New Releases by Richard Rhodes

In this perceptive and illustrative look at the expressive and practical use of stone throughout history, Richard Rhodes unlocks the underlying principles of this ancient material—and explains the closely guarded “Sacred Rules” of the Freemasons guild for the first time ever. The relationship between mankind and stone is elemental and deeply ingrained in us all. Stone, after all, has been the primary building material for more than five thousand years of human history, and it continues to record our triumphs and failures. In this searching history, Rhodes—a sculptor, stonemason, and scholar of stonework—explores how stone is best used today and throughout history. Stone presents the closely kept “Sacred Rules” developed over centuries by the medieval Freemason guild, previously available only to the initiated. Here, the rules are explained through historical examples and photographs. In these times of rapid development and expansive urbanization, Rhodes implores us to explore the essential qualities of stone that emerge from the Sacred Rules, not only to rediscover the ancient and traditional knowledge that governed its use for so long but also to find a roadmap for how future generations might thoughtfully recapture the power this material offers. MOST RENOWNED STONEMASON IN THE U.S.: Richard Rhodes apprenticed as a stonemason in Siena, Italy, after graduate studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. As the first non-Italian admitted into Siena’s ancient masonic guild in 726 years, he is known throughout the sculpture and stone community as the “last apprentice.” HISTORICAL EDUCATION: A nationally acclaimed lecturer and educator, Rhodes has shared his deep knowledge of the history of stone and stonemasonry through convention addresses to the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, a five-lecture educational series to the Institute of Classical Architecture in both New York and San Francisco, and lectures to the Building Stone Institute and many public and private universities. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, New York Times, Architectural Record, MSNBC, The Globe and Mail, Greenwich Post, Seattle Times, and The Globe and Mail, among many others. EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR: The book includes a foreword by Paul Goldberger, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and previous architecture critic for both the New Yorker and the New York Times, where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of many books, including Why Architecture Matters.

A masterful and timely biography of the hugely influential biologist and naturalist E. O. Wilson, one of the most ground-breaking and controversial scientists of our time—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb Few biologists have been as productive, ground-breaking, or controversial as Edward Osborne Wilson. At 92 years old, he may be the most eminent American scientist in any field today. Fascinated from an early age by the natural world in general and ants in particular, his field work on them and on all social insects has vastly expanded our knowledge of their many species and fascinating ways of being. This work led to his 1975 book Sociobiology, which created an intellectual firestorm with his contention that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is governed by the laws of evolution and genetics. Wilson has since become a leading voice on the crucial importance of biodiversity and has worked tirelessly to synthesize science and the humanities in a fruitful way. A towering figure in his own right, Richard Rhodes has had complete and unfettered access to Wilson, his associates, and his papers in writing this book. The result is one of the most accomplished, anticipated and urgently necessary scientific biographies in years.

普立茲獎得主最新力作！ 美國Amazon暢銷書No. 1！ 《紐約時報》、《華爾街日報》等各大媒體一致讚揚 核災威脅與空汙危機，兩難卻得當機立斷！ 能源的決策，台灣人民該如何抉擇？ 在幾乎被遺忘的歷史知識當中， 你將可發掘出人類未來之路的線索…… ★對能源的追求，造就致命的隱形殺手 二十世紀以來，工業迅速發展，讓加州深受空汙問題困擾。嚴重的霧霾，使呼吸道疾病大爆發，一九五○年代，曾在兩天內奪去四百多條人命，一年超過七萬人逃離洛杉磯。為解決日益嚴重的霧霾問題，憂心忡忡的官員們找上任教於加州理工學院的化學家艾瑞•哈根史密特，請他展開研究。 哈根史密特原先的研究主題是精油的萃取與合成，他清掉堆滿實驗室的鳳梨，打開窗戶，引進幾千立方呎的霧霾空氣，透過液態氮冷卻，凝聚出幾滴褐色、惡臭的黏膠。他發現黏膠的化學成分，來自汽車廢氣與附近煉油廠的排放物。這種新玩意受到陽光催化後，會使空氣變成黑褐色。 石油公司的化學家嘲笑哈根史密特的分析，並宣稱根本沒發現這種化學反應，這激起了固執的哈根史密特的憤怒。他於是利用分析鳳梨的設備，解析出危害空氣的種種成分，並用舊輪胎的脆化證明了霧霾中含有過量的臭氧。加州政府就此介入，這才展開了淨化洛杉磯的過程。 ★「能源轉型」遙遙無期，為什麼？ 採用新的能源來源為何如此緩慢？長年任職於國際應用系統分析研究所（IIASA）的義大利物理學家切薩雷•馬凱提（Cesare Marchetti）提出他的見解：社會是個學習系統。它以文化擴散運作──觀念從一個人散播到其他人──很像傳染病。發明新科技只是開始。亨利•福特的T型車需要加油站。加油站需要汽油，汽油來自石油，石油必須去找，煉油廠必須處理，管線必須把油送到煉油廠，把汽油送到車輛集中的各大城市。人們必須放棄騎馬或搭馬車去買汽車，學習開車──以此類推。當拉鍊開始取代鈕扣，有些人抗拒改變，因為他們認為拉鍊是罪惡：它們讓脫衣服變容易。 煤炭對伊莉莎白時代的許多人而言，是魔鬼的排泄物，如同現在核能給許多反對者的印象。而化石燃料公司對於核能和可再生能源一概不喜：這兩者會競爭市場空間，傷害到他們的利益。如同美國人生活中的許多事，能源來源已經被政治化，在這樣的局勢下，我們恐難以拯救地球。 ★核能，還是綠能？這是個問題 二十一世紀的大挑戰將是抑制全球暖化，並為數量增加的世界人口，提供足以共存共榮的能源。 人們對於核能的擔憂其來有自，這片陰影從二戰以後就開始蔓延。即便樂觀幽默如物理學家理查•費曼，都曾因核能可能帶來的危害而陷入憂鬱。而在歷經三哩島、車諾比、福島等三起核災之後，全球核能發展的腳步，已在二○一七年開始放緩。 另一方面，儘管再生能源在全球發電總量逐漸增加，但占比始終甚微。在大多數國家的電力組合中，太陽能仍相對微小，即使一向最熱心接納這項科技的歐洲，太陽能平均只提供電力需求的百分之四。二○一六年時，總安裝的風電產能也遠低於世界總電力的百分之一。 「產能因素」（實際能發電的時間長短）是所有間歇性能源來源的共通問題。陽光未必隨時有，風未必不停吹，也不一定保證終年有水來推動水壩的渦輪機。 ★能源，決定未來世界霸權的關鍵 繁榮的西方國家如果下定決心，或許勉強負擔得起用可再生能源來生產所有動力；然而絕大多數國家沒有這種選項。但是，核能會是人類在全球暖化下的唯一對策嗎？不，它也不是，就像我們無法光靠可再生能源系統一樣。核能在歐洲和美國強大的政治抗拒下，其實腳步不穩。歐美地區大幅補貼可再生能源，也嚴格規範核能的使用。於此同時，新興的核能電廠多設立在東亞與南亞，尤其是印度、中國、日本與南韓。 其實，每種能源系統都有它的優缺點，綜覽四百年來的能源發展史，你會驚覺：人類的倖存或死亡，強權的崛起與消殞，都與能源挑戰密不可分。普立茲獎得主理查•羅德斯，將在本書中透過難忘的角色卡司，說明人類是如何憑藉才智、毅力甚至道德勇氣，一次次走過看似難如登天的「能源轉型」，並以其獨樹一格的觀點，告訴我們：那些歷史上幾乎被遺忘的知識，或許，能為我們指出未來的道路！ 本書特色 ★普立茲獎得主理查•羅德斯最新力作！出版以來長踞美國Amazon書店能源類暢銷榜前三名。 ★收錄十六世紀到二十二世紀，能源發展歷程與最新未來預測，讓你看清未來能源的可能走向。 ★排除政治角力與商業利益的蒙蔽，帶領你回歸人文本質，重新思考攸關人類命運的能源議題。 名人推薦 周桂田／臺灣大學國家發展研究所所長、臺灣大學風險社會與政策研究中心主任 房慧真／作家、記者 楊士範／The News Lens關鍵評論網共同創辦人暨內容長 葉宗洸／國立清華大學工程與系統科學系教授兼原子科學技術發展中心主任 雷雅淇／PanSci泛科學 總編輯 蔣竹山／中央大學歷史研究所副教授 蕭宇辰／「臺灣吧Taiwan Bar」共同創辦人、「故事：寫給所有人的歷史」共同創辦人 （依姓氏筆劃排序） 媒體讚譽 「在這部研究嚴謹的作品裡，羅德斯呈獻四個世紀以來的能源發展與運用，並透過歷史中常被低估的工程師、科學家與發明家，將其魅力展露無遺。」──《紐約時報》（New York Times） 「他為人類為求達成自身目的而扭曲自然世界的四百年來、無論好壞的探索歷程，提供了一個引人入勝的詮釋。……羅德斯先生再次推出了傑出之作。」──《華爾街日報》（The Wall Street Journal） 「不論在人類或環境方面，羅德斯毫未遮掩進步所帶來的缺點。……是一部充滿才智與進步、寫作優美、富啟發性的史詩，是普遍讀者的理想選擇。」──《書單》（Booklist） 「羅德斯令人炫目的《能源，迫在眉睫的抉擇》，講述一段關於人類的需求與好奇、創新與傲慢的故事，極富可讀性……對每一個關注人類對未來世界之衝擊的人來說，是必讀的優秀作品。」——《書頁》（Bookpage） 「《能源，迫在眉睫的抉擇》是歷史作品，也是滿懷熱忱寫下的道德故事。……羅德斯批判性地回顧能源科技的過去，企求有助於其未來的發展，這樣的期盼令人振奮。」──《科學》（Science） 「普立茲獎得主、歷史學家暨作家理查•羅德斯，再次擔負起糾纏不清的科技運用議題，使複雜的問題變得平易近人。」──《圖書館雜誌》（Library Journal） 「羅德斯出色地呈現出蒸汽機與原子爐的內部運作，而他生動的敘事，將讀者帶進驚心動魄的旅程……他的迷人故事將令科技工作者欣喜，尤其吸引發明家與發現者。」──《出版人週刊》（Publishers Weekly）

"The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) inspired and haunted an extraordinary number of exceptional atrists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Martha Gelhorn, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and John Dos Passos. It spurred breakthroughs in military and medical technology. New aircraft, weapons, tactics, and strategy all emerged in the intense Spanish conflict. Progress also arose from the horror: doctors and nurses who volunteered to serve with the Spanish defenders devised major advances in battlefield surgery and frontline blood tansfusion. Rhodes takes us into the battlefields, bomb shelters, and hospitals; into the studios of artists; and into the hearts and minds of a rich cast of characters, showing how the ideological, aesthetic, and technological developments that emerged in Spain changed the world forever." --

A book of short stories. It travels the gamut of tragedies, murder, kidnapping, drugs, home invasion, family ties, sadness, and happiness. Most of all, numerous rescues by a boy and his dog. It lends to the reader a true feeling of apprehension and anxiety. A good read for every age, especially pet lovers! The author puts you in the story. Theres a turn the page absorbance on each page. Check it out.

Why do some men, women and even children assault, batter, rape, mutilate and murder? In his stunning new book, the Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes provides a startling and persuasive answer. Why They Killexplores the discoveries of a maverick American criminologist, Dr. Lonnie Athens -- himself the child of a violent family -- which challenge conventional theories about violent behavior. By interviewing violent criminals in prison, Dr. Athens has identified a pattern of social development common to all seriously violent people -- a four-stage process he calls "violentization": -- First, brutalization: A young person is forced by violence or the threat of violence to submit to an aggressive authority figure; he witnesses the violent subjugation of intimates, and the authority figure coaches him to use violence to settle disputes. -- Second, belligerency: The dispirited subject, determined to prevent his further violent subjugation, heeds his coach and resolves to resort to violence. -- Third, violent performances: His violent response to provocation succeeds, and he reads respect and fear in the eyes of others. -- Fourth, virulency: Exultant, he determines from now on to utilize serious violence as a means of dealing with people -- and he bonds with others who believe as he does. Since all four stages must be fully experienced in sequence and completed to produce a violent individual, we see how intervening to interrupt the process can prevent a tragic outcome. Rhodes supports Athens''s theory with historical evidence and shows how it explains such violent careers as those of Perry Smith (the killer central to Truman Capote''s narrative In Cold Blood), Mike Tyson, "preppy rapist" Alex Kelly, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Why They Kill challenges with devastating evidence the theory that violent behavior is impulsive, unconsciously motivated and predetermined. It offers compelling insights into the terrible, ongoing dilemma of criminal violence that plagues families, neighborhoods, cities and schools.

In this brilliant and gripping medical detective story. Richard Rhodes follows virus hunters on three continents as they track the emergence of a deadly new brain disease that first kills cannibals in New Guinea, then cattle and young people in Britain and France -- and that has already been traced to food animals in the United States. In a new Afterword for the paperback, Rhodes reports the latest U.S. and worldwide developments of a burgeoning global threat.

A brilliant and illuminating exploration of one man''s sexual odyssey, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and A Hole in the World. Making Love marks the first time a major author has written with such unapologetic candor of his most intimate experiences, fantasies, and thoughts. From his sexual coming of age to his work with ESO (Extended Sexual Orgasm), Richard Rhodes has created both an insightful memoir and a provocative treatise on sex, taboo, love, and power.

**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award** The definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb. This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans’ race to beat Hitler’s Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence. From nuclear power’s earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story. Richard Rhodes’s ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work.

Technology was the blessing and the bane of the twentieth century. Human life span nearly doubled in the West, but in no century were more human beings killed by new technologies of war. Improvements in agriculture now feed increasing billions, but pesticides and chemicals threaten to poison the earth. Does technology improve us or diminish us? Enslave us or make us free? With this first-ever collection of the essential twentieth-century writings on technology, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Rhodes explores the optimism, ambivalence, and wrongheaded judgments with which Americans have faced an ever-shifting world. Visions of Technology collects writings on events from the Great Exposition of 1900 and the invention of the telegraph to the advent of genetic counseling and the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBM''s chess-playing computer, Deep Blue. Its gems of opinion and history include Henry Ford on the horseless carriage, Robert Caro on the transformation of New York City, J. Robert Oppenheimer on science and war, Loretta Lynn on the Pill and much more. Together, they chronicle an unprecedented century of change.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes delivers a remarkable story of science history: how a ravishing film star and an avant-garde composer invented spread-spectrum radio, the technology that made wireless phones, GPS systems, and many other devices possible. Beginning at a Hollywood dinner table, Hedy''s Folly tells a wild story of innovation that culminates in U.S. patent number 2,292,387 for a "secret communication system." Along the way Rhodes weaves together Hollywood’s golden era, the history of Vienna, 1920s Paris, weapons design, music, a tutorial on patent law and a brief treatise on transmission technology. Narrated with the rigor and charisma we''ve come to expect of Rhodes, it is a remarkable narrative adventure about spread-spectrum radio''s genesis and unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.

The culminating volume in Richard Rhodes’s monumental and prizewinning history of nuclear weapons, offering the first comprehensive narrative of the challenges faced in a post–Cold War age. The past twenty years have transformed our relationship with nuclear weapons drastically. With extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding, Rhodes makes clear how the five original nuclear powers—Russia, Great Britain, France, China, and especially the United States—have struggled with new realities. He shows us how the stage was set for a second tragic war when Iraq secretly destroyed its nuclear infrastructure and reveals the real reasons George W. Bush chose to fight a second war in Iraq. We see how the efforts of U.S. weapons labs laid the groundwork for nuclear consolidation in the former Soviet Union, how and why South Africa secretly built and then destroyed a small nuclear arsenal, and how Jimmy Carter’s private diplomacy prevented another Korean War. We also see how the present day represents a nuclear turning point and what hope exists for our future. Rhodes assesses the emerging threat of nuclear terrorism and offers advice on how our complicated relationships with North Korea and South Asia should evolve. Finally, he imagines what a post-nuclear world might look like, suggesting what might make it possible. Powerful and persuasive, The Twilight of the Bombs is an essential work of contemporary history.

An essential helpful guide, “How to Write is as useful a study of craft, or the professional conduct of a writing career, as I’ve seen (Los Angeles Times). Uniquely fusing practical advice on writing with his own insights into the craft, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes constructs beautiful prose about the issues would-be writers are most afraid to articulate: * How do I dare write? * Where do I begin? * What do I do with this story I have to tell that fills and breaks my heart? Rich with personal vignettes about Rhodes’s sources of inspiration, How to Write is also a memoir of one of the most original and celebrated writers of our day. “A remarkable work of self-revelation . . . How generous [Rhodes] is with his mind and his heart. Buy this book, buy it. It’s a handbook on how to live.” —The Washington Post “The author offers worthy encouragement for fighting psychological barriers, and useful advice on tools and research.” —Publishers Weekly

In Masters of Death, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen’s role in the Holocaust. These “special task forces,” organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than 1.5 million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar. These massive crimes have been generally overlooked or underestimated by Holocaust historians, who have focused on the gas chambers. In this painstaking account, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes profiles the eastern campaign’s architects as well as its “ordinary” soldiers and policemen, and helps us understand how such men were conditioned to carry out mass murder. Marshaling a vast array of documents and the testimony of perpetrators and survivors, this book is an essential contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust and World War II.

This is a tale of a life few understand today: the human cost of Empire, where families were torn apart - a father seen once every four years - growing up in the Thirties, a time much talked and written about by those who never knew it; a strange Oxford; the war at its most savage against an enemy like no other. And then communicating to a generation that knew not these things the values we had fought for. It is the story of one who found a faith and who after a life longer than most believed others should know about it. Over these years the East followed the author until he said goodbye to it in a special way. A tale of struggle, but of much fun and a humour that lights up its pages . You will discover after reading this book that these years have been worth recalling.

Describes in human, political, and scientific detail the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the power of the atom, to the first bombs dropped on Japan.

John James Audubon came to America as a dapper eighteen-year-old eager to make his fortune. He had a talent for drawing and an interest in birds, and he would spend the next thirty-five years traveling to the remotest regions of his new country–often alone and on foot–to render his avian subjects on paper. The works of art he created gave the world its idea of America. They gave America its idea of itself. Here Richard Rhodes vividly depicts Audubon’s life and career: his epic wanderings; his quest to portray birds in a lifelike way; his long, anguished separations from his adored wife; his ambivalent witness to the vanishing of the wilderness. John James Audubon: The Making of an American is a magnificent achievement.

Entre 1941 et 1943, un million et demi d''hommes, de femmes et d''enfants furent exécutés par les Einsatzgruppen. Ces groupes d''intervention mobile, constitués de SS et de policiers, ont été les maîtres d''œuvre de l''Holocauste. La première étape, dans le cadre du plan Barbarossa, visait l''extermination des populations juives, mais aussi slaves, sur le front russe, en Pologne, en Ukraine et en Lituanie. C''est ainsi que, dans les ravins de Babi Yar, en Ukraine, plus de 33 000 personnes furent massacrées en deux jours. "À la main", une par une. La mission des Einsatzgruppen était celle de tueurs professionnels. L''auteur s''intéresse à la nature de cette brutalité froide et calculée, il s''interroge et enquête sur les conditions dans lesquelles des citoyens ordinaires deviennent des meurtriers de masse. Himmler alla jusqu''à créer des institutions spécialisées pour accueillir les tueurs traumatisés. Déséquilibrés mentaux, convaincus de l''idéologie nazie, assassins de bureau comme Eichmann, mais aussi contemporains d''un monde dans lequel les grandes nations annexaient, colonisaient, déplaçaient et exterminaient les populations civiles "inférieures". L''horreur résiste aux analyses. On sait aussi que le mal absolu à l''œuvre dans ces tueries a encore cours.

Inclui, através de relatos de oficiais e depoimentos de sobreviventes, a história do Holocausto judeu e questiona a capacidade que cidadãos "normais" tiveram de assassinar de forma trágica, dando origem ao genocídio que marcou a história moderna na Segunda Guerra Mundial.