Suddenly, anthropic cosmology—which speculates on the relationship between scientific law and human life—is all the rage. David Darling's Deep Time (reviewed above) takes a self-consciously lyrical look at the field; here, Gribbin (In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, 1984, etc.) and astronomer Rees opt for a more nuts-and-bolts approach. The coauthors scamper across much of the newest turf in astrophysics and particle physics. Their main concern is to identify the nature of the "dark matter" that permeates the universe, and whose gravitational pull keeps the cosmos "balanced on a knife edge between being open and closed." This search for dark matter leads into dizzying tours through "the geography of the universe"—quasars, gravity lenses, cosmic strings, et al.—and the microcosmic "particle zoo." Since dark matter "controls the structure and eventual fate of the Universe," it also creates conditions that favor human life. The authors note that other physical events—the precise balance between nuclear, electrical, and gravitational forces; the homogeneity of the universe—also seem eerily conducive to human life. Coincidence or design? These orthodox scientists plump for the former, positing a vast number of universes, one of which—our own—just by chance gave birth to us all. The aforementioned conclusion is the book's Achilles' heel—neither Gribbin nor Rees is an accomplished philosopher, and in constructing their views on human life, they lean heavily on the most recent (and quite possibly evanescent) theories. When they're writing about what they know, however, they can knock your socks off. A heady introduction to a complex subject.
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1989
ISBN: 055299443X
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1989
The daughter of Boston's beloved maestro transposes the familiar laments of a star's adult child into the world of classical music. In the course of his 50-year tenure as conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra, Arthur Fiedler emerged as a true celebrity. Beyond his musical flair and dashing appearance, he exhibited a knack for marketing. He made his reputation by organizing America's first annual series of free outdoor symphony orchestra concerts on Boston's Charles River Esplanade. On taking over the Pops in 1930, he built a national following, and in his last decades, the PBS ``Evening at Pops'' television broadcasts cemented his fame. The Arthur Fiedler whom the public adored, however, turns out— surprise!—to have distanced himself from his family, immersing himself in his career and continuing to live the high life while on tour. When at home, he would show himself to be misanthropic, miserly, and alcoholic. Fiedler fille details in a clear style how this behavior impeded her personal growth. After a withdrawn, troubled childhood, she came to have difficulties of her own with alcohol and searched into adulthood for a father figure—for instance, dating musicians, some ``hand-picked'' by her father, all with forceful, dominating personalities like his. Her complaints against Fiedler päre seem valid, but the dysfunctional Fiedler family nevertheless strikes the reader as having been more typical of the mid-century upper middle class than traumatic in the ``Daddy Dearest'' vein. More intriguing sections of her book narrate her family's singular accomplishments: her grandfather's emigration from Austria to join the Boston Symphony, her father's navigation of the tides of cultural politics and of nationalist sentiment during WW I, and his endeavors to prove his mettle as a serious artist. That he loved dogs, fire engines, and women while hating children is, in the end, relatively uninteresting. Only Fiedler enthusiasts and habituÇs of the classical music scene will want to wade through the run-of-the-mill pop psychologizing featured here.
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-42391-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A succinct, informative, and well-written history of attempts by Germans to kill or overthrow Hitler. Gill, an Anglo-German historian (A Dance Between Flames: Berlin Between the Wars, p. 192), focuses largely on the resistance network within the German ``establishment'': the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church, the Foreign Office, the Abwehr (German secret service), and, above all, the army. Focusing on the years 193844, he chronicles such key events as the coup d'Çtat planned by a group of officers at the time of the Munich crisis, a coup they would have implemented had Hitler gone to war instead of winning major concessions from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Such efforts culminated in the July 20, 1944, near-miss of a bomb assassination attempt against Hitler by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. It resulted in massive bloodletting against thousands of real and suspected conspirators, was widely denounced within the Third Reich, and was undervalued both abroad and in postwar West Germany, but a July 1944 New York Times editorial aptly called the bombing an ``honorable treason.'' In colorful prose, the author demonstrates how possible anti-Nazi uprisings and assassination attempts were repeatedly thwarted by the conspirators' dawdling and individual failures of nerve, by Allied (particularly British) indifference and mistrust of the conspirators, and by bad luck. He scants communist resistance, although he does delve into the White Rose and other German student groups. Unfortunately, Gill makes almost no mention of Germans who hid or otherwise aided Jews, political dissidents, or those threatened by the ``euthanasia'' campaign. Still, he skillfully uses German and English sources and provides a chart illustrating the resistance network and a ``Who's Who'' of anti-Hitler conspirators. Like the late Barbara Tuchman, Gill has deftly synthesized scholarly and more popular historical writing to produce an impressively accessible and interesting work. (Maps, 25 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 1994
ISBN: 0-8050-3514-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
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