Doing It Our Way

I’ve been so busy I actually finished reading A Social History of American Technology by Ruth Schwartz Cowan over a week ago. It’s taken me this long to have the time and the motivation to actually write a review of the book. I’ve actually been attempting to finish the book for some time. This was another one of those books I had to get for a class in college that I wanted to actually read all of later.

Essentially the book covers the growth and change of technology in the US due to its particular social and environmental conditions. It actually does a good job of covering the subject matter in an entertaining and informative matter. I enjoyed it, but those of the engineering bent can have peculiar taste in books like this. The earlier parts of the book are more thorough. Due to the rapid advance of technologies in the past half century, the latter part of the book covers a narrower group of technologies. This is understandable, and I dare say the book would have been too long had it covered much more. For what’s there though it provides a really good perspective on how American technology deviated from technologies originally developed in Europe and how technology altered American society in return.

Click for the rest of the rambling >>.

The Face of Hundreds

Well I finally finished reading The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H. W. Brands. I tell you what that took me a long time. The thing is over 700 pages long and I swear it’s like 8pt font. I read it in 3 goes. I broke those up with fiction books in between. It helped to take a bit of a break from the flood of information.

Well I’m not exactly sure what to say here. This was a darned good book. It’s well written. It covers an extremely important person in American history. And I really liked it. The reason I don’t know what to say is that the book just covers so much. Franklin lived a long time and did more in his life than most people could imagine. This is one of the people that helped make the US the country it is today. And some of the things the thought of and helped institute are very modern ideas even by today’s standards. So if you like history and good writing then you should pick this one up and give it a read.

Click for the rest of the rambling >>.

Three for some money

I’ve been meaning to write something up for a while, but I’ve been busy and lazy. Well last weekend and the weekend before I went to see a few movies. Let me tell you about them.

First I went to see “Astronaut Farmer.” It got some pretty good reviews. It’s a pretty good movie with both realistic and unrealistic properties. Thorton always has a way of playing a likable character that’s just a little off center. I found one part in particular jolting enough to jar me out of the smoothness of the experience. You’ll probably notice it. I kept feeling that it had to be a dream. Then when I realized it wasn’t I thought, “That wouldn’t happen.” Anyway, it’s an entertaining story and would make a good rental.

Then I went to see “Black Snake Moan.” That right there was an interesting movie. What is it with Samuel L. Jackson and movies with Snake in the title? Anyway, I had a good time watching this one. I don’t know what happened to Christina Ricci, but she had skank down pat. Plus you get to see her stomach all the time, and her boobs quite a few. It had some pretty funny parts, and would make a good drinking movie for renting.

Finally I went to see “300” with my brother. He saw it in Atlanta at the IMAX a few days before- the bastard. That’s just a entertaining movie right there. It should fill most of the action that woul would require of a movie. I really liked the stylized visuals of the movie. The almost colorized sepia tone nature that uses color to emphasize certain things was lovely. The red of the Spartan cloaks really popped. The movie is an adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae, with poetic license of course. You can also tell that this movie is from the work of Frank Miller, and its style reminds one of Sin City. That means you will see quite a bit of skin as well. Some is female, but most belongs to the Spartan soldiers. Personally I didn’t find the leather Speedos that distracting, but I did find a few things disturbing. Xerxes, the man that would be a god, creeped me out quite a bit. My brother said he knew the Greeks were supposed to be a little short, but the “tranny” was just too tall. I about fell in the floor, cause I was thinking the same thing. He’s too tall, too touchy feely, and he talks like a Goa’uld. It just weirded me out. I was actually surprised at the tameness of the violence and blood, remembering Sin City. But I recommend it to anyone that likes over the top stylized action.

Click for the rest of the rambling >>.

His Shadow

Well finally, after two months, I finished reading American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis. I’ve read two of Ellis’s other books, Founding Brothers and His Excellency. I can’t believe it took me that long to read the book. I guess I got distracted and found it difficult to get back to. I probably only read the book for about 2-3 weeks, with breaks in the middle. I’ll ramble out a review after the link.

It’s funny. Ellis wrote Sphinx first followed by Brothers and Excellency, but I read it last. Also, I should mention that Sphinx also won a National Book Award complimented by the Pulitzer Brothers received. Anyway, the first thing you notice when you compare the books is that this one is much thicker. The paperback I have is 440 pages long. But you must realize that the last 70 pages are index and notes. Even with that, it is much longer. I assume being the first may have something to do with it, but there are other reasons.

Ellis decided that others had written much more expansive biographies of Jefferson before, and that he didn’t want to duplicate that. He wanted to do what he has continued to do in the later books. Ellis wanted to provide better understanding of the man named Thomas Jefferson rather than simply communicate dates. Therefore the book covers some things in detail with much analysis, and it skips other things. The book doesn’t always follow chronology either. Both can be somewhat annoying, like when he talks about something that happens later or skips the second term only to disperse some of the information in later chapters. It makes me want to read another biography just to fill in the gaps.

However, Ellis does an excellent job at what he sets out to do. As you get into the book you start to realize the reason for the length. It’s necessary in order to help you get a grasp on one of the most enigmatic characters in US history. Jefferson is often quoted by varied and conflicting groups in order to support their stance on certain topics. This occurs because people misinterpret Jefferson’s words, and because he seemed able to hold more than one contradictory ideal to be true without ever letting them touch or realize they were incompatible with each other or the realities of the world itself. It is truly amazing the complexity and peculiarity of the man.

I look forward to reading more about the Revolutionary Generation, and I thank God we were lucky enough to have them when we needed them.

Click for the rest of the rambling >>.