Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

Building a Bridge to the 18th Century
Author: Neil Postman
Publsiher: Vintage
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2000-10-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780375701276

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In Building a Bridge to the 18th Century, acclaimed cultural critic Neil Postman offers a cure for the hysteria and hazy values of the postmodern world. Postman shows us how to reclaim that balance between mind and machine in a dazzling celebration of the accomplishments of the Enlightenment-from Jefferson's representative democracy to Locke's deductive reasoning to Rousseau's demand that the care and edification of children be considered an investment in our collective future. Here, too, is the bold assertion that Truth is invulnerable to fashion or the passing of time. Provocative and brilliantly argued, Building a Bridge to the 18th Century illuminates a navigable path through the Information Age-a byway whose signposts, it turns out, were there all along.

Building a Bridge to the 18th Century

Building a Bridge to the 18th Century
Author: Neil Postman
Publsiher: Vintage
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2011-06-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780307797285

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At a time when we are reexamining our values, reeling from the pace of change, witnessing the clash between good instincts and "pragmatism," dealing with the angst of a new millennium, Neil Postman, one of our most distinguished observers of contemporary society, provides for us a source of guidance and inspiration. In Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century he revisits the Enlightenment, that great flowering of ideas that provided a humane direction for the future -- ideas that formed our nation and that we would do well to embrace anew. He turns our attention to Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, Edward Gibbon, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin, and to their then-radical thinking about inductive science, religious and political freedom, popular education, rational commerce, the nation-state, progress, and happiness. Postman calls for a future connected to traditions that provide sane authority and meaningful purpose -- as opposed to an overreliance on technology and an increasing disregard for the lessons of history. And he argues passionately for specific new guidelines in the education of our children, with renewed emphasis on developing the intellect as successfully as we are developing a computer-driven world. Witty, provocative, and brilliantly reasoned, Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century is Neil Postman's most radical, and most commonsensical, book yet.

How the Past Can Improve Our Future

How the Past Can Improve Our Future
Author: Neil Postman
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2000
Genre: Civilization, Modern
ISBN: 0908011407

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First published in the US in 1999. Discusses the civilization of the western world in the 18th century and the ideas of great thinkers of the Enlightenment, including Goethe, Rousseau, Kant, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin. Looks at how these ideas relate to the modern world and its culture and technology. Examines issues of education, democracy and philosophy. Includes references, a bibliography and an index. The author's other publications include 'The End of Education', Conscientious Objection and 'The Disappearance of Childhood.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Author: Thornton Wilder
Publsiher: Vintage
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2023-08-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780593470954

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This Pulitzer Prize-winning, fable-like short novel—by the author of Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth—has been beloved around the world for nearly a century. This splendid and profoundly moving novel begins with a simple and seemingly senseless tragedy. "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." A traveling monk, Brother Juniper, witnesses the catastrophe and becomes obsessed with investigating the lives of the five victims in order to prove that their deaths had meaning. His mission is doomed to fail, but over the course of the story, the five unlucky individuals—a noblewoman, a maid, an orphan, an old man, and a child—come to life for the reader in all of their glorious complexity. Their intertwined lives—snuffed out in one shattering moment—illuminate the biggest questions that we can ask ourselves about the nature of love and meaning of the human condition.

Covered Bridges and the Birth of American Engineering

Covered Bridges and the Birth of American Engineering
Author: James C. Barker,James A. Barker
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2015
Genre: Covered bridges
ISBN: 0578171066

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Eyewitness Views

Eyewitness Views
Author: Peter Björn Kerber
Publsiher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2017-05-09
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781606065259

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Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto, Luca Carlevarijs, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Francesco Guardi, Hubert Robert—these renowned view painters are perhaps most famous for their expansive canvases depicting the ruins of Rome or the canals of Venice. Many of their most splendid paintings, however, feature important contemporary events. These occasions motivated some of the greatest artists of the era to produce their most exceptional work. Little explored by scholars, these paintings stand out by virtue of their extraordinary artistic quality, vibrant atmosphere, and historical interest. They are imbued with a sense of occasion, even drama, and were often commissioned by or for rulers, princes, and ambassadors as records of significant events in which they participated. Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, this volume provides the first-ever comprehensive study—in any language—of this type of view painting. In examining these paintings alongside the historical events depicted in them, Peter Björn Kerber carefully reconstructs the meaning and context these paintings possessed for the artists who produced them and the patrons who commissioned them, as well as for their contemporary viewers. This vital book represents a major contribution to the field of view painting studies and will be an essential resource for scholars and enthusiasts.

Building the Brooklyn Bridge 1869 1883 An Illustrated History with Images in 3D

Building the Brooklyn Bridge  1869 1883  An Illustrated History  with Images in 3D
Author: Jeffrey I. Richman
Publsiher: Bauer and Dean Publishers
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2021-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1735600121

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Building the Brooklyn Bridge reminds us of the historic importance of this iconic bridge that was once considered the eighth wonder of the world. It opened up development across the East River and made travel between the two independent cities of Brooklyn and New York quicker and more reliable; especially once the bridge railway was fully operational in September 1883, four months after the bridge's opening. Historian Jeffrey Richman describes in engaging detail how the Brooklyn Bridge was built over fourteen years and clearly explains the function of each of its parts, from the anchorages to the massive cables. The story of the construction is also told through 255 remarkable images, many never before published, including 44 images in 3D, specially created for this book. These historic photographs, woodcuts, color lithographs, and engineering drawings take us back in time to when all of America, and much of the world, watched with excitement as a singular bridge of unprecedented size and technology was built over one of the busiest waterways in the world. The book illuminates long-forgotten details and presents the bridge as the engineering marvel that it is-one that still elicits awe and admiration. This is an incredible journey back in time to when all of America-and much of the world-excitedly watched as the Brooklyn Bridge was being built. Reading the book will be a real treat to anyone who has ever stepped onto this beloved icon and been moved by its majesty. A pair of 3D glasses is included with every copy of the book.

Crazy Talk Stupid Talk

Crazy Talk  Stupid Talk
Author: Neil Postman
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1976
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0440015545

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Explains how to reduce ridiculous communication so that verbal behavior will not be an excessive burden.