Beach Haven

INGENIOUS PURSUITS
By Lisa Jardine
Anchor Books, 1999, 444 pages
 

​This historical look at the ‘scientific revolution’ centers on seventeenth century Europe. Many of the most-well-known scientific personalities came to the fore in this mix of philosophical and political upheaval. Jardine helps expose overlaps among fields such as science, engineering and art. Sociological influences point to advantage and disadvantage depending on the culture of the country in question, the gender of the scientist, and how funds availability promoted and detracted efforts.
 
The heart of much of the story of this era circulated around scientific societies. Some of these were formal such as the Royal Society in London, Academie Royale des Sciences in Paris, or their equivalents in Germany, Italy and other countries. Informal societies also influenced who could participate. For example, Salons of wealthy patrons in Paris became a focal point for many women to share their scientific ideas and discoveries.
 
Newton, Kepler, Wren, Hobbes, and others interact across society and political lines. Jardine shares many instances when scientists of warring countries still managed to share information about discoveries. In a few cases such sharing brought charges of spying, but by and large knowledge sharing was encouraged among scientific practitioners. Personal jealousies sometimes encouraged the opposite. Jardine depicts a number of such rivalries and the effects on the scientific community.
 
The stories and topics Jardine shares flow well. The work is readable and the personalities of number of notable ‘characters’ makes for an interesting realistic look into the process of knowledge discovery. In this case the word characters can be taken quite directly, as Jardine even includes a section toward the end she dubs Cast of Characters.
 

​​THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
By Henry James, Jr.
PF Collier & Son Company, 1917, 624 pages
 
James copyrighted this work in 1881. According to the biographical note in the beginning of this edition, James published his first work in 1865. Although many of his early works were biographical sketches, The Portrait of a Lady is a fictional version of a biographical sketch.
 
The author depicts a slow shift in the person of Isabel Archer. She is a strong-minded young American woman who immigrates to Europe to live with relatives. Despite a number of proposals by various societal gentlemen (American and British), she prefers to explore Europe with her aunt. Over time she becomes less resistive and eventually marries one who later turns out to be scheming with his former love. They coordinate their approach to her as she has inherited a great sum of money.
 
As all is eventually revealed there is a great deal of inward consideration by all parties involved, including those gentlemen whose proposals had been rejected you continue to watch over her to help her where they can. James is talented at having the reader accompany the various characters as they interact with each other, but also as they wax introspective. The work is romantic in style and focus.

FASCIST PIGS
By Tiago Saraiva
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016, 326 pages


Most Significant Arguments

In the book Fascist Pigs, Tiago Saraiva puts a focus on agriculture as a technology that influenced decisions made in the Fascist leadership of Italy, Portugal and Germany from WWI through WWII. The work also notes how Fascist philosophy guided decisions by agro-geneticists and breeders. As a result of the experience of low food supplies and dependence on other countries for food, these governments each came to a vision or goal of being food independent. That led to a search for breeding programs of plants and animals that would have desired characteristics in the given country. Geneticists took their signals from leaders and focused efforts along the path of seeking “elite breeds”. When some success was had, the ideas expanded to such application on humans as well. That led to the horrific effects of separating races and “defective” people for “elimination.” Laws were passed to encourage or pressure farmers to participate in programs. There were military interventions to ensure compliance. The language around agro-programs used mystical and militaristic language such as “Battle of Wheat”. Nationalism was equated with farming through language as well such as plants, animals and people being “rooted in the land”. Ultimately selection in each area was approached in the form of pedigrees and performance tests. Interestingly, in most cases there was difficulty ensuring/documenting pedigrees. For example German pigs were sometimes not documented through enough generations to make the official requirement, so scientists began to gather data through eugenics. Similarly when recruiting SS soldiers the effort to establish an applicant’s genealogy was often not possible, so verbal acceptance of SS values and satisfactory performance in training was sufficient.

All three countries also grew through colonialism in eastern Europe and throughout Africa. Such colonialism justified managing breeds, sending "pioneers" to occupy lands, and subjugation of local populations as cheap labor. 

Comparison with Other Readings

One area in particular stood out to me. On page 116 Saraiva discusses the mix of “Front Pigs” meaning successful breeders who produce the preferred specimens, and “subsistence breeders” meaning those who produced pigs that did not meet the preferred standards. This made me think of readings comparing technology innovators with maintainers. Russell and Vinsel (see attached file below), for example, mention that when it comes to technology maintenance, typically effort is 2% preventative and 98% repair, meaning maintenance is viewed of less value. Even if Germany didn’t achieve the level of innovation they targeted (meaning preferred breeds of pigs or potatoes) it would be interesting to understand the comparison between the number of compliant pigs compared to the “subsistence” pigs.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The linking of strategic approaches to agriculture with a country’s overall strategy makes for a strong argument. In particular showing agricultural and political outcomes from overarching philosophies brings some clarity to me as a reader. Throughout the work Saraiva draws attention to the “uniqueness” of this line of thinking (comparing the technology of agriculture with the philosophy of government). Pointing out the uniqueness of the argument sometimes comes off as criticism of other historians in general for not having come to similar conclusions.
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I like linking of seemingly unrelated areas to show truth. Patterns can reveal truth, and I think that approach could be helpful in my future papers. Others who might find this line of thinking helpful could be government strategists, scientific ethicists, political philosophers, and maybe cultural anthropologists.
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​OVERCOMING THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM      
By Patrick Lencioni
Jossey-Bass, 2005, 155 pages

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This book is a companion to one I commented on earlier. The original was about the author’s definition of the dysfunctions and how to identify them. This book is full of specific tools to help teams improve in problem areas once identified. The subtitle is A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators.
 
Most of the tools assume the team take part first in an assessment tool such as the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. Though that specific approach is not required, the author often suggests a team could use another tool, yet it is clear the exercises lined out are designed with the Myers-Briggs approach in mind. There are tools and activities that can be used without taking any such assessments, but these are limited.
 
The book offers exercises that can be done within a team and require no outside facilitator. After reading through them, it seems best to use someone external to the team with the experience to run the activities. Over the years I’ve sat through a number of similar approaches and tend to agree with the author on use of a facilitator. At the same time, I wonder how useful these sort of activities can be. As noted in many places, success requires full buy-in by the leader and all participants. That’s difficult to achieve. The other obstacle is the need to revisit regularly on the topic or it can be one of those things discussed in the past and not fully implemented. The ideas have to become how the group thinks, not just something the group does.
 
Despite the challenges to making these practically apply, the book gives some good insights to how we think individually and as a group. Teams would do well to consider using this approach with the earlier caveats in mind. I’ve used a few of the tools with my team at work in a less-overt way and have seen some positive results.