Understanding the past opens the future to vision
357754
An inspiring visit with one who envisioned true greatness for our country. McCullough brings history to life so we can learn from it and grow forward in our own time
1778792
A wonderful revisiting of lives that shape our own. By appreciating the times past, we find often that it's not actually so long ago in the dynamics of our own lives and re-examining them in the larger historical context brings parts of us back to life again with new verve and appreciation. Storytelling, and the retelling of our own stories, is a gift the author has given to many through this book and the ones to come.
3645394
An interesting travel through time to explain why the world of today is the way we are used to see it.
3444388
Winston Churchill said, "The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see." It is, perhaps, surprising to learn that much of what has taken place with the Internet could have been predicted by studying events in the past 150 years. The invention, deployment and integration of the telegraph into society and business practices mirror the Internet in a great many ways.

The Internet has shrunk the world (like never before?), enabled business to take place at the speed of light (like never before?), caused information overload (ditto), and even enabled new mechanisms of dating and marriage to take place (again ditto). One wonders if by studying the rise (and fall) of the telegraph and related technologies we can predict the next "big things" and opportunities in this age of the internet?

This is a terrific "gee-whiz" book, an easy read on an airplane. It will likely amuse you; it may evoke an epiphany or two; it may even spark the idea for a new product or business!
4567133
richard van white shares his vision of the future of the universe- thousands of years from now.
his imagination and descriptive talent are our guide to a look into what technology, travel, evolution, war and weaponry might be- and it is truly fascinating.
what makes this book a the 'whole package' is van white's gift as a storyteller. like so many gifted storytellers, van white knows that as much as things change, human nature and behavior often do not.
witnessing this take place in the world that he creates makes the piece a fun read.
194243
They lived in a different world. This summary presentation creates images from the far distant past. Privilege and wealth had a profound impact on bright young things. The current political and religious climate help us understand the Mitford a bit better. A good read, if a bit short on analysis.
2522594
A really wide look at earlier civilisations over history,  Could awaken further interest.
1802038
Nice to view and dream. An old hobby I now have no time for but love t know what's available: how nearer technology might be impacting a past time going back to the 19th Century. Old school meets new school.
4338476
Peter Dekom's new book, NEXT, sheds daylight about the ever widening breach in our fundamental perspective and experience of time. The 20th century and early 21st, were eras when the past held more weight and attention than the future; the present stood still long enough to be examined and debated.  NEXT reminds us that the present is ever more integrated into the unrelenting tsunamic disruption of future blowback. Dekom's hip shooting prose is a panoptic treat.
3516715
The Support Economy gives you an insight into what the future might be like and explains why the present is so painful. It is abrilliant historical analysis of how we got here. It is a equally brilliant attempt to define a new future where technology is used to help us gain control of our lives. Agree with this or not it is start of a conversation- one started with the Cluetrain, This is a serious book by serious, experieinced and visionary people. Anyone who argues that individuals deserve respect and to be treated with dignity must be listened to. Don't look for simple answers, be prepared to think, keep an open mind and The Support Economy will sweep you along to a new view of the world business and yourself
2221542
This fascinating read opened my mind in a new way about money, it's history, and it's meaning. It is such an in depth look into money, that it will probably take me quite some time to absorb everything, and there are parts I would like to explore again to understand more fully.

Money is energetically a value that is symbolic and reflective of what we value in our culture. Psychologically, it can mean even more than that. As such, money can be looked at as a mirror into the soul of society.

Highly recommended for anyone who would like to take a deeper look at the stuff that has made our world go round for many thousands of years!
231710
This book opened my eyes to a  was unaware of. As I read it, I thought it was a future situation so I was amazed to understand it was in the past and a part of history!  Measuring this book on my own beliefs and values added a dimension to my reading.  I recommend this book...good read and thought provoking.
4495376
"I am skeptical about the idea that we can learn much from history, at least in the sense that knowledge of past follies will prevent us from making similar blunders in the future...  And yet it is important to know what happened before, and to try and make sense of it.  For if we don't, we cannot understand our own times."

I was surprised to see such a statement at the beginning of a book about history.  We often think 'those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it,' and yet it seems pretty obvious we're not learning the lessons history teaches.  To see it put so profoundly in writing was a pleasant affirmation, for me at least.  And making some sense of what happened seems to be a recurrent theme here.

The world was a very different place after the Second World War.  Not only had the conflict touched so many places around the globe, but news of the atrocities committed deeply shocked and embarrassed people.  Some had cause to celebrate and others to fear and mourn.  Cities lay in ruins and people were starving.  Governments were changed - not just in Germany and Japan - but all of Continental Europe and most of Asia, and the United Nations was created.  Buruma looks around the world and catalogs what happened by topic: hunger, revenge, displaced persons, what became of collaborators, reeducation, and sex (not just rape but also prostitution, which was sometimes for profit and sometimes to feed starving children).  It's not always a celebratory view with the victors, but also a detailing of the suffering and uncertainty of those whose lives had been upended by such a world-wide calamity.

And yet, in spite of the often dismal history it recounts, Buruma does a fascinating job of telling the story and showing all sides such that you gain a better understanding of the time and place.  His judgments are always tempered by an explanation of the conditions and why things happened the way they did - right or wrong - and is a more balanced and global view than&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Bitter-Road-to-Freedom-A-New-History-of-the-Liberation-of-Europe/dp/B002ECEEOA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe</a>.  And while this is ostensibly "a history of 1945," Buruma allows for expansion where appropriate and necessary.  The narrative is replete with individual stories of those who lived it, as well as that of his own father who was forced into labor by the Germans, and serves to personalize the tragedy in small ways.  I found it to be a sobering yet worthwhile account, and yet it not only helps to make sense of the world that was built on the ruins, but sometimes I think I see even more modern parallels.
2429783
A stunning collection of views from his past and intermingled with his faith life--Zach is a remarkable visionary. I look forward to his next work!
3030310
Architecture is fundamentally relational; its significance emanates from its engagement with the world.  This includes its physical context, or site; its social context, or program; and its material context, or construction. Cutting across all of these broad categories is architectures relationship to time at every increment of experience: from the momentary duration of the body moving in space to the tracking of the sun across the sky to the weathering of materials to the evolution of forms in response to climatic and cultural conditions. Marc Kristals engaging book elaborates on the implications of these manifold relationships through the lens of domestic space which is explicitly conceived as a bridge between past and present.  For him, new and old constitute a totality in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Framed by a highly readable yet erudite introduction, Kristal demonstrates the vitality of his proposition through eighteen case studies of single-family homes throughout the world.  These are what I would term composites; structures that are formed from the bond between existing historical building fabric and modern elements that recalibrate them to address their sites, the requirements of daily life and the aspirations of their inhabitants and architects.  The richness of the layering of old and new is amply demonstrated through concise texts and extensive, beautiful photographic documentation of each project. Kristals astutely-curated examples vividly remind us of architectures remarkable potential to arouse our most basic emotions by connecting us to our place and time. Perhaps at its essence the home is the locus of our humanity.
3750103
Anyone who has studied ancient history, and especially the history of the ancient Near East, knows the name of James Henry Breasted.  His books are a few decades old now.  Nevertheless, this does not diminish the value of his words. Of course knowledge has increased vastly since he wrote his books.  Nevertheless, I have found his scholarship to be sound, and his prose a pleasure to read.  I would compare reading his books to the experience of sitting in the presence of your grandfather, listening to the tales of his vast experience, while all the while knowing that there is much about the current world he does not know, yet at the same time you are captivated by his knowledge of the past--a knowledge informed by the fact that he reveres the past he so lovingly describes to you.
4536053
Bucky was truly a visionary; a futurist. And the language is so "of the time", the reading of this book transports you back to a different time.