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Twin Tracks is a landmark book of
real-world stories that investigates the nature of change
and divines as never before the unlikely origins of many
aspects of contemporary life. In each of the work's twenty-five
narratives, we discover how the different outcomes of an
important event in the past often come together again in
the future.
Each chapter starts with an event -- such
as the U.S. attack on Tripoli in 1804 -- that generates
two divergent series of consequences. After tracking each
pathway as it ranges far and wide through time and space,
Burke shows how the paths finally and unexpectedly converge
in the modern world.
Twin Tracks pinpoints the myriad
ways the future is shaped, whether by love, war, accident,
genius, or discovery. For instance, in "The Marriage
of Figaro to Stealth Fighter," Burke's twin tracks
start with the composer of the opera and the French spy
from whose play he stole the plot. The tracks then encompass,
among other things, freemasonry, the War of Independence,
Captain Cook, jellyfish, Jane Austen, and audio tape. Ultimately,
the convergence of the two Figaro tracks sets the
stage for the development of Gulf War Stealth aircraft.
Wonderfully accessible and lucidly written,
Twin Tracks offers an amusing and instructive new
view of the past and the future.
James Burke's books include Circles,
Connections, The Pinball Effect, The Day
the Universe Changed, and The Knowledge Web. A
former columnist for Scientific American, Burke is
the director, writer, and host of the television series
Connections 3. He lives in London, England.
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