An insightful memoir from an eminent psychologist.
The latest view of intelligence combined with a compelling autobiography.
Gardner, professor of cognition and education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, has made groundbreaking contributions to cognitive psychology, and this lively memoir includes an extensive yet accessible introduction to his work. The son of refugees from Nazi Germany, he was a bright, curious child with enough musical talent to teach piano. Breezing through Harvard, he sampled the humanities, but psychoanalyst Erik Erikson piqued his interest in the study of human intellectual development. After these early life details, the author delivers a lucid account of the life of a successful academic: thinking, investigating, teaching, and arguing about unanswered questions and then communicating his ideas in hundreds of blog posts, articles, and several dozen books, many for a popular audience. Dismissing the controversy over whether psychology is a “hard” science, Gardner explains that he avoids laboratory experiments, preferring to examine existing ideas to see where they lead. Possessing a “synthesizing mind,” he prefers to “take in a lot of information, reflect on it, and then organize it in a way that is useful.” Although not shy about describing other contributions, his fame rests on theories of how humans process information. Unhappy with the standard measure, the IQ test, which stresses language and logic, Gardner absorbed the massive literature on cognitive psychology and concluded that humans possess seven distinct techniques for acquiring knowledge, which he called “intelligences.” Besides the two IQ standards, he added musical, spatial (navigation, chess playing), kinesthetic (athletics, dancing), interpersonal (leadership, salesmanship), and intrapersonal (self-knowledge, wisdom), which he introduced in his 1983 book, Frames of Mind. He later added several more. Gardner admits that he “would not have achieved a certain degree of notoriety if I had chosen some other noun: seven capacities; or seven competences; or seven kinds of minds” or talents, gifts, or learning styles. “Intelligence” caught everyone’s attention.
An insightful memoir from an eminent psychologist.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-262-04426-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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