Eras Books

Messages: An Era of Transformation is a compilation of interviews conducted by author Philip Harris in his exploration of spiritually based themes and controversies facing today's society. Harris, a noted authority in the areas of secret societies and religious mysticism, has created an introductory body of work that explores personal transformation, healing and the law of attraction. The casual format of his interviews reveals each guru's message of hope and healing for a world struggling to cope with the spiritual evolution of man.
Harris delivers a rich discussion exploring the current grassroots movements of mystics and healers who are actively delivering their messages of hope and pleas for healing a society in the throes of transformation. Messages II: An Era of Transformation is the first in a series on religion, spirituality, and offers much insight into the state of humanity. Interviews range from authors, publishers, and academics recognized in the field of spiritual evolution and provide insight issues facing today's society.
Messages II: An Era of Transformation contains a powerful message about our culture and our society's current evolution. Harris' latest work is not just an expose on that is wrong in our society, rather it is creates a thought provoking dialogue on how we can make it "right" again. Messages II: An Era of Transformation is not about saving mankind rather it is about revealing the negative influences on our personal lives that keep our culture mired in ignorance.
German poet and natural philosopher Johann Goethe wrote, "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." Harris's work is such a breath of fresh air in the genre of empowerment and spiritual exploration. He provides a thorough, specifically focused examination of how each of us has the ability to impact the world around us if we only search within ourselves. In his book, Messages II: An Era of Transformation, Harris points his reader to the realization that everything one needs to find Truth is found within each of us. One need not travel far, seeking out gurus, ashrams, and special retreat centers. How refreshing to know that the heart of the transformational journey is found inside ourselves. As seekers of the truth, we can only reach an understanding of our own inner self through silence, solitude, and reflection. Harris's work makes the reader sit up, take notice, and seek to live with a soulful purpose that guides each of us to live in ways that bring fulfillment and happiness.

Mr. Harris has provided us all with a thought provoking book filled with a multitude of subjects. Using several of his interviews done on his radio show, "All Things That Matters," Mr. Harris has, through the many guests on his show, helped to educate us on numerous subjects as well as pique our interest in those subjects. I took something away from each interview and several pushed me to the point where I had the desire to learn more. This was easy to do as websites are provided. A well written book by an incredible author and interviewer, Philip Harris has yet to let his fans down.

WritingWithStiles
Katrina Stiles
Reviewer

I had to review this book for a historical book review and it read like a breeze through the part describing the battles of the war. The political part after the war part was intresting but not as exciting as the former. This is a great read for fans of the Mexican War and even though of the Civil War.

Otis Singletary's The Mexican War is a concise and excellent overview of the war. Its greatest strength is the way it brings the personalities and personal conflicts to life. It provides great insight into the way politics intruded upon the prosecution of the war.

There are few books that display the imagination of The Mind-Warp Era. It quickly moves the reader from the ordinary to the unexpected, with a wicked turn of the sentence. The sheer joy of reading an inventive writer will keep the pages flying past.

The Mind-Warp Era is a fun-filled ride down the test track of reality. Every bump and curve is a life and death struggle against the forces of evil and depravity where superheroes and supervillains pound it out under the influence of mind-altering transmissions. This is like a comic book in novel from; a cross between the hitchhiker's guide and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Read this for fun and keep an eye out for caricatures of social icons of our time.

There are just some of the many information technologies that are becoming mainstream topics for every IT organization. This book demonstrates the cornerstones of future-oriented IT architectures based on these new technologies. Excellent illustrations!

Whether you are new to information technologies and architectures or you are a specialist looking to update your base of knowledge, this book is an excellent source. Moreover the platform assessments and recommendations are very helpful.

I've read zillions of books about the old car hobby, and this is easily the best one I've found. This is a book for driving enthusiasts, and people who love post-WWII sports cars and GT's -- it's not for speculators, it's not for people who want to modify cars (no how-to stuff), nor people who want to make a buck. It's a wee bit dated 25 years on, but hey, nothing's perfect. ...highly entertaining and informative read.
Taylor doesn't go into any of the notorious muscle cars, but instead concentrates mostly on lesser known models (mostly). Besides, there are plenty of books out there that go on ad nauseum about Detroit's V-8's. This book gets 5 stars as a car book, and 4 stars as one of my all-time favorite books, any subject.
So go ahead, learn a little about Bocar, Woodill, and Bill Thomas' Cheetah (a Cobra beater). Be on the look-out: buy your own copy of this book when you get the chance -- I'm keeping mine, and taking it with me after I die.
By the way, Amazon also lists this book under the title, "Modern Classics: The Great Cars of the Post War Era." There's another 5 star review there, with more detail, and in truth if you're not familiar with the book, that review may be more useful than my rave here.

When I first read this book in the late seventies, it was to check out what this automotive journalist thought of some of my favorite cars, like the Avanti, the Austin-Healey and the Porsche Speedster. The reviews were so honest and funny that I shelled out thirty part-time-job dollars to buy it. I look back on it now as one of the most influential books I ever read, because it opened up a world of fabulous cars that I had only vaguely noticed previously. The book is divided into three main sections detailing the postwar/pre-Opec sports cars of the United States, Great Britain, and Europe. Each region produced cars that reflected a certain national character, and Mr. Taylor describes, in roughly chronolgical order, all the cars that best exemplify it. Using a conversational and salty style, he traces each chosen car's history in the context of the time it was made, its competion history where applicable, and the good and bad points of owning the car yourself. Most importantly, he tells the stories of the men who made the cars, men who put their own personality and blood and fortune into producing the kind of cars they wanted to drive. Although each car's history can be read as an entity unto itself, the book is so arranged to give you a continuous overview of the whole era. I was particularly impressed by his inclusion of lesser-known and sometimes maligned cars, finding reasons for loving and admiring the Crosley Hotshots and Meyers Manxes along with the Ferraris and Gullwings and Corvettes. He expresses opinions that may rub some humorless enthusiasts the wrong way, but he can usually back up his remarks, and he is so engaging a writer that the unflattering comment is almost always followed by some redeeming compliment. And it's hard to fault his choice of the ultimate manifestations of each region's most characteristic sports car (the 427 Cobra for the US, the Morgan for Britain, and the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing for Europe.) So if you like the kind of cars that seem to be made only by the Franklin Mint these days, I highly recommend Modern Classics. Every page is an engaging read, and may inspire you to pursue your own modern classic yourself, like I did.

Thomas More, executed by Henry VIII (one of his best friends) for treason, led an illustrious career of politics and letters. Under his friend the King, he served in many capacities - Speaker of the House of Commons, Master of Requests, Privy Councillor, etc. - culminating with the trust of the position of Lord Chancellor, a position in those days matching the prominence (if not the definition) of Prime Minister in these days. More's strong integrity and resolute mind caught the attention of scholars, political and church leaders internationally; it was this same integrity that most likely was his undoing, refusing to assent to the King's divorce and severance of ties binding the English Church with the Roman overlordship of the Pope. Indeed, More was, if not the actual ghostwriter, then certainly an inspiration and editorial aide to the document produced by King Henry VIII against the continental protestants, earning for Henry (and his heirs ever after) the title of Defender of the Faith (historical irony is that this title, most likely not intended to be hereditary, now declares the defense of a faith separated from the one for which the title was bestowed).

While an Ambassador to Flanders, More spent spare time writing this book, 'Utopia'. The very title is a still a by-word in the English language (as well as others) of a state of bliss and peace; it is often used with the context of being unrealistic. 'Utopia' is More's response to and development from Plato's 'Republic', in that it is a framework for a perfect society, or at least perfect according to More's ideas of the time. Penned originally in Latin, 'Utopia' has been translated widely; one of the better translations is by H.V.S. Ogden, in 1949, still reprinted in various editions to this day. Originally published in Latin in 1516, the first English version appeared in 1551, some 16 years after More's death.

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Utopia
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Thomas More writes this as if he were traveling, and meets his friend Peter Giles, who introduces him to Raphael Hythloday, a scholar/traveler with tales to tell.

Hythloday made friends with a prince who outfitted him for a journey. He traveled through deserts and fertile lands. He proceeds to give an account to Giles and More. In an ironic twist, given More's own attachment to Henry VIII, Hythloday states that he doesn't give his information in advice of kings or princes, for to be beholden to them is not a wise thing. He quotes Plato, in saying that unless kings were themselves philosophers, they should never appreciate philosophers.

More argues for public service, which Hythloday rejects as something that other place-seekers will use to bolster their own positions. Then Hythloday makes the startling pronouncement with regard to how a society should be constituted: 'As long as there is property, and while money is the standard of all things, I cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily; not justly, because the best things will fall to the share of the worst men; nor happily, because all things will be divided among a few (and even these are not in all respects happy), the rest being left to the absolutely miserable.'

Hythloday proceeds to give an account of the life of Utopia, where, he says, there are so few laws and so much liberty and equality that virtue is always rewarded, and each person has what he or she needs. He talks about this under the following headings:

Of Their Towns, Particularly of Amaurot
Of Their Magistrates
Of Their Trades, and Manner of Life
Of Their Traffic
Of the Travelling of the Utopians
Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages
Of Their Military Discipline
Of the Religions of the Utopians

'Utopia' is a radical document. It anticipates the modern idea of communism, with private property at a minimum; it is generations ahead in the idea of equality of the sexes and freedom of religion. This may seem a remarkable statement from someone who will go to his death supporting the Roman hierarchy, but in historical irony, had religious freedom been respected in England at the time, More would have had nothing to fear.

'Utopia' was a place of education and free inquiry. Again, More's own life models this - travelers from as far away as Constantinople and Venice, visiting More's home in Chelsea, remarked on the incredible sense of knowledge and respect for reason and learning, not just for the men, but also for the women of the household (More's own daughter once impressed Henry VIII with her Latin training so much he was at pains to find something at which he excelled that he could best her at).

At different points throughout the text, More (speaking through Hythloday) jabs in witty and insightful manner the habits of the day - that kings are often more concerned to fill their own coffers than increasing the general wealth of the nation; that courts are designed to be self-serving and self-perpetuating; that liberties are curtailed not for just and reasonable causes, but often for petty personal reasons.

Some of the ideas, however, are not as modern or enlightened as they might seem at first glance. Utopians' freedom of religion exists only in very narrow bounds of reason - they are all monotheists, and while they might identify this deity with the sun or moon or a good person who died long ago, they are not permitted to speak or attempt to convert others to this idea, without risking bondage or death. Not too Utopian after all...

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More was beatified by Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised by Pius XI in 1935 (it is significant to note that Anglican-Roman relations were at a strained point during these times, and the raising of an English saint who rejected the Anglican construct served at least minor political points, something More would have been able to appreciate, if not approve). The official feast day is July 9.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. A great story and important historical work in literature. History of Utopia begins with Thomas Moore's book in 1516 he coins the phrase Utopia. Ideal societies have been around before like Garden of Eden, city on a hill. For Moore the idea of utopia was intended to be an ironic one. One of the problems you are faced with when reading his utopia is that you cannot really tell when he is serious and when he is being satirical. He writes on the border of the lyrical and satirical, you cannot really tell when he is trying to be funny or serious. The other problem is the Thomas Moore who speaks to us in the story is not the Thomas Moore who actually lived. He wrote himself into a character. He is intending it to be ironic. Utopia is Greek for "Good Place, and "no place." He is punning an ironic two-sided term he clearly intended irony when he wrote this text, which provided the foundation for a new genre for social representation. Now, according to Lewis Mumford, who wrote the book "The Story of Utopia" 1922, one of the first comprehensive studies of Utopian representation in Western Civilization, the word Utopia signifies human folly or human hope, the vain hope of perfection. The vain hope of remaking our own imperfect natures, so that we can establish the blissful harmonious communal life. On one hand, he is entirely playful and paradoxical. Thomas Moore could be bigoted (against Protestants), small minded, not a saint as portrayed. Among all the things, he was a great wit, great sense of humor. On the other hand, it seems that Utopia could be a reflection of his devout Catholicism. He has been represented as a Roman Catholic martyr. In which case you want to take him seriously, altering the model of menses a set of new aims for moral and social objectives. Of course, Moore's death is important to consider in this life he is glorified in the film, "A Man for All Seasons." He was a Renaissance man, he was a lawyer, statesman, Christian humanist a classical scholar an advocate for women's rights he was also Henry 8's Lord Chancellor.

In 1514, he was sent to Flanders to negotiate a wool treaty and while there, he meets and befriends Peter Giles who is the town clerk of Antwerp, and allegedly tells him "It is my intention to write a book about the way a country should be governed according to my principals. But, it is dangerous to write about those things in England while king Henry the 8 wrath is so easily encouraged, I could perhaps write that I met an old sailor in your house and introduce that man as a globetrotter, who had traveled all over the world and had seen places that we don't even know the existence of. What he had seen there was so unbelievable as compared to the life in Europe that the islands the countries he had visited would seem to belong to another world. Therefore, the title of my book will be "Utopia" a word that means "no where." That sailor will have traveled all over Europe and lived sometime in France Germany, and England. That is why he could compare the ideal community he got acquainted with in Utopia, to the ones he got to know in our countries, and that way I would keep myself out of the matter." After he returned to London, he wrote the fist chapter. Now, what would that tell us about the Utopian imagination, the creation the public presentation of a Utopia? Moore was beheaded in 1535; he would not recognize marriage to Ann Boleyn as lawful to the church. In 1534, Henry becomes head of the church, but Moore remains loyal to pope. In 1935, Moore is canonized. We have to take Moore's religion very seriously. Moore thought Protestants should be burned, he was greedy and proud, not a perfect man. Yet he had this wish for a Utopia.

All utopian fictional ideas of mythic proportion occupy kind of distant realm of the afterlife, myth, faith that unite all of these elements in a matter that is so rich and potentially illuminating and invaluable for scholars students that are interested in working across boundaries and in understanding and exploring the value of working across boundaries. Societies woven and inhabited by populations some of them very select, the exceptionally virtuous or blessed in some cases getting there requires a metaphysical transformation, in other cases it requires a harrowing journey that has to be understood as some ways metaphorical and some ways literal. There is always a sense that to reach Utopia requires a transformation of the human self how do we get away from our flaws, how do we get away from our seemingly inevitable and invariable nature of our being.

These places offer anecdotes to painful and tragic realities to human existence. They are historical in nature you cannot understand any utopia, whether it is represented in a sci-fi movie, or novel or feminist utopia; they must be placed in some kind of a historical context. A fascinating proposition to explore, all utopias all acts of the utopian imagination strike us as constituting in one manner or another statements, critiques or observations about the world we occupy at that given moment. Therefore, any utopia is a reflection and study of the world that we are occupying at that given moment and what we wish it were rather than what it is at that moment. Therefore, utopia is a deeply and inescapably a historical manner organizing the human imagination. I don't think any utopia works in a fixed and eternal way because for every generation and every age they have to imagine their own utopia. Of course utopian experiments were not just talking about fiction or wishing it were so, were talking about actual Soviet Revolution of 1917, were looking at movements looking to bring about radical profound social and political changes that are so deeply utopian in nature. So utopians are aesthetic, philosophical, sociological, they are imagined and fictional, but you can look a history and find attempts most of which failed to bring about these kind of communities that Emerson, Thoreau, these 19th century American egalitarian attempts to create the ideal agrarian society. 1960 hippies reawakening movement of going back to the natural and living off the land. Even today's green and ecological revolution you find in them utopian aspects that resonate so richly with the history of envisioning the ideal society, an ideal place.

Oscar Wilde once said "A map of the world that does not include Utopia, is not even worth glancing at for it leaves out the one country at which humanity has always landed, and when humanity lands there it looks out sees a better country set sail. Progress is the realization of utopias." So when we talk about utopias we are not only talking about a desire or a wish or a longing for perfection, we are talking about an order of progress, a way in which we intend to advance, a way in which we envision or imagine improvement and progress. A progress narrative, psychoanalysis is utopian. Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is a scientific expression of the utopian imagination. The idea that where id was, the ego shall be. The idea of a talking story, the idea that we can master our neurosis that we can harness them that we can move from unconscious behavior to conscious behavior. Marxism and all the grand philosophies of the 19th and 20th centuries are grand utopian narratives. Feminism is a grand utopian narrative in and of itself.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE SILENT FILM ERA TO COLOR is, as noted on the cover, a 'coloring book' in the Stemmer House 'International Design Library' series. The black and white renderings of original film posters, by Rex Schneider, are accurate and quite well executed. In some instances where posters no longer exist, they have been newly designed in the style of the period. They provide a marvellous introduction and reference for all interested in the silent film era, its stars, and the broad range of art styles 'ballyhooing' the movies from the dawn of cinema to the first 'talkies', in addition to the good fun provided all who enjoy coloring. Schneider's uncanny caricatures of such celebrated movie comedians as Laurel & Hardy, Mabel Normand, and Buster Keaton (all represented in the book), are remarkable! The book is further complemented with notes on the individual films, an overview of the evolution of movie advertisements, and a guide for coloring the posters. The buyer is also at liberty to reproduce any of the posters for private, non-commercial use.

It was an incredibly well drawn piece of work,and fun to color,too!It must have been a Herculean effort for the artist NOT to color it in himself!It BEGS to be colored! My children can't keep their hands off it,so I have to put it up high(it's mine,you know)Thank you for a wonderful time!

This book must be read by all Muslims, both living in the West and the East. It is penned by someone who does not shudder in presenting a paragon of how Muslims should behave in un-Islamic countries. It drips wisdom and prudence in presenting the purpose and objectives of Muslims who inhabit the western world. If you a looking for enlightment, from the Quaran, Sunnah and life of our pious predecessors, then go no further. This book unearths new ways, and throws light on how to tread carefully around the thorns of immorality that lay bare in the West, without compromising your Faith. There includes a valuable exposition on the founding of America, and interwoven in the theme of the book is the colossal failure of the Superpower, and the West genenrally, despite materialistic acquisitions and mastery, to appreciate the worth of man himself. The author complements the West on its achievement, but presents an eye-openor for soul-searching. Balanced and tempered, the reader is urged not to shy away from his Divine responsibilities of propogating Islam, nor become apologetic and stupified by superficial comforts, but press ahead with the Prophetic task, persevering and steadfast on Faith.

This book must be read by all Muslims, both living in the West and the East. It is penned by someone who does not shudder in presenting a paragon of how Muslims should behave in un-Islamic countries. It drips wisdom and prudence in presenting the purpose and objectives of Muslims who inhabit the western world. If you a looking for enlightment, from the Quaran, Sunnah and life of our pious predecessors, then go no further. This book unearths new ways, and throws light on how to tread carefully around the thorns of immorality that lay bare in the West, without compromising your Faith. There includes a valuable exposition on the founding of America, and interwoven in the theme of the book is the colossal failure of the Superpower, and the West genenrally, despite materialistic acquisitions and mastery, to appreciate the worth of man himself. The author complements the West on its achievement, but presents an eye-openor for soul-searching. Balanced and tempered, the reader is urged not to shy away from his Divine responsibilities of propogating Islam, nor become apologetic and stupified by superficial comforts, but press ahead with the Prophetic task, persevering and steadfast on Faith.

Bernstein's book is one of the more accessible (albeit still challenging to those not steeped in the postmodern tradition) works on postmodern political theory. The work is well worth grappling with. He helps identify some of the characteristics of postmodernism and then explores the contributions that this makes to political discourse.

The Other is an important theme among Postmodern thinkers. It arises, inter alia, from the very nature of language as such thinkers understand it. A key concept is the notion of binary oppositions. To use colors in the spectrum as an example. White is defined in terms of black, but we do not think of white as black--even though black is critical for white's meaning. In a sense, black is pushed to the side and becomes Other. Bernstein says that (71):

"This is the theme [in Postmodern thought] that resists the unrelenting tendency of the will to knowledge and truth where Reason--when unmasked--is understood as always seeking
to appropriate, comprehend, control, master, contain, dominate, suppress, or repress what presents itself as 'the Other' that it confronts. It is the theme of the violence of Reason's imperialistic welcoming embrace."

A classic binary opposition relevant here is Same/Other or Identity/Difference. The first term in each is privileged or "valorized." The second becomes Other, whose meaning is hidden or repressed. Rational ideals of the Modern era have it that we must try to explain all things, that there are underlying explanations to account for everything. We try to make "Same" or explain all components of a particular arena in common terms. However, the idea of binary oppositions in language means that Same can only be defined in terms of Other (remember, the color white can only be defined in terms of the color black--black becomes Other to white). By trying to reduce everything to Same, we are repressing Other.

There is a striking political metaphor here, according to Bernstein. He claims that (71):

"For the 'logic' at work here is the 'logic' at work in cultural, political, social, and economic imperialism and colonization--even the 'logic' of ethical imperialism where the language of reciprocal recognition and reconciliation masks the violent reduction of the alterity of 'the Other' (l'autrui) to 'more of the same.' What is at issue here is acknowledging the radical incommensurable singularity of the Other (l'autrui), to recover a sense of radical plurality
that defies any facile total reconciliation."

For the postmodern analyst, the suppression of the "Other" is a form of violence. What is needed is a "letting be." Jacques Derrida, a major Postmodern figure, calls out for ". . .the respect for the other as what it is: other. Without this acknowledgment, which is not a knowledge, or let us say without this 'letting be' of an existent (Other) as something existing outside me in the essence of what is. . ., no ethics would be possible" (quoted on 184-185). And Derrida clearly wants an ethics of tolerance and "letting be." We must never cease questioning; we must not allow one truth to become dominant and, thus, to disallow other truths to coexist. This questioning thrust is as much in order in the politico-social realm as in the literary or philosophical realm.

The task for democratic theory today is to think through how to do justice to both universality and particularity, sameness and difference, to conceive and develop practices in which we recognize the indeterminableness of conflict and nevertheless can learn to respect the otherness of the other.

The postmodern thinker would argue that democracy is only possible if we resist the temptation to marginalize/suppress/oppress/repress Other. That is, a "letting be" and tolerance of Other/different is mandated if we are truly to experience freedom in a democracy.

This is a challenging book-not a quick read. But Bernstein is more accessible than many other writers. Well worth confronting to address the many issues at stake.

Bernstein points out in the Introduction his inability to combine the subsequent essays into a single theme, generative principle, or common core. His way of characterizing the refractory nature of these strands is to liken them to a "constellation", which by definition contains elements resisting integration into a unified whole. Thus, the image of constellation stands as the book's central metaphor, and a characterization of how Western philosophy stands following the emergence of the post-modern "Stimmung" or "mood". Put in Hegelian terms, the "other" remains other, because the post-modern negation of reason offers no prospect of being reconciled into a more comprehensive whole. I think it's fair to say that for Bernstein, the "post" in post-modernism really does mean post. And though Bernstein doesn't emphasize the word, a thoroughly pluralist landscape would appear to be the result, a pluralism perhaps uniquely beyond all measure of integration.

Those who see the missing yet vital connecting strand in the triumph of a consumer mentality may find the work inadequate from the standpoint of broader cultural analysis. It's true, Bernstein does stick closely to the narrower philosophical level. Nevertheless, each essay represents a penetrating discussion of major post-moderns and their precursors, figures such as Foucault, Derrida, and Heidegger, along with more diverse thinkers, like Rorty, Habermas and MacIntyre. For me, the two most revealing chapters are the discussion of Heidegger and technology and Rorty's liberal utopia. The former makes a revealing connection between Heidegger's philosophy of Being and his refusal to disavow a Nazi past; while the latter illuminates an important theoretical issue confronting the post-moderns--- how to finesse the paradoxes facing an anti-foundationalist politics as it seeks to avoid outright nihilism. Despite the work's breadth, this is by no means the flabby work of an eclectic. Bernstein's reputation is built upon a sympathetic and fair-minded understanding of both Anglo-American and Continental traditions. This work is certainly no exception.