Using readily understandable examples and comparisons, and modern lay language, Bill Bryson explains the origins of various scientific concepts that affect ourselves and our planet. From the cosmos, the earth's mountains and oceans, and then on to our weather, the rise of life forms and the evolution of humans, this book brings a welcome understanding of almost all things and ideas. Written in a compelling, story-telling manner the author introduces us to the various people in history who helped share our modern ideas of physical and biologic phenomena, including those who led us astray at times. Although those with a science background will enjoy this work, those with little science education wil relish the chance to appreciate the wonders of the world delivered in a most pallatable way.

With a title like "Napoleon's Buttons" it is amazing any books were sold, yet for those able to get past or intrigued by the title, this turns out to be a fascinating new approach to learning world history. The authors' goal is to reveal how various substances altered the course of history in dramatic fashions. And they link one substance to another as they weave the fabric of history guided by the trade in or use of various chemicals. The book begins with the buttons on the coats Napoleon's troops wore on their march into Russia in the early 19th century. The authors describe how the metal tin used to make these buttons corroded during the campaign into Russia, and by the time the frigid Russian winter hit the buttons fell apart, exposing the troops to the bitter cold. This then led to the failure of the invasion and thereby altered the course of history.





The book then goes on to substances, such as spices that were scarce in the middle ages, and led to exploration and wars to find and control them. Then ascorbic acid is discussed with respect to the effects scurvy had on crews of ocean going ships, again changing the outcome of various ventures and wars. The book goes on to the other various molecules that molded our history. As one moves through each of them, a brief chemistry lesson is provided in addition to the history lesson. Thus, for those already familiar to some degree with chemistry, one's knowledge is refreshed while those without any chemistry background are still able to understand enough to follow the stories.





It is difficult to believe one can make both world history and chemistry so interesting; but, this book accomplishes this in a wonderful manner from start to finish.

Geeks & Geezers is a leadership book that examiners traits and life experiences that are shared by successful leaders from two distinct generations. The geezers are highly admired leaders who are now over the age of 70, while the geeks consist of those whose success occurred before their current age of 30 or less.

The authors first discuss differences between the two generations particularly in areas such as hero worship, attention to hierarchy, loyalty to institutions, need for security, and deferred gratification. But they then focus on similarities that the authors conclude help predict and define those who rise to positions of leadership. These include encountering and overcoming obstacles, integrity, strong vision, desire to constantly learn and a passion for life. A particular point is made of the "neoteny" of geezers who were leaders; that being a youthful curiosity and zest for knowledge.

The authors conclude that those seeking to lead or searching for leaders examine the traits shared by successful leaders from these and other generations. These characteristics will help predict success.

A multitude of biographies of America's revolutionary leader and first President exist. They often present an unbalanced, overly positive picture of George Washington. However, Joseph Ellis' book is the first in a great while to give a more complete picture of this man who forewent the life of a wealthy Virginia plantation owner to lead the Army of a confederation of independent colonies and then lead a new, yet weakly unified nation during its infancy.

Ellis spends a good amount of his work on Washington's early life, and paints a clear picture of life in social and political aspects of colonial America. He discusses how these help shape Washington's attitudes and ambitions. Washington's early military's forays were more a set of trials and errors than grand predictions of his later successes. But they did help Washington in his later years better understand certain aspects of warfare in less civilized venues, particularly on the American frontier, and provided him an understanding of American Indian culture and attitudes.

Washington was a staunch believer in the reasons and need for independence from England. However, once he took charge of American forces he realized that passion for financially supporting the needed war to gain that independence was weak. His troops had extremely limited funds for war supplies, and even personal items like clothes and food. Winter months during the long multi-year course of the war proved especially taxing on Washington and his troops, and Ellis gives the reader great insight into Washington's frustrations and moods via his correspondence and other recorded data.

After the success of the war Washington hoped to spend the remainder of his life overseeing his properties. Yet it became clear to others and eventually to him that the hard won independence was vulnerable to quick destruction due to the continued desire by many to have America continue to be a loose confederation of independent States. Washington understood that such a confederation was weak due to problems funding needed defenses of freedom such as a standing army and naval protectors. So he agreed to run for President, gaining it by virtual acclamation. However, one Washington began to form the foundations of a central government like a national bank some charged that he had ambition to become a life-long monarch of some sort. Washington made sure this perception could not gain much ground by making it clear he had no desire to remain President for very long. In fact he had to be begged to even run for a second term by those around him.

Ellis book concludes by describing Washington's later years including his personal struggle with what to do about his own slaves since he believed, by that time, in the inherent contradiction of American freedom and the ownership of other humans.

Anyone who enjoys gaining insights into the personality of our Founding Fathers, American Revolutionary times and early American politics will enjoy this very readable work.

Rising Tide by John Barry has a subtitle which is "The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it changed America." This subtitle captures the essence of the book, but fails to give one a full appreciation for how a major environmental event can not only reshape the future of localities physically impacted by the tragedy but have more far-reaching implications. Barry's 1997 book begins by detailing the lives of Andrew Humphreys and James Eads who become bitter rivals in the struggle to set the principles of flood prevention in the 1800's. These fascinating individuals had highly differing views on how best to control great river systems, such as the Mississippi. The reader learns an impressive array of facts about river 'physiology' and means engineers use to try to harness and steer river flow. The life and times of LeRoy Percy, a U.S. Senator and civic leader in the Delta region of Mississippi, is another saga of the tension between former slaves and the wealthy landowners in the late 1800's and early 1900's, and how the great flood changed the demographics and culture of towns and cities from New Orleans to Chicago. The great flood itself provides another major dimension to this work as the fallacies of flood control plans are exposed and the states of Louisiana and Mississippi bear much of the brunt of this cataclysmic event. The lasting changes in these two states are presented and help one understand the history of contemporary issues. Finally, a little known side of President Herbert Hoover comes to light with his rise in national stature and the Presidency directly tied to his management of flood relief efforts.

The most misunderstood and frequently misrepresented of America's "founding fathers" was Alexander Hamilton. Born in the Caribbean at the time of active slave trading and piracy, Hamilton had a trying childhood but found a way to come to America and eventually become one of the most influential individuals in the design of our Constitution and in the economic foundations of our country. Chernow paints Hamilton in a sympathetic manner, regularly defending his reputation against the writings of other authors. But Chernow does not pull any punches in showing the flaws and weaknesses in the subject of this work.

Hamilton was nothing short of brilliant in his command of complex economic concepts, the workings of governments, and in effective means of communicating his ideas. He had little formal schooling yet used determination and hard work to teach himself what he needed to know. Hamilton eventually came to the attention of George Washington who made him his personal secretary. With time Hamilton showed such proficiency at running the logistics of Washington's army that Washington began to give Hamilton the freedom to make his own decisions and send them out as orders from the general. This began a long, trusting friendship between the two men that carried on through Washington's two terms as President and beyond.

Hamilton's favorite means of communicating his ideas to others was via dynamic speeches and newspaper essays in which he used pen names that were usually characters from ancient Rome. When the debate roared on about the form of government our country should adopt after we won the Revolutionary War a series of well-written and provocative essays rapidly appeared pushing for a liberal capitalistic form of government with strong central controls that was ultimately adopted and persists today. These were the famous Federalist Papers, most of which were penned by Hamilton.

Hamilton had numerous detractors and enemies, the most famous of which were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Aaron Burr (the man who ultimately killed him in a controversial duel). Hamilton's flaws included a clear blindness to the need for diplomacy in dealing with others and at least one sexual affair that resulted in blackmail and family and political fallout.

The reader of the book gains a special insight into this colorful example of the American dream and life in early post-Revolutionary times. Hamilton's character strengths and weaknesses serve as a reminder that humankind has really little changed since Hamilton's time and modern examples of this great historic individual come to the reader's mind, though none so influential in the short or long-term as Alexander Hamilton.

Isaac Newton is famous for supposedly discovering gravity while watching an apple fall from a tree. Historians challenge whether the apple falling event with Newton ever occurred, but there is no doubt that Isaac Newton discovered and described far more than the gravitational field. This book by James Gleick chronicles the life of this remarkable man who lived 84 years after his birth in 1642, and gave the world new understandings of mathematics, light, gravity, telescopes, stellar phenomena and even the concept of uniform and hard to counterfeit currency and coinage. Newton literally invented calculus permitting the engineers of his time to better construct buildings and roads. He accurately described white light as a homogenation of colors each having a distinct frequency, thereby laying the major groundwork for Einstein's later famous theory of the relationship of energy and mass. Newton discovered the reflecting telescope which revolutionized astronomy. And he was able to completely overturn theories of motion, momentum and inertia; and he recognized gravity and correctly described its properties.
Gleick's book also gives us insight into Newton's somewhat dark personality and religious beliefs. We see a man who was convinced one could turn one material into another and spent many years trying to convert mercury into silver or gold. The reader also gets a glimpse at the world of academia in the mid to late 1600s and the emerging growth of small societies devoted to promoting science and the sharing of knowledge. One also sees Newton's battle with other scientists such as Robert Hooke and his being promoted by Edmond Halley. In the end the reader gains a true feeling for Newton the man, brilliant yet flawed in some ways, and cannot help but be amazed at how much one person can influence the world through scientific endeavors.

Dr. Gawande was a surgery resident at Harvard who has a great knack for giving readers a reality check on modern medicine. His almost stream of consciousness approach takes one on numerous side tracks all relating back to the less than perfect world of surgical and medical practice. Health care providers and students will recognize some of the situations discussed in this work, and many may feel discomfort as they are taken into the darker side of medicine. The author's work will be of benefit to health care trainees as he details his own struggle to become a surgeon. And all will have a more humble appreciation for the current limitations we face as providers of care to our patients.

This book chronicles the events leading up to the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. Doyle gives some background information on Meredith, but spends most of the book giving the reader a blow-by-blow description of the people caught up in this historic event. Most attention is devoted to U. S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, whose political lives collide in the Fall of 1962. Their verbal boxing match drew out both the best and worst in various people surrounding each of them. President John Kennedy is portrayed in a less than positive light while James Meredith is given an almost spectator role as events unfurl. The detail and colorful language makes this discussion of a critical point in our nation's history an exciting way to gain a historic insight into those turbulent times.

Author David McCullough is well recognized for his outstanding biographical works. His book on the life of our second United States President, John Adams, may be his finest. The reader is introduced to a man of humble beginnings who achieved our nation's highest office at a critical junction in its history. Adams is portrayed as a man dedicated to his family, hard work, honesty, standing up for his political beliefs and his religion. The author details the numerous difficult political, health, and family related times in Adams' life and how he prevailed without compromising his deeply held convictions.


The role played by Adams in declaring our independence from England, crafting our constitution and creating our masterful form of government are detailed in a way that helps the reader appreciate how tenuous a process this was. One is amazed how well things eventually turned out while reading the blow-by-blow description of the birth of our nation. Other major players of the period are also given considerable attention in the book. Benjamin Franklin comes across in a not-so-flattering manner, with descriptions of his plotting and conspiring with France as our first Ambassador to that country, while Adams sought to mend fences with England. Thomas Jefferson is characterized as a sort of dandy who spends well beyond his means to create a luxurious lifestyle for himself. In the end one is left wondering why our second President is not remembered more prominently in our history books, and with an admiration as a person who lived his life in service to others.