I have writtern better books on Humboldt and rediscovered his linguistic pa[pers
585214
prerryn shallow stuf, I have writtern better books on Humboldt and rediscovered his linguistic pa[pers, 35000 pages in all! See my book Wilhelm von humboldts Spracfhwissenschsft.
Kurt Mueller-Vollm er
2694940
I read Andrea Wulf's masterful work, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, with great pleasure. The book's central thesis is that Humboldt was one of the great thinkers and scientists of the 19th century and has to some degree become unappreciated in contemporary science and culture. The book goes along way toward remedying this situation by simply describing Humboldt the person, his travels, his scientific discoveries and most importantly his impact on a number of other influential individuals.

In relation to his travels the book chronicles his early adventures in South America and how he tried for many years afterwards to develop a comprehension of the unity of nature and how many different environmental aspects and life forms fit together. This is really a founding concept of ecology and natural history. In relation to this, Humboldt developed a construction that we now take for granted, that of isotherms and contour lines where similar vegetation would grow at similar elevations on mountaintops.

The book also chronicles Humboldt's later years when he tried to replicate the dramatic voyages of his youth. His grand ambition was to visit the Himalayas but he was thwarted by the British East India Tea Company. Eventually, in a sense as a consolation, he was able to travel through Russia in old age.

In relation to his impact on science the book carefully goes over his great influence on famous 19th century scientists such as Ernst Haeckel, Charles Darwin and Lyle and the way that he impressed upon them the notion of the interconnection of nature, gradual changes and the paradox of the diversity of form. He also had great impact on George Perkins Marsh, John Muir and others who formed the American conservation movement and eventually created national parks in the United States. Both of these accomplishments should certainly be remembered.

Overall the book is a great read that really gives one a strong impression of Alexander von Humboldt in his time, and beyond.
4325300
The book itself is simply amazing and I could not at all improve on the insightful review of Giordano Bruno below (or above) written in 2009. My big HOWEVER is that I think the Eugene Jolas translation from over seventy years ago is simply not very good. Your best bet is to purchase Anne Thompson's new translation which to my mind captures completely the allegedly "untranslatable" argot of Berlin lowlifes from the 1920's.
It seems to be pretty much an amazon exclusive, available here. Mr. Bruno did not have this translation available at the time he wrote his piece.
http://www.amazon.com/Berlin-Alexanderplatz-Alfred-D%C3%B6blin/dp/1494271451/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430425784&sr=1-1&keywords=berlin+alexanderplatz
Having read both (well, honestly, I could only get through half the Jolas work), Ms. Thompson's is definitely worth the extra $$
942042
So I was lucky to come across this satisfying read. It's a more traditionally formatted biography than I was expecting, given the number of Best Books lists it was on at the end of last year. But the portrait of Humboldt is vivid, without straying into either the speculative, fiction-inspired dialogue/ psychology that some popular biographies do, or excessive dry minutiae. The chapter-long mini biographies of some of Humboldt's intellectual descendants were pretty cool.
2370218
The title of Marx's text is a deliberate jab at Proudhon's earlier text, The Philosophy of Poverty. I had read the corpus of Proudhon's works that had been translated into English some 5 or 6 years ago, being impressed with the first book of his that I read, What Is Property? It seems that Marx, too, shared my admiration for What Is Property? as he revealed in one of his letters included in the appendices to the edition of the text I read (International Publishers). However, he informed one of his correspondents that Proudhon's Philosophy of Poverty was not merely bad, but very bad.

Marx sets forth a strong and stringent critique of Proudhon's work. Interestingly, however, while Marx does frequently denounce and mock Proudhon, he does so without the bitterly vituperative tone he used against Bruno Bauer in The Holy Family. It is often difficult to follow a writer critiquing another writer's work when the reader is not familiar with the work being critiqued. Even though I already had read The Philosophy of Poverty, I believe Marx includes sufficient excerpts in his text so that one who has *not* read Proudhon's text would be able to follow Marx.

Although a critique of Proudhon's text provides the superstructure for Marx's text, he goes much further in his comments, thus making it an important book for the Marx scholar. Here, for the first time, Marx raises the issue of class conflict. He elaborates extensively on the idea of a materialist approach to history only simply sketched out in The German Ideology. This indeed forms the essence of Marx's complaint against Proudhon: Proudhon (ineptly in Marx's opinion) established a quasi-dialectical scheme vaguely based on Hegel's philosophy. Marx's thinking had moved well beyond Hegel at this point, and he was able to articulate his theory concerning the central role of the means of production in determining social relations and all other elements of society. That Proudhon lacked this vision was, in Marx's opinion, his chief failing.

A few interesting instances of note: In commenting on slavery on the Southern US, Marx stated that the maintenance of slavery was an economic necessity at that point. To an extent this was true because the main US exports were cotton and tobacco, both produced in the southern states utilizing slave labor, while the northern and western US economy depended on feeding the southern states, leaving nothing to export. I laughed out loud when Marx described Proudhon in one of the letters in the appendices as bombastic, of adopting a "self-advertising, self-glorifying, boastful tone" when that is an apt description of Marx himself. Most fascinatingly, Marx and Proudhon apparently were friends at one point; Marx wrote of one boisterous drinking and talking session he shared with Proudhon. Publication of The Poverty of Philosophy seems to have terminated the friendship. I wonder why ...

Finally, towards the end of this text we begin to see language that is prophetic of what was to appear in The Communist Manifesto which would be Marx's next major work to be written with Frederick Engels. In The Holy Family, The German Ideology, and The Poverty of Philosophy, Marx wrote extended critiques of other authors' works; he wrote secondary works. The text marks the conclusion of Marx's early period before the publication of The Communist Manifesto and future original works on the road to Das Kapital. This is not one of Marx's major text's notwithstanding his introduction of class conflict and elaboration of materialist theory of history. Recommended more for those like me who seek out to read *all* of an author's works.
563380
This book covers developments in evolutionary biology from the time of Darwin to the time of printing, including neo-Darwinism, punctuated equilibrium, and molecular studies. Some of the science is complicated but the author, J. Joseph, acknowledges that prior knowledge is required. My major quibble with the book is that the quality of the writing; the grammar was poor making it necessary to sometimes guess at meanings. This prevented me from giving the book a 5-star rating. Even so, the book was very informative and I enjoyed it.

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
3814865
This book was recommended to me by Amazon, based on my browsing history. I decided to borrow it first from my local library, to see if this is something that would interest me, and that I would read repeatedly. It did, and I would.

I consider myself above average in my knowledge of European intellectual history. But I had never heard of Johann G. Hamann (1730-1788) before. I discovered that he was an important force in the anti-Enlightenment in Germany, having a deep influence on such figures as Herder, Goethe, Lessing, and Mendelssohn, and later Hegel and Kierkegaard.

Hamann was anti-Reason, -Kant, -Voltaire, -metaphysics, -philosophical system, and was generally distrustful of knowledge or experience too far removed, intellectually and rationally, from the daily concerns of the individual and his experience of God. He saw himself as a gadfly like Socrates, whose duty was to instill some sense into 18th century Prussian intellectual life and save them from godlessness. He was a kind of anti-rationalist, Christian proto-existentialist.

Isaiah Berlin, with admirable brevity (144 pp. cover to cover), sketches the life, beliefs (particularly with regard to God and theories of knowledge, language, creativity, and politics), and influence of this fascinating man. It is a book I enjoyed immensely, that I want to own so that I can read and study it again, and that I recommend to anyone with even a slight interest in philosophy. It is written in a very accessible style.

A note about the critics: I didn't get the sense that Berlin had anything but respect and admiration for Hamann; he repeatedly praised Hamanns originality, philosophical depth, and influence (I think he even called him a genius several times). I don't understand why some reviewers think that Berlin considered Hamann to be unintelligent.

I also think some critics have exaggerated Berlins tie between Hamann and National Socialism. Berlin made a few vague comments in this direction, but it was less asserting a direct linkage, and more grouping Hamann within a larger anti-rational movement in Germany, which also included the later Nazis. It is certainly true that there were many forces in Germany leading to Nazism, one of which was that they never experienced the Enlightenment with the depth and force that, say, England and France did. Think of it as a Venn diagram with a circle for the Nazis, and a circle for Hamann, and anti-rationalism being the circle which shows where they intersect.
1914488
Angel S&aacute;enz-Badillos, a professor of Hebrew at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, originally wrote this history of the Hebrew language in Spanish in 1988. It was translated into English by John Elwode in 1993, and though it has been reprinted and made available as an ebook, it has not changed since the paperback reprinting of 1996. S&aacute;enz-Badillos and then his publisher had probably been sitting on the manuscript for some time, as there are very few citations from before 1980. So, the first thing you need to know about this grammar is that it is rather out of date for readers well into this millennium.

All Hebrew words and phrases are cited in the Hebrew alphabet and accompanied by transliteration. But to really get anything out of this book you'll need at least some knowledge of Biblical Hebrew plus its tradition, that is, the Hebrew-language terms for grammatical categories and concepts. Even with this understanding, you're likely to find S&aacute;enz-Badillos's presentation frustrating. He simply throws out one piece of individual trivia after another concerning sound or morphological changes out without giving us a clear, organized picture of overall stages. S&aacute;enz-Badillos also assumes that readers are already familiar with disputes among specialists. This is not a friendly introduction to the field like, say, the&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/history-of-Spanish/dp/0521011841/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">history of Spanish</a>&nbsp;that Cambridge University Press published at the same time. Maybe one could profitably use this for an expanded understanding of the field after working through a real introductory history, but going here first will only be an exercise in frustration.

Finally, it is worth nothing that S&aacute;enz-Badillos admits early on that he's not so interested in Modern Hebrew, as he feels continuity was broken in the time between Medieval Hebrew and the restoration of the language in the budding state of Israel. He does, however, dedicate 12 pages to the polemics surrounding this restoration, far less than prior stages of the language. So, if Modern Israeli Hebrew interests you, you'd be better served with another publication.
3620789
Es este en mi opinin uno de los libros indispensables para todo el que aprecie la literatura hispana.  Mucha sabidura dicha en verso, toda una tradicin de nuestra lengua y una ctedra de existencialismo.
Considero lectura de rigor para psiquiatras, psiclogos y mdicos en general.
1166080
I am happy that Ladywisdom (or Gunesophia as I shall call her in her beloved Greek) spent so much time learning orthography and typing at her "highly competitive" University. While my alma mater was somewhat remiss in teaching secretarial skills (though I do know a bit of grammar --- I would have written "For those of the populace NOT as attached to a thesaurus as A.A"), I did learn to think critically and skeptically, and, above all, NOT to expect that everything, and least of all a FOREIGN language, should be made "immediately accessible." German is a strange, wondrous and beautiful language, and not just a quirky transliteration of the principle commodities of an Americanized universe.  If Kontakte were, as Gunesophia claims, a middle way between immersion and rote learning, I would have no gripe against it. In my opinion, however, it sacrifices the coherent treatment of grammar and trust in the students' active intelligence to a trendy (and, in its way, quite "postmodern") theory of language learning.  An adult student can only be immersed in a foreign language when he immerses himself, not just absorbing "grammatical patterns", but attending to and thinking about them.
3555924
My introduction to linguistics came in the late 60's, in the heady early days of the Chomskyian revolution. I remain fascinated by human language, and this book was like intellectual candy. Everett's heroic efforts to understand the Pirah language and culture have touched off firestorms in several academic fields. It will be most interesting to see what's left when the dust settles. At the moment, it appears that Chomsky and his faithful are redefining some of their terms in an attempt to rescue their dogma.
There are a few minor inconsistencies in the book that Everett should fix in a second edition. For example, he states unequivocally that the Pirah have no number words, then later translates a passage as meaning "There were two pigs." I contacted him and he explained that this translation was done early in his research, when he believed the language did have number words; a more accurate translation would be "There were a larger quantity of pigs."
As I said, fascinating.
4557384
Whatever happened to Esperanto -- is it still ticking?  And Volapuek, does anyone still speak it?  Here's the low-down on invented languages, starting with the mystical Seventeeth and enlightened Eighteen centuries, when serious attempts were made not only to name BUT TO ORDER every word out there in wholly new languages that would be not only rational but would unpack our (now we know) unpackable universe.  Then came the One Worlders:  the rise of nationalism in the Nineteenth Century provoked a reaction in Esperanto, Ido, Volapeuk and other invented languages that were meant to cross national boundaries, be easy to learn, have simplified grammars, and generally pull humankind together.  Those movements generally went into decline after the Second World War.  However, don't accept the blithe assumptions that English has become the world's *lingua franca* and that's that.  A lot more is going on and new invented languages are popping up all the time, though often, as with the "Blissymbol" system, they find uses other than pure communication.  (Blessedly, author Akira Okrent knows just when to stop shy of entering the realm of computer languages, so if you're looking for a taste of Fortran, Cobal or Linux, go elsewhere.)  A recurring theme in this insightful work is that no perfect language can be obtained because by the time one can be compiled, the social uses of it change and prompt either schisms or evolutions in the invented language.  An example of breach is Loglan, whose adherents so strongly rebelled against its conservative founder that they came up with Lojban, originally meant to incorporate changes the master would not permit.  (For the record, these are both difficult and complicated languages and would probably have any old-school Esperantist shaking his *kapo* (or her *kapa*) in dismay.)  Esperanto itself is an example of a created language refusing to remain static, as younger speakers casually drop the "n" accusative ending of nouns much as English-speakers commonly dismiss with terminal "g" from our words, and slang expressions and colorful idioms continue to thrive.

The benefit of  IN THE LAND OF INVENTED LANGUAGES is that Okrent knows whereof she speaks -- she's a professional linguist with double Ph. D.'s from the University of Chicago in both Linguistics and Cognition/Cognitive Science.  A born language nut and polyglot; what she doesn't know she set out to follow in compiling this book, and shares with us in a very witty manner.  (On first encountering one formerly promising language, she first looks up "s--t" in their dictionary to see if it's there.)  While this book is great fun to read, and can go into constructed languages or "conlangs" I would never have imagined (a pro-feminist language that has separate words for experiences such as "to menstruate joyfully" or "to menstruate painfully"),  at times I feel the author could have been a bit more comprehensive without sacrificing her tone of informed breeziness.  For instance, she says next to nothing about the "Latine sine flexione"/Interlingua/IA family of languages that were thought to be Europe's savior during much of the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century, but with the help of the Klingon annual conference does go on and on (entertainingly, to be sure) about that language and its structure, in particularly the earthers who try to speak it.  It may or may not be a sign of these times that the One World attempts to simplify language of 125 years ago have given way to the First World problem of mass communication being solved by Klingon, designed from scratch by one savant to be as difficult as possible, a warrior's language for a fictive warrior people.  (Leave it to Okrent to find some humor even here:  the Klingon word for "buttocks" is simply "tuchis" spelled backward, but such obvious mnemonics are quite rare.)  IN THE LAND OF INVENTED LANGUAGES is fun, informative, but to this observer could have been a bit more substantive.  Nonetheless, read it anyway.
4812723
the subject - Humboldt - is a very interesting character and is duly praised by the author; but when the latter enters into the philosophical and literature realm, it's too much! it's not what I expected- after all he and I are scientists- and the book becomes boring.
1377191
I read this in preparation for an upcoming trip to Peru; a decent non-fiction book about the Spanish conquest of the Incas, and the discovery of Machu Picchu and Vilcabamba centuries later.

The first half of the book featured the Conquistadors versus the Incas - and it was difficult to decide which side to root for as both groups were dreadful. Ultimately I decided on the Incas because, after all, they were there first, and the Spaniards willingness to mass murder for gold was inconceivable. But the Incas weren't much better - a relatively small group that subjugated millions of weaker neighbors. At any rate the Spaniards were certainly impressive warriors, using their technological advantages to win battles where they were outnumbered two-hundred to one. The diseases they inadvertently brought with them were to their advantage as well.

The second part of the book covers Hiram Bingham's discovery of Machu Picchu (I thought *Turn Right at Machu Picchu* by Mark Adams was a more enjoyable read) and the kooky Gene Savoy's "discovery" of Vilcabamba - the lost final capital of the Incas. A large portion of the second half of the book is simply footnotes.
4575076
Recently, I realized the gaping hole of writing systems in my linguistics education. Since I'm no longer a student, I had to resort to a public library, where I found this. I found it to be enjoyable. The book was well-organized into four parts, and each chapter seemed to be well outlined. There are probably better, newer books on writing systems out there, but I have no complaints about what I got from this one.
2508306
but this is barely readable.

The translators have struggled earnestly, but what can you really do with a sentence like this, from the preface? "The idea of writing a book about the new research at Troy, which had developed in so many directions, arose from a combination of external impulses and a personal feeling that, given the fundamental turnabout in the research situation in Bronze Age history, which is to a large extent due to the new Troy research, a provisional appraisal of the facts and theories now to hand was needed and would probably be of value for further work in the various disciplines involved."

It's impossible to read the Iliad without feeling its historicity, that it was based on accounts of an important conflict and strong characters. But Homer is foremost a poet, a geographer of the soul, not of the soil. Professor Latacz can at most show that the physical, linguistic and written evidence available do not contradict Homer in his essential narrative. His attempt to elevate Homer to historical evidence is in the best heroic tradition, courage in the face of certain failure.
4167990
It is not uncommon to find fictional accounts of the lives of famous historical figures, nor of encounters between them. Kehlmann's book is unusual in its choice of personalities and in the way in which he creates an entertaining description of the two. In the late eighteenth century, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt had both embarked on the same quest: finding a new way of measuring the world. The two heroes couldn't be more different in character and approach. Gauss believed that "a man alone at his desk" represented the real scientist whereas von Humboldt saw him as a world traveler, collecting the evidence in the field and taking measurements wherever he went. Basing himself on the historical records of their lives and work, Kehlmann has created a tongue-in-cheek intimate portrait of these two scientific giants of their time.

Gauss was a child prodigy from poor lower class background. He became known as the  "Prince of Mathematicians" for his mathematical genius and who wrote his major scientific work at the age of 21. His name has been attached to many scientific discoveries including magnetism and astronomy. Not much is known of his private life, though, except for the bare facts of family and jobs that he had to support himself. He treated many of his scientific deductions as too easy and commonsensical to write about, only to be annoyed when somebody else published something related. Today we would say he was a curmudgeon kind of character. Count von Humboldt, on the other hand, came from a well-off aristocratic family and was spoiled for options what to do with his life. He and brother Wilhelm, a diplomat and linguist, have been a household name then and now, at least in German speaking countries.  Alexander's work as a naturalist and explorer were well publicized during his lifetime. He was the first to explore the geological and botanical diversity of remote regions of Central and Latin America and wrote detailed scientific reports about his findings. He is seen as one of the fathers of biogeography. Later on, his travel bug took him all the way across Russia and almost to China.  Late in life, the geniuses meet at the 1828 science congress in Berlin. However, the encounter didn't quite live up to the expectations built over many years of knowing of each other's work in the same area of science.

Kehlmann brings his subjects close to the reader by focusing on a series of episodes from each of their lives, alternating between the two. Written in a lively style, he endears us to their personalities, bringing out their strengths and foibles. He introduces us to their scientific findings in a light-hearted easy-going way that capture the essence without overburdening the reader. Rather than creating long section of dialogue, he lets his protagonists express themselves in indirect dialogue. Allusions to contemporary events and issues are sprinkled throughout the narrative and add an often funny commentary. Measuring the World is a great read and highly recommended. [Friederike Knabe]