Cleopatra's Nose : Essays on the Unexpected

Rating:
Summary: Why it might not be what you expect.
Review: After reading Boorstin's Discoverers, Seekers and Creators this book came as something of a shock. As Oliver Sacks and Stephen Gould have written reflective commentaries on issues in their fields of psychology and natural history repectively; Cleopatra's Nose seemed to be marketed as a similar undertaking by Boorstein to develop reflections on the relationship of historical events to our contemporary lives. As other reviews expressed the book seems disjointed, repetitive, and not the Boorstin style and depth for which he is lauded.

The explanation for this, and what the book jacket does not tell you, is that this book was not written to be a book at all. Cleopatra's Nose is a collection of Boorstin's speeches, articles and forewards ranging from a 1944 magazine article to a 1993 speech. Read the Acknowledgements section, which tells you the time and audience each piece was originally written for, and the essays will be much more significant.

That being understood, this book has a few flahes of Boorstin brilliance, but may be more valuable for understanding the views and life of Daniel Boorstin himself.

Rating:
Summary: Why it might not be what you expect.
Review: After reading Boorstin's Discoverers, Seekers and Creators this book came as something of a shock. As Oliver Sacks and Stephen Gould have written reflective commentaries on issues in their fields of psychology and natural history repectively; Cleopatra's Nose seemed to be marketed as a similar undertaking by Boorstein to develop reflections on the relationship of historical events to our contemporary lives. As other reviews expressed the book seems disjointed, repetitive, and not the Boorstin style and depth for which he is lauded.

The explanation for this, and what the book jacket does not tell you, is that this book was not written to be a book at all. Cleopatra's Nose is a collection of Boorstin's speeches, articles and forewards ranging from a 1944 magazine article to a 1993 speech. Read the Acknowledgements section, which tells you the time and audience each piece was originally written for, and the essays will be much more significant.

That being understood, this book has a few flahes of Boorstin brilliance, but may be more valuable for understanding the views and life of Daniel Boorstin himself.

Rating:
Summary: Great Fun
Review: Boorstin himself admits that he continues to be very optimistic about mankind's future, despite all the horrors that go on in the world, and this gives a slightly euphemistic tone to his essays. Still, they are quite informative and I enjoyed reading them.

Rating:
Summary: Very good but not Great
Review: Boorstin is an American treasure with such jewels as The Seekers, the Discoverers, the Creators and the award-winning series on America. He has ventured further and further afield from "pure" American history as he has matured. Or perhaps he understands that "history" is more than dates, battles, places, royalty, marriages and wars. More than anything else, history is about people and in this area, Boorstin shines.

This series of essays concerns the improbable or I should say the unexpected in various realms, mainly science and history. As a Euro-centric writer with a reform Judaic perspective he has a natural expectation that humankind will continue to achieve, learn and triumph. The only thing negative about these essays are their dissimilarity and irregularity. There is also an uneveness in quality that many may find jarring.

Rating:
Summary: Very good but not Great
Review: Boorstin is an American treasure with such jewels as The Seekers, the Discoverers, the Creators and the award-winning series on America. He has ventured further and further afield from "pure" American history as he has matured. Or perhaps he understands that "history" is more than dates, battles, places, royalty, marriages and wars. More than anything else, history is about people and in this area, Boorstin shines.

This series of essays concerns the improbable or I should say the unexpected in various realms, mainly science and history. As a Euro-centric writer with a reform Judaic perspective he has a natural expectation that humankind will continue to achieve, learn and triumph. The only thing negative about these essays are their dissimilarity and irregularity. There is also an uneveness in quality that many may find jarring.

Rating:
Summary: Uneven, often self-consciously clever, a few insights
Review: Boorstin's somewhat disjointed collection of speeches and essays published elsewere is subtitled "Essays on the Unexpected." What was unexpected for me was how disappointing the whole set is. Turns out Boorstin's wife talked him into doing this book; this is a case where he should have pushed back.

Of the 16 chapters, the first four have a breathless, too clever quality that is annoying. Boorstin is on firmer ground and far more interesting when he's writing about American history: with 'Printing and the Constitution,' for example, he shows wit and insight. His chapters on Tocqueville's America, the Capitol and the White House also were interesting. Subsequent chapters, however, on Darwin, statistics, and the so-called fourth kingdom (the age of machines), return to the overwrought form of the early chapters. One of the more annoying things Boorstin does is use religious allusions like a club, to the point when it becomes obvious Boorstin is a secularist who thinks it's all bunk.

Another reviewer noted that Boorstin is far better in his better known works, like The Discoverers. I hope so.

Rating:
Summary: Essays On Science And History
Review: Cleopatra's Nose by Daniel Boorstin is a very good collection of forwards, introductions, lectures, and articles that Boorstin wrote in the '90s. The collection seems to be loosely held together by two themes: science in today's world thrives on the unexpected and discovering the limits of our knowledge [the more we know, the more we know that we don't know] and that the United States is a different kind of country and that's what makes it such a great country. If you are looking to read a book by Boorstin with one theme, then this is not the book for you. For those readers, I'd recommend The Discoverers, The Creators, and The Seekers. If you are a reader of essays or you are looking for smaller samples of Boorstin's writing, then this could be the book for you. I read it straight through, and despite the repetition of material between some of the essays, I found it to be a quick and thought provoking read.

Rating:
Summary: Essays On Science And History
Review: Cleopatra's Nose by Daniel Boorstin is a very good collection of forwards, introductions, lectures, and articles that Boorstin wrote in the '90s. The collection seems to be loosely held together by two themes: science in today's world thrives on the unexpected and discovering the limits of our knowledge [the more we know, the more we know that we don't know] and that the United States is a different kind of country and that's what makes it such a great country. If you are looking to read a book by Boorstin with one theme, then this is not the book for you. For those readers, I'd recommend The Discoverers, The Creators, and The Seekers. If you are a reader of essays or you are looking for smaller samples of Boorstin's writing, then this could be the book for you. I read it straight through, and despite the repetition of material between some of the essays, I found it to be a quick and thought provoking read.

Rating:
Summary: Cleopatra's Nose
Review: I'll admit that I'm not totally finished with this book yet-but that in itself speaks to how difficult I'm finding reading it to be. (in my oppinion, of course) This book is NOT insightful. For a remarkable lot of what Boorstin writes I find myslef mentally shouting "duh!". This happened during the entire chapter devoted to explaining the difference between creative thinkers and discoverers. It's irratating how he speaks of such blatant concepts with a professor-like, "sage"-like tone. Much of the book also has an aggrivating "so what?" factor. As in, "so what, do you have anything surpring or substantial to say, or are you going to waste the rest of this paragraph stating how important the compass was. Oh. You are". I'm a high school student and I found the paragraph structure and clarity of ideas to be poor. The initial lure of the title, "Cleopatra's Nose" and the implied idea about arbitrary turning points in history, turns out to be a term and concept of Pascal's. But Boorstin "shows us how" this man's idea is so.

Rating:
Summary: Great Information and History but...
Review: This is one of those strange books. The history and insight is very good. However, I have two major problems with the test. First is the disjointedness of the topics. It is hard to look at the book at see much relation between the major topics (although the sub-topics are very concise at interesting). The second is the most annoying. After reading the book what do I have? General (trivia) knowledge of American history, General thoughts on scientific thoughts, and other miscellaneous facts. Nothing to apply. No deep thoughts on the past. No emotion. Interesting reading but nothing special.