Source The Books

This charming little book helps remind us just how revolutionary the American idea of liberty and government by the people was when first proposed in the Eighteenth century... and how revolutionary it continues to be in certain parts of the world even today. Reading these excerpts, the one feels as if each of the witnesses called upon to testify spoke to the reader directly from its portrait on the opposite page. My favorite passage is from Thomas Paine: "From a small spark kindled in America a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Man finds himself transformed, he scarcely perceives how." The American idea has truly transformed the world more than we often realize.

This charming little book helps remind us just how revolutionary the American idea of liberty and government by the people was when first proposed in the Eighteenth century... and how revolutionary it continues to be in certain parts of the world even today. Reading these excerpts, the one feels as if each of the witnesses called upon to testify spoke to the reader directly from his or her portrait on the opposite page. My favorite passage is from Thomas Paine: "From a small spark kindled in America a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Man finds himself transformed, he scarcely perceives how." The American idea has truly transformed the world more than we often realize.

This handy little book presents several essential American documents which deserve to be read and re-read these days, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation. But the most interesting texts are the carefully chosen comments about political freedom and the American project from a variety of historical figures ranging from Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to Martin Luther King and JFK--the quality and clarity of their writing and thinking is startling to modern ears. This little blue book is the "Little Red Book" for Americans and students of America.

Donfried presents a fascinating collection of essays, now revised and compiled in a tight sequence, dealing with questions about the first letter of Paul, 1 Thessalonians, and its followup, which might have been his second letter. I was excited as Donfried filled in the background picture of the religion and culture of Thessalonians and the Roman Empire in general, providing a well-knit backdrop from which to interpret fine details of Paul's theme of consolation to the Thessalonians, as a persecuted church. This is the best study of Thessalonians I have read in years.

Information about the cult of the Emperor, which was rising at the time the Christian Good News was moving into the Roman Empire, was at its height, apparently, in Thessalonica. The term "lord" came to be applied to the Emperors as a part of the growing Emperor cult of Civil Religion. This made it hard for new believers to consistently confess Jesus Christ as the only lord, and to maintain their faith in the One Universal Invisible, but Living Creator God.

Thessalonica was a city that retained certain privileges like a City-State, such as minting of its own coins. The extensive coinage of this commercial and religious centre provides insights which Donfried unravels into the nature and extent of the Cult of the Emperor. This includes insights into terms like Divine Emperor and Son of God, assigned to the Emperor and his family, apparently growing from the time of Augustus, but reaching its peak in Nero.

Donfried also provides a detailed comparison of the thought of Paul in this context to the wandering Stoic preachers, the ecstatic Christian prophets, and the themes and terminology of the Essenes from the Qumran documents. He identifies certain vocabulary, and possible themes, in Paul with the Essene terminology which is not found in the Old Testament.

He looks at vocabulary or phrases Paul uses in the first Thessalonian letter which he does not use in his later writings. (Donfried thinks 2 Thessalonians is not an autograph of Paul himself, but definitely written faithfully by someone within his working circle of early missionary work, perhaps Silas/Silvanus.)

Donfried is competent in the Greek and Hebrew of Old Testament as well as the details of the Hebrew and Aramaic documents of Qumran. Donfried notes, as does Thiede in The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Origins of Christianity (which I also review on Amazon.com), that evidence seems to point in the direction of connections between the new sect of the Nazarenes and the Qumran teachers and document collectors.

His commentary critically looks at various authors who have addressed some of these cultural and religious questions related to the Thessalonian letters, in German, as well as English. He quotes from the original, then translates where helpful. Further citing footnotes some sources in French, he expects his readers to be conversant with the biblical and contemporary languages of scholarship.

Donfried provides a thoughtful and serious analysis of the doctrines of Justification and Salvation in Paul, focusing on the passages in Thessalonians, supplemented by other references to Corinthians and Romans. He emphasizes here the broader context of Paul's concept of the Word of God (initially proclaimed in the Gospel) and the prophetic words of comfort, in a "word of the Lord" to the Thessalonians through this letter in their persecution by the pagan populace.

He points out that Paul's emphasis uses the term Justification where I have observed that it is popularly common today to use the term "saved" for conversion. It seems Paul uses the term "saved" only in the continuous and future tenses. Paul does not commonly use the term "saved" for the event of initial conversion, but for the concept of living and enduring in Christ, and culminating in the "final hope" in the return of Christ.

This is also a basis for understanding the strong statements and warnings Paul repeatedly makes, not only in 1 Thessalonians, about the importance of personal vigilance and endurance in faith. This endurance is not based on one's good works, but on the remaining in faith, in Christ, in the hope that will be finally realized only in the apocalyptic deliverance and judgement. A future deliverance into the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

I was struck by how novel this is in light of the classical analytical view of Paul's theology as a systematic scheme on the late medieval model of philosophical reflection. Donfried brings to life the apostolic prophetic sense of urgency of the preacher and pastor, Paul, in his real-world working context in the pagan Roman Empire. The author probes the depths of Paul's doctrine of election, which is rarely mentioned in comments of Thessalonians. He relates this to faith, hope, endurance and faithfulness of confession under persecution, which was the situation for the Thessalonian church.

Oh, and another theme and usage Donfried reviews is the usage of the common word "ekklesia" for the assembly of Christians in Jerusalem and the similar assemblies of Christian in Achaia. He finds here another fascinating similarity with the Qumran usages. This is a worthwhile read for students of the New Testament, classical culture and religions, history or early Middle Eastern thought.

This book is a rich collection of a number of Karl P. Donfried's most important and most influential essays. It includes his inaugural lecture as Elizabeth A. Woodson Professor of Religion and Biblical Literature at Smith College, Northampton, Mass., where Donfried has taught since earning his Dr.theol. degree at the University of Heidelberg, where he studied with Günther Bornkamm.

This collection traces much of the shape of Donfried's scholarship over past years and brings his New Testament colleagues and other readers up to date with what he is doing now. Particularly informative is not only the landmark article, "Justification and Last Judgment in Paul," but also another article tracing its reception both in Lutheran and other circles over twenty-five years. Those who are eager to delve into contemporary scholarship on 1 and 2 Thessalonians will be greatly informed by Donfried's highly influential article, "The Cults of Thessalonica and the Thessalonian Correspondence." (See also Donfried and Johannes Beutler, editors, THE THESSALONIANS DEBATE [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000].)

This book represents the best of Donfried's scholarship as an independent thinker and scholar, a distinguished Lutheran theologian, and an ecumenical leader.

I am very pleased to recommend this book highly. My students are reading parts of it this semester in my class on the Pauline Epistles.

This is an outstanding volume, rich in first-class scholarship and ecumenical sensitivity of the highest order. Donfried is at the cutting edge of New Testament scholarship and has a profound understanding of the impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on early Christianity. His knowledge of Lutheran-Roman Catholic relationships is impeccable having served on the New Testament panel of the USA National Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue that produced the best selling volumes PETER IN THE NEW TESTAMENT and MARY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT as well as having been an official delegate of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to the signing of the Joint Declaration on Justification with the Roman Catholic Church in Augsburg, Germany, on October 31, 1999. This book is a MUST buy both for scholars, ecumenists and lay persons interested in learning from an outstanding scholar with an impeccable international standing.

Now in an all new, completely revised and updated edition, Photographers: A Sourcebook For Historical Research offers the photography student with a fully annotated bibliography of photographers by Richard Rudisill, and is further enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of six new essays on photography research including Sources for Finding Dead Photographers (David Haynes); A Case Study of the Oakland Museum Collection (Drew Heath Johnson); City Gallery Web Site (Steve Knoblock); Women in Photography International Archive (Peter E. Palmquist); Adventures in Photographer Research (Linda A. Ries); and Copyrights and Other Rights (Jeremy Row). An essential, core title for personal, professional, and academic photography reference collections.

Now in an all new, completely revised and updated edition, Photographers: A Sourcebook For Historical Research offers the photography student with a fully annotated bibliography of photographers by Richard Rudisill, and is further enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of six new essays on photography research including Sources for Finding Dead Photographers (David Haynes); A Case Study of the Oakland Museum Collection (Drew Heath Johnson); City Gallery Web Site (Steve Knoblock); Women in Photography International Archive (Peter E. Palmquist); Adventures in Photographer Research (Linda A. Ries); and Copyrights and Other Rights (Jeremy Row). An essential, core title for personal, professional, and academic photography reference collections, Photographers: A Sourcebook For Historical Research is also available in a hardcover format (price).

"This basic source for tracking down period photographers . . . is an invaluable [re]source for serious photographic researchers and users." Military Images, may/june, 2001.

This poem is very unique. Langland conveys many moral issues that will always be part of human existence. The poem is written in the beautiful, alliterative style. It is not quite a standard allegory and perhaps this is why I enjoyed it so much. It is masterfully composed and Piers' vision is accutely realized. Langland has an artistic touch that grabs hold of a reader and also manages to import a message. I would recommend a version that has both the original text, with all the idosyncratic spellings, and a modern English translation. Reading this is like reading Dante, Chaucer, or the Gawain Poet. A lot to chew on but well worth the trouble.

The poem of 'Piers the Ploughman' is often considered to be anonymously composed, as the name William Langland was less an authorial designation as it was an inscription on the back of a manuscript - it would be as if I would be assigned the authorship of the O.E.D. because, in some future time, the only remaining copy was missing the title pages, but still had the hard-cover with my 'ex libris' impression on it. Be that as it may, Langland is considered at least as likely an author as any other, and becomes a sort of stand-in, an 'everyman' for his time period. A few details of this Langland are known - he was a wanderer, a constant reviser (the poem goes through several revisions that scholars have designated as texts A, B, and C (and some argue for Z). This is not a spiritual autobiography, as J.F. Goodridge states in an essay about Langland in another edition, but there are no doubt autobiographical elements in the text. That the lead character is named 'Will' helps in this identification.

This poem stands alongside Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' as one of the great products of Middle English; this also has the character of being a different sort of Middle English than Chaucer's more courtly, continental influenced variety. Thus, it gives breadth to the history of the English language. Langland is often ranked as a great English poet on a par with Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth and Yeats, as representative of his age both in topics as well as language facility.

This epic poem deals with themes familiar for the time - like Dante and Milton, Langland deals with the grand ideas of the meaning of life and the destiny of humankind. However, unlike Dante and Milton, Will and Piers the Ploughman do not go through a mystical, otherworldly adventure or journey, but rather stays rooted to the earth. These are dream sequences, but these too need not be otherworldly - they are things that can happen to every person. The ideas of the seven deadly sins, the virtues, the church, and the images of heaven and hell are very much rooted to regular society images of the same. The discussion of the allegorical characters, aptly named Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best, does much for the moral teaching of this poem, which would have been of primary concern to the author.

Langland's text is often more Old English than Chaucerian in ways. It is far more alliterative, a strong component taken from Old English. Also, it is less metrical in rhythm than Chaucer - there is a pause in each line akin to older English poetry, but the metre is less secure.

This translation is done in alliterative verse by E. Talbot Donaldson (the 'E' stands for the very olde Englishe sounding name of Ethelbert). There are notes, essays and other helpful material provided by Elizabeth Kirk and Judith Anderson. There are over 50 non-related texts of the poem that have survived the Middle Ages, that vary from minor to major changes throughout. Reconciling these is rather like attempting to reconcile the gospels of the Bible, and then adding to that task the discovery of other non-canonical gospels. It leads to rich discussion, but less agreement.

The introductory material helps set the stage for reading, and the appendix gives a more thorough development of 'The Dreamer' from the C text.

Perhaps one of the reasons I like this text so much is that the persons involved were known to me, or friends of friends. Donaldson was the founding editor of 'The Norton Anthology of English Literature', a broad, wide-ranging text. However, it was 'Piers Plowman' that was to be a continuing favourite study for him.

This is one of the classics of English literature, perhaps the least known among them.

This poem is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. I am not a specialist in Middle English, so I cannot say what was lost in the translation into Modern English. I have a copy of the B-Text version which is in Middle English, and if you are like me and have no background therein, this is definitely the version to possess.

It was written circa 1380 and gives an excellent account of life in Plantagenent England and the behavior of the people. The money economy was relatively new, and he saw the negative effects that it had upon both the secular authorities and the Church. The poem is written as an allegory in which the author tries to reconcile the needs of human society with satisfying our Lord our God. Similar to Pilgrim's Progress, the author has a vision, in which he is encounters different aspects of humanity (Covetousness, Sloth, Soul, Knowledge, etc.) on his attempt to find Truth (or God). It is definitely not light reading, and there is so much deep thought that one has to spend a lot of time reading it slowly, as I am sure it was done in the 'Middle Ages'.

The author thought that End Times were near after the Black Death and the utter corruption amongst secular and clerical authorities at the time. The fact that something so penetrating and inspirational was written and found such an appreciative audience that it has survived till now shows that the society then was not so bad. Highly recommended.

Brian Dumaine's "The Plot to Save the Planet" is excellent. As a college student interested in environmental issues, I hear a lot about the coming environmental apocalypse and the heavy burden of CO2 that my generation will inherit. How refreshing to read about real ways to turn the tide!

Dumaine's book focuses on green technologies that have been substantially developed and invested in already -- technologies that can help to reduce our carbon footprint today, whose impact will only grow as investors and consumers continue to recognize their green power and economic viability. It is fueled by the idea that the same creative, entrepreneurial sensibility that got us into this climate change pickle can --- and will --- get us out of it.

"The Plot" covers everything from electric cars to carbon munching algae to green architecture. It is divided by chapter into segments on each of these topics, profiling green up-starts and their venture capital supporters, describing how the new technologies work, how they could reduce our CO2 output, and how they are getting big. Each chapter represents one part of the puzzle, and Dumaine shows that a mosaic of all these new ideas could have an enormous effect.

The book is infused with the author's enthusiasm for the possibilities offered by these new technologies, and the enthusiasm is contagious. "The Plot to Save the Planet" is a highly informative, fun read, written for the layman. Check it out --- you'll enjoy yourself, learn a lot, and feel much better about the many ways we can turn around our energy crisis.

Fortune magazine veteran Brian Dumaine has just published a highly readable new book. It will be of interest to anyone in need of having their spirits lifted from the assumptions that we will be hostages forever to third world oil despots, or that global warming must inevitably lead to Pittsburgh being the next great beach town.
He identifies technological advances that are likely to play a significant role in lessening our middle east oil Jones, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What makes this an exciting read is that these are not theoretical laboratory experiments, these are tested technologies that are already working their way into daily economic life, or at minimum are in the prototype stage. My favorite is the algae that eats carbon and poops biodiesel.
Dumaine is a guy who looks more at home in wingtips than Birkenstocks - another reason to feel some optimism after reading the book. He has done his own research and filtered all these ideas through the screen of how much venture capital each idea is attracting. The VCs get plenty of things wrong, but it is not usually because they have failed to thoroughly consider the economic viability of an idea, and these all pass the test.
Read it. You'll sleep better.

The author explains that "green= growth". Ultimately,
carbon emissions drive costs up on many fronts.
Traffic jams cost $65 billion dollars annually.

The book provides some unique engineering feats to
promote the "green" goal. For instance, a raised floor
in a building facilitates an efficient use of the
duct system so that night air cools the building from
the bottom up. Resultingly, less air conditioning is used.


The Pope Manufacturing Co, of Hartford has built an
electric car costing $98,000. The Tesla auto costs .02/mile
to drive. Transportation is known to account for 20% of
Greenhouse gases. Walmart has cut back energy use by
creating "green supercenters" . Lower energy use means more
profits. i.e. This feat is accomplished by using motion
sensors to control the freezer light.

The German government guarantees that renewable energy
companies will make money. Heiner Gartner has created a
solar energy complex ; wherein, 10,000 solar panels
fuel 1500 houses. Q Cells is a profitable solar energy
company. Carbon sequestration is a process; wherein,
greenhouse gases are buried. The ABB Grid System is a
Swiss company specializing in power. The author explains
a scenario; whereby. the Mojave Desert can power the
entire West Coast.

This book ought to be read by the entire USA Congress.

As a student of the printed word, I've always been fascinated by the Harlem Renaissance, or the "RenGen" (Renaissance Generation). This book is wonderful to me because it offers information and faces to match the personalities with which I'd found myself identifying with throughout most of my life. It is very uplifting and encouraging to read about such a group of classy, glamorous, educated, eloquent, literate, ambitious, and talented young individuals. Even though a few of their ideals were somewhat disturbing (mainly the whole "paper-bag test" mentality), this book was still thoroughly refreshing. With its wonderful photographs and biographical information, it is a plethora of information in sepia. Today's writers should emulate the literary (prosaic and poetic) elegance and grace of Johnson, Fauset, Larsen, Hurston, Hughes, and others, instead of seemingly automatically gravitating towards a written genre that seems to stress nothing but profanity and over-(overt) sexuality in the African American community. How I wish those days of class could come back to our literary community! Perhaps one day it will.

This book is fantastic and a source of pride! I studied this period in undergrad. and I love to read anything I can find on the Harlem Renaissance. The book is beautifully done, the photos are great and the choices are interesting. Wondered why the authors placed Bill Robinson in the DC section, but the bios are concise and complete. A great book for young people as well as students of the period.

Marks' and Edkins' book is an elegant portrayal of the lives of those who created the Harlem Renaissance. Beautifully illustrated with historical photographs--most rarely seen, this book should be read by anyone wanting to know about the evolution of American culture. The authors' narrative reveals the strength and creativity of these African American women and men whose energy and talent has given the nation some of its richest cultural forms. They show how they grappled with questions of racial identity in a highly segregated society and how their relationships with each other fostered one of the most important cultural movements in the nation. Anyone wanting to know more about American history , its cultural institutions, and the legacy of racial prejudice should read this book and show it to their children.

This book carefully derives the formulas for a wide variety of solar applications. The trig formulas are not derived but to do so would require a whole separate textbook. A fair amount of background is needed to digest the material presented. The figures and diagrams are a good supplement. There are typos, so one should know how the material is derived, and not just use it blindly. Overall, its one of a kind in its field.

David Collins

For the first time since the Carter administration, there has been renewed interest in the engineering of systems powered by renewable energy, and this is one of the better books out there, written, oddly enough, when gas was under a $1 a gallon here in the U.S. This book fills a needed gap in the middle ground between popular science books on the subject and unreadable academic treatises written by Ph.D's driven to "publish or perish".
The book's objective is to present the basic technical background needed for the design and economic analysis of solar energy utilization systems. It is assumed that the reader already knows thermodynamics, basic heat transfer, fluid mechanics, calculus, ordinary differential equations, and some chemistry. In other words, the target reader is at least a junior level undergraduate ME student. Design and analysis of solar utilization schemes are approached from a systems analysis viewpoint. That is, it is assumed that you are an engineer with the tools available to do the job, now you just need to know how to assemble your solar energy system and what devices should be included in that assembly. Thus, this book is not concerned with proper doping of pn junctions to produce photovoltaic cells and other such information. This book combines technical design with economical analysis to give the reader a well-rounded view of what goes into the design of a solar utilization system. The technical emphasis far outweighs the economical, with only one chapter being dedicated to cost analysis. The authors have included engineering level detail for all included technologies. This book retains only about 20% of what was in the first edition. Features in this book include:
* modern methods of solar resource assessment including satellite measurements
* developments in concentrating solar thermal collectors
* a chapter on methods for passive heating, cooling and daylighting
* the latest developments in solar cooling and dehumidification
* a thorough treatment of solar thermal power and industrial process heat
* a chapter on photovoltaics with a thorough treatment of fundamentals, design applications and manufacturing
* a chapter on solar photochemical applications
* a chapter on capturing solar energy through biomass.
Biomass describes the mass of all biological organisms, dead or alive, excluding biological mass that has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum, and is expected to make a major global contribution in the future, for both stand-alone biomass power systems and hybrid solar-biomass power systems.
The book makes heavy use of the web, referring students to detailed information found at various websites. However, since this book was written six years ago, many of those links may already be dead. The book contains many homework problems and was designed to be a textbook in a course on the subject. However, there are clear and numerous examples, so it might be possible for the motivated student to self-teach from this textbook. The only negative thing I can really say about the book is the high price. However, it is a good sign that even used copies of this textbook sell for a high price, because it shows the value current owners of the book place on it.

Principles of Solar Engineering is a comprehensive introduction to solar engineering, well-suited for advanced undergraduates. It's very accessible mathematically, requiring only basic calculus and trigonometry. For the most part, it's also self-contained, although readers with no prior knowledge of thermodynamics, heat transfer, or thermal circuits may need to consult more introductory sources to supplement some sections.

This is not intended as a criticism of this text, per se, but the thermal engineering treatment of heat transfer will sometimes seem a little idiosyncratic to someone who was introduced to the subject in a different context. The most pronounced example is the attempt to recast radiative transfer as a pseudo-conduction problem, by writing q = A*h*deltaT, even though the largest temperature dependence is thereby absorbed ("hidden?") in the parameter h. (One can illustrate this numerically, for example, by letting Tg -> 1.1 Tg, keeping Ta fixed, on p. 395.) There are physical reasons for the fourth power of absolute temperature in the radiation law, and it's not clear that the student benefits by downplaying this.

Also, the presentation of the physics of photovoltaics is not as clear as the other parts of the text, but there are many online resources that can help fill this gap.

It is almost impossible for us to "see" the men who fought the Civil War. Very few of us have talked to a Union soldier or even someone who had talked to one. With each year, the number of greats increases before grandpa as these men slip away. Photography was a toddler during the war and the stiff formal posed pictures taken do not help either. The carefully posed "candid shots" look almost as formal as their portraits and that blur, in the back, is someone who moved. We cannot see them marching past in movies, smoking and laughing as we can soldiers of the World Wars. No matter how many books we read, war games we play or movies we see, these men stay stiff and formal frozen in time. This removes the human aspect from the war, costing us a real understanding of the feelings it invoked. A cannon ball flying through the ranks was much more than a subtraction from regimental strength or an increase in casualties. Real men, fathers, husbands, sons died or were maimed. They had hopes, dreams, suffered lonely days, laughed and sang. This book is a step toward recapturing 21 of the Union dead, restoring flesh and blood to that formal picture, while telling the story of the war in very personal terms.

Mr. Crawford has struck a balance between history and humanity in this book. The format is simple and elegant; each chapter is one Union Soldier's story told in a simple way that helps us understand him. In some cases, the story contains information from his letters in others the last letter is the focus. Six officers and 15 enlisted men, important to their families but not to the overall history of the war, populate this book. They die in big battles, skirmishes, as POWs, from illness and possible foul play. Some anticipate their death and those letters show how brave a man can be. Expecting to die, these men went forward determined to do their duty no matter what their fears. Others are struck down unawares. They write home saying they are fine but within weeks are dead from illness or an unexpected bullet.

Reading this book has brought home how little armies at war change over the years. From the American Civil War to Viet Nam to now, lonely soldiers far from home determined to do their duty write letters home. This book drives home that point not by preaching but by showing us the man behind the picture.

On a two-hour drive home across the Mississippi Delta, I began to think again about this book I read about a month ago and realized I really need to recommend it to others. Each soldier's story presented life and events of that time in a way that I had never experienced it. The soldiers' actual words along with the information the author provides about the family and the events occurring at the time of the letters made a powerful impact. Although the disease and death descriptions were wrenching, I did not want the book to end. I will never forget Thomas Morrison, the Sultana, Thomas H. Brown...well, the whole thing.

I recently received my copy of 'Proud To Say I Am A Union Soldier' by Franklin R. Crawford. What a profound book! There are 21 Chapters, each one focuses on a specific soldier. You get to know those soldiers 'personally'. Some died on the battlefield, others of disease. Do you know how a person suffers when they have Malaria or some of the other diseases?? No? You will when you read this book. You will read the last letters written home to families, some very sad and some offering strength to the folks back home. At the end of each chapter are the footnotes. There is a Bibliography in the back of the book along with the Index. You'll want this book for your personal library.
I was so impressed with it, I ordered a copy for my local library.

The book is a great resource for studying the changes and growth of Christianity since the reformation. The source material is excellent.

This collection of readings focusing upon the sixteenth century Reformations in Europe is a wonderful collection for students, seminarians, pastors and interested laypersons who want to read the actual source documents (or good translations of such) rather than narrative histories and opinions about the key ideas and documents that helped shape the early years of the Protestant Reformations. As David Janz, Professor of Religious Studies at Loyola (New Orleans), states, this collection is `heavily theological' - while it is true that the history of the Reformation period cannot adequately be recounted without attention to political, economic and social realms, the larger influence in the Reformations was theological/religious differences, a subject that is more difficult to approach in today's secular academic world. The leaders of all sides in this period either saw themselves as theologians or working on behalf of theological ideas; thus, it is important to understand the key issues involved from a theological standpoint.

This being said, it is also important to know not just what the various Reformers said and wrote, but also what they were reacting against; Janz includes many pieces all sides. In the introduction, Janz cautions against the biases of seeing the Reformation as a whole as a good thing or a bad thing, and introduces use of the term `Reformations' to address the diversity of movements that often get lumped together under the historical categorical shorthand of `Reformation'.

Janz has six broad categories for dividing the documents in this text: I - Late Medieval Background; II - Martin Luther; III - Ulrich Zwingli and the radical reformers; IV - John Calvin; V - English Reformation; and VI - Counter/Catholic Reformation.

The inclusion of the first section makes this volume particularly valuable, as many Reformation histories and readers being with Martin Luther, assuming knowledge of the background that is often insufficient. In fact, as Janz points out, there is no one, single, monolithic `Catholic' theology against which the Reformers worked - there was a pluralistic setting which included Nominalists, Augustinians, Thomists, Humanists, and more, all operating in varying degrees of comfort within the official church structure. Janz selects readings that address popular piety and spirituality, ecclesial structures and practices, theological and biblical issues, and critical thinking of the time (the later in the form of Erasmus).

The section on Luther begins with excerpts from autobiographical writings, including correspondence and `Table Talk'. The theological writings include works on biblical topics, catechetical work, sermons and essays, and the full text of the Ninety-Five Theses. Rounding out this section, Janz includes a few key Lutheran pieces, such as the Augsburg Confession, along with Melanchthon's Apology, and the Formula of Concord, all key pieces in the development of mainline Lutheranism.

The section on Zwingli and the Radical Reformers includes works by Zwingli, Muntzer, Simons and Anabaptists, and the Twelve Articles of the Peasant's Revolt. Janz emphasizes the independence of various groups - Zwingli was accused by Roman Catholic authorities of Lutheranism, but in fact Zwingli and Luther had sharp divisions on key issues (communion/Eucharist being but one) and Zwingli's followers would eventually join with Calvinist Reform efforts by and large. The Anabaptist arose in different places rather simultaneously and independently; the documents contained here show many of the ideas.

The section on Calvin includes a generous sampling from the Institutes, but also includes several letters, including one to Melanchthon and several regarding the Servetus Affair, and the text of the Geneva Ordinances, meant to give the whole society a way to run decently and in good order (for Calvin despised disorderly living).

The Reformation in England includes edicts by King Henry VIII, and several works that show the back-and-forth nature of the times, such as the Marian return to Rome, and the final Elizabethan Settlement, which included a highly Calvinist Thirty-Nine Articles, but enough wiggle room to permit worship styles now classified as high and low church.

The section on the Counter/Catholic Reformation shows a divergence of opinions; Janz writes of the difficulty of assigning either title (Counter Reformation or Catholic Reformation) to the group, and also notes that the dating of the end of this period is ambiguous enough to stretch to Vatican II in some respects. The writing here includes pieces from various popes, the newly formed Jesuit order, and several documents from the Council of Trent. By this time, as Janz notes, the diversity of voices within Catholic theology had fallen away, and was replaced with the domination of a Thomist point of view.

This edition of the book comes with a CD-ROM which includes several additional readings by and about women in the Reformation, and searchable text, which for students writing papers is a wonderful resource. There are bibliographic information both in the text and on the CD, and the text itself is well indexed.

Janz makes the observation that, from an instructor's point of view, no perfect anthology exists until the instructor produces her or his own - this particular one is a product of Janz's experience of teaching over twenty years. Janz has kept introductory material short and to the point, giving very brief introductions to the six major sections (two pages each, at most) and even briefer introductory/biographical notes for individual primary documents (a few paragraphs at most, generally). Janz lets the documents speak for themselves for the most part, which, while they can be difficult reading at times to modern readers, still form a major foundation for much of religious expression in North America and Europe (and, by extension, much of the rest of the world) today.

Well this was a good book of original writings by various protestant leaders. The selection choice and size are excellent as they allow you to visualize the type of socio-politico-theological environment that the authors were living in thus helping you to better understand the actions and outcomes of Protestant movement. Recommend!

I've scoured several texts, journals and articles on renewable energy to make sense of the various technologies and their underlying economics, but wasn't until I stumbled upon this hidden treasure that the cloud lifted and the light dawned on my bewildered mind. And it took me a few months to scrub the book cover-to-cover - I was so taken in by the author's mastery of the subject matter and its concise, cogent and crystal-clear presentation.

Prof. Masters assumes nothing of the reader and takes her/him through a narrative that is just so-perfectly blended with rigorous, yet first-order analytical methods to enable the joyous discovery and lucid understanding of most of the major renewable sources of energy - from the gusty wind to the brilliant sun. He explains, proves and illustrates the logic, the math and the mechanics of the what, why and how it all works. He then gets under the hood and crunches the numbers (the economics) of if, when and where it all makes sense.

For instance, he'd prove Betz's law for the maximum efficiency of a wind turbine or derive the average wind power with a Rayleigh p.d.f by totally simplifying the convoluted math and soon follow it up with a practical example of whether it makes economic sense for a farmer to lease his land to a wind farm. Every concept is suffused with first-rate real-world examples:
* should a house in Boulder, CO use a single-axis tracker for a photo-voltaic installation? How about Madison, WI?
* what is the carbon spewed out by a coal-fired power plant? How does that compare to a combined cycle natural gas plant?

In addition to a fair amount of coverage of various renewable and distributed energy resources, a complete soup-to-nuts analysis of photo-voltaic design, sizing and analysis is presented. And it doesn't stop there. Energy efficiency is a major theme - ever heard of absorption cooling? All of this material is developed in the context of `basic electricity' that powers and runs most everything today (except vehicles of course, but that's also soon coming...) The beauty of it all is the seemingly effortless simplicity in which the concepts are explained/analysed without sacrificing rigor - it just flows!

In this age of hype and bias, a certain amount of disinformation coming from the media is understandable. But, living in Silicon Valley, I find it amusing to hear even respectable venture capitalists touting/undermining this technology or that without getting their facts/numbers right - perhaps they are vested or they are simply clueless, like I once was and still continue to be often. Whereas, having earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford, Prof. Masters has spent his entire lifetime around these issues (has been there, done that) and has distilled the better part of some of what he's learned into this book. Reading it is a bit like peering into a beautiful mind, indeed. Whether you are a serious student out to change the world, an academic do-gooder, a VC moneybag, a hobbyist moonlighter, I cannot recommend this book enough. It is by far, the best such introductory text in this field.

Gil Masters is a master teacher, as every page in this book makes clear. The best summary is found in the preface:

"Engineering for sustainability is an emerging theme for the twenty-first century, and the need for more environmentally benign electric power systems is a critical part of this new thrust. Renewable energy systems that take advantage of energy sources that won't diminish over time and are independent of fluctuations in price and availability are playing an ever-increasing role in modern power systems. Wind farms in the United States and Europe have become the fastest growing source of electric power; solar-powered photovoltaic systems are entering the marketplace; fuel cells that will generate electricity without pollution are on the horizon. Moreover, the newest fossil-fueled power plants approach twice the efficiency of the old coal burners that they are replacing while emitting only a tiny fraction of the pollution.

There are compelling reasons to believe that the traditional system of large, central power stations connected to their customers by hundreds or thousands of miles of transmission lines will likely be supplemented and eventually replaced with cleaner, smaller plants located closer to their loads. Not only do such distributed generation systems reduce transmission line losses and costs, but the potential to capture and utilize waste heat on site greatly increases their overall efficiency and economic advantages. Moreover, distributed generation systems offer increased reliability and reduced threat of massive and widespread power failures of the sort that blacked out much of the northeastern United States in the summer of 2003.

It is an exciting time in the electric power industry, worldwide. New technologies on both sides of the meter leading to structural changes in the way that power is provided and used, an emerging demand for electricity in the developing countries where some two billion people now live without any access to power, and increased attention being paid to the environmental impacts of power production are all leading to the need for new books, new courses, and a new generation of engineers who will find satisfying, productive careers in this newly transformed industry.

This book has been written primarily as a textbook for new courses on renewable and efficient electric power systems. It has been designed to encourage self-teaching by providing numerous completely worked examples throughout. Virtually every topic that lends itself to quantitative analysis is illustrated with such examples. Each chapter ends with a set of problems that provide added practice for the student and that should facilitate the preparation of homework assignments by the instructor.

While the book has been written with upper division engineering students in mind, it could easily be moved up or down in the curriculum as necessary. Since courses covering this subject are initially likely to have to stand more or less on their own, the book has been written to be quite self-sufficient. That is, it includes some historical, regulatory, and utility industry context as well as most of the electricity, thermodynamics, and engineering economy background needed to understand these new power technologies.

Engineering students want to use their quantitative skills, and they want to design things. This text goes well beyond just introducing how energy technologies work; it also provides enough technical background to be able to do first-order calculations on how well such systems will actually perform. That is, for example, given certain windspeed characteristics, how can we estimate the energy delivered from a wind turbine? How can we predict solar insolation and from that estimate the size of a photovoltaic system needed to deliver the energy needed by a water pump, a house, or an isolated communication relay station? How would we size a fuel cell to provide both electricity and heat for a building, and at what rate would hydrogen have to be supplied to be able to do so? How would we evaluate whether investments in these systems are rational economic decisions? That is, the book is quantitative and applications oriented with an emphasis on resource estimation, system sizing, and economic evaluation."

Here is a book that is needed by those (especially engineers) interested in energy systems for the future. It has broad coverage and yet enough depth to allow design of new systems. Professor Masters' casual writing style and his sense of humor make the book fun to read.

The book covers wind systems, photovoltaic cells(PV) and PV systems, distributed generation (concentrating solar power, microhydro, fuel cells, biomass), and economics of renewable electric power generation and comparison with conventional thermal power plants. This book is important as the engineering world moves into the era of rising energy prices and is compelled to provide alternatives to fossil and nuclear fueled generation. There are abundant very helpful examples worked out in the text.

We used this book in a one semester introduction to renewable power taught as an elective for senior and first year graduate students. Since this was the first time the course was taught by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of NH, and our first time through the book, the course covered only a subset of chapters.

The book provides solid engineering background for topics discussed in applied "how to" books on renewable energy systems. It will appeal to that person who wants deeper understanding of principles. The ideas - both theoretical and practical - are carefully developed.

We read a good number of the problems at the end of the chapters we covered and assigned a subset of those. We found the book problems to be very enlightening and carefully thought out. Many of the problems provided profound insight and preparation for understanding and using the material studied. Even the first chapter on basic electrical and magnetic circuits has problems involving models for photovoltaic modules.

Michael J. Carter, Associate Professor of ECE at UNH
Filson H. Glanz, Professor Emeritus of ECE at UNH