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The Wealth of Nations
by John CollinsAdam Smith’s 1776 Inquiry into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations – more often known simply as The Wealth of Nations – is one of the most important books in modern intellectual history. Considered one of the fundamental works of classical economics, it is also a prime example of the enduring power of good reasoning, and the ability of reasoning to drive critical thinking forward. Adam Smith was attempting to answer two complex questions: where does a nation’s wealth come from, and what can governments do to increase it most efficiently? At the time, perhaps the most widely accepted theory, mercantilism, argued that a nation’s wealth was literally the amount of gold and silver it held in reserve. Smith, meanwhile, weighed the evidence and came to a different conclusion: a nation’s wealth, he argued, lay in its ability to encourage economic activity, largely without government interference. Underlying this radical redefinition was the revolutionary concept that powered Smith’s reasoning and which continues to exert a vast influence on economic thought: the idea that markets are self-regulating. Pitting his arguments against those of his predecessors, Smith carefully and persuasively reasoned out a strong case for free markets that reshaped government economic policies in the 19th-century and continues to shape global prosperity today.
The Wealth of Nations: An Inquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations (Hackett Classics)
by Adam Smith Laurence DickeyThis thoughtful new abridgment is enriched by the brilliant commentary which accompanies it. In it, Laurence Dickey argues that the Wealth of Nations contains--and conceals--a great deal of how Smith actually thought a commercial society works. Guided by his conviction that the so-called Adam Smith Problem--the relationship between ethics and economics in Smith's thinking--is a core element in the argument of the work itself, Dickey's commentary focuses on the devices Smith uses to ground his economics in broadly ethical and social categories. An unparalleled guide to an often difficult and perplexing work.
A Wealth of Numbers
by Benjamin WardhaughDespite what we may sometimes imagine, popular mathematics writing didn't begin with Martin Gardner. In fact, it has a rich tradition stretching back hundreds of years. This entertaining and enlightening anthology--the first of its kind--gathers nearly one hundred fascinating selections from the past 500 years of popular math writing, bringing to life a little-known side of math history. Ranging from the late fifteenth to the late twentieth century, and drawing from books, newspapers, magazines, and websites, A Wealth of Numbers includes recreational, classroom, and work mathematics; mathematical histories and biographies; accounts of higher mathematics; explanations of mathematical instruments; discussions of how math should be taught and learned; reflections on the place of math in the world; and math in fiction and humor. Featuring many tricks, games, problems, and puzzles, as well as much history and trivia, the selections include a sixteenth-century guide to making a horizontal sundial; "Newton for the Ladies" (1739); Leonhard Euler on the idea of velocity (1760); "Mathematical Toys" (1785); a poetic version of the rule of three (1792); "Lotteries and Mountebanks" (1801); Lewis Carroll on the game of logic (1887); "Maps and Mazes" (1892); "Einstein's Real Achievement" (1921); "Riddles in Mathematics" (1945); "New Math for Parents" (1966); and "PC Astronomy" (1997). Organized by thematic chapters, each selection is placed in context by a brief introduction. A unique window into the hidden history of popular mathematics, A Wealth of Numbers will provide many hours of fun and learning to anyone who loves popular mathematics and science.
Wealth, Power, and the Crisis of Laissez Faire Capitalism
by Donald GibsonThis forcefully argued book offers a provocative picture of the political, intellectual, and economic forces that have shaped the history of the United States, offering an extensive and in-depth critique of laissez-faire doctrine and a novel reformulation of the work of American System writers, Gibson traces America's rise to global supremacy.
Wealth, Values, Culture & Education: Reviving the essentials for equality & sustainability (Diversity and Inclusion Research)
by Juliette E. Torabian“The book on offer here is fascinating. I do not think it is proper to classify it as ‘philosophy’ or ‘sociology’ or ‘comparative education’. It is a work sui generis. Its cultural and historical range is extraordinary. Its illustrations are themselves arresting. Its literature is well outside disciplinary conventions and ranges across a number of languages. Mirabile dictu!” Professor Robert Cowen How have modern societies arrived at assuming: · Culture is non-essential! · Higher education is to train economically but not socio-politically active & engaged citizens! · Economic wealth is the most important and prominent form of individual and national assets! · Precariousness and socio-economic gaps are due to individuals’ skills and capacities but not the failure of legal, political, and social systems! · Freedom and equality are about “choices in having” but not necessarily about “ways of being and becoming”! Torabian argues these assumptions have not been constructed overnight and that COVID-19 has simply revealed their long-term fabrication and impact since the 1970s. This book is a fascinating voyage from the Middle Ages to today. It travels across different socio-cultural and political contexts drawing on arts, literary works, music, philosophical thoughts, economic and social concepts. It explores value systems and perceptions of wealth, poverty, and inequality and depicts the mutual impact and shifting role of (higher) education and culture and societies- particularly when related to social revolutions, political participation, and collective quests for equality and justice across time and spaces. Examining instrumentalisation of culture and education by the powerful elite, Torabian delineates mechanisms through which values are fabricated and imposed on the masses. Drawing on some catching examples, she explains the authoritarian elite do so through visible rewards and punishments, while in capitalist societies power remains invisible and indirect. In both contexts, though, she skilfully demonstrates, the powerful groups transform the role and meaning of culture and higher education to facilitate normalisation and internalisation of their fabricated value system among the masses. Consequently, Torabian celebrates the recently accelerated quest for socio-ecological justice and sustainability across societies as a fortunate cosmopolitan shift. This, she believes, announces a rupture with the dominant capitalist ideology that has reigned the world since the 1970s through celebrity culture, media, propaganda, and by reducing higher education to an economic activity. The pursuit of a socio-ecological contract based on fairness, justice, and participation, Torabian argues, requires a renewed value system in which the socio-political role of culture and higher education can be revitalised. To this end, she introduces an innovative framework, i.e., the Big Wealth Pie (the topic of the author’s upcoming book in this series) and proposes using transgressive education, resistance pedagogy, and teaching ignorance. She reckons such a social contract can be a global reality if “being” replaces the capitalist ideology of “having”; a process that can be started and reified by questioning what is or is not essential in socio-ecologically just societies. The book is thought-provoking and timely in questioning values and social institutions that have normalised precariousness, inequality, and poverty within a consumerist logic.
Weaponizing Conspiracy Theories (Conspiracy Theories)
by Eirikur BergmannThis book analyses the discursive weaponization of conspiracy theories.In an era where truth and fiction converge, nativist populist leaders wield conspiracy theories as political weapons. This text examines the interplay between populism and conspiracism, probing their impact on democratic processes and exploring their broader political implications. The work dissects three predominant conspiracy theories: The Eurabia theory in Europe, the Deep State in the United States, and anti-Western narratives in Russia. It shows their evolution from fringe ideas to mainstream political tools and reveals the leaders’ triple strategy: Constructing external threats, demonizing internal elites, and positioning themselves as protectors of the ‘true people.’ It also examines how digital media facilitates the spread of these narratives, undermining institutional trust and fuelling extremism.Weaponizing Conspiracy Theories serves as a guide to recognize and navigate the distorted realities reshaping our world. It offers essential insights into the complex dynamics of 21st-century global politics. The author argues that to properly understand the functions of contemporary politics, into which conspiracy theories and populism are now deeply integrated, we must both examine the impact that conspiracy theories have on people’s understandings of the world and how populist politicians can appeal to these beliefs.The book will be of interest to students and scholars of conspiracy theories, populism, and contemporary politics.
Weaponizing the Past: Collective Memory and Jews, Poles, and Communists in Twenty-First Century Poland (Worlds of Memory #11)
by Kate KoryckiIn Poland, contemporary political actors have constructed a narrative of Polish history since 1989 in which Polish and Jewish involvement with communism has created a national concept of “we.” Weaponizing the Past explores the resulting implications of national belonging through a lens of collective memory. Taking a constructivist approach to electoral politics and nation making in Poland’s past, this volume’s dual line of inquiry articulates why and how elites politicize the past, what effect this politicization produces, and contextualizes this politicization to illustrate contemporary production of anti-Semitism.
Weapons of Democracy: Propaganda, Progressivism, and American Public Opinion (New Studies in American Intellectual and Cultural History)
by Jonathan AuerbachHow and why did public opinion—long cherished as a foundation of democratic government—become an increasing source of concern for American Progressives?Following World War I, political commentator Walter Lippmann worried that citizens increasingly held inaccurate and misinformed beliefs because of the way information was produced, circulated, and received in a mass-mediated society. Lippmann dubbed this manipulative opinion-making process "the manufacture of consent." A more familiar term for such large-scale persuasion would be propaganda. In Weapons of Democracy, Jonathan Auerbach explores how Lippmann’s stark critique gave voice to a set of misgivings that had troubled American social reformers since the late nineteenth century.Progressives, social scientists, and muckrakers initially drew on mass persuasion as part of the effort to mobilize sentiment for their own cherished reforms, including regulating monopolies, protecting consumers, and promoting disinterested, efficient government. "Propaganda" was associated with public education and consciousness raising for the good of the whole. By the second decade of the twentieth century, the need to muster support for American involvement in the Great War produced the Committee on Public Information, which zealously spread the gospel of American democracy abroad and worked to stifle dissent at home. After the war, public relations firms—which treated publicity as an end in itself—proliferated.Weapons of Democracy traces the fate of American public opinion in theory and practice from 1884 to 1934 and explains how propaganda continues to shape today’s public sphere. The book closely analyzes the work of prominent political leaders, journalists, intellectuals, novelists, and corporate publicists, including Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, George Creel, John Dewey, Julia Lathrop, Ivy Lee, and Edward Bernays. Truly interdisciplinary in both scope and method, this book will appeal to students and scholars in American studies, history, political theory, media and communications, and rhetoric and literary studies.
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
by John Stauber Sheldon RamptonWeapons of Mass Deception reveals: How the Iraq war was sold to the American public through professional P.R. strategies. "The First Casualty": Lies that were told related to the Iraq war. Euphemisms and jargon related to the Iraq war, e.g. "shock and awe," "Operation Iraqi Freedom," "axis of evil," "coalition of the willing," etc. <P><P>"War as Opportunity": How the war on terrorism and the war on Iraq have been used as marketing hooks to sell products and policies that have nothing to do with fighting terrorism. "Brand America": The efforts of Charlotte Beers and other U.S. propaganda campaigns designed to win hearts overseas. "The Mass Media as Propaganda Vehicle": How news coverage followed Washington's lead and language. <P>The book includes a glossary -- "Propaganda: A User's Guide" -- and resources to help Americans sort through the deceptions to see the strings behind Washington's campaign to sell the Iraq war to the public.
Weapons of Mass Instruction
by John Taylor GattoJohn Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction, now available in paperback, focuses on mechanisms of traditional education that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling. Gatto demonstrates that the harm school inflicts is rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy, he argues, is to render the common population manageable. To that end, young people must be conditioned to rely upon experts, to remain divided from natural alliances, and to accept disconnections from their own lived experiences. They must at all costs be discouraged from developing self-reliance and independence. Escaping this trap requires strategy Gatto calls "open source learning" which imposes no artificial divisions between learning and life. Through this alternative approach, our children can avoid being indoctrinated--only then that can they achieve self-knowledge, judgment, and courage.
Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy
by Kelly M. GreenhillAt first glance, the U.S. decision to escalate the war in Vietnam in the mid-1960s, China's position on North Korea's nuclear program in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the EU resolution to lift what remained of the arms embargo against Libya in the mid-2000s would appear to share little in common. Yet each of these seemingly unconnected and far-reaching foreign policy decisions resulted at least in part from the exercise of a unique kind of coercion, one predicated on the intentional creation, manipulation, and exploitation of real or threatened mass population movements.In Weapons of Mass Migration, Kelly M. Greenhill offers the first systematic examination of this widely deployed but largely unrecognized instrument of state influence. She shows both how often this unorthodox brand of coercion has been attempted (more than fifty times in the last half century) and how successful it has been (well over half the time). She also tackles the questions of who employs this policy tool, to what ends, and how and why it ever works. Coercers aim to affect target states' behavior by exploiting the existence of competing political interests and groups, Greenhill argues, and by manipulating the costs or risks imposed on target state populations.This "coercion by punishment" strategy can be effected in two ways: the first relies on straightforward threats to overwhelm a target's capacity to accommodate a refugee or migrant influx; the second, on a kind of norms-enhanced political blackmail that exploits the existence of legal and normative commitments to those fleeing violence, persecution, or privation. The theory is further illustrated and tested in a variety of case studies from Europe, East Asia, and North America. To help potential targets better respond to-and protect themselves against-this kind of unconventional predation, Weapons of Mass Migration also offers practicable policy recommendations for scholars, government officials, and anyone concerned about the true victims of this kind of coercion-the displaced themselves.
The Weariness of Democracy: Confronting the Failure of Liberal Democracy
by Obed Frausto Jason Powell Sarah VitaleLiberal democracy today, having aligned itself with capitalism, is producing a generalized feeling of weariness and disillusionment with government among the citizenry of many countries. Because of a decades-long march of globalized capitalism, economic oligarchies have gained oppressive levels of political power, and as a result, the economic needs of many people around the world have been neglected. It then becomes essential to remember that our ability to change society emerges from our power to formulate different questions; or, in this case, alternative understandings of democracy. This book draws together a variety of alternative theories of democracies in a quest to expose readers to a selection of the most exciting and innovative new approaches to politics today. The consideration of these leading alternative conceptualizations of democracy is important, as it is now common to see xenophobic and racist rhetoric using the platform of liberal democracy to threaten ideas of plurality, diversity, equality, and economic justice. In looking at four different models of democracy (utopian democracy, radical democracy, republican democracy, and plural democracy) this book argues that encounters with alternate conceptualizations of democracy is necessary if citizens and scholars are going to understand the constellation of possibilities that exist for inclusive, plural, economically equal, and just societies.
The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895-1905
by Aaron L. FriedbergHow do statesmen become aware of unfavorable shifts in relative power, and how do they seek to respond to them? These are puzzles of considerable importance to theorists of international relations. As national decline has become an increasingly prominent theme in American political debate, these questions have also taken on an immediate, pressing significance. The Weary Titan is a penetrating study of a similar controversy in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Aaron Friedberg explains how England's rulers failed to understand and respond to the initial evidence of erosion in their country's industrial, financial, naval, and military power. The British example suggests that statesmen may be slow to recognize shifts in international position, in part because they rely heavily on simple but often distorting indicators of relative capabilities. In a new afterword, Friedberg examines current debates about whether America is in decline, arguing that American power will remain robust for some time to come.
Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems: 16th International Symposium, W2GIS 2018, A Coruña, Spain, May 21–22, 2018, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #10819)
by Miguel R. Luaces Farid KarimipourThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems, W2GIS 2018, held in A Coruña, Spain, in May 2018. The 15 full papers included in the volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 20 submissions. They deal with theoretical, technical, and practical issues in the field of wireless and Internet technologies suited for the dissemination, usage, and processing of geo-referenced data.
The Web of Life: Weaving the Values That Sustain Us
by Richard LouvWith great warmth and wisdom, award-winning journalist Richard Louv explores the delicate strands of our lives: family, friendship, community, nature, time, and spirit.
The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe
by Jeremy Lent'The Web of Meaning is both a profound personal meditation on human existence and a tour-de-force weaving together of historic and contemporary world-wide secular and spiritual thought on the deepest question of all: why are we here?' Gabor Maté M.D., author, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction'We need, now more than ever, to figure out how to make all kinds of connections. This book can help--and therefore it can help with a lot of the urgent tasks we face.' Bill McKibben, author, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?As our civilization careens towards a precipice of climate breakdown, ecological destruction and gaping inequality, people are losing their existential moorings. Our dominant worldview of disconnection, which tells us we are split between mind and body, separate from each other, and at odds with the natural world, has passed its expiration date.Yet another world is possible.Award-winning author, Jeremy Lent, investigates humanity's age-old questions - who am I? why am I? how should I live? - from a fresh perspective, weaving together findings from modern systems thinking, evolutionary biology and cognitiveneuroscience with insights from Buddhism, Taoism and indigenous wisdom.The result is a breathtaking accomplishment: a rich, coherent worldview based on a deep recognition of connectedness within ourselves, between each other, and with the entire natural world.
The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe
by Jeremy Lent&“A profound personal meditation on human existence . . . weaving together . . . historic and contemporary thought on the deepest question of all: why are we here?&” —Gabor Maté M.D., author, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts As our civilization careens toward climate breakdown, ecological destruction, and gaping inequality, people are losing their existential moorings. The dominant worldview of disconnection, which tells us we are split between mind and body, separate from each other, and at odds with the natural world, has been invalidated by modern science. Award-winning author Jeremy Lent, investigates humanity&’s age-old questions—Who am I? Why am I? How should I live?—from a fresh perspective, weaving together findings from modern systems thinking, evolutionary biology, and cognitive neuroscience with insights from Buddhism, Taoism, and Indigenous wisdom. The result is a breathtaking accomplishment: a rich, coherent worldview based on a deep recognition of connectedness within ourselves, between each other, and with the entire natural world. It offers a compelling foundation for a new philosophical framework that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on a flourishing Earth.The Web of Meaning is for everyone looking for deep and coherent answers to the crisis of civilization. &“One of the most brilliant and insightful minds of our age, Jeremy Lent has written one of the most essential and compelling books of our time.&” —David Korten, author, When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community &“We need, now more than ever, to figure out how to make all kinds of connections. This book can help—and therefore it can help with a lot of the urgent tasks we face.&” —Bill McKibben, author, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
A Web of Our Own Making: The Nature of Digital Formation
by Antón Barba-KayThere no longer seems any point to criticizing the internet. We indulge in the latest doom-mongering about the evils of social media-on social media. We scroll through routine complaints about the deterioration of our attention spans. We resign ourselves to hating the internet even as we spend much of our waking lives with it. Yet our unthinking surrender to its effects-to the ways it recasts our aims and desires-is itself digital technology's most powerful achievement. A Web of Our Own Making examines how online practices are reshaping our lives outside our notice. Barba-Kay argues that digital technology is a 'natural technology'-a technology so intuitive as to conceal the extent to which it transforms our attention. He shows how and why this technology is reconfiguring knowledge, culture, politics, aesthetics, and theology. The digital revolution is primarily taking place not in Silicon Valley but within each of us.
The Webbs, Fabianism and Feminism: Fabianism and the Political Economy of Everyday Life (Avebury Series in Philosophy)
by Peter Beilharz Chris NylandThis book seeks to explore the understanding of Fabianism of both the Webbs and the Fabian Women’s Group and how this understanding shaped their views regarding such gender-centred issues as the family wage; protective labour law; and women’s place in the welfare state, the home and the labour market.
Webs of Power
by StarhawkWriting from the front lines, Starhawk chronicles the global justice movement sparked by Seattle's 1999 anti-World Trade Organization protest. A life-long activist, Starhawk is deeply involved as a direct action participant and trainer in the antiglobalization movement.The book is divided into "Actions" and "Visions." In Part I, Starhawk begins with an overview of the complex political and economic powers that the antiglobalization movement opposes. Then, recounting the blow-by-blow events of the critical confrontations faced by the antiglobalization protestors--from Seattle to Genoa--Starhawk discusses police brutality, the Black Bloc versus the pacifists, and the magic of solidarity.In Part II, Starhawk spins a vision of the future of the antiglobalization movement. Drawing on her twenty years of experience as an activist, ecofeminist, and witch, she explores the debate between violent and nonviolent tactics; the definition of an economy of true abundance; and how we can transform our rage and despair, face our fears, and renew our spirits while acting to change the world.Starhawk is the author or coauthor of eight books, including The Twelve Wild Swans: Journeys Into Magic, Healing and Action (HarperSanFrancisco, 2000); the Twentieth Anniversary Edition of The Spiral Dance (HarperSanFrancisco, 1999); and Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition (Bantam, 1998). Well-known in the Wiccan and Pagan Community, Starhawk is a columnist on the web for beliefnet.com and for znet. She lives in San Francisco.Marketing Plans: * Bookstore events and publicity in San Francisco. * Nationwide radio interviews. * National print feature and review campaign. * Web publicity on anti-globalization sites. * Ads in Z Magazine, The Progressive, The Nation, Utne Reader, Mother Jones, PanGaia, Reclaiming. * Course adoption campaign.Also Available Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century TP $19.95, 0-86571-446-0 * USA
The Wedding Feast of the Lamb: Eros, the Body, and the Eucharist (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)
by Emmanuel FalqueEmmanuel Falque's The Wedding Feast of the Lamb represents a turning point in his thought. Here, Falque links philosophy and theology in an original fashion that allows us to see the full effect of theology's "backlash" against philosophy. By attending closely to the incarnation and the eucharist, Falque develops a new concept of the body and of love: By avoiding the common mistake of "angelism"--consciousness without body--Falque considers the depths to which our humanity reflects animality, or body without consciousness. He shows the continued relevance of the question "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (John 6:52), especially to philosophy. We need to question the meaning of "this is my body" in "a way that responds to the needs of our time" (Vatican II). Because of the ways that "Hoc est corpus meum" has shaped our culture and our modernity, this is a problem both for religious belief and for culture.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
by Henry David ThoreauA Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is both a remembrance of an intensely spiritual moment in Henry David Thoreau's life and a memoriam to his older brother who accompanied him on the trip shortly before his death. Full of fascinating literary musings and philosophical speculations, this book is a true precursor to Walden.
Weighing Goods: Equality, Uncertainty and Time
by John BroomeThis study uses techniques from economics to illuminate fundamental questions in ethics, particularly in the foundations of utilitarianism. Topics considered include the nature of teleological ethics, the foundations of decision theory, the value of equality and the moral significance of a person's continuing identity through time.
Weighing the World
by Russell MccormmachThe book about John Michell (1724-93) has two parts. The first and longest part is biographical, an account of Michell's home setting (Nottinghamshire in England), the clerical world in which he grew up (Church of England), the university (Cambridge) where he studied and taught, and the scientific activities he made the center of his life. The second part is a complete edition of his known letters. Half of his letters have not been previously published; the other half are brought together in one place for the first time. The letters touch on all aspects of his career, and because they are in his words, they help bring the subject to life. His publications were not many, a slim book on magnets and magnetism, one paper on geology, two papers on astronomy, and a few brief papers on other topics, but they were enough to leave a mark on several sciences. He has been called a geologist, an astronomer, and a physicist, which he was, though we best remember him as a natural philosopher, as one who investigated physical nature broadly. His scientific contribution is not easy to summarize. Arguably he had the broadest competence of any British natural philosopher of the eighteenth century: equally skilled in experiment and observation, mathematical theory, and instruments, his field of inquiry was the universe. From the structure of the heavens through the structure of the Earth to the forces of the elementary particles of matter, he carried out original and far-reaching researches on the workings of nature.
The Weil Conjectures: On Math and the Pursuit of the Unknown
by Karen OlssonA New York Times Editors' Pick and Paris Review Staff Pick"A wonderful book." --Patti Smith"I was riveted. Olsson is evocative on curiosity as an appetite of the mind, on the pleasure of glutting oneself on knowledge." --Parul Sehgal, The New York TimesAn eloquent blend of memoir and biography exploring the Weil siblings, math, and creative inspirationKaren Olsson’s stirring and unusual third book, The Weil Conjectures, tells the story of the brilliant Weil siblings—Simone, a philosopher, mystic, and social activist, and André, an influential mathematician—while also recalling the years Olsson spent studying math. As she delves into the lives of these two singular French thinkers, she grapples with their intellectual obsessions and rekindles one of her own. For Olsson, as a math major in college and a writer now, it’s the odd detours that lead to discovery, to moments of insight. Thus The Weil Conjectures—an elegant blend of biography and memoir and a meditation on the creative life.Personal, revealing, and approachable, The Weil Conjectures eloquently explores math as it relates to intellectual history, and shows how sometimes the most inexplicable pursuits turn out to be the most rewarding.