In “Men of Achievement”, Philip Hubert writes about the famous inventors Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Elias Howe, Samuel Morse, Charles Goodyear, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell as well as many others. Although it reviews their inventions it also examines the inventor: their origins, hopes, aims, principles, disappointments, trials and triumphs, their daily life and personal character. With over forty-five illustrations, “Men of Achievement” discusses the value of their work – the invention of steam, electricity, the telegraph, telephone, phonograph and the camera and Goodyear’s vulcanized rubber. With the patent laws of the time it also highlights how these men contributed thousands of millions of dollars to the nation’s wealth and received comparatively nothing in return.
A sweeping cultural survey reminiscent of Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence. "At irregular times and in scattered settings, human beings have achieved great things. Human Accomplishment is about those great things, falling in the domains known as the arts and sciences, and the people who did them.' So begins Charles Murray's unique account of human excellence, from the age of Homer to our own time. Employing techniques that historians have developed over the last century but that have rarely been applied to books written for the general public, Murray compiles inventories of the people who have been essential to the stories of literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences—a total of 4,002 men and women from around the world, ranked according to their eminence. The heart of Human Accomplishment is a series of enthralling descriptive chapters: on the giants in the arts and what sets them apart from the merely great; on the differences between great achievement in the arts and in the sciences; on the meta-inventions, 14 crucial leaps in human capacity to create great art and science; and on the patterns and trajectories of accomplishment across time and geography. Straightforwardly and undogmatically, Charles Murray takes on some controversial questions. Why has accomplishment been so concentrated in Europe? Among men? Since 1400? He presents evidence that the rate of great accomplishment has been declining in the last century, asks what it means, and offers a rich framework for thinking about the conditions under which the human spirit has expressed itself most gloriously. Eye-opening and humbling, Human Accomplishment is a fascinating work that describes what humans at their best can achieve, provides tools for exploring its wellsprings, and celebrates the continuing common quest of humans everywhere to discover truths, create beauty, and apprehend the good.
The New York Times–bestselling classic set amid the mountains and streams of early twentieth-century Montana, “as beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway” (Chicago Tribune). When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs Through It and Other Stories to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. One editor, so the story goes, replied, “it has trees in it.” Today, the title novella is recognized as one of the great American tales of the twentieth century, and Maclean as one of the most beloved writers of our time. The finely distilled product of a long life of often surprising rapture—for fly-fishing, for the woods, for the interlocked beauty of life and art—A River Runs Through It has established itself as a classic of the American West filled with beautiful prose and understated emotional insights. Based on Maclean’s own experiences as a young man, the book’s two novellas and short story are set in the small towns and mountains of western Montana. It is a world populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks, and whores, but also one rich in the pleasures of fly-fishing, logging, cribbage, and family. By turns raunchy and elegiac, these superb tales express, in Maclean’s own words, “a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by.” “Maclean’s book—acerbic, laconic, deadpan—rings out of a rich American tradition that includes Mark Twain, Kin Hubbard, Richard Bissell, Jean Shepherd, and Nelson Algren.” —New York Times Book Review Includes a new foreword by Robert Redford, director of the Academy Award–winning film adaptation
Closing the Education Achievement Gaps for African American Males is a research-based tool to improve the schooling experience of African American males. Editors Theodore S. Ransaw and Richard Majors draw together a collection of writings that provide much-needed engagement with issues of gender and identity for black males, as well as those of culture, media, and technology, in the context of education. The distinguished and expert contributors whose work comprises this volume include an achievement-gap specialist for males of color, two psychologists, a math teacher, an electrical engineer, a former school principal, a social worker, and a former human rights commissioner. From black male learning styles to STEM, this book shows that issues pertaining to educational outcomes for black males are nuanced and complex but not unsolvable. With its combination of fresh new approaches to closing achievement gaps and up-to-date views on trends, this volume is an invaluable resource on vital contemporary social and educational issues that aims to improve learning, equity, and access for African American males.
What happens when people “achieve”? Why do reactions to “achievement” vary so profoundly? And how might an anthropological study of achievement and its consequences allow us to develop a more nuanced model of the motivated agency that operates in the social world? These questions lie at the heart of this volume. Drawing on research from Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, and Latin America, this collection develops an innovative framework for explaining achievement’s multiple effects—one which brings together cutting-edge theoretical insights into politics, psychology, ethics, materiality, aurality, embodiment, affect and narrative. In doing so, the volume advances a new agenda for the study of achievement within anthropology, emphasizing the significance of achievement as a moment of cultural invention, and the complexity of “the achiever” as a subject position.
“We Dare Say Love” takes up the critically important issue of what it means to educate Black male students in a large urban district. It chronicles the development and implementation of the African American Male Achievement Initiative in Oakland Unified School District, following a small group of Black male educators who changed district policy and practice to create a learning experience for Black boys rooted in love. The book takes readers inside the classrooms and inside the heads and hearts of program founders, leaders, and instructors to understand their pedagogy of care. It also elucidates the rituals, beliefs, and practices that created a classroom environment that held high expectations for the engagement and achievement of Black boys and provided a space for Black male students to blossom. “This book offers an anti-deficit, anti-essentialist perspective of Black males’ performance in schools and gives nuance to the stark realities that young men face—some thriving, some struggling, some making progress, others seeking a place to be recognized for their full human potential.” —From the Afterword by Tyrone C. Howard, professor of education, UCLA and author of Black Male(d): Peril and Promise in the Education of African American Males “Chapters capture the multiple dimensions of collaborations and partnerships required for such systemic change, one of which is a fundamental wrestling with the metanarratives in the United States and elsewhere around the Black body and in particular the Black male. We can all learn revealing lessons of struggle and victory from the chapters of this volume.” —Carol D. Lee, Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University Contributors: Baayan Bakari, Christopher P. Chatmon, Shawn Ginwright, Jarvis R. Givens, Jerome Gourdine, Gregory Hodge, Tyrone C. Howard, Jahi, Patrick Johnson, Na’ilah Suad Nasir, David Philoxene, kihana miraya ross, Maxine McKinney de Royston, Pedro A. Noguera, Sepehr Vakil
He's been called "America's greatest living tailor" and "the most interesting man in the world." Now, for the first time, Holocaust-survivor Martin Greenfield tells his whole, incredible life story. Taken from his Czechoslovakian home at age fifteen and transported to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz with his family, Greenfield came face-to-face with "Angel of Death" Dr. Joseph Mengele and was divided forever from his parents, sisters, and baby brother. In haunting, powerful prose, Greenfield remembers his desperation and fear as a teenager alone in the death camp--and how an impulsive decision to steal an SS soldier's shirt dramatically altered the course of his life. He learned how to sew; and when he began wearing the shirt under his prisoner uniform, he learned that clothes possess great power and could even help save his life. Measure of a Man is the story of a man who suffered unimaginable horror and emerged with a dream of success. From sweeping floors at a New York clothing factory to founding America’s premier handmade suit company, Greenfield built a fashion empire. Now 86-years-old and working with his sons, Greenfield has dressed the famous and powerful of D.C. and Hollywood, including Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama and celebrities Paul Newman, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jimmy Fallon. Written with soul-baring honesty and, at times, a wry sense of humor, Measure of a Man is a memoir unlike any other--one that will inspire hope and renew faith in the resilience of man.
"Richard tells men who they really are. He gives them what they need to finally 'get it.'" -from the foreword by Jerry Leachman Men just "get" this book! It seems to resonate with them. Men who don't read many books read this one and want to get it into the hands of others. Why? Because Richard Simmons "gets it"-he identifies the ultimate issue all men face regardless of their age, occupation, or marital status. "Men so often define themselves by what they do, who they know, or what they own. And when they do so, they unwittingly set themselves up for great confusion and failure in their personal lives." -Richard Simmons Gathering support from the writings of noted authors and social commentators, Christian and secular, Simmons emphatically reminds us that every man at some point in life suffers misfortune. No one is exempt. However, the challenges of life offer men the potential for great good. In the midst of these struggles, we have the opportunity to see our lives transformed. The True Measure of a Man is uplifting, challenging, and most of all it points the way to personal and spiritual growth-based on the one, true measure we were meant to use! With the free, downloadable study guide, it serves as a superb resource for men's groups and church ministries. This book will change your life...and, perhaps, the lives of those closest to you. "The True Measure of a Man captures the importance of character over achievement. Richard connects the dots for men who are looking for something more in their lives than mere success." -Coach Bill McCartney, founder of Promise Keepers
Brian Tracy is one of the world's leading authorities on success and personal achievement, addressing more than 100,000 men and women each year in public and private seminars. In Maximum Achievement, he gives you a powerful, proven system -- based on twenty-five years of research and practice -- that you can apply immediately to get better results in every area of your life. You learn ideas, concepts, and methods used by high-achieving people in every field everywhere. You learn how to unlock your individual potential for personal greatness. You will immediately become more positive, persuasive, and powerfully focused in everything you do. Many of the more than one million graduates of the seminar program upon which this book is based have dramatically increased their income and improved their lives in every respect. The step-by-step blueprint for success and achievement presented in these pages includes proven principles drawn from psychology, religion, philosophy, business, economics, politics, history, and metaphysics. These ideas are combined in a fast-moving, informative series of steps that will lead you to greater success than you ever imagined possible -- they can raise your self-esteem, improve personal performance, and give you complete control over every aspect of your personal and professional life.
