Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and theUndoing of Character by Jonathan Shay

amazon.com: History Editor's Recommended Book, 10/01/96

Shay works from an intriguing premise: that the study of the great Homeric epic of war, The Iliad, can illuminate our understanding of Vietnam, and vice versa. Along the way, he compares the battlefield experiences of men like Agamemnon and Patroclus with those of frontline grunts, analyzes the berserker rage that overcame Achilles and so many American soldiers alike, and considers the ways in which societies ancient and modern have accounted for and dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder---a malady only recently recognized in the medical literature, but well attested in Homer's pages. The novelist Tim O'Brien, who has written so affectingly about his experiences in combat, calls Shay's book "one of the most original and most important scholarly works to have emerged from the Vietnam war." He's right.

Achilles in the Quantum Universe : The Definitive History of Infinity by Richard W. Morris

From Kirkus Reviews, 03/15/97

The idea of the infinite has baffled thinkers since ancient times; now a top science writer tries to shed light on the concept. Morris (Cosmic Questions, 1993, etc.) begins by noting the paradoxes that arise when infinite numbers are put through standard arithmetic processes: Half of infinity remains infinite, and infinity minus 30 trillion is still infinite. Precisely because of its tendency to produce paradox, infinity has always had a shady reputation. George Cantor, the first mathematician to seriously study it, went mad. It was the suggestion of infinite worlds, rather than the heliocentric model of the solar system, that got Giordano Bruno burnt at the stake. And Newton went to great pains to find a way to explain his newly invented calculus without resorting to the infinitesimals (infinitely tiny numbers) on which its operations depend; he never quite managed the trick. Morris spends a good deal of time showing how astronomers and cosmologists have dealt with the growth of the observable universe and with the implication that the actual universe might really be infinite. Much of our modern picture of the cosmos arises from the fact that certain equations in Einstein's general relativity theory produce infinite answers--"singularities''--when the right values are plugged in. From these troublesome infinities eventually arose the concepts of the Big Bang and black holes, both of which are now considered all but confirmed by observational evidence. Morris is a clear and lively writer, with a penchant for down-to-earth examples--a useful asset in dealing with a subject so notoriously difficult. A good survey not only of infinity, but of the scientific revolutions that have grown out of our attempts to grapple with the concept. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Achilles' Choice by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes, Boris Vallejo

Customer review.

A classic tale of future sport mania and the athletes. Achilles' Choice delves into a future evolution of the Olympics in which life is the ticket to enter. This extreme development of sports is expressed through the people most involved--the athletes. The characters , especially Jillian Shomer, are magnificently expressed in their actions and thoughts. The reader can easily feel the heated struggle of competition and the agony over moral and life dilemmas faced by Jullian. Furthermore, these future competitors are extremely applicable to today's athletes, and connect the reader to the harsh life and choices these talented people face. A great red.

The Achilles Syndrome : Overcoming the Secret Fear of Failure by Petruska Clarkson, Pertruska Clarkson

America's Achilles' Heel: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack by Richard A. Falkenrath, Robert D. Newman, Bradley Thayer

Men, Sex and Relationships : Writings from Achilles Heel by Vic Seidler (Editor)

Protect Your Achilles Heel : Crafting Armor for the New Age at Work by Roberts Wess, PhD

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