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This is not a history book. Rather, this book is history. The author wrote what is now a time capsule forever poised on the breaking edge of world events. The year was 1920. The Russian Revolution--despite huge difficulties due to World War I and, following that, attacks from the Western powers--was triumphant. Russell went to Moscow as a huge VIP, a world-famous mathematician/philosopher who believed in Socialism and Communism. Further, he considered capitalism both evil and doomed...And yet, and yet, as we'll see, Bolshevism was for Russell a step too far.

Russell had one of the best minds of the century. Writing this book, he was 48, at the height of his powers. It is altogether delightful to travel through history with a tip-top intelligence. Russell is rigorous, careful, precise, decent, and highly educated. He waltzes gracefully from point to point, fact to fact, deduction to deduction. Remember, he is in the very crucible of history, trying to make sense of events even as they unfold outside his window. I believe an entire college course could be made from this short book. Of course, students would have to read lots of additional material to run along side Russell and evaluate all the arresting things he says, for example: "Bolshevism combines the characteristics of the French Revolution with those of the rise of Islam; and the result is something radically new, which can only be understood by a patient and passionate effort of imagination."

Students taking such a course would understand what so many American intellectuals, all through the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, did not. Blinded by their love of Communism and their hatred of the West, they consistently aided and abetted what was the very definition of an evil government, the USSR under Stalin. Russell's mind is more subtle and sinuous. He wants a better world but sees that the Bolsheviks are willing to destroy everything to get it; but then it's not better, it's only rubble and death. Writing in 1920, when Lenin was in total control and Stalin was a minor figure, Russell nonetheless saw everything that was coming. He dissects the fanaticism, the many ways in which Bolshevism functions as a religion and its adherents become murderous ideologues.

Russell writes, with sadness but also alarm: "While some forms of Socialism are immeasurably better than capitalism, others are even worse. Among those that are worse, I reckon the form which is being achieved in Russia, not only in itself, but as a more insuperable barrier to further progress."

Aside: I ordered this book because I knew that Russell spent an hour with Lenin, a figure I wanted to know more about. Russell noted a cruel streak; for example, Lenin "described the division between rich and poor peasants, and the Government propaganda among the latter against the former, leading to acts of violence which he seemed to find amusing." This at a time when the country could not feed itself! I'm intrigued by cold-hearted intellectuals who think nothing of leveling what civilization there is in order to build their brave new worlds. Let us never forget Pol Pot who went back to Cambodia and killed 25% of his own country. In the field I mostly write about, education, there's our own John Dewey, who set out to dumb down an entire country so he could build his version of socialism. Lenin was a tough guy relative to the professorial Dewey, but I detect the same megalomania in both men.

Can logic solve any problem? Professor Van Dusen thinks so. In this collection of stories, he sets out to prove the infallibility of logic in some most extraordinary ways.

Each story features the classic elements of an apparently unsolvable problem. Yet, Professor Van Dusen remains calm and collected as he puts his thinking skills to work. Readers will enjoy the variety of dilemmas he encounters, and will marvel at the solutions! Whether he is finding something that is stolen or escaping from a prison cell, each tale takes some unexpected turns before arriving at a perfectly logical conclusion.

The journey of this book from the author to its current publication is just as interesting as the stories. Jacques Futrelle developed the character of Van Dusen, "The Thinking Machine," during the early 1900's. Many of these stories appeared in serial form in magazines. In 1912, Futrelle traveled to Europe to seek a wider audience for his work. His return trip to America was on board the Titanic. Although Futrelle perished, these wonderful tales remain available for today's readers.

The target audience is young adult, but anyone who loves a good mystery will enjoy this book. The writing is clear and direct, and the predicaments are cleverly constructed. Each story features a different set of circumstances, but all have the principle of logic at its center. The character of Professor Van Dusen is both annoyingly ill-tempered and amazingly intelligent. This unique combination creates a different type of hero, but one that will certainly gain the admiration of readers. -- Joyce Handzo, Christian Book Previews.com

This book is both a reference and a good instructional overview on how to program Motif. Essentially, Motif is a collection of widgets that one can program. The book references these widgets, shows screen shots, shows where in the tree the widget is derived from, details little code snippets, and has comprehensive explanations on how to use it, return values, etc.

Now, these modern times, one would probaly want to program with Qt (KDE) or GTK, but there's tons of historical code out there that's still being used these days, that will undoubtedly require some Motif knowledge, and I would say this book is a great resource for that.

Es un libro muy útil tanto para médicos como para Tecnólogos Médicos, los avances que ha experimentado la tecnología multidetector son impresionantes y esta publicación resulta de gran ayuda para los que estamos interezados en el tema o trabajamos diaramente en estos equipos.
Absolutamente recomendable

Written in 1893, this one has withstood the test of time. If you're looking for an apologetic book about the doctrine of Purgatory, this is not the book. It is assumed the reader is a Catholic and believes in Purgatory. What this book does, however, from various accounts from a myriad of sources describes what Purgatory is like, how long it may last, what sends a soul there and most importantly, how we can help the souls detained there. It is divided in two parts: Part 1 detailing the severity of God's Justice; Part 2 details the vastness of His Mercy. This is a book you will read over and over again, and should be on every Catholic's bookshelf.

Many people doubt the existance of purgatory, but this book makes it quite clear there is such a place. The author relates the experiences and visions of saints and lay persons as to the existance of purgatory. Far from being a benign place, purgatory is a temporary hell. The book makes frightening reading in places to show how perfectly just God is. The author also relates the most incredible miracles, such as a man who died and was reduced to a skeleton, but by the power of God, in front of numerous eye witnesses, had his flesh regrown and came alive to show their is a purgatory. The books main point is that God is merciful but also very just and that he rewards and punishes until all debts are paid. A great book.

There are so many myths when it comes to the Civil Rights Movement and so often it is reduced to a few holiday's and key speeches. This book not only teaches us about the ordinary, everyday citizens who sacrificed and stood for change, but also invokes critical thinking and connects us to our past so we better understand our role in fighting injustice today.

I heard about this book when I was a teen. One of my older brothers spoke about it with such passion that I never forgot his improvised review. Now, almost 30 years later I find it at Amazon, second hand of course, and order it. Such a lapse of time had not went away without leaving Vance Packard's investigations in a far, far away past. However it should be of interest for historians and researchers of the evolution of management in America because today there are far better, more academically accurate, works on the subject. That said I shall confess that the book pleased me a lot and finally confirmed that my brother's review was, for the time, correct.

This book describes all of the aspects of Quality Management including Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Quality Standards. It's written in a down-to-earth manner and is extremely easy to read. Overall - an excellent buy!

Very good. The book goes directly to the issue of what X-ray fluorescence is and its applications. Most books in the field explain lot of techniques and do not treat fluorescence properly. Just to remind, it is one of the most used X-ray techniques in the industry. It was about the time for someone to write a book only about fluorescence.