Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

This New York Times bestseller is an exciting and fearless investigation of language

Bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today s most important popular science writers. In The Stuff of Thought, Pinker presents a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. Considering scientific questions with examples from everyday life, The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

 Why is Pinker in Harvard   January 24, 2009
M. Jensen (Cleveland)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book astounds me. As a real student of cognitive science, it absolutely astounds me that Pinker is at Harvard. So many others (Len Talmy, Adele Goldberg, Charles Fillmore, Giles Facounier, Mark Turner, Per Aage Brandt) are doing so much more with linguistics. 

Pinker’s books are fun to read, which makes them easily accessible to the public. Not to say that real academic writing should be impossible to understand, but Pinker writes with a purpose: the purpose to sell books. To me, this is just plain sad, that a Harvard professor is setting the standard for writing books with misleading arguments just to turn a buck. 

If you are really interested in language and thought you should check out “Cognitive Linguistics” from oxford press by Croft and Cruse; “Towards a Cognitive Semantics” by Len Talmy, which can be found online at his website (just search for it), or even a book by Mark Turner, “The Way we Think”– this last one isn’t as good, but it’s a little more readable than the other two. 

Pinker is outdated, and just like the whole mindset of Ivy League schools, he won’t bother changing because they’re on top of the world, not matter what they palm off as truth!

 Worthwhile, but could have been shorter   January 8, 2009
Joseph Oppenheim (San Diego, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

There were things I liked about “The Stuff of Thought” and things I didn’t. I would have preferred the book to be shorter. I certainly could take away many profound observations. However, I don’t think Pinker had to go into so many examples, although I am sure many readers will like that. Anyway, here are some important things which I will remember from the book. 

1. We can learn a lot about people from the way they put together words. Pinker shows many examples. 

2. What is an event? 9-11 was an event, however there were also many events which went into effecting it. 

3. Words take on new meanings to reflect on how the world works. 

4. Learning a language is really a remarkable process. Pinker discredits linguistic determination, that is the brain learning language to generate thinking. He asserts that thoughts effect language. Meanings are stored, not the exact combination of words which reflect them. Personally, I think both can work in parallel, when learning a language, but Pinker makes a good argument. 

5. Metaphors are very important. They are an essential part of thought. “To think is to grasp a metaphor”. He shows the use of metaphor in Leviticus, which makes one think even more that biblical scripture, at least the Torah, should not necessarily be taken literally, more like a living document which encourages deeper thinking especially as times change. 

6. The chapter on profanity is certainly interesting. The amygdala, in the brain, is important in storing memories with emotion. Bilingual people react more to taboo words in their first language, rather than their second. Aphasia, loss of articulate language, victims retain the ability to swear. This shows more memories of thought formulas rather than rule combinations. Such swearing in Tourettes’s Syndrome is called copolalia. 

7. The basal ganglia in the brain, when weakened, taboo thoughts are more easily released. There is a “Rage Circuit” which runs from the amygdala to the hypothalmus – limbic circuitry. 

8. Implicative language, like with sarcasm and politeness, versus direct. Hierarchical and “culture of honor” societies use politeness more. 

9. Pinker brings up UN Resolution 242, about the Israeli – Palestinian situation, showing how the wording was intentionally made ambiguous, so each side could more likely agree to it. Best to get some agreement, so at least there is somewhere from which to proceed in negotiations. There again, words reflect thoughts, to often encourage further thinking. 

So, the book is certainly worthwhile, despite its perhaps unnecessary length.

 A bible for any creator of an artificial language   December 24, 2008
Mr. Cecil Ponsaing (SE Queensland Au)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Not having read the whole book yet, but being in the process, and having been asked by Amazon to write a review; … 

… In reading the book, I am being overloaded with tons of interesting language- thought correspondences and their opposites, which one just does not think about when one just speaks a language and, indeed, when one “just” learns another one. There are so many logical extras to language, which non linguists never think about. But if you want to create a language, this book would be one that you would have to know backwards; like a conscientious christian knows his bible. Without this book it will be very hard to make your artificial language consice and better than the natural languages, and then, your artificial language, your creation, will just be another one in the long line of failed artificial languages.

 Fascinating, deep, and satisfying   December 7, 2008
John S. Fry (Menlo Park, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

In his inimitably thoughtful and engaging style, Pinker explains the field of conceptual semantics to the lay reader, and shows what modern theoretical linguistics reveals about how human beings think. The book is in some sense an integration of Pinker’s previous books The Language Instinct, Words and Rules, and How the Mind Works. 

Human thought, Pinker argues, is built around certain primitive concepts, including space, force, dominance, agency, animacy, sex, and contamination. In the most interesting chapters he shows how our human conceptions of space, time, and matter are reflected in linguistic features like tense, aspect, and the count/mass distinction. The relatively recent research results of Beth Levin and her colleagues in the area of lexical semantics, summarized in Chapter 2, are particularly illuminating, as they reveal how seemingly random variations in verb subcategorization patterns actually reflect deep, underlying conceptual schemas in the mind. 

In the final chapters Pinker offers the optimistic conclusion that we need not be permanently shackled by our limited primate brains; scientific progress relies on our remarkable ability to extend our knowledge to new domains through the use of metaphor, analogy, and linguistic combinatorics. “The goal of education,” Pinker concludes, “is to make up for the shortcomings in our instinctive ways of thinking about the physical and social world.” 

 Evolution of language   November 30, 2008
Ilya Grigorik (Toronto, ON, Canada)
Being a newcomer to the analysis and debate of linguistics, the opening parts of the book felt a little heavy – Pinker assumes a certain level of knowledge of the topic area. Having said that, I am glad I persisted as I later found many interesting parallels to the study of NLP (Natural Language Processing) in the computer science community, and eventually the ‘academic’ is replaced with hundreds of references and insightful case studies on how we use our language, why we structure it the way we do, and what it says about us. 

The book really picks up in the latter half as Pinker picks apart numerous examples of our speech, and life situations (politics, power, sex, and so on), and explains the language and foundation behind it. Linguistics offers a fascinating perspective on how our minds operate, and this is a great introduction. I am looking forward to reading more about the topic in the feature.

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.One of today’s most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist’s murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission.

Infidel is the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished — and sometimes reviled — political superstar and champion of free speech. With a gimlet eye and measured, often ironic, voice, Hirsi Ali recounts the evolution of her beliefs, her ironclad will, and her extraordinary resolve to fight injustice done in the name of religion. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries largely ruled by despots. In her early twenties, she escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim immigrant women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Even though she is under constant threat — demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from her family and clan — she refuses to be silenced.

Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali’s story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.

May change your idea of Islam February 5, 2009
Richard S. Bragaw (Arlington Heights, IL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

So well written is this book that one of the members of our Book Club raised the question, “Is it too well written?” We don’t think so, but the story Ali tells will stick with me for a long time. I have a different idea about Islam and terrorism. I have more sense of what life may be like in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and Holland. An excellent autobiography.

Gripping Memoir February 2, 2009
voracious reader (Houston, Tx.)
In this gripping memoir which is a true page turner, the author tells of her harrowing life under the represive hand of Islam and her escape to freedom in the west. She describes the horrors of genital exision which itself is worth the price of the book. Her command of English is remarkable. She is clearly a linguist. This talent allows her to rise to prominance in the Dutch culture and government. However, the prose is not elegant. Noni darwish who wrote Now They Call Me Infidel is a better writer. Her prose is more succint. For this reason alone I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5. I think nearly every reader will find this book easy to read. It is a good choice for book clubs, because it open many discussion topics. Of great interest is the unlikely possibility for mideast peace when Muslims teach their children in schools that Jews are evil and have horns growing out of their heads. They are called donkeys and monkeys. Christians and the western world are also berated though to a lesser degree. Perhaps, this is because there are so many more Christians who would take offense and perhaps even refuse to deal with muslim countries. She dispells the notion that islam is a peaceful religion by quoting violent passages straight out of the Koran. I think this memoir should be required reading for all high school students both here and abroad. If only it were required reading in Muslim schools here and abroad including schools in the mideast, then real progress might be made in Israel.

One of the great books of recent times January 22, 2009
Joseph C. Sweeney (Portland, Maine)
“Infidel” is a glimpse into the Muslim world not often viewed by the West. This is Islam as it is practiced by a couple of billion people around the globe. The courage of the author is almost without parallel, and this is a contemporary book that simply MUST be read by all!

INFIDEL is Excellent reading January 8, 2009
James L. Eller
A story of a young girl who grew up in a poor country under ISLAM. Her story of how she lived in different countries and why she decided to leave
ISLAM. Her trials and tribulations are real and very well written.
You will not want to put this book down after you start reading.

The courage to break free from religious oppression! January 5, 2009
Donald R. Burleson (Roswell, New Mexico)
If ever there has been a rousing testimonial to the indomitability of the human spirit, the incomparable Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book is precisely that. This should be required reading for all those politically correct dopes who go about saying that Islam is a religion of peace, that the Quran doesn’t really “mean” all those genocidal things it says, and that women really aren’t treated so badly in the Islamic world. This valiant woman proves them dreadfully wrong, and does so with an equanimity of spirit that is a marvel to behold. The chapter “Leaving God” is itself worth many times the price of the book, for it showcases what is possible, for the human mind, even under the most trying of circumstances–to leave behind the stranglehold of religion and live a rational life, even when one has been raised in the stultifying oppression of a religious state and culture. The author correctly argues that, unlike what goes on in Islamic countries, in the West we have had the wisdom to leave religion out of public life and policy and government for the most part, and have moved on to the sorts of accomplished social organization only possible in a secular world, and she chronicles her own liberation not only from the seventh-century barbarism of Islam but from the “mind-forged manacles” of religion generally, as she realized soon after the religion-inspired horrors of 9-11 that she had long been an atheist at heart. Bravo to Ayaan Hirsi Ali for forging a monument (much at her own peril, for she lives under a perpetual death-sentence from radical Muslims) not only to the cause of the freedom and dignity and human worth of women everywhere, but to the potential freedom of the human mind from religious caprice and superstition. A must-read!

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

“Fascists,” “Brownshirts,” “jackbooted stormtroopers”—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?

Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler’s National Socialism and Mussolini’s Fascism.

Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term “National socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist.

Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler’s Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal.

Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.

These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism.

Fantastic Insight February 6, 2009
B. Robbins
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I found so many parallels to today’s thinking, it’s scary. It’s all coming around again with the same old plays as 80 years ago. Informative and entertaining.

Drivel January 28, 2009
H. Kirkpatrick (Florida)
4 out of 18 found this review helpful

Just about as accurate as Bias, another poorly researched, poorly written book by the same author. His book would however be good reading in an English class where the teacher would give students this book, Google, and 15 minutes to come up with 25 instances of either misrepresented or blatantly made-up information.

Don’t waste your time.

To Cumbersome January 26, 2009
Carolynn Krueger (Royersford, PA)
2 out of 7 found this review helpful

I purchased the audio version and I could not get through it. I found the book to be clunky and a PHD version in the study of facism. Not what I thought it was going to be which was disappointing because I love Jonah.

It kept moving from the 20’s to the 90’s and then the 40’s – it was confusing and I had to give up on it.

The most important book I’ve ever read. January 24, 2009
Daniel C. Belmont (Provo, UT USA)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

This book is a warning to everyone: LEARN YOUR HISTORY!!! The selective history we have been spoon fed by textbooks and the media can only be overcome by sharing the research of authors like Jonah Goldberg. Get one for yourself and two for friends and tell them to do the same. Spread the word. History is being repeated.

Just because you label yourself one thing, doesn’t make you one January 21, 2009
J. Derks (Appleton, WI USA)
7 out of 20 found this review helpful

Mr. Goldberg starts off with a strong idea: Liberals (in particular Socialists) have a historical precedent for turning into Fascists. The problem for Mr. Goldberg is that just because one says one is a duck, doesn’t make one a duck. This is the problem with American politics in particular, and possibly politics in general the world over: Labeling complex. The innate need to label your opponent as something evil. Still, it is Mr. Goldberg’s flawed hypothesis based on historical fact.

The latest example of this flawed hypothesis from Mr. Goldberg is the “Socialist” Hugo Chavez. Declaring yourself a Socialist, but engaging in the behavior and actions of a tyrant, while tossing out crumbs makes one a tyrant, no matter what label you choose for yourself.

Herein is where Mr. Goldberg’s treatise falls flat. He simply, and quite succinctly, takes the labels other gave themselves as justification for declaring the whole. That would be like judging the entire Republican party (born in Wisconsin, my home) from the actions of Reagan, Gingrich, Limbaugh, G.W. Bush, et al. Those men, and indeed Mr. Goldberg, do not represent my Republican party. They represent the party of anti-intellectualism (which is ironic), victimization complexes, gut based decision-making, and socially intrusive government.

Mr. Goldberg is apparently a child of the “Reagan Revolution” and as such displays all the foul temperaments associated with it in this book. As a true conservative, I must disavow this book as I disavow the majority of AM Radio personalities.

Mr. Goldberg’s title was designed to draw inflamed response, just as many other conservative titles have done, from the left. In this he is no different than Ann Coulter, or many others, seeking to justify the fears and prejudices of the buying public they are supported by. His logic is extremely tenuous (in the best of circumstances) and leaves us with this vague feeling of cotton candy for “conservatives.” Indeed the marketing to faux conservatives is so thick throughout the book, as to leave a sugary smell that permeates the dust cover.

In the end, that’s all the book is, a feel-good treatise for his target audience. This book is fine entertainment, but that’s all it truly is. There is no true historical perspective here, but one is not expecting a shill for either side to do honest fact checking in any case.

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

For decades Americans have turned to LIFE to see, understand, and remember the most important events and people of our time. Just as LIFE once opened up the glittering Kennedy White House, LIFE now focuses its lens on Barack Obama. The American Journey of Barack Obama covers the candidate from his childhood and adolescence to his time as editor of The Harvard Law Review and his Chicago activist years, culminating with the excitement and fervor of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. The unfolding drama of Obama’s life and political career is cinematic in scope, and never has it been presented so compellingly. In addition to a powerful array of photographs that were taken by many of the country’s greatest photographers (and some that were snapped, in the quiet moments, by Obama family members themselves), this book also includes a Foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an incisive narrative biography and original essays by some of our finest writers, including Gay Talese, Charles Johnson, Melissa Fay Greene, Andrei Codrescu, Fay Weldon, Richard Norton Smith, Bob Greene and several others. Many readers will find a new understanding of Obama. All readers will feel that they are bearing witness to a singular, undeniably American story.

Barak the one,the only, the greates moment in the History of the U.S. February 4, 2009 Khali Abd-rahmn (L.A. Cali.) This is a great moment in the History of the U.S. WHAT A GREAT TURNAROUND FOR THE U.S.A. This is what I call redemption for the Country. Sorry Bigots and Haters, but the country comes first.

Americans, We Salute You in Morocco February 3, 2009 Hannah Braverman (Marrakech, Morocco) This was a great book I was excited to read and stunning photos  as well. yes, it is worship because he is so new but I believe  once the noise dies down he will do very much good for the world.  There is another book by Osama Bin Laden’s mistress that is the  only one I enjoyed more than this book. “Diary” by Kola Boof and  it is really quite great. This book about Barack Obama and the  one by Osama’s mistress Kola Boof I would highly recommend.  Please tell Amazon to make the new Kindle machine available to us  in other countries too because they are losing a lot of money.  Hannah

Obama worship is bad February 2, 2009 Winston (Canada) 0 out of 10 found this review helpful So much worship for who? for someone who has done nothing special or important in his life? The new Marxist president of the United States is an empty suit know-nothing who is going to top Jimmy Carter in failure and screw-ups. I am absolutely certain that no amount of Obamble worship can change the true image and legacy of this empty suit. I feel bad for the American people and I am appalled by the amount of worship rendered on this empty suit president.

BARACK THE BEAUTIFUL! January 23, 2009 Cory Raymond (McAllen Texas) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful This is a wonderful pictorial book featuring our new president (prior to his becoming president) and his equally beautiful family. Highly recommended!

Pretty Good Job by Life Magazine on Barack’s Journey January 23, 2009 D. Bui (Menlo Park, CA) Each book serves a purpose, and you will be happy with this book if your purpose is to get to know Barack a little better. If you’re already a fan of prior LIFE publications, then this one will not disappoint.  This book includes very nice photography and presentation, and chronicals Barack’s life (and family) from childhood all the way up to the present. In a way, you will get to know him better as a person; not a politician.  If you want to get to know him better as a politician, I’d recommend ordering the book, “Change We Can Believe In”. It’s sold on amazon and endorsed on his website (www.barackobama.com).