{"title":"Ken Alder","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"measure-of-all-things-book-ken-alder-9780743216753","title":"The Measure of All Things","description":"Using current research from traditional sources and newly unearthed documents dating from the Warring States period (403-221 B.C.E.), Mencius on Becoming Human offers a timely interpretation of a central text in the Confucian canon. The author carefully reconstructs the philosophical assumptions that underwrite the teachings of the Mencius, returning the text to its native intellectual world. The result is a compelling new reading of an ancient classic, one that is both sensitive to the details of historical context and contemporary in its philosophical implications. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJames Behuniak Jr. argues that the notion of an essential, ahistorical human nature is not part of the process of becoming human outlined in the Mencius. Rather, becoming human is described as a process of developing a qualitatively human disposition within specific cultural and historical conditions as these are understood within a Warring States cosmology. 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Amidst the scientific fervor of the Revolution two French scientists, Delambre and Mechain, were sent out on an expedition to measure the shape of the world and thereby establish the metre (which was to be one ten-millionth the distance from pole to equator).  Their hope was that people would use the globe as the basis of measure rather than an arbitrary system meted out by the monarchs.  As one scientist went north along the French meridian and the other south, their experiences diverged just as radically.  After seven years, they received a hero's welcome upon their return to Paris. Mechain, however, was obsessed over a minute error in his calculations that he'd discovered and concealed, and which eventually drove him to his grave.  His death forced his colleague Delambre to choose between loyalty to his friend and his science.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49547097637137,"sku":"GOR001514825","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52355835003153,"sku":"NLS9780349115078","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52527366799633,"sku":"GOR001925682","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52739892838673,"sku":"GOR002138810","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52799235850513,"sku":"GOR011201754","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0349115079.jpg?v=1751428407"},{"product_id":"measure-of-all-things-book-ken-alder-9780316859899","title":"The Measure Of All Things","description":"This volume tells the story of how science, revolutionary politics, and the dream of a new economy converged to produce both the metric system and the first struggle over globalization. Amidst the scientific fervour of the Revolution, two French scientists, Delambre and Mechain, were sent out on an expedition to measure the shape of the world and thereby establish the metre (which was to be one ten-millionth the distance from pole to equator). Their hope was that people would use the globe as the basis of measure rather than an arbitrary system meted out by the monarchs. As one scientist went north along the French meridian and the other south, their experiences diverged just as radically. After seven years, they received a hero's welcome upon their return to Paris. Mechain, however, was obsessed over a minute error in his calculations that he'd discovered and concealed, and which eventually drove him to his grave. 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Starting in Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre would make his way north to Dunkirk, while Pierre-Fran ois-Andr  M chain voyaged south to Barcelona. Their mission was to measure the world, and their findings would help define the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance between the pole and the equator--a standard that would be used for all people, for all time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Measure of All Things\u003c\/i\u003e is the astonishing tale of one of history's greatest scientific adventures. Yet behind the public triumph of the metric system lies a secret error, one that is perpetuated in every subsequent definition of the meter. As acclaimed historian and novelist Ken Alder discovered through his research, there were only two people on the planet who knew the full extent of this error: Delambre and M chain themselves. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy turns a science history, detective tale, and human drama, \u003ci\u003eThe Measure of All Things\u003c\/i\u003e describes a quest that succeeded as it failed--and continues to enlighten and inspire to this day.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49656784486673,"sku":"CIN0743216768VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50806929817873,"sku":"GOR001879326","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51006352425233,"sku":"NIN9780743216760","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53364258570513,"sku":"GOR008059417","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53438867210513,"sku":"GOR009434585","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0743216768.jpg?v=1751075146"},{"product_id":"the-measure-of-all-things-the-seven-year-odyssey-and-hidden-error-that-transform-rare-book-ken-alder-1644401129lsa","title":"The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World","description":"2002. 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For centuries people searched in vain for a way to unmask liars, seeking clues in the body's outward signs: in blushing cheeks and shifty eyes. Not until the 1920s did a cop with a PhD team up with an entrepreneurial high school student and claim to have invented a foolproof machine capable of peering directly into the human heart. Scientists repudiated the technique, and judges banned its results from criminal trials, but in a few years their polygraph had transformed police work, seized headlines, and enthralled the nation. In this book, Alder explains why America-and only America-has embraced this mechanical method of reading the human soul. Over the course of the twentieth century, the lie detector became integral to our justice system, employment markets, and national security apparatus, transforming each into a game of bluff and bluster. The lie detector device may not reliably read the human mind, but this lively account shows that the instrument's history offers a unique window into the American soul. Ken Alder is a professor of history and the Milton H. Wilson Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World and Engineering the Revolution.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51007469486353,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007472402705,"sku":"NIN9780803224599","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803224591.jpg?v=1750914548"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-ken-alder.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}