Joseph Gabriel

Auden defined poetry as memorable speech, an ideal abandoned by contemporary poetry, which adheres to a nihilistic poetics of indeterminacy. Odyssey and Other Poems challenges the prevailing trend and, instead, seeks to achieve Auden's ideal by offering a poetry that has something to say and that imprints that something upon the memory. Thus, Gabriel's are modern poems that also reflect the ancient Bardic tradition. They are not just to be read but also spoken. Gabriel's poems cover a wide range of subjects and themes, from the ancient to the modern, the public to the deeply personal. Thus, the reader will find poems about the Fall of Troy, about a boyhood growing up in Philadelphia's Little Italy, and more than a few love poems. And their tones are richly varied, from the lyrical and humorous to the ironic and tragic. Gabriel's poems honor the great modernist poets he admires: Dickinson, Robinson, Yeats, Rilke, Pound, Eliot, Cavafy, Hart Crane, and Auden. Odyssey and Other Poems is groundbreaking in its refusal to bow to contemporary poetic norms and editorial expectations. Thereby, it makes its own unique mark on the world of contemporary poetry.

Electronics provides a welcome, comprehensive history of one of the late twentieth century's greatest technologies: electronic devices. Some of them, the laser and the microchip for example, have become household words. Yet their origins and operation are largely unknown to the general public, remaining mysterious outside the field of engineering. Their advent brought about many of the most important historical developments in recent memory-the rise of television, the Cold War, the Space Race, the growth of Asian semiconductor manufacturers, and the emergence of the surveillance society. Electronics also relates the fascinating stories of how scientists and engineers created and commercialized such devices as the transistor, the Magnetron tube used to power microwave ovens, the CRT (cathode ray tube), the laser, the first integrated circuit, the microprocessor, and memory chips.

Electronics is the first book of its kind—a comprehensive account of the history of one of the late 20th century's greatest technologies—the field of electron devices. Some of these devices, the laser and the microchip for example, have become household words, but their origins and operation are largely unknown to the general public. Other devices that form the heart of important electronic systems are virtually unknown outside the field of engineering. Electronics is the first book to survey the histories of all these devices, showing how they relate to each other and to the world we live in. This work will be accessible to those without a technical background, but is precise enough for an engineer. The development of electronic devices was central to many of the most important historical events of the last 50 years, such as the introduction of television, Cold War, the Space Race, the rise of Asian semiconductor manufacturers, and the emergence of the surveillance society—this book explores them all. In addition, Electronics examines the fascinating stories of how scientists and engineers created these devices in the first place: One organization, the Bell Telephone Laboratories, was responsible for either the invention or, perhaps more importantly, the commercialization of many of the most important advances in the field. The book explains the origins and impact of a series of now-familiar technologies, including the Magnetron tube used to power microwave ovens, the CRT (television and computer display), the laser, the first integrated circuit, the microprocessor, and memory chips. The transistor—a single invention created to solve a specific engineering problem—was taken up by numerous researchers and transformed a technology—the so-called semiconductor devices—with an astonishing breadth of applications and a nearly ubiquitous presence. The book includes a timeline and a bibliography for those interested in learning more about the history of electron devices.