A must for any library—and a wonderful gift for anthropologists, ethnographers, cultural historians, and quiz kids.
Ifrah’s monumental follow-up to From One to Zero (1993) goes from one to (almost) infinity as he meticulously reviews the numbers and reckoning systems of countless tribes and cultures in a dazzling scholarly performance.
“Performance” is the operative word here, for not only does Ifrah enumerate the words and symbols used for arithmetic, but he also explains how to use each system, providing illustrations, diagrams, riddles, and puzzles. Indeed, nearly every page displays handsome numerals, counting devices, and illustrations of their use. Ifrah takes the human body as the aboriginal point of reference for most counting systems—fingers and toes producing systems using 5, 10, or 20 as a base. But 12, 60, and 360 have also been used, usually by cultures that attached more importance to the sky than to their anatomy. Ifrah gives special credit to the Mayans for their extraordinary adeptness at astronomical measurements, which calculated the length of the solar year as 365.242 days and the month at 29.53086 days. He commends India for the invention of zero—the placeholder in counting systems that use positional notation to indicate the different values, for instance, of 1, 10, and 100. A recurring theme is the intimate relation between number systems and written language. Just as the invention of alphabets allows the generation of myriad words, advanced number systems can use a limited number of symbols to represent any large number. A quibble or two: Ifrah frequently asserts that our brains cannot instantly number a collection of more than four objects, though psychologists maintain we can recognize up to seven objects without counting. And since many statements on the origins of systems and borrowings across cultures are speculative, they are subject to change in light of recent discoveries.
A must for any library—and a wonderful gift for anthropologists, ethnographers, cultural historians, and quiz kids.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2000
ISBN: 0-471-37568-3
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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