With piercing wit and perceptive analysis, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Kathleen Parker explores how men, maleness, and fatherhood have been under siege in American culture for decades. She argues that the feminist movement veered off course from its original aim of helping women achieve equality and ended up making enemies of men. The pendulum has swung from the reasonable middle to a place where men have been ridiculed in the public square and the importance of fatherhood has been diminished—all to the detriment of women and children, who ultimately suffer most. Exploring our burgeoning culture of permissiveness and the impact of anti-male attitudes on families and relationships, Kathleen Parker tackles some of the more taboo subjects in today’s sexual politics and culture wars that will have America talking about saving the males.

Originally published in 1957 and written by one of the 20th Century's leading botanists and a fierce advocate of organicism, this book explores concepts about man and his relation to life and the universe, and about the great creative and spiritual powers within and around him. The author provides answers to perennial human questions whilst discussing the problems of sin, justice, ugliness and beauty.

In this book, the authors describe the long journey from formless inanimate matter to man, explaining the nature and the logic of the physical-chemical processes involved. It stresses the limitations of reductionism analyses of these processes as complexity increases and novel properties emerge. And, in particular, the authors develop the idea that it was chemical change of the environment that allowed evolution of life to occur and that this evolution required successive addition of new message systems and information codes connected, compatible, and cooperative with previous extant systems. In doing so, the authors analyze the relationship between chemical element content and speciation both in inanimate and living systems in terms of fundamental units and variables or composite (derived) units and variables. Through such analysis, the authors conclude that chemical speciation is very much a matter of chemical cooperation (order versus disorder) while biological speciation requires cooperative flow of chemicals and energy (organization versus disorder). They argue that chance mutations of DNA are far too simple to provide a basis for evolution and biological diversity, though it is a representation of such diversity. It is the survival strength of systems of molecular machinery which separate and generate living species. In the final chapter, they analyze the effect of man's activities on the present global and local ecosystems and speculate on the possible nature of the emergent properties to be expected from an ever-increasing complexity of information based modern societies.

An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, from concrete and steel to denim and chocolate, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science.

The National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author delivers a collection of essays that serve as the perfect “antidote to mansplaining” (The Stranger). In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the great feminist writer Virginia Woolf’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women. “In this series of personal but unsentimental essays, Solnit gives succinct shorthand to a familiar female experience that before had gone unarticulated, perhaps even unrecognized.” —The New York Times “Essential feminist reading.” —The New Republic “This slim book hums with power and wit.” —Boston Globe “Solnit tackles big themes of gender and power in these accessible essays. Honest and full of wit, this is an integral read that furthers the conversation on feminism and contemporary society.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Essential.” —Marketplace “Feminist, frequently funny, unflinchingly honest and often scathing in its conclusions.” —Salon

In this book, the authors describe the long journey from formless inanimate matter to man, explaining the nature and the logic of the physical-chemical processes involved. It stresses the limitations of reductionism analyses of these processes as complexity increases and novel properties emerge. And, in particular, the authors develop the idea that it was chemical change of the environment that allowed evolution of life to occur and that this evolution required successive addition of new message systems and information codes connected, compatible, and cooperative with previous extant systems. In doing so, the authors analyze the relationship between chemical element content and speciation both in inanimate and living systems in terms of fundamental units and variables or composite (derived) units and variables. Through such analysis, the authors conclude that chemical speciation is very much a matter of chemical cooperation (order versus disorder) while biological speciation requires cooperative flow of chemicals and energy (organization versus disorder). They argue that chance mutations of DNA are far too simple to provide a basis for evolution and biological diversity, though it is a representation of such diversity. It is the survival strength of systems of molecular machinery which separate and generate living species. In the final chapter, they analyze the effect of man's activities on the present global and local ecosystems and speculate on the possible nature of the emergent properties to be expected from an ever-increasing complexity of information based modern societies.