Signs Books

For anyone that is studying to be an Interpreter, Teacher of the Deaf, etc., or has a Deaf family member, this book is a necessity. All areas pertaining to American Sign Language and the Deaf community were thoroughly explored and thoughtfully portrayed. There was so much infomation, personal interviews and stories about all aspects. Arden Neisser went everywhere and talked to everyone. This book was very rich in text and left little to be discovered. Nothing was missing! An invaluable source that will leave a tremendous impact on its readers.

For anyone that is studying to be an Interpreter, Teacher of the Deaf, etc., or has a Deaf family member, this book is a necessity. Every single issue ever pertaninng to the Deaf community was thoroughly explored and thoughtfully portrayed. There was so much infomation, personal interviews and stories about every aspect of Deaf Life. Arden Neisser went everywhere and talked to everyone. This book was very rich in text and left little to be discovered. Nothing was missing! An invaluable source that will leave a tremendous impact on its readers.

This book gave a good insight into many of the issues of the Deaf Community. I enjoyed the many interviews with famous Deaf and hearing members of the Community. The book was not light or airy in content, but gave a good portion of facts in an easily understood manner. I recomend this book.

The other side of silence is a well written and researched book. It seems that now-a-days books about the Deaf and the Deaf community fall into either the oralist or manualist camp, with very little falling in the center. As a sign language interpreter I am biased (of course) towards the manualist view, and generally dismiss oralist themed books out of hand. However, I was pleased and fascinated to read a thoughtful and unbiased exploration of both sides of the age old argument.

Though no easy read, this book lets you peek into the world that Deaf individuals (such as I) encounter. It shows you first hand the discrimination that deaf and hard of hearing people experience on a daily basis. It tells of such issues as oralism and making American Sign Language known as the foreign language that it is (and not simply "English on the hands").

If you want to know more about the Deaf world, this book is full of interesting information, but be warned that you may have moments where you must return to the previous page to fully understand what you just read. Not for the light-hearted reader, this book is highly recommended by this Deafie. :v)

A raisin in the sun is a greaat book, that is about a man named Walter that wanted the best for his family and son. his father have always tought him how to stay strong in a very wild life, but Wlater was weak, he never learned that he must do stuff the hard way if he wanted to succed in life. he has always wanted to get money the easy way, but he never makes it to the end because its not easy to make money. even thought Walter wanted to be really rich and be like white men at the time, he stile didnt try hard to be rich like what his dad told him before he passed out.
Also in the play Beneatha was Walter's sister that also had dreams of being a doctor. she wanted all people to like her and love her but she didn't learn how to do that and which way to get them to like her. Ruth was a woman who had seen many battles in life. She expected to live the good life with Walter and when that did not happen, she stood by his side anyway. They had one son that they could hardly take care of and when she found herself pregnant she became desperate looking for a solution. How were they going to take care of a child, they could hardly feed and clothe the one they had.
The mother of this family was Ruth, she was a great mama that have always cared about her family and she always try to pull them together to form a great strong family.
This story showed how much problems African American families had at that time and how much they strugled.

A raisin in the sun is a greaat book, that is about a man named Walter that wanted the best for his family and son. his father have always tought him how to stay strong in a very wild life, but Wlater was weak, he never learned that he must do stuff the hard way if he wanted to succed in life. he has always wanted to get money the easy way, but he never makes it to the end because its not easy to make money. even thought Walter wanted to be really rich and be like white men at the time, he stile didnt try hard to be rich like what his dad told him before he passed out.
Also in the play Beneatha was Walter's sister that also had dreams of being a doctor. she wanted all people to like her and love her but she didn't learn how to do that and which way to get them to like her. Ruth was a woman who had seen many battles in life. She expected to live the good life with Walter and when that did not happen, she stood by his side anyway. They had one son that they could hardly take care of and when she found herself pregnant she became desperate looking for a solution. How were they going to take care of a child, they could hardly feed and clothe the one they had.
The mother of this family was Ruth, she was a great mama that have always cared about her family and she always try to pull them together to form a great strong family.
This story showed how much problems African American families had at that time and how much they strugled.

Good plot line but a little too much detail for mt liking. Quality piece of writing though.

For those wanting to understand the influence of this great American author, I strongly recommend this edition of Raisin and Sign. The commentaries and introductions are priceless. Not to mention that the plays themselves are fascinating. Speaking as a white, Irish female, one would wonder why I'd have such a high opinion, well, doing Ms. Hansberry as a research subject for my entire junior year, I didn't have much interest at first. But reading these plays made me realize that Hansberry holds a great power for writing about universal concepts and ideas, whether the reader is black or not. Especially The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window.

A Raisin in the sun was written to reflect one man's struggle to pull himself up from the slums to make a better life for his son and family. Walter was a weak man and had always had his father's coat-tails to ride on. When his father was alive he had a role model, someone who knew how to be a man and Walter never learned that it meant doing things the hard way. He and his friends were out looking for fast fortune and it never worked out. Walter had big dreams of owning big cars and living up where the rich white folks live.
Beneatha had dreams of being a doctor and she was head strong and determined not to let anything or anyone stand in her way. Least of all her pathetic brother, Walter. She wanted to be loved and appreciated for all of her struggles but she did not know how to earn that love and appreciation. Ruth was a woman who had seen many battles in life. She expected to live the good life with Walter and when that did not happen, she stood by his side anyway. They had one son that they could hardly take care of and when she found herself pregnant she became desperate looking for a solution. How were they going to take care of a child, they could hardly feed and clothe the one they had.
Ruth was strong and she was the backbone for her husband.
The matriarch in the Family though was Mama. She was the string that held all of her family together. An example of this was when she tied the sticks around the flower to hold it together for moving. This represented her pulling the family together to prepare for the hardships that would probably come their way in moving out to Clyborne Park. They knew that they would not be wanted in that area, but the family had seen and been through more than enough in their time. This story represents the struggle to be a family, to take care of what you love and do what you have to do to see that your family is taken care of. It also represents the struggle that many people go through in life to be someone within themselves.

The paintings look so real because of the light and dark shadows. I think this book is one of a kind. I recommend this book, not only because of what the story is about but the illustrations (they're awesome)!!!!

"Wow" I said in my head as I had just finished the book A SIGN. When I closed the book I thought it was amazing and awesome. Chris Soentpiet used a lot of double spread pictures and was very creative. Also Chris Soentpiet's pictures came to life. The story A SIGN is about a little girl who wants to be all these different things and dresses up as them. You might laugh at some things that the little girl dresses up as. I can't tell you what she dresses up as because I want it to be a mystery for you. You will be surprised to find out what she really will be at the end.It is not any of the things she dresses up as,I can tell you that. Chris Soentpiet did a good job on this book. I give this book 5 stars!

I give this book 3 stars because it talks about a person's life style. It's about a little girl and she sees electronic signs. Then she goes to the circus and when she gets home she acted like she was a tight rope walker. I liked the illustrations because they look real. My favorite part is when she looks in the mirrow in her bathing suit. I think you would like this book if you like to experience things.

I like your book A Sign because I think it's incredible how you do the shadows on the front cover. I also like the way the sun on the girl on the front cover. I like the illustrations because they look so realistic. I think your books are amazing. I give this book five stars!

Mr. Soentpiet brought the illustrations to life. They remind me that my favorite color is yellow. I like that Mrs. Soentpiet modeled for the girl on the cover of the book. In the book, The Sign, the mother took the girl to the circus and she wanted to do tightrope walking. Chris did incredible drawings and they look like photographs.

I'm writing this review as a response to the previous one, who found it disappointing and difficult to follow.

As a healer with minimal understanding of the Kabbalah, I found the book to be both clear and inspirational. Thank you Dr Schusterman for sharing this work with us

For over 15 years, as his patients, we have observed how unique Dr. Schusterman's method is and how much he accomplishes in each session. He does more in 20 minutes than any other health practitioner we have encountered, even those who take much more time.

Early in our relationship we talked with him about how nice it would be if he could teach others to do what he does. This book, and his seminar, fulfills that hope from so long ago. Like his clinical work, they exceed expectations.

The book first chronicles the insights and procedures he used to develop his method. Then it clearly and precisely presents everything needed to use the method for ones own well being and the benefit of one's patients. What more could you ask for?

Dr. Veronica A. Rynn, D.C., M.S.
Bob Gerber

In his new book, "Sign Language of the Soul: A Handbook for Healing," Dr. Dale Schusterman presents his readers with a fresh, broadly insightful and clearly written synthesis of information from the Mystery traditions, especially the Qabalah. He helps us see the synergy between mystical wisdom and the innate wisdom of the human form to connect with higher states of consciousness and to heal through dynamic hand mudra.

Sign Language Of The Soul: A Handbook For Healing by chiropractor and applied kinesiologist expert Dale H. Schusterman combines unique hand positions (mudras) with the symbols and words of Jewish mysticism drawn from that body of esoteric wisdom commonly known as the Kabbalah. Schusterman reveals just how to use the finders and hands in key positions which will connect with the body's own inherent energy. These finger and hand movements working with focused intent will result in an expansion of the body's inner awareness and enable both healing and balance. Enhanced with case studies drawn from patients of diverse physical and emotional conditions, Schusterman shows how using these techniques brought about healing, joy, and well being. Sign Language Of The Soul is especially recommended for providing readers with a six step plan for activating the "Tree of Life" process of personal healing and balance. A welcome addition to Alternative Medicine, Judaic Studies, Metaphysical Studies, and Kabbalah Studies reference collections and reading lists, Sign Language Of The Soul is commended as being a truly seminal and expertly presented work.

I purchased this tiresome text after reading the customer reviews. While touted as a healing modality, it really is a mishmash of philosophies with an emphasis on the Qabbalah and channelled mudras. The explanations are tiresome, repititous and monotonous. While there is a pronunciation chart for the hebrew words, it is inconveniently placed in the back, which requires either flipping back and forth or photocpying it. The method relies heavily on muscle testing, a concededly inaccurate method. The "healing" method is never particuarly explained. While the reader is advised to have the patient think of or visualize a troubling situation and then perform a "balancing", these instructions are woefully insufficient. No doubt these deficiencies are addressed in the author's seminars.

The mudras are beautifully illustrated but all in all this book was a phenomenal waste of time and money.

This book was truly a great help. I needed some ideas for the designs of my monthly newsletter. I am not a creative guy so this book was very helpful!

This is an outstanding book on permission based e-mail. Anyone considering doing or who is doing a newsletter should consider getting this book. It contains excellent insight and ideas on how to execute and improve an email newsletter program. The Team at Return Path has valuable expertise and experience in optimizing e-mail strategy and tactics.

One of the keys to a successful program is Relevance, Relevance, and Relevance. If you provide something useful or interesting to a client or customer they will give you permission to send regular communications. By its nature e-mail allows for personalization, customization, and targeted marketing. This is a great opportunity to build a relationship and better communicate to the needs of any client or customer base. Personalized product and content recommendations are what people are interested in.

If you are looking for a way to add value to your marketing efforts, this book will help with the ingredients to create, launch, and sustain an e-mail newsletter strategy and campaign. The book gets into content, list, and optimization strategies. The team at Return Path covers topics like:

1. Creating E-mail that People Want to Read
2. Writing and Managing an Email Newsletter Program
3. Designing and Formatting Emails for Maximum Performance
4. Building a Large and Responsive E-mail List
5. Keeping Your List Clean and Well-Maintained
6. The Importance of Testing
7. Make Sure Your Message Reaches the Inbox
8. CAN-SPAM and Other Email Legislation

The books covers tidbits of information like, "Research has found that newsletters with several short stories typically get read more than emails with one long story." Another good quote is, "People will gladly accept advertising in exchange for information and entertainment, so the creation of a content-filled email newsletter is the best strategy to deliver your advertising message to your audience with success"

As someone who works in the direct marketing industy, I highly recommend this book to anyone in the advertising and marketing industry. As a friend of someone who has MS I appreciate the fact that 10% of the purchase price of this book is donated to The Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis.

I read this book because our company has been disappointed with the results from our email marketing efforts to date. Unlike many business books out there that can seem generic and "fluffy," I was very pleased to discover detailed recommendations and examples of best practices throughout the book on key topics such as building our list, crafting our content, and ensuring that our email is being viewed by our customers. The book gave us specific and actionable recommendations for how to improve our results, and we are already beginning to see the improvements! I recommend this book to anyone involved in email marketing.

A book review by Susan E. Fisher

Permission marketing is just what it says it is. It's marketing centered around customer consent. You secure permission from your customer and prospective customers to market your products and services to them. Permission is a covenant: As long as you give customers something they want, mainly information they find valuable, they will accept your marketing messages.

The advantages to a system built upon mutuality are obvious. You actually manage to get the ear, and hopefully the mindshare, of customers who are bombarded daily with hundreds of both stealthily subtle and blaringly blatant marketing messages.

The disadvantages are equally obvious: How do you gain consent? How do you get your customers to not only say "Okay, fine," but to exclaim "Sign me up!"? Once you gain permission, how do you keep it? How do you build a strong relationship through these communications, rather than end up as an annoyance and be perceived as one more interruption in a busy day?

Here's a simple answer that should be considered the golden rule of e-marketing: "Create Email That People Love to Read." "Content is king: If recipients don't read your email, it has no chance of building your business, and no one will read it unless the content is relevant and interesting to them."

That's "Rule #4" in "Sign Me Up!: A Marketer's Guide to Creating Email Newsletters that Build Relationships and Boost Sales." Written by a team from email services firm Return Path, "Sign Me Up!" addresses those basic e-newsletter development questions in a practical way. It offers a primer on:
1. content strategy (really the basics on how to write and design a newsletter, rather than tie newsletter content into a greater marketing communications or sales strategy)
2. list strategy (how to build a very basic list; there's not much on list segmentation - which we at BeTuitive Marketing find critical)
3. optimization strategies (how to improve response and measure how the email program is working in a very general way.)

The points are reinforced by examples from Kimberly-Clark, eBay and other companies with well-known brands.

One of the best features of the book is that it clearly states points that should be obvious but, from our experience, unfortunately aren't. For example, here is advice about email customer service that we also emphasize to our customers.

* "Have a real, live person monitor all incoming mail."
* "Don't tell your customers not to reply to the messages you send."
* "Ask for feedback."
* "Handle spam complaints the right way."

Quite frankly, as the editorial director at BeTuitive Marketing -- which creates email newsletters to build relationships and build sales -- I found little new in the book. It did not break any new ground or offer any insight particular to B2B marketing, which is a slightly different animal than B2C communications. Most importantly, experience tells me that a 164-page book can only scratch the surface of the exacting and sometimes grueling - but always rewarding -- effort it takes to get an email newsletter off the ground and to keep it high flying, so customers get what they want to hear along with what you want to tell them.

Nonetheless, the book and its helpful glossary offer a solid introduction for email newsletter novices and a helpful re-introduction to the process for businesses that have tried email newsletter campaigns and ended up with less-than-stellar results. At $6 for a pdf version (and $17.95 for a trade paperback), it's worth the download or the dollars for the paperback. Plus, the authors promise to donate 10 percent of the purchase price to the nonprofit The Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis. So, read the book, and then come to a professional for a deeper level of expertise.

I don't normally write these things - but I feel like I owe something to the author. I bought this book and another (also on newsletter marketing) - and while I'm not crazy about the second one, I can tell you that I read this book with my yellow marker out. You might go a couple of pages before underscoring something - but then you'll come upon a page (and this is frequently, mind you) where the book pays for itself over and over. Also, if you're in the mode to buy this book, one of the best books I've ever read (on sales/marketing/the science behind it) was written by Paco Underhill and called "Why We Buy." Anyway, you should probably also know two things (about the book "Sign Me Up"): 1) It doesn't have that "get rich quick feel" that some other books in this vein have (thank goodness) and 2) as I write this (Nov '05) this book is current - as opposed to picking up one of the Guerrilla books that doesn't mention the internet because it didn't exist when the book was written). Anyway, great book, you should buy it and cross "newsletter books" off your list.

If you are looking for a way to have a personal relationship with God and you want to practice the presence of God in daily life, then this book will show you how to do that.If you are a practicing Catholic or Orthodox or even Protestant, the prayer of the sign of the cross will open a new channel for you to receive the graces from the sacraments or from worship and bible study. The more you use this prayer and understand its meaning from reading this beautiful and life changing book, the more your spiritual life will find fulfillment.But only the practice or doing of this prayer will open a door to God for you.You do have to do that much.Do not use this book as one more to entertain your ego with. To obtain just more information and not practice will be a waste of your time and money. This prayer can help stabilize emotions because you have returned to God and not so much into self.It definitely helps formal worship and stengthens the presence of God. This may all sound too good to be true and you should watch out for that. But I assure you after 40 years of searching in different spiritual paths this is the real deal.

Very very good condition, no complaints.
Acctually, I tell all my friends what great deals I get from Amozon! I may just be one of your top advocates.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It answered questions that I had previously and made my belief in the meaning of the Cross and what it represents stronger.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It was an easy read, even with the kids running about my feet! The author takes a look at the sign of the cross, and how we can claim numerous prayers from it. If you are looking for a way to deepen your spiritual life, or have let this practice become mechanical, read this book to revive!

The Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer is a small book. It is small in size, and at just over 100 pages it can't be very exhaustive. If you are looking for a history of the Sign of the Cross, how it came to be used and its use developed, this is not the book for you. This book has only one small chapter on the history of this ancient Christian practice.

The remainder and bulk of the book seeks to help you discover how to use the Sign of the Cross in the development of your own Christian life. Some of the ways in which the Sign of the Cross can be used are:
As a means of drawing our attention to God's Presence
As a way of renewing our Baptisms
As a mark of our discipleship
When suffering
When attacked by Satan
When tempted

All-in-all, it's not a bad little book and would be a good read for someone who does not use the Sign of the Cross regularly in their prayer. If your tradition does not use it and you are curious, it would be a good primer. If your tradition makes use of the Sign of the Cross on a regular basis and you want to learn more about this ancient tradition, you might want to continue to look before you buy.

This is a great starter book. The video is great because you can rewind, rewind and rewind until you have figured out the section. Don't adjust your set, there is no sound. You have to figure the directions out in the lessons- which is a good thing. That is how you pick it up.

This was the textbook used for the second section of American Sign Language that I took.

The video did a wonderful job of making this visual language come to life and to make the signs more, "real" for me as a student.

Having a deaf Professor and using this book that did not write an "English translation" next to the vocabulary words created a total immersion into ASL as a language.

There were some problems caused by this, in that after having a very vocabulary intensive section 1, this was difficult to adapt to.

If a professor requires this text, and teaches well, it is very useful. If someone is trying to learn to sign on their own, outside of a college setting, I would advise against purchasing this, as it will cause a lot of confussion.

This is something that needs to be supervised, and therefore, this would be a totally useless book for someone who was not enrolled in a course that coresponded to the lessons in the book.

As "umd_cyberpunk" says in her review, this book and video are great learning tools *in conjunction with taking a class*.

The film is put together perfectly for its purpose. It is comprised of both instruction of signers facing the camera, as well as conversations signed by actors in various settings.

In the instruction segments, the background is plain and the signers address the viewer directly. Signs are done a bit on the slow side. The lighting is good, and nothing distracts from the signers. Their hands are always framed by the camera, and the shots are still; never mooving nor zooming.

In the conversational segments actors depict signing in every day life. Though the viewer does not have the benefit of the signers directly addressing the camera, the shots are still great. The camera angle, framing and lighting show the conversations clearly.

My only wish for the video would have been for it to be available as a DVD. I found myself pausing and rewinding so many times that it became frustrating, as well as distracting.

The book was overall very good, but its big shortcoming was that it defined the specific words and phrases in the program, and nothing else. Words would come up in class that built on the material of the book, and its tricky to quickly scribble down new words while already going over the book and video material.

I chose to also buy an A.S.L. dictionary : "American Sign Language Dictionary" by Martin L.A. Sternberg (ISBN: 0062736345). I *highly* reccomend buying an ASL dictionary, and this is a good one.

This ASL book and video tape is very helpful to those trying to learn ASL. I have found the tape is at a good pace and is not too fast. I have also enjoyed having the tape in order to review what we did in class. I think you should put the vocabulary names of the pitcure a long with the sign. I recomend this book for those learning ASL.

I personally liked how the videotape complemented the workbook. The workbook can help students learn the alphabet, numbers, thousands of signs, location and emphasis of signs, money, and deaf culture (which I think is a step beyond what most American Sign Language or Signed Exact English books will go). The videotape is for the exercises, which helps students to look for and receive various signs such as time, location, dollars, cents, and fingerspelling. Overall, it's an excellent combination.

While providing good information as to how a church sign message should be planned out, drafted, reviewed and approved, the actual sample church sign messages contained in the book seemed too local and "cutesy" for general use. Buy the book for the planning information, not the sample messages themselves.

Signs for These Times is an excellent book for those interested in using a church sign as an evangelism tool or a fun book for casual readers looking for laughter in quick witted humor that provides a commentary on today's culture. The book is very fast reading and you will find yourself quoting the author's signs in your everday conversation with friends and co-workers. I highly recommend this book!

Ronald T. Glusenkamp is an amazing author. This book is a useful tool on the art of church sign messages. He even gives many examples of his own that he has used. He has a wonderful sense of humor and quite often sneaks it right into the book. It's a wonderful book to read even if you're not involved with the church sign!

Although Reverend Glusenkamp may have designed the book to help churches with signs, it is great for lay people. Not only does he delve into the psychology of the church sign, he provides solid examples. He presents his ideas in a way that will make you laugh out loud. You won't believe some of the signs such as "Joanna, Mary & Mary Magdalene - The Original Spice Girls" or "Need Earthquake Insurance? - Come to Church" or "Hockey Playoff Special - Free Pay Per Pew." This book is well worth it and you'll find many signs that you would like to see on your church board - and many more humorous signs you'll want to pass on to friends. As a side note, you'll appreciate his approach to being positive in presenting a church's message - instead of threatening parishioners with hell and damnation, he suggests signs should offer hope like "Read the Bible and get your faith supersized for free."

Uplifting and insightful, Glusenkamp's book is a valuable book for clergy and lay people alike. Signs for These Times combines scripture with Glusenkamp's personal wit and wisdom to create a wonderful evangelical tool. Throughout the book, the church sign is shown to be a much more than simply a static message board. The sign is at once an attraction to the church, public service announcement, and social commentary. The book also offers many helps hints on creating catchy church signs and even includes an index of all the signs Glusenkamp used as a parish pastor. This is the perfect book for that special person in your parish who is responsible for the sign or just for anyone who is interested in learning more about creative evangelical marketing. Five Stars.

Here's three good things about this book.

First, the 157 pages of text provide a comprehensive overview of the history of the you-know-what-symbol. The swastika. There's a lot of interesting revelations. For example, the swastika appears to be the oldest symbol uncovered anywhere, and is found in just about every culture and civilization, everywhere and at any time in History. I mean, it was everywhere!

Second, the book provides dozens of reproductions of the swastika, in a myriad of variants, including on cigar labels, poker chips, cards, as a shoulder patch for the U.S. Army (1918), and on a monthly American magazine for young girls, entitled: "The Swastika: Written, Issued and Read by The Girl's Club."

Finally, the author is a graphic designer, and a darn good one. The book itself--the size, the color, the paper, the setting of the text, the brilliant and varied reproductions--these all delighted me, and I hope they delight you.

Not only that, consider that the bookjacket has to be one of the most extreme, hardcore bookcovers in history. The cover shows a black swastika, on a white circle, on a red background. One glance at it, and you'll know why the swastika is the most powerful symbol ever created. Forever sinister, the swastika today is the only symbol that you can write with a pen on the border of the daily paper, that has acquired the status of "genetically evil." Those scribblings on the notepad--they will never be redeemed! Hollywood is calling.

Take a peek.

Steven Heller's book about the "Symbol Beyond Redemption?" is very informative. It needs updating with more recent information about the topic addressed. For example, the notorious flag symbol of the National Socialist German Workers Party, although an ancient symbol, was altered for use as overlapping S-letters for 'socialism' under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. It was deliberately turned 45 degrees counter clockwise and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen logos. American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society) bear some blame for evolving the shape as alphabetical symbolism for socialism, adopted later by German socialists. Edward Bellamy was the author of an international bestseller that launched the nationalism movement, and his book was translated into every major language, including German. American socialists also share some blame for the notorious stiff-arm salute of German National Socialism. Edward was cousin to Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge Of Allegiance (1892) and the early Pledge used the straight arm salute, and the Pledge was used at civic meetings of the Theosophical Society, Freemasons and other groups before it spread to Germany. Francis and Edward were both self-proclaimed socialists in the Nationalism movement and they promoted military socialism. They wanted government to take over all schools and impose robotic chanting to flags. The Pledge's early salute was not an ancient Roman salute, and the 'ancient Roman salute' myth came from the Pledge. All of the above are modern discoveries by the nation's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance, the author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets." People were persecuted for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German symbol flag). The socialist dogma led to the socialist Wholecost: 60 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 50 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; 20 million under the National Socialist German Workers Party. It might be the most tragic part of world history.

Although I did find this book a very interesting read, I thought it was somewhat lacking in information on the ancient history of this potent symbol (and it is ancient). It does contain a brief overview of the places and people whom the swastika had meaning (basically everyone), but hardly enough to satisfy me (but this is a personal preference).
What is not left to be desired is the imagery this book contains, which I feel, is well worth the purchase price. However at least one mistake is made in attributing an image to its owner (CD for the band The Residents that is wrongly attributed to Sacred Reich).
I have always believed the swastika a powerful, and much maligned human symbol, and I for one am ready to discard its recent history as a disturbing episode in an otherwise brilliant career.

Remember: It's not the sign that counts, it's how you use it!

What a pleasure it is to experience the work of an author who has total command over his material. In a slender 160 pages, the author explains -- in both words and pictures -- the mythology, anthropology, abuse, and endurance of this fascinating and lurid symbol. This is one of the most interesting books on fascist regalia written in recent years.

In a relatively a short book, less then 160 pages, the author Stephen Heller managed to recount the history and usages of this notorious symbol used by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. The book is filled of illustrations showing how this symbol were used by many cultures from many lands across the face of this planet thousands of years prior to Hitler's Third Reich. Hitler's claims that swastika is a pure "Aryan" symbol mocked his own understanding of this symbol. It pretty clear by author's assertions that swastika have been used by many for various purposes. Some of the most interesting aspects the author brought up was that swastika was the symbol the Girl's Club in the United States during the early of the 20th century and each of their magazine covers had swastika all over it.

Although the author touched on the Asian usage of the swastika, he fell little short regarding the Asian elements of the swastika and its meanings. When my father was stationed in Japan, I had a chance to see many swastikas on Japanese temples and surprised to see swastikas adopted into some of the Japanese samurai families' mon (family crest) during that era of history. One of the more funnier things I have seen was reading a Japanese map and seeing all these red swastikas on the map - each of them showing the location of a temple or a shrine. One of my friends who didn't know any better asked once if that map is showing where all the Nazis live in this area.

The author also wrote some interesting stuff on whether this symbol can ever be save from how we see it today, symbol of evil, racism and hate. The book came to a regretful conclusion that as long as there are large numbers of racists and anti-Semites out there using the swastika for their own purpose and with its history, this symbol can never be reclaim in innocence. In some way, the swastika's fate can be linked with the Confederate Battle Flag. Both will always be associated with racism and hate as long as there are people who will used it as such.

Overall, a very useful book and interesting reading material to anyone who wants to know more about this symbol which apparently been hijacked permanently by Adolf Hitler and those like him.

It's a must have if you care for icons. Wish it was hardcover.

This is one of the best books on symbols by one of the best designers of the 20th Century! It includes everything from technical symbols to hobo and astrology signs. If you are an interactive designer this book will prove to be a useful tool for research for icon design.

I use Symbol Sourcebook as a bible for interpreting meaning from it's very thorough pages. It is full of insightful and seemingly rare symbols. From engineering to chemistry to any other form of language through symbol this book by Mr. Dreyfuss is astounding. It is my reference for many, many corporate identity projects.

Four stars because a book that is involved with communication does it in such a disappointing way. The cover, text pages, bibliography and index are extremely bland. For instance, the few text pages have a line space between the paragraphs and also an indentation on the first line of each par, the bibliography is set in the same weight of type so punctuation is required, this can nearly be eliminated by using various weights of type to separate the different elements, the twenty-two page index could have been less if it was set in three columns instead of two.

However this is an important book and the symbol content rightly deserves five stars. Henry Dreyfuss started work on this project in the fifties while working for an oil-drilling equipment manufacturer, who wanted some way of communicating with workers in parts of the world where English was uncommon. Two-dimensional illustrations were developed and Dreyfuss slowly expanded the scope of the idea into this book, which presents several thousand in twenty-six categories.

The selection is very comprehensive, pages ninety and ninety-one include hobo signs with one for Cowards Will Give, To Get Rid Of You, or Free Telephone, which looks remarkably like a profile of a turkey. A fascinating four pages show Olympic symbols from the Games of 1948, 64, 68 and 72. I think 1968 are clearly the best, the designer avoided using stylised human forms and presented basic sport elements in a black rounded corner box. Throughout the book, where there is space, Dreyfuss has added sidebars on a variety of topics relating to symbol origins and usage.

To make this book as practical as possible the contents page is in eighteen languages, a good example of why Henry Dreyfuss, apart from being a great industrial designer, was also a person who never lost his humanity.

I just recently flipped through this book and definitely stopped me from looking for the actually book I was looking for. If you love symbols, this is it. It contains symbols from areas such as medical field to underground symbols used by hobos, which I found pretty interesting. It contains in depth symbolism of colors. Virtually all symbols that you might recognize or not are here. Check it out.