The Empire Books

I bought this book after using and fully enjoying the Avant-Guide to Paris. I knew nothing about Vegas before a recent trip and Avant-Guide made sure I was well prepared. It had excellent information on cool and hip places as well as "classic Vegas" and must-see destinations. It covers it from the perspective of singles or couples. This is not a family vacation book or a budget travel book. It is fun to read and easy to navigate. Because of this I also bought the New York book which is equally enjoyable.

Dan Levine and his crew have experienced what they write about.It's based on reality,not on puffery. Savvy,irreverent at times, funny and wonderfully practical.It's extremely well organized and easy to use. I've read a ton of stuff on Vegas and this is the only one I actually use and give to others. Their opinions are the same as mine.

My only criticism is the binding. It tends to fall apart after many uses. Dan, would you consider spiral binding?

Thanks, Dan. Samuel Henderson

This book was my introduction to the Avant Guide series, and I was thoroughly impressed. I've been to Vegas several times and used as many guide books, but this is by far my favorite. The author demonstrates a refreshing respect for everything cool -- from groovy local dives to swanky tourist hot spots. If you wish to revel in all things Vegas -- if you dig the history and the kitsch -- this book will show you a good time regardless of your budget.

Be warned: Square types may find plenty to offend on these lively pages. Hotels are ranked from "Very Expensive" to "Cheap A--"; drugs and prostitution are given a comic wink; and the author makes a point of helping you avoid child-infested locations. If any of this sounds like a bad thing, you'd best avoid this book.

But for anyone with a healthy sense of humor, irony, and things absurd, this book is the next best thing to having a supercool, local friend guide your Vegas experience.

This travel guide made my visit to London a complex experience. It offers all the basic sites, but it also gives you a chance to linger into the less central areas without the feelings of uncertainty.

It is a cool guide. Complete, structured and precise. I went to a different club every night and never was I dissatisfied. The rest of the guide is as informative as the Nightlife section with a wide range from exclusive places to the alternative ones.

I especially appreciate the section on Planning. It made my first trip to New York a pleasure. The guide is well organized and contains valuable information. Its layout is fun with many cool photos.

I adore exclusive dining, which hardly appears in the regular guides. I have visited several restaurants reviewed by the Avantguide and I had a blast.

When I last arrived to San Francisco it was pretty late and I had trouble finding a place where I could eat. Avantguide's section on Late Night Dining saved me this time. It contains the right info, especially when you are starving.

This book has information I did not find in any other guidebook. It's got underground stuff as well as the best of what you need to do. This book made my trip to San Francisco.

At over for feet high, the finished building is one of my prized possessions. I found mine at a flea market and, as the book was old, the center crease in the pages needs particular attention to avoid a pronounced ridge at about the fortieth floor. Reinforce the crease from behind and press it flat and it should come out ok. The addition of some foil trim at the top make for a really sharp model of the landmark.

this book has everything you need to have a hard days work using your hands....alot of fun, and well worth the effort in the end! great book and author!

I wish this book would go back into print. It is a very high-quality puzzle-type exercise. Took a couple of weeks and was never boring. Complete with a King Kong... Used to keep my completed version in my office until the cleaning lady smashed it by accident...

This novel looks at what would have happened if Brazilian voters had chosen monarchy over democracy in Brazil. That might sound farfetched, but in fact such a referendum was put before Brazilian voters in 1993. The book's protagonist, Reginaldo, is chosen to be the new monarch because he is the only Brazilian descendent of the last Brazilian emperor. Reginaldo, who works at a grocery store in a small town in Minas Gerais, is a truly un-kinglike character, something of a Brazilian Ignatius J. Reilly (see A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole). Without giving away too much of the plot, this makes for some pretty hilarious situations once Reginaldo is taken to the new capital of Rio de Janeiro. Interspersed throughout Reginaldo's story are vignettes from the life of his regal ancestor, Emperor Pedro II, giving an interesting historical perspective. This is a great book and a fun read, and should be of interest to both Brazilianists and fans of wry, somewhat offbeat humor. Since I fall into both those categories, I enjoyed this book immensely.

"Carnival King: The Last Latin Monarch" is a very good read by a new writer, Brent Alan James. It is a humorous and dramatic story with an underlying history lesson and social conscience. Even if you've never visited Brazil, you'll recognize at least one thing familiar in this book.

James's book was a lot of fun to read and an interesting look into Brazilian culture from the elites to those living in poverty. Great, engaging characters in both modern and historic Brazil, and interweaving story lines.

Actually, we called him "Fatty". When I was a kid in the 1950's our small town theater still showed the old westerns on Sat. When we played cowboys one of us would have to be "Fatty". It was usually a neighbor boy named Teddy ,who could have whupped us in real life but didn't mind playing the bad guy and getting beat up in our pretend fist fights. The book is great and well researched. God bless Mr. Copeland for his good work.

Unquestionably, author Bobby J. Copeland has filled in a gap in B-Movie western film scholarship with this sketchy but insightful look at the life of a veteran badman who mixed it up with some of the greats in B-Movie western circles. The biggest problem with Copeland's book is simply the dearth of information about Charlie King. I wasn't around when B-Movie westerns galloped across the silver screen like the shaggy buffalo that once roamed the western plains. Nevertheless, I have been watching these art-ifacts with great interest and Charlie King is one of the unsung cowboy bad guys. If you get around to watching these novelty items from the past, Charlie King throws a long shadow over the B-movie westerns. Copeland's book isn't so much the work of an objective cinematic scholar, but he does answer many questions about the little known life of King. Deplorably, Charlie King emerges as a pathetic figure behind-the-scenes. According to Copeland's research, King was an alcoholic who borrowed money from his friends but rarely repaid them; his wife would accompany him to the studio to pick up his paycheck before he drank it away. As sad as these revelations are to learn about this fabulous character actor, "Charlie King: We Called Him 'Blackie'" stands as a tribute to one of the top heavies in the B-Western business. Copeland's filmography of King is useful; this actor appeared in 300 B-movie westerns. Wherever Charlie King is now, he would be grateful to know that this nifty little tome qualifies as a tribute to a badman. Mind you, this isn't an exercise in scholarship with footnotes galore, but it's the nuggets of information that make it a useful contribution to field of criticism that sorely lacks substance. I doubt that this brief biography can be surpassed and I know that it cannot be overlooked by serious B-Movie western history. Anybody that wants to catch up on the life and times of B-Movie cowboys will get their money's worth out of this unique text.

When you think of great badman in films during the '30s and '40s, hands down the name is "Blackie" alias Charlie King. In fact author Bobby J. Copeland's latest book is titled "Charlie King - We called him "Blackie", comprehensive in depth behind the scenes of the baddest of the badmen. We saw him through the eyes of such heroes as Buster Crabbe, Johnny Mack Brown, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, Dave O'Brien, Tex Ritter and Bob Steele. Bob Steele and Blackies fight scenes were a joy to watch, classic moves that actually looked so real ~ you could feel the punch in the fifth row where I was sitting.

Copeland takes the reader into the life and times of King through sections ~ Where Are The Ashes?, How Many Times Did Charlie Play "Blackie"?, Some of Charlie's Classic Moments, They Worked with Charlie King, They're Writing About Charlie King, The Fans Speak Up for Charlie, Conclusion, Charles King's Sound Filmography, King's Silent Features, Index of Film Companies, Photo Gallery, About the Author as we salute one of the premiere B-Western badmen.

This book includes so many great photos. Also the truth about Charlie's death...including his death certificate...comments by noted Western Film Historians...remarks by co-workers...writers' opinions of Charlie's acting and his career...Cowboys with whom he worked...studios that employed him...filmography. King also worked in silent films, may have also appeared as an extra in the 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation"...if you have a copy look for Charlie. Charlie King certainly left us with many wonderful memories up there on the big screen. One of the great scene stealers, as he got heavier he looked tougher and more menacing. I would put Charlie King up there with Roy Barcroft and Harry Woods...who is number one, is a toss up. Oh, I'm one of the lucky fans who had my book autographed by the author Bobby J. Copeland, gotta love it!

Total Pages: 112 ~ Empire Publishing Inc #0-944019-40-4 ~ (1/31/2003)

This is a great resource book for students of the first centuries of Christianity. The selections come from sources with differing points of view (Christian, Jewish, Pagan and secular) and the author gives enough background that you understand the possibility of biases in the ancient authors. Most useful for lay persons who do not have ready access to a good library of religous sources.

Primary sources for the history of the first four centuries of Christianity within the context of the Roman world are difficult to find, widely scattered, and general unknown outside of a specialized cadre of scholarship. Now Ralph Novak interweaves these primary sources with a narrative text in Christianity And The Roman Empire: Background Texts that provides the reader with a single, continuous account of these crucial first centuries of Christianity's development. Through the use of primary sources, Novak shows how the government and people of Rome perceived the treatment of Christians within the empire, as well as the manner in which Christians established their political and religious dominae after Constantine the great came to power. Christianity And The Roman Empire is a superbly researched, written and presented contribution to the study of early Christian history during the first four centuries of the Common Era.

Christianity and the Roman Empire:Background Texts is designed for undergraduates,seminarians, and the general reader in early Christian history. The book contains approximately 250 selections from literary texts and archeological materials dating to the period of 27 B.C. to 416 A.D. These materials were selected to explore (i) the ways in which the early Christians were erceived and treated by the imperial government and the many peoples of the Roman Empire, (ii) the social and political interactions between Christians and the surrounding pagan culture, and (iii) the means the Christian emperors of the 4th century used to consolidate Christian dominance in the social and political life of the Roman Empire. Unlike most source books, however, which merely reproduce the sources or discuss only aspects of the individual sources, in Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts the ancient texts are inserted at the appropriate places in a historical narrative of the history of the rise of Christianity in the Roman World during the first four centuries A.D. The narrative provides both an overall historical context for the sources and specific discussions of the relevance of the sources to the larger narrative history, while the primary sources allow the reader to examine the evidence used to reconstruct this history. The ancient materials presented in Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts are generally reproduced at greater length than commonly found in most source books. A primary goal of the narrative text is to direct the reader along the path of the majority historical consensus without being so intrusive as to obscure the majesty and power of the ancient materials themselves. I have attempted to present the materials in such a way that this book could serve as both a useful adjunct to the work of other scholars in the field and as a stand-alone history for the non-specialist reader. Christianity and the Roman Empire: Background Texts consists of approximately 320pages of text, organized into six chapters and 5 appendices. Chapter One is a brief introduction to basic historical methodology for dealing with literary texts. Chapters Two through Five contain a chronologically organized historical narrative, with ancient sources,describing the rise of Christianity during first four centuries A.D. Chapter Six is a case study of the way in which Christians came to dominate the political life of Alexandria, Egypt during the period of approximately 350-416 A.D. The five appendices examine topics more appropriately examined on a topical rather than a chronological basis, and cover the subjects of Rome's relationship with Judaism during this same period, pagan accusations of Christian immorality, the worship of the Roman emperor, the formulation of the Nicene Creed, and the evidence concerning the dates for the birth and death of Jesus. The book has both primary source and subject indexes.

Goldsteine elequently describes the differences between the liberal dilemas we all face today. After all, as Goldsteine argues, we are all liberals. What makes us liberal and what is the connection to our past...This book is doomed to become a classic and may even come true to life.

"What Goldstene does is beautifully integrate the abstract world of political and social philosophy with the reality of the modern world....An incredibly provocative and thoughtful argument that conceivably could become the center of much concern." -- Issac Kramnick, Cornell University

"Goldstene again demonstrates that he is a leading contemporary radical critic of liberalism." -- Rick Tilman, The Social Science Journal

"This book deserves the widest possible audience, for it might become a minor classic." -- D.M.P. McCarthy, American Studies

"Lately I have read a book that has made me see in a new light the way I have been forming opinions during my life." -- Thomas Griffith, The Atlantic

"One of the most important critiques of liberal thought in recent times." -- Alan Tonelson, The New Republic

"Among...recent radical critics of American liberalism, Goldstene appears to stand alone." -- William B. Hixson, Jr., Commonweal

"What Goldstene does is beautifully integrate the abstract world of political and social philosophy with the reality of the modern world....An incredibly provocative and thoughtful argument that conceivably could become the center of much concern." -- Issac Kramnick, Cornell University

"Goldstene again demonstrates that he is a leading contemporary radical critic of liberalism." -- Rick Tilman, The Social Science Journal

"This book deserves the widest possible audience, for it might become a minor classic." -- D.M.P. McCarthy, American Studies

"Lately I have read a book that has made me see in a new light the way I have been forming opinions during my life." -- Thomas Griffith, The Atlantic

"One of the most important critiques of liberal thought in recent times." -- Alan Tonelson, The New Republic

"Among...recent radical critics of American liberalism, Goldstene appears to stand alone." -- William B. Hixson, Jr., Commonweal

This book should become a major contribution to Latin American studies, because it provides fresh perspectives on topics we'd thought we already knew well. It does so by relating Latin America to vital issues in history, notably recent research on frontier history, "the new Western history," & themes of race, class & gender. The chapter by Susan Socolow, discussing Argentine frontier women & thus engendering the history of the gauchos, is particularly strong, but so are most of the others. One drawback is that coverage is largely limited to the far margins of Spanish America (northern Mexico & Rio de la Plata regions), when there is plenty of work to do on the frontiers of core areas of Spain's New World empire, e.g. Peru & Bolivia. (There is some fine material on Brazil, but the book's main emphasis is on Spanish America.) Nevertheless, this work definitely advances understanding of important aspects of Latin American history.

This book should become a major contribution to Latin American studies, because it provides fresh perspectives on topics we'd thought we already knew well. It does so by relating Latin America to vital issues in history, notably recent research on frontier history, "the new Western history," & themes of race, class & gender. The chapter by Susan Socolow, discussing Argentine frontier women & thus engendering the history of the gauchos, is particularly strong, but so are most of the others. One drawback is that coverage is largely limited to the far margins of Spanish America (northern Mexico & Rio de la Plata regions), when there is plenty of work to do on the frontiers of core areas of Spain's New World empire, e.g. Peru & Bolivia. (There is some fine material on Brazil, but the book's main emphasis is on Spanish America.) Nevertheless, this work definitely advances understanding of important aspects of Latin American history.

This book should become a major contribution to Latin American studies, because it provides fresh perspectives on topics we'd thought we already knew well. It does so by relating Latin America to vital issues in history, notably recent research on frontier history, "the new Western history," & themes of race, class & gender. The chapter by Susan Socolow, discussing Argentine frontier women & thus engendering the history of the gauchos, is particularly strong, but so are most of the others. One drawback is that coverage is largely limited to the far margins of Spanish America (northern Mexico & Rio de la Plata regions), when there is plenty of work to do on the frontiers of core areas of Spain's New World empire, e.g. Peru & Bolivia. (There is some fine material on Brazil, but the book's main emphasis is on Spanish America.) Nevertheless, this work definitely advances understanding of important aspects of Latin American history.

The problems of the US mount daily from a ballooning deficit to heightened opposition from multiplying points on the globe. Walden Bello's Dilemmas of Domination is a tour de force dissection of the causes of these mounting problems. He argues from an objective and non-partisan position in the global South. Because he primarily works outside of the US and because his method relies heavily on history, his account is compelling. Dilemmas of Domination contends that the US has entered into a period of decline as the world's hegemon. Three crises characterize the loss of power and prestige. The first crisis is the problem of manufacturing and raw materials overproduction that leads to a decline in profits, and as wages are squeezed to stabilize profits demand falls further. Added to these problems is the fact that the US, the consumer of last resort, cannot continue to borrow and buy forever. The IOUs to the rest of the world will eventually have to be repaid. A second critical problem is military overextension. According to Bello, the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrate the US is not invincible. If it were, how could guerillas continue to move about these occupied nations so freely and make nation-building into such a farce? The US military is so strained that it has to hire mercenaries from companies like Blackwater to protect its corporate interests abroad because a draft would undermine all of its imperial adventures. The third crisis, perhaps the most enduring, is legitimacy. Ideologically, the US has lost its currency to lead the world. Because the US dominates international financial institutions like the IMF, World Bank and most of the regional development banks, their imposition of neo-liberal structural adjustments programs has led to a revolt against their destructive policies as witnessed by the left ferment especially in Latin America but also in the rest of the global South. Furthermore, the US bullying and sometimes insulting treatment of the UN has further sullied the US's reputation. Added to this international delegitimation is the quagmire of domestic politics from the surrender of civil liberties to the patently obvious corporate control of both major parties. For readers looking for a rich and clear formulation of why the US government is detested and feared by much of the earth's population this is the best primer.

In this stringent view from the South, Walden Bello discerns three different crisis levels beleaguering the US world domination: a military, a judicial and an economical level.

On the military front, the Iraq war shows clearly the limits of interventon: 'today the entire US military is either in Iraq, returning from Iraq or getting ready to go.'
The lesson for the South is that the US military supremacy can be brought to a halt with guerrilla warfare. A sledgehammer is useless in swatting flies.

On the judicial front, the US is loosing its legitimacy.
In Western societies, enhancement of individual freedom and democratic representation are the ideological cornerstones of the regime.
Nationally, recognized human rights (no access to personal information, privacy) are jeopardized in the US by the Patriot Act in the name of the war against terrorism.
For Walden Bello, the US government is becoming authoritarian, because it is in the hands of the military-industrial complex, which functions on a risk-free, cost-plus basis and grabs one half of the US budget. He quotes judiciously William Pfaff: 'The military is already the most powerful institution in the US government, largely unaccountable to the executive branch.'

Internationally, consensus and multilateralism are needed through international institutions.
However, the US behaves unilaterally. Dealings with the South are subordinated to strategic considerations (R. Zoellick: 'countries that seek free trade agreements with the US must cooperate on its foreign policy goals.')
Walden Bello's analysis of the WTO agreements is devastating. He calls them a free trade monopoly in the hands of corporate interests. WTO's agreement on Agriculture is not less than 'Socialism for the Rich'.

The result is that the US democratic messianism is seen as sheer hypocrisy by the rest of the world.

Economically, some of Walden Bello's arguments are a little of the mark.
Finite natural resources and ecological space are demographic problems. The conflict between a minority in command of assets and the majority of the population is a trade union and an election problem.
But some of his arguments are to the point. There is a widening inequality gap in the US: the richest 1% of the population pocketed more than half the benefit of the latest tax reduction. The actual US budget and trade deficits are unsustainable in the long run and certainly if the inflow of foreign capital comes to a halt.

Finally, there is a new hegemon at the horizon: China with its state-assisted capitalism. The author summarizes brilliantly China's behavior: 'nations have no permanent friends, only permanent interests.'

But what should the South do in the meantime: regional economic blocks, G-20, South-South cooperation, because 'the weak must hang together, otherwise they will hang separately'.

Walden Bello's hard hitting analysis of current events should be a vademecum for all politiciams and laymen.
A must read.

In this context, I also recommend the works of Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed and Noreena Hertz.

I've read lots of books about globalization and free trade but none exposes the uneven playing field of free trade as good as Walden Bello. He shows that not only the evenness of playing field but also how the way U.S. is imprudently trying to dominate the world by adapting short sighted policies. These kind of policies have become the distinctive mark of recent American ideology domestically and foreign.