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.
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Science and civilization.
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Science -- History.
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Author |
Boorstin, Ruth Frankel.
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LC no. |
94001079 |
ISBN |
0679435050 |
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