Science Books - Page 14

Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine (Pocket Notebook Series)

Marc S Sabatine

Amazon Price: $44.05 List Price: $48.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $30.07

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Medicine -> Education & Training -> Test Preparation & Review
Subjects -> Medicine -> Internal Medicine -> General
Subjects -> Medicine -> Internal Medicine -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Must have for medical students 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Although the expectations for medical students are not that of residents and interns, this book is very helpful. Evidence-based medicine is the term heard over and over on the wards and this pocket book will help with that. When presenting a patient, you may be asked which study showed the effectiveness of which treatment. This book has it. It is updated with references as recent as 2007 which is impressive. It will also save time when preparing a talk because as mentioned, the landmark studies are all incorporated in the text. Worth upgrading from the 2nd edition.

Editorial Review:

Prepared by residents and attending physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, this pocket-sized looseleaf is one of the best-selling references for medical students, interns, and residents on the wards and candidates reviewing for internal medicine board exams. In bulleted lists, tables, and algorithms, Pocket Medicine provides key clinical information about common problems in cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, nephrology, hematology-oncology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, rheumatology, and neurology. The six-ring binder resembles the familiar "pocket brain" notebook that most students and interns carry and allows users to add notes. This Third Edition is fully updated, has tabs to help readers locate organ systems, and has more cross-referencing in the index. It also has pockets in the front and the back of the book to accommodate the reader's own notes.

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (Vintage)

Neil Shubin

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Not yet published By: Vintage

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Evolution -> General
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Evolution -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science -> Biological Sciences -> Anatomy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 79 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Could have used an Inner Editor 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I should confess up front that my not loving this book is partly my own fault. Given Shubin's academic pedigree -- and it is impressive -- I expected the work to be more substantive. That he decided to write for a more general audience is not so much a problem as a simple disappointment.

But that's only part of my issue with the book. Simply put, it's poorly written. While literary style is not the forte of the majority of scientists, you'd expect them to have at least relied on a competent editor. Most offensive of all was his labored redundancy; important sentences were deemed so important that they were sometimes used -- essentially verbatim -- multiple times; if a point could be made in a short paragraph, Shubin used three.

Still, he has some interesting stories to tell, and while their connections to broader concepts are sometimes forced in rather painful transitions, the episode and ideas should hold the attention of most general readers.

Editorial Review:

Why do we look the way we do? Neil Shubin, the paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells the story of our bodies as you've never heard it before. By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations

James Surowiecki

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Doubleday Amazon Marketplace: 93 new & used starting at $2.32

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Marketing & Sales -> Consumer Behavior
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Organizational Behavior -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Organizational Behavior -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 161 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

“No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”  —H. L. Mencken
 
H. L. Mencken was wrong.

In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.

This seemingly counterintuitive notion has endless and major ramifications for how businesses operate, how knowledge is advanced, how economies are (or should be) organized and how we live our daily lives. With seemingly boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, economic behaviorism, artificial intelligence, military history and political theory to show just how this principle operates in the real world. 

Despite the sophistication of his arguments, Surowiecki presents them in a wonderfully entertaining manner. The examples he uses are all down-to-earth, surprising, and fun to ponder. Why is the line in which you’re standing always the longest? Why is it that you can buy a screw anywhere in the world and it will fit a bolt bought ten-thousand miles away? Why is network television so awful? If you had to meet someone in Paris on a specific day but had no way of contacting them, when and where would you meet? Why are there traffic jams? What’s the best way to win money on a game show? Why, when you walk into a convenience store at 2:00 A.M. to buy a quart of orange juice, is it there waiting for you? What do Hollywood mafia movies have to teach us about why corporations exist?

The Wisdom of Crowds is a brilliant but accessible biography of an idea, one with important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, conduct our business, and think about our world.

Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals (Smithsonian Handbooks)

Chris Pellant

Amazon Price: $13.60 List Price: $20.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DK ADULT Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $9.51

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Outdoors & Nature -> Reference
Subjects -> Science -> Nature & Ecology -> Rocks & Minerals

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Smithsonian Handbook of Rocks and Minerals combines 600 vivid full--color photos with descriptions of more than 500 specimens. This authoritative and systematic photographic approach, with words never separated from pictures, marks a new generation of identification guides. Each entry combines a precise description with annotated photographs to highlight the chief characteristics of the rock or mineral and distinguishing features. Color--coded bands provide a clear, at--a--glance facts for quick reference. In addition, each mineral entry features an illustration showing the crystal system to which the mineral belongs. Designed for beginners and experienced collectors alike, the Smithsonian Handbook of Rocks and Minerals explains what rocks or minerals are, how they are classified, and how to start a collection. To help in the initial stages of rock identification, a clear visual key illustrates the differences between igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, then guides the reader to the correct rock entry. A concise glossary provides instant understanding of technical and scientific terms

Life: The Classic Collection

Editors of Life Magazine

Amazon Price: $18.18 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Life Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $14.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The most famous, wonderful AND inspiring pictures ever to appear in the pages of LIFE are here. All the great action shots are here--from the sailor kissing the nurse to the first astronaut walking in space. The unsurpassed portraiture-- from screen icons like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor to world leaders including John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Winston Churchill--are all here as well.

LIFE has, of course, visited its archives before--but never like this. This edition puts the photographs on display, not only as part of the page layout but as the page itself. The explanatory text will be out of the way, so that each image can be savored. Moreover, prints will be included that are not just suitable for framing, but meant for framing. And not only will there be photographic prints; there will also be 75 other famous pictures that appeared in LIFE's pages, the story behind each of them and the narrative history of what LIFE's photography has long meant to the country and, indeed, to the world.

The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It

John Seymour

Amazon Price: $19.80 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: DK ADULT Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $18.81

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Techniques -> Organic
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Techniques -> General
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Techniques -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Self-sufficient life 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is an incredible and unique book.

The opening chapters that show what you can do with various sized acreages is wonderful. The diagram showing what you can do on a single acre is outstanding.

Another thing I love about this book is that it favors the use of hand tools over the gas-guzzling counterparts. The section on making hay the old-fashioned way stands out in particular.

Editorial Review:

The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more. This new edition includes 150 new full color illustrations and a special section in which John Seymour the father of the back to basics movement explains the philosophy of self-sufficiency and its power to transform lives and create communities. More relevant than ever in our high-tech world, The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the ultimate practical guide for realists and dreamers alike.

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Francis S. Collins

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 88 new & used starting at $3.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Theology -> General
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Theology -> Apologetics
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Theology -> Philosophy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 302 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Helpful for some Christians, but generally Unconvincing and Weak 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The Language of God features the perspective of Francis Collins, a world leader in genetics and head of the Human Genome Project, on the issue of reconciling science and faith. Collins begins by explaining his own history: how he came to be interested in science, and especially how he came to confess faith in Christ after experiencing a very secular upbringing. Collins offers insights of what initially lead him to faith: patients in his medical profession asking him big, spiritual questions, and C.S. Lewis' description of the Moral Law, the dilemma regarding interpreting Jesus in his historical personage, and the innate desire in human beings that finds fulfillment only in God. Collins goes about defending these views of Lewis, and championing their logic and profundity.

The remainder of the book is Collins explaining how he personally is at peace with being both a scientist and a Christian. He goes at some length explaining what science has to say about God, describing some elements of design in the universe, and discussing the Big Bang. He also gives some evidence for macroevolution, all the while describing why the view of Young Earth Creationists regarding scientific interpretation of the world is deeply mistaken. Collins himself espouses the idea called "theistic evolution," a belief that God in his sovereign power guides evolution along, and that the natural laws are his tools. Though, Collins prefers to call this idea his coined term BioLogos. Collins even gives some of his own thoughts about how human beings could have evolved and at the same time be seen by Christians as being made in the image of God and gifted with soul. By the end of the book it is clearly seen that Collins believes that science is enhanced by a belief in God, and that science in no way threatens its Creator.

While reading this book, I found myself very disappointed, especially during the first half in which it seems as if Collins is trying to convince the reader that it is very rational to believe in God, and that there is evidence that is very defensible. Personally, I am under the philosophical (rather Kierkegaardian, to be more specific) conviction that faith in God is something that is inexplicable, and that there is no amount of evidence that should be able to move a person to faith. In other words, if faith is founded on evidence, and if it can be destroyed if incontrovertible evidence existed in opposition to it, then it never was faith to begin with! Faith is the persistent and hopeful belief in the absurd. It is quite silly especially to go about proving the existence of God from nature, because the existence of God is only important for us if we prove the existence of a God who cares about us and wants to communicate with us, and nature can never, in any circumstance prove such a "romantic" thing! And proving that there may have been a "designer" is irrelevant to our lives; the god postulated is absolute nothingness unless it is described by a theology that comes about only by faith! So therefore, the only way one can say something important about God is if the person already has some sort of descriptive or at least intuitive faith, so it is pointless to say anything about God from mere observations of the world.

I not only disagree with the intentions of Collins in the first half of the book; I also disagree with many of his arguments. The subtitle for the book "a scientist presents evidence for belief" is not fulfilled in the slightest. First of all, in his discussion of Agape being a stamp of the divine on humanity, he very flippantly dismisses all evolutionary theory on this matter. Sure, it may be a more difficult element to explain by evolution, but it is not impossible! Here Collins falls into the "god of the gaps" mode of thinking, though he argues against this mode later on. Indeed, natural selection can accomplish much diversity in form and function via direct and indirect means. It is not unfeasible to propose that caring for others and developing an ethics is a byproduct of the high cognitive and problem-solving abilities of humans evolving over time.

There are other problematic arguments that Collins makes. First, he is not a very good theologian, and has no education at all in metaphysics. He relies heavily on the works of C.S. Lewis, and C.S. Lewis never claimed to be more than a reflective, amateur theologian. The Moral Law is a heavily debated issue that the history of philosophy has struggled with since the ancients, and Collins not only seems to attribute it to Lewis, but describes it so simply with little rebuttal. Also, Collins affirms Lewis' argument from desire, which claims that we were meant for another world if we have a desire which something in this world cannot satisfy. The criticisms of this argument are huge, as the argument is not even considered a proof! Just because we desire something does not mean that something exists, and it is easy to see that such a desire (a byproduct of evolution perhaps) can easily lead to construction of God.

In addition, to put down the psychoanalytic idea that belief in God is just wish fulfillment, Collins asks, why would we want a God who curbs our freedom? Collins answer does not make sense metaphysically, as there is no freedom for mankind unless there are limits: Freedom would be meaningless and contentless without its contrary: limitation. Therefore, we would want there to be a God for meaning, so that we can be free. The psychoanalysts are not refuted.

By the end of the book, however, I did come to an appreciation of Collins' work. I think that while his book was not necessarily for me, it definitely could benefit a wide audience, most especially people of faith who fear science. The simple theology he uses, his congenial tone, and the clear conviction in his writing that what he believes is the most sensible and fruitful view of God and science is enough to get a more general audience to open up their minds a bit and become more informed concerning this age-old debate. Collins writes clearly with many personal anecdotes and reflections to keep the reader interested. He was also the man to do it: as both a Christian and leading scientist, he commands attention and respect from the general audience by default. He did a great job pointing out the types of questions science is supposed to ask, and the types of questions theology is supposed to ask, but then again, there are many books out there that say the same thing. I would not necessarily recommend this book to a scientist who has a repugnance for belief in God, as I think Collins does a meager job at building a straw man, but I would recommend it to someone who is struggling with how his or her faith can cope with scientific discovery.

So what do I think of this whole faith vs. science controversy? If it, by chance, has not shown through above, I believe that my faith has little bearing on the observations of scientific inquiry and vice-versa. I am very pleased with the idea that God created the world by whatever means he did, and that the natural laws, discoverable by science, are his movements. I do not believe that God had to ever use "supernatural" intervention, necessarily: even the resurrection of Christ from the dead could have been a "natural" law in a sense, but one that science has not been able to describe and predict! Genesis I interpret as a myth, but a quite important one that teaches us how we relate to God and He to us. I am content to know that my faith needs no evidence, and that science can never disprove God anyway. As for the raging controversy in the mainstream, however, I just encourage more respect, more books and more conversations that clear up the issues and use demystified language. Eventually, however, people will come around. They surely did about the Earth being round!

Editorial Review:

Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is one of the world's leading scientists. He works at the cutting edge of the study of DNA, the code of life. Yet he is also a man of unshakable faith in God and scripture.

Dr. Collins believes that faith in God and faith in science can coexist within a person and be harmonious. In The Language of God he makes his case for God and for science. He has heard every argument against faith from scientists, and he can refute them. He has also heard the needless rejection of scientific truths by some people of faith, and he can counter that, too. He explains his own journey from atheism to faith, and then takes readers for a stunning tour of modern science to show that physics, chemistry, and biology can all fit together with belief in God and the Bible. The Language of God is essential reading for anyone who wonders about the deepest questions of faith: Why are we here? How did we get here? What does life mean?

Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection

John E. Sarno

Amazon Price: $11.19 List Price: $13.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Warner Books Amazon Marketplace: 151 new & used starting at $2.71

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Alternative Medicine -> Healing
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Backache
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Pain Management

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 360 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Learning to read might be the first emotional problem to overcome 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I was sort of amazed that at least five reviewers here knocked Dr. Sarno's book because they couldn't find a method in the book to follow. For example:

"I read it, and it didn't change a thing. And there is no description of the actual method."

"Sarno's book helped me understand the cause of my back pain, but I was left with no clear steps to take to get rid of the pain."

"Be warned -- there's no actual treatment plan in this book."

"He doesn't tell you how to heal it (as the title suggests), but rather tries to drum into you the idea that you may, indeed, have his syndrome. After which you discover that the only way to heal it is through workshops/videos/personal consultations."

"There's not one thing about his program. I certainly wouldn't have purchased it if I knew this wasn't his actual program, just a sales pitch for it. This was a waste of money."

While other reviewers' critiques consisted of (inaccurately) boiling the method down to something like "If you're in pain, ask yourself what you're angry about and you will be healed."

Well class, if you will kindly turn to page 70 in the book, as the table of contents suggests, here you will find the step-by-step method outlined under the unambiguously titled chapter called, "The treatment of TMS." Here are the steps, edited for brevity, for those of you who missed it, or haven't quite got the hang of learning how to read yet:

© 1991 by John E. Sarno, M.D. Text quoted under fair use copyright law. No infringement is intended.

The treatment program rests on two pillars:

1. The acquisition of knowledge of insight into the nature of the disorder.

2. The ability to act on that knowledge, and thereby change the brain's behavior. So, one must learn all about TMS. What actually causes the pain, and what part of the brain is responsible. Then one reviews the psychology of the disorder. The fact that we all tend to generate anger and anxiety in this culture, and that the more compulsive and perfectionistic of us generate a lot.

3. What one must then do is develop the habit of "thinking psychological, instead of physical." I suggest to patients that when they find themselves being aware of the pain, they must consciously and forcefully shift their attention to something psychological. Perhaps, something they are worried about. A chronic family or financial problem. A recurrent source of irritation. Anything in the psychological realm. That sends a message to the brain that they are no longer deceived by the pain. When that message reaches the depths of the mind - the unconscious - the pain ceases.

4. Talk to your brain. What one is doing is consciously taking charge, instead of feeling the helpless, intimidated victim which is so common in people with this syndrome. The person is asserting himself, telling the brain that he is not going to put up with this state of affairs. And it works. Patients report that they can actually abort an episode of pain by doing this.

5. Resume all physical activity, including the most vigorous. Though it is often difficult, every patient has to work through his or her fear and return to full, normal physical activity. One must do this to liberate oneself from the fear of physical activity, which is often more effective than pain in keeping one's mind focused on the body. That is the purpose of TMS, to keep the mind from attending to emotional things. As Snoopy, the great contemporary philosopher once said, "There's nothing like a little physical pain to keep your mind off your emotional problems." I suggest to patients that they begin the process of resuming physical activity when they experience a significant reduction in pain, and when they are feeling confident about the diagnosis. One has to confront TMS - fight it - or the symptoms will continue. Losing one's fear and resuming normal physical activity is possibly the most important part of the therapeutic process.

6. All forms of physical treatment or therapy must be abandoned. Conceptually, prescribing physical therapy contradicts what we have found to be the only rational way to treat the problem. That is, by teaching and through education, invalidating the process where it begins - in the mind.

7. Review these 12 key thoughts at least once a day:

1. The pain is due to TMS, not to a structural abnormality.
2. The direct reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my repressed emotions.
4. The principal emotion is my repressed anger.
5. TMS exists only to distract my attention from the emotions.
6. Since my back is basically normal, there is nothing to fear.
7. Therefore, physical activity is not dangerous.
8. And I must resume all normal physical activity.
9. I will not be concerned or intimidated by the pain.
10. I will shift my attention from the pain to emotional issues.
11. I intend to be in control, not my unconscious mind.
12. I must think psychological at all times, not physical.

Patients are then urged to give this information an opportunity to "sink in," to be integrated, to be accepted at an unconscious level. Conscious acceptance, though essential as a first step, is not sufficient to reverse the TMS.

Editorial Review:

The renowned author of the classic Mind Over Back Pain has written a new guide examining revolutionary treatments to relieve pain without exercise, medication, or physical therapy.

Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World

Sharon Waxman

Amazon Price: $19.80 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Times Books Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $18.77

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Criticism
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A journey across four continents to the heart of the conflict over who should own the great works of ancient art

Why are the Elgin Marbles in London and not on the Acropolis? Why do there seem to be as many mummies in France as there are in Egypt? Why are so many Etruscan masterworks in America? For the past two centuries, the West has been plundering the treasures of the ancient world to fill its great museums, but in recent years, the countries where ancient civilizations originated have begun to push back, taking museums to court, prosecuting curators, and threatening to force the return of these priceless objects.

Where do these treasures rightly belong? Sharon Waxman, a former culture reporter for The New York Times and a longtime foreign correspondent, brings us inside this high-stakes conflict, examining the implications for the preservation of the objects themselves and for how we understand our shared cultural heritage. Her journey takes readers from the great cities of Europe and America to Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, as these countries face down the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She also introduces a cast of determined and implacable characters whose battles may strip these museums of some of their most cherished treasures.

For readers who are fascinated by antiquity, who love to frequent museums, and who believe in the value of cultural exchange, Loot opens a new window on an enduring conflict.

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Walter Isaacson

Amazon Price: $19.80 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 235 new & used starting at $2.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 206 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Benjamin Franklin is the Founding Father who winks at us. An ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings, he seems made of flesh rather than of marble. In bestselling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin seems to turn to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. By bringing Franklin to life, Isaacson shows how he helped to define both his own time and ours.

He was, during his 84-year life, America's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist, and he was also one of its most practical -- though not most profound -- political thinkers. He proved by flying a kite that lightning was electricity, and he invented a rod to tame it. He sought practical ways to make stoves less smoky and commonwealths less corrupt. He organized neighborhood constabularies and international alliances, local lending libraries and national legislatures. He combined two types of lenses to create bifocals and two concepts of representation to foster the nation's federal compromise. He was the only man who shaped all the founding documents of America: the Albany Plan of Union, the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the peace treaty with England, and the Constitution. And he helped invent America's unique style of homespun humor, democratic values, and philosophical pragmatism.

But the most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself. America's first great publicist, he was, in his life and in his writings, consciously trying to create a new American archetype. In the process, he carefully crafted his own persona, portrayed it in public, and polished it for posterity.

Through it all, he trusted the hearts and minds of his fellow "leather-aprons" more than he did those of any inbred elite. He saw middle-class values as a source of social strength, not as something to be derided. His guiding principle was a "dislike of everything that tended to debase the spirit of the common people." Few of his fellow founders felt this comfort with democracy so fully, and none so intuitively.

In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin's amazing life, from his days as a runaway printer to his triumphs as a statesman, scientist, and Founding Father. He chronicles Franklin's tumultuous relationship with his illegitimate son and grandson, his practical marriage, and his flirtations with the ladies of Paris. He also shows how Franklin helped to create the American character and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.