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Author Boorstin, Daniel J. (Daniel Joseph), 1914-2004.

Title Cleopatra's nose : essays on the unexpected / Daniel J. Boorstin ; edited by Ruth F. Boorstin
Edition First trade edition
Published New York : Random House, [1994]
©1994

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  909 Boo/Cne  AVAILABLE
Description xii, 210 pages ; 25 cm
Contents I. Realms of Discovery. 1. The Age of Negative Discovery. 2. The Cultures of Pride and Awe. 3. An Odd Couple: Discoverers and Inventors -- II. Trials of Conscience. 4. The Writer as Conscience of the World. 5. Our Conscience-Wracked Nation -- III. New-World Opportunities. 6. Printing and the Constitution. 7. Roles of the President's House. 8. The Making of a Capitol. 9. An Un-American Capital -- IV. The Cautionary Science. 10. Tocqueville's America. 11. Custine's Russia -- V. The Fourth Kingdom. 12. Darwinian Expectations. 13. Statistical Expectations. 14. Artificial Selection. 15. The Great Separation -- VI. A Personal Postscript. 16. My Father, Lawyer Sam Boorstin. 17. Land of the Unexpected
Summary This provocative new collection of essays by a Pulitzer Prize winner deals with the challenging themes of discovery and surprise in history. Cleopatra's Nose is not a miscellany but rather a selection of recent essays illustrating specific subjects that have preoccupied Boorstin for several decades. Tantalizing themes all: How sometimes discovery only increases our ignorance. What were the specific historical opportunities in the New World? How has the fourth kingdom - the kingdom of machines - contradicted Darwinian expectations, contributed to a confusion of statistics, created the need for the unnecessary, and highlighted the paradoxes of science and the politics of common sense? In a "personal postscript," Boorstin gives us a memorable and affectionate portrait of his father and optimistically celebrates the United States as the Land of the Unexpected
Notes Includes index
Subject Civilization, Modern -- History.
Science and civilization.
Science -- History.
Author Boorstin, Ruth Frankel.
LC no. 94001079
ISBN 0679435050