The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark

Stark, Rodney. The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success. New York: Random House, 2005.

Rodney Stark argues in The Victory of Reason that the West grew to prominence in science, technology, commerce, and power because of its foundations in Christianity. Personal freedom, democracy, and capitalism grew and eventually flourished in Western Civilization because Christianity provided a philosophy and set of beliefs that such things were possible, achievable, and valuable. These things failed, stumbled, and declined in other parts of the world because the cultures, particularly religions, that prevailed there supported philosophies and beliefs that lead another direction.

It starts with a notion of God that is almost unique to Christianity: God is a being of reason. Therefore they could use human reason, however imperfect, to understand God and increase our understanding of Him. Christian theology wasn’t simply asserting scripture, but reasoning about God and His Word to increase, refine, and improve knowledge and doctrine.

The Christian faith embraced progress through reason in doctrine. Christians looked forward to becoming progressively better believers. God is immutable, but those who believe Him can grow in understanding as they mature and with successive generations. This religion of belief contrasted with religions of practice, which inherently looked backward to established law.

These foundational beliefs in reason and progress carried over into Christian views of the physical world. It was a real place made by God. In addition, because God created the world using His reason, we can understand it using ours, just as we can use reason to increase our understanding of God. This belief gave impetus to modern science. Some credit goes to the ancient Greek philosophers, some of who had faith in reason and others in experimentation, though not both at the same time. Islamic philosophers admired, preserved and closely studied the Greeks. However, it was Christians who took these resources and added their own worldview to create modern science. Early scientists were Christians, often supported by the church directly or through universities, which were connected to the church at the time. Western nations gained a lead in science that they still hold.

Progress carried over to social and political issues as well. In particular, Christian beliefs about human equality made the church a leader in the abolition of slavery in Europe and later the Americas. It also gave rise to increasingly democratic governments, personal freedoms, and property rights. This created an environment where capitalism could flourish. Capitalism love technological development, and it didn’t hurt that it was growing in cultures that were amenable to science, and these things grew together creating new levels of freedom, opportunity, and wealth. Christian theologians had the flexibility and reasoning power to adapt doctrine to these new developments while remaining true to received scripture.

Stark supports his arguments with examples from history. One of the more interesting things about the book is the way he compares examples from the Christian world to counterexample from other cultures, such as China or Islam. China was a prominent, technologically advance culture that did not hold its lead. Islam preserved Greek knowledge during Europe’s supposedly dark ages, but did not advance. It was the late bloomers in the Christian West who had the philosophical tools to build success upon success. He also contrasts the winners and decliners in Europe and the Americas, showing how successful and wealthy nations became that way by embracing religious liberty, democracy, and capitalism, while those that declined held to or recreated feudal systems.



If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Copernicus’ Secret by Jack Repcheck
Descarte’s Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel
God Wants You to Be Rich by Paul Zane Pilzer
How We Got Here by Andy Kessler
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven K. Scott
The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek

Smartcuts by Shane Snow

In Smartcuts, Shane Snow explores the methods used by successful people and businesses to achieve remarkable results in short periods of time. The short answer is they use lateral thinking. Rapid success is achieved by putting aside conventional thinking and finding new way to frame and approach problems.

Fortunately, lateral thinking is not limited to the realm of natural geniuses. Snow believes lateral thinking strategies can be learned. Most of the book is devoted to describing particular strategies or patterns of lateral thinking.

He places these strategies into three broad categories. Success hackers shorten the path. Innovators use leverage to get more out of their efforts. When they achieve success, they continue to move forward to higher achievement or to make progress in another endeavor.

Shortening the path to success often means getting off the conventional path. People who climb the ladder to success quickly often prove themselves in one field move laterally into another. They also seek feedback from experts, markets, and many trials, making improvements as they go.

Leverage is largely about building on what has already been achieved. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or repeat what others have done; you can start where they left off. Not only can you leverage the knowledge and skills of others to start at a higher level, you can leverage the connections of others to make the connections you need. They also recognize opportunities and catch waves that propel them forward. People who use leverage successfully put in the work learning to use the tools that are available, deliberately looking for trends, and paying forward the generosity they have received.

Continuing success is largely a matter of momentum, continuing to make progress in one way or another. Focus helps to, concentrating on what is essential and stripping away distractions. In particular, it means dreaming big. Making and order-of-magnitude leap is sometimes as easy as making and incremental improvement, and it has an energizing effect on those involved, drawing in other excited dreamers to help make it real.

For each strategy, Snow provides illustrations of people who’ve applied them. Some of them a people he interviewed personally. Some are famous, though I think I was more interested in those who were unknown to me.

Even with lateral thinking skills, there is no way of getting around work. Lateral thinking may lead to new solutions that save a lot of time and effort, but implementing solutions to some of the biggest challenges is still demanding. In many of Snow’s illustrations, the “instant success” followed a lot of creative and diligent work. Smartcuts are not necessarily shortcuts.

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

The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman

Snow, Shane. Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success. New York: Harper Business, 2014.

That we think of progress at all shows the extent of the influence of Christianity upon us

That we think of progress at all shows the extent of the influence of Christianity upon us.

-John Macmurray, The Clue of History

Scott Pilgrim’s Progress

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Writ. Michael Bacall. Dir. Edgar Wright. With Michael Cera. Universal, 2010.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a cool movie. It has cool music. It has super-cool, video game-inspired special effects. It has nerdy-cool actors like Michael Cera. It’s based on the series of cool graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley.


Scott is on a pilgrimage—his name is even Pilgrim, in case it wasn’t clear. Like Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, Scott is on a journey from childishness to maturity. Bunyan’s work is an allegory for the Christian life. This film is secular with a heavy dose of fantasy.

Scott’s immaturity is signaled at the beginning of the movie by his announcement that he is dating a high-school girl. Though he is 22, he is spending his time with a 17-year-old girl who hasn’t even kissed a boy. He even shows her his childhood home, though none of his family lives there anymore.

Bunyan’s Christian begins his journey when he feels the great burden he is under (his sin). Scott gets started when he sees Ramona Flowers in a dream and falls in love. Christian travels with a series of guides and sometimes-unreliable companions. Ramona becomes Scott’s companion, too, though she is more inspiration than guide.

The sojourning Christian overcomes a number of obstacles on his to the Celestial City. Bunyan’s geography represents thing that can derail seekers and Christians on their way to maturity in Christ. Scott must battle Ramona’s seven evil exes. They seem to represent the worst aspects of his personality such as childishness, pride, jealousy and manipulation. What seems to be his struggle to prove his worthiness to date Ramona becomes is battle to move from overlong boyhood to responsible manhood.

Scott Pilgrim differs from other journey stories in that it borrows structures from video games. This is more than just special effects. When a video game enthusiast sees Scott get an extra life after one of his battles, they expect it to come into play again later in the story. I think it is a very cool way of cool the way it plays out. I might not make immediate sense to a non-gamer. Video games are mastered by repetition, where a player repeats a level until he overcomes it or his avatar dies. In life, we don’t have get to repeat periods of defeat with new insight, though we often face variations on the same problem until we learn to deal with it a better way. The game-style story gives Scott a do-over in the face of his defeat, but like we would like life to be, he plays it differently and becomes a better person because of it.

If you’re interested in this film, you may also be interested in
American Splendor (Film)
Maus by Art Spiegelman

Level Up Your Life by Steve Kamb

Life is not a game, but you can learn from games to make your life more adventurous and fulfilling. Steve Kamb, a gaming enthusiast who turned his attention to physical fitness, used concepts of gamification to change his life. He describes the process in Level Up Your Life.

Throughout much of his childhood and into his early adult years, Kamb spent much of his free time playing video games. It was an escape for a life he didn’t always like. On the down side, these nearly addictive games were not helping him achieve a life he really wanted. He began to look for what made games so satisfying and how that could be adapted to making life more satisfying.

It is surprisingly simple. Our brains enjoy making progress, and it triggers our internal reward centers when we get feedback that lets us know we’ve progressed. Designers build incremental progress and associated rewards into the structures of most video games.

Much of the middle part of the book deals with goal setting. It is not much different from the advice you might find in other self-help or popular psychology books, except for the gamification spin. Imagine your idea life (Kamb calls it your “Level 50” life). Choose some challenging, inspiring, big goals (quests). Break them down into smaller, doable goals (specific timelines help). Create systems of accountability and rewards to encourage yourself to stick to it. Find a group, or groups, of people who can help and encourage you along the way.

In the final chapters, he deals with supporting concepts about overcoming fear, supporting your goals with good health and fitness, stirring up you sense of adventure, travel tips, and making the sacrifices you may need to make to live the life you desire and respond to a higher calling. He takes inspiration from fictional heroes of popular culture: Bruce Wayne (Batman), Jason Bourne, Indiana Jones, and Katniss Everdeen. He also lists several resources, both web sites and other books. If you’re inspired by adventure stories (in games, books, film or other media), you may find in Kamb’s book a framework for building the life you want.

I like that Kamb emphasizes that life, like a game, should be enjoyed. We should enjoy the process as well as the achievement. We should be flexible and open to the adventures we may discover along the way; they can enhance our lives and may prove useful to our quest in surprising ways.

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

Epic by John Eldredge

The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Small Move, Big Change by Caroline L. Arnold

Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson

This Year I Will... by M. J. Ryan

Wisdom from the Batcave by Cary A. Friedman

Kamb, Steve. Level Up Your Life: How to Unlock Adventure and Happiness by Becoming the Hero of Your Own Story. New York: Rodale, 2016.

This Year I Will... by M. J. Ryan

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, but few of us keep them. There is less interest on the statistics of other goals, but it seems likely that resolutions are hard to keep whenever we make them. Self-help author and consultant M. J. Ryan would like to change that sorry state of affairs. Her book This Year I Will… has advice on how to turn goals into action and dreams into reality.

Ryan makes the important point that much of our behavior is habitual. We have repeated behaviors so many times that we unthinkingly return to them when we encounter the stimulus that triggers them. To complicate the matter, our behaviors fill a need or solve a problem. If they hadn’t they wouldn’t have become ingrained habits.

You don’t have to delve into you half-remembered childhood to change behavior, though. You just need to identify the underlying need or problem and find other means of dealing with them. Ideally, the new behaviors will also help you meet your goals instead of getting in the way.

I suppose I have made it sound easy.  It is not, and Ryan does not promise quick fixes. In fact, she warns her readers they will face internal resistance to change. There are parts of brain, power emotional parts that exert a lot of control over us, that see change as a threat and will not easily leave the familiar path. Ryan offers advice on how to handle this, and even how to get our emotional brain to help us instead of hinder our change.

The book is organized into short chapters. Ryan suggests you can go directly to the parts you need and return to the other parts later, or when they seem more useful. Instead of being a book you read through once, she wants This Year I Will… to be a reference you can return to when you need fresh ideas or a refresher on techniques you’ve used before.  Some of the subjects that stood out to me were

• concentrate on “what” instead of “why,”
• dealing with doubt,
• taking action,
• focusing on one or a few changes at a time,
• taking one step at a time (though sometimes we need a big goal to motivate us),
• track your progress (I’m a believer in this),
• have a Plan B (and C, and D…),
• tips for effective visualization,
• performance review, and
• remember to have fun.

There is more than that. The book is not a collection of unrelated mini-chapters. Though the book isn’t necessarily made to be read linearly, I found that later chapters tend to build on earlier ones. There is also a subtle shift from an almost wholly practical to a somewhat philosophical view. You’re not just doing a better job of setting and achieving goals. The goals you achieve and the habits you form shape and define your life.

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

One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer

Secrets You Keep from Yourself by Dan Neuharth

Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Ryan, M. J. This Year I Will…: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True. New York: MJF, 2006.

Google

What's New June 3, 2009

Another National Infrastructure Bank Bill Proposed
Energy Appointments Confirmed
Federal Nominees for Infrastructure and Environment Posts Announced
How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard
Interesting Stuff June 3, 2009
Missouri Plans for SRF Funds from the Recovery Act
Pharmaceuticals in Water (Updated)
Progress report
What I Read (4)
What's New May 16, 2009

What's New March 20, 2009

Celebrate the Little Things
Federal Housing and Transportation Agencies Team Up
House Passes Water Quality Investment Act of 2009
Let's Bank On Rebuilding America
My Googleganger strikes: Commenting on photo flipbooks
Nominations for Federal Environmental and Infrastructure Posts Announced
Progress ReportStimulus Funds Making Their Way to Drinking Water and Wastewater Projects
Stimulus Funds Making Their Way to Transportation Projects
Stories for a Man’s Heart by Al and Alice Gray
U.S. Transportation Dept. Releases Budget Framework
What's New March 5, 2009
Why Good Things Happen to Good People by Stephen Post and Jill Neimark

Whats New August 24, 2010

Another Googleganger
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
How to Write & Present Technical Information by Charles H. Sides
Little Shifts by Suzanna Beth Stinnet
Progress Report
What's New August 23, 2010
Writing for Comics with Peter David

Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg

You may be like me in the sense of wanting to get more done and falling short. I realize I can’t do all the things I imagine I might do. There aren’t enough hours in life for it and I can let much of it go. However, there are some things that are important to me. It bothers me that I make so little progress on them.

Journalist Charles Duhigg considers this problem of productivity in Smarter Faster Better. Rather than turning to standard self-help fare, he sought out scientifically supported strategies.

For instance, there is a lots said in self-help books about motivation. Duhigg makes the interesting point that motivation can be learned. We can learn to push ourselves to make decisions and take action.

That is a neat concept. If you see motivation as a skill, you can quit beating yourself up and accept that you are not good at motivating yourself yet. Instead, you can focus on improving the skill. You can reward yourself for the effort—however imperfect—and seek lessons to do better next time.

You might start with Duhigg’s tip to think of what it feels like to be in control and how good it is. The memory, and the positive emotion attached to it, may be the boost that gets you moving. Also ask yourself why you are doing something; uncover why it is meaningful to you.

You can learn to pay attention to the right things at the right time, too. Productive people have good mental models that help them ignore the noise and see the details that make a difference. You can develop these models by telling yourself stories throughout the day about what you expect, why you expect it and how your experience matches or varies from the tale.

This imagination can help you make decisions. We can’t know the future, but if we accept uncertainty and imagine the possibilities—good and bad—we can make good guesses.

Another bit of advice from Duhigg is that when you learn something new, you should do something with it. In the last chapter of the book, he recaps by showing how he used the strategies to get his research and writing done.

Charles Duhigg also wrote The Power of Habit.

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

A Mind for Numbers by Barbara A. Oakley

The Big Thing by Phyllis Korkki

Future Bright by Martin E. Martinez

The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk

Get Smart! by Brian Tracy

Learn Better by Ulrich Boser

Level Up Your Life by Steve Kamb

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin

The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel

Rapt by Winifred Gallagher

Duhigg, Charles. Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets to Being Productive in Life and Business. New York: Random House, 2016.

What's New Sept. 29, 2010

Bill Watch—111th Congress (Updated)
How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein
I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna
National News
Progress Report
What's New Sept. 21, 2010

New & Interesting Stuff July 26, 2012

Bill Gates To Reinvent The Toilet

Bill Watch - 112th Congress (Updated)

Dramatic Digs Mark Panama Canal Expansion Progress

God is most glorified in use when we are most satisfied in Him

Great Wall of China Longer Than Previously Reported

It’s Not About Me by Max Lucado

Links to Infrastructure-Related Organizations (Updated)

New & Interesting Stuff July 12, 2012

One Bad Mama

Operation Get Healthy

Republican Candidates Speak About Infrastructure

Sewer Overflow Bill Introduced

Stop Whining, Start Living by Dr. Laura

What Does a Toilet Do?

What's New June 25, 2009

75 Book Reviews Posted on Keenan’s Book Reviews
Alternative Fuels and Energy Resources Articles and Links (Updated)
Bill Introduced to Improve, Tax Freight Transportation
Eleven Small Steps for Job Seekers
The Faith of JFK edited by T. S. Settel
Federal Agencies Agree on Sustainable Communities Principals
Federal Energy Nominations
Federal Officials Discuss High-Speed Rail with State Officials
Highway Fund in Continued Trouble; Empty by August
Interesting Stuff June 25, 2009
Me Googled
Missouri Receives Stimulus Funds for Water Quality Management Planning
Progress Report
Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon
Transportation Department Releases Guidelines for Stimulus Funding of High-Speed Rail
What I Read (5)
What's New June 3, 2009
www.twitter.com/KBPatterson

The Apparitionist by Peter Manseau

Photography was introduced to the United States at around the same time that a new religion was born in the nation. Spiritualism promised a connection to the dead in their realm through human mediums, and some thought photography might capture physical manifestations of spirits. Peter Manseau tells the story of the first spirit photographer in The Apparitionist.

The man who captured the first supposed spirit photograph was an amateur at the time. William Mumler thought he had made in error in cleaning the glass on which the photonegative was captured when a faint image appeared in a self-portrait he shot in 1862. He was using the photo studio owned by Hannah Stuart. The married photographer, soon to be widowed and soon after that to be Mrs. Mumler, was a Spiritualist, and she convinced him that the image was not an error, but an apparition. The photos caught the attention of the Spiritualist press, first in the New York-based Herald of Progress, then in Mumler’s hometown of Boston in the Beacon of Light, which published the address of the Stuart studio.

Soon the studio was producing many spirit photographs; they even took orders by mail from across the country. Bostonian Spiritualists compared photos and found evidence that Mumler was faking the images. Discredited, the Mumler’s moved to New York to quietly offer spirit photographs again. Their practice there let to criminal prosecution in 1869. Photographers knew of ways to produce such images, but no investigators could figure out what Mumler was doing. Though the judge gave did not suggest the photos actually captured images of spirits, he rejected the prosecution’s case because it did not adequately support the charges of fraud and similar crimes.

Even with such tepid vindication, the atmosphere in New York was too hot for the Mumlers, so they returned to Boston. Though Mumler continued to take spirit photos, he had developed a much deeper understanding of the art and science of photography. He developed a process that allowed for the direct reproduction of photos on newsprint; founded the Photo-Electrotype Company of Boston and licensed his process to companies in other cities. This allowed newspapers and magazines to less expensively reproduce images without preparing an engraving first.

Manseau also discussed the development of photography in the United States after the art was introduced here. This includes American pioneers of photography such as Samuel Morse, also inventor of the telegraph, and Civil War battlefield photographers Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner.

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

The Age of Edison by Ernest Freeburg

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

Buried Alive by Jan Bondeson

Chief Engineer by Erica Wagner

Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes

Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini

The Explorer King by Robert Wilson

The Man Who Loved Books too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

The Real World of Sherlock Holmes by Peter Costello

Scan Artist by Marcia Biederman

Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein

Manseau, Peter. The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln’s Ghost. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.

200 Books Reviewed on Keenan’s Book Reviews

First Time Reviews

365 Thank Yous by John Kralik
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis
Acts
American Splendor by Harvey Pekar
Batman created by Bob Kane

Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil
The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow

The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski
Exodus
Finding Your Writer’s Voice by Thaisa Frank & Dorothy Wall
God’s Secretaries by Adam Nicolson
The Gospel of John

The Gospels
Have a New You by Friday by Kevin Leman
Histories and Fallacies by Carl R. Trueman
How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

How to Write & Present Technical Information by Charles H. Sides
How to Write Horror Fiction by William F. Nolan
I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna
In the Beginning by Alister McGrath
Jonah Hex created by John Albano and Tone DeZuniga

Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra
King James Bible
Little Shifts by Suzanna Beth Stinnet
Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

Numbers
On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner
Paperboy by Henry Petroski
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel
Romans
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Bryan Lee O’Malley
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu
Thanks! by Robert A. Emmons
True Blood by Charlaine Harris
The Ultimate Weight Solution by Phil McGraw
Vital Friends by Tom Rath

Walk Away the Pounds by Leslie Sansone
War Against the Weak by Edwin Black
Wide as the Waters by Benson Bobrick
Writing for Comics with Peter David
Zorro created by Johnston McCulley

Additional and Expanded Reviews

The Holy Bible
Into the Depths of God by Calvin Miller
The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
Simple Pictures are Best by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Tomie de Paola

Continuation of list of 200 books reviewed

First 25 Reviews
Reviews 26-50
Reviews 51-75
Reviews 76-100
Reviews 101-150

What's New July 30, 2009

Action Packed (11)
Book Review: How Much Does Your Soul Weigh? by Dorie McCubbrey
Book Review: The Pinball Effect by James Burke
Book Review: Water by Marq de Villiers
The Centuy Mark: 100 Book Reviews Posted on Keenan’s Book Reviews
The Pinball Effect by James BurkeProgress Report
What's New July 24, 2009

Professional Amateur by T. A. Boyd

Charles F. Kettering’s legacy as a philanthropist is memorialized in the names of the institutions he supported such as the Kettering Foundation and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. As an engineer, I’m more familiar with is reputation as an inventor and innovator, especially in automotive engineering.

Kettering’s associate, T. A. Boyd, memorialized him in the biography Professional Amateur. I think the title is intended to convey Kettering’s humility and determination to not let expertise or established knowledge get in the way of progress. As an engineer, and arguably a scientist, Kettering was devoted to experimentation.

As with others of his era (he was born in 1876), Kettering’s education was not traditional by current standards. After graduating high school, he began teaching in one-room schoolhouses in Ohio such as the one he had attended. He later attended the College of Wooster, studying Greek with an eye toward becoming a pastor, and eventually graduated from the Ohio State University with a degree in electrical engineering. Problems with his eyes caused interruptions in his formal education.

Kettering valued his school experience, but he also valued his practical experience. He got a job installing poles for a telephone company and worked his way into installing lines and switchboards. He and friends undertook amateur experiments in chemistry and electricity. Even as a child he took great interest in nature.

After introducing us to his early life, the book turns to his career as an inventor and research engineer. He established what is now Delco, which he sold to General Motors. He had a long career leading the research efforts at GM. The final chapters of the book describe Kettering’s views on business and education and his career as a public speaker.

Kettering met his wife, Olive, while working for a rural telephone company. Their son, Gene, followed his father into engineering and eventually had a successful career in designing and building diesel-electric locomotives a General Motors.

Boyd was a friend of Kettering, who was still alive when Professional Amateur was published. Needless to say, the book is very complimentary to its subject. Few faults are attributed to the man, except that Kettering is depicted as being so absorbed in his research that he would overlook social conventions like keeping a nice suit clean, entertaining guests, or remembering the purpose of his appointments. The research engineer left his business affairs mostly in the hands of trusted partners so he could concentrate on the work that interested him, though Boyd’s depiction indicates Kettering was shrewd about business.

I don’t think the book is intended for children, but it is written in simple and direct style that might be accessible to many young readers. It was published in 1957, so more recent or thorough biographies may be available. For instance, Kettering introduced tetraethyl lead to gasoline as a way to reduce knock and improve fuel efficiency. Though it was considered safe at the time (as Boyd points out), the lead emissions from automobiles has be reevaluated sense and we no longer use leaded gasoline. The book was written before anyone was seriously aware of or concerned about this issue, so it does not consider it.

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

The Age of Edison by Ernest Freeburg

The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems by Henry Petroski

Make a Joyful Sound by Helen Elmira Waite

The Pinball Effect by James Burke

Boyd, T. A. Professional Amateur: The Biography of Charles Franklin Kettering. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1957.