Eric Roberts Books

This was my first introduction to Value Investing and I was intrigued by the clarity of Buffett's reasoning as expressed through the quotes in this book. However (!) now that I have digged deeper in the world of Value Investing, and have since revisited this book, I see that it is actually little more than a vague overview.

My first problem with this book is that it doesn't tell you how to practice what it preaches. It doesn't tell you where to find the information you need, for instance what parts of the annual reports you should read, and how to interpret them. In a sense, the book assumes you already know what you're doing - but why then pick up this book?!

Second, a most important aspect of Value Investing is that of valuation, naturally. That is, how much is a business really worth? Hagstrom quickly slings out a few calculations but does not properly explain the reasoning behind them. I have been trying to find good books on valuation but without luck so far. I would instead recommend the reader to do an internet search on this subject or a Wikipedia lookup for Discounted Cash Flow.

I debated with myself whether to give this book fewer stars than the three I gave it. But there are some good points for further investigation, if you're already experienced in value investing. Just take this book with a grain of salt.

Invest in solid businesses that are undervalued, don't invest in 'stocks' or try to play the market. For non-investors who can't study business fundamentals, just invest in a low-cost index fund and leave the money there.
Warren Buffett is an interesting character and the best part is that he keeps it simple and lo-fi. The book basically uses everything written about Buffett and all his annual letters to create a portrait. Brings new meaning to defining a man by his actions, in this case Buffett's top investments over the years are used to build a philosophy in lieu of talking to the man.
Good book, interesting to get persepective on a business mind, not necessarily the investing mind.

I think it is a very good book to understand how the guys thinks about the whole game of investing. You can clearly see the signs of a seasoned investor throughout the book. But how much useful will it be for people like you and me, that's questionable. Imagine if Tiger Woods tells you how he plays golf or Mozart tells you how he composed those lyrics. It is kind of that. I think it is just a knack of things that either you have or you don't have. But do read the book just to get some idea about the financial market and its potholes that you need to be aware of.

I ordered this book and never got it. I inquired about not getting it twice. I think I got bored with chasing it down after that.

Warren Buffet, the world's richest man, without a doubt, is the greatest investor today. Buffet's the only investor using fundamental analysis who can beat market indices. Unlike the vast majority of money and mutual fund managers who charge high management fees and consistently lag their respective market indices, Buffet has beaten the market for decades. The one lesson this wise investor imparts is to invest in only what you understand. By following this discipline, Buffet bypassed nascent companies such as Microsoft, as well as, the dot.com mania in 1999 and 2000. This is when the RMC Q Trader [...] makes sense, picking up where Buffet and fundamental analysis stops. With a Q Trader program you benefit from diversified investment techniques.

I found this book to be quite an interesting read. For years, I had heard nothing but negative things about Eric Bischoff, so to see it from his perspective was refreshing. As a longtime wrestling fan who was engrossed in the Monday Night Wars during my teenage years, I enjoyed reading about how it all played out behind the scenes. Bischoff's vision of blurring the line between kayfabe and reality was, in my opinion, the perfect jump-start that wresting needed, and it certainly kept me coming back for more. Say what you want about Bischoff, but there is no question that the changes he made to WCW, and WWE's response to them, created a period of great prosperity for both companies and enjoyment for the fans.
I admired how Bischoff was willing to admit some of his own faults, as well as his (mostly) balanced assessments of other wrestlers, bookers, promoters, etc., although some seemed a bit sketchy. And while I understand that the Time Warner/AOL merger was very detrimental to WCW from a creative control point of view, Bischoff doesn't touch on the negative aspects of the product itself. He doesn't really talk about how bad of a decision it was to split up the NWO into factions, nor does he mention the fingerpoke of doom. He also doesn't talk about the truly troubled aspects of his relationship with Ric Flair, such as how Flair basically assaulted him when both were in WWE. There are also parts of the book that have to be taken with a grain of salt, such as his constant praise of Vince McMahon. While I'm sure some of it was genuine, one cannot also discount the fact that McMahon was Bischoff's boss at the time. I have heard plenty of negative things about Vince, and one would be inclined to think that Bishcoff would give a more frank opinion of him had he not been under contract to WWE at the time.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. Whether you love him or hate him, I believe that most wrestling fans should read this book and then come to their own conclusions. Recommended.

Eric Bischoff is a true fan of wrestling. You get an inside look at his life from growing up in Detroit, through his struggles in Minnesota, to his rise to fame and his battles with Vince Mc Mahon and the WWE. He has a genuine passion for wrestling and gives you insight to the politics involved with the business. You even get to learn a few very suprising things about some of your favorite and not so favorite wrestlers.

Hoping to read a lot about the wrestlers I grew up watching 30+ years ago, what I got - and enjoyed - instead was an overview of the industry. Bischoff was surprisingly humble, to the point of regularly admitting to mistakes on his part.
Mr. Bischoff wrote a seemingly fair, balanced book that frames him as a familyman and overall decent guy. I may not want to watch him on tv anymore, but I'd enjoy a cup of coffee with him.

Interesting to read about the rise and fall of Eric Bischoff..... how he rose through the ranks of the NWA/WCW and the office politics he had to endure during his run in WCW.


I'm sure he deserves credit from taking WCW to greater highs...to the point of nearly bankrupting the WWE back in the late 1990's.

Highly recomended for any wrestling fan who grew up watching wrestling during (AS I LIKE TO REFER TO IT) the golden age wrestling. !

Or for that matter anyone who missed out on the monday night wars and watches wrestling today and thinks it rocks should also consider this book. Cause lets face it wrestling today is simply put very boring !

One thing i didnt like about this book is how Eric denies having done anything wrong which led to the end of WCW and blames the merger between AOL and Time Warner, or giving wrestlers creative control/overpaying them. Or even the office politics that restricted Eric from copying the WWE during the Stone Cold and D-Generation X era.

Buy it ! you'll see what i mean !

It is an excellent book that catches your attention from the moment you start until you finish it, is easy to read and gives you a perspective of a really important part of the wrestling business told by someone who was actually there.

This is a great book. A must read for anyone with money invested in the Market in any form. A great way to be prepared.

I agree with a previous reviewer regarding the same information being replayed over and over again. I'm new to this subject, and initially found the book interesting, but found that the authors seemed to be re-hashing the same points more times than were necessary.
I did enjoy the book, but now think I would probably check it out of the library instead of purchasing it.

This is a simplistic synopsis of the current state of the economy and offers some simple suggestions on how to deal with it. It's a pretty good read for the non-economist who's looking for a quick and easy grasp of the big picture. It does get a bit tedious and repetitious at times and has enough typos to keep a proofer busy for a week. There's also a less than subtle self-serving purpose as the authors attempt to drive the reader to their web site. The only problem is it appears they haven't updated the web site with any current information since the book was published.

Nonetheless, an interesting and quick read for those looking for the summary view of the world's economy today.

The authors bring clarity through scholarly historical analysis, to unfolding economic events. Their established excellent track record using their proprietary techniques to predict the March 2000 stock market collapse and their timely advice then to buy gold, can only be dismissed by those who wish to cling to ideology while denying reality.

This book gives a broad view of the fiscal problems facing the United States, using understandable language. It leaves little hope for a growing robust economy.

This story is fantastic. The author's grasp of the language and speech of the period is wonderful and completely creates an atmosphere that one cannot help but fall into. This is now one of my favorite books!

The book I chose to read for my book report was the Black Arrow. The Black Arrow was written by R.L. Stevenson and was illustrated by Lionel Richards. The Black Arrow is a good historical fiction book that takes place during the English civil war against the Yorkists and the Lancastrians. The following paragraph will give you a short summary of the book I read.
The story is about a knight named Dick who goes on an epic quest to find and destroy the group, the Black Arrows. It leads him to a forest and a victorious battlefield. This book would be best suited for people who prefer historical long fiction books. I thought it needed to be shorter and more easier for younger readers to understand

With the War of the Roses as its backdrop, The Black Arrow blends the romance of young love and the excitement of its hero's initiation into war and politics. The theme of loyalty runs throughout--loyalty to parents, guardians, leaders, followers, lovers, and oneself.

England's loyalties are divided between Lancaster and York, although the distinction makes little difference to the country's more practical citizens. "It is the ruin of this kind land," a woman said. "If the barons live at war, ploughfolk must eat roots." When the naive young hero, Richard Shelton, reassures her that men "cannot better die than for their natural lord," another man points out, "No natural lord of mine . . . I followed the Walsinghams . . . And now I must side with Brackley! It was the law that did it; call ye that natural?"

Despite young Dick's idealism, which makes him faithful to his guardian and to the men with whom he has served, and despite many disturbing rumors, it soon becomes apparent that most men are loyal primarily to their self-interests, whether they seek power like Richard Crookback or favor and riches like Dick's guardian, Sir Daniel Brackley. Even the mysterious "Jon Amend-All" of the black arrow, whose objective is to revenge himself and his friends on Brackley, is found collecting rents from Brackley's cottagers, acknowledging that they will suffer the hardship of having to pay twice. The man behind "Jon Amend-All" is no beneficent Robin Hood, but as cold and crafty a political operative as Brackley himself.

Brackley's loyalties are soon explained. "I lie in Kettley till I have sure tidings of the war, and then ride to join me with the conqueror . . . Tosspot and Shuttle-wit run in, but my Lord Good-Counsel sits o' one side, waiting." As Clipsby says, "For, indeed, he is one that goes to bed Lancaster and gets up York."

Fleeing from one danger into another, Dick finally understands that he cannot trust Brackley simply because he is Dick's guardian, or even Ellis Duckworth as his savior and protector. The only person upon whom he can rely is the girl he loves, who, ironically, was intended to be his wife in one of Brackley's financial maneuvers. The black arrow flies from Tunstall Forest to Kettley, then through wetlands back through Tunstall to the Moat House and on to Shoreby, with treachery and the threat of war hanging over all.

With every adventure, Dick's loyalty turns more inward on himself and his heart's desire. He is loyal to York because Ellis Duckworth is and Daniel Brackley isn't. When he finds himself rapidly in and out of Richard Crookback's favor, he is "neither glad nor sorry." Danger and treachery transform Dick into a more mature man who recognizes that loyalty is neither won nor lost so easily or quickly. In one of the novel's strangest and weakest scenes, he proves his loyalty to his bride-to-be by rejecting the advances of her best friend, peculiar as they are.

The series of events that makes Dick a man is his theft of the Good Hope, its subsequent destruction, and the death of the captain's man, Tom. "Dick's heart smote him at what he heard. Until that moment he had not perhaps thought twice of the poor skipper who had been ruined by the loss of the Good Hope; so careless, in those days, were men who wore arms of the goods and interests of their inferiors . . ." Dick achieves his aims, but at the cost of many lives and the prosperity of the innocent Arblaster, who mourns "my man Tom" until the end of his days.

As a protagonist, Dick is refreshingly and painfully human, at least outside battle. While brave, he lacks the ability to pick up on clues that are obvious to his less-sheltered acquaintances, including those about the true nature of Jack Matcham. He suffers remorse for what he has done and begins to ask others like Ellis Duckworth to reconsider their course. He has the mercy that Richard Crookback and Brackley lack.

Whatever its historical flaws (some of which Stevenson points out in footnotes), The Black Arrow is beautifully written, with well-drawn characters, a plot that rarely stalls, realistically bloody battle scenes, and dialogue that is often poetic without being jarring. While not Stevenson's greatest effort, The Black Arrow is exciting and fun for anyone of any age who loves a solid historical drama.

I picked up The Black Arrow on speculation, driven by three considerations - it was written by Robert Louis Stevenson, I had vague but good memories of the old TV series the Black Arrow and well it was going cheap at a jumble sale.

The Black Arrow relates the adventures of Richard Shelton, a orphan and ward of Sir Daniel a landed knight and veteran warrior of questionable loyalty who has been successfully negotiating the War of the Roses siding with either York or Lancaster based upon who is on top and who is currently providing the best opportunity for material advancement. The only cloud on Sir Daniel's horizon is the mysterious order of the "Black Arrow", a band of outlaws who have previously been injured by Sir Daniel and who have now sworn themselves to his death and the death of his supporters. Although initially Sir Daniel's loyal ally, Dick eventually becomes aware that Sir Daniel may in fact be responsible for his fathers death. Forced to flee from Sir Daniel's house (and his true love in the form of Joanna another ward of Sir Daniel's), Richard joins the order of the black arrow and swear vengeance for his fathers death. What follows is a series of adventures with espionage, fencing, shipwrecks and many deaths, culminating in Dick joining forces with the Yorkist forces lead by Richard of Gloucester at the battle of Shoresby, where they confront the forces of Lancaster including Sir Daniel.

So why do I say that this is not quite what I expected? Well I was expecting in Dick, a hero from your standard boys own adventure, you know the type brave to a fault, a strong fighter, smart and wise beyond his years and completely moral. Instead Stevenson defied my expectation by presenting Dick as brave and strong and honorable, but not terribly smart, capable of making very bad decisions which have a terrible affect upon the lives of those around him, someone whose lack of experience means that he is regularly trumped by his opponents. And although in the end, Richard is knight and married to his love, he is judged by Richard of Gloucester as a man who I will go no further a man who has reached his natural level of advancement a judgment which I found myself agreeing with.

Book review-Black arrow

The Black arrow starts off very, very slow. It picks up at the end, thankfully. The book is a long one, at first it's very hard to follow. The plot also gets better as you get deeper into the book. It's a good book if you want to read something over a long period of time. The story takes place in at the time of the War of the Roses and follows the book's hero Dick. This book is clearly an action book. The main character, Dick is likeable enough. In this book, Dick encounters the Black arrow, a battle, a castle and more. This isn't one of Robert Louis Stevenson's best books, but yet is respectable. The original book was written in French and translated so it's got some weird words. Maybe some people would rank it higher, I'm a young guy so I may think it's hard to follow. For me, it's just too long and difficult to follow to be a really good book. Stevenson though has got some good books out there,though, including: Treasure Island, Kidnapped and more.

I finally got my replacement book, and it turned out the FEDEX did find the first book that was lost in the carriers hands, and I had it shipped back to Amazon.com directly.
Thanks!
Business is great.
Damien

This is the first book I have ever reviewed -- and it is only because I feel so strongly about it. This book is nowhere near being a beginning accounting textbook. The authors take for granted that the reader understands accounting terms as clear explanations are few and far between or missing completely. Perhaps the authors are far too advanced to be able to explain the basics of their business. The content is very confusing as are the multi-colored, multi-boxed, multi-fonted, multi-faceted, CNN/USA Today-style pages. I would definitely NOT recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand accounting to any degree.

Actually, the supplier no longer had the book available. But the supplier contacted me immediately and my account was credited almost as quickly as the money went out. So I am still a happy shopper.

Given how dry a subject Accounting can be (especially for non-Accounting majors) - this book really was fantastic. It serves up excellent examples, has a modern, graphic and splashy style that made it easy to follow along and refer back to key terms, and I liked the tie-ins to business in the general commentary. It's a great text for a self-paced course like an online accounting course offered at Berkeley. I felt like I learned a lot from this book.

If your school uses this book, not only don't take this class, drop out of the school. If I could rate this with negative numbers I would. This is the worst textbook ever devised by man OR woman. If you are already a CPA looking for a review, it might be worth something, otherwise it teaches nothing. It presents examples without first explaining things then explains things using examples that have no bearing on what is being taught.

If you have to use this book, my sympathy for you. I can only hope the school will refund at least a portion of my money.

This is a classic. Well told stories of the difficulties encountered climbing Everest and K2. The machismo seems to have been left far below the altitudes these climbers struggle at. These true accounts finally wind together around common threads of stress, inability to think and act rationally under extreme conditions. Minor decisions and misunderstandings result in triumph or failure.
A great book.
David Roberts has established himself as an essential source for understanding why we seek adventure and what really is there in the midst of it. I've got a list of his books and I plan to read all of it.

This attractively presented volume is a compilation of excerpts from various accounts of attempts, successful or otherwise, to climb Everest and K2. These accounts are for the most part from different English and American expeditions from the 1930s onwards, but include for variation the first-person narrative of travels through Tibet toward the fatal mountains by the widow of a fallen climber.

Some expeditions take a massive army-style assault on the peaks, using complicated supply chains, support teams, hundreds of Sherpas, and tons of equipment. This is sort of the "Humanity Conquers Nature" approach. Others plan for basically a sprint up the mountain, traveling light with minimal support and small groups, and eschewing the use of oxygen cylinders and fancy gadgetry. This is the "Triumph of the Will" approach. These purists are always keen on trying routes no one else has attempted, and they avoid using the ladders and fixed ropes and stuff left by previous expeditions.

It's that latter style of climbing that has become especially dangerous, because once someone has reached the pinnacle without oxygen, the bar has been dramatically raised, and anyone who follows and doesn't try the same looks weak. So ever-escalating feats of bravado must necessarily follow, where it won't be long before we'll see accomplishments such as "first to climb Everest while naked" or something like that.

While there are a number of gripping scenes related in this book, there's also a great deal of repetition. A whole lot of verbiage is devoted to, essentially, "Man, it's cold up there!" So we read again and again about firing up stoves and snuggling into sleeping bags and taking an hour to put on boots and the like. There's also a lot of technical language to be encountered, which is likely to be appreciated more by climbers than the layperson, who has to wade through a lot of "I jumared down the fixed 5mm rope across a transverse field of powder to reach the couloir beyond cul that led to the cwm". Climbers will be nodding knowingly; armchair adrenaline junkies will be scratching their heads. (Note that a glossary of terms is hidden at the back of the book where it does no one any good.)

Ultimately, the most interesting tales prove to be those where the climbers hate each other and fall into bitter bickering over who gets to make the dash to the top, or who fouled up and ruined everything. The mountains have many ways to kill people, but a lot of the tragedies are of the "and they were never seen again" variety. I'm not advocating that we should be exposed voyeuristically to all of the gory details of horrible deaths, but most of the disasters are rather pallidly rendered, and frankly the human drama ends up being more interesting than hearing again and again about the interesting technical challenges of getting over the Abruzzi Ridge or whatever.

An assortment of maps would have helped immensely.

I very much enjoyed and highly recommend this book. I've read many of the books from which these chapters are selected, yet there was much fresh material for me. The editing was so masterful that even though the chapters are from different writers, mountains, and times, they flowed together seamlessly

High does for climbing what the movie The Thin Red Line did for combat: It explores not the details of the event, but the inner thoughts of the participants. You read what it feels like to have a climber dying in a tent next to you. You learn about the humilation of having frostbite while back at home. You are with the widows who trek in the paths of their husbands to glimpse the mountain graves of their loved ones.

While I can understand that some reviewers felt the selections dropped one into the middle of a big problem high on a mountain without the broader context of the expedition, I didn't feel this was a problem. I don't need the beginning, middle, and end to enjoy a brief tale. There are plenty of books that give all those details, yet few that are gripping to read from the first page to the last.

This is the first book i've read that was a collection of excerpts from other books. It is a real page turner and you will work through it quickly, desperately wanting more non-fiction adventure reading to follow. Well anyways, just buy it. you won't be disappointed.

Like all of you who read this review,you're Everest junkies who probably won't even get near this mountain, but are hooked on all books about it.
High; Stories of survival from Everest and K2 is NOT what you're looking for. This book is nothing but one-chapter excerpts from other books. It's like walking into a movie half way through: You have no idea what's going on. Also, there are no maps of either Everest or K2, so if writers of these chapters (and some of them are BORING writers!) describe trouble on Everest's north col or K2's Abruzzi ridge, we can't picture these places in our minds.
This book (unlike all the other Everest books I bought and immediately read) has been sitting on my bedstand for months. I only read it when I wake up at 3AM and can't go back to sleep. Just reading from this book puts me back to sleep reeeeeal fast!
Don't bother with this one. The Everest season is happening right now. Maybe more books will come from this year's hikers.

Despite of the lack of exotic settings and having a more ordinary hero,this novel is still a page-turner, thanks to the complexity of its charachters. Croaker ends up being a much more intersting person than Nicholas Linnear (who is something of a demi-god by now), however, DH lacks the thrilling changes of location in time and space characteristic of former novels. It's on the whole a fine novel, but I would suggest Mr, Lustbader to improve his Spanish spelling and grammar, there are lots of mistakes which undermine the credibility of the Spanish-speaking characters.

If you loved Ninja then prepare to be disappointed. None of the fascinating detail that made Ninja such a page turner. Minor moments when describing the world of Heta I, a South American healing art that stores power in stones. Lew Croaker's biomechanical hand has more of a personality then Lew, and is much more fascinating.

Twisted plot involving South American magic, South Florida sleaziness, black market human organs, and secret government agenices.

Although I read this book to the end, I can't say I recommend it.

I have to say that this book is one of Eric Lustbader's finest. He does a good follow up of Lew Croaker from the last book Floating City. This book is worth reading and buying for all the Lustbader fans out there.

the books of mr.Lustbader have something different from the others:a way of seeing things unusual.This book has nothing like this.By far his best ones were JIAN and SHAN.Anyway,i'm still one of his fans

I have been a loyal Lustabder fan for the past 5 years and have read 10 of his titles. I have loved reading his incredibly descriptive style as he paints a pictue of political intrigue, family and spiritual ties and intense eroticism. But this book was not nearly up to par with his past works. The entire plot was overly confusing and too full of coincidences. If the Bonita twins were so powerful, why do they even need Lew Croaker, detective extraordinaire, to do a hit job for them? Especially since they ended up carrying it out themselves after all? Lustabder always has multiple charcacters, but in this title, they were all a jumble. The twins in their little white death truck seemed silly, and the severed heads and incestual sado-masochism was at some points was a little sickening. I was anxiously awaiting for this novel after Lustbader's hiatus, but this was definitely not worth the wait.

Very straight-forward and easy to understand book on Computer Essentials (end-user computing).

In my lectures in Information Systems, beginners, it was a handy reference.

I used this book for my "Introduction to Computers" class during my first college semester. It is easy to understand and covers all topics of computers. It discusses the history of computers, hardware, robotics, artificial intelligence, software, and other computer topics. There are also several funny moments in this book. I highly recommend it.

The Computer Confluence book by Beekman is the perfect companion to the International Baccalaureate course on Technology and it's impact on society. You won't find very in-depth information on any specific subject, but you will find well-written, polished overviews on computing and the many ways computers are used.

The text is designed to be mind-provoking and to provide concepts that will survive the status quo of information technology. It is a must-read for anybody who wants a wider perspective on computers and where it is all leading us.

Both multimedia sources that come with the book: the website and the CD are very helpful. A variety of university classes list this book as a required text and the review quizzes that follow every chapter will really help your studies.

You won't find very in-depth information on any specific subject, but you will find well-written, polished overviews on computing and the many ways computers are used.

Both multimedia sources that come with the book: the website and the CD are very helpful. I took a class where this book was the required text and the review quiz that follows every chapter helped my studies. (Previously released as "A reader from Sacramento, California.")

I have taught computer courses for over ten years and have used all four editions of Computer Confluence. This book has at least a half a dozen errors which I have pointed out to the publisher. None were corrected. I have seen the 5th Edition and the errors are still there. Buyer be ware. If the instructor can point out these errors to the students the book is quite useful. It is not suited to self-paced learning without a qualified instructor.

I listened to this book on audiocassette. I assume that the editor picked six of the best essays from the hardcopy book for the audio version. They are:
Lincoln Takes Charge by David Herbert Donald
Failed Southern Strategies by James M. McPherson
Malvern Hill by Stephen W. Sears
When Lee was Mortal by Gary W. Gallagher
The Rock of Chickamauga: George H. Thomas by John Bowers
Rebel Without a War: The Shenandoah by Robert F. Jones

All of these are worth listening to. Narrator Eric Conger does an excellent job, and of course, the highly-respected authors all conducted thorough research and wrote clearly on interesting topics.

Personally I found the last two to be particularly intriguing because they covered stories that were fairly new to me. For example, George Thomas was a native of Virginia who chose to remain in the U.S. Army after his home state seceded. His family never spoke to him again! His leadership at Chickamauga and elsewhere in Tennessee earned him well-deserved acclaim.

As for the final essay in this version, the CSS Shenandoah fired the last shot of the Civil War basically because the captain and crew did not know that the war had ended until late in the summer of 1865. Their job had been to damage Union commerce by destroying commercial vessels, and this they did. In particular they sunk a number of whaling ships.

Subtitled "Perspectives on the Civil War," the book is suitable for anyone interested in that period of American history and particularly for those who already have some familiarity with the Civil War and would like some fresh ideas and detailed stories.

It's pretty much common sense that Anthologies are a real mixed bag but With My Face to the Enemy is more than the average. This compilation has some wonderful stuff and to be honest one or two that I'm surprised got past the editor considering the factual errors they have.

On the good side you have some really first rate pieces. Stephen Sears comes through with some great stuff as usual with 'The Last Word on the Lost Order', 'The Ordeal of General Stone' and 'Malvern Hill'. However these works can be found in his book "Controversies and Commanders" or his book on the Peninsula Campaign.

Still there are other less well known writers in addition to the well known ones like Sears, Gallagher and McPherson, to make this worth picking up. Robert Jones' Rebel Without a War sticks out as exceptional as does John Taylor's 'The Crater'. Also two different articles that cover Col William Oates and Col Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain 'The Antagonists of Little Round Top'I found to be very interesting reads.

On the bad side a few of the article lean a bit towards the dry side and there are some factual errors, especially in Tom Flemming's 'Band of Brothers'. The article makes a number of mistakes such as stating that General Richard Garnett rode in Pickett's Charge because he was to sick with fever to walk. The actual truth however is that Garnett had been kicked by a horse and his leg was still to sore for him to walk. Flemming also repeats the old fable that Grant sent an engraved silver serving set across the battle lines at Petersburg to George and Sally Pickett as a present when their son was born. However this story is widely known to be a fictional creation of Sally Pickett's after the war.

So in the end while a bit uneven, there's enough first rate material to make the book worth it.

Essay collections are hard to review. You always wind up with something you liked, something you didn't, and a few things you were surprised by, either pleasantly or otherwise. This book is no exception: while some of the essays in here are worthwhile, some are less wonderful, or otherwise uneven.

One real difficulty is that there's nothing new here at all: every "essay" in this book was previously published in Military History Quarterly. This means that if you subscribed to that magazine, you'd have all these articles already, and you wouldn't need this book. The only thing you'd get by having this is that Robert Cowley writes an introduction for every piece, but as noted elsewhere, he cribs his intros from the articles themselves, with the result that you almost read a short version of the piece before reading it itself. Some of the articles are also taken from larger books, so that you may wind up reading those twice before getting to this book. And as noted, there are no illustrations, maps, footnotes, index, bibliography, or any of the other stuff that you'd expect in a book like this. It sort of cripples the usefulness of the book, to be honest, for anything other than entertainment.

I've enjoyed stuff Cowley has done elsewhere (the What If? stuff, especially), but he and his publisher need to work on how these books are presented.

This book carries a similar format to books that look at the "hows" and "whys" of a battle, but instead follows popular events in the Civil War. Featuring and all-star cast of writers such as Gallagher and Sears, the book covers a variety of topics concerning subjects like Lee, Jackson, Grant, Vicksburg, Forrest at Fort Pillow, Union prisons, Sherman, Sheridan and many others. I have to admit the lack of references was disappointing as at times writer opinion versus fact were questionable. A majority of the chapters did offer interesting insight and tried to look at either popular misconceptions or myths surrounding the subjects. There is over 500 pages of material here that offer the advanced student of the Civil War possible new insight to events. I couldn't recommend this book to novice readers as a majority of the topics seem to be written in the assumption of past reader knowledge.

I am greatly torn over whether to give With My Face to the Enemy three or four stars. Four stars ultimately prevails because it seems to me that just about any book about the Civil War is almost by definition worth reading, and there is much in With My Face to the Enemy that will please both Civil War aficionados and those with but a passing interest. Of particular moment are two articles about the Confederate pirate ships (and let's be honest, they *were* pirate ships sans the physical violence) Alabama and Shenandoah, which reveal the genuinely global reach of the conflict. Every article has something to recommend it, even if, like Stephen Sears' essay on Chancellorsville, you've read it all before.

But there are some flaws, too. Most glaring and annoying is the lack of an index. Is there any Civil War student who does not rush to the index first to find references to his (or her) favorite general or battle? No such luck here; you'll have to read the entire book for those brief references to Howard, Hancock, McPherson, et al. Second, the articles lack two of the major selling points of military history magazines - color maps and illustrations. Now, I'm a big boy and I don't *need* pictures with my text, but often the art that accompanies an MHQ article is more powerful than the text. Third, there is a fault that lies with far too many Civil War pieces: biographies of important figures devolving into hagiographies. For too many Civil War biographers their subject can do, and did no, wrong. Crowley himself uses the word "hagiography" in one of his introductions. Whether it's Stonewall or Lee, or Admiral Porter or Sheridan, the lavish praise becomes tiring. And the final gripe to be made is toward Crowley's introductions, which borrow too liberally from the essays, adding nothing yet stealing the thunder of the contributors. (The same complaint can be made of Crowley's introductions to the What If? series.)

These are not much more than petty gripes, however. The Civil War remains a fascinating topic, and With My Face to the Enemy provides a wide range of essays covering many areas of the war. The collection deserves a spot on the bookshelf.

This is an all-around good read despite some generality and vagueness. This is a book that will welcome to readers of Plato or Machiavelli and not so much readers of Coulter or Moore.

What I thought was most striking about this book was how the author pointed out the subtle consequences of classical and especially modern liberalism. The one I found most interesting was the consequence of modern liberalism that says anything goes. Obviously, not all liberals feel that everything is acceptable, but many of the doctrines of modern liberalism lead to moral relativism and, as the author explains, an ultimate sense of apathy. It seems that the author is most against this giving up--not liberalism or progressivism. It could be said that this book is a case for caring about the important things like politics and not just a case for one side of the political coin.

I found myself saying "wow" several times when reading this book. It really is amazing the way the author winds his way through the many ideas. It's even more impressive knowing that all these inventive theories have actually been right in front of us all this time--I guess it just takes someone creative enough to bring them out. Those creative thoughts are obvious in retrospect: the source of the terms "liberal" and "conservative," how faith is instrumental in forming one and the lack of faith instrumental in the other, how the individual relates to social bodies and various themes revolving around sportsmanship, nature and judgment. This book really pushed my mind conceptually and that is something that I can say for few works these days. You'll find the themes bouncing around in your head a while after reading.

Some of the dialogue is cheesy and obviously fabricated to meet the growing exploration of ideas. Some things in the story just wouldn't happen if friends were gathered for happy hour. Despite this occasional irritation, the prose is smooth and the text reads effortlessly. This is quite a feat considering some of the massive ideas hashed out. And the author isn't single-minded in this volume as he employs some fascinating narrative technique in the last part.

Overall, this is definitely a book worth reading. It's quick, but it'll keep you busy with fascinating ideas and the recurring question, "how'd he do that?"

This brief book provides a philosophical exploration of the logic behind conservative and liberal thought. The opening essay outlines many of the author's main themes and serves as a foundation for the later chapters, in which the author reasons the major points of the opening essay via Socratic dialogue. At many points in the book, he concludes that conservative thought is a more logical approach to political and social problems. He also spends some time exploring religious sentiment as a cornerstone of a conservative mindset.

Understanding that the author deliberately narrowed the focus of the book to address the philosophical advantages of one school of thought over another, I still could not help but wish for something that more specifically spoke to the unresolved domestic policy problems of today.

Overall, an interesting excercise in examining the justifications of liberal and conservative thought, but it didn't leave me more prepared to enter political discourse on specific issues facing America today. Whether liberal or conservative, it may make you reexamine the reasons for your political choices, but it won't simplify your choices at the voting booth. For a more applicable investigation of current American political thought, I would recommend The Radical Center by Halstead and Lind instead of this title.

The most penetrating insight this book offers is in the opening essay, titled "On the Pursuit and Administration of Freedom." In it, the author explains that we as a Western Culture have sought freedom for the last 500 years. He calls this quest liberalism (a liberal is one who seeks liberty or freedom). In the last 150 years, though, as Morse explains, that quest has separated into two factions. Both still claim to seek freedom, but they do so in different ways. One way is the classical liberal approach (now titled "conservatism") and the second is the modern liberal approach (now monopolizing the title of "liberalism"). He goes on to explain that the two liberals not only seek freedom in different ways, but actually have different views on what freedom is and those different views are the source of the political standoff we see all around these days. The fact that we use the same language to define these different perspectives makes the conflict frustrating and motionless. That is why the debate is so bitter.

This book is brilliant for insight like this and it is well worth taking a look at to gain new perspective on everything political. I think if everyone took a look at modern politics this way, we'd stop being so angry toward one another and find out ways to get rid of the real enemy.

As the other reviewers have mentioned, it is a well written
book. My compliments stop there. I bought the book by mistake,
not having read the other reviews carefully enough. After the
first 30 pages, I realize I disagree with some of the author's
basic assumptions. Since it is a well written argument, I know
there's no point in reading further.

The book starts by working up definitions of justice and
equality, and gets to a point that defines (a kind of) equality
pursued by modern liberals that means material equality for all.
"The kind of freedom that furnishes a system where everyone
receives what he produces should be considered the kind of
freedom that furnishes justice. The kind of freedom that
furnishes a system where everyone receives a proportional amount
should be considered the kind of freedom that furnishes
equality."

It gets disturbing. "When the handicapped person is given
financial support, though it may seem proper, justice is not
served." It seems like the author is setting up the premise in
order to support his conclusion. The kind of equality liberals
want for the handicapped is not and equal dole, but an equal
chance. If the handicap is to be wheelchair bound, my take on
liberalism is that the government should require wheel chair
ramps etc. to provide equal access. It's not about an equal dole
for the lazy, though that seems to be where the author is
starting his argument. In his dog-eat-dog world, I want my money
back.