Robert Blumenfeld has narrated 25 audiobooks on Listento.it by 25 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 77 ratings. The most-rated is New York 2140.
Uncertainty
Summary
Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" challenged centuries of scientific understanding, placed him in direct opposition to Albert Einstein, and put Niels Bohr in the middle of one of the most heated debates in scientific history. Heisenberg's theorem stated that there were physical limits to what we could know about sub-atomic particles; this "uncertainty" would have shocking implications. In a riveting account, David Lindley captures this critical episode and explains one of the most important scientific discoveries in history, which has since transcended the boundaries of science and influenced everything from literary theory to television.
©2008 David Lindley (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
The Wall
Summary
Jurek Becker was one of the giants of postwar German literature. The novel for which he is best-known, Jacob the Liar, won wide acclaim, was awarded the Heinrich-Mann and Charles Veillon Prizes, and was made into two movies. It has been called a novel about the martyrdom of Europe’s Jews that has never been surpassed” (Times Literary Supplement). The Wall is a new, brief collection of stories by Becker that have either never been translated into English or been published here in audiobook form before. The title story, "The Wall," recounts two boys’ risky adventure when they scale the wall of a transit camp to visit the ghetto their families have recently vacated. In "The Most Popular Family Story," a favorite anecdote recounted year after year at the gatherings of an extended Jewish family subtly marks the absences left by the Holocaust. Also included are two stories of Communist East Germany and the wall that divided Berlin, "The Suspect" and "Romeo", as well as a short essay on the Lodz ghetto, "The Invisible City". Christine Becker has provided an introduction to the collection. “The Wall” copyright 1980 by Suhrkamp Verlag; English-language translation copyright 1982, 2014 by Jurek Becker and Leila Vennewitz; “The Sick Princess" from Jacob the Liar, first published at Aufbau Verlag 1969, copyright 1976 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main; English-language translation copyright 1990, 2014 by Jurek Becker and Leila Vennewitz; “The Most Popular Family Story,” “The Suspect,” and “Romeo” copyright by 1980 by Suhrkamp Verlag; English-language translation copyright 2014 by Christine Becker; "The Invisible City" copyright 1996 by Suhrkamp Verlag; English-language translation copyright 2010, 2014 by Christine Becker; Introduction copyright 2014 by Christine Becker.
©2014 Suhrkamp Verlag (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Martin Heidegger
Summary
With characteristic lucidity and style, Steiner makes Heidegger's immensely difficult body of work accessible to the general reader. In a new introduction, Steiner addresses language and philosophy and the rise of Nazism. "It would be hard to imagine a better introduction to the work of philosopher Martin Heidegger." (George Kateb, The New Republic)
©1978, 1989 George Steiner (P)2013 Audible Inc.
Grammars of Creation
Summary
"We have no more beginnings," George Steiner begins in this, his most radical book to date. A far-reaching exploration of the idea of creation in Western thought, literature, religion, and history, this volume can fairly be called a magnum opus. He reflects on the different ways we have of talking about beginnings, on the "core-tiredness" that pervades our end-of-the-millennium spirit, and on the changing grammar of our discussions about the end of Western art and culture. With his well-known elegance of style and intellectual range, Steiner probes deeply into the driving forces of the human spirit and our perception of Western civilization's lengthening afternoon shadows. Roaming across topics as diverse as the Hebrew Bible, the history of science and mathematics, the ontology of Heidegger, and the poetry of Paul Celan, Steiner examines how the twentieth century has placed in doubt the rationale and credibility of a future tense - the existence of hope. Acknowledging that technology and science may have replaced art and literature as the driving forces in our culture, Steiner warns that this has not happened without a significant loss. The forces of technology and science alone fail to illuminate inevitable human questions regarding value, faith, and meaning. And yet it is difficult to believe that the story out of Genesis has ended, Steiner observes, and he concludes this masterful volume of reflections with an eloquent evocation of the endlessness of beginnings.
©2001 George Steiner (P)2013 Audible Inc.
A.D. 381
Summary
In A.D. 381, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern Roman empire, issued a decree in which all his subjects were required to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This edict defined Christian orthodoxy and brought to an end a lively and wide-ranging debate about the nature of God; all other interpretations were now declared heretical. It was the first time in a thousand years of Greco-Roman civilization free thought was unambiguously suppressed.
©2010 Charles Freeman (P)2010 Audible, Inc.