Books
-
The Story of Numbers, John McLeish (ISBN 978-0-449-90938-6, Fawcett Columbine)
The Story of Numbers explores the history of mathematics to trace the rise of various number systems in cultures from Mesopotamia to the modern Computer Era. It is not a traditional history of mathematics or a history of mathematicians. Instead it focuses on the different number systems and calculation methods that evolved in time in…
-
The Discoverers, Daniel J. Boorstin (ISBN 978-039472625-0, Vintage)
This book by Daniel Boorstin was first published in 1983. I read the Dutch translation around 1995 at which time it made quite an impression on me. In my mind it was still among the best books I have read. End of last year I decided to read it again but in the original English…
-
The Making of the Atomic Bomb : 25th Anniversary Edition, Richard Rhodes (ISBN 978-1451677614, Simon & Schuster)
Last year ‘revolved’ about the history of the atomic bomb with the Oppenheimer movie being released. To brush up on my Oppenheimer I read 2 biographies, one by Abraham Pais and the other one the Pulitzer Prize winning American Prometheus. And then I decided to finally read book by Richard Rhodes about the making of…
-
Napoleon. Deel 2: van Keizer tot mythe, Johan op de Beeck (ISBN , 9789022329979, Manteau)
New summer holiday so time to re read part 2 of the Napoleon biography from Johan op de Beeck. Although equally good as part 1 this book was a bit harder to get through the second time. It has not so much to do with the writing but all the more with the events in…
-
American Prometheus. The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird, Martin Sherwin (ISBN 9780375726262, Vintage Books)
The pulitzer prize winning biography of Robert Oppenheimer. The one on which the Oppenheimer movie from 2023 is based. I read the book after seeing the movie. The main reason being I didn’t have the book yet and it took some time before it got delivered. Instead I read the biography by Pais first before…
-
J. Robert Oppenheimer. A Life, Abraham Pais (ISBN 9780195327120, Oxford University Press)
With the Oppenheimer movie coming out I decided to read a biography first. I didn’t have the one from Kai Bird on which the movie is based (has been rectified in the mean time) but I did have 3 other books on Oppenheimer patiently lying in the library waiting to be read. After googling a…
-
Interview with Richard Rhodes about The Making of the Atomic Bomb
I was surfing the web for some information about the Oppenheimer movie and came across this interview with author Richard Rhodes on YouTube in May 2023. Really interesting to hear Rhodes talk about the many people he talked to in the course of writing this book and others. Well addition to reading the actual book.
-
Napoleon. Deel 1: van strateeg tot Keizer, Johan op de Beeck (ISBN , 9789022329115, WPG Uitgevers)
Read this biography a second time while on vacation in Austria. I had read the book a few years ago when it first came out in 2019. As the title says it is the first part of a 2 book biography, spanning a little over 1000 pages in total. Johan Op De Beeck worked many…
-
10 women who changed science and the world, Catherine Whitlock & Rhodri Evans (ISBN 9781472137432, Robinson)
Another book I picked up in bookstore Dominicanen in July 2022. It is a cheap paperback edition and I have to say I have read better written books of this type of collection of short biographies. Somehow I found the biographies were too much a collection of facts without a soul that inspires. But there…
Response 418 