C Books

Animal Farm and 1984 are both so well known (and incidentally one could check other editions for more detailed individual reviews) I shall limit myself to saying this about the works themselves: both are very powerful and 1984 ranks among my top books of all time. As for the edition itself, I would suggest to someone who is interested in either of these novels and does not yet own a copy of them to buy this edition. Even if you have a copy of one, I for example had the signet classic of 1984, this is still a good option. You get an attractive hard cover that conveniently has both the novels for a decent price. In addition the overall quality is good. The text is extremely readable due to a nice font size-a big improvement form the mass market editions.

For me the edition is so cool, besides the special content and masterpiece by George Orwell. So fast was the delivery of the item. Yet i haven't enough time for finishing it, but I'm sure that it'll be a great time.

This is a very nicely published edition of both of George Orwell's landmark novels. Many of us were required to read these in school, but they are all the more meaningful in today's political climate. While the left may tend to want to cite these novels the most (the Patriot Act as "Big Brother"), there is probably more ammunition for the right, particularly in today's politically correct culture. Think former N.O.W. executive and conservative lesbian Tammy Bruce's book "The New Thought Police". A good historical/political read regardless of your political persuasion.

So you could go borrow the book at the library or buy the paperback, get the content down, and be done with it. But for same reason people buy very expensive European cars, there is something attractive to looks of a exterior that makes the consumer want to own, not rent, but possess. I love both books by Orwell, and this edition is one to show off.

This is a handsome republication of Orwell's two most renowned works, Animal Farm and 1984. Even if you're just looking for 1984, this edition is to be commended; it comes with a fine introduction by today's leading Orwell enthusiast, Christopher Hitchens, and the reward of including Animal Farm requires very little in the way of additional effort or expense on your part. At 80-odd pages, you may as well pick it up in the same volume, and you're virtually certain to be glad that you did.

I'm not alone in being of a generation that was first required to read Orwell in my student days (Middle School, in my case.) It seems that there was a lot of literature churned out then, accessible to if not directly aimed at children, with the horrors of totalitarianism as its theme. In addition to reading Orwell, we were also reading Huxley, Bradbury, and Verne -- the youth-oriented John Christopher books being yet another example. The generation that lived through Nazism and Stalinism clearly wanted the younger set to be aware of the horrors that could be, and to remain on guard against them.

It doesn't seem to be quite that way anymore. Orwell's name is invoked today, but often in trivializing contexts: "Big Brother" is now a brain-numbing reality show, and "Orwellian" is a convenient and often hysterically-applied charge to political opponents. Some complaceny does seem to be inevitable: we are now further removed from the days when the likes of Hitler and Stalin killed tens of millions. Still, regimes arise that are nearly as horrific on a local scale, from Pol Pot to Saddam Hussein to the Taliban, and are real enough that Orwell's book is no joke. Orwell deserves attention if for no other reason than to sensitize us to the bad form associated with invoking his name in a trivializing context. There was a political ad on Youtube last year from an Obama supporter that cast Hillary Clinton on a giant Big Brother-like screen. I'm not in the least a fan of Senator Clinton, but associating her image with those of 1984 -- as was also done in an infamous Apple Computer ad -- trivializes Orwell's message in a deplorable way. Orwell wrote his novel to warn against real dangers that his generation lived through, and which others might yet, not as a marketing ploy to be used in selling either computers or nearly indistinguishable democratic political candidacies.

The main reason I am writing this review, however, is that re-reading Orwell in my 40's is a stark reminder that his novels are more than political parables, but are worthy literature. I hope that those reading these reviews will be aware of this, and not shut their minds to a rewarding literary experience.

As a kid, I was able to perceive the pedagogical intent of these books, but less so was I able to appreciate the literary artistry. 1984 in particular passes the Nabokovian test of creating a fully believable, if terrifying, alternate world. Beyond that, on nearly every page, Orwell leaves an image that just might stay with you forever. Small wonder that so many of the terms in 1984 ("Big Brother," "Newspeak") have burrowed their way into our lexicography.

Orwell was a man of the left who understood something that many of his compatriots did not; that what had arisen in the Soviet Union was a regime unprecedented in its horror (arriving before, and ultimately outlasting, its horrific mirror image, Hitler's Third Reich.) At a time when others on the left simply refused to believe in the reality of the USSR, he looked at it unflinchingly and wrote what it was really about.

Also, in childhood, I was not able to fully appreciate that Orwell's books simply weren't negative-utopian nightmare-fantasies, but paralleled actual events in the USSR with chilling accuracy. I knew, at some level, that he was satirizing certain events and characters in the Russian Revolution, but only in adulthood was I able to closely recognize nearly every episode and character in Animal Farm. Those familiar with USSR history will find it all here in the two books: the rewriting of the past to reaffirm the infallibility of the Party, the sudden reorienting of national propaganda to suit the latest twist of foreign policy, and the complete elimination of all references to those unfortunate souls decreed never to have existed.

Truly, the thing that makes 1984 terrifying now, is not what was imagined in the novel's construction, but what was real in its sources. It exaggerates even relative to the Stalinist state -- but not by much. It is this recognition that makes it a chilling read today.

1984 is the more vivid and evocative of the two novels. Excepting one passage (Goldstein's dreary history lesson about 2/3 of the way through) it is riveting almost throughout its 300 pages.

A few notes for younger readers: The moral of Animal Farm is not that Napoleon was simply a bad apple, but rather that the system adopted by the Animals ensured that ultimately such a tyrant would dominate. (I find the end of Animal Farm to be something of a false note; in the end the pigs prove no better than, and resemble, the humans they replaced, but this understates the tragic reality that the USSR was worse still than that which it replaced.)

As I close, I leave you with one random question about 1984: how come it never occurs to Eastasia and Eurasia to combine against Oeania? Given that Oceania keeps flipping its allegiance from one to the other, you'd think they'd ultimately catch on and both decide to attack Oceania at the same time.

Silly questions aside, this book is highly commended. Worth re-reading again, especially if you only have read Orwell when as immature as was I.

While the 17th century witnessed the failure of the libertarian Levellor revolution, the 18th century can be said to embody its partial victory in the form of the American Revolution. The radical libertarian nature of the Yankee revolutionaires has only recently been acknowledged by historians. Bailyn's volume broke new ground when it was published in 1967 by showing the Radical Whig foundations of the American Revolution. He says "attitudes and ideas that would constitute the Revolutionary ideology was present a half-century before there was an actual Revolution".

The two most widely read polemical Radical Whig authors were Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard. By means of their anti-clerical and anti-military essays, known collectively as "The Indpendent Whig" and "Cato's Letters", they kept alive the Radical Whig traditions of natural rights, suspicion of the ever-encroaching nature of state power, and justified rebellion. Gordon and Trenchard were able to transmit these revolutionary ideas in popular form to the American colonies.

Bailyn says "Everywhere groups seeking justification for concerted opposition to constituted governments turned to these writers [Trenchard and Gordon]". He adds "By 1728, in fact, 'Cato's Letters' had already been fused with Locke, Coke, Pufendorf, and Grotius".

Another important connecting link was Thomas Hollis. Bailyn says "that extraordinary one-man propaganda machine in the cause of liberty, the indefatigable Thomas Hollis" distributed libertarian tracts in England and British America, and subsidized the publication of American revolutionary pamphlets, as well as reprinting the classics of the 17th century Whig tradition such as Sidney and Locke. He was instrumental in supplying radical libertarian literature to libraries in France, Switzerland, Italy, and to Harvard University.

Radical Whig libertarianism comprises a coherent body of principles that are held together and given meaning by two fundamental moral principles. The first being the right of the individual to own justly acquired property; the second being the right of the individual not to be aggressed against.

The individual is defined by his physical uniqueness and so has the potential to develop into a mature and responsible acting individual. The individual's uniqueness forms the basic element of all social interaction and is the source of the division of labor and the exchange process. Similarly, privacy is the result of recognizing the dignity, worth, and sanctity of every individual. Only by permitting the individual to enjoy his or her property unmolested, within the protected sphere defined by the self-ownership principle and the derivative right to own property in other physical objects, can there be true privacy and protection of the private side of human life.

Tolerance results from the recognition that all individuals are potentially morally perfectable. As long as no property rights are violated, then all consenting, peaceful activity must be legally protected. Tolerance is vital because it allows each and every individual to exercise moral autonomy. Only by being free to choose between different courses of action can the individual learn from past mistakes and so strive for moral perfection and self-fulfillment.

It is a consequence of the ownership of one's body and the moral autonomy that springs from this ownership that no one can act on any individual's behalf unless expressly and formally delegated to do so. This means that individuals have to begin claiming their rights of self-determination, the right to withdraw or secede from any political organization that is not to their liking, and the right to resist political intervention in their social and economic activities. Bailyn says "Such ideas, based on extreme solicitude for the individual and an equal hostility to government, were expressed in a spirit of foreboding and fear for the future".

In 1765, Charles Carroll of Carrollton said, "corruption . . . will produce the same effects . . but that fatal time seems to be at a great distance. The present generation at least, . . . will enjoy the blessings and the sweets of liberty". Bailyn says "Suspicion . . . of an active conspiracy of power against liberty . . . rose in the consciousness of a large segment of the American population before any of the famous political events of the struggle with England took place".

Bailyn cites the Report of Speech in the House of Lords, 1770: "Lord Chancellor Camden . . . accused the ministry . . . of having formed a conspiracy against the liberties of their country". Bailyn also cites the Boston Town Meeting to its Assembly Representatives, 1770: "A series of occurrences, many recent events, . . . afford great reason to believe that a deep-laid and desparate plan of imperial despotism has been laid, and partly executed, for the extinction of all civil liberty . . . The august and once revered fortress of English freedom - the admirable work of ages - the British Constitution seems fast tottering into fatal and inevitable ruin. The dreadful catastrophe threatens universal havoc, and presents an awful warning to hazard all if, peradventure, we in these distant confines of the earth may prevent".

Colonists such as radicals Thomas Paine and Richard Price added to these fears. Paine is best noted for his popular tract, "Common Sense"(1776), which attacked monarchical government and urged immediate declaration of independence from the Crown and the formation of a Republic, as well as for his passionate defense of the French Revolution in his "Rights of Man"(1792). Richard Price, a Dissenter and self-styled "Honest Whig", defended natural rights, justice, and the right of a people to rebel against oppression in his "Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty . . . and the Justice of War in America", also publishe in 1776.

Bailyn says "the colonists' ideas and words counted too, and not merely because they repeated as ideology the familiar utopian phrases of the Enlightment and of English libertarianism. What they were saying by 1776 was familiar . . . ; yet it was different." He says "The radicalism the Americans conveyed to the world in 1776 was a transformed as well as a transforming force", namely "to make federalism a logical as well as a practical system of government".

Proponents of liberty were mistrusted as well. Bailyn says "denunciations of the work of seditious factions seeking private aims masked by professions of loyalty, which abound in the writings of officials and of die-hard Tories".

It is significant that Bailyn seems only to touch lightly upon the views of the Tories - predecessors of today's neocons. He draws heavily from the radicals. This cozy accomodation and convenient oversightedness is also suspicious. It is an approach that is commonplace concerning the American Revolution. State public schools do not teach the Tories' views, rather their aim is to justify the present organization of American society.

More questions arise from reading Bailyn's work. Why did the Radical Whig revolution in England fail to attract the ruling elite and beneficiaries of monopoly profits resulting from the political system? And why did their counterparts in the American colonies embrace Radical Whig ideology?

My guess is that, when examined closely, the American Revolution fails to live up to its libertarian origins. My particular concern is with the Declaration of Independence - the supposed listing of reasons for the revolt. The facts indicate that the goals of most of the signers of the Declaration were quite different from their rhetoric. They sought freedom from Britain, it is true - the freedom to govern the lives of Americans THEMSELVES. This is obvious, not only from the words of the Founding Fathers, but from their actions as well.

In short, a valuable collection of primary sources. It should be read alongside Raoul Berger's "The Founders' Design" and Cecelia Kenyon's "Men of Little Faith".

Bernard Bailyn's seminal Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is the starting point to understanding the central theme of American political thought -- the struggle of Liberty versus Power.

In particular, it demonstrates the crucial role Cato's Letters played in shaping the minds of our Founders in formenting our American Revolution.

Read Murray N. Rothbard's four volume history of Colonial America, Conceived In Liberty, as a magnificent follow up to Bailyn's beginning.

Research on a previous project provided Bernard Bailyn an intellectual treasure trove of over 400 pamphlets, written between 1763 and 1776, from which he crafted his Bancroft and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992). This work, first published in 1967, remains a standard volume for students of early American studies at all university levels. Bailyn crafted a pointed examination of thoughts of American colonial leaders that culminated into the Revolution. Not only is his analysis wide-ranging, but it explores the depth and fallaciousness of eighteenth-century American revolutionary rationale with force and clarity.

Bailyn lays out the basic argument in the book's sixth sentence: "The ideology of the Revolution, derived from many sources, was dominated by a peculiar strand of British political thought" (v). Around this central thought, Bailyn details the convergence of thought that formed the colonists' case for a break from the British empire; he explains the change over time in American thinking on long-held political views; he highlights contemporary issues, i.e. chattel slavery and established religion, that gained argumentative force from the colonials' complaints against the British Parliament; and he illustrates the difficulties that Revolutionary thinking posed for participants of the Constitutional Convention who sought to replace British authority with a central American government.

The first part of the book describes the vehicle, voice, and ideological basis of the Revolution. The leaders of the Revolution propagated their thoughts through newspapers, broadsides, and almanacs. The primary writing form of the Revolution, however, was the pamphlet, which allowed polemicists of all different vocations to broaden the political debate. The American revolutionary pamphlets, though a "distinctive literature of the Revolution," had roots in seventeenth-century American sermon publishing and early eighteenth-century English polemical pamphleteering techniques.

The Revolutionary crisis did not originate during the crisis period from 1763 to 1776. Elements of the discourse had been long present in the colonies, but the post-1763 turmoil fused the ideas into "a comprehensive view, unique in its moral and intellectual appeal" (22). Bailyn nods to the intellectual influences on colonial leaders from quotations of classical writers, a rather superficial knowledge of the Enlightenment, citations of English common law, and the covenant theology of New England Puritanism. One of Bailyn's significant contributions to the present thinking on eighteenth-century American revolutionary thought is his understanding that "the ultimate origins of the this distinctive ideological strain lay in the radical social and political thought of the English Civil War and of the Commonwealth period" (34). He identifies early eighteenth-century English radical writers, such as John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, as shaping the mind of the American Revolutionary generation more than any other single group.

Change in America did not begin to happen only with the Revolution; it began a century before and progressed slowly. Bailyn constructs an intellectual chronology of Revolutionary thought that consists of three phases, beginning with the years of Anglo-American struggle before 1776, the execution of state constitutions from 1776 through the 1780s, and the crafting and ratifying of a national constitution. The final section of the book exquisitely displays the difficulties encountered by participants at the Constitution Convention to form a federal system of government in the wake of the force of argument put forth at the Continental Congress against the encroaching powers of a central government. Bailyn's discussions of imperium in imperio bookend with sheer mastery his understanding of the entangling intellectual obstacles which American colonists laboriously yet successfully maneuvered to produce the Revolution and the Constitution.

Throughout the Revolutionary period corruption served as the greatest threat to liberty, and, according the federalist view, a constitution establishing a government endowed with the separation of powers would ensure the existence of virtue, the necessary attribute for the sustenance of liberty within a republic. One area of frustration throughout the book is the use of terms like "corruption" and "virtue" that portrays an almost given denotation of such enigmatic expressions.

A true gem within the book is Bailyn's demonstration that the colonial leaders could not contain revolutionary fervor. Opponents of chattel slavery in America and proponents of religious disestablishment used the American leaders' own arguments for freedom from the British Parliament and taxation without representation to assail the continuation of the slave trade and ecclesiastical taxation against religious dissenters.

Bailyn's The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution is nothing less than a most persuasive, brilliantly crafted work that will influence the way Americans think about the Revolution for years to come.

Bernard Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution is a centerpiece in much, if not all, of contemporary historians' viewpoints and methodologies for understanding the philosophical constructs and ideological underpinnings of the American Revolution. It was, according to Bailyn and many learned historians, after this writing first appeared in 1967, a revolution of ideas. What Bailyn did was to read prodigious amounts of writings of the time, mostly in the form of pamphlets and synthesize the thoughts that were being discussed and written about at the time. Essentially, he put the revolution of ideas into the context of the time. That was, some forty years ago, revolutionary within of itself.

Many of today's more serious readers of the period have read much of Bailyn and Gordon Wood indirectly, if not directly reading their own work. Both have been that influential in the field. The "disappointment" in this book is caused by Bailyn's own success, ironically enough. It was his work, along with select others, who began to pay attention to history within its own context - that is what was occurring in life and politics at the time rather than a chronological and linear view of the time. More of an interdisciplinary viewpoint and, as such, more accessible to the reader. Since the time of its first publication, many others have emulated its style (a good idea) but made its rather seismic effects at the time, feel much less so today. Effectively so much hype over the years (deserved then and de rigor today) makes for more than a bit of a letdown for today's readers. That said, those truly interested in the ideas, the philosophies, and their interpretations and misinterpretations of the day are well served reading Bailyn. Others should approach the read with caution as it is fairly dense but filled with moments of sheer academic brilliance.

This is a book that all students of the American Revolution should be forced to read. Without understanding Bailyn's argument, that the "conspiracy against liberty" was the main reason why America decided to break away from the British Empire, a student will be forever lost in trying to understand the roots of the American Revolution. Almost all of the books on the outbreak of the American Revolution have had to take Bailyn's argument into consideration; so, if you're interested in the study of the American Revolution, then this book is an imperative read. Read T.H. Breen's "The Marketplace of Revolution" after this book, and you'll have a decent grasp of the roots of the American Revolution.

CCS es un autor que simplemente no es bueno escribiendo una buena narrativa, las historias son de lo comun y no trata de evolucionar, lastima que el opus dei tiene una calidad muy baja al seleccionar libros que imprimir.
JOVENES!! no se dejen engañar con esta semi literatura pretenciosa , no les dejara nada, existen mejores cosas en el mundo, lean a rulfo,marquez, cortazar, kerouac, ginsberg, mishima, mistral, allende, lean el mundo no lean esto, veran como su vacio se llena con vida y cultura.
su mente se los agradecera.

La Fuerza de Sheccid es sin duda uno de los mejores libros que he leido. Carlos C. Sanchez es un gran author. La Fuuerza de Sheccid me enseño a valoran a mis amistades y a mi familia. En este libro se encuentran los valores que debemos tener si queremos ser honestos. Nunca pense que yo misma fuera un hipocrita hasta que lei este libro. La Fuerza de Sheccid tambien nos enseña las pervenciones que exsinten en este mundo y como todos nunca pensamos en como deternerlas. Este libro es sin duda uno de los mejores libros para adolecentes. Este libro me hiso habrir los ojos y entender a mi novio en ese momento. Me hiso realizar que el no era lo que yo queria que el fuera. Que yo como Carlos, estaba seganda por el amor. Gracias Carlos, todos tus libros han cambiado muchas vidas!!! Incluyendo la mia. A todos les recomiendo que lean todos los libros de Carlos Cuauthemoc Sanchez. Son Geniales!!!!

En donde quiera que me paro recomiendo este libro. No acostumbro leer pero verdaderamente este libro me ha hecho reflexionar sobre miles de cosas las cuales voy a poner en practica. Este libro no solo me ha hecho ver la vida de otra manera, si no que tambien me ha dado la opportunidad de ver de otra manera las personas con problemas con la ayuda de Dios. Verdaderamente es como dice la portada de la edicion que tengo "Libros que transforman vidas" este libro es magnifico y hasta he puesto quotes del libro en la portada de mi agenda. LEANLO!

La Fuerza de Sheccid es un libro que verdadera mente me impacto y que no pude para de leer. Da un perfecto ejemplo de como es el ser humano al conocer el amor. Les recomiendo este libro y se que les va a gustar

Yo no soy muy amigo de la lectura, y mucho para la epoca que me regalaron este libro (tenia 15 años entonces), me lo dieron por mi cumpleaños y al otro dia lo comenze a leer y no pude parar, lo termine ese mismo dia, es hermoso, poetico, y me senti muy identificado, me abrio los ojos ante muchas cosas, y me hizo mas fuerte... Es una de esas cosas que CAMBIA TU VIDA PARA SIEMPRE.
Si estas indeciso en comprarlo o no, COMPRALO te aseguro que no te vas a arrepentir...

Carlos, gracias por traer tanta felicidad y sabiduria a mi vida.

I learned about this book while reading another book, "Prime Obsession" and it awoke my curiosity mainly for two reasons: because it was a interesting subject, an apology for being a mathematician, trying to explain the purpose and usufulness of mathematics, and because I wanted to know more about Hardy's life, since I knew a few things about the nice story of this mathematician and Ramanujan. This is a brief book, there is a foreword that serve as a brief biography before enjoying Hardy thoughts, which by the way really grab your attention, even you learn a few lessons of simple mathematics proofs that try to show the beauty of it. I consider this book valuable for everyone.

Hardy was a giant among early 20th century mathematicians. It is difficult to overstate his importance. He was one of the first to show that mathematics is as much art as science without having to have interpretation (such as Dunham's "Journey Through Genius...").

This is what makes this book so poignant. Hardy realizes that he no longer is Hardy. In today's mathematics world that may not have been the case given the immediate communications possible between humans which may have kept him going. However, it may have been that he was suffering from the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's - it is difficult to tell given his admissions of not being up to the task - regardless, this book is overwhelmingly sad.

Anyone who cares about math should read this and thank Hardy for his contributions - plus they should have a copy of "A Course in Pure Mathematics".

This short book has long been one of my favorites. Hardy's philosophical musings may depress some but they ring so very true. Hardy is quite honest about life, art, mathematics, and his failing abilities. For example, his statement, that a very small minority of us are really good at what we do may sound depressing today. But the fact is true.

I can recall when words such as super, excellent, awesome etc. were used judiciously and very rarely to describe truly significant achievement. Today, doing one's job, albeit poorly, is described as excellent.

What I most like about Hardy's book is it's honesty and respect for the reader. A suggestion. Read the book proper BEFORE wading through C.P. Snow's forward. After about the second read tackle the forward.

A must have.

One of the most scholarly books that has been written in the 20th century, G.H. Hardy's thrilling memoir tells a story that other people are too afraid to discuss. Hardy's depressing transition from mathematical genius to near vegetable is a telling example of the archtypical fear of cerebral atrophy that resides among even the most resilient and foolhardy among us. This concise "novel" reads fluidly and especailly so for when written by a mathematician and serves to enlighten the world of the multi-talented nature of a world class mathematician. All in all this book is a rare find and should be read by people of all ages: whether a young aspiring mathematician or an old decrepit intellectual.

As Hardy himself makes clear in the beginning, he would never have written such a book if his mathematical powers had not failed him in old age. I do feel like this book is more an apology for not being a mathematician anymore than for having been one. As for all true loves, the time for judging and summings things up comes only when the joyful days of passion are over. I was hoping this book would give me an inspired first person view of what is higher mathematics and what is like to be a real mathematician. I found that it is not a good book for that, it doesn' t even try it. What it accomplishes instead is giving a precise, objective, cruel, marhematically clear picture of the drive, the ambition, the passion for excellence in any activity, be it a sport or a science that makes the life of the ones who dedicate their life to it so more pure and meaningful. It also poses some tough, fundamental questions regarding how much of your life one can dedicate to one single "abstract" passion without having to go trough some really bitter times and regrets in old age. My personal answer is that what really counts, in the end, is how much you loved and, what was sorely missing in Hardy's life, how much you express that love. But for some people, gifted and cursed at the same time, that is still not enough.

Considering I paid over $15 for the sequel, and would hardly have done that for ANY book. This is a series that is begging to be finished, but not only that, would make the current movie fare blush were it to make the big screen. Incredible work and in a class all by itself. Mr. Perry.

A friend loaned me these a long time ago. I had forgotten the title, until a bit of isfdb query writing and some browsing taking a guess at the year found it again. Awesome, over the top super powered fantasy action. If you like the girly David Eddings heroes are more scared of the shrewish tongues of their girlfriends than the Dark Demon Lord, than this is very likely not for you.

It is dangerous to be a good guy. Very dangerous. Demon Lords (and Lordesses) are BAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.

Based around Celtic mythology I highly recommend these two books as a blast. A pity he never finished the series, maybe one day?

Just a quick call to Mr. Perry to please finish this absolutely amazing series. I have been reading sci-fi/fantasy for about 25 years now, and would be hard pressed to come up with a title that surpasses the Morigu series. So if you ever read this stuff Mr. Perry, i am sure i am not alone in praying that we get to finish your great fantasy series.

Fast paced with twists and turns. This is a terrific fantasy book and the sequel to Desecration. The only problem is that the series will never be finished. Mr. Perry went on to other things after the books did not do well enough for the publisher to continue. It would be nice to have completion, but their are not enough fans to warrant it.

Very good story hope to read more some day.
Every time i come across these on my shelf it is hard to not pick them up. Hope you can get the next books out soon! :)

A must to complete the set. For some reason, I bought volume 2 first. As an aficiando of Mary Oliver, I am very happy to have both volumes now.

I love Mary Oliver's poetry - it always puts me into a better frame of mind, and makes me slow down and breathe. Her poetry is so lyrical and evocative, I am transported straight to the wonderful natural world, and am able to view my struggles and petty difficulties through a calming and peaceful lens. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys poetry, and to anyone who hasn't yet fallen in love with poetry - Mary Oliver is one of the best poets ever, in my opinion!

This is a collection of her poems, old and new. She is an outstanding poet, and one cannot do better than have her book of poems by your bedside, to read before going to sleep or when you awake in the night, or first thing in the morning.

The Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Mary Oliver, finishes her poem,"What Have I Learned So Far" with the line, 'Be ignited, or be gone.'To me, this conveys the passion she brings to life and poetry. What comes through clearly in her poems is her reverence for nature.
New and Selected Poems, Volume Two, is a moving collection of her past works combined with many new poems. There is a Zen isness that permeates her work.Haiku like parsimony with no embellishment. Nature does not need anything extra. For example, writing about what she saw after a storm -
And this detail: the body of a duck, a golden-eye; and beside
it one black-backed gull. In the body of the duck, among the breast
feathers, a hole perhaps an inch across; the color within the hole
a shouting red. And bend it as you might, nothing was to blame:
storms must toss, and the great black-backed gawker must eat, and
so on. It was merely a moment.
I recently saw Mary Oliver at the 92nd Street 'Y' in New York City where she was reading from this collection. See her if you can. She reads as she writes, with dignity and with passion and wisdom. This is an extraordinary collection of poems.

I have about 5 of her poetry books. I feel that her poetry has gotten more and more beautiful over time, and believe that this collection is better than Volume 1. Mary Oliver is definitely my favorite poet - much of her writing is about a thirst for growth and spirituality, and finding peace in nature and love (friendships and relationships). I have given this book to a number of friends, who are also touched by her gift of expressing the unexpressable. Some of my favorite poems in this book: the Percy series (her dog), Why I Wake Early, and The Whistler.

My other favorite book of Mary Oliver poems is her most recent one: "Thirst". It deals with grief at the lost of her long-time partner and is quite beautiful. For those looking for a really good book of poems in general, I *definitely* recommend "Good Poems," compiled by Garrison Keillor; and "Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Redemption" compiled by Roger Housden. Enjoy!

arrived quickly and book was in absoloutely perfect condition! will definitely buy from this person again!

The book was in great condition, just like I expected. I received it in a timely manner, so that was appreciated. Nice doing business with you!

J Pavlov

So far I've only gotten throught the first chapter. It's a dense amount of information, but it is incredibly well written and informative. No extra words just to take up space and get something into book format. It's definetly a text book. The first chapter gives you an extensive review of the human relationship with drugs since the beginning of time, and forty pages later, I feel enlightened and full of ideas. Incredibly insightful and well worth the price for someone with a deep interest in this field.

This is a wonderfully written book with lots of great information. However, I really dislike the newspaper column width of the text. It is very hard to read from such a thick book with this layout.

The authors, Darryl Inaba and William Cohen do a great job of keeping this book very open and simple. They cover almost every drug (5th edition) which a counselor may run into when talking with his students. As a research or higher level order book though, this would not do as it is just too brief on most subjects to really get to know indepth pharmacology or pharmacodynamics on most of the psychoactive drug actions. There is a lot of history, and even a CD-ROM to help you familiarize yourself with many topics of addiction in a very short period of time. In some sections, there is some really good information on drugs I have not seen on the pharmacy shelves for at least 12 years. If you are someone who wants to quickly get to know the subject of psychoactive drugs, then I highly recommend this book for you. His vocabulary is such that it is easy to read, without too much of a serious tone-- and you will not even need a highliner to remember the facts. This book is packed with knowledge. Very enjoyable reading for a change, with lots of good and interesting photographs that make you think. You will enjoy this book, for it is written in a very unique format that makes you want to relax and just turn each page and learn. guyairey

This book not only deals with the issues of attachment and other developmental issues of the adoptive child, but it gives you practical strategies to overcome and deal with them. This book is very inlightning, but offers hope to parents of hurt children.

I thought this book provided valuable insights and gave good real life examples. I would recommend this book for anyone adopting an older child.

This book contained things that I think all parents should know about dealing with kids and thier baggage. I have refered back to this when dealing with situations with my special needs child, if only to know that I am not alone in my struggles.

This book was very helpful. It helped me even though I haven't ever adopted. It helped me understand hurting kids more. I will buy this book! I would like to adopt older kids when I'm married. Besides I have known several foster/adopted kids. It helped me understand them.

I read this book twice I liked it so much. I found many books minimized the struggle of raising adopted children and focussed too much on only the positive. Although I have not raised any adopted children myself I do plan on it after I finish university. After reading many books I knew it couldn't be as flowery as they put it. Although I am sure no book could truly prepare anyone for the realities of raising childeren it can help you understand where things are comming from. If nothing else I have a greater respect for the adoptive family because of this book!!!

Bad

A. The narrative pace is just awful. I don't know what it is about this book I almost didn't make it past the first 40 pages because the begining moves so slowly.
B. The idiotic "conspiracy theory" idea regarding the Texas Revolution. Someday right minded people everywhere will be able to laugh conspiracy nuts right off the street.
Good

The book has a great deal of information regarding the beginnings of an organized abolitionist movement in this country. Garrison was the focal point for this when the movement started to move beyond isolated groups of idealists and Quakers and started to be taken seriously as a genuine force for social change.

Overall-Once you get into the book it is amazing, but you have to be in the right mood to do so.

Now a book that shows two sides of slavery that all white people were not all for slavery .Like Dr.martin luther king was saying that slavery was not about black against white ,but justice againt injustice.Because if all men and women are not free then we are all in chains.Books like this one has giving us a balance look at one of america darkest sides. But men like Garrison showed us that their were men and women that were a light of hope that all men are created equal . And being a black man I must say thank you to all the blackmen and women and white men and women of the past for fighting a fight that many of us still fight for today .And that is for an opportunity to live as we were when God created us in the beginnig as, a human being thank you.

This is the last and probably the best book completed by the late Henry Mayer.

Mayer admired Garrison, the most important leader of the abolitionist movement. In this book, he succeeds in renovating the reputation of a great reformer and activist who has often been neglected or written off as a crank.

Garrison and the abolitionists were originally hardly more popular in the North than in the South. They were seen as disrupting the Union and were regarded with suspicion for their pro-black beliefs - public opinion in the North was only marginally less racist than in Dixie. Garrison's courage and consistent refusal to trim his convictions for popular acceptance led to a career with an outsized share of controversy, oppobrium, and in several cases physical danger.

Some reviewers have felt the book is too long, and it is hefty. But the length is necessary for Mayer to give a full portrait, which shows not only the man, but also the era he lived in. In particular, Mayer writes extensively about abolitionism as a movement. Abolitionists, and Garrison himself, struggled with many problems - whether to compromise by supporting politicians whose platforms called for less than full abolition, evolving from a paternalist movement of mostly privileged whites to a movement in which free blacks and escaped slaves could play a meaningful role, and reconciling the pacifist leanings of many to their role in a war against slaveholders - that will be of interest to contemporary political activists. Mayer also shows how, after abolition was accomplished, former abolitionists seeking new causes worked for other advances, including the first stirrings of the women's suffrage movement.

Let's just get the obvious criticisms out of they way. First, the author pretty much flat out states that The Civil War was fought only because of slavery--and in the preface! Yawn. Will I ever be able to find a Northerner who can write a book that examines both sides of the conflict? I mean southern writers do it all the time. The second problem is the assertion that the Texas Revolution was some kind of government conspiracy--from Pres. Jackson on down to Sam Houston--to perpetuate slavery and continue manifest destiny. While I'm sure some men fought for those reasons, this moronic conspiracy theory about secret government shenanigans has no basis whatsoever. In fact, I would recommend the wonderful biography, Sam Houston, by James Haley. It expertly destroys that awful line of thinking that has somehow survived all these years.

But, being from Texas, I tend to be sensitive to such things. For most people it won't matter.

I still highley recommend All On Fire, though. It is very well written and researched. But most of all, it is the only real biography on Garrison worth reading. And say what you want about the author's biases, he can't muddle the fact that Garrison was one of this country's great patriots, willing to stand up to anyone to free his fellow man. He dedicated his entire life to this noble cause--and except for a few references in some Civil War books--is largely forgotten. What a shame.

William Lloyd Garrison was a man ahead of his time. Not by years or even decades, but centuries. In the 1830s he was an outspoken proponent of not just the abolition of slavery (many advocated various ways to deal with the South's "peculiar institution"), but called for the immediate abolition of slavery with complete and full civil rights for African-Americans. He dreamed of a time when a black woman might succeed a black man as Secretary of State a decade before the Supreme Court ruled that blacks were something less than human in the infamous Dredd Scott decision. He was also an early advocate of women's rights, labor reform, temperance and civil disobedience, as well as an outspoken critic of organized religion (Garrison was what we might today call a fundamentalist "born again Christian" who recognized no formal church other than Christ's teachings).

Given Garrison's role as founding father of the abolitionist movement, his passion for the cause, longevity in leadership and terminal impact on the greatest political issue of the nineteenth century it is puzzling that he has left such an obscure historical legacy. As author Herbert Mayer notes, Martin Luther King Jr. cited Gandhi, Thoreau and the Gospel as his inspiration and motivation in the Civil Rights movement with no reference to the man whose peaceful agitation did more to eradicate bondage than any other -- and who in turn may very well have been Thoreau's inspiration in writing "Civil Disobedience."

So why the obscurity? Mayer's biography does little to address this paradox. In fact, his book makes Garrison's general absence from the mainstream of American history all the more tenebrous. The man that emerges from the pages of "All on Fire" is a moral giant, a crusader in the purest and best sense of the word, who risked -- indeed, welcomed -- verbal and physical abuse, a life of indigence and scorn, all in pursuit of a truly noble cause. Garrison grew up in New England and never traveled further south than Baltimore until after the Civil War, yet he dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery with an intensity and zeal that surpassed dissident southern whites (such as the Grimke sisters) and even some blacks that had escaped from bondage themselves. Because of his central role in establishing and leading the cause, "All on Fire" is, as the full title suggests, as much a history of the entire abolitionist movement as it is a biography of its leading agitator.

However, a close reading of "All on Fire" also reveals a hidden side of William Lloyd Garrison that Mayer, unfortunately, never fully explores: a man of extreme ambition, vanity, and conceit. Garrison fought tenaciously to keep himself at the front-and-center of the moral movement he came to regard as his own. One senses that the fame and notoriety he gained by his agitation came to mean quite a lot to him. In this sense, Garrison reminds one of a contemporary political gadfly increasingly enamored of his high-profile image: Michael Moore. Perhaps Garrison's attraction to celebrity never fully outweighed his commitment to the ultimate prize of freeing three million humans from bondage, but it certainly meant more than the pious Christian in him would have liked to admit -- and certainly more than biographer Mayer is willing to concede. Again and again throughout the narrative Garrison experiences a painful and personal falling out with some of his closest friends and coadjutors: Frederick Douglas, Wendell Phillips, the Tappan brothers, etc. And time after time Mayer attributes the rift to simple misunderstandings or the result of the stress and pressure of the times. That Garrison might have been something less than the Galahad on ante-bellum America is left unexplored.

Nevertheless, for anyone with a desire to know more about America and especially to learn about a man that was once one of the most controversial and well-known figures of his century, only to sink to near anonymity, this National Book Award finalist can be highly recommended.

_Ancient Iraq_ by Georges Roux is a book covering the entire history and culture of Mesopotamian civilization, all three thousand years of it from its prehistory to the final demise of Mesopotamian civilization in the first century A.D.

The term "Mesopotamia" originated with the Greeks and it means "the land between the rivers" and does not include all of Iraq and all of what we have come to think of as Mesopotamia. Surprisingly the ancient inhabitants had no name covering the totality of the country in which they lived.

Though in many ways the inventors of civilization often little remains for the visitor to see of this once great civilization; "[t]he dissolving rain, the sand-bearing winds, the earth-splitting sun conspired to obliterate all remains" and these desolate ruins "offer perhaps the best lesson in modesty that we shall ever receive from history." Part of the reason for the lack of remains is the nature of the Iraqi environment, as the meandering Tigris and Euphrates rivers occasionally change course, isolating once riverside sites as "forlorn ruin-mounds in a desert of silt, several miles from modern waterways." Also these ancient towns were built of nothing but mud as stone was rare. At first made of piled-up mud (pisé) or adobe, as early as the ninth millennium B.C. clay was mixed with straw, gravel, or potsherds and made into sun-dried or kiln-baked bricks.

The very nature of the rivers had a lot to do with the origins of Mesopotamian civilization. As the combined flood periods of the two rivers do not occur when it is best for agriculture, fields must be irrigated. To create these canals and maintain them against silting-up require colossal, unending labor of many people, something that sowed both the seeds of local strife and political unity. The effort to maintain canals and to insure an equitable distribution of water reinforced the authority of the original town chiefs, the high priests, and along with the scarcity of fertile land lead to the concentration of power and wealth in a few hands in a few places, to the creation of cities where further technical and artistic achievements could be made, and the invention of writing to record transactions.

In many ways the book can be read as the rise, spread, and then the decline and fall of Mesopotamian civilization. It was amazing just how small Sumeria really was; it was a mere 30,000 square kilometers, a bit smaller than Belgium, a narrow strip of land around the Euphrates from about the latitude of Baghdad stretching to the Gulf, with the average city-state less than 3000 square kilometers and at most 35,000 people. Sargon and his Akkadian successors subdued the fractious Sumerian city-states and also conquered the entire Tigris-Euphrates basin and built the first great Mesopotamian kingdom. Though the Akkadian empire only lasted 200 years, collapsing from the pressure of mountain tribes and internal rebellion, it set an important example, as to reconstruct Mesopotamian unity, to reach what we could call its natural limits "became the dream of all subsequent monarchs, and from the middle of the third millennium until the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C. the history of ancient Iraq consists of their attempts, their successes and their failures to achieve this aim." The Akkadians greatly enlarged the geographical horizon of Sumer and Sumero-Akkadian culture, supported by cuneiform writing, was adopted by the people outside of Sumeria. In addition the Akkadians forever blended the two historical populations of Iraq (the non-Semitic Sumerians and the Semites), ringed the death knell for city-states, heralded the advent of large, centralized kingdoms, and eroded the power of the temples.

Later as a result of the migration of a very large ethno-linguist group, the "Indo-Europeans," young energetic nations emerged in and around Mesopotamia. That, plus the involvement of Egypt in Near Eastern politics from 1600 BC onwards meant that history in ancient Iraq was raised to a truly international scale, with Mesopotamian political fortunes as well as its culture and science influencing (and influenced by) foreign powers from then on.

The Assyrians played a huge role, though they don't come off well, as Roux wrote of the greed and ambition of Assyrian kings, of "their typical oriental desire to cover themselves with glory, to pose as invincible demigods in front of their subjects," that a combination of religious views and greed lead to "brigandry and occasional massacres" in their attempts to create an empire, which was an "act of gangsterism but also a crusade." Though they did preserve Sumero-Akkadian-Babylonian culture, they left the Near East as a whole impoverished as they took much, gave little, cared little for the advancement of their subjects, and as a result of their wars the rich land of Egypt was forever lost and the Phoenicians lost their rich maritime and colonial empire to the Greeks.

After a last flowering under Nebuchadrezzar II and a brilliant but short-lived "Neo-Babylonian" period Babylon fell without resistance to the Persian conqueror Cyrus. The Persians however did not destroy Babylon or other cities, and there are monuments and inscriptions dating from the Achaemenian, Hellenistic, and Parthian periods testifying to a partial survival of Mesopotamian civilization down to the 1st century AD. Why the slow decline and ultimately vanishing of this civilization? The three main reasons were the absence of any real national Mesopotamian government, the foundation by Alexander and his successors of new cities competing with and eventually superseding the older cities, and more than anything the massive linguistic, ethnic, religious, and cultural changes introduced by waves of Persian, Greek, Aramaean, and pre-Islamic Arab invaders, peoples who could neither be kept at bay nor assimilated. While previous invading peoples such as the Amorites and the Kassites found a young, vigorous culture superior to the own, one which they eventually adopted, later invaders felt that Mesopotamia offered relatively little, that it was a fossilized culture largely perpetuated by a few priests in a few temples; basically, it had died of old age.

I echo the previous reviewers -- this is a great book. One volume contains a clear discussion of the rise of urban life and all the peoples who participated in it.

William McNeill in Plagues and Peoples reminds us that cities are population sinks. They require a hinterland to supply necessities including regular infusions of people. But the plains of Mesopotamia are a fairly hostile environment; the best land is located in the hills where timber, game and clean water are available. The logical conclusion is that the flatlanders were forced there, expelled from the hills, and that they grouped in cities for defensive purposes. This grouping behavior is universal among prey species. McNeill: "Man is to man as predator is to prey."

It was organization that allowed the ancient cities to prevail. Strong central governments arose, backed by a robust religious establishment, sustained and protected by their military.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? America's military absorbs a lot of our treasure and our religious establishment is a central element in our strong central government -- our presidents swear their oath on a bible.

After 5000 years we can still relate to the peoples of ancient Iraq and appreciate their problems. We're living them today.

How this story came to light is itself another great story, the history of archeology in the area. All this is nicely summarized by the author. My The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (Cultural Atlas of) complemented my library text of the 1964 edition which had arcane marginalia and maps razored out.

I try not to think of tank battles out in the desert, using the ancient mounds as defilade against armor-piercing rounds. Who knows what has already been pulverized and lost forever?

Dr. Roux is an authoriry in the field. He lived for several years in the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon and Iraq). Although he is a medical doctor, his interest in ancient history, and the many years he spent in the Middle East provided the learned author with a pragmatic experience and first hand access to documents and valuable raw material. He used them in this book. His original research in Southern Mesopotamia and more precisely his SUMER series of articles that appeared in la Revue D'Assyriologie won him admission to restricted circles of privileged archeologists and Assyriologists. ANCIENT IRAQ is one of the best and most authoritative books ever written about the ancient civilization and culture of Iraq.

The ultimate reference and final word on the vanished civilization of Iraq. It encompass all the aspects from economy and culture to history and religion. It s a universal mini-encylopedia in all its splendors!

This extensive study gives an overview of Mesopotamia from pre-historic times till Christian era. The main focus is on political history sidestepping into architecture, culture and socio-economics. So be prepared for an endless succession of Sumerian, Akkadian, Kassite, Assyrian, Chaldaean alpha-males waging war to expand empires, defending their turf, erecting buildings and statues to celebrate their grandeur and fragile little egos. To me at times it was a bit too much and too tedious. No problem, I just skipped a few centuries or so!
Georges Roux deserves a 5-star rating for his work but I only give the book 4 stars because the publisher and editor should have done a better job balancing out the material. Cutting some of the political material, and expanding on art, literature, science etc. (It would have been a good idea to include more translations of original texts). They also could have provided better graphic and photographic material and organized it in a better way. If they would have done that this would have been a breathtaking classic.
Having said that the book gives a thorough account of some 8000 years of history in Iraq. I especially was impressed by the scope of vision and depth Mr. Roux possesses. He is able to provide ample insight in the developments from pre-historic hunter-gatherers to the first empires and their inner workings. Showing an extensive knowledge and control over the material. So read this book, but you are going to want to have books like Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series) and S.N. Kramer History begins at Sumer and others lying next to it.