Book Description
Rupert Sheldrake's theory of morphic resonance challenges the fundamental assumptions of modern science. An accomplished biologist, Sheldrake proposes that all natural systems, from crystals to human society, inherit a collective memory that influences their form and behavior. Rather than being ruled by fixed laws, nature is essentially habitual.
The Presence of the Past lays out the evidence for Sheldrake's controversial theory, exploring its implications in the fields of biology, physics, psychology, and sociology. At the same time, Sheldrake delivers a stinging critique of conventional scientific thinking. In place of the mechanistic, neo-Darwinian worldview he offers a new understanding of life, matter, and mind.
Customer Reviews:
Paradigm-shifting work.......2007-03-15
Sheldrake's opus shakes the axioms of causality underlying experimental science. Not many books have done that. Not many books can address metaphysical topics, suggest alternatives to the standard Aristotelian underpinnings of science or "naturalism," and do so plausibly without recourse to superstition.
Sheldrake, a biologist, examines the many anomalous phenomena that seem to cut against some very basic beliefs about "how things work." The book integrates observations from many different fields of endeavor from physics to biology to psychology. The scope of this work as as wide as it is deep.
If you have ever read Thomas Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions," this book will resonate along the same lines for you. Well worth your time and money.
A Simple Idea Viewed from a New Perspective .......2005-12-07
Legendary managment guru W. Edwards Deming spoke frequently of "profound knowledge." Basically, this is knowledge that profoundly changes the way you think and releases new creative energies. See his book The New Economics.
Rupert Sheldrake's ideas about "morphogenetic fields" and "morphic resonance" must surely be that kind of knowledge. He begins with a fairly simple scientific concept and brings it into another creative universe. Many of us are familiar with "fields". For example, there are electomagnetic fields, gravitational fields, and quantum matter fields.
We know from Science that we are immersed in a sea of electromagnetic fields of numerous frequencies. Waves of energy pass through each other without interfering with each other. Matter is condensed energy. We can see that form of energy, however there is a lot of energy we cannot see.
Based on mathematical calculations, we also know that an infinite spectrum of energy waves is theoretically possible. Waves in infinite variety might be passing through each other continuously without noticeably interacting. Perhaps, the world we know is just one spectrum connected to many other spectrums we haven't seen yet.
We'd have worlds have within worlds, in other words: "baby universes", ten dimensions in "space time", "superstrings", "universe splits", and so forth and so on.
Author and physcist David Bohn famously explained it this way. "Everything material is also mental, and everything mental is also material. But, there may be more infinitely subtle levels of matter than we are aware of." This is where Sheldrake's morphogentic fields come into the picture, or big picture, it seems to me. The forms and physical properties that we see resonating throughout existence are developed by some kind of know-how or knowledge. Could it be that there are fields in Biology and Chemistry like the fields we recognize in Physics?
If I've got it right, Sheldrake's morphogenetic fields are mental or maybe spiritual fields that spread know-how and knowledge throughout creation. Maybe I've skipped a rung of the inner and outer worlds of existence, but I feel like I'm getting pretty warm here.
Sheldrake doesn't want us to just take his word for this, however. Theories in Science need to be tested. And, Sheldrake's already working on that. He proposes several experiments in the last few chapters of the book. Browsing Amazon, I see there's another book or two in publication about these experiments.
You might want to read this book with Out of Control by Kevin Kelly and/or Living Systems by James Grier Miller, which is what I did. Several reviewers of this book have mentioned "metaphysics". If you'd like to go in that direction as well, you might enjoy What is Process Theology by Robert B. Mellert or Process Theology: A Basic Introduction by Robert Mesle.
UNFORGETTABLE IDEAS.......2004-01-19
I read this book some years ago and find the ideas in it have stayed with me, as they go a long way toward filling some holes in our understanding of reality. Sheldrake's Morphic Fields mean living things communicate even when they are not in physical proximity. This explains some of his other research, such as psychic connections between human and animal. Read Sheldrake's book, Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home, a fascinating look at the human-animal bond.
But the idea that once a new technique is learned by part of the population, it is more easily learned by the rest is startling. Can it explain the rapid spread of computer literacy? Like the old joke in school, can we actually learn "by osmosis?" Sheldrake's examples of group behavior and generational learning in the animal world points exactly in that direction. What one generation learns can be passed to the next. What I learn can make it easier for you to learn. This is a radical idea!
I've recently read astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell's book, The Way of the Explorer, in which he presents his view of reality, based on years of research into psychic and spiritual pehonomenon. His view incorporates Sheldrake's ideas in that he accounts for knowledge that does not come from standard learning methods. Knowledge received from spiritual insight or received psychically is part of the natural but unseen web underlying our universe, according to Mitchell. All knowledge of past and present is available, but is not sought by most people, since they do not know or practice the techniques for tapping into that source and there are no currently accepted scientific theories to explain how it works. Sheldrake's Morphic Fields are one such explanation.
The Presence of the Past is an influential book that will continue to be consulted and discussed. Since reading it, I've had more reason to think Sheldrake is right and I've read nothing elsewhere that disproves his fascinating conclusions.
Hmm? am i really the first to give 5 stars?.......2002-08-05
I felt compulsed to write a 5-star review after seeing only 3 reviews, all of them giving 3 or 4 stars to this classic masterpiece. Hey, don't get it wrong! this is a superb book you can't put down once you've started. I have read it twice and intend to translate it into Estonian.
Although, yes, only maybe a quarter of orthodox biologists can stand Sheldrake's name, the implications of his theory - if correct - are enormous. It would thoroughly change our present understanding of the concept of memory, which means that we need new fields of science - physical semiotics, for example. It would push the "borders" of semiotics to include the very first particles after the BB. Followers of C.S.Peirce would drink lots of champagne and would celebrate the victory. It would also require a radical revision of the ideas of evolution.
So - yes, yes, this IS a popular half-science-fiction book, easily dismissed by orthodox scientists. However, several of Sheldrake's examples are convincing and his theoretizing makes sense. So, I prefer to keep Sheldrake's ideas in "Interesting unsolved cases" drawer. Sheldrake is very much like Ken Wilber. "Serious" philosophers don't call Wilber a philosopher, but an "interesting individual". I would take it as a compliment.
An excellent place to start.......2002-04-19
Sheldrake's ideas, while controverial are an excellent place to add to anyone's ongoing exploration of Metaphysics. I agree with a previous reviewer in that these ideas can be interpreted using old terminology. Instead I have found it better to synthesize Sheldrake's excellent works with David Bohm, and any other relevant source I can find. Where do these Morphic fields come from? That is the truly interesting question.
Customer Reviews:
Thoughtful and well-designed anthology........2001-06-09
The book is great in providing several opinions on a particular unit studied. This way students (who are most often the readers of this book) get more than just a biased opinion. The context sections that follow the main text provide readers with additional information on the subject as well as the ideas for writing compositions. Furthermore, the book incorporates very well many diverse subjects including psychology, history of the Western Frontier,sex and gender, as well as several others. It contains many contemporary authors and provides the students with examples of different writing styles. In other words it's a great book for an English class or even for future reference and ideas.
Amazon.com
While the historical profession and its critics have pointed to a vast ignorance among the American people about the past, historians Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen argue that it's the commentators who have much to learn. Conducting a phone survey of 1,453 Americans from a variety of backgrounds, the authors soon discovered that their professional training had left them unprepared for how people actually thought about the past. A surprising number of Americans feel unconnected to the nation-centered version of history taught in classrooms, searching instead for an intimate encounter with the past through family histories, the collection of memorabilia, and museum excursions. But these examples of "popular historymaking" are more than just anachronistic remembrances, and Rosenzweig and Thelen recount the ways that Americans use their historical imaginations to live in the present and shape the future.
A profound reconsideration of what counts as historical thinking, The Presence of the Past exposes some misconceptions at the heart of the so-called history wars. Historical professionals like Gary Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross Dunn who argue (in History on Trial) that academic standards must reflect the rich ethnic mixture of the nation miss the fact that most students are alienated from the classrooms that have made them regurgitate volumes of facts. Cultural conservatives like Lynne Cheney and William Bennett, who insist on a triumphant version of the national past, fail to recognize that most Americans do not see their lives as connected to purported heroes like George Washington. A wonderful and refreshing book, The Presence of the Past points toward a democratization of historical consciousness by tenderly exploring how ordinary people remember. --James Highfill
Book Description
Some people make photo albums, collect antiques, or visit historic battlefields. Others keep diaries, plan annual family gatherings, or stitch together patchwork quilts in a tradition learned from grandparents. Each of us has ways of communing with the past, and our reasons for doing so are as varied as our memories. In a sweeping survey, Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen asked 1,500 Americans about their connection to the past and how it influences their daily lives and hopes for the future. The result is a surprisingly candid series of conversations and reflections on how the past infuses the present with meaning.
Rosenzweig and Thelen found that people assemble their experiences into narratives that allow them to make sense of their personal histories, set priorities, project what might happen next, and try to shape the future. By using these narratives to mark change and create continuity, people chart the courses of their lives. A young woman from Ohio speaks of giving birth to her first child, which caused her to reflect upon her parents and the ways that their example would help her to become a good mother. An African American man from Georgia tells how he and his wife were drawn to each other by their shared experiences and lessons learned from growing up in the South in the 1950s. Others reveal how they personalize historical events, as in the case of a Massachusetts woman who traces much of her guarded attitude toward life to witnessing the assassination of John F. Kennedy on television when she was a child.
While the past is omnipresent to Americans, "history" as it is usually defined in textbooks leaves many people cold. Rosenzweig and Thelen found that history as taught in school does not inspire a strong connection to the past. And they reveal how race and ethnicity affects how Americans perceive the past: while most white Americans tend to think of it as something personal, African Americans and American Indians are more likely to think in terms of broadly shared experiences--like slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and the violation of Indian treaties."
Rosenzweig and Thelen's conclusions about the ways people use their personal, family, and national stories have profound implications for anyone involved in researching or presenting history, as well as for all those who struggle to engage with the past in a meaningful way.
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How do Americans use and understand the past? Rosenzweig and Thelen analyze results from a unique and comprehensive survey in which they polled 1,500 Americans about their connection to the past and its continuing influence on their present as well as their hopes for the future.
Customer Reviews:
The Past May not be as Much of a Foreign Country as some Believe.......2006-01-02
Throughout the 1990s historians Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen undertook a major survey of attitudes about and understanding of history in the United States. Their findings are startling. We all have long seen the periodic stories about the inability of students to place the American Revolution in the correct century and to name the the first president of the United States. Then we typically bemoan the future and the kids that will lead us into it only to return to our football games on television without doing much of anything more.
In "The Presence of the Past," however, the authors take a different approach to looking at the hold history has over us. In this important book they note that much of the consciousness of the past is more about collective memory of close and local events than about the overarching national master narrative. Collective memory is a powerful force for any person and group. Through linkages with such memory we identify and define and connect ourselves. Rosenzweig and Thelen see an intensely personal relationship with history among Americans. They note that far from Americans being disengaged from history, as has been routinely thought because of their detachment from national themes, most people have supplanted interest in these broader themes to the history of family and locale. Indeed, Rosenzweig and Thelen insist that Americans "pursue the past actively and make it part of everyday life" (p. 18). Tellingly, they find that no more than 24 percent of their sample answered that the history of the United States was the past they felt was "most important" to them, as opposed to the 50-60 percent who identified a more intimate past as central to their lives. The authors include considerable evidence to support these assertions, breaking down survey answers by ethnicity, education, and other indicators. While Thelen laments this development, Rosenweig is more optimistic about its implications for the cause of history in the twenty-first century.
Their findings are borne out by my own experience as a curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and I see this concern for local and personal history expressed by visitors routinely at the museum. The National Air and Space Museum is the most visited museum in the world, and it certainly seems that an important part of its attraction is the result of the immediacy of the subject that it interprets. Repeatedly, visitors come looking for an artifact to which they, or a member of their family or a friend, had a personal connection. Steve Lubar, who curated the "America on the Move" exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington made the same point by observing that for all of the exhibit's otherwise spectacular features, the majority of visitors only really pondered its later parts where their personal memory allowed them to connect to the artifacts and story in a deeply personal and idiosyncratic manner. He noted that of the 15 sections of this exhibit, most people breezed through the first 12, and mostly stopped for extended periods in sections more recent in time and with artifacts, such as the Chicago elevated rail car or a used car showroom from 1949 or a traffic jam with numerous recent vintage and quite cherry automobiles to which they had a relationship. Dik Daso, a curator working on "The Price of Freedom" exhibit also at the National Museum of American History, similarly remarked on the popularity of the Vietnam War section of the exhibit as veterans attending the exhibit's opening ignored most of the artifacts and gathered around a large map of Vietnam and shared their experiences with one another. Their stories, furthermore, were highly personal; interlinking spheres of memory to find common ground in an unlikely setting. Like politics, to paraphrase Tip O'Neill, all history is local. That may be the fundamental message of "The Presence of the Past."
This begs the question, how do teachers of history relate larger themes in the American past to the intimate interests of those who must understand and hopefully use it? This is critical to the education of the next generation of Americans, but it is also important for the lifelong non-classroom learning that every individual is involved in. What might museums, historic sites, television documentaries, written histories, and related efforts do to help focus interest and enhance the diffusion of greater understanding? At least some of the answers revolve around the closer linkage of national and world history with personal and local concerns. How to accomplish this most expeditiously, of course, presents a challenge not without difficulties. But it is noble task, and I applaud those who undertake it.
The findings in this book help us to understand the complexity of the issue. Read and ponder, discuss and act.
Defining Down History.......1999-12-26
There is much to learn from Presence of the Past but notnecessarily what the authors have in mind. Rosenzweig and Thelenpurport to give us good news about the historical consciousness of the American people, finding that most Americans are, in some way, "connected to the past." They do this by defining down the definition of history to mean things like talking with relatives, keeping a diary, collecting antique motorcycles, and even attending Bible classes. History teachers become the heavies because they insist that students regurgitate historical facts about which average Americans express a profound lack of interest (although paradoxically they also say that they would like their children to have the same experience).
It's as if those who bemoaned the mathematical illiteracy of the American public were suddenly challenged by a survey noting that virtually all Americans could read house numbers, tell the time, and make change while using a calculator. These hypothetical respondents would probably also criticize their teachers for burdening them with irrelevant information.
Because the majority of the Americans surveyed for Presence of the Past have little sense of history outside their family or group, their knowledge of broader history is both sketchy and distorted. Rosenzweig and Thelen celebrate the fact that Americans put more trust in museums than in books for their knowledge of history, but such a faith only demonstrates naivete about museums. (In the wake of the Enola Gay fiasco at the Smithsonian and a subsequent symposium of articles in the Journal of American History, one JAH reader noted that the "true tragedy" was that "both sides believed that the people who saw the exhibit would be swayed, unquestioningly, by the 'facts' presented to them and that the visitors would not stop, even briefly, to think of possible biases in the exhibition itself, let alone about WWII-i.e. that they would think critically. Unfortunately, because of the state of education in this country, I agree with them.")
Using such a low common denominator to define history also reveals that those with the most congruent view of the past are "evangelicals" (defined by Rosenzweig and Thelen as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses as well as Protestant fundamentalists and evangelicals). Thelen notes that the appeal of evangelical religion is so powerful "that it seems the most likely common ground on which some respondents from different cultures can recognize each other." "What," asks Rosenzweig, "does a largely secular group like historians have to say to them?"
The authors' greatest fear is that the "privatized and parochial past" of their informants will not support history as "a vehicle for social justice" or inspire people "to work for social change in the present." Not to worry. Ignorance, parochialism, and naivete are a fertile soil for those who wish to use "history" as a tool to promote social and political agendas. "Black Athena" and its kin are only a recent example.
Awareness of one's own past is helpful (we often call it maturity), and extending understanding of the past to the lives of one's relatives is even better. But without an appreciation of the broader past, democracy is in danger. Much of what passes for present truth is, in the words of C. S. Lewis, "merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village: the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age."ÿ
Their research raises more questions than answers........1999-03-07
In recent years it has been popular to lambaste the American as unlettered in history; gullible and vulnerable to the whims of the popular media. Rosenzwieg and Thelen take issue with this assertion through the results of their survey of popular American attitudes and perceptions toward history. In deference to the positive, they crafted their survey to discover what Americans do know about their past, and which aspects therein possess special meaning to the individual. Through their findings they hoped to locate a common ground that would engage both scholar and layman in the search for understanding in history.
Rosenzweig and Thelen found that many Americans regard the past as a well-spring for moral guidance and personal identity. In contrast to the professional historian, it is less the specific event (e.g. World War II) than the familial tie (e.g. grandpa going off to war) that determines relevance and interpretation for the layman. For many Americans history is alive and ever-present: through keepsakes, family lore, and observations. It is subject to an unending reinterpretation and definition, and, most importantly, it is what defines aspiration and identity.
Rosenzweig and Thelen also found little to suggest homogeneity among Americans in historical interpretation. In areas such as ethnicity and religion the variance was profound. Their findings suggested that such identifications influence meaning and interpretation, and speak of divisions within American society. This was particularly true in comparisons between the reminisces of European Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. In some areas of history (e.g. slavery and the westward movement), there appeared little ground for a broad and unifying consensus.
Is there a paradigm that would unite scholar and layman? Rosenzweig and Thelen suggest it may exist in popular history, a form of historical presentation steeped in relevance to the individual. This 'democratization' of history would spring forth from a productive dialogue between the layman and the scholar. In the view of Rosenzweig and Thelen, the professional historian is wont to wallow in esoterica and narrow specialization. While impressive, such research does not engage the layman; instead, it perpetuates the popular perception of history as a dry compendium of dates and facts. Rather a productive dialogue could draw both layman and scholar in a common pursuit.
Does this mean that history is alive and well in the United States? Unfortunately, the optimism effused from Rosenzweig and Thelen's study provides little room for comfort. Despite their stated intention to survey a cross section of Americans, the design of their survey provides evidence they fell short of this goal. Asian Ameicans were under-represented, as were people living in multi-ethnic neighborhoods. Also, socio-economic status did not receive the attention it merited; previous studies have found correlation between socio-economic status and knowledge in many fields, including history. Yet, Rosenzweig and Thelen have provided both scholars and laymen with food for thought as to what direction history should be taken.
Harvey.......1999-02-27
I met ³Harvey² on the stairs leading to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. I was going up; he was going down. He had just dropped off wife and kids inside the museum, but preferred to listen to the hockey game in the car, rather than ³have anything to do with something historical.² I saw him two hours later. While looking for the restrooms, he had stumbled on a poorly lit room that hosted a small exhibit on toys from the 1940¹s to the 1970¹s. He was now talking with two men his own age, ³John and Steve.² Half phrases, shouted words, hands quickly drawing circles and lines, they were describing -- reliving I should say -- the games they used to play when they were kids. ³Oh, that was the best and....² ³....and mom would call and we kept....² ³But we didn¹t have all the....² While written specifically for writers, teachers, and professionals in the field of history, Roy Rosenzweig¹s and David Thelen¹s work is about people like ³Harvey, John, and Steve.² The Presence of the Past is an act of accusation toward the historical profession as a whole for the dicothomy created between History with the capital H, and the general public, increasingly alienated by its specialization and sterility. Taking advantage of the results of a national survey specifically tailored to their demands, the co-authors are convincingly able to demonstrate that if perception of scholastic history is still filled with adjectives like boring and useless, the average American considers a dip in the past a very exiting and a very purpeseful activity. To be connected with one¹s roots, to research one¹s who, where, when, what, and why serves many functions: it helps understand the present, connect with one¹s culture, and even go for the ultimate prize, immortality. As Rosenzweig notes in his conclusion, the professional historian¹s inability to make use of the past represents the general public¹s main complaint. Much can be said about the evidence presented by Rosenzweig and Thelen. If the two authors dedicate a full twenty-two page explanation to the why certain people were and were not selected, a few doubts still linger on the possibility that another result could have been obtained with a difficult system of selection (in particular with the minority groups). And it is somewhat surprising that twenty-three tables are used to describe what were for the most part, open-ended questions. Couldn¹t those pages be put to better use with the transcripts of a few interviews? But a mild critique of the selection and use of the evidence cannot hide the relevance of this survey at a time in which a renewed passion for history is flourishing on small and big screens, bookstores and travel agencies, while the soul of the discipline is confused by cries of cultural relativism, objectivity, and post-structuralism. The customers have spoken: they like the product, but not the way it¹s presented. Should history corrupt its ³purity² to meet popular demand for a simplification of its themes and a stronger emphasis on subjects closer to the general public? Or was history¹s ³purity² corrupted in the first place by its separation from a narrative more attached to people rather than abstract concepts like liberty, justice, or democracy? Through a skillful use of citations, Rosenzweig and Thelen have been able to show that history (as the aseptic, distant, formal result of research done by others) is out, while a personal quest for the past is in. Contents and even results are not nearly as important as participation or experience are. This is why the number one choice on how to connect with the past is the family gathering where ³historiae² are told, passed on, and, sometimes, invented. Studying history in school? Sixth out of six choices. Scholastic history is not viewed as relevant because the one offered in American schools is a prepackaged product that doesn¹t answer personal wants. In a society dominated less by conformity and more by individuality, a quest for one¹s past necessitates an attention to individual needs that modern history is unable to offer. It is ironic that two trained historians have raised the issue of scholastic history¹s inability to cope with people¹s demand (and its related problems), but now the ball is in their court.
Presence of the Past.......1999-02-26
In the book The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life, Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen interviewed 1,500 Americans regarding their association to the past and how it impacts their daily lives and dreams for the future. They were motivated to write this book due to an acknowledgement that most professional historians were unaware of how non- historians felt about the past. The authors believe that most historians look "down" on the average American's knowledge of history. Yet Rosenzweig and Thelen argue that ordinary people "take and active role in using and understanding the past- that they are not just passive consumers of histories constructed by others (pg. 3)".
The authors labeled the responders by race (Mexican-American, Native American, African American, and White). They ignore d Asian-Americans for the vague reason that there were not enough interviewers who could speak Mandarin and it was not cost-effective. They didn't mention other Asian groups or any attempts to interview them. This struck me as odd since the United States has the largest Korean population outside Korea, the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, and a large number of Filipinos. One trip to California could have added a fine balance to their research. While the authors mention a responder's occupation and location, they don't consider location and net worth to be a factor in the conclusions. Most of their conclusions are broken down to how a particular ethic group responded rather than to location or income level of the respondent. Perhaps they believed that an African-American in California is no different than a Black in the South, or that a poor factory worker might have a different opinion of the past than a wealthy factory owner.
They state that participation in historical activities is not for the most part tied to particular social groups or backgrounds Their findings would disturb most high school History teachers. They state that most respondents had little good to say about the actual classroom experience of studying history. Rosenzweig and Thelen conclude that while som e admitted that they admired History teachers who helped them to revisit and investigate the past for themselves, most related the word "history" to something dead and gone, irrelevant, beyond any use in the present. One overall conclusion that Rosenzweig and Thelen found was an: "overwhelming evidence that Americans participate regularly in a wide range of past-related activities (page 9).
The authors debate that an activity such as going to a museum, or looking at photos could be considered an involvement in preserving or presenting the past. For proof, the authors present very clear graphs show n the percentages of how many people looked at photographs, how many wrote in a journal, or participated in a "history-related" club. The respondents felt most strongly connected to the past when they either met with family members or did something "historical" like visiting a museum with family members. The authors repeatedly maintain that people have a deep appreciation of history if it involves them personally or their family personally. For example, one respondent enjoyed visiting Civil War sites, not because he was just interested in this time period but he had a past relative who fought in the War. Overall, if an event didn't involve one's past relatives, the responder wasn't interested. This presents a challenge for teachers of ancien t Greek history, for how many people can find a family connection to historical events so long ago. The authors fail to address this problem. None of the respondents mentioned an interest in history before the time of Christ. Do we ignore the ideas of Plato because students won't find a family connection? In several pages, the authors repeat themselves over and over how respon dents dreaded studying the past. History was boring. The authors argue that History teacher overall are the enigma. Teachers view the past as something to be memorized. Students desire to know their own personal background. The authors state that people can view the past as a "reservoir of experience they could use in their own lives." (Pg. 38). Students want to trace how they became the kind of person they came to be. Thus, while teachers lecture on European migration, their audience would much rather be learning about their family's migration or how their family was able to survive in the New World. As a whole, the authors found that responders wanted to make a difference in the world and that studying the past was a means to that end. They wanted to see how past figures responded to crisis situations to be able themselves to have a better response to modern situations. The authors fail to give concrete examples of how a teacher could meet this particular interest of students. Th e authors state:' responders admired teachers who helped them to revisit and investigate the past for themselves." An example was how one teacher took her students on frequent field trips to Civil War sites. But what about teachers in Oregon? Again, the authors fail to give some helpful teaching tips that an y teacher could use. Responders gave horror stories of teachers who "taught out of the book" (pg. 112). Yet the authors failed to mention the state exams tha t many high school seniors have to pass, or even the Advanced Placement exams. The authors conclude that many Black Americans are not interested in the Kennedy assassination (graph page 150.) But these students will probably be asked about this event on an exam. The trend now is for more exams to assess students. Teachers are pressured to have students perform well. Good bye fiel d trips. Hello rote memorization of facts. Rosenzweig's solution is to increase oral history and biography (page 185). Thelen's solution is to present students with artifacts, pictures, etc. ^Eintroducing them to a variety of perspectives on moral issues, etc. Both are fantastic ways to liven up the History classroom. But the government and school boards cry "assessment". Neither of these solutions will prepare students for the formal assessment tools which teachers are forced to use.
Book Description
Between Past & Presence is an astrology book written at an advanced-beginner to intermediate level for a general audience. This book addresses the relationship between the Moon and Sun and the relevance to spiritual growth. Through exploring signs, houses, aspects, rulerships, nodes, cycles and eclipses, a new paradigm of the luminaries is offered. In short, spiritual growth is furthered by integrating awareness and vitality (Sun) into the depths of the unconscious (Moon). By resolving the past (Moon) we are able to be fully in the present (Sun).
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La Presencia del Pasado / The Presence of the Past
Enrique Krauze
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Book Description
As America's fifth largest city and fourth largest metropolitan region, Philadelphia is tied to its surrounding counties and suburban neighborhoods. It is this vital relationship, suggests Steven Conn, that will make or break greater Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia region has witnessed virtually every major political, economic, and social transformation of American life. Having once been an industrial giant, the region is now struggling to fashion a new identity in a postindustrial world. On the one hand, Center City has been transformed into a vibrant hub with its array of restaurants, shops, cultural venues, and restored public spaces. On the other, unchecked suburban sprawl has generated concerns over rising energy costs and loss of agriculture and open spaces. In the final analysis, the region will need a dynamic central city for its future, while the city will also need a healthy sustainable region for its long-term viability.
Central to the identity of a twenty-first century Metropolitan Philadelphia, Conn argues, is the deep and complicated interplay of past and present. Looking at the region through the wide lens of its culture and history, Metropolitan Philadelphia moves seamlessly between past and present. Displaying a specialist's knowledge of the area as well as a deep personal connection to his subject, Conn examines the shifting meaning of the region's history, the utopian impulse behind its founding, the role of the region in creating the American middle class, the regional watershed, and the way art and cultural institutions have given shape to a resident identity.
Impressionistic and beautifully written, Metropolitan Philadelphia will be of great interest to urbanists and at the same time accessible to the wider public intrigued in the rich history and cultural dynamics of this fascinating region. What emerges from the book is a wide-ranging understanding of what it means to say, "I'm from Philadelphia."
Customer Reviews:
Good short history of Philadelphia.......2007-05-08
I really enjoyed this short but interesting and rather comprehensive economic and social history of Philadelphia.
Customer Reviews:
Where's the democracy in our "democracy"?.......2003-11-09
Sheldon Wolin is an excellent political theorist. He is less compelling in his policy recommendations and as an analyst of present-day politics (he is paranoid in the style of Krugman, Chomsky, & Zinn). Nevertheless, though Wolin's politics are decidedly Left, he is an important thinker who should be read by conservatives and liberals.
What makes Wolin's thought compelling is his clear-eyed understanding of the American political system as one conceived of and founded in conscious opposition to democracy. Thus James Madison, a key architect of the US Constitution, used the practices and theory behind ancient Athenian democracy as his foil. He rejected the method of choosing representatives by lot, argued for the necessity of elite expertise in politics, and made elections less frequent so as to distance the judgement of representatives from the demands of the electorate. Wolin's analysis is also compelling in that he further finds the repression of the democratic impulse in such governmental forms as bureaucracy, the courts, and the armed forces. Thus, if one reflects on the massive institutions of modern day government, one finds that democractic practices are rarely in play. One finds this especially in the executive, where once the president is chosen, all vestiges of democratic practice are absent (for another four years). Such conclusions may seem like heresy to our modern ears, but the US is exactly what Madison and gang wanted it to be: in Aristotelian parlance, a mixed-regime--one that combines democratic, aristocratic (or oligarchic), and monarchic elements. As Machiavelli and others have long argued, such regimes are more stable and endure.
Wolin takes all of this to be bad, and this is where he begins to go wrong. Against the stable, slow-moving, elite-driven politics of the modern age, Wolin wants to see a resurgence of democratic moments. Wolin finds in the 1960's such democratic moments: civil rights, women's rights, and the "antiwar, antinuclear, and ecological movements". This is all well and good, but times have changed. For those outside of the echo chamber of academia, it is apparent that the contemporary democratic impulse is not left-wing, but decidedly conservative, sometimes reactionary, and sometimes exclusionist. Thus, without Madisonian institutional constraints we would find movements against taxation, abortion, gay marriage, immigrants, free speech, excessive lawsuits and affirmative action. Of course, conservatives are already leading such movements, but the result of their efforts are mild compared to how they might be. Thus, while Wolin may be a worthwhile read (and an excellent theorist), it might behoove the retired professor to expand his social circle to include some conservatives and others more representative of our times.
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Architecture, 1980: The presence of the past
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Periods
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0847803562 |
Book Description
How has memory--collective and individual--influenced European politics in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Cold War? How has the past been used in domestic struggles for power, and how have 'historical lessons' been applied in foreign policy? This book is the first to examine the connection between memory and politics directly. The chapters combine theoretical innovation with historical, empirically-grounded case studies of major European countries. This ground-breaking book will be of interest to historians of contemporary Europe, political scientists and sociologists.
Download Description
How has memory - collective and individual - influenced European politics after the Second World War and after 1989 in particular? How has the past been used in domestic struggles for power, and how have 'historical lessons' been applied in foreign policy? While there is now a burgeoning field of social and cultural memory studies, mostly focused on commemorations and monuments, this volume is the first to examine the connection between memory and politics directly. It investigates how memory is officially recast, personally reworked and often violently re-instilled after wars, and, above all, the ways memory shapes present power constellations. The chapters combine theoretical innovation in their approach to the study of memory with deeply historical, empirically based case studies of major European countries. The volume concludes with reflections on the ethics of memory, and the politics of truth, justice and forgetting after 1945 and 1989.
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The Presence of the Past in Politics : '1956' after 1956 in Hungary
Heino Nyyssonen
Manufacturer: Sophi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Hungary
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Germany
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History & Theory
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 9513905470 |
Book Description
Political transition is not only about the struggle for the future. The past is also present in the transition where politics and history are used in various symbolic, moral and juridical levels. This book deals with the Hungarian recent history, and particularly how the history is exploited in the first post-communist years of the 1990s. Heino Nyyssonen focuses on one of the most significant events in the Cold War Europe, the 'uprising' of the Hungarians in 1956, and how the memory of this upsetting 'event' has later influenced on Hungarian political thought. Particular resurrection of the past with reburials, national days, memorials, street names etc., took place since the end of 1980s, and the present politics is bound to the past in many ways. Nyyssonen follows the narrative of '1956' not only through the problems of history writing but also in everyday politics of the 1990s: political transition and the struggle of the past in general, new collective identities in post-communism, nationalism and anti-Semitism, difficulties to create an independent media, and the debates of 'historical justice' after the communism.
Books:
- The Professional Bachelor Dating Guide - How to Exploit Her Inner Psycho
- The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place
- The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War
- The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
- Theatrical Design and Production: An Introduction to Scene Design and Construction, Lighting, Sound, Costume, and Makeup
- Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest
- True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism--For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals
- War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History: 1500 to Today
- When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race
- Where Is Baby's Belly Button?
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