Bøker av Jack R Williams

There are two fundamental economic systems in the world. These are autocracy and capitalism. Autocracy means rule by one person or a small group. Power is concentrated here. Autocracy usually leads to murder on a mass scale as seen with Nazism as in Germany or Communism as in Russia. This propensity for state murder disqualifies this as a viable ideology. Sooner or later, the masses clamber over the walls and dispose of the autocracies. The mill that keeps capitalism turning is technology. This has been true since about 1776 or the country's founding, first for the military market, and then for the general market. Today's technology is based on the personal computer and the cell phone that combines power, communications or electronics and computers. The argument is made that an Information Revolution (shortened to Inforev) has been underway since 1980, paralleling the Industrial Revolution. It is argued that electricity is the greatest innovation of all time and has brought us all to wealth and advanced culture. This story develops the history of electronics that has spawned most of today's innovations. For instance, today's hand-held devices house batteries for mobile power, microscopic communications and computer functions as will be developed.

The book is about a military family during WWII through the Cold War. Their background and history touches the highlights of WWII, then winnows its history down to that of the Cold War and an over-flight. One recognizes and develops a metaphor with the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a lyrical ballad or poem that captures both the exaltation and the misery of their lives. Charlie joined the Air Force in 1941 and later married Charlotte Lee. Jackson, her brother, joined the Navy in 1947. Both became officer pilots and flew intelligence aircraft during the Cold War, and both became intelligence officers. Their ages made one a veteran of both wars while the other itched to be a veteran of WWII but had missed it. When Jackson joins a China over-flight, he causes a mortal crash that eventually drives him mad, just as the ship did to the Ancient Mariner.