History Books

Fifty years ago I had psych classes at the UW, and I helped tend the rats in 600 N. Park. I learned about Harry Harlow, Carl Rogers, and schools of thought in Psychology. Now, finally, I understand and see the importance of what was going on here.

Deborah Blum has clarified the conflicts in behavioral science during the first half of the 20th century as my instructors never could. She has given human faces to the names that were listed in the semester timetables, but whom most students never saw. And Harry Harlow's flaws are not whitewashed, but they are understandable.

Younger readers will be aghast at the parenting style that was advocated by child health professionals over 50 years ago. Many of us, although we were not neglected or abandoned, were not cuddled and made to feel cherished. Harlow, among others, was able to disprove the validity of a sterile upbringing in creating a human adult.

And it is truly a page-turner, well written and captivating.

This book was in great shape and is an excellent read for those who want to understand

When Harry Harlow started exploring the science of affection it was in the face of disregard and opposition in the world of medicine and psychology. But he was able to show that affection is vital to the proper development of the newly born, as too is the measured rejection of the newly born's parents when the time is right. Consequently we now encourage the bonding of parents and children through physical handling. (Perhaps more affectionate and supportive friendships outside the family have developed as a result also.)

These were great insights for society and yet Harlow did face opposition. Just when he was saying the role of the mother (and father - but he was less vocal about that) was vital to the upbringing of the baby, the womens liberation movement was trying to get women more freedom - more equality on the basis of being the same as men. How could this new emphasis on the importance of the role of parents (principally women as men were traditionally the 'bread winners') be tolerated? To me, however, there is a mistake in this. We should not be treated equally because we are the same - but for the very opposite reason - because we are all unique. If we are to get the best from each unique individual then each individual must have equal rights and opportunity. Unfortunately Harlow's approach to opposition was often rude and confronting.

After his death Harlow's research faced another challenge - this time from the animal liberation activists. Harlow had done his experiments on monkeys principally, and these experiments necessarily had damaging (and surprising) results for the animals experimented on. Harlow did care for the animals and provided for them as well as he could in difficult circumstances - for example, he always tried to 'restore' emotionally damaged animals. Although we may now regret the methods he and his students used, and certainly not want to repeat them for the sake of student exercises, we should not lose sight of the vital information that was uncovered.

Deborah Blum's book is engaging and revealing - especially concerning the history of human behaviour with regard to affection and love. It is surprising how recent (1950s) some attitudes were that are now totally overthrown, at least in part because of Harlow's work.

But does psychology have more lessons to learn from Harlow? It is my belief that this is so. I recently had a workplace experience where I was confronted by a workplace bully. But immediately I knew this bully was not picking on me - this was just characteristic behaviour that was applied to everyone they worked with. All the stories and rumours I had heard - and continued to hear with more clarity - suddenly had greater presence for me. To overcome my distress at this situation I used the free staff counselling service offered by my employer. Perhaps in doing that I was already demonstrating my capacity to manage, to cope. What, however, of my colleagues who I now had insight to the terrible behaviour of the bully for them? Harlow would not have been surprised that I had bonded with these people - to some more closely than others. But the psychologist/counsellor understood nothing of this - as long as I was dealt with (the immediate client) nothing else could be done. But the only thing that could really be done for me was to smash all the bonds I had built with my colleagues so that I was no longer concerned for them. Was that reasonable?

And what of psychology offered to one of a married couple privately from the bond that links them. What is the risk that this will actually prise apart the bond that needs to be strengthened or at least maintained? I'm not sure how psychology should handle these matters but it continues to alarm me that the insights of Harlow are still being overlooked in areas where they should not be. Is it the impact of the womens liberation and animal liberation movements that have denigrated the research sufficiently to block its use in other areas?

other recommendations:
'Workplace Monsters' John Clarke (Random House Australia)
'Conditions of Love' John Armstrong
'A Crystal Age' W H Hudson

This is one of the most interesting and well written books I've ever read on this or any similar topic. To anyone who studies or has studied attachment, Blum offers an amazing look at how this early research changed the face of psychology. To anyone who has read countless poorly written descriptions of boring research studies, this book is an oasis.

I don't believe Blum has portrayed Harlow through rose-colored glasses. On the contrary, anyone reading this book might even wonder whether Harlow's neglect of his own children was a good thing, given his lack of compassion and indifference toward the suffering he caused. My copy is well-worn and has been loaned out many times. I highly recommend this book.

This is an extremely interesting book in terms of underlining how damaging scientific fads can be. The early twentieth century fad of data and cleanliness may well have led to the deaths many children as cleanliness was preferred over attention.

Unfortunately, Harry Harlow is less interesting, and provides an abominable contrast to the subject. Harlow ignores both wives and his children in search for - as he wrote in his school's yearbook - 'fame'. He becomes a chain-smoking alcoholic. Bizarrely, Blum emphasises Harlow's visionary understanding of love with, at times, an almost 'here comes superman' manner. She appears incapable of reconciling her argument that Harlow is the scientist of love with the fact that he ignored his wives and all his children!

If anything, I read the book as reflecting one man's selfish, desperate desire for achievement and fame. Thanks to his interest in monkeys, he and his students seemed to fall over the answer. Not exactly visionary.

A good read though, reflecting the pitfalls of faddish thinking, and also how scientific discoveries (if the fact that a child needs its mother is a discovery) occur. The book also reflects how difficult it can be to refute incorrect arguments.

This book is a little gem. It is one of a kind. There is no other book like this on the market, not that I know of, anyway. Although the author is a bit older than I am and some of the clothes are outdated, I could still relate to her. She related her life experiences by detailing what she wore during those experiences. We all can recall at least one event by remembering what we were wearing!! At times, she appears kind of catty, which just gives quite a human element to the book. I myself have so many clothes I cannot get rid of due to sentimental reasons. However, after reading this book, I may do the same thing she did and draw them or take a picture of them and then give them away. This is a GREAT book!!

Delightfully wacky little book deliciously decorated. Even though I'm a male I loved the book and its many drawing/paintings of clothing and other things. It is interesting to know how the book came about and how its author was writing about her life for her children and using her creative ability to show them how her life was growing up.

I learned of the book when reading Jane Smiley's book: "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" and thought her comments interesting enough to buy the book and read it. And I enjoyed it very much. I recommend "Love, Loss and what I Wore" to everyone regardless of gender.

If I could, I would give this book more than 5 stars. What a clever idea to recall onel's life by remembering the outfits worn. Loved the delightful illustrations. Beckerman is a unqiue and talented writer/illustrator. Thanks for the memories!

I had picked this book up and put it back down several times when I saw it at the book store. I am glad I finally bought it! It is an interesting idea, and one that I am sure many of us can identify with: a memoir built on memories of certain beloved items of clothing. Ilene Beckerman had an interesting childhood and has had a varied life as an adult. Obviously, her talents lie more in writing than in drawing--the sketches of the clothing are rather simple,but she does manage to convey what she felt like wearing each outfit. It doesn't take very long to read, and if read in one sitting you get quite a sense of her life. Sometimes funny, sometimes quite bittersweet, but always entertaining.

I, like most of my women friends I've talked to, including my mother and my sisters, shape memories and moments based on the clothes we were wearing at the time.

I bought this book in 1995 when it was first published and have referred to it several times over the years for inspiration and support. I found it in the "Self-Help" section of the bookstore.

This little book does as good a job as anything I've read, at getting in a woman's head. Clothes are how we remember. Wearing our favorite clothes or shoes or carrying our favorite handbag gives us confidence and helps us cope.

For a while, I kept a diary of drawings of outfits whenever I'd want to remember an important event. Ask me what I was wearing when I held my niece for the first time (navy blue A-line Liz Claiborne dress) or when I went to my first job interview out of college (a polka-dot suit I called The Stewardess) or the night I was first kissed by the love of my life (a shirt that said "Keep On Truckin" in glitter... heh).

A good friend's mother passed away a few months ago, and I bought a copy for her, since Ms. Beckerman mentions the death of her own mother. She also mentions marriages, divorces, babies, and career successes, and most importantly, what she wore.

It makes a great gift for any woman. Or for yourself.

I very much enjoyed this book. The author goes into painstaking detail of many many animals (probably some you've never heard of). Not only are the tracks explained, but the possible gaits of each animal, along with the most likely ones are given great attention. There are even sections given to animal scat, what each animal eats, what claw marks might look like and one of my favorites: how to identify predators and prey from kill sites.

This book will remain the standard to the lay person and advanced tracker for quite some time (or at least until wild animals all have GPS embedded in them).

Kudos!

This book has very clear pictures and descriptions. It is a great guide to help you identify tracks and scat when you are in the mountains. It is a great resource to use when you see tracks or scat and want to know what animal left them.

Great book - very thorough collection of mammal tracks and more. Very much worth the money.

I am earning a B.S. in wildlife management and I was needing a book that would help me with mammel signs. I reviewed several and found that they were not what I was looking for. After purchasing Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North America Species, I found that it was a huge help! This book gives understandable descriptions and a lot of pics of mammal dens, feces, tracks, and other signs. I encourage anyone who is in the wildlife perfession or just the everyday wildlife lover to purchase a copy.

This book has great photos of scat, prints, and other animal sign. I was able to use it to definitively identify otter scat on my property. Information is grouped by type of sign, so all the scat pictures are together, for example, and those are subdivided by how they look (pellets, amorphous, etc.). For many animals there are several examples of scat showing what you might see if the animal had been eating berries, or meat, or whatever. In addition to the photographs are drawings and scale data, and other information about animals and their habits. Though as you can tell, I mostly use it for scat identification.

I reccomend this book to any one. It is a touching story that opened my eyes to the horrors of the holcaust.

I'm ordering my second (replacement) set today-- I've lent these books out so many times, and I didn't get them back last time. I know why... these are books you can't forget, you don't want to lose, books you want to look at again and again and share with your friends. I've read much about the Holocaust and been moved by many stories, but none seemed more real or more human than these incredible comic strip figures. Spiegelman captures his father's attitude and dialect so well that I can hear him speak in my mind. Everyone should read these books, Jew or non-Jew, young or old. We must never forget.

This set of books is so terrifically done that I cannot recommend it enough. I have owned the set for a few years now, and every time I reread the books I notice another facet to the drawings or text that adds something new to the story. The first time you read the books, you won't have time to really look at the pictures, but as you read them again, read slowly and observe at the backgrounds and the other people in the panels.

I can only imagine how gut wrenching this series must have been to write for Mr. Spiegelman, but I thank him for doing so. This story brings the Holocaust down to such a personal level, the people in the story are real human beings whose lives don't just begin and end with the Holocaust. You get to see how they lived before, coped during, and survive with the memories of the war years.

Finally, to this day I am moved to tears by the last few pages of the second book. Although Vladek Spiegelman comes off as a racist miser at times (i.e., a real human with flaws), the reunion with Anja is drawn with such genuine emotion between the characters that it is almost painful to read. Imagine yourself in that situation with your significant other and the scene becomes so intensely emotional that you have to look away.

It helps to have a background in the Holocaust but is in no way necessary when reading this book. It should be part of everyone's library!

A few years ago, when I first read MAUS, I was filled with trepidation at the thought of a comic book about the holocaust. As a holocaust educator, I worried that any trivialization of the topic might do more harm than good. After I finished reading MAUS, I walked away believing it did a better job of communicating the loss, suffering and lifelong consequences better than almost any novel or scholarly work I had ever read.
Spiegleman could have bombed on this one: too much 'comic book' or too much history would have ruined the work and caused a nightmare. Instead, he found the most remarkable juxtaposition of human understanding and tragedy communicated sensitively and sorrowfully, in a way in which those of all ages can identify.
My concerns about the Jews portrayed as 'mice' were quickly allayed: these mice had more humanity than most people. The metaphor was so powerful and 'receivable' that I do not think it would have worked any other way. I would recommend it for High School and above, because of its intensity, but at the same time it's hyper-reality is so magnificent that no one studying the holocaust or Shoah, whether at the beginning level or far into a scholarly career, should escape reading it. It is a masterful classic and has left a lasting impression on me for the entire time of my own studies.
Elizabeth Kirkley-Best, PhD, Director: Shoah Education Project (Web)

Incredibly, this story could not have been told in any other medium - it had to be in comic form.

Vladek's story is amazing and horrible, and though he did not die in Auschwitz, perhaps he did not survive.

Speigleman captures his father's horror, and lack of horror in chilling detail, often with little editorial input.

I reread both books almost monthly, and never tired of putting voices to the drawings.

No simple review can wrap-up the power of these little drawings, or of Vladek's calm recall one of the most regretable events of the last century.

Compelling, frightening, powerful and addictive.

This book was recommended as a gift to a pre-med student. She was excited to receive this as it dove-tailed with a course she is currently taking.

This book is amazing! I love it and recommend it to my friends. The author formerly wrote for a New York magazine, and his stories cover decades. It is interesting to see how some diseases such as Lyme's first became known and how the tools available to the medical profession have both changed and some have remained the same. Read it, you will love it!

I was given this book by one of the epidemiologists that was featured in the book. He had great respect for Roueche and loves his articles. I think these stories a very well written and really hold your attention. They also give you a good history of diseases and conditions. Great book!

This "classic collection of award-winning medical investigative reporting", published in 1988, is an excellent book. Each of the 25 case studies originally appeared as an "Annals of medicine" piece in the New Yorker, and there's not a dud in the bunch.

Most of the cases happened in the 1950's or 1960's, when sophisticated, CSI-era analytical techniques were unavailable. Nonetheless, there is no sense that these stories are dated. Roueche is a natural storyteller and has the rare ability to present technical aspects in a way that is intelligible to the non-expert reader, at just the right level of detail.

It's like 25 "House" episodes, but without the gratuitous obnoxiousness, condescension to the reader, or the ridiculous constraint that only a limping, misanthropic painkiller addict can be right.

Berton Roueché wrote for the "New Yorker" magazine for almost half a century, and was winner of the 1950 Albert Lasker Medical Journalism Award. His many volumes on physicians and medical detectives, including this book, were collected from his articles in the "New Yorker."

"The Medical Detectives" volume II is great bedtime reading, because the good guys, i.e. physicians and epidemiologists always get their villain (whether it's a germ, poison gas, or a disgruntled boyfriend). Volume II's twenty-three case histories date from 1947 to 1984, before the days when Big Insurance dictated how long patients would stay in hospitals and what kind of treatment they would receive. Some of the doctors in this book actually made house calls! A couple of the cases really stayed with me, because the patients were kept in the hospital for weeks at a time just to track down a diagnosis. In one case, a man had the hiccups. In the other, a woman had a headache. Can you guess what would happen to these patients if they went to an emergency room, today?

Anyone who is interested in medical detection will be both engrossed and instructed by Roueché's careful, detailed true-life mysteries. The cases contained in this volume range from the man who hiccupped for 27 years through the deliberate poisoning of a family. One of my favorites from 1948 is called, "The Fog". This does not refer to John Carpenter's famous 1980 horror movie, but a true story that is in some ways even more frightening than anything Hollywood could produce. It takes place in Donora, Pennsylvania, a gritty mill town along the Monongahela River, which is infamous for its fogs: "They are greasy, gagging fogs, often intact even at high noon, and they sometimes last for two or three days."

The Donora `Death Fog' killed 20 people and left hundreds injured and gasping for breath. Roueché tells this story of America's worst air pollution disaster through the observations of eye-witnesses, one of them a physician. London usually comes to mind when Death comes stalking through a thick fog, but this story is every bit as atmospheric as one by A. Conan Doyle, and "The Fog's" detectives are real people.

This collection of true medical stories starts off a bit slowly, but you will end up wishing for Volume III.

It's about as miserable as possible, both as literary criticism and as history. Worst reading of the sonnets ever, and that is quite a remarkable achievement. A cringe-inducing embarrassment.

Who am I to go against readers as obviously astute as the seventeen who have rated this book before me and unanimously given it five stars just because it is an insane book by a crank without the slightest idea of poetry, art in general, the creative process, the times of Shakespeare or Shakespeare himself? So: another five-star rating for this gem of the lunatic conspiracy theory genre.

--Bob Grumman

Whittemore's claim begins with a particular interpretation of the first two lines of the first sonnet: "From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's Rose might never die." According to Whittemore, "Rose" (capitalized and italicized in the original, and appearing capitalized 11 more times in the 154 sonnets) means "Tudor Rose Dynasty" of which Queen Elizabeth was the last monarch.

If Whittemore is correct, then the Earl of Southampton (to whom the first 126 sonnets are apparently written) was the actual last Tudor who never became King. The sonnets are thus a tribute to Southampton and his royal claim and the first two lines are a plea to the young Earl to beget an heir so that the Tudor Rose dynasty can continue.

Whittemore's reading of the sonnets allows him to present a unified view of the mysterious verses. In my opinion, his analysis holds together quite well, providing the sonnets with internal consistency and transparently relating them to historical events. In some cases, the sonnets actually explain historical events that were previously mysterious (Southampton was convicted of high treason after the failed Essex Rebellion of 1601 but his life was spared while his co-conspirators, including the Earl of Essex, were executed).

Whittemore's interpretation is much more compelling than the usual "we don't know what the sonnets mean." In fact, he brings the sonnets to life, hugely increasing their power and interest and pathos.

Of course, Whittemore's interpretation rules out the commoner "William Shakespeare" as the author. Whittemore assumes from the outset what Mark Twain and many others have suspected: "Shakespeare" is a pseudonym. William Shakespeare of Stratford who never wrote a letter, didn't own any books, didn't teach his children to read, and who could barely write his own name, did not write the plays and poems which were so obviously written from the perspective of nobility. (If you are 100% certain that "Shakespeare" was NOT a pseudonym, then Whittemore's book obviously isn't for you.)

The book itself contains each of the sonnets side by side with Whittemore's interpretation. The author also provides some background information and many pages of detailed line by line cross references between the sonnets, Shakespeare's work, de Vere's writing, possible sources etc.

For me, personally, understanding the meaning of Sonnet 140: "Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press/ My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain/ Lest sorrow lend me words and words express/ The manner of my pity-wanting pain" was worth the price of the book. It's obviously a threat, but against who and why and under what circumstances? Whittemore seems to have figured it out.

Read "The Truth Will Out" by Brenda James.

Then read the first line of Ben Jonson's two page dedicatory poem to Shakespear in the First Folio, which goes

"To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name"

Which can be written

"To draw no NV (Shakespeare) on thy name"

NV is NeVille - how Henry Neville sometimes signed himself.

Neville was in the Tower with Southampton, for the same offence and also sentenced to death, and Brenda James thinks HE is Shakespeare! To be or not to be ... was written when he was in the tower under sentence of death!

I think the three were brothers, Oxford (1548) 15 years older than Neville (1563) who was 10 years older than Southampton (1573). None of them would have discovered their true identity until they were in their late teens or early twenties. Elizabeth was 15, 30 and 40 when they were born.

Neville had even more experience of Italy and France than Oxford - and they had a great deal in common - Neville was also very interested in Italy, astronomy - I believe he actually met Tito Brahe in Vienna - and in plays. For 6 months of the year he lived in the middle of London, close to Oxford, and near Blackfriars, where the protoplays were performed. Neville and Oxford had relatives in common - Neville was closely related to Cecil. For some reason he has been completely forgotten about - even though he was thought by a number of his contempories to be the most bookish of his generation at Oxford. I think James I went for writing lessons with him in 1604. The King James Bible is almost certainly his work - written after Oxford died.

Oxford worked closely with several writers, and a great number of the plays concern him - and the proto plays of the 1570s and early 80s were probably by him - and although the text of the plays has not survived, some of the names and plots have, and they are very similar to Shakespeare's plays.

I think that most of the finished, polished, works of "Shakespeare" are by Neville, who would have worked closely with Oxford from 1586, or so, onwards. The history plays were an important political project, that would have been supported by Elizabeth and Cecil - from 1586 on Elizabeth paid Oxford £1000 a year - about $1m in todays money. The original plots of a number of the plays, and maybe the writing - before they were rewritten and polished by Neville - may have been by Oxford, and his assistants.

A number of people in the 16th century thought Elizabeth had children. One or two were executed - it was against the law to say she had children! The others that we know about wrote about the rumours in their diplomatic dispatches - I think there are records in Madrid, Paris and maybe one or two other European capitals. But not in England! Where state censorship was very effective. Elizabeth, who was highly sexed and had no access to effective contraceptives, probably had 5 or 6 children.

Henry VIII had several illegitimate children who were placed in noble families - and some of them were a similar age to Elizabeth, in her Court, and did work for her, during her reign. If her father could place his illegitimate children in noble families, why couldn't she? Do not forget that noble families NEEDED heirs - and Oxford, Neville and Southampton were only sons, with curly orange hair! How many people do you know with curly orange hair? I know that the gene for red hair is recessive.

Who knows - Elizabeth herself may have joined in the writing of the plays - she may have helped come up with some of the extraordinary plots - I believe that she was pretty literate herself, and really enjoyed the plays!

So there you go - the works of "Shakespeare" were a family affair! And Neville was a seriously interesting chap himself - one of the founders of two party democracy, a principal player in the London Virgina Company - which was one of the first large capitalist enterprises - it had more than 600 shareholders - and became the USA. Neville tried and failed to persuade James to change his finances from feudal to Parliamentary - we needed the Civil War to sort that out. The "New River" bringing clean water into London from Hertfordshire in 1613 was his idea I believe - and it is still there today, nearly 400 years old.

I will have to buy the book!

While I always loved the language of Shakespeare's Sonnets, I had more or less given up on them. They were obviously deeply autobiogrqaphical, but to what and to whom did they they refer? Were they heterosexual love poems or, as commentators reluctantly came to assume, homosexual tracts directed to the Earl of Southampton who had been the dedicatee of the two long poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece? But how did the latter jibe with the failure of anyone to come up with a connection between the man from Stratford and the Earl? And what sense did it make when the first thirty or so sonnets where addressed to a young man urging him to marry and reproduce himself? And what about the "rival poet" and the "dark lady" who appear in the later sonnets? Many commentators have given up in despair and the orthodoxy became that the autobiography was irrelevant to the poems which had to be read things in themselves without outside reference. So I gave up. Until, that is, I looked into Hank Whittemore's "The Monument."

Whittemore works from the assumption that "Shake-speare" was a pseudonym for Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. The reasonihg behind this has moved from "crank" status to a new kind of orthodoxy, and indeed is all that makes sense of the disrepancy between the life of the man from Stratford and the poems and plays. We can't look at all the evidence and argument here, but we can look at how this assumption helps to explain the content of the sonnets. Whittemore sees them as a chronological series directed by Oxford to Southampton, who was his son by Elizabeth I, secretly put out for fosterage with the Southampton family. This is the famous "Prince Tudor" hypothesis, and before readers throw up their hands they should look carefully at the evidence. I would have dismissed it as improbable except for the fact it does indeed make great sense of the sonnets. The first set about the failure of the young man to marry for example: directed by the Stratford man to Southampton they make little sense and are positively impertinent, but seen as directed by a father to the son he could not acknowledge, but whom he passionately wanted to perpetuate the Tudor dynasty and so ensure his own position as potential King (Henry IX) they fall into place. Add to this that the proposed bride was Oxford's daughter Anne (whom he did not believe was his biological child) and the matter becomes alarmingly obvious. The one hundred central sonnets that follow this series Whittemore shows to be a day by day chronicle of the days spent in prison (the Tower)by Southampton under sentence of death from Elizabeth for his part in Essex's rebellion - one of the jurors in the trial being Oxford himself.
The "dark lady" series refers to Elizabeth herself, and the "rival poet" is of course the adopted persona "Shakespeare" behind which Oxford was forced to hide.

Whittemore takes each sonnet and goes through it line by line showing the code or special language that Oxford used and which explains so much of the persistent imagery of the poems. He examines and cross-references the usages to all the "Shakespeare" works, and includes a detailed chronological history of the historical events that parallel the action of the sonnets, ending with the death of Elizabeth and the dramatic pardoning of Southampton by James I when he ascended to the throne of England. At this point Oxford, as part of the deal with Robert Cecil and James had to completely abandon any ambitions for his son ("I must not evermore acknowledge thee...") and leave the Sonnets as the only "Monument" to the truth.

This is a huge book and a huge enterprise. A shorter version evidently exists that leaves out the details and references, but the reader who is willing to be patient will, as I did, get thoroughly enthralled with the details of the evidence. As poem after poem emerges making complete sense in the context of its writing vis-avis the tormented life of the young Earl of Southampton and the agony of the father who could not acknowledge him but loved him with a moving and desperate devotion, and a picture of great drama and passion emerges. Given the unorthodox theory that he is supporting, Whittemore needs to go to these extraordinary lengths to be convincing. He will be challenged of course, and rightly so. Sometimes he might be overanalyzing and putting too much faith in the sonsistency of the "code." "Beauty" might always refer to Elizabeth, but sometimes, as Freud said, a cigar is just a cigar. Even so, any critic is going to have to show in the same massive detail why he is wrong. This is not a work that can be dismissed as the Baconian codes and cyphers were (rightly) dismissed. When, as in sonnets 30 to 35 for example, the exact reference to the trial of Southampton and Oxford's agonizing part in it become obvious, I have a vast sense of relief, of insight. At last it makes sense. The reader does not need to look at every last note to each poem. Once you get the idea it is enought to read the poem, read the Wittemore' "translation" and get the historical (day by day) context. The notes are there for further referrence and for the scholars. This is an immense work of scholarship, of a very rare kind, one that serves the reader as a source of revelation, and the scholar as a mine of information and dispute. You may not buy it all - and you will have to work at understanding the basic premiss and clear the mind of the cant associated with standard "Shakespeare" biographies, but for all those who like me have been frustrated by a failure to make sense of the most profound autobiographical sequence in any literature, this is a powerful breath of fresh air. If the poems were "Shake-speare's" Monument, then this magnificent book is Hank Whittemore's own Monument and will itself father many distinguished offspring as its possibilities are realized.

i orignially purchased this book as a resource for a paper i was doing on tuscany, but when i received it and began to browse through it, i sat down and read the entire thing from cover to cover. the photography was magnificent; the information was just the right amount without going on and on; the entire product was stunning. i wanted to run to the internet and book the next flight to tuscany!

This is the best for someone wanting to visit interesting places in Italy. It is not only well arranged and written, but it helped so much in trip planning. I highly recommend this to anyone traveling on their own to Italy.

Since I love Italy as a place to visit, this book is great to own.

Yes, the photos are nice, but how many coffee table books with pretty Tuscan villages, cypress trees, and silvery olive leaves shimmering in the wind do we need?

Someone who reviewed this book suggested bringing it along on a Tuscan trip; if you put this large and heavy book in your luggage, you will have to leave the toothpaste, underwear, and a number of other things at home, particularly now that some airlines are apparently toying with the notion of lowering weight allowances and charging for the excess.

The text in most instances is not particularly helpful. There are quite a few books on Tuscany that do a much better job. And I was truly surprised to see the town of San Quirico d'Orcia included in the list of "most beautiful villages". I happen to know San Quirico and because it is off the usual beaten tourist path, it retains an "Italianness" that has been lost by, for example, Greve in Chianti, where one would be hard-pressed to find an Italian in that town's lovely main square on a Saturday afternoon. But San Quirico could never be called "beautiful", by any stretch of the imagination.

Despite my reservations about this book, it would probably be a welcome present for a friend who has recently returned from the grand tour of Tuscany and it will, at least for a while, have a prominent place on this friend's coffee table.

Great service and beautiful pictures of Tuscany but somewhat dissapointed at the lack of an organized route map for efficient traveling to the various villages.

This is a recommended book to read for people who would like to read about statistics and maths. People with few knowledge about these sciences will find it a bit difficult to read.

This is the best book I have found for a general study of the of neural networks. I found this particularly useful when looking at how to write my own NN frameworks. The depth of the mathematics allowed me to easily answer questions like: 'what if I replaced function abc with xyz'. I have found other texts failed to show key mathematical derivations, or to explore the subtleties of what the maths imply.

The book covers a plethora of topics from simple gradient descent through second order techniques and conjugate gradient, through to the use of 'bayesian techniques' (basically confidence intervals on network outputs), monte carlo techniques etc. Similarly error functions, non-linearities (sigmoids, softmax etc.) and data preparation are all treated.

The extensive bibliography also provides excellent references for further study, (a whos who of the field, as well as actual titles). My copy is now dog earred from frequent reading.

The theories of NN and PR are quite difficult to understand. But this book makes them much easier. The author can explain the concepts without using too much formula. If other authors could follow his step then the life is much easier!

If you want a very good, intermediate introduction to pattern classification this book must be on your bookshelf. It even does a very nice job explaining the EM algorithm in a few pages! Basic calculus is all you need to understand the book. A must read.

Mr Bishop's book is very well written and contains a lot of useful information on neural networks. It is outlined well and progresses in a logical form. If, however, you are looking for a book that gives discussions with concrete examples of neural networks applications or set ups, you will be sorely disappointed. The mathematical treatment is universally generalized with very few specific concrete examples shown. Even the exercises will not serve you well. The term 'graded' is used; however, that simply referes to the description of difficulty. There are no answers to these exercises, so unless you have a teacher or are already firmly familiar with the material, you will not know if you have completed them correctly or not. Even worse, the exercises are in general not written to reinforce concepts in the chapter, but in most cases extend the chapter material into new regions.

In summary, this book should only be purchased by someone already familiar with neural networks and their mathematical basis. Anyone else will be wasting their money.

This was a fast read for me because of the subject. I was transfixed as each story was told. I only wish she'd recorded even more experiences. These tales will stay with me forever and I highly recommend this book.

This woman is quite adorable. I found myself surprised at how, even though I picked the book up because I like crime nonfiction, I found it wasn't really a story about crime work at all. Some of the stories were very amusing but the deeper understanding I carried away was what a funny life it is. I greatly enjoyed the story of her parent's reaction to her crime stories and them not wanting to visit her work. I enjoyed the stories about her getting quite a rude introduction to being a crime worker who isn't a police officer and I loved the story of her sneaking home to take care of her dogs and accidentally pressing the panic button that allowed the whole department to hear her dog cooing. If you are looking for a hardcore crime solving book then this might be a little soft for you. If you're looking for a story of how ridiculous the actuality of crime is through the eyes of a quirky young mom then this is probably right up your alley.

Dana Kollman is hilarious, and very to the point. True forensics is nothing like it is on TV. Please read this if you are considering! Stories can be somewhat nauseating, don't read during dinner like I did.

I LOVED every part of this book. It's fantastically written and incredibly entertaining from start to finish. She has a way with words and is an excellent story teller! She was also my Forensics Professor at Towson University, so I may be a bit biased but I still think that this is probably one of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time.

Irreverent (only because we attach such hushed tones to death) and extremely informative for those of us who have only learned about death's aftermath from CSI, Ms. Kollman's book resonates with the writer's personality. It is to be hoped that the relatives and friends of the deceaseds mentioned in the book do not take umbrage with the light-hearted style of Never Suck A Dead Man's Hand. Once or twice I thought the humor was carefully cultured. This is a really useful handbook for writers, beginner CSI operatives or even those who simply like learning about the technical difficulties of collecting evidence from the dead.

Woodward had done a masterful job, with his writing assistant, of describing the issues of command, the concern about sending others into combat where they may lose their life, the need to keep in mind what is central about a mission, and so many other thoughts about what leadership means. This book is a study of BOTH (1) management of a large task (be it war, be it a large company or nonprofit, be it of government) when dealing with an adversary compelled to fight you (be it the other side in a war, be it a company fighting you for market share, be it a Democrat or Republican that believes as you do not), and (2) of management of a military war where weapons are wielded by you and weapons are wielded or threatened against you. The real-life drama of uncertainty of events, of certainty of purpose, and of just what went on in this saga is of interest to very many readers. I have British friends, I have Argentian friends, and no matter which side you believe is right (both have their points) this is a good book about a mission one is given and how one needs to carry it out, and the thoughts and second-thoughts that must go through any leader's mind.

Read this as a book about leadership, and you will do fine. Read this as a book about war, and you will also do fine. Read this as a book about both, and you'll get even more out of it.

The book was received in excellent condition. The story is well written and very interesting. Would recommend it highly.

As Wellington famously said of the Hundred Days Campaign culminating in the Battle of Waterloo, the Falklands Campaign was a also damn near run thing, according to the Battle Group Commander, Adm Sandy Woodward, in this excellent book. Writing in what can best be called a distinctly British style, Woodward takes the reader into the bridge of the Hermes, his command ship for the Falklands expedition. What we get is a brutally honest, technically detailed, and gripping narrative not only into how the British pulled off a decisive victory, but also the self-doubts and mentally taxing minutia of a Commander sending troops and sailors into harm's way. This book is especially valuable for its detailed description of how navies fight. This is no small task. For example, the reader learns how:

1. submarines track ships and the risks they run to track them and shoot them. The example of the sinking of the General Belgrano is first rate
2. how a routine matter such as cross-decking troops between ships bedevils commanders and can end in tragedy
3. ship's tactics for defending themselves against aircraft (this is particularly helpful. In the US military, we have become so accustomed to air and sea superiority that those who operate on the ground take it for granted. It's not! It must be gained and earned - if need be, the hard way.)
4. The inevitable tension that will arise between sea, air, and land commanders during the prosecution of an amphibious campaign. We get Woodward's side here, but he is brutally honest on when he was right and when he was wrong.
5. The role of destroyers, frigates, aircraft carriers, amphibs, and supply ships, and the risks they ran -- and still do -- to do their jobs.

This is one of the only books I know of that actually explains how modern navies fight, and it is thus indispensable to navy officers and to those who seek to learn more on control of the seas.

Into the finest traditions of The Royal Navy ( and any other righteous, but self-anylizing, self-depricating, hero-by-fire war-tested veteran), we are allowed an inside view into a theater-of-war that we, who have never paid the price, secretley covet. Gallentry, selflessness, pride of country, pride of duty, discipline, all seem to be the lost arts of the past, but Woodward and others in this telling instruct us that, to this day,our young men and women rise to the occasion, as in the days of old. What is that extraordinary part of us that is able to trandsend all our own limitations and push beyond to victory, over our enemy and over ourselves? This book may help you to answer that question!

This is an absolutely first-rate memoir by the man who led the British fleet to victory in the Falkland Islands War. Only 50 years-old when he was chosen to lead the battle group to recapture the islands in 1982 (hard to believe this gentleman is now 73!), Admiral Sir John F. "Sandy" Woodward was courageous and competent commander. That being the case, he is also refreshingly honest and humble as he tells his remarkable story.

As the Admiral mentions in the epilogue, many will always regard the Falklands as having been "a pushover war - the mighty Brits crushing the ridiculous Args" (349). But as this book makes clear, it was anything but a cakewalk. The Argentinian sailors and pilots were brave and worthy oponents. The British fleet took heavy casualties: 6 ships sunk (2 destroyers, 2 frigates, 1 amphibious warfare vessel and the transport vessel Atlantic Conveyor with its precious cargo of 10 Wessex and 4 Chinook helicopters). Another 10 ships were badly damaged. Many of these were not sunk only because the Argentinian bombs reguarly failed to detonate. The British, of course, won decisively though, thanks to the professionalism and courage of the British forces. But it was an intense and bloody six weeks.

The campaign was also a turning point in the history of naval warfare. Although anti-ship missiles were first used to sink Syrian missile boats by the Israelis back in 1973, the destruction of HMS Sheffield by the French Exocet missiles fired from Super-Etendard fighter-bombers grabbed the attention of the world's militaries. Newsweek's subsequent cover-story on the incident read "Falklands Fallout: Are Big Ships Doomed?" Many wondered if large warships had been rendered obsolete by the effectiveness of anti-ship missiles. Indeed, the two British aircraft carriers in the South Atlantic were very vulnerable. If even one of them had been put out of commission by an Exocet, it is unlikely the Falklands could have been recaptured. It is very interesting to read about how the British struggled with some of their new high-tech weaponry such as the Sea Dart. It took some failed attempts in battle before the bugs got worked out and they got comfortable with the new system.

Admiral Woodward is an excellent writer. His descriptions of the battles are riveting, especially the moments of calamity such as when HMS Sheffield was crippled by Exocets. You really get a sense of the fear, anxiety and adrenaline. It's as exciting as any Tom Clancy novel without a doubt.