Author:Leonard Susskind,Art Friedman
The third volume in Leonard Susskind's one-of-a-kind physics series cracks open Einstein's special relativity and field theory
In the first two books in his wildly popular The Theoretical Minimum series, world-class physicist Leonard Susskind provided a brilliant first course in classical and quantum mechanics, offering readers not an oversimplified introduction, but the real thing - everything you need to start doing physics, and nothing more. Now, thankfully, Susskind and his former student Art Friedman are back, this time to introduce readers to special relativity and classical field theory. At last, waves, forces and particles will be demystified.
Using their typical brand of relatively simple maths, enlightening sketches and the same fictional counterparts, Art and Lenny, Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory takes us on an enlightening journey through a world now governed by the laws of special relativity. Starting in their new watering hole, Hermann's Hideaway, with a lesson on relativity, Art and Lenny walk us through the complexities of Einstein's famous theory.
Combining rigor with humour, Susskind and Friedman guarantee that Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory will become part of the reader's physics toolbox.
Witty and insightful ... I found it thrilling
—— Robert P. Crease , NatureThis is quantum mechanics for real. This is the good stuff, the most mysterious aspects of how reality works, set out with crystalline clarity. If you want to know how physicists really think about the world, this book is the place to start
—— Sean Carroll, physicist, California Institute of Technology , author of The Particle at the End of the UniverseA powerful - and quietly electrifying - meditation... Page by page, he builds what amounts to a 21st-century pastoral manifesto. The book is an unsentimental education, part history of farming in the Lake District, part personal memoir. And yet it still soars... Rebanks's prose is beautifully sure-footed
—— Helen Davies , Sunday TimesRebanks's enthusiasm and talent for poetic writing is infectious... [His] words create not only a gorgeous landscape painting of the Lake District and its inhabitants, human, animal, bird and fish, but also a useful social document... What is most striking about this book is its authenticity; this is the real thing
—— Carol Midgley , The TimesA wonderfully detailed and candid account of a life that is both individual and typical of this role in rural society... told with perfect pitch, in prose that flows as easily as speech, cleaves hungrily to the particular, and shifts without strain between the workaday and the imaginative
—— David Craig , GuardianAn enlightening, exquisitely written account... I was beguiled by this book, an eloquent love-letter to a cherished way of life
—— Brian Viner , Daily MailA must-read. It's not only the grandkids and the kids: it's you. And it's not only those in other countries: it's you.
—— Margaret Atwood , TwitterI've not stopped talking about The Uninhabitable Earth since I opened the first page. And I want every single person on this planet to read it.
—— Andrea Wulf, author of 'The Invention of Nature'Riveting . . . Some readers will find Mr Wallace-Wells's outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.
—— The EconomistSkipping the scientific jargon and relaying the facts in urgent and elegant prose, the magazine editor crafts a stirring wake-up call to recognize how global warming will permanently alter every aspect of human life.
—— Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 So Far , TimeWallace-Wells is an extremely adept storyteller, simultaneously urgent and humane . . . [he] does a terrifyingly good job of moving between the specific and the abstract.
—— SlateEnough to induce an honest-to-God panic attack ... The margins of my review copy of the book are scrawled with expressions of terror and despair, declining in articulacy as the pages proceed, until it's all just cartoon sad faces and swear words ... To read The Uninhabitable Earth is to understand the collapse of the distinction between alarmism and plain realism
—— Mark O'Connell , The GuardianThere is much to learn from this book. From media and scientific reports of the past decade, Wallace-Wells sifts key predictions and conveys them in vivid prose.
—— David George Haskell , The ObserverBrilliant ... At the heart of Wallace-Wells's book is a remorseless, near-unbearable account of what we are doing to our planet
—— The New York TimesNot since Bill McKibben's "The End of Nature" 30 years ago have we been told what climate change will mean in such vivid terms.
—— Fred Pearce , The Washington PostEveryone should stop what they're doing and read The Uninhabitable Earth by @dwallacewells. This is our future if we don't act now.
—— Johann Hari , TwitterWake up! Get educated - The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace Wells is a great place to start.
—— Paris Lees , VogueA book that's by turns alarming, terrifying and just downright bleak . . . a sustained piece of informed polemic.
—— The Evening StandardA very accessible and compelling read . . . a much more nuanced and a much more hopeful vision than you might expect.
—— The Irish TimesI think everyone should probably right now read David Wallace-Wells's The Uninhabitable Earth, which tells the grim story with as much optimism as possible, and which gives all the facts.
—— Daniel Swift , The Spectator, Books of the YearWell-written, captivating, occasionally wry and utterly petrifying
—— i NewsIn his gripping new book ... Wallace-Wells shocks us out of complacency'
—— ProspectIf you read just one work of non-fiction this year, it should probably be [this] . . . What this book forces you to face is more important than any other subject you could be informing yourself about.
—— David Sexton , The Evening StandardExceptionally well researched and written. . . . This short, concise book pulls no punches.
—— Mitch Friedman, executive director, Conservation NorthwestYes, this book will scare you, but it will also prompt you to take action to ensure the damage we as humans have done to the planet is stopped.
—— Stylist, ‘Your guide to 2019’s best non-fiction books’Most of us known the gist, if not the details, of the climate change crisis. And yet it is almost impossible to sustain strong feelings about it. David Wallace-Wells has now provided the details, and with writing that is not only clear and forceful, but often imaginative and even funny, he has found a way to make the information deeply felt. This is a profound book, which simultaneously makes me terrified and hopeful about the future, full of regret and new will.
—— Jonathan Safran FoerHarrowing.
—— Jonathan Franzen , The New YorkerThe Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending armageddon.
—— Andrew SolomonJust finished The Uninhabitable Earth by @dwallacewells. Everyone, everywhere, should read it. Can't remember the last time a book had such an impact on me.
—— Rutger Bregman, author of 'Utopia for Realists' , TwitterOn [Alexandra] Ocasio-Cortez's office bookshelf, near a picture of her late father and a photo of her with a local Girl Scout troop, two books nestle together in uneasy union. One is the Federalist papers. The other is The Uninhabitable Earth.
—— Time magazine profile on Alexandra Ocasio-CortezIf there are people around to write history books in the future, they will look back at the @ExtinctionR protestors and think they were the sanest people of our time. Read The Uninhabitable Earth by @dwallacewells if you don't know why.
—— Johann Hari, TwitterIf we don't want our grandchildren to curse us, we had better read this book.
—— Timothy Snyder, author of 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twenty-first Century'David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work.
—— Elizabeth Kolbert, author of 'The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'Trigger warning: when scientists conclude that yesterday's worst-case scenario for global warming is probably unwarranted optimism, it's time to ask Scotty to beam you up. At least that was my reaction upon finishing Wallace-Wells' brilliant and unsparing analysis of a nightmare that is no longer a distant future but our chaotic, burning present.
—— Mike DavisA lucid and thorough description of our unprecedented crisis, and of the mechanisms of denial with which we seek to avoid its fullest recognition.
—— William GibsonPinker is right ... Much good news today tends to be underreported, even unreported. Human beings today lead longer, safer, healthier, wealthier and indeed happier lives than at any point in recorded history ... Pinker surveys the stupendous advancements that the human race has made in modern times according to a dizzying range of metrics
—— NationAn engaging, compelling set of reasons to be cheerful ... it is a welcome antidote
—— NatureThe world is better than ever before. And Steven Pinker can prove it.
—— VoxA substantial and wide-ranging book on the state of our world today ... In forensic detail, Pinker enumerates the myriad ways in which life is getting better ... The book is packed with statistics vaunting the gifts of progress
—— Irish TimesAfter devouring all 453 pages and 75 graphs of psychologist Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, I admit defeat. The defeat of defeatism. This man has done the math. Since the 18th century things have been getting better in pretty much every dimension of human wellbeing.
—— Big ThinkSteven Pinker has a cure for your despair ... life is better than it has ever been. Pinker's case is compelling
—— ProspectUseful and exciting ... Pinker doesn't declaim, he demonstrates - with dozens of graphs and charts - that humankind has spent two centuries winning the battle against entropy in all fields: from health to peace, the environment to democracy, wealth to happiness, to equality between men and women. He asks us crucial questions ... Steven Pinker is right
—— El Mundo (Spain)Enlightenment Now seeks to undo, with facts and figures, the pessimism that has paralysed the world ... We must read this book and absorb its message
—— El Pais (Colombia)Guys, it's really not that bad. In fact, it's the best it's ever been ... Pinker urges people to look at the bigger picture and dive into the data
—— New York PostThings are not as bad as your Facebook news feed makes them seem ... a cheerful, contrarian tract for dark times
—— Niall Ferguson , Boston GlobeCompelling ... At a moment when liberal Enlightenment values are under attack, from the right and the left, this is a very important contribution ... An impressive and useful accomplishment
—— AtlanticWhat makes Invisible Women so compelling is the mountain of data she draws on… a brilliant exposé
—— Ian Sample , Guardian, *Books of the Year*Every man should read this book… [Invisible Women] chats, in page after steely, meticulous page, precisely how the world…is designed around men, and how this puts women at an impossible disadvantage
—— James McConnachie , Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*Funny, exasperating and anger-inducing, there is something for everyone
—— Eleanor Parsons , New ScientistThe essential book of the year, mayhap the decade
—— Marina Vaizey , Tablet, *Books of the Year*A staggering expose of design prejudice and an impassioned call to action
—— ListPerez takes the truism that ours is a world designed for men and backs it with evidence. Impressively collating vast amounts of research
—— Prospect, *Books of the Year*A must-read for men and women alike
—— Hannah Beckerman , Sunday ExpressThis calm, dispassionate, hilarious, entertaining, maddening, infuriating narrative is a highly readable manifesto for real change
—— Marina Vaizey , The Arts Desk, *Books of the Year*This well-researched book turns everything we accept as normal on its head…[Invisible Women] succeeds in making a powerful case for change in a non-preachy, educative style… It is not entertainment; it is a thesis – and a powerful one at that
—— Alison Herbert and Dr Phyl Hughes , Law Society GazetteThis incredibly well-researched and engaging book highlights how the lack of gender-focused data results in the needs of more than half of the population being ignored. The numerous examples cited by Criado-Perez – ranging from infrastructure to healthcare – are shocking and sobering… Invisible Women offers valuable insight into the transformative power of diversity and equality to drive better economic outcomes
—— Christie Guimond , BriefingSuch an insightful book and a good read for everyone
—— Julie Stewart , Business TimesIncredibly topical and relevant in a rapidly changing world, Criado Perez’s multi-award-winning exposé on data bias has seen her become an authority on modern day inequalities
—— CapacityInvisible Women...is already a classic, but I can't recommend it enough
—— Sarah Pedersen , Times Higher EducationA powerful, insightful book
—— Tim Harford , WeekCompelling... revelatory... Criado Perez provides bountiful evidence of her thesis
—— Mariel McKone Leonard , London School of EconomicsA huge eye-opener
—— Jojo de Noronha , GrocerA witty, furious page-turner
—— Emma Donoghue , WeekInvisible Women is highly recommended to both men and women as an incredibly readable piece of journalism... Many of you will also find you cannot put down this passionate and informative book until you've finished it... illuminating and engaging
—— Platinum Business MagazineCompelling
—— Dr Mariel McKone Leonard , London School of EconomicsFilled with hair raising facts and figures, [Invisible Women] investigates the jarring matter of discrepancy and representation in our modern world... make no mistake, once you begin reading, it's hard to stop
—— Reilly Dufresne , Glasgow Guardian, *Christmas Gift Guide 2020*A deeply important and useful book... Fast, funny, angry and vital... A proper game-changer.
—— Caitlin Moran , Foyles, *Author Picks for Christmas*Criado Perez keeps the gobsmacking revelations flowing in a conversational manner, making the reader feel like she’s having lunch with a funny, knowledgeable and passionate friend
—— Science News