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by Lewis Pyenson, Susan Sheets-Pyenson
ISBN: 0393046141
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 512 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride and shipped with confirmation for US addresses. No publisher marks, no shelf wear.
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Customer Reviews
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496 pages, illustrated
Rating  (5)
Date: 2010-02-14
I just want to add that this is a very thorough, well indexed volume. It is an excellent starting point for further research into the history of science and its interaction with society.
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An outline in search of a narrative
Rating  (3)
Date: 2003-10-30
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a curious book and I didn't particularly enjoy reading it. It is probably a good book to have around, though. If for no other reason than finding references to unconventional themes.The book is thoroughly 'post-modern,' in the sense it rigidly attempts to be a non-narrative. A non-narrative narrative is exceptionally hard to read unless you already know the narrative upon which the author is reacting against. Anyway, the authors attempt to avoid the pitfalls of historical narratives by organizing their material around social phenomena: institutions and the broad endeavors institutions attempt. No heroes allowed. The book sort of reads like an outline searching for a story line, but I found a number of interesting factoids. I particularly liked the discussion of medical versus legal universities. Despite the rule against heroes, Francis Bacon gets mentioned in almost every chapter. Everything seems to go back to the 'Baconian project.' The Arabs and Chinese little or no credit. Following is a list of the chapters, with my guess at the theme: PART I INSTITUTIONS Teaching (universities)
Sharing: (scientific societies)
Watching: (observatories)
Showing: (Museums, botanical gardens and zoos)
Reading: (journals) (in enterprises)
Killing: (Armies) (in enterprises) PART 11 ENTERPRISES
Measuring:
Traveling: (maps and explorations)
Counting: (Math) PART III SENSIBILITIES Women in science
Colonies and science Science and Religion I enjoyed the early chapters much more than the later. Part III, Sensibilities, can be ignored entirely.
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a worthy but pedestrian effort
Rating  (1)
Date: 2000-12-22
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
In part this book is touching, to the extent that it expresses a husband (Lewis)'s love of his dead wife (Susan Sheets Pyenson). But it is a book which could have been written a hundred years ago. It is too dry and dull for a popular book, but then doesnt really have much which would catch the attention of historians of science. One isn't sure what they (I suppose mostly he) were trying to do.
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worn-out methodology
Rating  (2)
Date: 1999-05-16
4 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
The authors of this book begin by asserting that "we fly no philosophical, political, or methodological colours." They then immediately give the lie to this claim by launching into an attack of postmodernism and the work of Shapin and Latour. Such high-handed critiques of postmodernism would be a little more reasonable if the authors could display at least a small amount of evidence that they had read and understood the works they were attacking. Make no mistake, this book definitely does fly philosophical, political, and methodological colors, and those colors appear to be fairly conservative ones.
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AWSOME!!!
Rating (5)
Date: 1999-04-29
0 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
I think this was one of the best science books out there. I think everybody should read this awsome book. Read it and you will know what I mean!!
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by Elaine St. James
ISBN: 0836235959
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 384 pages
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Sold with pride. No writing, no highlighting. Copy in very good condition with minimal reading wear.
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Customer Reviews
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Best Organizational Book I've found for people with kids!
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-08-07
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Organizing our lives are difficult enough, but adding kids to the equation makes it almost impossible! This book offers practical solutions and advice on how to get organized so you've got more time to do what's really important - spend with your kids! The chapters are short and the language is easy to read which is great for those of us who are sleep deprived or just short on time. I highly recommend this book!
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A must have household guide for anyone with kids
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-05-29
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a wonderful book. It has very short, 3-4 page "chapters" on differt topics. The book is broken into sensible sections on topics that anyone with kids struggles with (the workload, discipline strategies, etc.). It is very simple to read and you can skip to the section that applies or appeals to you that day. Plus, it's a really cute little book.
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Terribly Disappointing
Rating (1)
Date: 2004-01-25
60 out of 60 customers found this reveiw helpful
I guess this book falls into the category of "never take parenting advice from someone who never had children". I bought this book because I LOVED "Simplify your life" by this author. I found it very helpful. This book, however, was mostly confounding and fairly depressing. While St. James *did* seek out advice from her friends who had children, these friends apparently take a very 'hands off' approach to their kids.The book opens with a scenario in which a mother has forgotten to pick up her child and the child is stranded somewhere late in the evening while she tries to figure out a way to get someone else to go pick him up now that she's home and needs to make dinner. This did not bode well for the rest of the book [for those of us who don't routinely completely forget about our children and leave them alone in public places late at night....] Much of the advice in this book falls into the category of "simplify your life with children by paying someone else to deal with the little brats". There is much about how parents should put their children in day care all day [and don't EVER let your child think they have the ability to cause you to delay your departure because of their pathetic tears, etc, etc, etc] and then get a sitter to care for the children in the evenings so mom can have "Me" time and parents can have "Us" time. Apparently, if you schedule 2 hours of "quality time" on Sunday afternoon with your kids, that's really all they need. There was also a big push to teach the kids "self sufficiency" - as in, your 5 year old really can get his own breakfast so he doesn't "bother" you. I'm all for self sufficient kids and encouraging my children to be strong and independant, but too much of this book was geared towards forcing your kids to basically survive without any parental assistance or interaction - yeah... I guess that would be simplier than actually caring for your kids yourself. At least until they turn 13 and get put in jail for shooting up the school or something. There were a few good ideas in this book, but not nearly enough to warrant wading through all the bad parenting advice and depressing disregard for children's well being. "Shelter for the Spirit" by Victoria Moran includes some great chapters on re-prioritizing and simplifying that are very child-friendly and would lead to strong parent-child relationships. In my opinion, parents would do better to read what Moran has to say and skip this particular book by St. James.
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Skim
Rating  (4)
Date: 2003-11-06
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is probably most effective to read the first twenty pages or so and skim the rest. Not up to par with "Simplify Your Life", but the early parts still have some very good advice. The rest is also good, but can easily be condensed by skimming and reading paragraphs of interest.
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Annoying and Out-Of-Touch
Rating (1)
Date: 2002-06-16
17 out of 18 customers found this reveiw helpful
I won't restate what has been said by other amazon reviewers of this book - this book was a waste of my time and money. I had so enjoyed St. James' original Simplify Your Life book and was looking forward to reading this book. However, page after page proved to be annoying and genearlly useless. This book IS NOT about simplifying your life. If I had know I was going to be reading a How To Raise Your Kids book, I would have picked one by someone who knew something about it.On top of the other reviewers' comments that St. James' suggestions are too simplistic and sometimes even harmful, I would add that if I had the money to implement all of her "simple" suggestions, I would move out of the country and greatly simplify my life. Her suggestions to single parents to "buy used" and steer cleer of impulse purchases are patronizing and sorely out of touch. Further, her assumptions about "male" and "female" traits and roles are not relevant to the lives of anyone I know. St. James should stick with material she knows.
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by Elaine St. James
ISBN: 0836235959
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 384 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. AUTOGRAPHED copy in a like new condition.
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Customer Reviews
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Best Organizational Book I've found for people with kids!
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-08-07
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Organizing our lives are difficult enough, but adding kids to the equation makes it almost impossible! This book offers practical solutions and advice on how to get organized so you've got more time to do what's really important - spend with your kids! The chapters are short and the language is easy to read which is great for those of us who are sleep deprived or just short on time. I highly recommend this book!
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A must have household guide for anyone with kids
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-05-29
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a wonderful book. It has very short, 3-4 page "chapters" on differt topics. The book is broken into sensible sections on topics that anyone with kids struggles with (the workload, discipline strategies, etc.). It is very simple to read and you can skip to the section that applies or appeals to you that day. Plus, it's a really cute little book.
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Terribly Disappointing
Rating (1)
Date: 2004-01-25
60 out of 60 customers found this reveiw helpful
I guess this book falls into the category of "never take parenting advice from someone who never had children". I bought this book because I LOVED "Simplify your life" by this author. I found it very helpful. This book, however, was mostly confounding and fairly depressing. While St. James *did* seek out advice from her friends who had children, these friends apparently take a very 'hands off' approach to their kids.The book opens with a scenario in which a mother has forgotten to pick up her child and the child is stranded somewhere late in the evening while she tries to figure out a way to get someone else to go pick him up now that she's home and needs to make dinner. This did not bode well for the rest of the book [for those of us who don't routinely completely forget about our children and leave them alone in public places late at night....] Much of the advice in this book falls into the category of "simplify your life with children by paying someone else to deal with the little brats". There is much about how parents should put their children in day care all day [and don't EVER let your child think they have the ability to cause you to delay your departure because of their pathetic tears, etc, etc, etc] and then get a sitter to care for the children in the evenings so mom can have "Me" time and parents can have "Us" time. Apparently, if you schedule 2 hours of "quality time" on Sunday afternoon with your kids, that's really all they need. There was also a big push to teach the kids "self sufficiency" - as in, your 5 year old really can get his own breakfast so he doesn't "bother" you. I'm all for self sufficient kids and encouraging my children to be strong and independant, but too much of this book was geared towards forcing your kids to basically survive without any parental assistance or interaction - yeah... I guess that would be simplier than actually caring for your kids yourself. At least until they turn 13 and get put in jail for shooting up the school or something. There were a few good ideas in this book, but not nearly enough to warrant wading through all the bad parenting advice and depressing disregard for children's well being. "Shelter for the Spirit" by Victoria Moran includes some great chapters on re-prioritizing and simplifying that are very child-friendly and would lead to strong parent-child relationships. In my opinion, parents would do better to read what Moran has to say and skip this particular book by St. James.
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Skim
Rating (4)
Date: 2003-11-06
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
It is probably most effective to read the first twenty pages or so and skim the rest. Not up to par with "Simplify Your Life", but the early parts still have some very good advice. The rest is also good, but can easily be condensed by skimming and reading paragraphs of interest.
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Annoying and Out-Of-Touch
Rating (1)
Date: 2002-06-16
17 out of 18 customers found this reveiw helpful
I won't restate what has been said by other amazon reviewers of this book - this book was a waste of my time and money. I had so enjoyed St. James' original Simplify Your Life book and was looking forward to reading this book. However, page after page proved to be annoying and genearlly useless. This book IS NOT about simplifying your life. If I had know I was going to be reading a How To Raise Your Kids book, I would have picked one by someone who knew something about it.On top of the other reviewers' comments that St. James' suggestions are too simplistic and sometimes even harmful, I would add that if I had the money to implement all of her "simple" suggestions, I would move out of the country and greatly simplify my life. Her suggestions to single parents to "buy used" and steer cleer of impulse purchases are patronizing and sorely out of touch. Further, her assumptions about "male" and "female" traits and roles are not relevant to the lives of anyone I know. St. James should stick with material she knows.
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by Al Francis Lacki
ISBN: 0964142880
Binding/Media: Unknown Binding - 371 pages
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Sold with pride and shipped with confirmation for US addresses. No publisher marks, no writing. Light shelf wear.
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by Spencer Overton
ISBN: 0393061590
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 224 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride and shipped with confirmation for US addresses. Gently read copy in like new condition. No reading/ shelf wear.
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Customer Reviews
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Balanced Approach to Election Reform
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-01-14
Spencer Overton has developed a thoughtful critique of our elections system. From dealing with onerous voter ID requirements to redistricting, the author examines many of the current controversies in our elections. Unlike some books that make emotional appeals to change our election system, Overton takes a balanced and factual approach to the subject. With case studies, statistics and demographics, the author explains the issue in depth and recommends ideas for change.
Overall, this book would be useful to anyone interested in researching more on the topic. It's an easy read, and I would recommend it.
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Good overview of Voter Suppression
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-01-11
It's easy to overlook the complexities involved for many people in providing voter id at the polls. Sometimes we who can easily get a driver's license do not remember how difficult this could be for somebody else. Overton discusses this and rebuts arguments that this is not a case of voter suppression.
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Balanced, Bland and Basic
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-08-05
3 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Gerrymandering by both sides has lead to a preponderance of "safe" districts. Almost all other democracies use independent commissions or panels. More than half the world's democracies use independent officials or commissions to administer elections. Another quarter allow the government to manage elections but have an oversight panel composed primarily of judges. Overton suggests having a governor appoint election officials, subject to a 75% approval in the legislature.
"Stealing Democracy" then reviews some of the 2004 shortage of equipment problems in Ohio, acerbated by a long, complicated ballot. Rather than simply blame political maneuvering, Overton outlines instances where the result was supported by a supervising Democrat to save money, and came about through logic (eg. redistribute machines to the suburbs - growth areas).
Apparently the U.S. is one of the few nations where local officials have extensive control over federal and state elections. It's not that we have 50 separate state election systems - effectively there are 4,600. Rules on provisional ballots, registration deadlines, types of equipment, eligibility of ex-felons, early voting, etc. differ from one jurisdiction to another. Precluding ex-felons helps Republicans (studies show almost 70% would vote Democrat), while scrubbing overseas military helps the Democrats. Overton also documents the importance of the black vote to Democrats.
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fascinating read
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-07-07
8 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
Mr. Overton's insightful, eye-opening presentation of critical and often overlooked problems with America's system of voting and democratic representation is a must-read for political science students, law students, and, quite frankly, anyone who votes (and wants his or her vote to count). Stealing Democracy is comprehensible, elegant, and highly stimulating.
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What the Supreme Court Should Be Reading ... Overton's Stealing Democracy
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-06-30
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
Overton tells us in plain language how the working class and the poor are being eliminated from the political process. Interestingly, he is able to cast the old stories of poll taxes and lynchings in a 21st century surround-sound format. Using real-life examples from the lives of real people, Overton illustrates how certain people are stealing the country right from under our own noses. I certainly believe the Supreme Court could have benefitted greatly from reading his "how to rig an election" chapter before deciding the recent Texas gerrymandering case. Spencer's point ... Voters should choose politicians, politicians should not be choosing the voters!!!!
His parallel of this country's voting system to the "matrix" is also quite brilliant. If some of the new restrictions that Overton warns us about takes place, we will need the powers of the Oracle, Neo, Morpheus, and Trinty just to be able to cast a vote (and more importantly make it count). If you are serious about voting rights or if you just want to be able to predict the outcomes of the 2006 mid term elections, this book is a must read. I highly recommend it to all audiences.
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by Bhavna Pahwa
ISBN: 0789017334
Binding/Media: Paperback - 198 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride and shipped with confirmation for US addresses. No publisher marks, no shelf wear, no creases in spine, no writing. Stamped on the side as a review copy. This book is as new.
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by Frances Anne Hernan
ISBN: 0966692810
Binding/Media: Paperback - 80 pages
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Sold with pride and shipped with confirmation for US addresses. This copy appears in a very good condition with light reading wear, but has minimal highlighting/ underlining on the inside. No further imperfections.
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Customer Reviews
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CD was unusable
Rating (1)
Date: 2006-08-14
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is an outline with a bunch of forms. It would have been useful for the forms on cd, except the cd was unusable. The cd is in an envelope glued which is glued in to the back cover. Unfortunately too much glue was used and it soaked through the envelope to the CD. I didn't try the cd until I needed forms, I ended up paying for a different set of forms online and I am stuck with the book because it's been too long to return it!
Don't make my mistake, you can get better forms online and a more useful book is "The Nanny Book: The Smart Parent's Guide to Hiring, Firing, and Every Sticky Situation in Between"
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comprehensive hiring book on market for 8 years
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-04-17
The two critical reviews are somewhat surprising since the book has been on the market so long, and recommended by the American Red Cross, The International Nanny Association,and a Park Avenue Pediatrican. It is on the employee reading list at NOAA. The American Bar Association recommeded the book for young lawyers. Articles in newspapers from Los Angeles to DC list the book.
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Not worth the money
Rating (1)
Date: 2006-04-08
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Bought this book hoping for a comprehensive resource of information on hiring a nanny. Boy were we disappointed. As was mentioned in another post - the book is nothing more than a glorified outline, and half of the book is copies of the forms that are on the disk, which forms by the way are in .pdf form and are not even fillable.
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Reads like an outline
Rating (2)
Date: 2006-01-10
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This "book" seems more like an outline for a book. Quick, terse and not very complete or thoughtful. While I'm all for informational books being "to the point" and not fluffy, this book really seems like it was never actually completed, and so has not proved very useful to me.
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This is a good gift for a new working mother
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-03-20
We bought this book four years ago and are pleased that it is still a top match on amazon.com. The forms disk is really a big help to parents and we have seen this book mentioned in major magazines. Also this nanny book is on the NOAA employees reading list and that is a good recommendation. We just bougt the author's second book, The ABC's of Credit and it is a great little book also. The fact that there are several nanny related businesses that link from this listing speaks well for the author. I noticed visiting agency webpages that many agencies now require the TB test before accepting an applicant for placement. This was unheard of until Hernan pushed hard on the issue.
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by John W. Lorton, Bertha L. Walley
ISBN: 0893340944
Binding/Media: Paperback - 160 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride and shipped with confirmation for US addresses. No publisher marks, no shelf wear.
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by A.A. Gill
ISBN: 1416531734
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 240 pages
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride and shipped with confirmation for US addresses. Publisher mark. No shelf wear. This book is in an almost new condition.
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Customer Reviews
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5 pounds of funny stuffed into a 10 pound sack
Rating (3)
Date: 2010-07-11
This book disappoints. As other reviewers have noted, perhaps the author's gifts are best expressed in other formats. The various conceits upon which he constructs his tirades are not strong enough to support their size. Or, as a Brit might say, he does go on a bit. Save your $$--get it from a library and dip in to some funny moments in the 1st half of the book. It's not one you'll want to own.
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interesting and entertaining
Rating (4)
Date: 2010-03-07
I enjoyed this book. I did skip around, leaving some chapters til later and reading only what was of interest to me currently. Yes, he is outrageous and does sound insulting - but really it's up to one who disagrees with the author to develop a counter argument.
I could not enjoy the book 100% because I am not English, and have never visted the isle. But I could enjoy the opinions (and that's what they are, opinions) raised in the book.
What I found most entertaining is the author's way with words - he is defintely a word-monger and word-weaver - two very English traits.
I felt I learned some things about English culture and was motivated to learn more. What more can you want from a book? It opened my eyes to new ways of thinking and spurred me to learn more about England and its people
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A Little Gem of a Tirade
Rating (4)
Date: 2009-11-14
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Mr Gill's polemical little treatise is simply awful. It is one of the most venomous, hate-filled, bile-soaked bundles of papers created ever since Mr A. Hitler put down the paintbrush and took up the genocide-advocacy business.
It is also one of the most delightful, lyrical books I've ever been fortunate enough to read.
I exaggerate, of course, and this is exactly what Mr Gill does as he sets about deliberately trying to demolish every shibboleth, to pull the tail of every sacred cow, to dispel every assumption there ever was about the English.
His central theme is that far from being restrained, witty, animal-loving gentlemen, the single defining characteristic of the English is their anger. He does so in 16 vitriolic chapters smashing preconceptions on everything from humor and drinking, to gardening and sports. It's perhaps with deliberate irony that a book that takes the English to task for their madness should do so in such froth-flecked terms.
Indeed, it would be easy to be distracted by the book's many annoyances. Take, for example, Mr Gill's pedantic insistence on identifying himself as a Scot, despite having lived his life since age 1 in England. Not only does this strike me as ungrateful, but the whole "Scotland is a country" riff comes off as childish, like two siblings drawing an invisible dividing line down a shared bedroom.
Yet getting angry with Mr Gill would not only prove him so smugly right, but it would also deprive you of the joy of his prose. Whatever I think of the man or his views, he knows how to write, how to make words sing. In Mr Gill's prose, stairs are "clumsy" with flowers, class snobbery is as "smart as a wet patch" on the front of your pants, airports are "the maternity units of queues".
However over-the-top his views, there is much here that is intelligently observed. Take, for example, the English war against the Zulus, in which England doled out an unprecedented number of Victoria Crosses. The really brave ones, notes Mr Gill, were the Zulus, who took on the British armed with no more than a knife on a stick and a leather coffee table. His enumeration of all the ways "sorry" can mean something else, if not its complete opposite, is spot-on.
Finally, the book is undoubtedly funny. As he admits in the chapter on Humor, English jokes are often at their funniest when aimed, not shared, and his own book is Exhibit A. This attack on the English class system is as hilarious as it is unprintable. His description of the English delight in their own misfortune--a kind of self-reflexive schadenfreude--will tickle anyone who has spent time among the English.
Disjointed, bombastic, frequently wide of the mark, Yes. But also witty, intelligent and poetic. Ah, the man may talk like the devil, but he writes like an angel.
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"This is a collection of prejudice"
Rating (3)
Date: 2009-09-17
"Anger is an energy," Johnny Rotten sang. Although uncited here, he speaks for the minority; most repress resentment. According to Gill, the "high-maintenance, self-imposed" English contradict themselves. They hold bile rather than spit. In this, they characterize themselves as restrained and dignified. In fact, they act not in harmony with but despite their inner nature.
"Anger has made the English an ugly race. But then this anger is also the source of England's most admirable achievement: their heroic self-control. It's the daily struggle of not giving in to your natural inclination to run amok with a cricket bat, to spit and bite in a crowded tearoom, that I admire most in the English." (8) Born in Scotland, but raised in England, Gill relates his life of observing a people like but not like himself in humorous, scabrous, and intelligent chapters that roam into the character of a nation of his sullen, clenched, muttering neighbors.
Faces (the National Portrait Gallery's postcards and pictures as a case study), voices (Received Pronunciation gives orders vs. Estuary makes friends), war memorials (to dead dogs as well as dead soldiers), class, humor, and the Cotswolds (compared to a second-hand porn mag passed from satiated customer to greedy buyer), and the ubiquitous "Sorry" prove Gill's first targets. Animals, Drink, Gardens (like churches, best toiled in rather than rested at, for plenty of time to molder in both when dead), Political Correctness (surprisingly, despite his aspersions to the Welsh, Gill as a humorist by journalistic profession favors its civilizing tendencies), and queues follow. The early New Age experiments at Letchworth Garden City and suitably nostalgia (National Trust) close this "collection of prejudice"-- this phrase opening the book.
I wondered, for lack of material that gained any cross-reference or elaboration, if these appeared as separate essays but no mention of this occurs. This is a persistent fault: these seem as if disparate diatribes, with no core argument to link them. The hectoring tone does wear on after a while, and the information marshalled in service of scorn even for this disaffected Irishman overwhelmed me as a reader less obsessed.
Gill packs erudition into this sociological treatise disguised as a light read. He also writes well. Near his Soho home, he sees a pub with Chelsea v. Newcastle: its "office worker" patrons "waylaid on their way to homes too distant and uninviting to arrive at sober. Everyone was looking up, eyes transfixed at a different corner of the room like so many cats watching moths." (96) Later, he waxes about the rooms above pubs where obsessives meet. He captures the awfulness of a comedy open mike night in one pub, and this often droll, even poignant as well as cruel chapter, "Humor," is the best in the book. "Go into any pub and listen to the groups of boys chuckling in circles. It's not a sound you hear anywhere else." (105)
Outside London, the rest of England molders, for sale to exurbans. In a Cotswolds antique shop, Gill reflects: "The lives that have been trickled and sobbed away in the company of this stuff. The old dolls' houses that reek of musty, miserable, lonely childhoods; the pictures of anonymous fields and buoyant seas that stared out over loveless blameful bedrooms; all the utensils of a Victorian wife worn to blunt, smooth distraction by below-stairs indenture." (114)
This reverberates for me in his adolescent drinking memories, for at fifteen: "Everything is plagiarized, borrowed, or made up out of nothing. Your life's like a Third World gift shop, you keep trying to guess what the rich grown-ups want in the hope that one day you'll become one of them." (136) When you do come of age, you still cannot avoid other English, no matter how far you travel. At an foreign airport, Gill accidently steps in front of a "two-person queue," a middle-aged grumpy couple. He apologizes. "Now, if there's one thing an Englishman can't abide it's an apology before he's finished. Combined with a smile, it's akin to sodomy without an introduction." (172) You need no better introduction to the tone of this "collection of prejudice" by one who knows his captors all too well, and could almost pass for one of them after a year in Scotland and over fifty in England.
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The English through the eyes of a Scot
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-18
Mr. Gill is a Scot, not an Englishman, and he insists on maintaining that distinction even though he has spent most of his life among the English. His observations depend on a sharp eye and a sound historical perspective. His portrayal of the English is full of surprises and his revelations are exhilarating and profoundly funny.
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