Short presidency casts long shadow
Writing a book about James Garfield is no easy task.
The 20th president who served the second shortest amount of time in the White House is popularly known more for his assassination than what he did in office.
But in “President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier,” C.W. Goodyear admirably remedies that with a book that demonstrates the long shadow Garfield’s life and legacy has left our country.
The authoritative biography chronicles the life of a man who, in many ways, was one of the most well-spoken and intellectual men to hold the title of commanderin-chief. Underscoring that, every chapter opens with a different quote from Shakespeare that Garfield jotted down in his diary.
But Goodyear makes the case that Garfield’s strength didn’t come from showmanship or his speeches — though some of them resonate just as much as Abraham Lincoln’s.
With much of the book understandably focusing on Garfield’s time in Congress, Goodyear portrays him as someone who “embraced undramatic efficiency in the driest fields of lawmaking imaginable” in a town that attracts its fair share of show horses.
That approach was key in his role in Congress on Reconstruction and his advocacy for education, including as the father of the first Department of Education.
The former college president was also a strong advocate for universal education as a solution to racial injustice.
Garfield’s short time in the White House still is given the attention it deserves, and that includes the story of his assassination.
Though it takes up a briefer section of the biography, Goodyear describes in chilling detail the president’s killing as well as the horror show of medical blunders that contributed to his death.
With his engaging writing and comprehensive research, Goodyear’s biography of Garfield offers a reassessment of the president that’s a welcome introduction to the statesman. — Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press
It is a safe assumption
that the average person on the street has never heard of spin glass and couldn’t explain what it is.
That should not scare casual readers away from “In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonders of Complex Systems” by Giorgio Parisi, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 2021 for his research into the complex metal alloys. It does not take interest or a background in physics to appreciate the work of Parisi.
Writing in clear terms for the layperson that avoid making the reader feel like they have wandered into a lecture hall, the physicist offers a glimpse into his work and a look at how scientific research has evolved over the years.
Parisi describes how much of a role intuition has played in some of the most significant scientific discoveries.
But be prepared for plenty of diagrams that Parisi relies upon to help readers understand the key parts of his physics research.
Most importantly, the deceptively slim volume serves as a forceful argument for the value of scientific literacy at a time when it is increasingly being challenged by misinformation.
Parisi makes the case for clearer communication by the science community to demystify its work and to prevent the general public from embracing irrational and false information.
“In the face of a science perceived as inaccessible magic, nonscientists are pushed toward irrational beliefs,” Parisi writes. “If science comes across as pseudo-magic, then why not opt for actual magic instead?”
Parisi’s book is a step toward making physics feel more accessible and less like magic. — Andrew DeMillo