Comments on "Millard Fillmore" by Paul Finkelman
As little as five years ago most people probably thought that the idea of an American President named Barack Obama to be quite absurd.
But where are the books on the American Presidents William Henry Harrison, William Howard Taft, and John F. Kennedy? And how can this series leave out a book on Ronald Reagan?
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Experimental Blog #72
Comments on "The Adventure of English" - The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg
Although this author writes that, "In the 1890's over ninety percent of African Americans lived in the rural south; sixty years later, ninety-five{!!??} percent had moved to the urban north", and at other places his description of the American West sounds a little bit too fabulous; hopefully, the rest of his book is more factually reliable.
In the 5th century, the 400's, the British Isles were invaded, the author says that the invaders were invited by the people who remained from the Roman occupation, by as many as 12 German tribes, but mostly Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. There were, perhaps, 150,000 of them altogether, and they all spoke different, but mutually intelligible, dialects of what is called West German.
These dialects eventually joined together in about 300 years, and with the addition of only about 2 dozen words from the native Celtic language, and only about 200 words from the Roman Latin language, they formed what is sometimes called "Old English".
In the 8th century the Viking invasions began, but terrible as they were, English eventually only accepted about 150 new words into its vocabulary of about 25,000 words. However, the grammer began to change with the use of prepositions and word order taking the place of different word endings, or inflections, on nouns and their adjectives to indicate different sentence cases of words.
However, everything changed after 1066 AD, when England was conquered by the Norman French. The English language was replaced by Norman French at virtually all the higher levels of society, and did not completely return as the dominant language again for over 300 years.
And by this time there were over 10,000 new French words incorporated into English.
During the English Renaisance, in 30 to 40 years around 1600, thousands more Latin and some fewer Greek words were added to the English language by scholars and other influential people.
The year 1604 saw the appearance of the first English language dictionary, but it only had 2,543 words considered to be uncommonly difficult. This date compares to the appearance of the first Sanskrit language dictionary in India sometime after 600 AD, and the first Arabic language dictionary around 800 AD. Samuel Johnson's historic and rather eccentric and controversial dictionary of around 43,000 words came out in 1755.
Although this author writes that, "In the 1890's over ninety percent of African Americans lived in the rural south; sixty years later, ninety-five{!!??} percent had moved to the urban north", and at other places his description of the American West sounds a little bit too fabulous; hopefully, the rest of his book is more factually reliable.
In the 5th century, the 400's, the British Isles were invaded, the author says that the invaders were invited by the people who remained from the Roman occupation, by as many as 12 German tribes, but mostly Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. There were, perhaps, 150,000 of them altogether, and they all spoke different, but mutually intelligible, dialects of what is called West German.
These dialects eventually joined together in about 300 years, and with the addition of only about 2 dozen words from the native Celtic language, and only about 200 words from the Roman Latin language, they formed what is sometimes called "Old English".
In the 8th century the Viking invasions began, but terrible as they were, English eventually only accepted about 150 new words into its vocabulary of about 25,000 words. However, the grammer began to change with the use of prepositions and word order taking the place of different word endings, or inflections, on nouns and their adjectives to indicate different sentence cases of words.
However, everything changed after 1066 AD, when England was conquered by the Norman French. The English language was replaced by Norman French at virtually all the higher levels of society, and did not completely return as the dominant language again for over 300 years.
And by this time there were over 10,000 new French words incorporated into English.
During the English Renaisance, in 30 to 40 years around 1600, thousands more Latin and some fewer Greek words were added to the English language by scholars and other influential people.
The year 1604 saw the appearance of the first English language dictionary, but it only had 2,543 words considered to be uncommonly difficult. This date compares to the appearance of the first Sanskrit language dictionary in India sometime after 600 AD, and the first Arabic language dictionary around 800 AD. Samuel Johnson's historic and rather eccentric and controversial dictionary of around 43,000 words came out in 1755.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Experimental Blog #71
Comments on "Ancient Greece" - A History in Eleven Cities by Paul Cartledge
This book is a very convenient account of the long history of Ancient Greece, with a chapter on each of 11 cities. Actually, there were about 700 cities and communities on "mainland" Greece and about 300 more scattered all around the Greek World of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
The first city is Cnossos on the island of Crete, that was founded about 3000 BCE, that means, Before the Common Era. In other words, this means about 5000 years ago. At Cnossos have been found clay tablets from about 1400 BCE in the "Linear B" script, which was deciphered in 1952, of this usually called "Minoan Civilization", a "Late Bronze Age" civilization. The author says that the as yet undeciphered "Linear A" script, perhaps considered to be earlier, is probably not early Greek, but, perhaps, a Semetic language.
The "Early Iron Age" begins from 1100 to 700 BCE, and involves the spread of settlements of both Greek Dorian and Ionion dialects and cultures to settlements in Asia Minor and the western Mediteranean. The Olympic games were started at Olympia! in 776 BCE, and the Greek alphabet was invented at Thebes, which is near Athens, in 750 BCE by an immigrant named Cadmus from Tyre, Phoenicia, where he apparently got the idea.
The well known "Classical Age" is dated from about 500 to 330 BCE, which is around the time of Alexander the Great, who lived from 356 to 323 BCE, and his empire. The "Hellenistic Age" begins about this time, but eventually the Romans came. First, Sicily was made a Roman province in 241 BCE, and, almost one hundred years later, Macedonia became the first eastern Roman province in 147 BCE. The "Byzantine Age" begins in 325 AD, with the refoundation of Byzantion as Constantinople.
This book is a very convenient account of the long history of Ancient Greece, with a chapter on each of 11 cities. Actually, there were about 700 cities and communities on "mainland" Greece and about 300 more scattered all around the Greek World of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
The first city is Cnossos on the island of Crete, that was founded about 3000 BCE, that means, Before the Common Era. In other words, this means about 5000 years ago. At Cnossos have been found clay tablets from about 1400 BCE in the "Linear B" script, which was deciphered in 1952, of this usually called "Minoan Civilization", a "Late Bronze Age" civilization. The author says that the as yet undeciphered "Linear A" script, perhaps considered to be earlier, is probably not early Greek, but, perhaps, a Semetic language.
The "Early Iron Age" begins from 1100 to 700 BCE, and involves the spread of settlements of both Greek Dorian and Ionion dialects and cultures to settlements in Asia Minor and the western Mediteranean. The Olympic games were started at Olympia! in 776 BCE, and the Greek alphabet was invented at Thebes, which is near Athens, in 750 BCE by an immigrant named Cadmus from Tyre, Phoenicia, where he apparently got the idea.
The well known "Classical Age" is dated from about 500 to 330 BCE, which is around the time of Alexander the Great, who lived from 356 to 323 BCE, and his empire. The "Hellenistic Age" begins about this time, but eventually the Romans came. First, Sicily was made a Roman province in 241 BCE, and, almost one hundred years later, Macedonia became the first eastern Roman province in 147 BCE. The "Byzantine Age" begins in 325 AD, with the refoundation of Byzantion as Constantinople.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Experimental Blog #70
Comments on the book "American Entrepreneur" - The Fascinating Stories of the People Who Defined Business in the United States by Larry Schweikart and Lynne Pierson Doti
The 1000s of historical facts and business anecdotes related in this book tell a surprisingly interesting and very persuasive history of America from the very beginning, and from a distinctly "conservative" point of view. That is, it seems that the government is rarely not the enemy, "they always mess things up in the long run", and the people who really matter and who made, and continue to make America, are the very small percentage of America's "entrepreneurs". In modern times the book especially emphasizes the entertainment industries.
However, as far as one very small fact is concerned; they mention that Nikita Khrushchev was one of the 50 million people who had "passed through Sleeping Beauty's Castle" at "Disneyland" in Anaheim, California. Evidently, both of the authors of this book are too young to remember the actual event. The very public episode was noteworthy because, although Nikita Khrushchev wanted to go to "Disneyland" when he visited America in the 1950s as a private citizen, he was not allowed to do so, and he was publicly very upset about it.
Most reports say that Nikita Khrushchev was denied a visit to "Disneyland" because they could not provide sufficient "security" for him, but at least one report has stated that Walt Disney himself, who happened to have an apartment at his park, would not give his permission for a visit to "Disneyland" by the communist dictator.
The 1000s of historical facts and business anecdotes related in this book tell a surprisingly interesting and very persuasive history of America from the very beginning, and from a distinctly "conservative" point of view. That is, it seems that the government is rarely not the enemy, "they always mess things up in the long run", and the people who really matter and who made, and continue to make America, are the very small percentage of America's "entrepreneurs". In modern times the book especially emphasizes the entertainment industries.
However, as far as one very small fact is concerned; they mention that Nikita Khrushchev was one of the 50 million people who had "passed through Sleeping Beauty's Castle" at "Disneyland" in Anaheim, California. Evidently, both of the authors of this book are too young to remember the actual event. The very public episode was noteworthy because, although Nikita Khrushchev wanted to go to "Disneyland" when he visited America in the 1950s as a private citizen, he was not allowed to do so, and he was publicly very upset about it.
Most reports say that Nikita Khrushchev was denied a visit to "Disneyland" because they could not provide sufficient "security" for him, but at least one report has stated that Walt Disney himself, who happened to have an apartment at his park, would not give his permission for a visit to "Disneyland" by the communist dictator.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Experimental Blog #69
Comments on "Bats Sing, Mice Giggle" - The Surprising Science of Animals' Inner Lives by Karen Shanor and Jagmeet Kanwal
This book is a summary of many recent scientific researches into, among other things, the mental capacities and social behaviors of many forms of animal life. Some plant alert systems are also mentioned. A great many of these mental capacities and social behaviors are much more developed and, perhaps, conscious in some way, than was formerly believed by scientists. Perhaps as little as 30 years ago much of this book might have been considered to be nonsense.
This book is a summary of many recent scientific researches into, among other things, the mental capacities and social behaviors of many forms of animal life. Some plant alert systems are also mentioned. A great many of these mental capacities and social behaviors are much more developed and, perhaps, conscious in some way, than was formerly believed by scientists. Perhaps as little as 30 years ago much of this book might have been considered to be nonsense.
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