A Little History of Science by William Bynum

Though the edition I picked up didn’t look like a children’s book, William Bynum’s A Little History of Science is written for children. I’m in my forth decade and I enjoyed it anyway.

The title suggests the subject, but hardly the breadth. Bynum starts with the first, unnamed people to observe and think about the world around them. He ends with current science such as computer science and gene mapping.

It wouldn’t be write to say that depth suffers because of the breadth. Admittedly, each chapter covers a subject that could in itself provide enough material for a book. However, Bynum’s purpose is to provide an introduction to a lot of areas of science and to show how scientific knowledge grows and improves over time. It covers all the major branches of science including physics, chemistry, and biology. He does this very well.

For someone who wants a place to get started, especially a youngster interested in history or science, this is a good book. Though Bynum does not include a bibliography, he drops a lot of names. Almost every notable name in scientific history, and a few lesser known, is mentioned, so someone could be equipped with a list of names when the hit the card catalog to find the next book that might interest them.

I do not know if Bynum subscribes to the “big men” notion of history. As much as he mentions the major figures and the leaps some of them made, he emphasizes the incremental, even iterative, nature of science. Even so, learning history through biography can be interesting because history is the cumulative action of people, even if a single person can’t truly turn the tide, and some people are interesting, especially the cranky ones (like Isaac Newton). Bynum adds enough biographical touches to his history to add this kind of spice.

If you’re interested in these books, you may also be interested in

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont (fiction)

Copernicus’ Secret by Jack Repcheck

Descarte’s Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel

Einstein’s Clocks, Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Galison 

The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

How to Build and Android by David F. Dufty

Miss Leavitt's Stars by George Johnson

Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark

War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race By Edwin Black

Bynum, William. A Little History of Science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.

Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Rick Bowers

On February 5, 1946, The Adventures of Superman radio program opened with a new introduction:

Yes, it’s Superman.  Strange visitor from another planet, who came to earth with powers and abilities farbeyond those of mortal men.  Superman, defender of law and order, champion of equal rights, valiant, courageous fighter against the forces of hate and prejudice!

This announced the beginning of the radio Superman’s struggle with post-war social issues, especially a campaign against racial and religious intolerance.  In this adventure, Jimmy Olsen infiltrated the Guardians of America, a fictional stand-in for pro-Nazi groups that were operating in the United States at the time.  This was only the beginning.  Later that year, Adventures would feature a 16-episode story in which Superman took on the Clan of the Fiery Cross, a stand-in for the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Behind these fictional stories of Superman were real-life adventures.  The KKK was attempting to launch a new national membership drive, playing on the insecurities people felt after World War II.  There were real infiltrators of the KKK and other organized hatemongers who exposed the workings of these organizations in the media.  Rick Bowers tells the story of these men and the producers of the comic book and radio Superman in Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan.

Superman had been dealing with cultural concerns from his beginning.  When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jewish high-school students in Cleveland, created Superman in the 1930s, they pitted him against criminal gangs and crooked politicians.  As Nazi Germany began to rise as an aggressive European power, the hero opposed Nazis at home and abroad.  During the war, he protected the home front.   Though it is not the focus, Bowers describes how Superman has changes with the concerns of the times.

The Klan has roots going back to the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.  It started as a jokey order of former Confederate Army officers in Tennessee who imitated the mystery religion-inspired fraternal orders that were popular at colleges, with mysterious rituals and strange names.  It spawned imitators that secretly gathered in Nashville to organize themselves in 1867.  Former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first Grand Wizard, who lead the Klan in opposition to Reconstruction, including domestic terrorism against blacks and white proponents of racial equality and Reconstruction policies.  The violence of the Klan members, called Ghouls, eroded the organization’s popularity.

William J. Simmons launched a campaign to revive the Klan, taking it national in 1920.  For Simmons it was largely a moneymaking scheme, though he seemed happy to promote intolerance of blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants and anyone else who wasn’t a white, male Protestant.  (I’m a white, male Protestant and I find nothing in Protestantism, or Christianity in general, that justifies the intolerance promoted by the Klan.)  Successors led the Klan to political activism in the 1920s, and it became very powerful, but front-line violence and leadership hypocrisy undermined their position.  The post-war membership campaign, led by Samuel Green who was Grand Dragon of the Georgia Realm, was thwarted by law enforcement and equal rights advocates with help of medial like Adventures.

The library helpfully labeled Bowers’ book with a sticker that reads, “TEEN.”  I suppose it is a young adult book, though I think it is within the grasp of many middle school students.  It is an unusual introduction to the history of bigotry in American and the movements that promoted equality, but the tie to a popular superhero might make the subject more appealing to kids in school.  It made me pick up the book, and I’m far passed my school days.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

Bowers, Rick.  Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan.  Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2012.

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Just Write by Walter Dean Myers

Myers, Walter Dean.  Just Write: Here’s How!  New York: Collins, 2012.

Walter Dean Myers is an author of mostly of books for children and young adults.  That is the primary audience for Just Write: Here’s How!

Myers makes no bones about it.  Writing is hard work.  Myers, and he believes most other successful writers, has a process that helps he prepare for, write, and complete books.  A writer needs to love the process of writing if he hopes to complete books and have them be of good quality.

Having said that, Just Write is not a highly technical book.  Myers’ process if fairly straightforward.  He uses a simple outline to get started (actually two: one for fiction and one for nonfiction).  He fleshes these out into more detailed outlines.

Preparation is important to Meyers.  Partly this is the hard work of putting together a good outline and developing an understanding of your main character.  He also advocates plenty of research.  Writers, especially when they are young, write about things they haven’t experienced personally, and research will serve both as a personal education and a source of authenticity for the book.

Don’t skimp on preparation and don’t shy away for rewriting.  Myers considers rewriting important.  He welcomes input from his editor that will make his books better.

Many examples come from Myers’ experience.  He especially draws upon his unexpectedly pleasant success co-writing Kick with Ross Workman, a teenager at the time they collaborated.  The process of working on Kick and other books provides illustrations for the points he makes.  He holds up Workman as an example of someone with the attitude, work ethic, an especially interest in the process of writing that leads to success as a writer.  Workman had the diligence and humility to learn, deal with feedback, and follow his book through to the end.

Workman also experienced the kind of crisis of confidence that Myers thinks is typical.  A young writer will need to face this crisis and find the courage to continue and improve his work.

Myers’ style in this book is informal, conversational and direct.  It is also personal.  He writes about how he came to be a writer and how it has affected his life.  He writes with a purpose, and that broader purpose to connect to and help kids has led him to speak to kids in trouble both to understand and to encourage them.  Though written for youth, it may be a good place to start for budding writers of any age.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Finding Your Writer’s Voice by Thaisa Frank & Dorothy Wall

Mastering Fiction Writing by Kit Reed

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

L’Engle, Madeleine.  A Wrinkle in Time.  1962.  New York: Laurel-Leaf, 1976.

Though I review all the nonfiction books I read, I write about only a little about fiction.  Sometimes a fiction book hits so many areas of interest to me that I want to write about it.  A Wrinkle in Time is one.  It’s a classic, award-winning novel.  It’s a children’s or young adult book, and one is never too old for a good kid’s book.  It’s science fiction.  It’s informed by author Madeleine L’Engle’s Christian faith.

Margaret (Meg) Murphy is an awkward girl who doesn’t fit in.  Her family is unusual, too.  Her father is missing, though Meg stubbornly clings to hope that he will come home.  Her mother is a scientists, caring but somewhat unconventional.  Two of her brothers, twins, are pretty normal, if a little rough, and the third, the youngest, is a genius and most people find him unpleasantly odd.

Meg, her genius baby brother Charles Wallace and Calvin O’Keefe (an older, popular boy who keeps his oddness better wrapped) are pulled into an adventure in space by three creatures, seeming witches, aliens and more.  On another planet, they rescue Meg’s father and almost succumb to the powerful mind that rules the planet.  It is the things Meg dislikes most about herself that allows her to prevail.

A Wrinkle in Time is an adventure.  It is also a parable.  Part of the message is Christian.  The universe is God’s creation for His glory, and good creatures acknowledge and worship Him.  Yet there is evil, and Earth is infected with it.  Love overcomes evil.

It is tempting to see a political message.  On the world Meg visits, Camazotz, a single being rules all, taking responsibility for every decision, instilling uniformity so that everybody has the same things.  It is not hard to see this as a parallel to a communist state, where the government controls and distributes all resources.  It sounds like the nanny state as well, where people are relieved of the responsibilities of caring for themselves and making their own decisions.

It is this last point that I think is important to L’Engle whether or not is has political implications.  We are made to be individuals, unique and special, and we cannot be separated from responsibility for ourselves and our decisions and still have real joy, even if we have everything we seem to need.  When the “aunts” give gifts to the adventurers to prepare them for their trial, they give Meg her faults.  As Christians, we believe that everyone is uniquely made by God.  Our faults, shortcomings, imperfections make us needy of God’s grace, and His grace abounds in us to His glory.

In addition, IT, the mind-lord of Camazotz, is a finite being with finite imagination, thus the uniformity of the planet IT rules.  God is infinite, and His creation has enormous variety, abundance, scope and beauty beyond your imagination.  We can love, serve, and worship one God, we can all be imitators of Christ, and still each be a unique individual.

Before closing, I’d like to mention another Christian sci-fi classic, The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis.  There are some parallels between the works.  For instance, both L’Engle and Lewis, in Out of the Silent Planet, depict Earth as darkened and separated from communion with the larger universe because of the influence of human sin and the dominion of Satan.  IT, a big brain, reminds me of the Head from Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

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Books That Made a Difference to Me

I’m not a regular reader of O: The Oprah Magazine, but when I come across one, I turn to the “reading room” segment. In each issue, they have a celebrity, author or other notable person comment on a few books that they find notable. I enjoy reading and I’m curious about what other people enjoy reading, even if I don’t share their tastes. What follows are books that made a difference to me roughly in the style of the O feature.

The Holy Bible

As a believer in Christ, this book is a touchstone for me. The Bible is one of the ways God reveals himself, and it is the most explicit, specific, definitive and accessible special revelation. Jesus compared the word of God to a mirror, and said those who didn’t do it were like someone walking away from a mirror and forgetting what they looked like. Within its pages, the metaphor of a sword is applied to God’s word. One the great uses of this sword is to, in indelicate terms, cut through the crap.

Simple Pictures are Best
By Nancy Willard
Illustrations by Tomie De Paola

This is a children’s book and I first read it as a boy. It has so influenced me that I sometimes use the phrase “simple pictures are best” in conversation. The moral of this parable is to keep it simple, don’t create unnecessary complications. I’m not immune to mission creep and function overload. However, this book helped me develop an early appreciation for focus, setting priorities and enjoying those things that do one thing very well.

Spider-Man Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

I could carry on for some time about all that is great about Spider-Man. The essence of it is this: the core of Peter Parker and his story is ethics. Behind the mask, he is just a man and he is just as concerned with his family, friends and job as with battling supervillains. Like us, Peter faces the costly rewards of doing what is right and the painful price of choosing what is wrong in a complex world he doesn’t fully understand. What makes him a hero isn’t his power, it is his character.

War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race By Edwin Black

The atrocities of the Nazis were justified, in their minds, as a science-based policy for managing society. The science was eugenics; it originated in American. I was amazed that not only did it start here, but also one of its largest proponents and popularizers worked in my home state, Missouri. Black thoroughly traces eugenics from it roots in an America, both as a science and a policy, to its leap to other nations, its ultimate expression as policy in Nazi Germany and its aftermath, which continues to linger in science and politics. Today, calls for science-based policy are often in the news, but it is important that both policy and science be informed by ethics. (Edwin Black also wrote IBM and the Holocaust.)

The Road to Serfdom
By F. A. Hayek

Hayek devoted this book “to socialists of all parties.” His particular audience was the British intelligentsia (Hayek was an economics professor at the University of London and familiar with German intellectual life from his years in his native Austria). His message was a warning: socialism leads to totalitarianism. Socialism was a popular movement in the time Hayek wrote this book (first published in 1944). Even the United States looked to the communist, fascist and national socialist governments of the world as models to emulate (until we entered World War II and many of these governments became our enemies). Today, socialist ideas and policies are widely espoused, though few would put the socialist label on them, and their proponents seem to imagine, some may be convinced and some may pretend, that a planned society can still be a free one. Hayek demonstrates that socialist government and individual freedom cannot coexist for long.

Top Authors

Here are the top authors reviewed by Keenan’s Book Reviews based on the number of books reviewed.

John Eldredge
Epic
Fathered by God
The Sacred Romance (with Brian Curtis)
Walking with God
The Way of the Wild Heart

Beverly Cleary
Beezus and Ramona
Henry Huggins
Ramona the Brave

John C. Maxwell
Developing the Leader Within
The Difference Maker
Winning with People

Norman Vincent Peale
Positive Imaging
The Power of Positive Thinking

Amir Aczel
Chance
Descarte’s Secret Notebook

G. K. Chesterton
The Club of Queer Trades
The Innocence of Father Brown

Dashiell Hammett
Red Harvest
The Thin Man

Steven Johnson
The Ghost Map
The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

Zig Ziglar
Selling 101
Zig: The Autobiography of Zig Ziglar

Best of First 100 Books Reviewed

I recently completed posting 100 reviews on this blog. Recognizing that readers can be choosy and may want to narrow the field, I’ve picked what I think are the 10 best books of those I’ve reviewed so far.

1. The Gospel of Luke
2. The Gospel of Matthew
3. The Gospel of Mark
4. The Gospel of Mark
5. Into the Depths of God by Calvin Miller
6. IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black
7. Simple Pictures are Best by Nancy Willard
8. The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
9. The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
10. God and Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor

Other “best of” lists:
Best of What I Read in 2008
Best of What I Read in 2007

What I Read (10)

Date: July 25, 2007
Title: Epic
Author: John Eldredge
Thoughts: “We have grown dull toward this world in which we live; we have forgotten that it is not normal or scientific in any sense of the word. It is fantastic. It is fairy tale through and through” (quote from the book).
John Eldredge also wrote Walking with God and co-wrote The Sacred Romance.

Date: August 29, 2007
Title: The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense Author: Edward Lear (Vivien Noakes, editor)
Thoughts:
“How pleasant it is to know Mr. Lear!
Who has written such volumes of stuff!
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few think him pleasant enough” (quote from the book).

Date: December 7, 2007
Title: The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS
Author: Keith Devlin & Gary Lorden
Thoughts: I enjoyed this. Not too much math. Actually, I could have stood a little more math. What I enjoyed is seeing how tools are used to solve problems as they are used to solve crimes on the show.

Date: December 14, 2007
Title: Kidnapped Author: Robert Louis Stephenson
Thoughts: A very fun adventure that I much enjoyed. I’m afraid that I would fare even worse than David Balfour on such a journey.

Date: December 21, 2007
Title: Peace of Mind Through Possibility Thinking
Author: Robert H. Shuller
Thoughts: “Never forget that you are God’s idea. And know that God thinks only great ideas” (quote from the book).
Robert H. Shuller also wrote Self-Love.

Date: December 26, 2007
Title: The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days Author: Les Daniels, Chip Kid & Geoff Spear
Thoughts: Mostly pictures. I enjoyed it much.

Date: December 28, 2007
Title: Acres of Diamonds Author: Russel H. Conwell
Thoughts: “Young man, remember if you know what people need you have gotten more knowledge of a fortune than any amount of capital can give you” (quote from the book).

Date: January 25, 2008
Title: The Mindful Way through Depression Author: Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindal Segal & Joh Kabat-Zinn
Thoughts: “In many ways, subtle and not subtle, depression and low mood undermine us by robbing us of the energy to do the things that would nourish us the most. Simply engaging or reengaging in such activities can have unsuspected power” (quote from the book).

Other Parts of What I Read:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

What I Read (9)

Date: March 24, 2007
Title: The Beethoven Factor Author: Paul Pearsall
Thoughts: “Remember, the first mental food of your day will set your mental tone for the entire day” (quote from the book).

Date: March 31, 2007
Title: The Big Sleep
Author: Raymond Chandler
Thoughts: These stories don’t end when everything seems to be tied up. If things to feel right to Marlowe, he’ll unravel his case, put a new twist on it and tie it up in a new way.

Date: April 12 & 14, 2007
Titles: Henry Huggins, Beezus and Ramona, Ramona the Brave
Author: Beverly Cleary
Thoughts: I read and enjoyed these books as a kid. I enjoyed them again, especially Beezus and Ramona. These books were loaned to me by a friend who still had them from her childhood. The first time I read them, I checked them out from my elementary school library.

Date: May 6, 2007
Title: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived
Author: Steven K. Scott
Thoughts: I have taken the challenge to read Proverbs every day.

Date: May 8, 2007
Title: Proverbs
Thoughts:
“I love those who love me [Wisdom],
And those who seek me diligently will find me.
Riches and honor are with me,
Enduring riches and righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold,
And my revenue than choice silver” (Proverbs 8:17-19).

Date: May 10, 2007
Title: The Ghost Map
Author: Steven Johnson
Thoughts: There seems to be a subtle implication that Rev. Whitehead’s r
easonableness was unique among religious people, not the norm.

Date: July 8, 2007
Title: The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life Author: Hannah Whitall Smith
Thoughts: I enjoyed this book. I wish I had come across it as a young Christian. I’d like to read it again some day.

Date: July 12, 2007
Title: The Relaxation Response
Author: Herbert Benson with Miriam Z. Klipper
Thoughts: This is very interesting. If we have such a way to manage stress and counteract some of its worst effects, why aren’t we using it? I’m not signing up for TM, but surely, I can elicit this response in an appropriate way.

Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

What I Read (6)

Date: October 31, 2005
Title: Einstein’s Clocks, Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time Author: Peter Galison
Thoughts: It’s amazing how many things, ideas, philosophy, technology, science, can come together within people to revolutionize our understanding of the world.

Date: November 2, 2005
Title: How We Got Here
Author: Andy Kessler
Thoughts: Tongue in cheek. Readable. Interesting.

Date: November 16, 2005
Title: Sea of Glory Author: Nathaniel Philbrook
Thoughts: A great adventure turned cautionary tale. Wilkes certainly had determination, perseverance and dedication. He lacked character, integrity and patience. With what he had he accomplished something great, and by sad display of what he lacked he denied himself the fame he sought.

Date: December 4, 2005
Title: The Power of Positive Thinking Author: Norman Vincent Peale
Thoughts: I’m going to improve my thinking and keep at it. I’m going to do what it takes to have the good life I desire.

Date: January 1, 2006
Title: Simple Pictures Are Best
Author: Nancy Willard, illustrations by Tomie De Paola
Thoughts: Possibly my favorite book. It has influence me more than any book except the Bible. I am a firm believer in simplicity.

My parents got me a copy as a child and I’ve always remembered it.

Date: January 3, 2006
Title: The Millionaire Maker Author: Loral Langemeier
Thoughts: I’m looking forward to being a millionaire. Even more, I’m looking forward to financial freedom.

Date: January 10, 2006
Title: IBM and the Holocaust
Author: Edwin Black
Thoughts: Heavenly Father, keep me always aware of the eternal value of righteousness and justice.

Date: January 16, 2006
Title: No More Christian Nice Guy Author: Paul Coughlin
Thoughts: “God is an odds-breaker—He loves that game, and when you flex even a small amount of faith, he’ll open doors for you” (quote from the book).

Date: January 16, 2006
Title: Starting from Scratch
Author: Wes Moss
Thoughts: I’m starting a successful business, too.

Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5