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Book reviews for "Adams,_John" sorted by average review score:

Those Who Love: A Biographical Novel of Abigail and John Adams
Published in Hardcover by Doubleday (September, 1965)
Author: Irving, Stone
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John Adams - A Joy to Know
When I first read this book many years ago, I fell in love with John Adams. Stone brought to life not only this most honorable of our founding fathers, and his beloved wife Abigail, but other "characters" of our nation's revolutionary history such as Samuel Adams, a rabble-rouser who was afraid to ride horses. So many intimate details of John and Abigails's life together were brought to this novel that you feel as though you know and love them both. You can't go wrong with this one.

It's so romantic
"Those Who Love" got me hooked on the saga of John and Abigail Adams. Thiers was a true love match that endured through joy and pain, triumph and trajedy. Stone's sprawling novel follows the pair from thier spirited first meeting, through the hellish American Revolution, and into the turbulent White House years. A fantastic read.

A timeless love story that relates to American history
For Those Who Love was a timeless love story that relates to American history. When you read this story, you will not be able to put it down. It tells you about historical events that happened in Boston during Abigail's life and how our country was formed. It was a beautiful story that a person who likes romantic novels could read, or one that a person interested in history could read. I personally fell in love with the Adams'.


The $50,000 Business Makeover Marathon
Published in Audio Cassette by Drew Eric Whitman, D.R.S. (May, 2000)
Authors: Drew Eric Whitman, Tim Adams, Dottie Walters, Jerry Fletcher, Larry Mersereau, Albert Palacios, John Haskell, Scott Sindelar, Greg Gibson, and Mike Harris
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Why Is It Called ¿The $50,000 Business Makeover Marathon¿?
After listening to this series and applying what I've learned I have a few reasons why master copywriter and business consultant Drew Eric Whitman selected the title.

Maybe it relates to the fact that I would have paid $50,000 to him and the 10 other experts that have literally super-charged my business and increased profits. And at that price, it would have been a steal.

Or maybe the $50,000 references what average business owners can add to their annual profits after listening. I know in my case, $50,000 would be a low estimate for the increase in business I expect over the course of the next year as a direct result of listening to this course.

Whatever the reasoning behind the title, in my opinion this is material that every person running or thinking of starting a business should own. It delivers essential business and marketing information (some of which I've never heard before but works almost like magic), and it spoon feeds it to you in such a way that you not only completely understand it, but you're excited and can't wait to start applying it to your business immediately.

I've had many nights where I've only grabbed a few eyefuls of sleep since owning this. But I want to thank Drew Eric for giving me the information and motivation to get in and do something that's responsible for literally putting more money in my pocket while making it fun.

Grady Smith

Now you can learn jealously guarded business secrets
Who is this Drew Eric Whitman? And how can he help me?

Those were my thoughts as I read his captivating ad for The $50,000 Business Makeover Marathon. I was spell bound. And you will be too.

Being an adventureous sort, as all entrepeneurs are, I decided to take the plunge and purchase it. You know what? It was everything he said it would be, and more!

Drew, if you read this, thank you. We may never meet but you have changed my life and business.

After listening and putting into action many of the tips(lessons, really) I have seen an amazing change in my professional and personal affairs.

I own six other tape programs on sales and marketing and this one is unique. Get it now. While you're thinking about it.

Better hurry. Your competition may already have this.

Yours in Success,
...

Energetic, Interesting, Motivating, VALUABLE.
I confess to buying too many business tapes. I am also too often disappointed by the quality of the production as well the content.

THESE tapes, however, are fantastic. The speakers are all interesting to listen to - not boring. No fluff. Recorded in a studio, so you can ALWAYS hear the speakers. The topics will be valuable to any small to medium size busines owner or marketing executive who wants to expand and grow their business.

You may have heard SOME of this material before, but you haven't heard ALL of it -- and it's all in one powerful package.

IMHO, it's worth a listen -- again and again.

-Keith Price
Developer of The Magic Bullet
Software to help you write sales letters that really sell.


The Diary of Adam and Eve: And Other Adamic Stories
Published in Paperback by Hesperus Press (December, 2002)
Authors: Mark Twain and John Updike
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The Diary of Adam and Eve
This short but sweet story gives a hilarious look of the ever so familiar creature-the human through the recognizable figures...Adam and Eve.

The Comedy of Creationism
Mark Twain presents the journals of Adam and Eve. In a satirical tone we see how they cope with new things. Eve names things and animals and is appreciative of nature. She comments on the moon which falls out of the sky and is brought back. She recalls her reflection in the water, but regards this as a separate entity all together. Adam, differently, builds shacks and searches the land. They eventually find a baby, Cain, who for Adam may be a fish, a bear, a kangeroo, or parrot. He eventually sees that the baby is, of course, a premature human.

There are many instances of humour. The reader is left to wonder how it might have been for the 'first' couple. Kierkegaard remarked that Adam and Eve must have felt trapped by their own freedom, not knowing what to do. I myself regard Adam and Eve as mythology but can see the curiosities of what a 'first couple' would have been like. Would they be happy? Would they be attractive? What were their conversations like? It gives to the imagination, undoubtedly. But like Twain, I can't take it seriously.

A Warm Odysssey of Togetherness
Mark Twain creates a fascinating experience of a man and a woman discovering each other, learning to live together in the real world, growing up toward being a whole being.

Throughout the entire delicious epic of the story, the two characters grow from unaware children to mature humans, able to make a living together through all difficulties.

Adam, on one side, starts regarding Eve in a critical way that reminds the rigorousness of an engineer and ends warmly with the calm passion given by a lifetime of togetherness.

Eve, on the other, depicted here as the essential expression of the womanhood, appears as a living miracle of contradictions. She is so playful, sunny, innocent and wildly alive, that Adam finally realizes he's happy to be sentenced to love her forever. It is worth saying that even the Sin is reconsidered here rather as an abuse of Eve's ingenuity than an assumed trespassing...

The friendly, optimistic approach to life, the art of putting strong, fundamental feelings into everyday's words, the gentle humor far from cheap melodrama, the subtle metaphor of the joy of living arising from each chapter made me to consider this novel the most touchy love story ever written.


An Essay on Brewing, Vintage and Distillation, Together With Selected Remedies for Hangover Melancholia: Or, How to Make Booze
Published in Paperback by Doubleday (January, 1970)
Author: John Festus, Adams
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Like a good wine, withstands the test of time
I bought this book back in the early 70s. During that decade I read it repeatedly (and it shows), made mead and wine based on its loose instructions, and unwittingly expanded my worldview thanks to its digressions into mythology and epic poetry. Thirty years later, I dared to brew beer using a kit (a 2002 Christmas gift from a well-meaning niece), and the result was barely potable. I pulled this book from the book archives, made my first batch according to Adams, and never returned to the kit.

Times have changed since the writing of 'An Essay.' Mead is now relatively available, the law prohibiting homebrewed beer was reversed in 1978, brewing supply shops abound, and wine shops are many. Still, Adams instructs us -- no doubt as he did his students in the great state of Washington -- in the general concepts of making a fairly good beer inexpensively, producing an ancient drink that still gladdens the heart (and produces a nasty hangover), home-distilling substances that the government still frowns upon, and producing a good wine from those local fruits.
I wonder if Adams ever considered a "How to Make Booze Revisited."

Everclear!
A true treasure from an era gone bye. Excellent for the reader with a desire to embark on the journey of homebrewing without the snobbish, elitest, cynicism usually found in do it yourself, how to books. Also, excellent for the reader that posesses true curiosity and a love for "reader friendly" words. A quick read that provides both laughter and actual instruction with pinch of back to the earth philosophy.

Very entertaining and even informative.
I can't remember where I got my copy, it was at my bedside for years and every couple months I would read (or re-read) a chapter or two. One day, my wife sold it at a garage sale for 10 cents. I decided not to divorce her because of the children.


Illness and the Art of Creative Self-Expression: Stories and Exercises from the Arts for Those With Chronic Illness
Published in Paperback by New Harbinger Pubns (August, 2000)
Authors: John Graham-Pole and Patch Adams
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Excellent
We are using John Graham-Pole's book in the adult art therapy classes at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. Patients and staff participants alike have found inspiration and encouragement from the practical - and cheerful - application of creative self-expression to increase patient-staff communication and to reduce stress. I recommend it highly.

illness and the art of creative self-expression
This is a unique, easy to read, well written self-help book that teaches the reader practical ways to use "art-making" to achieve greater health and happiness. It is written primarily for the person with a serious health problem, but it is useful reading for professionals caring for seriously or chronically ill persons. It teaches both groups of people how to bring art and self-expression into their lives.

The author has developed exercises to bring out the creative self-exppression each person possesses and to teach people to live for the moment, let go of negative thoughts or the pressure to achieve, and to enjoy the hidden artist within. The author's writing style is appealing because it is so rhythmic, flowing, and conversational that one feels as though one is sitting across from him and conversing. His style is direct and warm,and as one becomes engaged with the text and its exercises for self-expression, one comes away with a deeper understanding of,and a renewed appreciation of, the creative self-expression we all have hidden within us.

The author's writing is optimistic, hopeful, sensitive, and empathic. It is as if he has crawled into the skin of the person with an illness and is able to feel or think what he or she feels and thinks. He presents a holistic, integrated approach (using artistic or self-expression exercises) to help people take hold of theis lives, and in the face of serious illness, to feel in command. It is a moving and absorbing book with special insights into the world of people with serious illness.

Beneficial Reading, Regardless of Life's Circumstances
John Graham-Pole, M.D. is authentic. His writing will be most beneficial for those (and their families) who are just now or will or perhaps already have learned what it is to be "ill". Listen, Read, Believe.

I believe everyone can benefit from this book because during our lives we will experience pain and grief in many and different ways. This book takes me back about 13 years. I recognize much of what I learned then, and (now) understand more fully some of what I didn't. G-P's subject is real. Understanding allows Peace, Thankfulness, and Blessings. God is Good.

When going through dread disease; chronic/acute;life-threatening, devastating illness; and/or depression, we often feel totally alone. We feel that others simply don't understand what we're thinking, experiencing, or feeling. Dr. G-P's authenticity shows he does understand. We are also shown another choice: Creativeness from within (and we all do have something to "say").

G-P listens and learns, observes and acts. I personally know he cares very much for his patients and his work, and I'm grateful every day of my life that Dr. G-P was our daughter's attending physician some 13 years ago. Today, I'm grateful for learning of this book and having the opportunity to read it, to share this book with others who want to be a creative, self-expressed person regardless of the circumstances of their lives or the lives of those they hold dear. This book is authentically written, gratefully received, and will be beneficial to all who read it.


Risk
Published in Paperback by UCL Press (01 February, 1995)
Author: John Adams
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Great book!
This is an outstanding little book -- very insightful and thoroughly enjoyable. I am a pediatrician who has been involved with writing practice guidelines to prevent a very low probability but devastating outcome (brain damage following jaundice in newborns). The discussion of different types of people with different attitudes towards risk helped clarify some of the dynamics of the guideline committees I have been on. In fact, I liked the book so much I sent a copy to the head of the current committee working on these guidelines.

I also like it when people question dogma, and point out ways in which our previous experience and perspectives influence the way we perceive reality. For example, the possibility that use of seat belts by drivers might shift some injuries from themselves to pedestrians and cyclists had never occurred to me.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in risk.

Thomas B. Newman, MD, MPH
Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Pediatrics
University of California, San Francisco

Risk Compensation Theory - How Can We Use It?
"Risk" by John Adams is one of those rare gems, a book which uncovers a nugget of truth about human behaviour, namely Risk Compensation Theory. Why do we take risks, especially on the roads, in cars, in dangerous situations? Why do some people take more risks than others? Apparently we have risk thermostats which we set to different levels of risk aversion. I saw the tv programme which covered this topic first and then I read the book by Mr. Adams. I was very impressed by the depth of research supporting his theories and by the graphs showing the different rates of fatalities for male/female drivers, for different countries or for different age groups. But I wonder: have we had too much analysis and not enough action at this stage? The trend of fatalities per 1,000 of the population or per 1,000 vehicles on the roads may be coming down in some countries but this is little consolation when the total number of deaths is staying steady or rising worldwide. 25 million have died already and perhaps another billion have been injured. It is time to try another approach.

"Autogeddon" by Heathcote Williams was a brilliant poetic diatribe on the havoc which cars can cause but it offered no solutions to the problem. "Risk" analyses in detail why we take the risks which cause this havoc, but equally offers no complete solutions. "The Joy of Motion" by John B. Gilmore goes a step further and offers a solution to the problems of transport which allows us to take risks and enjoy the thrill of motion at the same time. If you wish to find out more about this book then please email me.

as gripping as a Grisham
There are few works of nonfiction which I have been inspired to read in one sitting. Adams' _Risk_ is one of those few. It's more than merely accessible: it's fascinating. The writing is more than merely competent: it's enjoyable. Like the best Grisham novels, _Risk_ tells a tale of danger, skulduggery, bureaucracy, wrongful death, human nature, research, reasoning, the revelation and concealment of evidence, and the overturning of conventional beliefs and outcomes.

Adams opens for the lay reader a window into the jargon-laden field of risk assessment and risk management. He brings to the table two qualities usually firmly segregated in the literature: a solid, rationalist facility with the traditional tools of the trade (scientific method, mathematics, statistics, data visualization), and an honest and humane assessment of the incalculable and the social (human variability, social equity, adaptive feedback, and chaotic systems).

Adams' work is brilliantly contrarian, neither eccentric nor slipshod. He challenges the conventional dogma of regulatory safety authorities the world over; he cites verifiable figures from reputable sources to show that the authoritarian approach to risk management has not lived up to its overconfident initial promises. Further, he documents specific cases in which this failure has been denied and concealed, rather than admitted, confronted and used as a springboard to new approaches and more creative thinking.

Adams' particular field of expertise is road/traffic safety, which he had studied for some 15 years at the time of writing. He uses several examples from this realm in the book. He recounts the peculiar history, for example, of mandatory seat belt legislation. Of the eighty principalities and regions which enacted such laws, over twenty years later only one (the UK) offers time-series data which support the initial claims for national traffic fatality reduction.

Yet throughout the industrial world, the axiom "seatbelts save lives" is just that -- axiomatic. The average reader may find this story very disturbing; the beneficial result of seatbelt legislation is almost a religious dogma for residents of the industrial West. Yet it is hard to dismiss Adams' sober collection and presentation of data. His numbers are not from outlaw or revisionist sources; they are official statistics from the same countries which passed the laws.

It's obvious (and crash tests demonstrate) that seatbelt-type restraints must prevent vehicle occupants from rattling around inside a car during a crash, and thereby mitigate injury and/or fatality. Adams asks, therefore, how it can possibly happen that there were not sudden, dramatic, documented reductions in total traffic fatalities for whole nations, after seatbelt laws were enforced?

In answering this and other similar questions of "safety engineering" Adams introduces us to a fascinating problem in risk management theory: "risk homeostasis" or "risk compensation". Individuals, he argues, have a personal "risk thermostat", a risk level at which they are comfortable. If their sense of personal safety is enhanced by protective gear (or even by public information campaigns) then their behaviour becomes correspondingly riskier, until the "set point" of the individual risk thermostat is reached.

Since the risk per individual per hour of traffic injury or fatality is very small, only a slight deviation in behaviour is necessary to raise it significantly. If a driver drives a little faster, brakes a little harder, corners a little more aggressively because of being strapped in securely, then this might easily negate (or more than negate) the risk reduction provided by the seatbelt itself.

In support of this theory, Adams offers the troubling increase in pedestrian and cyclist deaths that immediately followed the UK seatbelt law. If drivers drive a little more dangerously, says Adams, it makes sense that more vulnerable road users would bear the brunt of the increased risk.

Were it not for this sincere concern for social justice, Adams might easily be dismissed as yet another libertarian. Many a safety-legislation skeptic's argument begins and ends with individual rights, resistance to "nanny" legislation, etc. Adams asks a tougher question: if safety means *everyone's* safety, does traditional traffic safety engineering really work? Or does it just shuffle the risk around, making it safer to drive a car more dangerously, but imposing more risk on pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, etc?

This discussion occupies only a chapter or two of this thought-provoking book. Other chapters cover such diverse topics as: a taxonomy of personality types and their responses to risk; virtual risks versus immediate risks; and the fundamental contradictions of "cost/benefit analysis". Adams is forthright in criticizing the narrowness of the traditional highway and traffic engineers' vision. "Road safety engineers" consider their work successful if the fatality/injury rate declines on a given stretch of road. But the fatality rate may have fallen because people gave up walking or biking in that area. As long as the incident rate is low, the road is deemed "safe" -- even though residents and locals may know very well that it is dangerous, and make long detours to avoid it.

Adams argues convincingly that this disconnect between people's real experience on the ground, and the abstract perceptions of planners and authorities, is a serious and intensifying problem. The ingenious adaptibility of human beings to dangerous situations means that the engineers may be presented with false success (a dangerous road looks "safe" because of avoidance response) or with intractable riskiness (risk compensation defeating imposed engineering solutions). Many of the traditionalist solutions into which we pour millions of dollars may simply not work, and the way we measure our success may be faulty as well.

_Risk_ is an excellent introduction to the challenging work of John Franklin, Mayer Hillman, Robert Davis, and other members of the "new school" of road safety analaysis. It is a well-researched, well-written, and deeply provoking book. _Risk_ should be *required* reading for all traffic engineers, police, safety analysts, city planners, parents, insurance company executives, and economists. For the reader with an open mind, _Risk_ will raise more questions than it answers; it offers some really interesting new ways to think about and discuss risk.


John Adams
Published in Unknown Binding by Doubleday ()
Author: Page Smith
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An excellent book
I have a project to read a biography of every American president, and since I knew Page Smith's excellent 8-volume history of the US, I decided his biography of John Adams would be the one to read for that president. I now have finally read the work, and I was not wrong. These volumes tell in fascinating detail of the momentous life of our second president, and it is hard for me to see how the telling could be improved upon. I have only a few presidents I have not yet done. Any thought as to the best biography of Millard Fillmore?

Not just a biography
This classic two voume set reads like a novel. Once started I could not put it down. From his childhood and education, the revolution and founding of the country, through the trials of his presidency and retirement, the events of the times unfold in intimate detail. A prolific letter and diary writer, John Adams left a treasure of detail and insights to the events of his life, and P Smith has assembled them in a most readable form. This book is a must read for anyone interested in early American history.

More than just a biography
This classic two volume set reads like a novel. I could'nt put it down. The reader is treated to an intimate look at the history of the times through the eyes of one of the most under-rated of the founding fathers. From his childhood and education through the revolution and founding of the country, insight and detail of the events unfold in a most interesting manner. A most prolific letter and diary writer, John Adams left a detailed account of his life and times, and virtally every aspect of the book is documented and noted. An excellent resource for anyone interested in the history of the times.


John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty
Published in Paperback by Univ Pr of Kansas (March, 2002)
Author: C. Bradley Thompson
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The Atlas of America
I just finished reading C. Bradley Thompson's "John Adams and The Spirit of Liberty," and am in awe; not only of John Adams but of Dr. Thompson's masterful explication of Adams' political thought.

I had no idea what a debt of gratitude I owed to one man, John Adams, who more than any other Founding Father developed and provided the intellectual framework that became the Constitution of the United States. At the very least this book should be required reading for any person who is interested in pursuing a career in politics.

To all of you who are interested in understanding the intellectual founding of this country I urge you to read this book. You won't be able to put it down.

And to C. Bradley Thompson, I salute you and thank you for your efforts in resurrecting the reputation and honor of this great man.

Award winner-- 1999 best first book in political theory
John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty as a co-winner of the 1999 Best First Book awad from the Foundaions of Political Theoy section of the American Political Science Associatio. The award citation reads as follows: "In John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty, C. Bradley Thompson offers us a thoughtful and compelling revisionist account of Adams's politics and political theory. Thompson begins by showing how Adams's critical rethinking of Calvinism led him to reject it in favor of a Lockean conception of the problem of liberty, social order and political authority. The question of politics and government, then for Adams, was how to protect the natural liberty and rights to which each freeman is entitled through constitutional arrangements that are the work of philosophy, reason, and free will rather than grounded in tradition and common law. By posing the problem in this fashion, Thompson argues, Adams developed the most systematic science of politics of all early American political thinkers. This science of politics is grounded in Baconian principles of science, the lessons of history, and a science of human nature. From these foundations it is possible to identify the distinctive requirements of modern (vs. classical republicanism) and the imperatives and principles of political architecture. In the process, Thompson demonstrates that Adams's prescription for political life was both complex and original. Rejecting both direct democracy and classical republicanism, Adams opted for a republican constitution that would constrain and elevate the passions excited by commercial society. Indeed, it was Adams's belief that a properly constituted public sphere would help cultivate the kind of modest virtues among citizens that were preferable to the vaunted glory of classical antiquity. In demonstrating the complexity and depth of John Adams's politics and political thought, Bradley Thompson provides us with a cogent argument for reconsidering Adams's place in the Founding period and the relevance of his thought for contemporary politics."

Excellent and Engaging!
In the company of Jefferson, Madison, and Washington, John Adams' significant contribution to American political and intellectual life is often overlooked. This well-written, thoroughly engaging text seeks to put Adams in his rightful place among the Founders of our great nation. Professor Thompson provides a thorough analysis of the development of Adams' political thought: his early philosophical and religious thinking, his revolutionary writings (including the brilliant "Novanglus" pamphlets), and the mature thought of Adams the statesman. Readers will finish this book with a profound awareness of the unique philosophical revolution which fueled the American Revolution, and they will come to appreciate that Adams was (like the author) a brilliant mind. As a former student of Thompson's, I thoroughly appreciate this book.


Abigail Adams
Published in Paperback by Ballantine Books (Trd Pap) (May, 1988)
Author: Phyllis Lee Levin
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Abigail Adams -- At long last !!!
At last, a well written, well researched book on one of America's most fascinating ladies, Abigail Adams. Based on carefully interjected original research and letters, this book provides a long needed look at the issues and challenges that faced Abigail Adams. The author portrays her as a woman, very much in love with her husband, very much in love with her country, and very willing to try to balance the needs of both. It is striking to realize how totally independent she became in financial affairs, and in domestic issues. The book reminds you of the challenges of communications and distance. It also makes you aware of the personal sacrifices this family made for the young, emerging nation. The focus of the book is on Abigail, but sufficient information on the political events and political players is provided. An excellent look at a very important person. Don't miss it if you enjoy this period of history and are anxious to understand more about its key players.

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin is an excellent companion work for David McCullough's John Adams.

Throughout life Abigail and John were inseparable, best of friends, and each others life. Through circumstances John was away in the service of forming a government and the duties to a new nation, but Abigail was not far from his heart, nor he from hers.

We see an unabated ardor in her for her "Best Friend" in life. Abigail Adams saw and wrote with clarity about the time leading to and after the Revolutionary War, and events following and her humanity. We have a unique perspective of the life and times of this period through her eyes written for posterity through her letters to a variety of people surrounding her life.

Not since Barbara Bush, has a woman been both a wife and mother to a President of the United States, even though she dies before John Quincy is elected. Abigail kept her family close to her heart and was the one to keep the family together and the family homestead viable in John's absence.

This is a well written book, solid in research, flowing prose and good details. This book captures Abigail Adams and shows us her intellegence and her perceptiveness of the events of her times. She wrote letters to Jefferson and had comments about all of the people, albeit caustic or poignant, close to John's work and life.

She loved John and missed him greatly when he was away, her letters attest to that, but when she was at his side both flourished. This book gives us a great insight into how Abigail was as a woman and how she coped with private and public life.

I recommend reading and enjoying this book.


Infinite Loop Spaces
Published in Hardcover by Princeton Univ Pr (October, 1978)
Author: John Frank Adams
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Rigorous, but very understandable
Although published in 1978, this book could be used as an introduction to the theory of operads and other recent work on homotopy theory and vertex operators. Vertex operators are not discussed in this book, but the theory elucidated herein is good background material for their study.

The author does a great job in motivating the subject in chapter 1. Loop spaces are function spaces of maps from the unit interval to a space with a chosen basepoint, with the property that each map sends 0 and 1 to the base point. The mathematician Jean Pierre Serre introduced the path space in order to study loop spaces, resulting in the famous Serre fibering. The nth homotopy group of the loop space can be shown to be equivalent to the (n+1)-th homotopy group of the original space. The homology of loop spaces can be calculated for some types of spaces, such as wedges of spheres. Infinite loop spaces are essentially sequences of spaces such that the nth element of this sequence is equivalent to the loop space of the (n+1)-th element. This sequence is also known as an "Omega-spectrum" and has the infinite loop space as its zeroth term. The name "spectrum" comes from general considerations involving sequences of spaces where the nth term is equivalent to the loop space of the (n+1)-th term; equivalently, where the suspension of the nth term is equal to the (n+1)-th term. The author reviews how a generalized cohomology theory yields an Omega-spectrum, giving two examples involving Eilenberg-Maclane spaces and complex and real K-theory. One can also start with a spectrum and construct a generalized homology and cohomology theory. Spectra and cohomology theory are thus essentially equivalent.

Chapter 2 is an overview of techniques needed to construct a category of spaces with enough structure so that the infinite loop space functor yields an equivalence from the category of spectra to the category of certain spaces. An example of the latter is given by the Stasheff A-infinity space, and its now ubiquitous property of having a product which is strictly associative. This property allows one to prove that a space is equivalent to a loop space if and only if the space is a Stasheff A-infinity space and that the zeroth homotopy of the space is a group. The Stasheff A-infinity spaces are also used to motivate the construction of 'operads'.

The next chapter the author is concerned with the concept of a space being like another one without being equivalent to it. He discusses the use of 'localization' in homotopy theory, an idea that is analogous to the one in algebra. The use of localization in homotopy theory is due to D. Sullivan, and involves use of the notion of a space being 'A-local', where A is a subring of the rationals. Remembering that a Z-module is A-local if it has the structure of an A-module, a space is A-local if its homotopy groups are A-local. Examples of the use of localization in constructing certain spaces are given. The author also discusses the use of the 'plus construction' that allows the alteration of fundamental groups without affecting the cohomology groups. Then after the construction of the Quillen higher algebraic K-theory groups in this regard, the author describes the relation between a topological monoid and the loop space of the classifying space of this monoid. This involves the notion of 'group completion', which is essentially an isomorphism between the homology of the path components of the monoid and the homology of the loop space of the classifying space of the monoid, but in the (infinite) direct limit.

Chapter 4 introduces the concept of a transfer map. A very elusive idea at first glance, the transfer map is motivated via the n-sheeted covering map of a space on another. The (singular) simplices of each then get matched up by the covering, and the transfer map between the spaces is then defined so that it is equal to the sum of the singular simplices of the covering space. It is in fact a chain map as shown by the author. The transfer maps are related to homotopy classes of the 'structure' maps of chapter 2, and the author gives a few examples of how they are used.

Chapter 5 is a quick overview of the Adams conjecture, which is essentially an assertion that the image of KO(X) in KF(X) can be characterized explicitly. Detailed proofs are omitted but references are given for the interested reader.

In chapter 6, the author restricts his attention to the K-theory of spectra. The treatment is concerned in large degree with the question of the existence of infinite loop map between infinite loop structures, and finding such a map, checking whether it is unique. This question is answered for particular types of spectra, via the Madsen, Snaith, and Tornehave theorem. Also, the Adams-Priddy theorem is proved, showing that one can construct on a space a unique infinite loop space structure. The reader gets more examples of the use of localization, in that some spaces can become equivalent as infinite loop spaces upon localization. The origin of K-theory in this chapter comes from the replacing of spectra that are not known by ones that are (namely the ones in classical K-theory). The author shows how the Madsen-Snaith-Tornehave theorem works in the context of both complex and real (periodic) K-theory. Detailed proofs are given for all of these results.

A charming and readable introduction to infinite loop spaces
Reading this book made me excited about infinite loop spaces, which I had always imagined to be a very dry topic. Adams informal style reads as smoothly as a purely expository work, but gave me enough understanding and insight to make me feel like I could fill in the details myself if I needed to. Even if this isn't always literally true, it certainly oriented me well enough to be able to make sense of the literature. I especially liked the discussion of A_infty spaces.


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