Customer Reviews

The American Century: Varieties of Culture in Modern Times

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First, I enjoyed the book a great deal. It was incredibly thought-provoking and stimulating. Therefore, whatever its shortcomings, it is truly an impressive achievement and a remarkable tour de force.

My complaint is that the author appears seriously misinformed on some of the scientific subjects about which he writes. Granted, Cantor is not a natural scientist, and the book is not primarily about science. Still, what he chooses to include about chemistry and physics ought to be correct. For example (p. 19), Cantor is completely mistaken about the role of the periodic table in modern chemistry (or, as he would have it, the lack of a role); he even gives the wrong date for its discovery (no later than 1869, not 1890 as stated). I can be less categorical about a quotation of Einstein's purporting to show that Einstein knew his theory of relativity was akin to philosophical relativism; however, based on the content and date of the quote (1928) and on my knowledge that relativity retains the principle of causality, I think the quote is much more likely to be about quantum mechanics, about which Einstein (as Cantor notes) had serious misgivings.

Rather than belabor examples, I'll close by stating that these errors undermined the book's authority in my eyes. Granted, a book as opinionated as this generates a healthy skepticism in any critical reader: that is part of the book's attraction and, I assume, part of the author's intent. But by writing inaccurately about matters I know about (I am a chemist), Cantor makes me wonder which, if any, of the other subjects reflect similar misinformation.

Today, New Year's Day 1999, I spent reading the first 170 pages or so of Cantor's book. Pages fly by; it is readable. But it is also superficial, sometimes factually wrong. At one point, the periodic table of elements is presented as an anachronism leftover from the Victorian age. Chemists today, he claims, would not recognize it. "... most chemists today would not even know the periodic table, nor would they have a use for it." (p. 19, paperback edition). That's sheer idiocy, as any practicing chemist would tell you. Inorganic chemistry is essentially the further development of the great periodic table.

My time today was not wasted - but beware.

in his attempt to be comprehensive,norman cantor's survey of twentieth century thought is often superficial. his history of the jews, "the sacred chain", was deeper, more intellectually stimulating and infuriating.

The subject and scope is enticing, but this book demonstrates why the book industry must resuscitate editors. The authors' writing is wooden, repetitive and, finally, irritating. After 50 pages, it drove me to the comparative pleasures of a text on economics.