Bøger af Michael J. O'Brien

Hercules Mulligan was a master spy who answered to George Washington, being instrumental to saving the revolutionary leader from capture during the War of Independence.The young Mulligan grew up at a time when agitation over Britain's taxation of the American colonies was rising; born in Ireland, he moved to the colonies at the age of six, and considered himself not merely a colonist, but a patriot of the impending nation. Able with dialogue and persuasion, it was Mulligan who convinced the young Alexander Hamilton to join the patriotic movement for independence.During the War of Independence, Mulligan continued to work as a tailor in New York. Such work was ideal for knowledge gathering; many of the British officers would attend his shop, and from the dates they wished to collect their new or updated uniforms, Mulligan was able to pass along information about the deployment of certain regiments. A fortunate visit late one night by a British officer demanding service yielded vital knowledge of a daring plot to ambush and capture George Washington: by informing the revolutionary leader ahead of time, General Washington's capture was averted.Mulligan is often termed an 'unsung hero', as his deeds - crucial to the war effort - have faded from memory over time. This biography not only tells of Mulligan's importance, but includes in the appendix the man's own written narrative upon his deeds.

Combining historical research with an explication of archaeological methodology and reasoning, this work examines the origins and changing use of fundamental chronometric techniques and procedures. It also analyzes the different ways American archaeologists have studied changes in artefacts, sites, and people over time.

In assessing what the paradoxes meant to Plato, O'Brien uses certain broad principles of inquiry. First, he insists, any platonic doctrine must be placed in the context of Plato's whole philosophy - a truism not always honored. Second, the conversations of the dialogue form do not merely embellish Plato's philosophical statements but radically affect their expression.

After one of the preeminent (and often vilified) social scientists of the nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer, popularized the term in the 1850s, evolution became more or less a household word, usually being used synonymously with change, albeit change over extended periods of time.

Presents a critical analysis of the culture history approach to Americanist anthropology. This work uses a framework for the analysis that is founded on the contrast between two metaphysics used by evolutionary biologists in discussing their own discipline: materialistic/populational thinking and essentialistic/typological thinking.

Each method and technique of relative dating is placed in historical perspective, with particular focus on developments in North America, an approach that allows a more complete understanding of the methods described, both in terms of analytical technique and disciplinary history.

The Powers Phase Project was a multiyear archaeological program undertaken in southeastern Missouri by the University of Michigan in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Humans are, first and foremost, social creatures. And this, according to the authors of the book, shapes-and explains-most of our choices. Our decisions are based on more than "nudges" exploiting individual cognitive quirks. The book shows us how we use the brains of others to think for us and as storage space for knowledge about the world. The story zooms out from the individual to small groups to the complexities of populations. It describes, among other things, how buzzwords propagate and how ideas spread; how focused social learning by a few gets amplified as copying by the masses.It describes how ideas, behavior, and culture spread through the simple means of doing what others do.

The Powers Phase Project was a multiyear archaeological program undertaken in southeastern Missouri by the University of Michigan in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Each method and technique of relative dating is placed in historical perspective, with particular focus on developments in North America, an approach that allows a more complete understanding of the methods described, both in terms of analytical technique and disciplinary history.