The Axemaker's Gift

by James Burke and James Ornstein

Book Overview

"A detailed, original and persuasive reading of cultural and intellectual history."--Los Angeles Times. "A genuine tour de force."--San Francisco Chronicle. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399140883
• ISBN13: 9780399140884
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

James BUrke scores again

A fascinating journey through history. If you're a fan of James Burke's "Connections" you'll love this book.

Excellent

As a future technology teacher, this book really brings out the points that I would like students to contemplate. As you can see from the rest of the reviews, their work does provoke quite a discussion. However, it is definitely not the last book you'd want to put down on the subject, but a great overview and set of opinions to get you started. I only wish my professors would invest in it.

5 stars IF you are ready to change the way you think.

If you are ready to pay attention, and I mean really pay attention, The Axemaker's Gift will alter your perception of the world --- specifically humankind's relationship to the natural world --- forever. In the relatively few pages of this book, James Burke and Robert Ornstein take us on a journey from humankind's beginning to present day, maintaining all along the way their metaphor of the double-edged axe (Every advance has a price).Books like The Axemaker's Gift (New World, New Mind by Ornstein and Paul Erlich is another) go beyond interesting reading. This material is important. We need to read it; we need to think carefully about it; and we need to act on the sharp (pun intended) insights provided.The subject matter is essential, the point of view realistic, even if a little dark, and the authors make The Axemaker's Gift an interesting and enjoyable read. As a non-fiction author, I am always impressed with the ability to make serious matters fun, without losing the message.My recommendation: read it, enjoy it, learn from it.

Axemakers Gift audio

Axemakers Gift is the world's best kept open secret. Very enjoyable sound on only two cassettes is multiply distilled encyclopedic overview of the most significant and interesting things that have happened in the entire history of the world. Each world-changing phenomenon leads naturally to the next and shows their possibly hopeful implications for the future If I had my life to live over I would wish very early to hear Axemakers Gift to become instilled with its attitudes of confidence, cheerfulness, fearlessness, compassion, good will, hopefulness and unpretentious incredible erudition. It would give me a sound foundation for facing life instead of trying to think there was something wrong with me because I couldn't see things the way people told me to. I always knew somehow that when I was dying I would figure out what things had been all about but young people who hear this tape can start out from the first with a grounding that will give them enthusiasm for looking for new ideas and, even if they go down the tubes, I guess at least they'll have a sublime understanding of their real part in the great scheme of things. I listen to it again every few weeks to get my fix of sanity and truth and good will in the seeming hopeless of a "gotcha" world. All my thanks for Axemakers Gift, The Day the Universe Changed, and Connections.

Good Over all Coverage

There was nothing earth shattering new in this series that has not been covered by the author before. I thought this suggestion at the end about use "web of knowledge" were interesting. But those looking for a more in depth study of subjects of this nature would be better served in getting "The day the Universe Changed" by the same authour