Reviews just in!
Conquering the Impossible: My 12,000-Mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle
by Mike Horn
An account of man challenging the limits of mental and physical endurance, January 20, 2008
Far North adventurer Mike Horn has written a testament to the physical and mental strength of the human spirit when tested with impossible challenges. For 27 months, Horn circumnavigated the Arctic Circle in a 12,000-mile solo journey. Without the aid of motorized transportation, Horn traipsed through Greenland, Canada, and Siberia. He faced challenges both natural and political, from fire and frostbite to a polar bear encounter to challenges with the Russian government. The very terrain under his feet consisted of dynamic, shifting ice sheets, which throughout the course of the journey required several detours and cost the explorer days and weeks of time.
Horn may have been on the journey alone, and he no doubt demonstrated awe-inspiring physical and mental endurance, but he had an army of support, from a gourmet chef who packed his meals to medical and athletic experts who could fly to meet him at a moment's notice. Throughout the book, the reader can not forget that money was not an object on Mike Horn's journey, and a rescue by the cavalry could have been staged if needed.
I thoroughly enjoyed Horn's adventure tale, which was educational as well as adrenaline-pumping. The reader will learn a great deal about the chemical behavior of different substances in extreme cold (Horn was in temperature down to -70°C!). Mucus, in fact, can be put to use under extreme conditions as a valuable moisturizer. I was also inspired by the skill and kindness demonstrated by the Inuit, Canadian, and Russian citizens Mike Horn encountered.
Fourteen months after Mike Horn conquered the impossible, he made a two-month journey to the North Pole in absolute winter darkness without the aid of any motorized transportation. I'll stay tuned for the volume on that adventure.
Truth and Consequences: Special Comments on the Bush Administration's War on American Values
by Keith Olbermann
"I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. This isn't right -- you're not doing what you said you were going to do.", December 30, 2007
Keith Olbermann's first Special Comment (although it was not called such at the first broadcast) was a scathing critique of the failure of the Bush administration to "save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water" in the state of Louisiana. The more well-known inaugural Special Comment came a year later, when the anchor launched into a six-minute diatribe that began "The man who see absolutes where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning is either a prophet or a quack. Donald Rumsfield is not a prophet." Olbermann concluded that broadcast with the words of his hero, Edward R. Murrow: "And so good night, and good luck." Truth or Consequences collects two dozen of Olbermann's Special Comments, which are intensely organic by nature. When his management encouraged him to develop the Special Comments, the anchor refused to do so on any schedule, insisting that by their very nature, Special Comments are only warranted by the instantaneous political climate.
The author insisted that his broadcasts be reprinted in the book as they were stated on the air, including any of "the sort of little grammatical infelicities that my copy editor tried to weed out." Each Special Comment is introduced by the author, bringing greater context (and fun stuff like a behind-the-scenes look at the off-camera character of President Clinton) to the impact of his message. Reading the twenty-four chapters over the span of a few days, I was struck by how well-constructed Olbermann's analysis is. He repeatedly exposes logical fallacies and inconsistencies in the message of the Bush administration, and he delights in taking Bush's ill-formed historical analogies to task. He might seem passionately charged up on air, but his monologues are well-crafted and comprise a complete, scholarly look at modern American politics. There is merit both to watching him live in the heat of the moment (or on that little network called YouTube) and to reading his Special Comments as a unified collection.
Do you worry about Olbermann running out of material with a change in administration? Don't worry, he told NPR. "I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. This isn't right -- you're not doing what you said you were going to do. You have not restored habeas corpus fully. We're still in Gitmo. We're still in Iraq. We're not out fast enough. These are still going to be issues. They don't go away with George Bush."
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
by Philip Zimbardo
A scholar seeks to understand "How good people turn evil", December 21, 2007
In 1971, social psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment, a two-week, grant-funded mock prison experiment at Stanford University. His work became the stuff of legend when it was called off after six short days due to the brutality of the student "guards" and the emotional trauma suffered by the student "inmates." Zimbardo concluded that "most of us can undergo significant character transformations when we are caught up in the crucible of social forces." Thirty years later, Zimbardo again rose to national attention when he testified for the defense in the court martial of Sgt. Ivan Frederick, a guard at Abu Ghraib prison, arguing for a reduced sentence due to the influence of poor prison and military management on the situation. (For the record, at that trial, Sgt. Frederick received the maximum 8-year sentence permitted under law).
Zimbardo's new book, The Lucifer Effect, capstones his four-decade career studying what makes good people do bad things, from the Stanford Prison Experiment to the Abu Ghraib atrocities to lessons from history. Zimbardo wants to know how moral people can be seduced to act immorally; what the incentives for crossing the line between good and evil might be. The first 200 pages are a detailed account of the six days of the experiment, followed by section with reflections and insights on the experiment and its outcome. The book concludes with another 200 page section on modern applications of the Stanford Prison Experiment and lessons from history- namely, Abu Ghraib. The scholar makes a compelling argument for holding the military and government accountable for creating the environment that propelled ordinary soldiers into sadists. In this expose of human nature, the author proves how vulnerable we all are to the powerful effects of our Situation as well as the System.
Zimbardo's 1970's experiment was not without its detractors. The experiment itself is shocking in modern times - no school or researcher would subject themselves to the litigation that could result from such a research setting. Zimbardo himself was a part of the prison setting, instead of a neutral observer, so the conclusions are subjective and unrepeatable. Critics also cited a lack of scientific controls, an environment of "role playing" to the observer's standards, and the small sample size and extremely short duration of the study. Given that it can't be repeated for social and legal reasons, we are left with only this small, imperfect slice of data about his study. In many ways, The Lucifer Effect shows exactly how relevant the Stanford Prison Experiment was, because Zimbardo is able to place it in the larger context of both historical examples and of our modern war.
From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception in the Workplace
by David Shulman
A superbly executed study of deception at all levels, January 20, 2008
Author David Shulman states that deception is a necessary element of the modern workplace "unless, of course, you think the best thing to do is tell your annoying boss or client what you really think, or to comply with every cumbersome rule or unnecessary piece of paperwork that slows down your performance." Dishonesty is a policy, whether it is gossiping, fibbing to cover up a botched deadline, sweet-talking your boss, underestimating costs to win a bid, or surfing the web on company time.
Shulman's book makes a case study of both official, sanctioned workplaces deception (the work of a private eye, for example) and unofficial deceptive behavior. The author examines the ethics of deception on an everyday level, probing the spectrum from trivial white lies to grave criminal acts. He even forces workers and organizations to confront deception head-on, discovering that workers tend to cite game theory for lying, while organizations tend to decry bad apples among the worker population.
The author deftly combines both aggregate and anecdotal research methods. (The appendix has comprehensive research design notes, and hundreds of works are cited.) Shulman's thesis carries academic weight due to his methodology, but his first person interviews reveal truths that resonate with any modern office worker. One respondent told Shulman, "Rules are elastic - they bend enough to let powerful people slip by and then snap back into shape to prevent less powerful people from doing the same thing." Shulman found that workers are identified as trustworthy if they cover up necessary violations, leading to a key sense of harmony in the office environment.
This slim volume is impeccably organized and to-the-point. One can read the opening and closing chapters to glean the executive summary and then quickly reference the more detailed information in the heart of the book. Includes citations and extensive chapter notes.
cross-posted to lagizma and booksalon