Social Sciences Books

This book is the story of Helen, a ghost, who falls in love with another ghost within a living body. Overall, a good book. The beggining drags, the end is somewhat strange, but acceptable. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, hopefully there will be other writings by this author.

I really liked this book. It kept my attention all the way through. I will say that the topics in the book were a little mature for some of the younger readers, but as an adult I was not offended or surprised. I would definitly recommend this book to all my friends.

This 'first novel' story of FORGIVENESS, LOVE, HAPPINESS, and HOPE, is inspiring (although a little sketchy) and a very good read for a young heart not interested in cheesy epic love stories.
Being `Light' (ghost) is the absolute worst thing to be, according to Helen. As Apposed to being `Quick' (human) or even just dead.
Helen is Light, stuck for one hundred and thirty years, as a wandering soul clinging to her each host (human) until they pass, as... well nothing, unable to remember anything about her past. Wondering why God left her behind.
This story is about how Helen meets one like herself and realizes that it wasn't God that needed to forgive her, but in fact herself that was needed to forgive her.

Just an ordinary day for a Light. Hovering above her beloved host, who hadn't the slightest inclination of her existence, in his English class, when one of the student looked her dead in the eye. She thought at first she had imagined it because no one could have possibly seen her... she was dead. But the next day he looked again, this time even smiled. His name was Billy Blake, at least that was what was believed. In fact, his name was James. A Light like Helen who had taken over the empty body of Billy.
And the story begins!!! The twisted fate of love, fear, and suspense takes these to characters for the ride of their afterlife time. Involving Helen taking on a body of her own, falling in love with James, realizing the consequences of interfering on the life of a Quick, and forgiving herself.


AN AWESOME FIRST NOVEL FOR WHITCOMB AND AN AWESOME READ FOR YOUNG ADULTS (PG-13) OR JUST THE YOUNG HEARTED ADULT !!!

A wonderful book with lyrical, poetic prose. I'm not sure that I'd give it to a young adult (perhaps 17/18 and older), but I thought it was beautiful and creative.

I really loved this book. It's romantic, w/o being mushy or too naughty, it's got the paranormal slant on it, and I really just all around loved it. I also really liked the mystery secret of her curse. I thought it was a really wonderful book.

Quantum Enigma goes where few science books dare to go: right up to the border that separates physics from philosophy. And there it stops. The implication though is strong that something, a field of consciousness (?), is behind the universe and everything in it.

Truly a classic book! If I had read this book during my college years, I definitely would have been a physics student instead of doing computer engineering. Even though I knew about Schrödinger Cats, It was the biggest surprise for me to read that it was in fact physics' encounter with consciousness. It was always - shut up and calculate approach for most of us. Also being a Vedanta student, it feels good to see that philosophy and science are converging to the same point. Simply the best book on science that I ever read! And it was such a great coincidence that I saw Dr. Fred Alan Wolf and Larry King on CNN discussing the similar subject the day I finished this book.

It takes a little while to grasp its concepts and I am not completely convinced of all arguments. However, its a very interesting read and I'm naturally a "doubting Jane" when science is involved. I question everything beyond the norm. What this has done is spiked my interest in String Theory so as well as recommending this book as a good starter, I would then recommend you read The Elegant Universe. Better to read this one first.

Happy enlightenment!

This book on interpreting the quantum facts is one of the best I've read. It is one of the best, I think, in its understandability of the enigma one is faced with in trying to go beyond the Copenhagen interpretation.
This book presents the measurement problem of quantum physics and explains why conscious observation must have some role in influencing reality, if you choose to go beyond CI. The way the authors explain Bell's Theorem and how it became a testable theory that answered the EPR challenge to quantum theory is succinct and comprehensible to the layman, for which it was writen.

This book is by far one of the most concise and simplest elucidations of various quantum phenomena... treating Copenhagen interpretation, the famous EPR paradox, Bell's theorem & inequality and more. Since I am not a physicist or physics major, I found their approach welcoming and I cannot critique the physics of the book, but I do have some major qualms with Quantum Enigma.

My prime objection to this book is that the authors implicitly believe in the reality & truth of free will throughout the text. I was a student in Bruce Rosenblum's class at UC Santa Cruz so I was able to ask questions to one of the authors of the book. The issue of free will was one that Rosenblum was not a fan of discussing, often dismissing the nearly uniform proclamation of the natural sciences that free will (i.e. our conscious control of choices) is an illusion.

This is may not seem like a profound objection to a book about physics, but Rosenblum & Kuttner insist themselves on the importance of free will to their book: "the existence of a quantum enigma depends crucially on free will." (p.168) If this is true, one would expect a substantial discussion of this concept yet the authors devote less than 2 pages to it. In these 2 pages, the authors admit, "Though it is hard to fit free will into a scientific worldview, we cannot ourselves, with any seriousness, doubt it. J.A. Hobson's comment seems apt to us: `Those of us with common sense are amazed at the resistance put up by psychologists, physiologists, and philosophers to the obvious reality of free will.'"

This quotation is essentially saying that Rosenblum and Kuttner cannot accept the notion that free will is an illusion because of "common sense." Physicists of all people should know that our so-called "common sense" and our intuitions are often skewed and sometimes totally incorrect. Quantum mechanics is a perfect example of this - as is Copernicus' discovery that we live in a heliocentric system - yet this notion of not trusting our "common sense" seems to not occur to Rosenblum and Kuttner in relation to free will. Often in the Quantum Enigma course (Physics 75), Bruce Rosenblum would simply say, "I know I have free will" - a statement that should make any philosopher, physicist, or biologist cringe - and presumably anyone who values empirical data over subjective "intuitions." Why should we trust our intuitions and "common sense" over the empirical data in this one case of our apparent free will?

The quotation above also belies a major problem with Quantum Enigma, where physics supposedly meets consciousness. The views of those fields named in the quotation above - psychologists, physiologists, and philosophers - are notably absent from Rosenblum and Kuttner's book. In Quantum Enigma where "physics meets consciousness," David Chalmers' book from the 80s is invoked often; they also mention Libet's studies from the 1980s. The problem with this is that an immense amount of research has been done since the 1980s in the blossoming field of neuroscience, which relate directly to our notions of intention, free will, consciousness, and self-representations. None of these findings are even mentioned even in passing in Quantum Enigma.

Patricia Churchland, a philosopher and neuroscientist, states in her book Brain-Wise, "So far, there is no evidence at all that some neuronal events happen without any cause... Importantly, even were uncaused neuronal events to be discovered, it is a further, substantial matter to show that precisely those events constitute choice." From a biological perspective, there appears to be no room for free will. Rosenblum and Kuttner even admit as much when they begin the quotation above with the phrase, "Though it is hard to fit free will into a scientific worldview..." If free will is hard to fit into a scientific worldview, and "the existence of a quantum enigma depends crucially on free will," would it not seem practical to devote a little more than two pages to the discussion of free will? Wouldn't it be necessary to understand the views of biologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers on these issues of consciousness and free will to have a full, accurate, scientific picture of the situation?

Certainly physics can expect to "encounter" consciousness because physics intends to find a holistic explanation of the universe, and consciousness is obviously part of the universe physics intends to explain. In our search to understand both quantum mechanics and consciousness, we must be honest and open to all sides of the story. Unfortunately, Rosenblum and Kuttner leave out the arguments from biology, psychology, neurology, and some physicists when discussing the quantum enigma where "physics encounters consciousness." This is an overwhelming handicap, especially because of the authors' supposedly "common sense" presupposition that humans have free will. I admit that there is certainly a quantum enigma that presents itself in what we know as the "measurement problem," and Rosenblum and Kuttner should be congratulated to attempt to bring this to light to combat pseudoscience. But to understand the Quantum Enigma, we cannot start with presupposed truths, especially including the notion that we have free will.

With this in mind, I give the book 3 stars for its extraordinary conciseness with which it explains the phenomena of physics but the lack of biology, philosophy, neuroscience, etc. severely handicaps their interpretations and conclusions.

Well, this book was required for the course I am taking - so it wasnt my choosing. I think that the book is far more biased that I am used to for a textbook. It expressed the author's opinions far more than giving concrete facts on the subject and I often dissagreed with the view points that the material presented.

This book is an introductory course to accounting. It explains concepts and terminology in plain and basic English. To further enhance understanding of the materials, the authors have incorporated pictures and cartoons. This book is the newest edition and contains revised learning components and new part-ending case studies. The textbook also comes with a Student CD-ROM. It contains resources to help students, such as how to give a professional speech. Overall, this book is great for anyone who is taking an introductory course to accounting or anyone who wants to enhance their knowledge.

I used this textbook in my "business math" course.

The course covered material that I'd already mastered in high school, so I rarely used this book.

When I had to look up a few fuzzy areas, though, it helped me. It did a poor job of explaining Chapter 7, as I recall.

Robert Caro's THE POWER BROKER is a lession in the use of power in the life and career of Robert Moses, and the consequent effects upon the people and substructure of New York City. Moses is such a disgusting figure, such a tyrant, that I literally found myself shaking at points. The press was in his pocket, elitest and racist, Moses painted himself as the selfless public servant. In reality, he cast people aside by the thousands in order to increase his power and accomplish what he wants. What a vile man. I'll never look at New York City the same again and I pray that I would never treat people the way he did.

Robert Caro's The Power Broker, a biography of Robert Moses, contains every attribute of a Shakespearean tragedy. Moses was brilliant, driven, an over-achiever, but possessed a deeply flawed character which aroused feelings of both esteem and disgust. Like all of Shakespeare's tragic protagonists, he was capable of both good and evil. Fully able to redeem himself, he instead moved unheedingly towards his doom. That 30+ years of unquestionable power within New York State's political, corporate, and labor elite forestalled this doom speaks to the measure of the man. Indeed, it took a Rockefeller to push him from the mountaintop.

One of the best biographies I've ever read, The Power Broker's 1,163 pages artfully and suspensefully tell the tale of a man for whom the words great and ignominious qualify as adjectives. Initially an ardent reformer, Moses was increasingly corrupted by power. At the apex of this power, Moses answered to no one and ran a wide reaching web of political commissions and public authorities as his personal empire.

His transition from reformer to elitist provides the backbone of Caro's epic. Once a voice for the common man, Moses eventually attained what can only be described as aristocratic contempt for the mob, the rabble, the lower echelon of economic achievement. The reader may marvel that such a powerful man was heretofore unknown to them, but the reader will certainly grow increasingly disenchanted at such a man's venality.

The Power Broker is a classic deserving the attention of every student of history. Despite it's heft, it remains a page turning pleasure throughout. As such, it most assuredly merits the highest ranking I can give it: 5+ stars. Trite though the term may be, Robert Caro has authored a masterpiece.

This book, written by Robert Caro - probably the best living biographer, was his first book. It is a massive, thorough, detailed, engaging study of how one man - Robert Moses - planned, shaped and built - the modern city of New York.

It is about the acquisition of power and its utilization by one man in order to bring his vision of New York City to fruition.

Robert Moses - the primary subject of the book - together with the notion of power, and New York City itself as well as its residents being the other subjects - was trained in urban planning England, was a visionary, a planner, and a "Power Broker" - and thus the title, whose materials where New York City, planned, designed, built modern New York by stamping his vision in the form of new parks, spaces, roads and parkways, new neighborhoods, new subways/rail-lines, new beach and recreational facilities and areas, had an impact on the way millions of New Yorkers as well as visitors to NYC experienced NYC - experienced NYC - for decades. His shape of NYC is still shaping how humans experience reality in such city.

This is a tour de force. This is a good book for those interested in New York City, local and state government politics, the modern bureaucratic / administrative aparatus of government and those who wield the helm. Whether you agree with Robert Moses vision of NYC or not, he had a tremendous impact. The impact was not limited to NYC. Seen as the expert on urban planning, his model, his vision, his views, spread throughout the entire field of modern urban planning. Thus, his impact is not just local or state. It is in fact national and international. Modern cities - the leadership of which visited or modeled their cities on NYC - where shaped by his creations.

A long book. A detailed book. A hard book. But excellent, very interesting, and well worth the effort and time. Probably the prime example of what an excellent biography is and should be. It made Robert Caro, its author, into the preeminent biographer of the last several decades. It set the standard. I don't know if it has or will ever be matched.

I have been waiting to read this book for a very long time, and the wait was well worth it. Mr. Caro presents a massive, well-researched piece on one of New York's most influential (and controversial) public officials. I am a sucker for great detail, and so I enjoyed Caro's painstakingly detailed portrait of how a young, idealistic reformer evolved into the ruler of a huge bureaucratic empire. What Caro makes very clear is how Robert Moses became so corrupted by power (and self-importance) that he failed to grasp how his projects were not always in the public interest. Moreover, Caro paints a vivid picture of Moses' cynicism and shrewdness, and how he parlayed those into greater and greater power. For instance, Moses realized that most state legislators were political hacks who never bothered to read the fine print of the laws that they passed. He played on this to insert such fine print into legislation which made him virtual Tsar of development in both New York State and New York City. In addition, Moses was able to convince most New York politicians that he was indispensable to them, and so had them virtually eating out of his hand (i.e., his tactic of threatening to resign, unless he got 100% of what he wanted). At once fascinating and frightening as to how one man could harness such a degree of power!

While Robert Moses' achievements are the main focus of this book, Mr. Caro also devotes a great deal of attention to the political situation that existed in New York during the era of Moses. In doing this, he gives readers a fine education on how New York and its municipalities were governed at that time (and in many ways, are still governed), along with an in-depth look at other contemporary political figures (i.e., Al Smith and Fiorello LaGuardia). I would equate reading this book with taking a college-level course, as you learn and think so much while reading it.

On a critical note, not all of Mr. Caro's conclusions about Robert Moses are universally accepted. For instance, Mr. Caro accuses Moses of single-handedly wrecking the Bronx with the Cross Bronx Expressway. However, many people have argued that this was only one of many factors that destroyed the Bronx, and not all of these things were brought by Moses. Perhaps Mr. Caro should have given space to opposing viewpoints regarding the Moses legacy. Overall, though, I think that it is a great book: required reading for anyone interested in the development of New York during the 20th century.

Robert Caro's biography reads like an extraordinary work of investigative journalism - damning, erudite and compelling - that surely would have been appreciated by Robert Moses had he not been the subject.

It is a fascinating study of the evolution of government in New York City and Robert Moses' ability to shape laws as the "best bill drafter in Albany" and to seize upon prevailing trends and work the levers of the City, State and Federal governments to his advantage. It is during the Great Depression when Moses is able to mobilize maximum resources, largely from the Federal government, for some of his most ambitious projects.

While at most times a scathing indictment of Moses and his methods, Caro does credit Moses - New York City's first Parks Commissioner - for his contributions to green spaces in the city and his creation of a premier state park system.

Caro insists that judgment about Moses' legacy is premature and that one can only say New York would be a very different place without Moses. New York was indeed a very different place at the time of publication of the Power Broker; Caro has recently commented that some of Moses projects, such as the Triborough Bridge, have been a boon for city residents. Although he never cared for mass transit, it's a shame Moses couldn't come back to start work on the stalled new Penn Station.

Imperialistic colonization and foreign domination are a stain on the forehead of democracy.
But since when monopolization of ethical thoughts under the pretext of urban development and building a nation fed by foreign interests paved the way to progress and national prosperity?

This book might appear as anti- European propaganda, but it is not.

The severe tone of the book is not to be ignored, and I admit the arguments lack historic foundation, nevertheless, the scars of African sufferings are still bleeding, and there is a powerful lesson to learn from this book.

Here is the best one-volume history of this misunderstood continent, one which highlights Africans' agency and creativity. Now in a third edition, it has more useful features than any competitors. Numerous superb illustrations present images ranging from rare to famous. The maps are even better, allowing readers to locate places, peoples and developments precisely. And the text displays Shillington's mastery of all the latest scholarly work on the continent. His sober, balanced approach is sometimes dry, but the style is always readable. Publisher and author claim that "History of Africa" is both a high school and college text, but plentiful (not excessive) detail makes it a challenge for all but the most advanced secondary students. More direct quotations from oral and written sources would improve the book, but this is a minor problem remedied by using supplementary materials. Lastly, the cost is reasonable, less than half the average for comparable surveys of Western Civ or US history. This volume will satisfy the curiosity of the general public too.

Shillington provides a good survey style textbook on African history from antiquity to the modern period. He covers in great detail and quality of the relationship between Africa and Islam as well as the nature of slavery and apartheid. He covers the slave trade in quite a bit of detail, explaining the value of the African as a marketable commodity. He also explains the origins of apartheid as a colonial parting gift that became entrenched racist national policy for more than fifty years. Shillington's survey is quite appropriate for a high school African history class, an undergraduate African history survey or introduction or even as a first book for a graduate African history course. The topics covered here are obviously from an Africanist point of view although there is a minimum, if any, level of bias on Shillington's part.

Shillington blames Europe for all of Africa's ills but he fails to put forth a good case arguing why we should agree with him. The views presented in "History of Africa" are compatible with the current trend in academia, but these interpretations are controversial nevertheless, and should be treated as such. That is why it is disappointing to see an argument without depth or verification. The format is just as telling: it mimics a textbook. "History of Africa" gives a matter-of-fact overview, complete with his dressings of bias, which are presented as irrefutable truths. No counterargument is ever addressed.

Picture a one-sided thesis about Africa as an exploited land, where the continent is portrayed as unable to progress thanks to outside intervention...but wait, this is not Shillington's "History of Africa"; first you must take away all of the supportive details and footnotes - if they were ever there to begin with - leaving only tiny fragments of the original thesis to be sprinkled throughout an encyclopedic article about Africa...THAT mishmash is Shillingon's "History of Africa. His point of view is presumably borrowed from some of the texts in his diminutive bibliography.

It is worth noting that "History of Africa" contains an impressive collection of images. Accentuating the positive, perhaps one could even say the text should be thought of as the cliff notes to select works. Still, this is dumbed-down education at its finest.

I had the good fortune to be introduced to this book by reading it aloud as a volunteer for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. Shillington builds a lucid case that the decline of the Egyptian civilization coincided with a shift away from trade and toward imperial domination -- which failed over long distances. Each chapter provides a clear perspective and a compelling read. High praise for a textbook!

This book is a good study on what makes Wal-Mart a business success but a real detriment to our ecomony. The ethics of this corporation are so poor that our environment and society will only suffer as long as we support them. This books states true examples of how cheaper doesn't equal better.

Fishman spends the first 30 pages hinting that Wal-mart forced its suppliers out of business by demanding lower prices. This may sound horrifying to you, but demanding lower costs is industry standard for retailers. If you owned a store, would you voluntarily offer your supplier more money?

If your knowledge of Wal-mart and retailing is limited to what you've heard on the 6 o'clock news, this book gives you a peek into that world. But it falls far short of it's claims to expose "how the world's most powerful company really works". The author openly admits that there is almost no information on Wal-mart, so what he has is anecdotal and fragmented and not particularly convincing.

Unfortunately, Fishman is unable to break out of the standard Wal-mart bashing arguments around "low wages" (which are not unreasonably low at ~$10/hr), "forcing local business to close" (any large, well-run retailer could have caused it), and "cheap goods made in deplorable conditions" (unfortunately, some factory owners don't have the same morals as we do. Paying more won't for something won't result in better standards, just more money for the owner).

Verdict: Borrow at your library.

A well written book exploring the biggest retailer in the world and how the 'WalMart effect' shapes lifes everywhere. A lot of research has gone into this book and Mr. Fishman asks, how did a shop manage to get the power to change our world. Looking at it from a business perspective one cannot help but be in awe of the strategies put in place by the Waltons and their associates. Their commitment to "Always Low Prices, Always' is not in any means half-hearted. It will be interesting to explore the new strategies Walmart executes to counter the claims made in this book. Overall a very insightful read and a must for every retailer to read.

Fishman was able to present the Walmart "phenomenon" in a very straightforward way. The global effect of Walmart was explained through many real-life examples; the flow of the book, I have to say, is excellent. I finished it in 3 days. Walmart effect on supply chain efficiency is an area that the book overlooked compared to some other topics that were redundant.

This is a very good book, well-researched and well-reported, about a subject that affects us all, the biggest company in history, Walmart.

Is Walmart good or bad? The answer according to Charles Fishman is: "Yes, it is both". I just didn't realize how big Walmart is and how much it does affect us.

Walmart is a monster player in the economy, the largest company in history, and nobody outside of Walmart knows much about it. It is committed to low prices like a missionary is committed to the Word of God, but is unfortunately short on a sense of repentance for its shortcomings and a little short on the joy that a true missionary should ideally have. It might however finally be coming around if its generous response to Katrina is any indication.

I read this book, believe it or not, to learn a little more about the economy through the prism of Walmart. Sometimes it is easier to me to learn something indirectly: by learning how Walmart functions and interacts with the economy is to learn about the economy itself. I would also like to know how Walmart creates so much economic weather. I think I've only been in a Walmart once and had the impression it was way too big and too far to walk for everyday shopping. Also, it seems to get a lot of press about how it could be more employee-aware and environmentally correct. Charles Fishman seems to think they finally get this message and is cautiously optimistic about their correcting some things.

One of the things I learned about the economy is how interconnected it is with everything around us. For Walmart, it involves customers, suppliers, the government, other countries, and, of course, the economy itself. This book, to its credit, is not short on statistical information, especially since studying the impact of Walmart requires a lot of digging; the company is simply NOT forthcoming.

I think I was most impressed by the scale of all things Walmart and the great veil of secrecy that surrounds it. The world doesn't understand it and it doesn't really understand why the world can have any problem with low prices. But the good news is that it is apparently trying to understand and do better. We can all learn from that.

The 3 Sue Brothers are always coming out with books about Abnormal Psychology. I have read their texts while in both undergrad and graduate school. It provides a lot of good information about abnormal behaviors that are commonly seen in mental illness.

I highly recommend this textbook as a keepsake in your Pysch. library. As an undergrad, we used this text in Personality and Psychopathology. As a grad student of Social Work, I have still referred back to this text book. Very comprehensive and formatted perfectly.

As an undergrad currently grappling with an Abnormal Psychology class, I find this book both instructional and interesting. Its many colorful graphs and charts help illustrate points and most importantly, the writing style used is engaging and comprehensive -- fantastic for helping keep the reader awake!

As a college student, I appreciated the quality of the material contained in this book and the clarity of it. No sitting with a dictionary to try and read a textbook. The layout of the book was wonderful as well as the descriptive manner it was written in, the pictures that accentuated the points delivered by the text. All around, an awesome text!

I am still wondering why theoretical physics is behaving like it is doing...losing the essence that characterizes the scientific method. After reading this delightful and incisive book, my only concern is to know how long it will take to string theorists to accept we are following the wrong way...as physicists. I just wish this book captivates as many honest people as the honest author desires.

What shocked me most about Smolin's account of string theory is his claim that many of its leading lights have paid too little attention to mathematical rigor or even to a clean mathematical specification of their theory. If true, this is a major scandal. In most professions, this sort of sloppiness would be grounds for losing a job or even being prosecuted if something goes wrong. To hear that string theorists are perhaps not always intellectually sound is discouraging. They have raised exaggerated expectations about what their framework accomplishes (hype), and their methods have not always been sound (malpractice). Smolin is of course much more polite, and recognizes that many of the ideas advanced by string theory needed to be explored even if they prove fruitless or wrong. But his book does show clearly that something has gone seriously wrong with the internal governance of the physics profession.

Brian Green, a leading string theorist, says the following in his contribution to "The New Physics" (2006): "It might be argued that string theory has so far failed [] since it has not yet made very detailed connections with experiment." He goes on to hold out the hope that "Ultimately, the tests of the theory are likely to come from cosmological observations that detect the state of the Universe during the first moments after the Big Bang." Anyone who has read the cosmology literature knows how often inferences have to be piled on top of inferences in an attempt to arrive at a consistent explanation of what is observed from humanity's single vantage point and with our imperfect instruments. The kind of cosmology that would be needed to test string theory is not exactly around the corner. Moreover, I always had the impression that cosmologists are looking more to other branches of physics to help them make sense of their observations than the other way around.

Aside from his criticism of string theory, Smolin makes an inspiring argument for new and more diverse approaches to unsolved problems in physics, among which he includes unifying general relativity and quantum theory, establishing sounder foundations for quantum mechanics, unifying all particles and forces as manifestations of a single fundamental entity, explaining the constants used in the theory, and resolving the puzzle of dark matter and energy in cosmology. The book helpfully names and discusses a number of theorists the author thinks are currently making the most interesting contributions to solving these problems. Without Smolin's expert guidance, it is unlikely that a reader would independently come across these fascinating contributions.

The chapters on the sociology of physics will be unsurprising to anyone who has worked in academia. However, if Smolin's revelations about groupthink and sloppy mathematics in the physics profession are even half true, they raise concerns about other areas of physics as well. Given the importance of physics to the fate of mankind, at least since the invention of the atom bomb, it is clearly time to develop new principles for the governance of this essential group of brilliant, but still human and imperfect, thinkers.

Lee Smolin presents his case not for why string theory should be dropped, but why other theories should be pursued more vigorously. Rather than demonizing string theory, Smolin looks at the theory's successes and failures and then moves beyond that to discussing the sociology of science in general, and this is his main issue. Smolin says the system is set up to keep alternative theories out, while the fashionable theories get all the attention, and that this system is perhaps the reason why theoretical physics has been stuck for so long. Great book.

For those of us non-physicists looking into what has been going on in string theory for something close to three decades, things just look curiouser and curiouser. No doubt the problem is that only physicists can comprehend the science itself. Still it is enormously frustrating that not a single shred of experimental evidence has come to light supporting string theory. What this suggests is that string theory, as beautiful as it may be, is art not science, or perhaps it is pure mathematics.

Lee Smolin, who is a real physicist, has come to a similar conclusion in this insider's look at the sorry state of particle physics today. Once the undisputed master of the sciences, physics has become--it is downright dreadful to acknowledge this--the butt of jokes from--are you ready for this?--the social sciences! Even professors of literature are having their way with physics. The inability of the string theorists, who have dominated particle physics lo these many years, to accomplish anything substantial, has so damaged the prestige of physics that something called postmodernism has been able to declare that all of science and mathematics constitutes merely an arbitrary "social construction" with no more claim to objective truth than utterances from a creationist's convention.

Say it isn't so, Brian Greene. Well Professor Greene has said it isn't so, but entrenched scientists tend to have entrenched ideas, just like global warming deniers, and so what we need are some hard facts derived from experiments or at least some predictions that can be identified and confirmed. Alas, as Smolin is at pains to point out, we have more like the opposite.

Take the reincarnation of Einstein's cosmological constant. Not predicted by string theory. Take the discovery of dark energy. Not predicted by string theory. Take the seven additional dimensions required by M-theory (an offshoot of string theory), and the old phobia about infinities in the equations seems rather mild. No one has yet seen, tasted, smelled, felt or heard even a fifth dimension (putting aside the once popular band) let alone six others. We cannot even imagine such a thing.

Well, yes, the fact that we can't imagine them doesn't mean they don't exist. However, one of the leading reasons that physicists like string theory's extra dimensions is that they do away with the infinities. Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire, or from the deep blue sea to the devil!

Philosophy was once the most prestigious academic discipline. Could the same thing happen to physics? And if so, why?

Part of the problem is the great success and power that physics has enjoyed since the days when Newton stood on the shoulders of giants. Even more so, since the days of James Clerk Maxwell, vast has become our knowledge of the physical world. Indeed physics and physicists have constructed much of the modern world. Their ideas and discoveries and understanding have led to enormous advances in technologies that have increased the standard of living of people, at least in the developed nations. So much success has led to great expectations. The sad fact for physics may be this: the next great discovery may be centuries away, or worse yet, beyond the reach of humans.

Smolin certainly isn't so pessimistic. The tone of "The Trouble with Physics" is that of a father urging his children to great accomplishments while warning them that they have been wayward. He is blunt but bends over backwards to be fair. The trouble with the book for non-physicists is that it is really impossible to follow the various arguments for and against string theory in any concrete detail. The truth is in the equations, and Smolin doesn't give any, and rightly so since this is a book aimed at the educated general reader. We educated general readers are left skimming the bewildering details of the history and current state of string theory to focus on the broad implications while being guided by Smolin's expert opinion. But even in reading somebody like the aforementioned Brian Greene, who is a proponent of string theory, this reader at least was left with the sense of watching a wild goose chase from a distance.

It isn't just in particle physics that physicists have gone over the deep end, so to speak. Take cosmology where some physicists are postulating a large, possibly infinite number of universes in addition to the one in which we live. As Smolin points out "The existence of a population of other universes is a hypothesis that cannot be confirmed by direct observation..." He adds, "...the fact that we are in a biofriendly universe cannot be used as a confirmation of a theory that there is a vast population of universes." (p. 163)

Although there is nothing wrong with Smolin's writing style, and he does write with a minimum of jargon, some of this is impenetrable, at least for me. Those more versed in physics will do better I'm sure. However particle physics is per force about things we can't see and can't even visualize.

Near the end of the book Smolin presents some alternatives to string theory. As a non-physicist I have no ability to evaluate these approaches, which brings up an important point. How can any non-physicist pass any kind of judgment on the validity of string theory? We can't. We can only count noses--physicists' noses. When we do we find that most theoretical physicists believe in string theory despite the dearth of experimental support. Why? Perhaps because string theory is what they have been doing all their working lives, and string theory is what they have been taught and are teaching.

My question is, have string theorists become a sacred priesthood? Smolin doesn't use this term, but his book suggests as much.

So many reviewers have said so many things, let me just add this: During the past thirty years, we have seen the rise of religious ideology and its disastrous effects on our political system, not to mention our national finances and national reputation.

How interesting that science has experienced the same things, the same disasters born of the same focus on ideology rather than factuality, in the same time period.

This book is the first BIG public demonstration that this period may be coming to an end.

The disaster of string theory, and the Irag war, both prove the same thing: ignoring the dictates of reason, and setting aside facts for fantasy, always leads us to the same place: nowhere we want to be!

Thank you Lee Smolin.

A must-have for anyone interested in their world. And an instant classic.

Topics were covered very well and this book will help me a lot with future classes.

I felt that was too much to pay for a book that did not have a cover. I was really disapointed, but I guess it beats paying the full price.