BOOK SUMMARY OF AMERICAN GREATNESS The theme of this book is a concise history of our country, from Columbus to Reagan. The purpose is to show what made America great. The many people, who were at the right place at the right time, preserved the spirit that made the United States not only free but unknowingly helped it become a great nation. What they said and accomplished should be preserved for all future generation to know and appreciate. It has been chronicled in numerous ways, but bears repeating. As John Dewey said in 1916, “Democracy must be reborn in each generation and education is the midwife.”
A collection of prefaces, reviews and articles by Americans on American and European fiction. Charted in these three volumes, which span 1776 to 1900, is the movement from anxious defences of the novel as a necessary vehicle of truth and morality to fully-fledged theoretical exfoliations.
For over three hundred years, stories of witches, sea serpents and pirates have amazed and terrified residents of Massachusetts's North Shore. In the summer of 1692, phantom men were spotted in the fields of Gloucester. Farther north, "A" marks the spot for pirate treasure in the marshes of Newbury, while to the east, full moons might bring out the werewolf of Dogtown. The devil himself has burned his mark on the boulder-strewn landscape, while shaggy humanoids have been sighted loping along the coast. From Boston to New Hampshire, Massachusetts's North Shore is filled with remarkable stories and legendary characters. Join author Peter Muise and discover the North Shore's uncanny legends and tales of the paranormal.
With the same sweep, authority, and originality that marked his best-selling Freud: A Life for Our Time, Peter Gay here takes us on a remarkable journey through middle-class Victorian culture. Gay's search through middle-class Victorian culture, illuminated by lively portraits of such daunting figures as Bismarck, Darwin and his acolytes, George Eliot, and the great satirists Daumier and Wilhelm Busch, covers a vast terrain: the relations between men and women, wit, demagoguery, and much more. We discover the multiple ways in which the nineteenth century at once restrained aggressive behavior and licensed it. Aggression split the social universe into insiders and outsiders. "By gathering up communities of insiders," Professor Gay writes, the Victorians "discovered--only too often invented--a world of strangers beyond the pale, of individuals and classes, races and nations it was perfectly proper to debate, patronize, ridicule, bully, exploit, or exterminate." The aggressions so channeled or bottled could not be contained forever. Ultimately, they exploded in the First World War.
Stubborn Poetries is a study of poets whose work, because of its difficulty or simple resistance to conventional explication, remains more or less firmly outside the canon. Book jacket.
The author of the bestseller Freud presents a close examination of the aggression--and debate about aggression--that raged through the Victorian Age. Gay looks at the works of such figures as Theodore Roosevelt and Nietzsche to present penetrating new insights.
Today Berthe Morisot is recognised as the first lady of Impressionism, who left behind her an exceptional body of work, including oil paintings, pastels, watercolours, prints, sculptures and several hundred drawings. The only woman to join the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their exhibitions, she was also a close friend and colleague of Édouard Manet. Her paintings are celebrated for their delicate and subtle quality, brimming with exquisite colour, winning her the admiration of her fellow Impressionists. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents Morisot’s complete paintings in beautiful detail, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * The complete paintings of Berthe Morisot – over 300 paintings, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order * Includes reproductions of rare works * Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information * Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Morisot’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books * Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the paintings * Easily locate the paintings you wish to view * Includes a selection of Morisot's drawings – explore the artist’s varied works * Features a bonus biography – discover Morisot's artistic and personal life Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art books CONTENTS: The Highlights Thatched Cottage in Normandy The Artist’s Mother and Sister The Harbour at Lorient The Artist’s Sister at a Window The Cradle On a Balcony Hide and Seek Chasing Butterflies Summer’s Day Winter The Wet Nurse Manet and His Daughter in the Garden at Bougival Self Portrait, 1885 A Woman Seated at a Bench on the Avenue du Bois The Quay at Bougival The Cherry Tree Young Girl with a Cat Julie Daydreaming The Paintings The Complete Paintings Alphabetical List of Paintings Selected Drawings List of Drawings The Biography Berthe Morisot by Théodore Duret Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set
The operas of the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi are among the greatest achievements of nineteenth century culture and remain at the heart of the opera repertory today. His extraordinary works took the opera world by storm, transforming and dominating the world of opera for over 30 years. Verdi modified the rigid conventions of the bel canto style, which had previously depended on the showcasing of singers at the expense of dramatic values. He changed this system to form an overall dramatic masterpiece, giving the singers melody and brilliance in ample measure. Delphi’s Great Composers Series offers concise illustrated guides to the life and works of our greatest composers. Analysing the masterworks of each composer, these interactive eBooks include links to popular streaming services, allowing you to listen to the pieces of music you are reading about. Evaluating the masterworks of each composer, you will explore the development of their works, tracing how they changed the course of music history. Whether a classical novice or a cultivated connoisseur, this series offers an intriguing overview of the world’s most famous and iconic compositions. This volume presents Verdi’s masterworks in succinct detail, with informative introductions, accompanying illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus features. (Version 1) * Concise and informative overview of Verdi’s masterworks * Learn about the operas that made Verdi a celebrated composer * Links to popular streaming services (free and paid), allowing you to listen to the masterpieces that you’re reading about * Features a special ‘Complete Compositions’ section, with an index of Verdi’s complete works and links to popular streaming services * Includes a selection of English translations of the librettos * Also features three biographies, including Frederick James Crowest’s seminal study — explore Verdi's intriguing musical and personal life Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting eBooks CONTENTS: The Masterworks Oberto Un giorno di regno Nabucco Ernani I due Foscari Macbeth Il corsaro La battaglia di Legnano Luisa Miller Rigoletto Il trovatore La traviata Les vêpres siciliennes Inno delle nazioni Don Carlos Aida Messa da Requiem Falstaff Complete Compositions Index of Verdi’s Compositions The Librettos Rigoletto Il trovatore La traviata La Forza del Destino Aida The Biographies Verdi: Man and Musician, by Frederick James Crowest Giuseppe Verdi by Harriette Brower History of the Opera by Henry Sutherland Edwards Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of exciting titles
Revered by artists and collectors since the seventeenth century, Claude Lorrain was a master of landscape painting, raising the reputation of the art form to new heights. His paintings present idealised views of nature, governed by Classical concepts and fuelled by the inspiration of the Roman Campagna. Claude’s special contribution was the poetic rendering of light, which would particularly influence the Romantic movement and change the course of art. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents Claude’s complete paintings in beautiful detail, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * The complete paintings of Claude Lorrain — over 200 paintings, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order * Includes reproductions of rare works * Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information * Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Claude’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books * Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the paintings * Easily locate the paintings you wish to view * Includes a selection of Claude's drawings - explore the artist’s varied works * Features two bonus biographies, including George Grahame's seminal illustrated study of the artist - discover Claude's world Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art books CONTENTS: The Highlights RIVER LANDSCAPE HARBOUR SCENE WITH A VIEW OF THE CAPITOLINE HILL THE ROMAN FORUM PASTORAL LANDSCAPE AN ARTIST STUDYING FROM NATURE SEAPORT AT SUNSET LANDSCAPE WITH APOLLO GUARDING THE HERDS OF ADMETUS SUNRISE THE MARRIAGE OF ISAAC AND REBECCA THE EMBARKATION OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA LANDSCAPE WITH DAVID AND THE THREE HEROES THE ENCHANTED CASTLE PASTORAL LANDSCAPE WITH A FLIGHT INTO EGYPT COAST VIEW OF DELOS WITH AENEAS THE ARRIVAL OF AENEAS AT PALLANTEUM LANDSCAPE WITH ASCANIUS SHOOTING THE STAG OF SILVIA The Paintings THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS The Drawings LIST OF DRAWINGS The Biographies CLAUDE LORRAIN: PAINTER AND ETCHER by George Grahame BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: CLAUDE OF LORRAIN by William Michael Rossetti Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set
A German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. Celebrated as the creator of the ‘Brandenburg Concertos’, ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’, the ‘Mass in B Minor’ and countless other masterpieces of church and instrumental music, Bach’s sublime skill was his ability to adapt and perfect the principal styles and forms of previous generations. Delphi’s Great Composers Series offers concise illustrated guides to the life and works of our greatest composers. Analysing the masterworks of each composer, these interactive eBooks include links to popular streaming services, allowing you to listen to the pieces of music you are reading about. Evaluating the masterworks of each composer, you will explore the development of their works, tracing how they changed the course of music history. Whether a classical novice or a cultivated connoisseur, this series offers an intriguing overview of the world’s most famous and iconic compositions. This volume presents Bach’s masterworks in succinct detail, with informative introductions, accompanying illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus features. (Version 1) * Concise and informative overview of Bach’s masterworks * Learn about the classical pieces that made Bach a celebrated composer * Links to popular streaming services (free and paid), allowing you to listen to the masterpieces you are reading about * Features a special ‘Complete Compositions’ section, with an index of Bach’s complete works and links to popular streaming services * Includes six biographies - explore Bach's intriguing musical and personal life Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting eBooks CONTENTS: The Masterworks Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major, BWV 1042 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046 The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846 Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225 St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C Minor, BWV 1060R Harpsichord Concerto No. 4, BWV 1055 Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651-668 Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 Complete Compositions Index of Bach’s Compositions The Biographies Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work by Johann Nikolaus Forkel Bach by Reginald Lane Poole Bach by C. F. Abdy Williams The Culmination of German Protestant Music: Johann Sebastian Bach by Edward Dickinson John Sebastian Bach by Harriette Brower Johann Sebastian Bach by Louis C. Elson Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of exciting titles
Renowned for melody and harmony, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert represents the foremost bridge between the worlds of Classical and Romantic music. In spite of his short life, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre of original and inspiring works, including more than 600 secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of piano and chamber music. Although appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited to a small circle of admirers, his reputation has increased significantly in the decades following his death. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of Western music. Delphi’s Great Composers Series offers concise illustrated guides to the life and works of our greatest composers. Analysing the masterworks of each composer, these interactive eBooks include links to popular streaming services, allowing you to listen to the pieces of music you are reading about. Evaluating the masterworks of each composer, you will explore the development of their works, tracing how they changed the course of music history. Whether a classical novice or a cultivated connoisseur, this series offers an intriguing overview of the world’s most famous and iconic compositions. This volume presents Schubert’s masterworks in succinct detail, with informative introductions, accompanying illustrations and bonus texts. (Version 1)* Concise and informative overview of Schubert’s masterworks * Learn about the classical pieces that made Schubert a celebrated composer * Links to popular streaming services (free and paid), allowing you to listen to the masterpieces you’re reading about * Features a special ‘Complete Compositions’ section, with an index of Schubert’s complete works and links to popular streaming services * Includes links to rare compositions * Also features five biographies — explore Schubert's intriguing musical and personal lifePlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting eBooksCONTENTS:The Masterworks Symphony No. 1 in D major, D 82 Symphony No. 3 in D major, D 200 Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, D 485 Three Marches Militaires, Op.51, D 733 Mass No. 5 in A-flat major, D 678 Piano Quintet in A major, D 667, “Trout Quintet” Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, D 759, “Unfinished” Fantasie in C major, D 760; “Wanderer Fantasy” Rosamunde, D 797 String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D 810, “Death and the Maiden” Symphony No. 9 in C major, D 944 4 Impromptus, Op.90, D 899 6 Moments musicaux, Op.94, D 780 String Quintet in C major, D 956 Fantasia in F minor, D 940 Winterreise, D 911Complete Compositions Index of Schubert’s CompositionsThe Biographies Schubert, Schumann and Franz by George T. Ferris Franz Schubert by Daniel Gregory Mason Schubert by Francis Jameson Rowbotham Franz Schubert by William Henry Hadow Franz Schubert by Harriette BrowerPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of exciting titles
In Fighting for the Higher Law, Peter Wirzbicki explores how important black abolitionists joined famous Transcendentalists to create a political philosophy that fired the radical struggle against American slavery. In the cauldron of the antislavery movement, antislavery activists, such as William C. Nell, Thomas Sidney, and Charlotte Forten, and Transcendentalist intellectuals, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, developed a "Higher Law" ethos, a unique set of romantic political sensibilities—marked by moral enthusiasms, democratic idealism, and a vision of the self that could judge political questions from "higher" standards of morality and reason. The Transcendentalism that emerges here is not simply the dreamy philosophy of privileged white New Englanders, but a more populist movement, one that encouraged an uncompromising form of politics among a wide range of Northerners, black as well as white, working-class as well as wealthy. Invented to fight slavery, it would influence later labor, feminist, civil rights, and environmentalist activism. African American thinkers and activists have long engaged with American Transcendentalist ideas about "double consciousness," nonconformity, and civil disobedience. When thinkers like Martin Luther King, Jr., or W. E. B. Du Bois invoked Transcendentalist ideas, they were putting to use an intellectual movement that black radicals had participated in since the 1830s.
A monograph that re-evaluates the final decade of Henry James' creative life. It examines the narrative of "The American Scene", the autobiographical writing, a number of short stories and two incomplete novels: works which offer contrasting notations of the self.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2014 From one of England’s most distinguished intellectual historians comes “an exhilarating ride…that will stand the test of time as a masterful account of” (The Boston Globe) one of the West’s most important intellectual movements: Atheism. In 1882, Friedrich Nietzche declared that “God is dead” and ever since tens of thousands of brilliant, courageous, thoughtful individuals have devoted their creative energies to devising ways to live without God with self-reliance, invention, hope, wit, and enthusiasm. Now, for the first time, their story is revealed. A captivating story of contest, failure, and success, The Age of Atheists sweeps up William James and the pragmatists; Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis; Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, and Albert Camus; the poets of World War One and the novelists of World War Two; scientists, from Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking; and the rise of the new Atheists—Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. This is a story of courage, of the thousands of individuals who, sometimes at great risk, devoted tremendous creative energies to devising ways to fill a godless world with self-reliance, invention, hope, wit, and enthusiasm. Watson explains how atheism has evolved and reveals that the greatest works of art and literature, of science and philosophy of the last century can be traced to the rise of secularism. From Nietzsche to Daniel Dennett, Watson’s stirring intellectual history manages to take the revolutionary ideas and big questions of these great minds and movements and explain them, making the connections and concepts simple without being simplistic. The Age of Atheists is “highly readable and immensely wide-ranging…For anybody who has wondered about the meaning of life…an enthralling and mind-expanding experience” (The Washington Post).
a valuable source of social commentary at a time of great change wide ranging - from women's issues to colonisation Gordon is well known - Emeritus Professor at the University of London Institute of Education
A collection of prefaces, reviews and articles by Americans on American and European fiction. Charted in these three volumes, which span 1776 to 1900, is the movement from anxious defences of the novel as a necessary vehicle of truth and morality to fully-fledged theoretical exfoliations.
There has been almost no study of the American writings of Henry James, that is, the fiction, essays, and travel literature with an American setting. The great bulk of Jamesian criticism deals with the international novels, particularly his late works. This study places James’s career in a new perspective by discussing its American aspect. It gives the critic an opportunity to come to grips with the evolution of James’s technique from his second short story to his penultimate, unfinished novel, The Ivory Tower.
This fascinating first biography of Daniel incorporates much new research, including correspondence between foreign ministers in Turin and their envoys in Washington and a series of private letters between John Daniel and his great uncle Peter Vivian Daniel of the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Secretary of War John Floyd, and others.
In this original and fascinating book, Peter S. Field argues that Ralph Waldo Emerson is America's first democratic intellectual. Field contends that Emerson was a democrat in two senses: his writings are imbued with an optimistic, confident ethos, and more importantly, he acted the part of the democrat by bringing culture to all Americans. In Ralph Waldo Emerson, Field connects Emerson and his remarkable creativity to the key political issue of the day: the nature of democracy and the role of intellectuals within a democratic society.
Gathers caricatures and portraits depicting royalty, politicians, artists, lawyers, journalists, and sportsmen of Victorian England and includes notes on each subject's life
Called "a pioneer work of the first importance" by Staughton Lynd, this book traces the history of pacifism in America from colonial times to the start of World War I. The author describes how the immigrant peace sects-Quaker, Mennonite, and Dunker -faced the challenges of a hostile environment. The peace societies that sprang up after 1815 form the subject of the next section, with particular attention focused upon the American Peace Society and Garrison's New England Non-Resistance Society. A series of chapters on the reactions of these sects and societies to the Civil War, the neglect of pacifism in the postwar period, and the beginnings of a renewal in the years before the outbreak of war in Europe bring the book to a close. The emphasis on the institutional aspects of the movement is balanced throughout by a rich mine of accounts about the experiences of individual pacifists. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Discover anew the life and influence of Henry James, part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Critical Biographies series. In The Life of Henry James: A Critical Biography, Peter Collister, an established critic and authority on Henry James, offers an original and fully documented account of one of America’s finest writers, who was both a creative practitioner and theorist of the novel. In this volume, James’s life in all its personal and cultural richness is examined alongside a detailed scrutiny of his fiction, essays, biographies, autobiographies, travel writing, plays and reviews. James was a dedicated and brilliant letter-writer and his biographer make judicious use of this material, some of it previously unpublished, evoking in the novelist’s own words the society within which he moved and worked. His gift for friendship, often resulting in close relationships with both men and women, are sensitively explored. Near the beginning of his long and highly productive life, James left America to immerse himself in European culture and history – a necessity, he felt, for the developing artist. In an ironic symmetry he witnessed in his youth the effects of the American Civil War and in his last days, finally becoming a British citizen, despaired at the unfolding tragedy of the Great War in Europe. Sustained, nevertheless, by his own creative energy, he never ceased to believe in the capacity of the arts to enhance and give significance to life. Provides well-informed accounts of Henry James’s youth in New York City, his unconventional education, his extensive travel in Europe, his eventual assimilation into British society, his development as a writer and his personal relationships as a single man. Features discussions of James’s major works in a variety of genres from an assured theoretical and historical perspective. Assesses James’s developing quest for dramatic form in his fiction – the ‘scenic art’ – as well as his critical writing which was to have a lasting influence on the literature and aesthetic values of the twentieth century. Discusses his achieved aspiration to be ‘just literary’, to become what he called that ‘queer monster’, an artist. Charts James’s lifelong interest in art and theatre. An incisive discussion of the life of an author of major stature, The Life of Henry James: A Critical Biography offers a refreshingly lucid and human account of a novelist and his often challenging, but rewarding, writing. Peter Collister, a former college Assistant Principal, has published many essays in Europe and America on a range of nineteenth-century British and French authors. He is the author of Writing the Self: Henry James and America and later edited for the university presses of Cambridge and Virginia the award-winning volumes: The Complete Writings of Henry James on Art and Drama, James's autobiographical writings, A Small Boy and Others, Notes of a Son and Brother, and The Middle Years, as well as The American Scene.
Britain's supremacy in the nineteenth century depended in large part on its vast deposits of coal. This coal not only powered steam engines in factories, ships, and railway locomotives but also warmed homes and cooked food. As coal consumption skyrocketed, the air in Britain's cities and towns became filled with ever-greater and denser clouds of smoke. In this far-reaching study, Peter Thorsheim explains that, for much of the nineteenth century, few people in Britain even considered coal smoke to be pollution. To them, pollution meant miasma: invisible gases generated by decomposing plant and animal matter. Far from viewing coal smoke as pollution, most people considered smoke to be a valuable disinfectant, for its carbon and sulfur were thought capable of rendering miasma harmless. Inventing Pollution examines the radically new understanding of pollution that emerged in the late nineteenth century, one that centered not on organic decay but on coal combustion. This change, as Peter Thorsheim argues, gave birth to the smoke-abatement movement and to new ways of thinking about the relationships among humanity, technology, and the environment.
Peter Berkowitz identifies the political principles social conservatives and libertarians share, or should share, and sketches the common ground on which they can and should join forces. Drawing on the writings of Edmund Burke, The Federalist, and the high points of post-World War II American conservatism, he argues that the top political priority for social conservatives and libertarians should be to rally around the principles of liberty embodied in the US Constitution and pursue reform in light of them.
No Canadian prime minister has a reputation as uncertain as that of R.B. Bennett (1870-1947). The Conservative party leader of the country during the worst years of the Great Depression, Bennett's fortune and ascension to the British House of Lords alienated him from the Canadian people during his lifetime, while his burial in England has kept him aloof from his country even in death. Writing a life of Bennett, who reportedly destroyed his correspondence every seven years, presents challenges for the biographer. Yet P.B. Waite shows that, while many details of Bennett's life may be unknown or disputed, his contributions to Canada are beyond doubt. Waite describes Bennett's bold initiatives, including his attempt to introduce unemployment insurance and the minimum wage, and the foundation of the Bank of Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - achieved in the face of staunch opposition from banking and media magnates. He also studies Bennett's personal relationships and his lifelong bachelorhood, sifting through rumours and weighing conflicting opinions to shed new light on his life and personality. A remarkable study of a polarizing figure, In Search of R.B. Bennett uncovers the best and worst of the life and times of a pivotal Canadian leader.
Imagine a future world where computers can create universes -- digital environments made from binary ones and zeros. Imagine that within these universes there exist biological forms that reproduce, grow, and think. Imagine plantlike forms, ant colonies, immune systems, and brains, all adapting, evolving, and getting better at solving problems. Imagine if our computers became greenhouses for a new kind of nature. Just think what digital biology could do for us. Perhaps it could evolve new designs for us, think up ways to detect fraud using digital neurons, or solve scheduling problems with ants. Perhaps it could detect hackers with immune systems or create music from the patterns of growth of digital seashells. Perhaps it would allow our computers to become creative and inventive. Now stop imagining. digital biology is an intriguing glimpse into the future of technology by one of the most creative thinkers working in computer science today. As Peter J. Bentley explains, the next giant step in computing technology is already under way as computer scientists attempt to create digital universes that replicate the natural world. Within these digital universes, we will evolve solutions to problems, construct digital brains that can learn and think, and use immune systems to trap and destroy computer viruses. The biological world is the model for the next generation of computer software. By adapting the principles of biology, computer scientists will make it possible for computers to function as the natural world does. In practical terms, this will mean that we will soon have "smart" devices, such as houses that will keep the temperature as we like it and automobiles that will start only for drivers they recognize (through voice recognition or other systems) and that will navigate highways safely and with maximum fuel efficiency. Computers will soon be powerful enough and small enough that they can become part of clothing. "Digital agents" will be able to help us find a bank or restaurant in a city that we have never visited before, even as we walk through the airport. Miniature robots may even be incorporated into our bodies to monitor our health. Digital Biology is also an exploration of biology itself from a new perspective. We must understand how nature works in its most intimate detail before we can use these same biological processes inside our computers. Already scientists engaged in this work have gained new insights into the elegant simplicity of the natural universe. This is a visionary book, written in accessible, nontechnical language, that explains how cutting-edge computer science will shape our world in the coming decades.
Selected portions from Pacifism in the United States: From the Colonial Era to the First World War Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
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