P Books

AJ P Taylor is one of the master historians of the European era and this book is one of the clear reasons why. Taylor analyzes the data available at the time and clearly and concisely traces the reasons for the outbreak of the Second World War. Starting with the Treaty of Versailles and moving up through the new diplomatic outlook created from Locarno. The failure of the Locarno system becomes evident in the disastrous disarmament talks and the four power pact by Mussolini. Germany's rise to power as an aggressor coupled with the timidity and stupidity at times of Great Britain and France allowed anarchy to slip into war. Italy's reliance as a stable power was a huge miscalculation by the allies of Great Britain and France as Italy went to war in Ethiopia. The expanding and remilitarization of Germany caused more contention among the powers and the aloofness of the Soviet Union and United States forced Europe to deal with their own problems leading to war. Overall this is an excellent interpretation of the war and one that is truly a timeless classic. Highly recommend for those who wish to know more about why the war started.

Taylor modifies totally the existing traditional view regarding the origins of the second world war which has considered Hitler as the sole creator of the conflict. Taylor doesnt defend the german Fuhrer nor simply condemns the commonly called "appeasers", but instead with a very original argument explains that the war originated due to the oportunism of Hitler added to the the shortsightedness and blunders of the french and british statesman.

This book is a very good explanation of the origins of the Second World War. All of the major events between the wars are described in detail. The book also describes World War One and how it relates to the origins of World War Two. I think it is interesting that if it were up to America, World War Two may very likely have never happened. The reason for this is: America had been in World War One for much less time than all of the other major countries at the end. She would have rather gone on into the heart of Germany and defeated her outright. This would have led to Germany's not having grievances such as having to hand over the Alsace-Lorraine region to France, the demilitarization of the Rhineland, and having to pay reparations. Of course, it was not up to the Americans and they did not get their way. The Origins of the Second World War goes on to describe all the treaties between the wars such as Locarno, Rapallo, the settlement at Munich, and the Nazi-Soviet Pact. It describes more of the events right before the war than of the ones that weren't. These are the crisises over the German populations of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the free city Danzig, which was right in the middle of a part of Poland that belonged to Germany before and during the First World War. Hitler waited for the Austrian state to collapse, and it did. He waited for the Czechoslovakians to give in to his demands, and the British and French (trying to prevent war), eventually gave in for them. With Poland, however, Hitler had set a date to invade if diplomatic measures did not solve the crisis by then. They hadn't, so World War Two started two days after he invaded Poland, on September 3rd.

When this reviewer read A.J.P. Taylor's THE ORIGINS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, he was impressed by the research, scholarship, and concise written experssion. Taylor argued that the Hitler regime never planned to enter a "total war," and a total war was the last thing the Germans wanted. Taylor convincingly demonstrates this thesis in this book.

Taylor begins his study with some forgotten problems that "mainstream" historians, those historians who are too timid or too politically connected, refuse to handle due to preconceived conclusions which Taylor undermines. The facts are that while the Germans lost World War I on the Western Front, the Germans did indeed win World War I against the Russians and extraced a peace treaty from the new revolutionary regime under Lenin (Treaty of Brest-Litvosk). The subsequent Versailles "Peace" Conference (1919) unhinged German victorians in the East.

Taylor also unhinges the myths that Hitler was solely responsible for unraveling the unjust and tentative conditions of the Versailles settlement. For example, Taylor carefully examines the Anschluss between the Germans and the Austrians in 1938. This event was not planned by the Hitler regime, and the crisis was started by the Austrian Chancellor Schnussnig and not by Hitler. Schnussnig provoked a rebellion in Austria when he tried to used armed force to crush the Austrian National Socialists and lost political control. The Germans were the only ones who were seen as able to restore order. The crisis caught the Germans by surprise. When the Germans sent military and police forces Austria, over 70% of the vehicles malfunctioned. There was no carefully planned operation to take control. The crisis a totally unexpected political favor. In an attempt to legitimatize the Anschluss, he submitted the matter to the Austrians for a plebiscite. The vote was 99.08% in favor of the Anschluss and only .92% against it, "...a genuine reflection of German feeling."

Taylor further gives a more precise account of the Sudetenlan situation of the subsequent Munich conference in 1938. The French and British were branded as "appeasers" by lazy historians who are not aware of the situation. Taylor argues that the Czechs and Eastern Europeans would not be well served by war. If one looks at a map of Europe, they should realize that Czechoslovakia is Eastern Europe, and there was little that the British or French could do if war did result. One should note that the Czechs, British, French, etc. were very concerned about possible Soviet military intervention and fears of Big Communism moving west into Central Europe. One should also note that when the Germans moved into the rest of Czechoslovakia, Hocha, the Czech foreig minister, asked for German help because of fears of Polish, Soviet, and Hungarian dismantling the rest of the country.

Taylor handles the critics of these events. Taylor argues that the Czechs were "betrayed" while, later in 1939, the Polish were "saved." Less than one hundred thousand Czechs died during World War II while the Polish lost over six million people and their political independence after the war. Taylor asks which was better-to be a "saved" Pole or a "betrayed" Czech? When there was political flak during the Cold War about Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, Taylor relates that the only ones could honestly raise such flak were those who were against British instigation of World War II in the first place. The Cold Warriors who preached war against the Germans in the 1930s could not honestly whine about Soviet presence in Eastern Eruope since their support for Stalin & co. enabled to control Eastern Europe afte World War II. What did they expect?

A.J.P. Taylor also has severe criticism of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. He stated that if judges from neutral countries held these trials, the defendents would have been set free or some of the "allied" leaders would have joined the defendents as war criminals. He wrote, "The verdicts preceded the trials." Taylor also debunks some of the presecutions' evidence and proves it to be fabrications.

Taylor stated that in regard to World War II,"Though none were innocent, all were guilty." Taylor uses careful research, precise examinations of documents, and clear reason to make his case. This book is quite readable, and a reading of Harry Elmer Barnes' review titled 'Blasting the Historical Blackout" will assist the reader to have a better understanding of Taylor' THE ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II.

A. J. P. Taylor presents a controversial view on the cause of the Second World War. In his thesis, Taylor argues that the Western powers were as much to blame for the war as Hitler himself through their lack of reactionary response to his activities. Taylor should in no way be taken as a Nazi apologist in anyway, but simply presents miss opportunities that could have staved off disaster. Well researched and written, Taylor is one of the preeminent historians of 20th Century European history along with B. H. Liddell-Hart and J. F. C. Fuller.

Joshi is the foremost student of Lovecraft, and in this volume he has written the unsurpassable biography of the man whom Stephen King himself called "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."

For myself, I can only say it's been a long wait. I first discovered Lovecraft at my local library in eleventh grade. I picked a book decorated with some macabre illustration off a twirling bookstand, checked it out, and rode my bike home with the volume tucked under my arm. That evening I sat with it in the big white reading chair in our home's living room. The first story I read was "The Picture In the House."

I was hooked.

Within the year I'd read every story Lovecraft wrote excepting one--"Herbert West: Reanimator". (I finally got to that earlier this year.) I became, in a way, obsessed with Lovecraft. I wanted to know who he was, so I read Frank Belknap Long's Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside. The stories and poetry I was writing at the time became increasingly colored by (or downright imitative of) my hero. Somehow, the man infected my consciousness in a way no other writer--before or since--ever has. I guess it's because in so many ways my inner life has been--with some important exceptions--a parallel to Lovecraft's. I see him as a kindred spirit.

That being the case, it's hardly surprising I relished--nay, wallowed in--this biography. It is detailed beyond imagining. Here we follow Lovecraft on his walking tours, street by street. We see his grocery lists and menu items. We read his letters and amateur publications. By the end of this text you will feel you have lived and breathed right alongside the old fellow and slung arm-in-arm with him through his nightmare worlds. No one could have done it better than Joshi, and it is doubtful anyone ever will. If you are a fan, this is a must read. If just curious, the lengthy detail might be off-putting, but you may find yourself a convert by the end.

Unlike De Camp in his earlier biography, Joshi doesn't consider HPL to be a failed version of what he might have been had he at various key points in his life been just that little bit more commerce-minded: instead he accepts Lovecraft as he was and goes on from there. I think Joshi brings out what it is about Lovecraft & his work that continues to fascinate today: the curious fact that an erudite, scholarly autodidact should, from an early age, have been so caught up in a melodramatic 'pulp' aesthetic that for the rest of his life he focussed the entirety of his self-expression - emotional, intellectual and philosophical - through that aesthetic. Hence Lovecraft's stories have, even at their most garish & mechanical, an (admittedly sometimes near-subliminal) intellectually rich underpinning, and it is this bleed-through of a higher aesthetic that lifts them above the acres of hackwork that surrounded them when first published in Weird Tales, (try reading even a 'best of' by those other writers today!), gives them a psychological curiosity, and has given them their unexpected longevity.

Joshi's analysis of the 'Cthulhu Mythos' is, I think, exactly right: he defines the Mythos (not HPL's coinage, of course), as 'a fictional technique' for presenting Lovecraft's philosophy - which Joshi defines astutely as 'an anti-theology' which makes manifest (as we see with the cultists in Call of Cthulhu) the delusive nature of all religious belief, and asserts the meaningless of human existence in a vast, uncaring, mechanistic universe.

This analysis justifies what would otherwise be an excessively lengthy exploration of Lovecraft's political and philosophical beliefs, given that he published no significant writing on those subjects, and was only considered a great thinker by his friends and epistolary correspondents. It also highlights the unalloyed perversity of August Derleth in imposing a Catholic-inflected cosmology onto Lovecraft's atheistic vision. How strange that he was so fascinated by HPL & his work, but couldn't accept what Joshi rightly points out is its absolute core!

Joshi manages to address various differing opinions in the world of Lovecraft Studies without becoming pedantic or petty, and takes trouble to credit other researchers and academics for their insights.

As a biography this book is full of interest, and Joshi's pursuit of detail is relentless - occasionally to the point of obsessiveness, it has to be said, but some of the details he uncovers are highly revealing. His account of Lovecraft's death I found surprisingly moving, but I did not, as I did on finishing the De Camp biography, regret his life - except in the single matter of his clinging on to racist beliefs and self-diminishing prejudices.

I have very few criticisms. There are no photographs, and I think the cover is horrid - & certainly is not a good likeness of HPL. Occasionally Joshi is so aesthetically aligned with his subject he indulges him (as he does with certain of his amateur endeavors); occasionally Joshi is over-definitive in his judgment of the merits of various yarns. I think he slightly misses the mark at various points when he comments of (eg the denoument of Herbert West) that HPL must have been sending up his own style to *intentionally* comic effect. This, I think, is not quite right: rather, it seems to me, he allowed his discipline to slip, and reverted to the garish style of the Argosy yarns that he had read as a child, the style of which had so fundamentally informed his entire notion of the form of aesthetic and psychological self-expression that he could never quite discard it. Lovecraft knew it was a failing on his part, but sometimes let it off the leash regardless. I'm sure he never thought of his verbal pyrotechnics as anything other than, on sober reflection, accidentally funny.

Aside from those very modest quibbles, I found Joshi's judgments & assessments at all times perceptive and thought-provoking, and his 'Life' a highly-readable achievement in biography.

Wow, this must have been quite a few hours of work for Joshi! The fonts are below even standard book-fonts, AND I hear it's an abridged version but still the book is almost 700 pages. But don't get me wrong, in many ways I wish it was longer. The book is a fine introduction to Lovecraft's life, and to most Lovecraft-readers, probably quite enough in itself. It chronicles on an annual basis, highlighting and describing any interesting incidents or activities revolving around Lovecraft and his circle of friends and family that happened over the years. There's not much to say about this, its very good and solid biographical work by a fine devotee of Lovecraft; S.T Joshi. Its not often reading a biography makes me sad, but reading the final chapter on Lovecraft himself "The end of one's life" made a certain Norwegian man quite sad. Apart from some points I'm about to take up, I have no doubt that this is a biography that Lovecraft himself would have approved of. It could have been more detailed in its description of how the various fiction came to be, and more analysis of this area, but it IS after all a biography, so that was of course Joshi's prerogative.

Now to the bad; as a little background to the author of the book, he is in fact an immigrant; an Indian living with a miscegenating Euro-American female. This explains why he constantly abuses Lovecraft for his conservative and racialist views. He conjures up non-sense frequently when talking about this subject; somehow concluding that theories about race and miscegenation etc were definitively debunked by the "scientific work" of Franz Boas. This is of course complete nonsense, like Kevin MacDonald has shown in his excellent work "The Culture of Critique". Franz Boas had specific racial reasons himself for carrying out his campaign against the use of "race" in academia, and the reasons for this were far from what the Western standard of science represents.

So even though I highly recommend the book, I wish Joshi could have been so intellectually honest that he admitted in the book that his status as a non-European immigrant himself has biased him, and made him write the book with an extreme liberal and secular slant. So if you manage to ignore this part of Joshi's book; you'll have on your hands an excellent and well-written account of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and a good introduction to his writing.

The good: Until S.T. Joshi's book, the only serious biographical information on HPL apart from his letters was 'H.P. Lovecraft; A Biography' (1975) by L. Sprague de Camp, which left many gaps and open questions. Joshi's book fills in the gaps and then some. It is the closest thing we have to a definitive Lovecraft bio, and if you're a Lovecraft scholar of any seriousness, you'll eventually need to read it.

The not-so-good: While Joshi's book reads like a rigorously well-researched first draft, I wish he'd consulted with a manuscript editor before publication. This massive, expensive and ponderous 708-page book could perhaps be edited into a more readable and reasonably-priced 300-page book, with another 100 pages of small print endnotes, merely by removing Joshi and his scholarship from the foreground and replacing them with Lovecraft. For example:

- Joshi includes himself in the story, using the first person pronoun on nearly every page. "I..." this and "I..." that. While Joshi is likely the world's foremost Lovecraft scholar, and I appreciate his excellent and exhaustive efforts as a researcher, I did not plunk down such a hefty cover price to read about his adventures in scholarship. Easily 200 pages of this 708 page book are about the adventures of Joshi, Lovecraft scholar. That information belongs either in a short appendix or separate article. He'll print a quotation and then add, "To this analysis there is really very little to add...," or "I don't think I can add much to this.," seemingly for no other purpose than to return the spotlight, which had momentarily alighted on Lovecraft, to himself. On nearly every page I felt that trapped "captive audience" feeling you get with professors who use class time to speak at length about their personal lives. Surely by now it has become standard practice for biographers to not include the personal "I" in their biographies, at least when they've never met the subject.

- While most biographies focus on the subject and relegate sources and disputes to footnotes and endnotes, Joshi foregrounds the sources and points of contention, which has the odd effect of almost burying the subject. You'll often read four paragraphs of sources and conjecture containing a single sentence of actual biographical information. If Lovecraft did X, but there's some dispute, I'd prefer the main body to say "Lovecraft probably did X," with a small-print footnote citing sources and contentions. I paid to read about Lovecraft, not Lovecraft scholarship. I often feel like I'm being punished, forced to read 708 pages to get 300 pages of information.

- As another reviewer pointed out, Joshi frequently expresses his editorial positions in a tone suggesting that he believes his personal opinions to be indisputable fact. Especially disconcerting is Joshi's careful habit of never missing an opportunity to denigrate Lovecraft himself. A tiny sampling of Joshi's descriptions of Lovecraft and his work includes: clownish error, clumsily, embarrassing, paranoia, pompous, pseudo-philosophical, trying to do too much, moping, overly given to histrionics, offensive, dubious and pathetic. It's almost as though, while Joshi must have some respect for Lovecraft, he is careful to constantly place himself "above" Lovecraft emotionally. I can sympathize with Joshi, who as a serious scholar must sometimes find himself exasperated by uninformed intellectuals who still underrate Lovecraft's genuine contribution. However, I feel that the body of a biography is not the best place for Joshi to distance himself from Lovecraft's pulpier and sillier decisions. Why are Joshi's opinions in the book at all? Doesn't he trust his readers to form our own opinions? Almost once per page I felt some resentment at being forced to play captive audience to Joshi's unwelcome editorial opinions and emotional self-positioning in order to gain access to his excellent scholarship.

- Joshi provides "spoiler" summaries of most stories. While these are welcome, it would have dramatically improved readability to cut these from the main body and provide as sidebars. This would also allow readers who wish to avoid spoilers to skip them easily, as well as reduce the book's almost oppressive density.

In closing, I hope this book is re-released soon with S.T. Joshi's presence as a character, editorial opinions, emotional self-positioning and research experiences either cut entirely or summarized in an appendix or endnotes. Then it wouldn't hurt to have a professional book doctor rewrite with an eye to smoother prose and readability. THAT edition will be the definitive Lovecraft biography.

Clocking in at 654 pages, this sprawling biography will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the horror scribe -- along with some things you'll wish you hadn't discovered, like how Lovecraft was a more zealous racist than was the norm in his day. Joshi is long-winded, for sure, like the grandfather who, when you ask him how the light switch turns the lamp on, proceeds to tell you the history of electricity, starting with two sticks being rubbed together. You'll be hard-pressed to remember all the details afterward, but the story of Lovecraft's life is smartly woven, divulging the world as viewed through the writer's eyes and those around him. Like a criminologist apt at identifying with a killer, Joshi truly seems to understand his subject down to the crumbs on his coat.

This book presents some interesting concepts on Process Design and Performance.

Don't let the date this book was published influence your decision to buy - it is timeless. I am on my second copy of this book and would characterize it as the best book on business process management that has ever been published. This is "The Book". Everyone I know in the Business Process Management field has this book. I recommend it to every client and every business improvement team member that I work with.

The information contained in this "gem" can help anyone involved in process improvement. Consultants, executives, managers, process team leaders, process team members - it doesn't matter whether you are working in manufacturing, finance, logistics, sales or human resources. It also doesn't matter whether you are new to BPM or have been in the field for 20 years. This book will change the way you think about organizational structure and approaching business process.

Trying to characterize what parts of the book were best, would be like trying to dissect what parts of the blue sky you like best. It is all great stuff - each chapter is better than the next, and will help you understand what needs to be done to make business improvement initiatives work. It is well written, easy to understand the concepts, with hundreds of useful illustrations and models to learn from.

I would give this book 6 stars if I could ...

This book will survive the trends, since most of the trends are based on the principles in this book. The names will change (Quality Circles, Just In Time, TQM, Re-engineering, Six Sigma, ...), but these principles and how well they are implemented will determine a companies' efficiency and quality.

As a business process and systems analyst, I have used the techniques in this book extensively to document existing and proposed processes and systems.

The diagramming techniques ensure thorough identification of all relevant interfaces and will assist in identifying those frustrating and toxic business processes that defy verbal description, but once diagrammed, seem to become clearly understood. I cannot count how many "Ah-ha" moments I have seen when confused managers, too deep in the trees to be able to see the whole forest, finally see the problems with their business laid out in clear pictures drawn with the techniques taught in this book.

This is by far the first book that dealt with process improvement and change from all angles. This book provides examples that will help the novice in preparing and implementing change. Packed with examples and worksheets to guide the reader thru the whole process. However, since it was written in 1995, this book does not cover prevailing technologies but is still useful in understanding the foundations for change. If you are looking to implement business process change/improvement, read this book in conjunction with a more recent book by Paul Harmon "Business Process Change" who happens to be a student of Mr. Rummler. Paul Harmon's book cover such topics as CMM and Six Sigma when implementing process change.

The Human Comedy is a saga of 92 novels that Balzac said was written by French society. Legend described him as the night-shirted social recorder working until dawn fueled by liters of coffee. Lost Illusions (1837-1843) is considered to be one of the best of the novels in the series in scope and structure. From the frenetic world of writers and booksellers in Paris to the grueling life of hard work and boredom in villages, Balzac traced the systematic destruction of illusions in his characters. No one could be trusted (friends, foes, or family) when the creative or inventive characters attempted to reach a goal. The flicker of hope and joy related to an artistic or business accomplishment was extinguished within days or hours. The enduring artists and producers were those who lived almost without hope, guided by a strict code of ethics protected only by their ability to keep their accomplishments secret. Ultimately, some of these survivors reached their goals. But by then, they no longer placed high value in them, much of the luster lost with their illusions. Lost Illusions set the standard for many of the wonderful French novels of the subsequent years of the 19th Century. The reader is immersed in French culture in a manner similar to the later writing of Gustav Flaubert.

Lost Illusions by Balzac is one of the most famous novels out of the ninety two he wrote in his lifetime and maybe also among a million his admirers have written in 175 years since his first novel was published.

Balzac choses Lucien as a romantic, good-looking dreamy poet. We are first thrust into his provincial life, with details about his ordinary life and extraordinary ambitions that he has no means of realizing. Except patronage by an older woman! She leads him to Paris, only to abandon him to fight his way into the high society. How Lucien rises and falls in the glamorous, amorous, corrupt and vicious life as a journalist in Paris is picturized through a narrative that is bathed in realism, and yet proceeds through both suspense and wit, in the spirit of the pace at which Balzac could conjure up such novels.

In the provinces, Lucien has a friend, David, who likewise is somewhat lacking in social and economic acumen, and is a hard working inventor. David own father ruins him by extracting an unreasonable price for the printing press that he leaves or sells to his own son. Crafty competitors take advantage of David's credulous character. David endures both provincial small mindedness and economic setbacks suffered to keep Lucien afloat. Balzac displays his knowledge of these disparate characters with remarkable attention to detail. He weaves an undercurrent, of what could have passes as a dissertation, on the art and science of paper making.

Balzac creates in his one book, a saga that unravels friendship, love, jealousy, lust, ambition, vanity, greed and absurdity that lurk in our beings and in our relationships. By using two main pillars, Lucien and David, Balzac erects a bridge into the two worlds of poetry and science. He shuns hint of any romance of either worlds, and shows how much character, how many hardships and set-backs, how much devotion and labor are required for a man to become a known poet or a scientist.

I am quoting an example from this translation (carried out by Katharine Prescott Wormeley):

"No one can be a great man cheaply," said d'Arthez in his gentle voice. "Genius waters her work with tears.Talent is a moral being which, like all other beings, is subject to the maladies of childhood. Society rejects undeveloped talent just as nature removes her feeble or deformed creations. Whoever wishes to rise above his fellows must be prepared to struggle, and not recoil at difficulty. A great writer is a martyr who does not die - that's the whole of it!"

Besides the two pillars, the book has an interesting array of characters. Actresses, society women, editors and publishers, lawyers, struggling writers, dandies - all appear with their human failings and foibles as part of a drama that unfolds with an enrapturing narrative. Be it history, economics, alchemy, or psychology, or any topic under the sun, Balzac ushers in his great knowledge, suspending and supporting the story with able and apt pointers, tresses and metaphors.

Balzac's Lost Illusions is undoubtedly a classic everyone can enjoy and must read at some point in their lives. Highly recommended.

I read this book during my latest visit to my favorite middle east country. I must admit that I didn't enjoy this book as much as others. I felt like it was slow to come around and I thought there was too much detail on (seemingly) unimportant things at times. I'm just a regular person, so that said if you are an accomplished reader you may love this, for neophytes such as myself, other titles are more likely to be properly enjoyed (see my reviews)...and keep me updated!

This is one of the best novels by Balzac, which is to say much, since he is still one of the best writers that have ever lived. Here, as in the rest of his work, the reader can appreciate Balzac's knowledge of worldly life, and especially the world of business, so alien to other writers. In this book he elaborates on the printing business as well as on journalism -vastly so-, back when it first began as a mercantilist activity. He contrasts the small life and intrigues of the province with the -no less petty but more gandiose- life and intrigues of the big city, Paris, and in particular of the faubourg Saint-Germain, the paradise of the Parisian jet-set.

David Sechard is a young man who inherits, at great cost, his cold and greedy father's printing business. Lucien Chardon (later "de Rubempre", after taking his impoversihed mother's more aristocratic last name) is his best friend. Both of them share a love for poetry, but it is Lucien who comes to shine as the young genius of province, the promise for whom it is worth it to sacrifice it all. Lucien gets the love of one Louise de Bargeton, the "queen of Angouleme", the most cultivated and refined woman in town. Louise promises to take Lucien to Paris, introduce him into the great society, and make him triumph as a poet. His family gives him all they can to get him started, and off he goes to Paris. But he happens to be arrogant, proud, and insecure, and soon he suffers the despise and insolence of aristocrats and other rich people. After what he believes to be an offense from Louise, he rejects her, earning her eternal hatred.

In the meantime, Lucien has been spending time with two very different circles of friends. The first is composed of a group of young intellectuals, hardworking guys sacrificing money and fun for the sake of science, art, and knowledge. They are there for him in times of need, and encourage him to keep up with his writing. The second group is a bunch of journalists, easy going but corrupt people who convince him to achieve quick fame and money. Lucien gets more and more trapped by this seemingly easy life, and after he conquers the love of the prettiest actress in Paris, his fate is decided. He achieves fame and fortune overnight, and so he jumps completely into the world of parties, frivolity and silly competition for status. At this point in the novel, Balzac introduces us to the sordid, decadent, and disgusting world of journalism understood as an unmerciful network of extortion and constant blackmailing. Lucien slides down that road, getting recognition and fame, oblivious to the growing net of envy that closes in around him every day.

What follows is the sad story of an unlikable character. Lucien has very little redeeming qualities about him, as opposed to some of his early friends, his young lover and his family. He is blind as blind can be, since his extreme selfishness builds a cloud in which he lives. He cares for nobody, except perhaps for the little Coralie, and he goes on leaving too many wounded bodies by the side of the road. Nevertheless, this character is the vehicle that allows Balzac to show us the real world out there. This writer never ever gives up to the temptation of sweetening things for the reader, he's brave and persists on his plan. Balzac is never a moralizing preacher, he is just a skillful painter of life as it is.

Here, as in the rest of his work, you will find characters who also appear in other novels, an ingenious device intended to give us a feeling of reality. This book is never boring and builds up tension rapidly, even for its length. It is an encompassing ride through all the fancies of youth gone wrong, as well as an unrelenting depiction of all the falseness and emptiness of high society. Much recommended.

I love Balzac. At his best he soars above the rest of French literature and here he is definitely at his finest. Easy to see why Proust thought him the best, at his best. Vautrin/Collyn is at his most sinister and attractive. If you haven't read Balzac before, this is the best to start with.

I needed this book right away for a Summer school class, and I received the book less than a week after ordering it!

In my view, this book (which looks like a collection of articles gathered up under several rubrics) shares typical achievements and flaws of all popular-math literature; namely, it's enjoyable and enlightening as far as historical and philosophical aspects of the material presented, yet when they authors actually get to mathematics, it becomes fragmeted, jerky, and confused. Symptomatic of this is the chapter on nonstandard calculus: the historical narrative is very interesting, yet the math proper is confused and incomprehensible. Perhaps that is because it's impossible to express it fully and right in a popularizing context; perhaps it is so because I'm too obtuse to have understood it (but then the most of the target audience is probably no better); or maybe it's because the authors didn't do a terribly good job of it. The next chapter (Fourier analysis) suffers from the same.

Overall, I say, it's a good, although overrated, book. Read it, get what you can out of it and don't fret about the rest: the book is really a collection of articles, apparently written for different purposes, at different times, and for different publications; the quality of writing varies from section to section, although the overall structure and topicality are unquestionably very good. The book has an extensive and diverse bibliography along with a rather mediocre (close to names-only) index. Well, no book is perfect, including this one: overall it's solid four stars -- recommended.

This is the wonderful first edition of The Mathematical Experience written by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh. However it is NOT the study edition which was designed for use in the classroom. The ISBN number for the Study edition is: 0-8176-3739-7.
The authors are Davis, Hersh, and Marchisotto

The authors deal with various important aspects of mathematics and about practising mathematics. They also deal with the philosophy of mathematics. By and large, they do it engagingly. Specifically, they tackle why mathematics seems to 'work'; how a mathematician actually goes about doing mathematics; they offer some light treatment of a few mathematical topics, and they illustrate mathematical thinking as well.

This book is best read by students thinking about choosing mathematics as a career, or even just as a field of study. Although, any layperson will come off with a greater appreciation of what mathematics is, and what mathematicians do.

The Mathematical Experience by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh
1981 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston

Is all of pure mathematics a meaningless game? What are the contradictions that upset the very foundations of mathematics? If a can of tuna cost $1.05 how much does two cans of tuna cost (Pg. 71)? If you think you know the answer, don't be so sure. How old are the oldest mathematical tables? What is mathematics anyway, and why does it work? Can anyone prove that 1 + 1 = 2?
This is a book about the history and philosophy of mathematics. I'm certainly not a mathematician, and there are parts of the book I will never understand, yet the balance of it made the experience well worth while. The authors presented the material so that it is interesting and (mostly) easily understood. They have a creative way of making a difficult subject exciting. They do this by giving us insights into how mathematicians work and create. They live up to the title making mathematics a human experience by adding fascinating history. Frankly I was shocked when they pointing out how even mathematicians have made questionable assumptions and taken some basic "truths" on faith. They show the beauty of math in the "Aesthetic Component" chapter. Ultimately the question that comes up again and again is the question of whether or not we can really know anything about time and space independent of our own experience to make an adequate foundation for a complete system in mathematics. If you have ever wondered about the world of mathematics and the personalities involved you might consider this book. If you are a mathematics teacher you should read this book. If you are a mathematician you could find it quite unsettling.
It contains eight chapters, each one broken up into many subtitles so if you do get bogged down in the mathematics it isn't for long. There are 440 pages. I'd like to see a much more complete glossary for people like me who need it.

The profile of my ENTP personality was right on. I found this book useful and interesting to understand my parenting strengths and struggles as well as those of other mothers I know.

I have been an accredited MBTI trainer for 6 years - but I have this daughter who's now 5 and she's, lets say, 'spirited'. I've read lots of parenting books but none have really hit the mark - because she's not bad and most of these assume 'difficult' children - even The Spirited Child! So I bought this book - blind - don't know anyone who has it or has read it.
For me the first part of the book was superfluous - it's about working out your style and whilst I understand the book has to do that for non-MBTI people - it's a little unfair for those of us that get it.
Then it gets into the analysis. My first surprise is that the author has a preference for 'T' - so do I.
I found the book interesting - first read. You can also put by the bed and read a bit each night - you don't need to devour at one sitting. The examples are great. There's one particular example that could have been written about me and my daughter - about sticky tape and sissors! and it was like wow - OMG - now I get it.
Has it made me change my parenting style - no, will it, probably not overall, has it helped me understand my daughter more - you bet!

If you are the mom who always has kleenex, a snack and a spare to share, fresh water bottles, a first aid kit, combs and hair accessories in your purse and glove box, if you bathe your children from 8 to 8:15 every night and you live by your calendar (which you never lose), you can still benefit from this book, which will help you understand your child who regularly forgets her coat at school and likes her room messy.

If you are the mom who looks at the clock at 6pm and says,"Oh crap, what am I going to make for dinner!", whose dining room table is too full of fun projects to actually allow you to serve dinner there, and whose kid gets a bath when they start to smell funny, this book is for you!

If you have tons of friends and your kid has few, or you like quiet time and your child needs to constantly be on the go, if you need lots of hugs but your child isn't interested, if your child color codes her sock drawer and you can't _find_ your sock drawer....this book is so for you.

You might not BE like most other moms, and you might still be doing a fantastic job as a mom! This book tells you how to leverage the strengths inherent in your mothering style...and there are strengths in _all_ of the styles, even the rare types.

Or your kids might not BE like other kids....here's some great insight into their styles and how to work with them...not change them.

The book has lots of practical ideas to bring harmony and joy to the family, but even if it didn't, it would be interesting all on its own.

Highly recommended.

This book was very helpful to me in understanding WHY I do things the way I do (for example, how I relate to my children). It also helped me to understand why my mom did/does things.

I was able to make a guess a my children's personality types (there is info in the book in how to do that) and found out that my daughter and I only share 1 letter out of 4 - no wonder I have a hard time understanding her! Taking our personality styles into account, I am better able to provide her with the emotional and physical attention that she wants and needs. I also try to focus on the strength we have in common and have been able to bond more easily.

I have loaned this book out three times already and have another person waiting - but I want to read it again first. I highly recommend it!

Ever since before I conceived my daughter, I have devoured parenting books by the score. Only a few have passed the "purchase test." (I borrow everything I read from the library, then decide whether I'll reread it enough times to want to own it.) Motherstyles is different from anything else I've come across. After reading ONE PAGE I purchased it on the spot. A few more pages and I was already laughing and crying, feeling deeply affirmed as a mother and energized by the powerful truths this book contains. Since first reading it cover-to-cover in a couple of days, I have referred to it several times a week for my own parenting and to share its insights with friends.

Ms. Penley has used her deep understanding of personality type to show every mother why she shines in certain areas and struggles in others. Motherstyles solves an amazing number of mysteries about why different mothers, kids, and people in general operate differently, as well as shedding light on family dynamics. The book "justified" for me certain strong needs I have as a mother--such as why I need daily solitude for my very sanity, while for many of my mother friends, a little time alone is simply a luxury that they can postpone if need be. So I'm meeting my needs more consistently--without guilt. I have stopped comparing myself to other mothers, instead embracing my personal style as a gift to my child. And everyone in my family is happier!

Mothers in our society are in an strange bind: At our fingertips is an unprecedented amount of theoretical knowledge about all that children need in order to thrive. Yet on the practical level, ONE person, with her very human strengths and limitations, is expected to provide it all . . . while socially isolated, sleep-deprived, and overwhelmed by the rest of life's demands. It would be funny if it weren't so serious. This book goes farther than any other to lighten the load of that impossible burden, empowering mothers to claim their own uniqueness as a vital part of their children's thriving.

Motherstyles has changed my world. Since reading it, I've been imagining a world in which every mother had a copy of it. It would be a world in which every mother was doing her very best parenting, her unique kind of parenting--while having fun and feeling plenty of ease and joy! A world in which every mother approached her children, her partner, other mothers, and herself with warm and deep understanding. A world in which every mother felt free to be fully herself. And THAT would give children what they truly need. I urge mothers, their partners, educators, and everyone who works with mothers to buy Motherstyles and help change the world!

Cute little story about a big dog and a little dog who like opposite things. It's pretty obvious that the Spanish was translated from English (as opposed to being originally written in Spanish), but with that said the Spanish seems well translated. Good book for the price.

I read this to my 4-year-old daughter only in Spanish the first few times and she LOVED it. The pictures and ideas convey the meaning of, (what is to her), a foreign language so well! As a barely-fluent speaker myself, the book introduced a few new fun vocabulary words. The context of the story very clearly depicted for her the meanings of the words "despacio" and "deprisa" which quickly turned into a game of running around the house in each of the two manners. Once she realized that the little words underneath were in English, she refused to hear the story in Spanish, but with patience on my part, that has changed slightly :0) The story is just plain really cute, too.

I have a non-profit corp. and took those books to the Dominican and they really enjoyed the book-I would recommend it for youngsters-6-10 Roger/Dominican Team for Dreams,Inc Florida

I know a handful of Spanish vocabulary and wanted to expose my infant son to the sounds and cadence of the language. This is a fun book although if you're a Spanish novice, some of the word tenses are a little tough to sound out. It is paperback though - I was hoping for a board book so he could turn the pages while we read. He loves it anyway.

Love it just wish it was a board book my one year old loves to flip the pages i know he's reading in his little head but the pages get crinkled so thats why i wish it was a board book.......easy and fun to read.

First published to great controversy & acclaim some 40 years ago, R.R. Laing's ferocious, heartfelt cri de coeur is even more relevant today. Technically it's psychology -- but in truth, it's a poetic, prophetic work in the tradition of William Blake. Laing's horror & outrage at the needless suffering inflicted on humanity by The Normal Man blazes from every page, and he demands that we face our own inner darkness rather than gloss over it.

Many will disagree with his assessment of schizophrenia ... and they may well be right in a literal sense. We've certainly learned that it has major biological origins. Yet in the modern zeal to medicate rather than analyze, to smooth over wounds rather than delve into their roots, we do ourselves a grave disservice by ignoring its psychological & social components. It's a symptom & reflection of the times, I suppose -- the 1960s emphasized community & social responsibility, as well as the importance of the individual; the contemporary attitude is all too often one of fitting in & getting with the program. If time & science call into question Laing's medical diagnosis of schizophrenia, his philosophical & moral diagnosis remains terribly potent.

How much have we really advanced since the book's publication? We see the same Normal Man calmly talking of pre-emptive wars, of acceptable civilian causalities, of torture as rational policy ... and it's Laing's anguish & compassion that are called crazy. If he were alive today, he'd undoubtedly be even more appalled by what passes for civilization. The dumbing down of the past decades, the push for blind, unthinking obedience, the Pavlovian appeal to patriotic buzzwords -- all this would sicken him. As it should sicken us. What to do in the face of such despair?

Laing reminds us:

"Yet if nothing else, each time a new baby is born there is a possibility of reprieve. Each child is a new being, a potential prophet, a new spiritual prince, a new spark of light, precipitated into the outer darkness. Who are we to decide that it is hopeless?"

The Bird of Paradise is there, hovering in the darkness, waiting for us to join it & soar into the heavens ... if we can only break free of the chains of normality. Most highly recommended!

Not sure about schizophrenia as a strategy to deal with untenable circumstances. Outside of that, this is the most profound book I have read in my life. I have been reading it on and off for 13 years

I had this book years ago and lost it; The Politics of Experience should be on everyone's shelf and is the perfect antidote to isolationist approaches to mental health. The interaction of people, families and communities, and how that interaction affects the participants' mental health, is important to remember in in our travels through life.

Schizophrenics often--not always--have a sensitivity for the Unconscious and what might be going on the mind of the other as well as themselves,but few of us ever get to "hear" it. In the very first three pages Laing gets into the mind and mind- reading of interpersonal relations of the schizophrenic ;eg" you can only experience the fact that I am experiencing your experience..."
this goes on page after page, also in Knots (another book by him). NEVER have I been so engulfed by the thought process; one knows, as he reads these lines, that "he is there" (with the schizophrenic) and knows it unforgettably. Harry Stack Sullivan also struggled with capturing that inner world, which he often shared, of the schizophrenic. Read this book and be introduced poetically into another reality.
Martin J.Kaplan, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist

Ravings of the mad have been metaphorized as "cries for help." Ronald Laing's '67 opus Politics of Experience could be similarly cast as the doctor's cries for help, were one compelled to do so.

Drawing foremost from fellow Scotsman John MacMurray, who insisted that philosophy was only the product of @least two people in relation (& never the product of platitudinous Cartesian contemplative solitude), & then from his own acquired capacity to talk to the designated mad, Laing issued this stinging rebuke of diagnosing & treating selected scapegoats: the invalidation, mystification (the word is Marx's), & finally execution of experience, for the purpose of maintaining social order.

After MacMurray, Laing & assorted colleagues waded into Sartre's last philosophical tome, the octopus-like Critique of Dialectical Reason (which @the time was available only in French), an arduous examination of how the varieties of human groupings appear & are recognized as such.

Lest Laing be construed as a muddle-headed humanist, he knew that although the time was ripe, lepers were not yet kissing saints: in Sartre's terms, no genuine reciprocity.

Despite the general acceptance of schizophrenia by professionals, media interpreters, & the lay population as a bio-genetic anomaly, no one has yet connected THIS particular chemical imbalance with THAT particular objectionable behavior. To his eternal credit, Laing resisted the easy answers with which most of us are so readily mesmerized; the product of what he called "incautious extrapolation."

Popcorn was my favorite book as a child (I'm 25 now) My mom used to read it to me at the dentist's office everytime we went and I couldn't remember the name of the book or who the author was until I searched on here. I bought a copy so I could have it for my children. Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as I did!

I had this book when I was little (hey, 80s!) and always loved it. I wanted to get it for my god-daughter but was unable to find it in book stores, the book store workers suggested it may be out of print, but I am thankful I found it here for a great price and it was delivered on time.

This is a book that you will read over and over to your kids. And the imagery brought to mind will have you laughing out loud.

This is a darling story for preschoolers about a little bear who has a Halloween party and everyone brings popcorn. I read this to a preschool class and then we made popcorn. It was a big hit!

i've been looking for this book forever! i used to read it in the doctor's office when i was little (my brother and i were sick all the time) the only thing i remembered was that popcorn filled the house...thank goodness for yahoo :) I almost cried when I found it. Talk about memories. I'm getting it for my daughter who is a year old.

I've been studying the life of Lawrence nearly all of my own 50 years, since I was thirteen. I've read and reread all I could find about him, especially his own Seven Pillars of Wisdom. How refreshing it was to read Professor Mack's excellent book which covers so much more than I'd ever found before and with surprisingly brilliant insight. A fresh look at this enigmatic figure with modern eyes and a richer understanding. A great read.

I have now read several books both on T.E. Lawrence, the Middle East, World War I and English governmental history. This is by far the best biography on T.E. Lawrence and the situation in the Middle East that I have read. John Mack did an outstanding job of researching Lawrence for this book. One of the most interesting sections of the book was reading the endnotes. They provide even more information about Mack's research as well as to clarify some previous misstatements about Lawrence.

Although Lawrence suffered greatly from depression and other disorders he was a truly great man. That he was able to be an outstanding friend to so many people while enduring personal suffering is amazing. John Mack portrays Lawrence in an honest light which actually makes Lawrence and his achievements all the more spectacular because of his personal struggles.

John Mack's biography shows us that great people are not perfect nor does their greatness make them happy. He also shows that people who, if truth were know, live outside of societies norms can do world changing things and be loved by society. Lawrence seemed to have been very accepting of all people, other than himself.

To call Lawrence's life tragic in some way diminishes his accomplishments. Was Lawrence a great man because of his problems or in spite of his problems? I think that Lawrence was capable of being a legend because of his problems. The psychological struggles he endured were who he was. Society is so quick to discount a person because of psychological problems, whether they are great people or not. If society were honest with itself, it would realize that everyone has some problem or other. Some, as Lawrence was, are open (relatively) and honest about their problems while most choose to act as if they don't exist.

Winston Churchill, a contemporary of Lawrence's, also suffered greatly from depression and probably some other things as well. Churchill was also hero and a legend and was largely responsible for keeping the world free from Nazi Germany when few noticed the threat or appropriately dealt with it.

It appears to me, that the greater the leader and the more astounding his or her abilities, the more "different" they are from what society believes is normal. A good thought to ponder.

John Mack does an excellent job of providing a well-documented biography of T.E. Lawrence as well as an outline of his psychological makeup. Mack does not claim to understand Lawrence or to explain every behavior. I had expected to read more of a detailed psychological report and was, at first, a bit disappointed. However, the longer I read the more apparent it was that Mack was portraying Lawrence's personality through an accurate telling of his story rather than trying to lecture on "who Lawrence really was" and "why he did everything he did". John Mack also did not fall into the overly Freudian theory that Lawrence did everything because of sex. Sex obviously played a role in his psychology but did not appear to be the overriding theme.

For years, I have studied the life and works of T. E. Lawrence. My research has lead me across the pages of hundreds of books including his own Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but the best biography and analysis of Lawrence I have yet encountered is A Prince of Our Disorder.

Dr. Mack's thorough examination and explanation of the effect of Lawrence's childhood on his adult life and mentality is brilliant. Instead of merely stating his opinions, he touches on those of other biographers as well and then proceeds to state how and why he feels they are accurate or inaccurate, providing quotes from military reports, other Lawrence books, interviews with Lawrence's relatives and friends, and Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

If you read A Prince of Our Disorder, I can almost 100% gaurantee that you will have a better understanding of Lawrence's personal role in the Hejaz Campaign and the lasting effects of his experiences in Arabia on him physically and psychologically. Thankfully, it is beautifully written, and not at all confusing.

From the moment Mack "introduces" you to Lawrence you will have a desire to learn more about him, and as Mack walks you through his troubled life, you will feel pity and awe for this untouchable man.

I think that A Prince of Our Disorder clarifies the line between the legend of the indestructable, hero-Lawrence and the lost, soul-searching man Lawrence really was.

Dr. John Mack's study of Lawrence is one of the most absorbing reads I've ever enjoyed in my lifetime. As Irving Howe wrote, "What finally draws one to Lawrence, making him not merely an exceptional figure, but a representative man of our century, is his courage and vulnerability in bearing the burden of consciousness." The impact that the trial by fire in Arabia appears to have had on his post-war life is shocking, and teaches us once again not to envy our great heroes. Lawrence wrote of General Allenby that great men cannot be judged by ordinary standards, anymore than the sharpness of the bow of an ocean liner can be judged by the sharpness of a razor. After reading "A Prince of Our Disorder," I recognize now that Lawrence was probably thinking of himself while writing those kind words about his former master, asking that he not be be judged by his hidden afflictions, torments, and self-doubts, all the while laying out those same imperfections for all the world to read. Lawrence warned us,"The documents are liars ... No man ever yet tried to write down the entire truth of any action in which he has been engaged." No man is truly capable of understanding his own subconscious motivations, but I doubt that anyone has ever struggled harder than Lawrence to achieve self-understanding. We will have to try to read between the lines, learn what we can, and apply that knowledge to enrich our own poor lives.

So sad for all of us that our leaders are not of the same introspective type. Dr. Mack comments in his introduction that "The destructive leader, and the eagerness of a large segment of the population to identify with him, comprise one of the central threats -- if not the greatest threat -- that faces human society. There is perhaps an increasing unwillingness to entrust our well-being and our lives to individuals and characters we do not understand and whose ultimate purposes we are ignorant of." Let's hope so.

Jeremy Wilson's massive biography "Lawrence of Arabia" may better satisfy military readers interested in extensive contemporary document citations, and includes much more detail on Lawrence's Cairo years. Wilson also has a better set of photographs. The 1922 Oxford full text of "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," edited by Jeremy and Nicole Wilson and available from Castle Hill Press in the UK, is most highly recommended to all who find "T.E.L." fascinating.

While searching for literature on the man in the movie `Lawrence of Arabia', otherwise unknown to me other than knowing him as the brother of D.H. Lawrence, I stumbled across this most authoritative biography on the man who David Lean so magnificently portrayed in his film. He is one of the men who could be placed in par with other great leaders of Britain during the early part of the 20th century.

While Lawrence's autobiography, `Seven Pillars of Wisdom' gives gory picture of his life in the desert and his adventurous war campaigns, Mack's book gives more insight into the man's psyche just as Judith Brown did on Gandhi in her book `Gandhi - A Prisoner of hope'. His many questionable traits (exhibitionism, homosexual tendancies, overemphasis of his achievements) are wonderfully analyzed with information gleaned from tons of historical materials. While the west looked at him as a great war commander (though some question his contributions during the great desert wars), the east, even the people who worked with him, do not consider him as a man who helped Arabs gain their freedom from Turks other than agreeing to the fact that he helped king Faisel in wars.

Lawrence's genius is considered twined with his behavioral disorder, a not so common association among people who have schizophrenic symptoms except may be for rare cases of autistic geniuses like Peter Guthrie (not the Scottish mathematician but a not so well-known artist). There have been debates during his later years as whether Lawrence was in fact an autistic. At any rate, as reflected in one of his most famous quotes, he was a `dangerous' daydreamer who dreamt with open eyes and made things happen unlike night dreamers who dream in their dusty recesses of their minds only to wake up in the morning to see they are vain.

T.E. Lawrence's life and his untimely death (by motorbike accident) left us with lot of questions as who was he and what was he doing in the middle east and what made him to completely depart from the politics of middle east and lead a secluded life of 23 years in the Royal Air Force (not forgetting his contributions to the invention of new types of speed boats). His appearances in Arab's traditional attire in Versailles during 1919 Paris Peace Conference with the King Faisel and with other western dignitaries draw a stark similarity with Gandhi's appearance in loin cloth and shawl during the Round Table Conference at London. Though Faisal trusted him as his benevolent, he did not entrust Lawrence completely as he always thought him as a British spy.

I would suggest anyone who is inquisitive of T.E. Lawrence, also see David Lean's much acclaimed epic motion picture `Lawrence of Arabia'. If the movie `Lawrence of Arabia' captivated me, Mack's biography enthralled me with its abundance of well researched information. As with any other great men, Lawrence's life also is worth researching into. And these biographers are the ones who make legends live and help sustain the new generations' interest on these great people. A great biographical work!

Mere coincidence or not, John E. Mack died of a car accident in New York in 2004.