Book Description
Vaulting Ambition is the first extensive and detailed evaluation of the controversial claims that sociobiologists have made about human nature and human social behavior. It raises the "sociobiology debate" to a new level, moving beyond arguments about the politics of the various parties involved, the degree to which sociobiology assumes genetic determinism, or the falsifiability of the general theory.
Sociobiology has made a great deal of noise in the popular intellectual culture. Vaulting Ambition cuts through the charges and counter-charges to take a hard look at the claims and analyses offered by the sociobiologists. It examines what the claims mean, how they relate to standard evolutionary theory, how the biological models are supposed to work, and what is wrong with the headline-grabbing proclamations of human sociobiology. In particular, it refutes the notions that humans are trapped by their evolutionary biology and history in endlessly repeating patterns of aggression, xenophobia, and deceitfulness, or that the inequities of sex, race, and class are genetically based or culturally determined. And it takes up issues of human altruism, freedom, and ethics as well.
Kitcher weighs the evidence for sociobiology, for human sociobiology, and for "the pop sociobiological view" of human nature that has engendered the controversy. He concludes that in the field of nonhuman animal studies, rigorous and methodologically sound work about the social lives of insects, birds, and mammals has been done. But in applying the theories to human beings-where even more exacting standards of evidence are called for because of the potential social disaster inherent in adopting a working hypothesis as a basis for public policy - many of the same scientists become wildly speculative, building grand conclusions from what Kitcher shows to be shoddy analysis and flimsy argument.
While it may be possible to develop a genuine science of human behavior based on evolutionary biology, genetics, cognition, and culture, Kitcher points out that the sociobiology that has been loudly advertised in the popular and intellectual press is not it. Pop sociobiology has in fact been felled by its overambitious and overreaching creators.
Philip Kitcher is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, and Director of its Center for the Philosophy of Science. He brings a unique combination of training in philosophy, mathematics, and biology to this thorough treatment of sociobiology. Kitcher is the author of an equally searching book on "Scientific" Creationism, Abusing Science, published by The MIT Press in 1982 and available in paperback.
Customer Reviews:
Difficult to navigate........2006-12-09
I bought this book to do a term paper containing the subject of sociobiology. I did not have time to read it page-to-page; and I was disappointed in 1) the abbreviated index (very slight); and 2) the the silly chapter names, like: "A Bicycle is Not Enough; From Nature Up; The Rules of the Games..." You get the picture--I could not find anything! This book is very difficult to navigate. Forget it.
I do not recommend anyone purchase this; it is old and difficult.
Outdated in Detail, Still a Telling Critique in Broad Outline.......2005-12-31
Edward O. Wilson's great work Sociobiology unleashed a furor of vitriolic criticism from mainstream social scientists, who preferred purely cultural models of human behavior, and from politically progressive crusaders who believed that the appropriate socialization processes could overcome the selfishness and mean-spiritedness inculcated by the possessive individualism fostered by modern capitalism. Both groups were deeply offended by the attempt to give biological explanations for human behavioral propensities. The ensuing steamy controversy is reviewed admirably by Ullica Segerstrale in her book, Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Philip Kitcher's Vaulting Ambition may well be the only contribution to this debate that remains of scientific interest today, although Stephen Jay Gould and Richard C. Lewontin probably deserve a place with their famous paper, "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme", Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 205 (1979):581-598. Sociobiology has come a long way since this book, however. Kitcher mentions but does not deal with Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman's seminal work, Cultural Transmission and Evolution (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), and does not mention the equally great Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson, Culture and the Evolutionary Process (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). The important contributions of Evolutionary Psychology were still some years away, in the form of Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby (eds.) The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). Similarly, most of the great evolutionary anthropological works of the behavioral ecologists had yet to be written in 1985. For this reason, Kitcher's book is outdated. But some of its broad arguments remain cogent today, and this book is well worth reading by anyone interested in the topic.
The basic critique is summed up in the Postscript (p. 435): "Sociobiology has two faces. One looks toward the social behavior of nonhuman animals. The eyes are carefully focused, the lips pursed judiciously. Utterances are made only with caution. The other face is almost hidden behind a megaphone. With great excitement, pronouncements about human nature blare forth." Kitcher's point is that the sociobiology of non-human animals is carefully integrated into the research scholarship of animal behaviorists, where it is subject to minute scrutiny. There, Kitcher recognizes that evolutionary theory has had great impact. He would be much more impressed today, I suspect, since the evolutionary game-theoretic approach now dominates the field. In human sociobiology, by contrast, there were a few high-profile books that captured the attention of the public, but did not engage in the painstaking gathering of experimental and field data that would turn speculation into scientific fact.
The scientific basis for sociobiology is immeasurably advanced over its state two decades ago. While the great public debate was in progress, researchers like Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, Boyd and Richerson, Cosmides and Tooby, Daly and Wilson, Boehm, Hawkes, Kaplan, Wiessner and many others have established the biological foundations of human behavior as a fruitful field of study. Nevertheless, debates based on highly speculative assertions rage in the popular science press, fueled by the considerable expository skills of Robert Wright, Stephen Pinker, Mat Ridley, and others. Moreover, modern-day sociobiologists, who are more likely to call themselves "evolutionary biologists," continue to exhibit two traits which are major subjects of attack by Kitcher. The first is to see every human characteristic as a biological adaptation with a genetic basis, and the second is to consider biological adaptations as aspects of human nature that are basically immutable through cultural intervention. Neither of these is reasonable. On the first count, human characteristics are the product of gene-culture coevolution, not genes alone, and the cultural elements are often dominant. For instance, in human society, increased longevity and wealth has led to a decrease in family size (the so-called "demographic revolution"), which is directly fitness-reducing by definition. Our species is, indeed, the only known species to which the Malthusian population mechanism does not apply in full force. To call this behavior a biological adaptation is absurd. On the second count, while sociobiologists are doubtless correct in asserting that there are genetic differences between men and women that lead to consistent behavioral differences, it is likely that egalitarian institutions and gender-neutral cultural norms can promote a high degree of gender equality in modern societies.
Kitcher's critique of E. O. Wilson (p. 181ff) on this count is very telling. Kitcher notes that sociobiologists have pointed to the failure of the Israeli kibbutzim as an example of the immutability of the sexual division of labor. He suggests, quite rightly, that there are many alternatives to the kibbutz besides the patriarchal family. And so there are!
There is also one extremely important difference between the politics of sociobiology today and yesteryear. Kitcher takes it as axiomatic that sociobiology is profoundly conservative, racist, sexist, and intolerant of diverse life-styles (e.g., homosexuality). I have my doubts about this characterization of the sociobiologists of the period, but there can be no question but that this is how they were perceived by the public and their intellectual enemies. This is no longer the case. While dyed-in-the-wool Marxists still rant about the conservatism of contemporary sociobiology, by and large its proponents have shed this image and are widely appreciated for creative insights in promoting racial and gender equality, tolerance of diversity, and opposition to senseless violence.
Kitcher asserts there is no general sociobiological theory (p. 118), so there is no overarching critique of sociobiology, but only piecemeal critique of each of its many assertions. This critique was doubtless correct, although I now think that gene-culture coevolutionary theory is an encompassing framework for contemporary sociobiology (others believe that Evolutionary Psychology holds this position).
The later chapters of the book are less successful. Kitcher's critique of Lumsden and Wilson, Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981) is correct, but his time would have been better spent dealing with a better book; e.g., the Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman book published in the same year. Kitcher's critique of the "Panglossian" tendency of sociobiology is mostly wrong, and certainly out of date. Of course, the idea that natural selection leads to optima is generally fallacious, but this has little to do with sociobiology. Finally, Kitcher's defense of traditional philosophical approaches to ethics (altruism, free will, morality), is interesting and spirited, but I think it is just wrong. Philosophers would do well, I believe, to take an evolutionary approach to ethics, rather than the Platonic, axiomatic approach that they tend to take.
A Critique of Sociobiology.......2001-12-31
In a field of much debate and little substance, this is one of the most useful and cogent critiques of sociobiology of Lumsden and Wilson, with a very detailed examination of the limitations in their mathematical modelling.
Average customer rating:
- quite easy for physics graduate student
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Atomic and Electronic Structure of Surfaces: Theoretical Foundations (Springer Series in Surface Sciences)
Michel Lannoo , and
Paul Friedel
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 354052682X |
Book Description
Surfaces and interfaces play an increasingly important role in today's solid state devices. In this book the reader is introduced, in a didactic manner, to the essential theoretical aspects of the atomic and electronic structure of surfaces and interfaces. The book does not pretend to give a complete overview of contemporary problems and methods. Instead, the authors strive to provide simple but qualitatively useful arguments that apply to a wide variety of cases. The emphasis of the book is on semiconductor surfaces and interfaces but it also includes a thorough treatment of transition metals, a general discussion of phonon dispersion curves, and examples of large computational calculations. The exercises accompanying every chapter will be of great benefit to the student.
Customer Reviews:
quite easy for physics graduate student.......2003-11-02
nice book. give you quite some idea on the theory.
some part may not be detailed enough
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Dynamical Theory of Dendritic Growth in Convective Flow (Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics)
Jian-Jun Xu
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 1402013019 |
Book Description
Convective flow in the liquid phase is always present in a realistic process of freezing and melting and may significantly affect the dynamics and results of the process. The study of the interplay of growth and convection flow during the solidification has been an important subject in the broad fields of materials science, condensed matter physics, fluid physics, micro-gravity science, etc. The present book is concerned with the dynamics of free dendritic growth with convective flow in the melt. It systematically presents the results obtained in terms of a unified asymptotic approach in the framework of the interfacial wave (IFW) theory. In particular, the book explores the effect of the various types of convection flow on the selection and pattern formation of dendritic growth based on the global stability analysis.
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Evolving Phase Interfaces in Solids: Fundamental Contributions to the Continuum Theory of Evolving Phase Interfaces in Solids
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 3540646833 |
Book Description
This book addresses the physics of phase transitions in chemical compositions and crystal or molecular structures. It deals with the control of the scale and distribution of microstructural features that are associated with different phases. Here a mathematical framework with the capacity to describe and predict the evolution of phase interfaces. Some of the relevant developments are summarized, with emphasis being placed on the contributions made by those researchers whose works are printed in this volume.
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Interfacial Wave Theory of Pattern Formation: Selection of Dendritic Growth and Viscous Fingerings in Hele-Shaw Flow (Springer Series in Synergetics)
Jian-Jun Xu
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ASIN: 3540631453 |
Book Description
The stability mechanisms of a curved front and the selection of pattern formation in dendrite growth and viscous fingering have been long-standing fundamental subjects in the areas of condensed matter physics, material science, crystal growth and fluid mechanics. This book studies the interfacial stability and pattern formation in dynamic systems away from the equilibrium state. In particular, it deals with the two prominent prototype systems: dendrite growth in solidification and viscous fingering in Hele--Shaw flow. It elucidates the key problems step by step and systematically derives their mathematical solutions on the basis of the newly established interfacial wave theory. Finally, it carefully examines these results by comparisons with the available experimental results.
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Solid-Liquid Interface Theory (Acs Symposium Series)
Manufacturer: An American Chemical Society Publication
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ASIN: 0841237174 |
Book Description
This book reviews the current status of efforts to predict properties of electrochemical interfaces. Recent work requires large-scale computation in most cases, but the chapters in this volume discuss theoretical inputs and approaches as well as computational techniques. The book emphasizes efforts which are based on first principles starting with the Schroedinger equation, but which draw conclusions relevant to electrochemical phenomena on time and length scales which are larger than those directly accessible by first principles methods. Divided into three sections, this volume examines the structure of the interface, modeling of electron transfer interactions, and the special problems and challenges associated with oxide/electrolyte interfaces. The volume also includes review of experimental studies relevant to these modeling efforts.
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Theory of Single and Multiple Interfaces: The Method of Surface Green Function Matching
Federico Garcia-Moliner , and
Victor R. Velasco
Manufacturer: World Scientific Pub Co Inc
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ASIN: 9810208189 |
Book Description
Top researchers in optimization and control from around the world gathered in Detroit for the 18th annual IFIP TC7 Conference on Systems Modelling and Optimization held in July 1997. The papers offered in this volume were selected from among the 250 plenary, invited, and contributed works presented at the conference. The editors chose these papers to represent the myriad and diverse range of topics within the field -in theory and applications-and to disseminate important new results. The editors have organized the book into seven sections: · Distributed Parameter Systems · Modelling · Optimal Control and Nonsmoooth Analysis · Automotive · Optimization and Operations Research · Applications · Reliability Each section contains important advances in theoretical development of optimization and control, new results, and discussions of applications. Treatment of numerous and wide- ranging applications-from turbulent flows, European option pricing, and storage location, to wear processes, passive fire protection, and robotics-make this resource important for academic and industrial researchers working in a variety of areas in systems engineering and applied mathematics.
Book Description
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu is the first title in the famous series of "Yellow Peril" novels published by English writer Sax Rohmer, aka Henry Sarsfield Ward (1883-1959), between 1913 and 1959. The novel, like its many sequels, pits the "evil genius" of the Far East against the British Duo, Denis Nayland Smith and his sidekick Dr. Petrie.
Download Description
Sax Rohmer's novels of fabulous adventure reflect the unusual life of their creator. The sinister Fu Manchu became his most widely-read creation.
Customer Reviews:
Super Reader.......2007-08-31
The breathless but brave and unrelenting goofball Nayland Smith and his stoic offsider and chronicler Petrie pursue the genius superman, the ultimate embodiment of the Yellow Peril, Dr Fu-Manchu.
Helped along the way by his beautiful but unwilling servant Kâramanèh is a game of capture and escape and disguise around London.
You have to give the good doctor credit for trying to kill 'em with poison gas stashed in a mummy's tomb.
The guy can't be all bad. He has a monkey.
Very entertaining.
The Wiles of the Devil Doctor, Fu-Manchu........2006-07-03
_The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu_, republished by Dover Publications, is an American edition of the first book of Sax Rohmer (a pseudonym for the author Arthur Sarsfield Ward (1883-1959)), published in America as _The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu_ (1913) and in England as _The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu_. Sax Rohmer (a pseudonym meaning "blade roamer") published these stories of a Chinese criminal mastermind in magazines in America and England before cobbling them together into book form as they appear here. These stories detail the exploits of the devil doctor, Dr. Fu-Manchu, a criminal mastermind of Chinese extraction, and part of the Young China movement, seeking to destroy the white race. Fu-Manchu is described as "Imagine a person, tall, lean, and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect. . . . Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man." In the book, Fu-Manchu heads a Chinese criminal organization and operates behind the front of opium dens and uses dacoits as henchmen. The story is based upon many of the stereotypes about the Chinese people popular at the time, regarding them as cunning and nefarious, and the imminent threat of the "Yellow Peril" against the white race and is certainly unlikely to please the politically correct. Fu-Manchu makes use of many secret means to attack his foes, including the Zayat kiss, the call of Siva, and deadly elixirs which enable him to control life and death, as well as fungal extractions which allow for him to cause madness. Fu-Manchu also makes use of a beautiful Arabian (Oriental) slave girl, Karamaneh, who serves him so as to prevent him from harming her helpless brother Aziz. The heroes of the story include the narrator Dr. Petrie and Nayland Smith, recently returned from Burma and an active servant of king and country. The story mostly takes place in and around London and the Thames river, while the heroes try to capture the mad doctor and prevent him from doing further harm. However, the doctor always escapes their grasp. Dr. Petrie ends up falling under the spell of the beautiful Karamaneh and will attempt to aid her so she can finally free herself and her brother from the devil doctor. As the heroes track the doctor as he murders and causes mayhem, they must fear for their lives as he follows them closely with his evil dacoit henchmen. This story is a fairly interesting one which shows us a picture of the Orientals as seen by an Englishman of the late Nineteenth Century. The character of Dr. Fu-Manchu and the mystery surrounding him will appear again and again in all the writings of Sax Rohmer. He remains a classic villain and his exploits provide an entertaining yarn for those who read of them.
Well written time capsule of early 20th century views of east/west relationships.......2006-07-03
Dr. Petrie is visited by long-time friend Nayland Smith and hurled into adventure. Smith, recently returned from British Burma, is on the trail of mysterious and evil Chinese scientist/political leader Dr. Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu and his fellows will stop at nothing to prevent Europe's leading students of the orient from revealing his secrets, and the plot to overturn the game of Empire as it was played in the early 20th Century to put China at the top of the world.
Fu Manchu has limited resources--a few practicers of Thuggee and Dacoits, but his scientific skills make up for this lack. He has access to rare poisons, secret gasses, trained monkies, and control of a beautiful woman willing to lead men to their doom. This woman, however, turns out to be a key to Smith's investigation when she falls for Petrie, saving him--and Smith--from certain death at the hands of Fu Manchu.
The opening novel in the long-running Fu Manchu series (Rohmer wrote approximately 14) is well constructed and fast-moving with Smith and Petrie always a step behind the brilliant Fu Manchu, yet willing to continue with plucky British spirit. Author Sax Rohmer shows a grudging respect for the evil Fu Manchu, but reflects the fears of his time--that the 'yellow peril' is fearsome indeed, and that a clash of civilization between the west and the inscrutible east is under weigh. That Fu Manchu's nation was largely occupied by western armies, forced to admit the Opium that poisoned some of China's finest minds, and that much of the rest of the east was a part of the British Empire added only the slightest tinge of sympathy for the evil Fu Manchu.
At a time when China is set to become the world's leading economy, fears of the 'yellow peril' are increasingly common and I felt it worthwhile to give THE INSIDIOUS DR. FU MANCHU another look. I thought Rohmer's writing held up well and that this story, unlike some of his later works which rely much too extensively on coincidence and luck. All in all, FU MANCHU makes for interesting reading an serves as a bit of a time machine into the mind of the British man-in-the-streets who saw the British Empire at its greatest extent, yet felt ever-threatened by the mysterious east.
An Exciting, Action-packed, and Chilling Romp of Pulpiness .......2006-01-17
When Nayland Smith, late of Burma, arrives on the London door-step of his friend (and our narrator) Dr. Petrie (no first name given), he reveals that he is in pursuit of a singularly evil man, "tall, lean, and feline, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan," who has come to spearhead the Yellow Peril conspiracy against the White race: the insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu.
Thus begins "The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu" (known as "The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu" in its native England) the first of a series of famous and infamous tales of one of the most famous super-villains in pulp fiction. Sax Rohmer's Fu-Manchu is evil personified: brilliant, ruthless, with a variety of weapons in his arsenal, murdering without a second thought. He is also a fictional face on an irrational, ambiguous prejudice, the Asian hordes waiting to enslave Europe and the United States. And through a series of events, Smith and Petrie (characters deliberately reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson) thwart this sinister villain, with mixed success.
As other reviewers have noted, Rohmer's work incorporates the racism prevalent in the society of the days. Taken from that prospective, "The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu" is really nothing more than a curious artifact of a less enlightened time. The modern reader has to accept that reality, or they will never be able to appreciate the book beyond that level.
And that would be a shame, for setting aside the racism, Rohmer is a good storyteller. In particular, Rohmer has a knack for atmosphere. There's a creepiness that hangs over the novel, as Fu-Manchu employs various bits of weirdness to carry out murders, including insects, poison gases, and spooky men who climb walls and howl in the night. Rohmer knows exactly what adjective use to describe Smith and Petrie's mounting horror at each new gimmick Fu-Manchu employs, creating some legitimate tension. A scene where Smith tells Petrie to run for his life is quite gripping, perhaps because it is so easy to imagine oneself in that position. Rohmer also has a strong sense for action, as our heroes find themselves in various physical fights, gun battles, and explosions. This aspect of Rohmer's writing certainly helps, since his dialogue is of the overwrought Victorian dime novel variety (naturally), and the character development is enough to make the plot work, but no more than that. Also, while the plot is entertaining, it's episodic, so don't expect too many twists or turns, or any real sophistication in the narrative. It's simply Smith and Petrie running to this event and that event, trying to thwart Fu-Manchu.
It's hard to be objective about this book and this character. On the one hand, Fu-Manchu is a great and scary villain. On the other hand, Fu-Manchu represents the ability to be completely racist without rationality. Ultimately, I think simply enjoying the ride while acknowledging the realities of this series is the pragmatic approach. For, the first novel is an exciting, action-packed, and chilling romp of pulpiness that is completely enjoyable.
Unbelievable.......2005-12-02
I got this book at a used book sale and it was rather startling. It would be hilarious if it wasn't for the fact that books such as these express beliefs accepted by the scientific and literary mainstream at the time they were written. In other words, the book contains countless musings on the "Yellow Peril" facing "White" civilization, the supposedly sneaky, deceptive, crafty nature of all "Orientals", and so on.
The main characters of the book are white male British imperialists at war with an "insidious Oriental". Yet they cannot help being attracted to an Asian woman, who is apparently not herself "racially" capable of returning the "hero's" love in a genuine fashion. It was cartoonish and I actually think this book could be useful for scholarly research as evidence of how bad it really was...and unfortunately is, as the positive reviews by those not "infected" with "political correctness" attest.
Product Description
Meet for the first time --- The Master of Death; death in every form, brutal, mysterious; death of the body and death of the mind and soul. That was Fu Manchu, the greatest criminal genius in the history of the world. Subtly, his world-wide organization has grown and spread, its tentacles reaching into the very governments and police forces of the West. Only one man knew the full danger of Fu Manchu's plan: Sir Denis Nayland Smith. On him alone rested the fate of Western civilization, and the Oriental Mastermind had him marked for extinction.
Average customer rating:
- A RIPPER OF A YARN
- nonstop adventure following mysterious fu manchu
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Sax Rohmer's the Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
Sax Rohmer
Manufacturer: Zebra
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0821716689 |
Customer Reviews:
A RIPPER OF A YARN.......2002-01-20
It's amazing how much action Sax Rohmer crams into this short, 192-page book. In it, Commissioner Nayland Smith and his cohort, Dr. Petrie, travel around London trying to rescue various chaps from murder, kidnapping, memory loss and assorted attacks perpetrated by the evil Chinese mastermind, Dr. Fu Manchu. The pace of the book is quite breathless, and before all is said and done, we have dealt with poisonous centipedes, opium dens, trapdoors, memory drugs, mummies, poison gas, thugees and dacoits, ship raids, hashish, zombies, poison mushrooms, swamp adder drugs and on and on. Like I said, Rohmer throws a lot into this one, all for the pleasure of the adventure-loving reader. Who cares if it's not PC? This is a ripper of a yarn, as they used to say, and a nice intro to the other 13 books in the Fu Manchu series.
nonstop adventure following mysterious fu manchu.......1998-12-09
Two Brittish chaps try to stop evil before it happens. They explore many unknown areas of london circa 1910. Visit an opium den, are drugged with cannabis indica and almost killed by deathly fungi spores. Fu Manchu has many disguises it's a great adventure story that explores underground hideouts!
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The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
Sax Rohmer
Manufacturer: Aegypan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Action & Adventure
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General
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Adventure & Thrillers
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ASIN: 1603129421 |
Book Description
Dr. Petrie is having a lovely evening at home when he is visited by his old friend, Nayland Smith, who once worked for Scotland Yard. He has come with news. An insidious man named Dr. Fu Manchu is rumored to be in England with a huge contingent of thugs for the sole purpose of eliminating key players in the politics of India. Nayland has come to Petrie in such a late hour to assist him in catching the criminal mastermind. They chase Dr. Fu Manchu through country estates, opium dens and the most dangerous places one could imagine. And they must find and arrest him before his victims are disposed with and save themselves from becoming Dr. Fu Manchu's latest victims.
Sax Rohmer was a prolific author of early science fiction and fantasy. He was perhaps best known for creating the super-villian, Dr. Fu Manchu -- a character who went on the become the subject of many films and, in fact, much plundering. (Think about it for a moment: how many evil Chinese Mandarin masterminds have you heard tell of? Remember Ian Fleming's Dr. No? Be careful. They're everywhere.)
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Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
Sax Rohmer
Manufacturer: Lightyear Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0899681433 |
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