Best of
Academic

1956

Thermodynamics


Enrico Fermi - 1956
    Based on a course of lectures delivered by the author at Columbia University, the text is elementary in treatment and remarkable for its clarity and organization. Although it is assumed that the reader is familiar with the fundamental facts of thermometry and calorimetry, no advanced mathematics beyond calculus is assumed.Partial contents: thermodynamic systems, the first law of thermodynamics (application, adiabatic transformations), the second law of thermodynamics (Carnot cycle, absolute thermodynamic temperature, thermal engines), the entropy (properties of cycles, entropy of a system whose states can be represented on a (V, p) diagram, Clapeyron and Van der Waals equations), thermodynamic potentials (free energy, thermodynamic potential at constant pressure, the phase rule, thermodynamics of the reversible electric cell), gaseous reactions (chemical equilibria in gases, Van't Hoff reaction box, another proof of the equation of gaseous equilibria, principle of Le Chatelier), the thermodynamics of dilute solutions (osmotic pressure, chemical equilibria in solutions, the distribution of a solute between 2 phases vapor pressure, boiling and freezing points), the entropy constant (Nernst's theorem, thermal ionization of a gas, thermionic effect, etc.).

Wheelock's Latin


Frederic M. Wheelock - 1956
    Original.

The Power Elite


C. Wright Mills - 1956
    C. Wright Mills examines and critiques the organization of power in the United States, calling attention to three firmly interlocked prongs of power: the military, corporate, andpolitical elite. The Power Elite can be read as a good account of what was taking place in America at the time it was written, but its underlying question of whether America is as democratic in practice as it is in theory continues to matter very much today.What The Power Elite informed readers of in 1956 was how much the organization of power in America had changed during their lifetimes, and Alan Wolfe's astute afterword to this new edition brings us up to date, illustrating how much more has changed since then. Wolfe sorts out what is helpful inMills' book and which of his predictions have not come to bear, laying out the radical changes in American capitalism, from intense global competition and the collapse of communism to rapid technological transformations and ever changing consumer tastes. The Power Elite has stimulated generations ofreaders to think about the kind of society they have and the kind of society they might want, and deserves to be read by every new generation.

The Thirteen Books of the Elements, Books 1 - 2


Euclid - 1956
    Covers textual and linguistic matters; mathematical analyses of Euclid's ideas; commentators; refutations, supports, extrapolations, reinterpretations and historical notes. Vol. 1 includes Introduction, Books 1-2: Triangles, rectangles.

Greek Grammar


Herbert Weir Smyth - 1956
    All necessary corrections have been made, and the book retains the form which has long made it the most complete and valuable work of its kind. In this descriptive grammar the author offers a treatment of Greek syntax which is exceptionally rich as well subtle and varied.

The Dead Past


Isaac Asimov - 1956
    It was later collected in Earth Is Room Enough (1957) and The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973), and adapted into an episode of the science-fiction television series Out of the Unknown. Its pattern is that of dystopian fiction, but of a subtly nuanced flavour. It is considered by some people to be one of his best short stories

The Bible and the Liturgy


Jean Daniélou - 1956
    It is to remedy this situation that Father Daniélou has written this book. The Bible and the Liturgy illuminates, better than has ever before been done, the vital and meaningful bond between Bible and liturgy.   Father Daniélou aims at bringing clearly before his reader's minds the fact that the Church's liturgical rites and feasts are intended, not only to transmit the grace of the sacraments, but to instruct the faithful in their meaning as well as the meaning of the whole Christian life. It is through the sacraments in their role as signs that we learn. So that their value will be appreciated, Daniélou attempts to help us rediscover the significance of these rites so that the sacraments may once again be thought of as the prolongation of the great works of God in the Old Testament and the New.

Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages


Jacques Le Goff - 1956
    In building his argument for "another Middle Ages" (un autre moyen âge), Le Goff documents the emergence of the collective mentalité from many sources with scholarship both imaginative and exact.

Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind


Miguel León-Portilla - 1956
    During that long span of time a cultural evolution took place which saw a high development of the arts and literature, the formulation of complex religious doctrines, systems of education, and diverse political and social organization.The rich documentation concerning these people, commonly called Aztecs, includes, in addition to a few codices written before the Conquest, thousands of folios in the Nahuatl or Aztec language written by natives after the Conquest. Adapting the Latin alphabet, which they had been taught by the missionary friars, to their native tongue, they recorded poems, chronicles, and traditions.The fundamental concepts of ancient Mexico presented and examined in this book have been taken from more than ninety original Aztec documents. They concern the origin of the universe and of life, conjectures on the mystery of God, the possibility of comprehending things beyond the realm of experience, life after death, and the meaning of education, history, and art. The philosophy of the Nahuatl wise men, which probably stemmed from the ancient doctrines and traditions of the Teotihuacans and Toltecs, quite often reveals profound intuition and in some instances is remarkably “modern.”This English edition is not a direct translation of the original Spanish, but an adaptation and rewriting of the text for the English-speaking reader.

The Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan


Teodoro A. Agoncillo - 1956
    He could not have been greater than the Katipunan. Nor could he have risen above it. To understand him, one must understand the Katipunan. He looms great because of the society. He must, therefore, be seen in and through the Katipuanan, and this method of unraveling the thin and scattered threads of his life is valid only because of the lack of materials. In examing my sources of information, I have adopted the attitude of friendly hostility. It has been my experience that most of the errors in the difficult task of interpretation--which, after all, is the most important in any book--spring from the scholar's uncritical attitude. He takes for granted that the fame of an author is sufficient guaranty of reliability and competence. Such mental outlook smacks of hypocrisy and cowardice. I have, therefore, dismissed this line of reasoning as inadequate. In this book, I have subjected my sources to a severe scrutiny, looked for loopholes, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies in order to arrive at a balanced conclusion. Ricarte, for instance, hitherto, regarded as incontrovertible, is, after a careful examination, not always accurate and reliable. So is General Pio del Pilar. So are certain documents on the trial and death of Bonifacio. And so are some of the opinons expressed by the great scholars Epifanio de los Santos and Teodoro M. Kalaw. I shall probably hear loud protests and whispered innuendos, but I invite the potential objectors to my method to read my Notes carefully, for in them I have embodied th reasons for repudiating some of the claims of famous scholars, for simissing this authroity and for accepting that document."T.A.A.

Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense


Thomas R. Arp - 1956
    Written for students beginning a serious study of literature, the text introduces the fundamental elements of fiction, poetry, and drama in a concise and engaging way, addressing vital questions that other texts tend to ignore, such as "Is some literature better?" and "How can it be evaluated?" A remarkable selection of classic, modern, and contemporary readings serves to illustrate the elements of literature and ensure broad appeal to students of diverse backgrounds and interests.

The Cinema, or The Imaginary Man


Edgar Morin - 1956
    Yet, French critic and social theorist Edgar Morin perceived in the cinema a complex phenomenon capable of illuminating fundamental truths about thought, imagination, and human nature - which allowed him to connect the mythic universe of gods and spirits present within the most primitive societies to the hyperreality emanating from the images projected on the screen. Now making its English-language debut, this audacious, provocative work draws on insights from poets, filmmakers, anthropologists, and philosophers to restore to the cinema the sense of magic first enjoyed at the dawn of the medium. Morin's inquiry follows two veins of investigation. The first focuses on the cinematic image as the nexus between the real and the imaginary; the second examines the cinema's re-creation of the archaic universe of doubles and ghosts and its power to possess, to bewitch, to nourish dreams, desires, and aspirations. "We experience the cinema in a state of double consciousness," Morin writes, "an astonishing phenomenon where the illusion of reality is inseparable from the awareness that it is really an illusion."

Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead


Alfred North Whitehead - 1956
    Here, modelled on Eckermann's conversations with Goethe & recorded in Whitehead's own home, are some of the landmarks, signposts, milestones & scenery of that extraordinary mind. His approach to life & science provides a compass for the modern world. In these pages the reaches of his thought--in philosophy, religion, science, statesmanship, education, literature, art & conduct of life--are gathered & edited by the writer Lucien Price, a journalist whose own interests were as eclectic as Whitehead's & whose memory for verbatim conversation was nothing short of miraculous. The scene, the Cambridge of Harvard from 1932-47 (with flashbacks to London, Cambridge, England & his native Ramsgate in Kent); the cast, often eminent men & women, who join him for these penetrating, audacious & exhilarating verbal forays. The subjects range from the homeliest details of living to the greatest ideas that have animated minds over the past 30 centuries. Featuring a new preface & an introduction--previously unavailable in this country--this book stands alongside Boswell's as a model of biography, shaped jointly by the acuity of the biographer & the genius of the subject. It also stands as an accessible monument to a mind that never stopped working, a man whose life & career no writer could have invented & no serious reader can afford to overlook.