Educators Books

This book is about Mamphelafs political life. Personal aspects of her life are rarely told unless they pertain to her activism or illustrate inequality. Individuals are rarely mentioned; those that are, are rarely mentioned more than once.

Donft read this book if you want an old-fashioned story with interesting characters who interact to create entertaining plots.

Read this book to learn about the battle of a black woman against patriarchal apartheid. Read about her gsuperwomanh strengths and the sacrifices she made for the movement.

Across Boundaries is an excellent book focussing on a mother's struggle to want a job and to be a mother at the same time. Even thogh this book was written by a woman from Africa it still pertains to many American mothers who struggle over the same problem. This book did not only focus on the mother aspect, but also on the fact that a woman wanted to help the condition of other woman also.

Across Boundaries was an excellent book about a women's struggle to be amother and have a career. As said in the book "Recognising thatyou are a member of the global village is essential to lifting you above the narrow nationalistic interests and concerns of your own country (222)." Mamphela's life was a pursuit for women to rise above the boundaries and the story was very detailed, and well written! END

Across Boundaries by Mamphela Ramphele is a fascinating autobiography about the extraordinary journey of a South African woman leader. From historical events to her personal experiences, Ramphele describes these events and struggles with dignity. Throughout her endeavors as a young child and continued to her adulthood, she is committed and determined to succeed and to make a difference. An honest testimony that shows her fears and courage. This is an excellent book and it will keep you reading for this one woman's strength is amazing. Through moderate to difficult times and tribulations Mamphela Ramphele keeps a remarkable and uplifting attitude that helps bring new light to unfortunate situations.

I found Mamphela Ramphele's autobiography very interesting and amazing. The struggles she went through during her life absolutely amazed me! She is one of the strongest women I have ever heard of. I enjoyed reading about her fight for rights, her relationship with Steve Biko, and how she balanced all of her activities. I found it very interesting that she did not put motherhood as a priority in her life as many other women do. I enjoyed reading "Across Boundaries" and I thought Mamphela did a good job of telling the true story of her life.

I just saw the new movie, "Kinsey," this evening and now am especially intrigued to read more about him. If the movie is telling of the book, this will be a good read. Thanks!

In this scholarly, well-documented biography of nearly 500 pages, Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy tells you probably all you ever wanted to know about Alfred Kinsey; and he does it in a most reader-friendly fashion. From Kinsey's early life, growing up in the confines of a narrow Methodist family, to his marriage and tenure at Indiana University, to his studies of the gall wasp and his studies of the sexual behavior of males and females that changed forever the way we look at sex-- it's all here. Since Gathorne-Hardy has written the most recent biography of Kinsey (1999) he had the benefit of the research of previous biographers. He thus attempts to set the record straight concerning the 1997 Kinsey biography by James H. Jones, ALFRED KINSEY - A PUBLIC/PRIVATE LIFE. He maintains -- and goes to considerable lengths to prove it-- that Jones ceased to be an "objective researcher" but rather attacked Kinsey's private sexual behavior. He, in Gathorne-Hardy's words, "belongs to what one might call the Kenneth Starr school of biography." Enough said.

Kinsey, an extremely complicated individual, was an atheist (he rebelled vigorously against the strict religion of his father), a brilliant professor and scientist, mesmerizing lecturer, intolerant of what he considered shoddy work of other scientists, a loving husband and father, a "benevolent despot", a bisexual, a compassionate and humane person. (For years he corresponded with both prisoners and their families and often gave and/or lent them money.)

Gathorne-Hardy maintains-- and offers considerable proof-- that while some of Kinsey's conclusions may have been erroneous, that no one since him has done the client interview, the heart of Kinsey's research, better than he and his staff did. For instance, he used a face-to-face interview with an elaborately coded chart he devised and did not ask the first question about sex until 20 minutes into the history. Interviewers never said, "have you ever" but rather "when did you first?" He abhorred random sampling and attempted whenever possible to take the histories of 100% of the members of a group so as to decrease the chances of error. Just as he went everywhere looking for new varieties of gall wasps, he and his group interviewed everyone they could: prostitutes, prisoners, castrates, the Yale Divinity School, amputees, rapists, lobotomy patients, professors, colleagues, students.

Although Mr. Kinsey was denounced by many church leaders including Billy Graham-- after all Kinsey did most of his sex research in the 1940's-- he was revered and praised by many, and was a life line to many persons troubled about their sexuality. He received thousands of letters throughout his career from people hungry for advice and answers and attempted to respond to them all himself. He was incensed and saddened by most of the prisoners he interiewed serving sentences for "sex" crimes, since he believed that they should never have been in prison in the first place. After all, they were just doing what many other people were doing, or as he put it, everyone's sin is no one's sin. His statistics on the incidences of homosexuality in the general population, though often challenged, have never been successfully refuted even though his numbers may have been slightly exaggerated.

Finally, while for the most part, Gathorne-Hardy tells the reader nothing without documentation, occasionally he makes a statement he cannot prove. For example, on page 32, he writes that Kinsey had difficulty expressing intimate personal feelings in public, but that "as often with people who have difficulty here, Kinsey loved small children nd was extremely good with them." I'm not convinced that is an accurate statement and Mr. Gathorne-Hardy makes no attempt to offer up proof. Since this book was first published in England, the author offers explanations and illuminations to his British reader about some of the "Americanisms" here. He, for example, explains the semester system in American universities, defines our corn crop as "maize," tells the reader what "tea room" means and comments often on the "ghastly" weather, meaning of course our 100 degree-in-the-shade summers. They would be a far cry indeed from England's dark, damp Decembers.

You may love Kinsey or you may hate him; but when you finish this biography, you'll feel that you've got at least a glimpse as to what the man was all about and what he accomplished-- no small feat for any biographer.

As a Bloomington resident and a long-time admirer of Kinsey's work, I decided it was time to learn more about the man beyond what the Liam Neeson film taught me. What I found in Gathorne-Hardy's bio was a solid portrait of a man who opened the world's eyes to sexuality. The book is well-researched and interesting, but at times it can get bogged down with a bit too much analysis of Kinsey's motives and correspondence, especially as it pertains to his own sexuality.

Still, the book is an easy read and well sourced, and it certainly provides an informative biography of Kinsey while acknowledging some of the man's flaws.

This book is so professionally researched, well documented and written with flowing, easy to follow prose, that it almost over-shadows the subject matter which is, of course, the fascinating life and work of Alfred C. Kinsey, and culminating with his most absorbing research work of all: the sexual habits of primarily, the American public.

But don't worry, the study of sex prevails as the intriguing winner of our primary attention for it is spelled out clearly, sometimes more than one is ready for but can't turn away from and do not honestly want to. And a word of warning to the sexually squeamish- this IS sex, all about sex and sexual habits, many of which, one might not have ever thought of, but necessary for an exacting, broad-spectrum all inclusive study of the human animal.

J. Gathorne-Hardy is British and that shows up in his grammar, so don't think the book is full of typos, that's the way they spell on the other side of the Pond and it lends some flavor to the American subject matter. As can be seen in his detailed research, he is a well qualified researcher, and this work is now considered by many as the de facto authority on all things Kinsey. And fortunately so because there are a tremendous amount of books about Kinsey in print, but rest assured and good as many may be, none can hold a candle to this work.

Kinsey's research was as clinically studied as any highly disciplined research should be, but it is no secret that Kinsey and his fellow researchers did a tremendous amount of, ahem, shall we say, "hands-on", direct involvement work which raised scholarly eyebrows, but as Gathorne-Hardy points out, it was done with the most scientific detachment possible. Yes, well, it certainly made for some scandalous reactions for which Kinsey was acutely trying to avoid, but had an uncanny ability to dismiss and side-step.

For those who have been interested in Kinsey's life and work, but were put-off by the voluminous original works, will certainly appreciate this study, because it not only summarizes Kinsey's work in great detail, it also edits down the laborious writing style of Kinsey, without loosing any important details and most importantly, it includes Kinsey's personal life from early childhood and on to his later research work- something that is missing and/or not accurately portrayed in too many other studies. It also covers many of the people who worked with Kinsey and who graciously lent their personal observations to the author for much of the critical data found here-in.

This book is truly, an outstanding accomplishment and honors the deeply important work of Kinsey and his research team, notorious as many saw it, but whose dogged dedication to the subject of sex studies opened-up a more mature approach for the average citizen's awareness of what most now conclude, is step "A" in knowing oneself and the biological world we live in. I highly commend Jonathon Gathorne-Hardy for this monument to that awareness.

I chose to read this book because I wanted a balanced account of Kinsey's life and science, unfortunately, this book does not satisfy the requirement. Where the Jones book turns Kinsey into a demon, Gathorne-Hardy seems to want to turn him into a god. Gathorne-Hardy has a well researched account of Kinsey's life and activities, however he constantly tries to justify Kinsey's methods and continually comments on how no one has been able to do better sex research since, a patently untrue and scientifically unsupported statement. It would be difficult to cover both the biographical research on Kinsey and do an indepth study of current sex research, and I don't believe that Gathorne-Hardy even tried to do much research into current sex literature, that is why it is irritating when he tries to justify most of Kinsey's ideas. Overall, if you want a book that details the activities of Kinsey's life, this is an acceptable book, but if you are interested in his science, it is woefully lacking.

This is a nice book, but it is not for the beginner. Also, consider whether your IT department disables macros in your installation of PowerPoint. If they do, this book is useless. So, if you're very familiar with Visual Basic for Applications and macros are enabled, this is a great book.

This book is a great resource but you do need some background in Visual Basic. Don't let that keep you from buying the book though. The book is well written, the writer leads you through most of the tough parts some of the easy stuff is assumed though. No regrets... :-)

This book is an excellent resource if you want to learn how to use Visual Basic to write interactive quizzes in PowerPoint.It is definitely aimed at educators. There are better books out there for learning PowerPoint, but this book is definitely outstanding in this one area.

This book is not really properly titled -- it should be "Using Scripting to Make PowerPoint Interactive." The author makes it clear (part way through the book) that he is not writing this for people with programming knowledge -- all he intends for you to do is copy the scripts he provides and use them as he intends. He even discourages the reader to read what little is written about programming.

In addition, the $45 price tag is ludicrously high. This book is worth $19.95 tops.

If you're like me, experienced with PowerPoint, but not a programmer, then taking a trip into the world of vba scripting with David Marcovitz's "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators" makes it easy and enjoyable. This book is like having a conversation with the author who has "been there and done it" in terms of developing script that is practical and useful in so many PowerPoint projects you may need to develop. Among other objectives, I had the need to incorporate an interactive leadership style self-assessment in my cbt of the same name, and thanks to David's book I was able to let the user make his/her selections (as well as change them too), track scores, and then take those scores on to subsequent slides to discern the meaning of each of them (not to mention printing as well as saving those scores based on user preference). And of course, all along the way, I learned a great deal about other scripting options that proved useful in this application as well as for future projects.
If you're at the stage where you need to use vba scripting, this is the book that should be your primer. It will take you where you need to go!

Even though the book is a bit self absorbing I did find it to be
a intriqing look into one man's personal quest for a realtionship found in Islam with a dose of reality thrown in. I didnt since any hostility
toward any group although he certainly would have that right after the
experience he had. It was a very personal and eyeopening adventure and the author does a good job of explaining all of the emotions that were
felt.

I totally enjoyed this thrilling yet soul-searching book. What Frank Romano went through in trying to find a universal, peace-loving religion and ending up a prisoner is unbelievable! How he managed to escape from his captors and not end up brainwashed is nothing short of amazing. This is a definite must-read - I thoroughly enjoyed sharing Romano's life journey, and all the suspense surrounding the escape was a bonus along the way. Great book - so much knowledge and detail - I gained a whole lot from this novel.

Reviewed by Jen Cardwell for Reader Views (6/08)

Frank Romano tells the story of his youth and his attempts to find himself in "Storm Over Morocco." For quite a while I wondered why exactly he chose to write this book and tell this story, what precisely he was trying to say or accomplish. I have finally decided that telling this story is his attempt to cleanse his soul and lift his burdens, along the lines of Jeannette Walls or Julie Gregory writing memoirs of their childhood and their messed up parents.

Although this book is the story of Romano's disastrous trip to Morocco, I felt he could have quite easily written about his messed up childhood, since, and I don't mean to get into too much pop psychology, he clearly had one. Romano's entire trip seemed to be characterized by dramatic swings between desperately needing love and affection and being completely distrustful and paranoid about everyone he encountered. I became repeatedly distracted from the story he was actually telling to wonder about the story he wasn't telling, about how he came to be both so needy and so distrustful.

Romano writes well, and definitely infuses his words with his feelings. The first five chapters or so, even before he left on his journey, were written with such intensity that I was only able to read a chapter or two at a time. It took me a while to truly get into this book, but by the end I was caught up in the story.

Although I did eventually get caught up in the story, it was hard for me to truly enjoy it. As I stated earlier, what I would really have liked to have read is the story of Romano's childhood in order to figure out how he ended up as he did. In addition, I was too busy yelling at the book, "No! Don't do THAT! That's a terrible idea! Listen to your friends!," etc. I don't do well with people who do really dumb things, which Romano did in spades in his trip. However, I did like the book for its semi-insider's view of Moroccan culture in the 1970s. If you're the kind of person who can watch people do stupid things in books or in movies without yelling at them, then "Storm Over Morocco" could be very interesting.

A poorly planned (unplanned?) search for "universal religion" leads the author into a cult-like conservative religious community in Morocco. But if you saw the words "fanatics" and "fundamentalism" and are expecting references to Osama bin Laden, Iran, or burning American flags, be aware: you will not find them here.

This is a travel narrative. But what's most disturbing to me about Romano's trip is that this guy apparently had no clue what he might be getting into, and didn't bother doing ANY homework about the country or culture to find out before leaving. He just wanders off to North Africa, expecting mystical desert experiences, I guess. His narrative comes off as 'new age'-y and self-absorbed. An unprepared solo traveler, Romano misunderstands basic aspects of Muslim religion and Moroccan culture (such as sacrificing a lamb to roast for the feast of Eid al-Kabir) and feels increasingly alienated as a result. Out of his comfort zone and vulnerable, he gets mixed up in a super-conservative religious crowd whose members believe that he wants to convert. Finally, having managed to get himself into pretty hot water with them (quite an accomplishment in the desert) he drifts in and out of paranoia as he attempts to 'get out' and back to France.

The subtitle of this book is "Finding God in the Midst of Fanatics." It should have been "How NOT to Travel." It's worth reading for that reason only. Do the exact opposite of what Romano did, and you should have a great time.

What were the rest of us doing while Frank Romano was on his own pursuing a personal quest for faith and understanding in Morocco during the 1970s ? This was an intriguing and intimate glimpse at one man's personal relationship with Islam. Frank Romano, an accomplished attorney and scholar, shares with the reader his almost naive embracement of life and religion in stark contrast with the sands of Muslim beliefs.

In the current world of distrust in which we now live, the author seeks to enlighten the reader to basic concepts of the requisites of Islam as seen through his own impressionable eyes. It neither negates nor substantiates the fundamentals of the religion, but seeks to inform and educate the reader.

The encounters challenging Frank throughout his time in Morocco imparts to the reader to stay up late at night just to finish the next chapter. It is without a doubt, worth the read for the adventure and the message Frank Romano is sending to us. He sought solace in the Islam religion, did not find it there, but in turn, successfully communicated his diverse spirituality into the establishment of global interfaith conferences.

Read Storm Over Morocco, you will finish the book knowing that Frank Romano is truly an amazing man.

As a newer teacher in Middle America, I found this compact book to be an extremely worthwhile investment of my time and money. This book has lots of examples and advice to handle those non-education scenarios that often "make or break" a new teacher. Great tips on dealing with other staff (not all will be helpful!), parents etc. This is a book that will help all teachers, especially newer ones like myself, thrive and survive. Buy it. Read it. Its worth it (as is First Days of School by Mary Wang).

As a preservice teacher, I have researched several dozen books of this nature, and I found this one to be the best. It is a compact size (for tucking into my book-bag or purse), and it has hundreds of real-world teaching tips, scenarios and situations for consideration. There's solid information on gaining insight into youself as a person and as a teacher, and down-to-earth and sensible information on how to be successful in the classroom from the start. I got a huge charge of self-confidence from reading this book.

For new teachers going into elementary school, this book is filled with good ideas and helpful advice. However, much of the writing is based on elementary students only. Most of the ideas would be considered too childish to use with middle or high school students. Also, many of the advice is clearly for elementary only (rewards for lining up in the hallway, giving students hugs, procedures for borrowing crayons, etc.) Looking at secondary teaching, I found this book disappointing.

This book is what I was looking for as a new teacher. It's the common sense things you learn as you go but reading this book teaches you them before your first day as a teacher. I wish I had it last year. It is also an easy read and won't take much time out of your busy teaching life.

There is a negative tone set in the introduction, this book was not encouraging or uplifting, reading the whole book and didn't come away with new ideas or inspiration. This book repeatedly mentions the authors opinions without backing them up with experiences or research. I would have appreciated research to backup their statements or opinions. Also, I resented the (only) teacher of the year winner they recognized, that sitting in a desk and praying for a student each day, showering them with praise, worked to help the student... There is a section that lists everything you should have in a teachers desk, in the filing cabinet, etc... There didn't seem to be any unique suggestions I would think teaching experience would give them. Stapler and staples? No kidding. They jokingly mentioned handcuffs. Ha.Ha. I will not be keeping this book.

AND I FELT REALLY CONNECTED TO THE AUTHOR

I really can't explain my feelings in words. Look at the subject first then read on. They are all by Dr. Jill Ker Conway (shes a phd). The titles are The Road from Coorain (also a Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theater movie as well), True North, and A Women's Education. Is she orginally from New South Wales, Australia. Came to the United States for graduate school, but stayed there after that, but was Canada as well for 6 years. Boys you will also love reading them as well. Thank you.

This is the most thought-provoking book in Jill Ker Conway's series of autobiographies. While the first book centered heavily on Conway's emotional development and the second book dealt mainly with her intellectual development, in the third book she describes her changing world and academic perspectives. In A Woman's Education, Conway really challenges her readers to think critically about how women should be educated, the role of a private women's college, and ultimately what it means to be successful as a female.
A previous reviewer mentioned that they felt like they were reading a textbook while reading A Woman's Education. While this book definitely has a more academic tone, it does not resemble a textbook in any other way. Instead, reading through A Woman's Education, feels a lot more like being in an intimate college class taught by Conway.

If you are involved as a university alum in one or many of your alma mater's boards, directorates, planning committees and/or fund raising campaigns, you will find it fascinating to learn from Ms. Conway what it was like from her perspective to head a major US college for ten years. It doesn't always happen that such a dynamic academic leader is also a talented writer--and takes the time to write a book about it.

Conway's previous autobiographical installments, "The Road From Coorain" and "True North," were wonderful. I found them lyrical and insightful. At the risk of hyperbole, they should be considered classics in the genre of autobiography. "A Woman's Education" simply doesn't attain that status. The focus of the book is more limited and vastly different from the previous installments. It truly seems more of a paean to Smith College. This is all well and good, but not what I was expecting.

The insights into Conway's character seemed oddly lacking. While she discusses at great length the politics involved in governing the various backbiting academics at the college, very little is mentioned about her mother's death (which she notes was very disturbing to her given their difficult relationship), little is mentioned (other than superficially) of her husband's battle with depression and her abilities to handle that as well as her presidential chores, and little is made of her husband's neurological illness and how that affected both of their lives. In short, I found her discussion of her interior life to be superficial -- quite unlike her first two installments. And her interior life is what makes her a remarkable person. I'd like to know what made her tick during this time period in her life, but I don't feel that I got any of that from this book.

This book is a polemical for women's separate education. Although I agree with Conway that Smith and other institutions like it fulfill a great void in this country (and in the world, for that matter), I didn't expect this book to be so overwhelmingly devoted to the topic. At times I felt it was one big recruitment tract -- whether to attract more students or to attract more funding for the school, I haven't quite decided.

When first told of this book, I looked forward to reading about a woman who had achieved such a position - the first female president of Smith College. I was soon very disappointed, and am not certain exactly how I waded through the 143 pages. "A Woman's Education" gave me no insight into the person who is Jill Kerr Conway. I do not know her any better than I did prior to reading this book. (I have not read her prior two books) Her concentration appeared to be focused on the male-dominated educational system, and the fact that she is a feminist and wanted Smith College to be known as a feminist insititution. One hundred and forty-three pages is a little overly long to drill this message into a reader's brain.

It would have been more interesting to know about Jill Kerr Conway. While she does describe her struggles with an aging faculty and touches on the backbiting politics of Smith College in the mid-1970's, she comes across as a person completely devoid of any human emotion. Even her husband's bi-polar condition and her mother's death are treated as mere facts and the reader is left wondering what, if anything, Jill Kerr Conway truly felt about these traumatic events occuring in her life at the same time as taking over the position of president at Smith College. I came away from this book knowing only that Jill Kerr Conway considers herself a feminist, that her major area of study was history, and nothing more. Surely, no one is that uninteresting?

The feel of this book reads as a textbook, and it seems Ms. Conway wrote it more from the position of a history professor than from a more human aspect. This is the type of book that a Women's Studies professor would deem required reading, and I truly felt that it is to those students who Ms. Conway was writing to.

I knew and worked with this bizarre and at times scarey man. It would be impossible for one man, even his son, to know everything about him, how dark, sometimes insane, his obscure habits and character were. Not a plreasant read; not a pleasant subject. But fully worthy of exposure. Unfortunately not a unique type of government "servant."

"In the future everyone will write a memoir for 15 minutes. And many of them will get published, because reader passion for personal nonfiction (as well as an urge to share on the part of anyone who has ever been abused, gotten drunk, felt ugly, or gone crazy) has only intensified in our Oprahfied culture of empowering public confession. Everyone's story is interesting to someone, of course, but at this point in the literary onslaught, I've gotten tough on what it takes to hold my interest : A memoir is worth finishing only if (1) the life lived is so extraordinary that the ordinariness of the writing is of little importance, or (2) the writing is so extraordinary that the ordinariness of the life is of little importance. In fact, ordinariness transformed into art becomes the whole point of the Cinderella endeavor." -Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly (reviewing Mary Karr's memoir : Cherry)

Little remarked in the current memoir craze is the fact that an entire generation of writers is wasting the material that authors have traditionally mined for their first novels, their own life experiences. Instead of taking advantage of the personally and stylistically liberating form and techniques which fiction offers, they are inundating us with half-baked recollections of the very specific circumstances of their own lives. Half-baked because real life does not provide the kind of closure and narrative structure that fiction does, nor does non-fiction allow the authors to really plumb the psychological depths of those who people their stories. Instead, they give us stories where they share all too much about themselves, but the folks they interact with, most often parents, are little more than cardboard cutouts. This is a limitation imposed by the form they have chosen. After all, at the point where they start speculating about the motivations, feelings and thoughts of others they are no longer writing non-fiction but have instead veered into the field of supposition, of fiction. this presents a series of problems : first, that what is presented as factual often smacks of the fictional; second, that characters other than the author tend to appear so opaque as to defy our understanding; and, finally, that the authors miss out on a real opportunity to try to understand the people who influenced their lives. Where fiction would force them to see the story through the eyes of the other characters, memoir restricts them to their personal, and obviously incomplete, perspective. The books that memoirists produce, with rare exceptions, serve neither the author nor the reader well.

All of these weaknesses are on display in Richard Wertime's memoir, Citadel on the Mountain. The central figure in the book is his father Ted Wertime, a domineering, violent, atavistic man who held his family in some kind of mysterious thrall. A former member of the OSS during WWII, the father may or may not have subsequently been a CIA operative, but at any rate he did serve in posts in Iran, the Far East and elsewhere which seem to suggest that he remained in the clandestine intelligence field. Whatever his secret duties entailed, he did become an expert on early technologies, specifically on ancient metallurgy, and eventually went to work at the Smithsonian and published several long essays in the Washington Post in the mid-70's.

The book offers little information about how the entire process occurred, perhaps because the author does not know himself, but Ted Wertime gradually became a kind of monstrous combination of John Brown and the Unabomber. He physically controlled and psychologically manipulated his family, to the point of choosing sexual partners for his sons and forcing his wife to accept his mistress as a part of the household. He retreated to a fortress-like home on a mountaintop in Pennsylvania, to which he browbeat his sons into returning again and again. There he awaited his own weird version of the apocalypse, an end of days which he envisioned being brought on by man's overreliance on technology and by the resulting environmental degradation.

You can see from that bare outline that there's the basis for an interesting story here. Ted Wertime was the kind of dangerous fanatic with whom we've become all too familiar, a David Koresh of the radical environmental set. The reader would like to know how he got that way, what made him tick, and, most importantly, why his family allowed him to get away with his repellent social behavior. Unfortunately, that's not what the book gives us. There is never a moment where you can comprehend why Richard Wertime loved his father, let alone tolerated the way he treated his mother. In the final pages he makes a seeming attempt to justify his father; and what does he offer : "How hard he'd worked to become a scholar!;" his love of music, sports and the outdoors; and his talent for reading aloud to his sons and neighborhood kids. That's an awfully meager set of positives to try to balance out the genuinely disturbing set of character traits he's depicted previously. As he concludes the book, it is clear that he loved, still loves, his father, but I have no idea why. At a minimum, the book should have explained that one basic thing.

If Richard Wertime ever takes this raw material and turn it into a novel, I'll be interested to see what he comes up with. As for this memoir, it fails to pass Lisa Schwarzbaum's test, and mine.

GRADE : C-

As a former student of the author, it's a treat to turn the tables and 'grade' him. I read this book over a year ago; and I am just getting around to leaving my review. (Maybe for fear that it would be critiqued!) It's a very interesting situation to be in when you're reading a book that is written by someone you know; couple that with the fact that it is a personal memoir of his life experience. It is a fascinating read, though sometimes disturbing in content. But it is a poignant look into a father/son relationship that was, to say the least, not healthy. But it also reaffirms that strong connection a son has to his father. I thank Dr. Wertime for making his story public and applaud his candor. Grade 'A' ...

Life with Father. Life with Weird Father. A compelling tale of twisted love and affection, minimg all the psychological currents that enter into one's relationship with one's father. This tale is like a car wreck on the highway -- you're repulsed but simultaneously fascinated by what you see. However bizarre Wertime's Dad was -- a twisted genius -- there is at the end something poignant and touching about his relationship. A worthy read!

This autobiography is part frightening, part awe inspiring and part shocking as it dives into the generation war between the "greatest generation" having fought in WW II and the Cold War, and their seemingly soft children. Ted Wertime was a Renaissance man having succeeded in music, espionage, diplomacy, and history. However, he also was an abusive spouse and father with his crowning achievement in his mind being the Citadel on top of the Southern Pennsylvania Allegheny Mountains. Ted tried to mold his children into his macho view of the world, which he expected to end soon.

Although he exposes himself, his siblings, and his parents to the world via this book, Richard Wertime has not written a papa dearest. Instead, this combination autobiography-biography paints a picture of a brilliant, but disturbed father passing dysfunctional relationships onto at least his second son, who copycats him. Surprisingly, this book does not seem as if it provides closure to the author who failed to attain that when his father rejected the touchy-feely notion even when Ted lay dying. Instead, it is a combination healing experience for the disturbed author and a reminder to the audience that parents have more than an obligation to their children, who need lots of love.

Harriet Klausner

Here is a typical book that was written with a preconceived opinion. Biased. The author decided that Lady Cornaro was a prodigy and a genius and sure, she wanted to prove her point. However, after struggling with the text what I feel borders on disgust.

First of all, Lady Cornaro was no prodigy. She was nothing but a poor, used child, an instrument in her ambitious father's hands. Thus the title of the book is wrong. It should have been dedicated to Gianbattista and life in the 17th century Venice.

Among all the information, the least is said about Elena herself. I doubt her immense intelligence. We are said that she spoke a foreign language like a native. In a very short time and with no accent ? That is not possible if the person has never spent some time in the country where that language is spoken. That was true then just as it is true today. Having a native speaker as a teacher means nothing. And being able to translate works in early twenties from a language she started learning at the age of eight does her image of a genius more harm than good. Then "Elena's ability to foretell things was widely discussed, and there were numerous testimonies to the public's admiration for her." (p.193). Something is very wrong with this sentence. Now, suddenly, she is not just a scholar but also a clairvoyant!!!! The author did not mention this anywhere else in the book so it was not an important comment. But again, I have a feeling that she needed more proof for Elena's alleged superiority.
Not one of her achievements (that we know of - we shouldn't forget that, unfortunately, she destroyed a large number of her writings) is unusual and grand. The fact that she was the first woman to get a university degree (funny how it immediately translates to a Phd!!!) means only that she had the CHANCE to defend her knowledge - something that was, as we saw, denied to other female scholars. The author says (exclamation marks!!) that the next woman to be awarded the degree got it more than 50 years later!!! That is no reason to applaud Elena. It is rather a sad information on the treatment and negligence of women. Who knows what potential was there in her siblings? Maybe they too would have become "geniuses" had Gianbattista invested equal time and money in their education. We should also be careful not to forget that he was a patron of several academies - of course they would love to see his daughter well educated as long as his coffers were available to them! Gianbatista's striving to get his sons in Libro d'Oro, his immense enthusiasm and political goals, propaganda tool that Elena was in his hands, finally costed her her life. But that propaganda made her famous.

"This well-researched biography of the first woman to earn a university degree...conveys the majesty of the Italian baroque period and [the Lady Cornaro's] astonishing scholarship." (Donald Miller, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Senior Editor)

I recently noticed that the popular "Book Lover's Page-a-Day Calendar" chose to include THE LADY CORNARO as its featured "star" for December 11, 2002.

"You've probably never heard of Elena Cornaro," observes the calendar entry, "yet she holds a unique place in history. In 1678, she became the first woman in Europe to receive a Ph.D. Jane Howard Guernsey's book is the first full-length biography of this remarkably accomplished woman . . . an inspiring story."

I believe that it is highly appropriate for THE LADY CORNARO to be included in a book lover's daily calendar described as "365 days of good authors, good books and good reading . . . the calendar of passionate recommendations." Truly, THE LADY CORNARO is an outstanding book, worthy of a passionate recommendation!

Although it is unlikely to happen, Elena Cornaro really should be nominated one of the hundred most important people of the last thousand years. In this carefully researched and highly readable book, Jane Howard Guernsey has successfully reconstructed the story of the Lady Cornaro's astonishing achievements and raised the questions they invite. The author has added to the recoverable information about the life of "The Cornaro," as she was affectionately known to her fellow Venetians, valuable contextual details about the life and milieu of Venice and Padua and about her tutors and contemporaries. These details elucidate both the uniqueness of the opportunities granted her and the enormous stress under which she lived as she labored to do the will of her earthly and her heavenly fathers. (Professor Rizzo's more extensive review of "The Lady Cornaro: Pride and Prodigy of Venice" may be found in "Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature," Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 2000.)

This book is a must-read for anyone who has studied under the Cornaro Window in Thompson Library at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. As you may know, the stunning Cornaro Window at Vassar celebrates Lady Elena Cornaro, the first woman to be awarded a Ph.D (University of Padua in 1678). This book describes Elena's life in 17th century Venice, including her relationships with her parents, teachers, and friends. It was refreshing to read a biography about a humble and formidable person. I highly recommend The Lady Cornaro - Pride and Prodigy of Venice.

I stumbled on this book while looking for "Broken Trust" after having read a review of that book. After reading the reviews of "Lost Generations" I thought I should order both books. What a mistake. I had hoped for a good telling of the Bishop Trust scandal. This is more of a diary of the life of a Hawaiian than any description of that scandal. If you like lots of Hawaiin slice of life stories then you will probably like this book. If you would like to read a coherent description of the Bishop Trust scandal, then look elsewhere.

"Lost Generations" is a personal and engaging story of how the charitable mission of the Bishop Trust to provide educational opportunities to native Hawaiians was corrupted by political appointees and greed but redeemed by the perseverance and resolve of the graduates and friends of Kamehameha Schools. It is a grassroots thriller told in a conversational style of why the mission went awry and the determination of the Schools beneficiaries to save the mission.

From the foreword to the last page, this amazing true story is a page turner thriller. J. Arthur Rath's beautifully told personal tale intertwined with that of his classmates from Kamehameha Schools and the Bishop Estate scandal is a heart warming and equally wrenching story of reluctant heroes and unscrupulous villains. Although the events take place in Hawaii, the story and its conclusion are universal. The heroes of this book are proof that high integrity and strong personal conviction can overcome even the most overwhelming odds. In an era seemingly devoid of both, this book is a refreshing read.

A fascinating history/memoir. Charming, entertaining, and a revelation. It covers a side of life and the culture of Hawaii one would never know from the colorful images of TV, movies and tourist attractions. When Hawaii became the 51st state, it was heralded as a mirror of the world of the future. A true rainbow of races, cultures, etc. Mr. Rath's book tells a story of a life that saw little of this future judgement. It is charming in its details of one boy's life, the influence of the missionaries, the repression of the native culture and the power of the Bishop Estate--the good, the bad, and everything in between. Especially interesting were the stories of the Japanese attack and life during World War 2.

Pulitzer worthy non-fiction complete with heros, villans, true love and loves lost, family secrets, forgiveness, pride, and overflowing with the true spirit of Aloha! A book that quite simply will compel you to be the best person you can possibly be and to treat others as all should be treated.

A true story that continues to live even in this week's headlines. The hero's are real. The history is amazing. Learn of old Hawai'i, new Hawai'i, and learn again how your heart sings out loud when good vanquishes evil and the common man rises quietly and with great dignity to do what is right.

Princess Pauahi and Oz Stender - non-contemporary partners - committing all they have and all of their love for the children of Hawai'i, eternally!

This book belongs in every household. Give it to a child and that child will grow to make you proud. Give it to an adult and you might change the world.

Imua.

...under the other (out-of-print, alas) listings for this same title, listed under the author's full name, Albert Jay Nock.

But even if this pause in the march of Collectivization should prove to be of long-lasting duration, it should not be seen as a refutation of Nock's ideas, but as a tribute to them. For if Nock's arguments seem self-evident to us now, it is all too easy to forget how truly superfluous they seemed in 1943. Nock, who was writing before even Hayek's Road to Serfdom had been published, is one of the incredibly small group of men who kept alive the idea of freedom and who resisted the, at the time seemingly inevitable, force of collectivization. If his most dire predictions did not come true it is not solely because he overestimated the opposition, but because a powerful counterrevolution eventually rose up, structured around ideas like his, and it is in this regard that modern conservatism owes him a tremendous, almost completely unacknowledged, debt.

On the surface, MEMOIRS OF SUPERFLUOUS MAN, is an often charming, occasionally misanthropic remembrance of a vanished America by a self-admitted nearly vanished American type. Deploying a literary strategy similar to Henry Adams' THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS, Nock identifies himself, his beliefs, his elite classical education as superfluous in modern day America (circa 1900 to 1943). But the crucial difference between Nock and Adams is how they qualify themselves as superfluous. Adams is a man of subtle and ironic self-awarness who recognizes that he and the elite class he belongs to has apparently outlived its time, certainly its usefulness. That his family's his long chain of service has come to an end with him, suddenly snapped against a new America where the new men of power (such as his once good friend Teddy Roosevelt who turned his back on his class and remade himself as a man of the people), is deftly, self-effacingly and ironically told, and often contains real pathos. The same cannot be said of Nock's version of superfluity.

Though he attempts to use the sophisicated distancing techniques of Adams, Nock only manages to appear inveterately opposed to everything that might upset his elitist equlibrium. Through the lens of his classical education, Nock sees mankind as unchanging, steeped in sin, a species whose small attempts at building effective governments are destined to end in futility and folly. Where Adams sees that those in power in his time have lost their ardor for and dedication to the ideals of the revolutionary era implicitly criticizing the new technocratic class in government and business for its bloodless utilitarian and pecuniary values, Nock criticizes all modern liberal governments, and anything remotely else remotely Lockean. He absents himself from the social and political movements of his time, such as the women's movement, scorning its outcome as all too predetermined -- since the disruptive liberal ethos demands equality no matter how violently it rents the social fabric, there was nothing to be done for Nock but watch it happen with a certain measure of glee. Nock is as elliptical and implict as Adams, but where Adams employs the technique to chide society (and himself), what Nock leaves unstated is his hatred for liberalism. He leaves unstated his belief, for instance, that the social fabric that had held women so securely in their place for so long -- that conservative and sensible fabric mystically woven over the course of time -- should remain intact because it always had, and thus always should. Interestingly, like other intellectuals of his time and Adams and James before him, Nock fled the new pecuniary America. But unlike other intellectuals of his time who fled to Europe because it seemed to offer them a more humane and more traditional culture as a potential corrective to the grasping, greedy money culture of the second industrial revolution, Nock apparently fled America because he wanted to hobnob with the European artistocracy, no matter how faded and tattered it had become.

MEMOIRS OF A SUPERFLUOUS MAN has become one of the early canonical works of the neoconservative movement. It has all the earmarks of the Straussians -- the hatred of liberalism, the belief that only a few can be trusted with the disturbing truths of philosophy and that this elect should be entrusted with the political leadership by dint of this hard won wisdom. Nock also displays the parternalistic populism of the neocons as he waxes poetic about the common lumberjacks he lived with as a boy when his father took the family from Brooklyn to Michigan to head up a lumber operation. He portrays these commoners as hardy Americans untouched by the evils of cosmopolitan liberalism, brilliant and unspoiled, rugged individualists all. In a particularly vivid sketch, he describes a musical evening where these common men of toil sang better than any professional chorus he had ever heard. What he leaves unstated here is the neocon belief that the common run of mankind should be made content with entertainments and religions fashioned and promulgated by the elect to keep the commoners happy in their ignorance of the true nature of the world.

Nock asks his readers to accept that he knows the true nature of the world. Like most conservative arguments, it is the argument from authority, a form of argument which refuses to engage in the hurly burly of real debate. And that is why ultimately, Nock comes off as as dry and passionless as the technocrats he and Adams abhor.

[...]
Nock understood a truth that is nearly unspeakable now, in the wake of the disastrous era of Big Government, that although the West in general pays great obeisance to the idea of Freedom, and America in particular is, at least theoretically, founded upon the primacy of the idea, most people (the mass-men) do not give a fig about it. And since in a democracy the masses will wield power, the prospects for the West appeared pretty bleak :

Considering mankind's indifference to freedom, their easy gullibility and their facile response to
conditioning, one might very plausibly argue that collectivism is the political mode best suited to
their disposition and their capacities. Under its regime the citizen, like the soldier, is relieved of the
burden of initiative and is divested of all responsibility, save for doing as he is told. He takes what
is allotted to him, obeys orders, and beyond that he has no care. Perhaps, then, this is as much as
the vast psychically-anthropoid majority are up to, and a status of permanent irresponsibility under
collectivism would be most congenial and satisfactory to them.

Given a just and generous administration of collectivism this might very well be so; but even on
that extremely large and dubious presumption the matter is academic, because of all political modes
a just and generous collectivism is in its nature the most impermanent. each new activity or
function that the State assumes means an enlargement of officialdom, an augmentation of
bureaucracy. In other words, it opens one more path of least resistance to incompetent,
unscrupulous and inferior persons whom Epstean's law has always at hand, intent only on satisfying
their needs and desires with the least possible exertion. Obviously the collectivist State, with its
assumption of universal control and regulation, opens more of these paths than any other political
mode; there is virtually no end of them. Hence, however just and generous an administration of
collectivism may be at the outset, and however fair its prospects may then be, it is immediately set
upon and honeycombed by hordes of the most venal and untrustworthy persons that Epstean's law
can rake together; and in virtually no time every one of the regime's innumerable bureaux and
departments is rotted to the core. In 1821, with truly remarkable foresight, Mr. Jefferson wrote in a
letter to Macon that 'our Government is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it
will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation first [i.e., centralisation] and then corruption, its
necessary consequence.'

It will of course be argued, with the perfection of twenty-twenty hindsight, that Nock (and Jefferson and Jefferson's other conservative heirs) overstated the case and fell pray to hysterics. We are after all in the midst (hopefully not at the end) of what has been a twenty year pause in the process of collectivization. The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc crumbled under the weight of just the kind of corruption that Nock feared, and they proved much less capable of producing material goods than even Nock might have expected. Likewise, many of the Socialist countries of the West have had to turn to at least some level of reprivatization in order to prop up their Social Welfare systems and to revive their moribund economies. Here in the States, we managed to avoid the worst excesses, keeping Health Care at least partially out of the hands of government, and have taken some baby steps towards reprivatizing such programs as Welfare and Social Security. But the process has been uneven and victories have been only partial and have come only after fierce battle. One need only look at the debates over the Clinton Health Care Plan, Welfare Reform and Social Security Privatization to see how little regard the Left really has for Freedom, always preferring the "Security" of having Government do for us all.

But even if this pause in the march of Collectivization should prove to be of long-lasting duration, it should not be seen as a refutation of Nock's ideas, but as a tribute to them. For if Nock's arguments seem self-evident to us now, it is all too easy to forget how truly superfluous they seemed in 1943. Nock, who was writing before even Hayek's Road to Serfdom had been published, is one of the incredibly small group of men who kept alive the idea of freedom and who resisted the, at the time seemingly inevitable, force of collectivization. If his most dire predictions did not come true it is not solely because he overestimated the opposition, but because a powerful counterrevolution eventually rose up, structured around ideas like his, and it is in this regard that modern conservatism owes him a tremendous, almost completely unacknowledged, debt.

There is much more in this wonderful book and Nock explains himself much better than I have. He writes beautifully and with great humor. On nearly every page you'll find an idea or a turn of phrase that you'll want to pause and turn over in your mind. I can not recommend this book highly enough. I can't wait to read it again and everything else I can find by this least superfluous of men.

GRADE : A+

...and this was his crowning glory, instinct with the serene twilit retrospection of his final hour. It is a book, in the words of one critic, "too good to be true." And, in spite of its title, Albert Jay Nock's MEMOIRS OF A SUPERFLUOUS MAN bears only the faintest resemblance to the memoir genre to which we are now accustomed. The sublimely cultivated Nock (1870-1945), essayist, social critic, diarist, and biographer, was very likely the most supremely differentiated American literary personality of the first half of this century, and in his twilit retrospection Nock provides as intellectually moving a summa of his response to the character of his times as we have any right to expect. As we pass, via Nock's MEMOIRS, through the vanished world of his late-Victorian youth and classical education, and see through his eyes the deep tidal evolution of our countrymen away from their earlier rootedness in stout yeoman independence, and towards the accelerating conformity induced by the Faustian bargain we have struck with mass-market materialist democracy, dominated by the gangsterish brutality of the modern centralized state, we find to our unceasing delight that Nock has left untouched no significant dimension of life: manners, morals, religion, culture, literature, politics, history, marriage, and, toward the end, even death itself - each is thrown in turn into the sharpest and most surprising relief by a mind so accustomed to viewing all questions "sub specie aeternitatis" (under the aspect of eternity), that no reader can come from even an initial absorption by this book without emerging with a view of the world forever cleansed and purified of everything not essential to living the humane life. And the learning which informs Nock's writing is a marvel unto itself: memoirs of the French Renaissance, the social life of Greek and Roman antiquity, the conversations of Goethe with Eckermann, centuries of theological debate, not to mention personal contact with many of the shrewdest and most worldly figures of his own time - all are pressed into service with a lightness of touch that our ponderously drilled battalions of Ph.D.'s can never hope to emulate. And the delicate, skeptical humor with which Nock relates every germane anecdote and reflection puts him light years above the grim ideological polemicists of our century, whose stock in trade is too often passed off as "serious" social criticism. Along with Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken, John Jay Chapman (another neglected American genius whose works repay the inevitable absorption following astonished, belated discovery), and Finley Peter Dunne, Nock provides an indispensable chapter in what cultural historian Jacques Barzun has called "the great American tradition of the judicious eccentric." Be warned, though: after reading his MEMOIRS, you may find your cultural habits changed forever. You will never again be tempted to acquire an opinion of Henry Kissinger's (or Alice Walker's) latest book so as not to be caught short at the next round of cocktail-party Book-of-the-Moment-Club "conversation." You will never again think of an Ivy League graduate or a Ph.D. on the one hand, and an educated mind on the other, as being in any way synonymous - even in theory. And you will never, even for a moment, confuse your daily NEW YORK TIMES habit with an instrument of mental cultivation - if, in fact, you retain it at all. And you may find yourself doubled over in helpless laughter the next time some Volvo-driving professional describes the programming on NPR as "serious intellectual radio." And you will leave your first astonished reading of Nock with a silent question, addressed to every teacher and writer to whom you have hitherto entrusted the fertilization of your mind: "Where (or why) have you been hiding Albert Jay Nock all my life?" Given the present level of the development of our race - somewhat more than animal, yet far less, psychically, than fully human - you won't be long in having a go at an answer. I envy anyone about to discover THE MEMOIRS OF A SUPERFLUOUS MAN, for its author may prove the transforming companion of a lifetime. We may close our debt of gratitude for the moment with the words of a long-ago editor of THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, Ellery Sedgwick, delivered upon Nock's death: "I love and respect his memory. Something unique has gone out of this world."