all. I wish I had used this text in college.

This book is the greatest there is for a study of mechanics on an undergratuate level. This book covers alot of subjects with a unique combination of strictness and easyness. It's a must for all physics and mathematics students. It's index: 1.Elementary Newton Mechanics 2.The Principles of Canonical Mechanics 3.The Mechanics of Rigid Bodies 4.Relativistic Mechanics 5.Geometric Apsects of Mechanics 6.Stability and Chaos 7.Continuous Systems

There's enough practical information here that you could probably go out and do it - the only meaningful test for a how-to book. But the pages are small, the type is large, the filler is plentiful, and the cover price is exorbitant. Your call.

I've read this book and have found it quite useful - I'm using it as the starting point for my own forays in this area - and the best thing I can say about it is the spirit it engenders. There are probley a million ways to make a film but you'll never make one unless you believe you can - and this book by showing you very effecive means goes along way into making you believe you can. It's quite comprehensive and goes into good detail though I wouldn't say it was the last word on film-making but then nor does it - and that's not the point because it gives you enough to not just get started with but to make an actual film with - and whatever more you want or need you're natural learning and further exploration will take you to. I reccomend it.

I own about 20 books on filmaking, and this book is very good, probably the best out of the 20. The writers of the book have made a couple of film features (not digital), and they detail everything that they did in the process. Robert Rodriguez's book "rebel without a crew" is a very, very inspirational book. But this book explains every step in the process from starting out writing, to making a camera dolly for $80, to using the canadian exchange rates to your advantage. I got the book used here on amazon for $15. Buy the book, then write a review here, and then go out and make your film!