This book explores the evolution of Americans' first way of war; to show how war waged again Indian noncombatant population and agricultural resources became the method early Americans' employed and; ultimately; defined their military heritage. The sanguinary story of the American conquest of the Indian peoples east of the Mississippi River helps demonstrate how early Americans embraced warfare shaped by extravagant violence and focused on conquest. Grenier provides a major revision in understanding the place of warfare directed on noncombatants in the American military tradition; and his conclusions are relevant to understand US "special operations" in the War on Terror.
#766270 in Books Alfred W Crosby 1997-12-13Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.98 x .67 x 5.98l; .81 #File Name: 0521639905262 pagesThe Measure of Reality Quantification in Western Europe 1250 1600
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Prometheus the Measurer: How Quantitfication and the Technology of Sight Shaped the WestBy Bruce LerroBruce Lerro Author: Forging Promethean Psychology: From the Middle Ages To The End of the 19th centuryWhat does the use of Hindu-Arabic numbers; linear perspective painting; polyphonic singing and double-entry bookkeeping have in common? Some very provocative answers are provided by Alfred Crosby in his clear and ambitious book The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society 1250-1600. Crosby systematically compares the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period in the areas of astronomy; cartography; mathematics; painting; music; commerce; accounting; military techniques space as well as spiritual and historical time.He argues there is a direct line between an increase in measurement; mathematical symbols; logical symbols; rational analysis and universal scientific judgments as we proceed from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. Crosby shows how so many of the scientific inventions of the early modern period-- specifically the activity of measuring-- required the use of visual technology. Everything from telescopes to microscopes; from clock-making to algebra; from shipbuilding navigation to perspective painting and musical scores involved sight. Composers; painters; astronomers and bookkeepers were committed to quantitative visual perception in the material of their craft. Essentially; he argues that the quantification of reality was one of the secrets that made the Western world different from the rest of the world for better and for worse. Crosby has a rare skill of being grounded in scientific study while being able to write for an educated lay audience. This is a wonderful book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A feastBy YOPLAITWhat an intellectual feastWittyInfomative challengingw. FatWhat a great man crosby isI see that he is 86 years oldMay he exercise 2 hours a dayPay no attention to the lowfat vegan nonsenseHe ope h e eats lots of fat meat beef and porkIf his doctor tries to put him on statin drugs he should fire him im on the spot and threaten him with a malpractice suitW e need dr crosby around as long as possibleVivaCrosby!!7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. A symbolic system is the keyBy Mark SCrosby uses the metaphor of "striking a match" to describe the event; which combined with quantification; the kindling in Crosby's metaphor; to generate a revolution in the West. The match is visualization: "Visualization and quantification: together they snap the padlock - reality is fettered" (p. 229). As a type of visualization; a symbolic system allowed advancements that were not otherwise possible. In mathematics; accounting and music; having a concise and powerful symbolism freed the mind to range and to create - no longer a prisoner of memory. As Crosby notes: "Because the algebraist could concentrate on the symbols and put aside ... what they represented; he or she could perform unprecedented intellectual feats" (p. 120). Similarly in painting; perspective allowed a new way to manipulate light in order to make more accurate pictures; for the glory of God and man; thus replacing the multiple and spatially incongruous "Nows" in medieval painting with "'exactness and predictability'" (p. 197).Often Crosby's extended metaphors are annoying without being instructive: "Bruno was executed for heresy in 1600 - to no avail. The cat; already out of the bag was having kittens" (p. 105); "For us today; things exist in space like vegetables in an aspic salad ... the aspic was starting to stiffen" (pp. 170; 172); "The moment had arrived for a trumpet solo; and the only instrument available was a hunting horn... But let us deal first with getting from the hunting horn to the trumpet" (p. 111). It seems as if he's chuckling to himself as he's writing this.Otherwise this is a wonderful summary of how the West's development was distinct from that of other areas; such as China and the Middle East; by arguing how quantification and visualization allowed Europeans to perceive the world in a unique manner which allowed them to manipulate the world in ways not dreamt of before. Ironically; Crosby quotes Johan Huizinga (pp. 131-2); who argued that this new emphasis on sight was an indication of the decline in Western civilization because of its insistence on seeing something visible as a necessary precursor to initiate thought.
