"The future is now," Margaret Mead says as the coda of her series of three essays developed from the Man and Nature lectures at the American Museum of Natural History. The lesson the elders of western society must learn is to relocate the future in the present, to give power to the young and together work out man's destiny. The message will be impossible for some to swallow, but Mead, now approaching 70, is both optimistic and shares the enthusiasm of activist youth. In the first two essays she classifies cultures in terms of models for behavior. In "postfigurative" societies the three generation family is typical, and grandparents set the tone of the life style. "Cofigurative" societies are those in which there is some recognition and approval of change, and models can be drawn from contemporaries. We are now moving toward a "prefigurative" society—the NOW generation if you will—and Mead feels that this may be our only hope. As usual the distinguished anthropologist displays a stunning intuition illumined by anecdotes drawn from her lifelong fieldwork, but also, as usual with intuitionists, you find you want to ask more pointed questions as you read, pick a hole in an argument here or there and finally ask who are the teachers from whom the young are learning if they are to teach the old. Perhaps the real point is that the word "generation" has lost meaning and we must substitute a new term for groups only five or six years apart who act as the links between those who came before and those who come after.
Pub Date: Jan. 9, 1969
ISBN: 0370013328
Page Count: 99
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1969
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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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