An obscure tour of facts and conjecture related to the pyramids at Giza.
One man’s wide-ranging approach to the mysteries of the pyramids.
Fleck’s debut focuses on alternative readings of ancient Egyptian history. Rather than accepting the pyramids as burial sites, the author thinks they have a deeper purpose—one that’s accessible only through certain calculations and very specific readings of key texts. He draws on a variety of sources, from ancient Egyptian fables in translation to the work of fairly obscure archaeologists, to show readers how he found the true meaning of the pyramids: “I will take you to an unmarked and unremembered place in the desert,” he writes. “Why this spot? What do I believe is buried there?...I have my own suspicions, and if or when you make it to the end, you will have yours.” Before he makes the revelation about that spot in the desert, though, Fleck takes readers through calculations that center on the number 432, which he sees as emblematic of the Great Pyramid in particular. The significance of this number is never fully explained, although Fleck writes, “Where did I get that number? A better question would be, when looking at the Great Pyramid, how do you not get that number?” Readers will find it easy to replicate Fleck’s calculations, reading list, and satellite-aided views of the Egyptian desert. They may find it more difficult to arrive at his specific conclusions. For example, Fleck believes that the pyramids were the design of a man called Tog, known in his own time as Imhotep, but he doesn’t explain what Tog meant to accomplish with them. He posits that Tog was a polymath in the style of Leonardo da Vinci but doesn’t clarify precisely what his accomplishments may have been, beyond pyramid construction and the dissemination of monotheism. Fleck apparently means for his book to spark further inquiry, as he closes the main portion of the work by writing, “unless someone digs up and preserves the library of knowledge that I believe is buried under or near Khufu’s Crook, we will never know exactly what transpired over 4,500 years ago.”
An obscure tour of facts and conjecture related to the pyramids at Giza.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1503009431
Page Count: 100
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not light reading but essential for policymakers—and highly recommended for the 40 million people who rely on the Great...
An alarming account of the “slow-motion catastrophe” facing the world’s largest freshwater system.
Based on 13 years of reporting for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this exhaustively detailed examination of the Great Lakes reveals the extent to which this 94,000-square-mile natural resource has been exploited for two centuries. The main culprits have been “over-fishing, over-polluting, and over-prioritizing navigation,” writes Egan, winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. Combining scientific details, the stories of researchers investigating ecological crises, and interviews with people who live and work along the lakes, the author crafts an absorbing narrative of science and human folly. The St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks, canals, and channels leading to the Atlantic Ocean, which allows “noxious species” from foreign ports to enter the lakes through ballast water dumped by freighters, has been a central player. Biologically contaminated ballast water is “the worst kind of pollution,” writes Egan. “It breeds.” As a result, mussels and other invasive species have been devastating the ecosystem and traveling across the country to wreak harm in the West. At the same time, farm-fertilizer runoff has helped create “massive seasonal toxic algae blooms that are turning [Lake] Erie’s water into something that seems impossible for a sea of its size: poison.” The blooms contain “the seeds of a natural and public health disaster.” While lengthy and often highly technical, Egan’s sections on frustrating attempts to engineer the lakes by introducing predator fish species underscore the complexity of the challenge. The author also covers the threats posed by climate change and attempts by outsiders to divert lake waters for profit. He notes that the political will is lacking to reduce farm runoffs. The lakes could “heal on their own,” if protected from new invasions and if the fish and mussels already present “find a new ecological balance.”
Not light reading but essential for policymakers—and highly recommended for the 40 million people who rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water.Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-393-24643-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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