Advanced Math Knowledge Required
Written: Oct 02 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Interesting look at L'Enfants plan for D.C. and how it was and was not followed
Cons: Filled with technical math jargon that makes it a dense read for most
The Bottom Line: If your into math/geometry and/or city planning you may enjoy this, but others will likely find it boring and repetitive.
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| kjscrafts's Full Review: Nicholas Mann - The Sacred Geometry of Washington,... |
This book is full of mathematical jargon that will either turn you off from wanting to read it or make you feel like you are reading a foreign language unless you have an advanced background in math (especially geometry) and love the subject. The book does present the designing of Washington, D.C. as it relates to L'Enfant's plans and how his plans were and were not followed in an interesting way. However, for the most part it is very dense to read while at the some time being very informally written. This combination makes the book even the more confusing when the language used is sometimes in first person with unneeded information and then followed with the technical/scholarly passages that such a book can be expected to be fully made up of. Despite my personal dislike for the author make parts unscholarly, the book still reads clearly if you have the mathematical background. It can however be pretty boring and overall is most definitely extremely repetitive. The book is a worthy read if you want to learn more about the original planning of the city and the symbolic meaning of L'Enfants plan and thus learn more about D.C., but it is not the kind of book you would want to casually pick up to learn about your next travel destination. Try almost any other non-fiction/history book about D.C. and you will probably enjoy them better. I am not saying this is a bad book, as it does add to scholarly knowledge of D.C. in a useful way. It just is not an interesting read for most people.
Recommended:
No
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kjscrafts
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