 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | Just as Henry David Thoreau “traveled a great deal in Concord,” Nobel Prize–winning physicist Steven Weinberg sees much of the world from the window of his study overlooking Lake Austin. In Lake Views Weinberg, considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive today, continues the wide-ranging reflections that have also earned him a reputation as, in the words of New York Times reporter James Glanz, “a powerful writer of prose that can illuminate—and sting.” This collection presents Weinberg’s views on topics ranging from problems of cosmology to assorted world issues—military, political, and religious. Even as he moves beyond the bounds of science, each essay reflects his experience as a theoretical physicist. And as in the celebrated Facing Up, the essays express a viewpoint that is rationalist, reductionist, realist, and secular. A new introduction precedes each essay, explaining how it came to be written and bringing it up to date where necessary. As an essayist, Weinberg insists on seeing things as they are, without despair and with good humor. Sure to provoke his readers—postmodern cultural critics, enthusiasts for manned space flight or missile defense, economic conservatives, sociologists of science, anti-Zionists, and religious zealots—this book nonetheless offers the pleasure of a sustained encounter with one of the most interesting scientific minds of our time. (20091102) |
Average Customer Rating:    Brilliant thinker but a little out of date I am a huge admirer of Steven Weinberg. He is a brilliant man and a profound thinker. However, I can only give this book three stars, as most of the articles in it are several years old and available online. I have read several of the essays years before. I would have liked to see more recent work for a $26 book. A nice compilation of Weinberg's writings As a fan of Steven Weinberg's writings I enjoyed being able to read his more recent essays under one cover. His book the "First Three Minutes", written in the late 70's helped inspire my interest in physics and astronomy and a subsequent career in science. His recent book on "Cosmology" is Weinberg at his best.
I enjoy the writings and opinions of famous scientists even when they write about non science topics. It gives me a special insight into the kind of person they are often revealing their quirks and biases, and most importantly their occasional falibility in fields outside their domain. This is sometimes evident in Weinberg's writings. After reading his latest book of essays, I feel I got to know him a little better. Less interesting than the Product Descriptions lead you to think Although Mr. Weinberg is indeed a graceful writer and true intellectual, this collection of articles proves to come up short.
Most of the articles are between 5 and 9 years old and are simply out of date. They have been reprinted within this book with commentary added to bring them up to date. I expected the articles to be relevant today, instead of reading older articles and then having to read commentary on what has changed since then.
Many of the articles contain repeated content from other articles within the same book. This is the risk of combining various articles together into one collection. Mr. Weinberg does drop some repeated content in places, but many more remain within the current book. Additionally, the original articles have probably already been read by potential readers of this book. They are available in the New York Review of Books and Physics Today.
Mr. Weinberg repeatably states that he was asked to write the articles by some 3rd party and that he was shy to write the article due to his lack of experience in the topic. However, each time the article is written and his opinions stated. If the author didn't feel confident to write the article then why was it worth republishing in this book? Or, perhaps he is just being polite to respect those whose professions he is contemplating within.
To publish a book of articles that oneself has written, comes across as arrogant. Perhaps history should set the contents of a such a collection of articles, instead of the author trying to write his own history.
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