THE AXEMAKER'S GIFT A breathtaking voyage through human history from the authors of Connections and The Psychology of Consciousness! This program is about the people who gave us the world in exchange for our minds. They are the axemakers, whose discoveries and innovations, over thousands of years, have empowered us in innumerable ways. Each time the axemakers offered a new way to make us rich or safe or invincible or knowledgeable, we accepted their gift and used it to change the world. And we always came back for more, unmindful of the cost. But each axemaker's gift, be it a plow, an alphabet, a steam engine, a philosophy or a microscope, was a double-edged sword. And now we are learning a terrifying cause-and-effect lesson: that with our short-term progress has come long-term devastation. This brilliant journey through the past into the future by historian James Burke and psychologist Robert Ornstein explains how humanity has created both immense good and immense harm, and put us in the precarious spot we find ourselves today -- with shrinking resources, a ballooning population, and the ecosystem in trouble. It also brings us to an appreciation that axemaker gifts have always unleashed the kind of immense power that changes minds -- and how our survival may now depend on harnessing and refocusing that same power to save ourselves. "The Axemaker's Gift is a triumph. I don't think there's been anything like it in its combination of erudition of the highest order and of penetrating forward thinking of similar quality." -- Robert Cialdini, author of Influence 2 cassettes, approximate time: 3.5 hours copyright 1965 by James Burke and Robert Ornstein Audio Renaissance Tapes, Inc. a division of Cassette Productions Unlimited, Inc. 5858 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 205 Los Angeles, CA 90036 ISBN 1-55927-352-6 - - - Click on a title below to order: The Axemaker's Gift : A Double -Edged History of Human Culture