Anthology Sources Books

This book is a wonderful collection of literature from the Victorian Period. The editors picked the best authors that demonstrate the what was being written during the Victorian period: Carlyle, Mill, Huxley, Ruskin, Arnold. In addition they chose a great collection of work that defines the literature of the Victorian period. Whether you are a student of Victorian literature or just a lover of the time, you'll enjoy this collection

Mathisen has crafted an interesting piece of literature here. After having to study his selections and fill the entries out for a grade, I beleive I've attained the knowledge that he desires for the reader. Though his purpose may be a lofty one, the outcome of this book's study has the possiblity of enriching one'e life permanently.

Overall, this book contains an excellent sampling of Reformation satires, selected by Rummel to communicate the entire spectrum of these writings, both Catholic and reformist. Additionally, Rummel's preface to each work provides outstanding background and commentary on the satire. Her selections provide a good balance of opposing viewpoints, with _The Powers of the Romanists_, _Theologists in Council_, and "A Journey for Religion's Sake" representing the humanist and Lutheran reformers, and "A Reuchlinist's Ascent to Heaven" and _The Great Lutheran Fool_ epitomizing the conservative Catholic theologians. These masterpieces of Reformation literature are extraordinary in many respects, not the least of which is the fact that these writings manage to educate and to entertain, to shock and to please, to generate feelings of abhorrence and of wonderment, all in the period of a single breath. The translations of each of these works more than adequately convey the spirit of the originals-even today they are capable of evoking the same intense emotions within the reader as they must have done in the sixteenth century. Just as Gratius, Rubianus, Murner, and Erasmus directed their writings toward a wide-ranging general audience, so too does Rummel keep the diction and style of her translations faithful to their originals. The remarkable cleverness of language and mastery of technique abundant in these wonderful satires is as evident and enjoyable today was they were nearly five centuries ago.
This book is not without its flaws, however, though they are few and far between. One such imperfection is the vast amount of endnotes that accompany each selection. Although it is possible to read and even to understand the majority of the text without referring to the notes, it is not recommended, excepting those with a classical background-these notes serve to clarify certain Greco-Roman or Reformation Era references. It would have been better had the publisher printed them as footnotes rather than endnotes, as the constant page-flipping can become rather tedious. One other blemish concerns the selection _The Great Lutheran Fool_: Rummel presents this work only in fragments of prose. Even though the prose translation is a worthy one, it cannot fully convey the mood of the verse. This slight transgression is easily forgiven, however, when one takes into account the difficulty of retaining the meaning of the original when translating from German to English verse. The fragmentation of this selection is not so simply overlooked, as only small selections of the poem are used, all taken from the first half of the work. These minor defects, however, do not hinder the overall value and enjoyment of the book, and _Scheming Papists and Lutheran Fools_ is still an exceptional piece of literature.

Fred Chappell, Source (Louisiana State U., 1985)

Fred Chappell has developed, over the course of his career, an amazing (even for a poet) ability to see, and to record what he sees in such a way that it is both poetic and understandable. In Source, Chappell's seventh book of poems, he may have reached the height of his ability to do so during the early period of his career. The poems here are for the most part short, imagist evocations of pictures the speaker can see; nothing more, nothing less, leaving the reader to come up with any deeper meaning (assuming one is necessary, which often it isn't). In other words, much of what is in Source is the very essence of poetry. For example,

An ancient wound troubles the river
Where the horses drink their reed-spiked shadows.
The perfumed barge drifts by, bearing
a final viceroy to oblivion....
("Source")

Good, solid, easy-to-picture image, and the reader is left to determine whether he's watching a funeral procession, a garbage scow, or an invented metaphor for the death of the Old South (or any of a number of other possible interpretations). This is exactly what poetry is supposed to do, what it should be; would that more poets, or those who consider themselves poets, would read Chappell and understand that this is the kind of thing they should strive for. ****

This book is a very good informative book for the work enviornment during the Medieval Times.

A nice collection of writings and presentations by Thurgood. It is dry straightforward reading. Very informative. If you love Thurgood, it's a must read.

Edmund Ironside was Chief of the British Imperial General Staff for the first nine months of the Second World War. He was a veteran of nearly 40 years in uniform served across the British Empire. And, he was a relentlessly honest diarist. "Time Unguarded" contains his lightly edited diary entries for the period 1937-1940, as the building crisis with Nazi Germany came finally to a declaration of war in 1939 and military disaster in Norway and France in 1940.

Ironside's diary was edited by one of his former military aides, himself an experienced officer, who limited this book to Ironside's diary entries day by day and only the most minimal after the fact explanations, clearly marked as such. What emerges, from Ironside's several excellent vantages points, is the slow stumbling of Britain and her allies into a war for which they were badly unprepared but failed to prevent.

Ironside was an observant man who spared neither himself nor the people around him in his diary entries. His bluntness can be sometimes be trite, but it is more often illuminating of how complicated events unfold in the fog of war. The author's distress at Britain's unreadiness for war is balanced by his pride in the stubborn professionalism of the British Army under duress, as at Dunkirk in 1940. His sorrow for the units which were sacrificed to hold the German Army at bay during the evacuation from Dunkirk has a special poignancy. In some respects, it was the last showing of the small professional army in which Ironside served most of his career, soon to become the core of a mass army of mobilized citizens.

"Time Unguarded" is highly recommended to students of the Second World War, especially seeking an insider's view of how it all fell apart at the beginning for the Allies.

For students of the counterculture and the sixties in general, and for those interested in learning more about the turbulent times and momentous social, political, and cultural events swirling through the 1960s, this book offers a plethora of articles, speeches, and eye-witness accounts of the myriad of speeches, declarations, and court decisions marking that topsy-turvy decade. Indeed, no decade in the 20th century was so pock-marked with mass protest, social excitement, or utter confusion than was that time, and the authors have gathered together here a commendable collection of works that help to present a number of notable perspectives on all that transpired.

The sixties were a time of confusion, liberation, and, more than anything else, a general sense of questioning conventional wisdom and common cultural practices. And the series of works presented here help to explain and describe how all these competing shouts and movements amid the many streams of issues and concerns helped to form the changes that literally changed the social and cultural landscape of contemporary America forever. There are articles here that reveal much about a wide spectrum of contravening forces, from the anti-war movement to the influence of Woodstock on the public imagination, from the civil rights movement to the landing of American astronauts on the moon, and from politicians and spokesmen as varied as Barry Goldwater on the one hand, and Abbie Hoffman on the other.

This anthology is a well thought-out effort, and covers a lot of important ground in its selections, and the authors provide the reader with a lot of research and information on issues as varied as the Bay of Pigs invasion to the infamous Tet campaign launched by the Viet Cong in early 1968, fatally changing the course of the Vietnam war. While the book is unlikely to change many minds, it does provide grist for a lot of soul-searching and rethinking of ideas about what happened during the sixties and how it still affects us to this day. It is likely to infuriate denizens of the right while confirming the predispositions of the New Left. In any event, there is no doubt it is a valuable book that accomplishes the difficult task of assembling a meaningful and useful collection of essays, speeches, and other documents concerning the truth about what happened in the 1960s and why. Enjoy!

A brand new collection of disjointed speech, absurdities, hilarious clues, wise sayings, diabolic findings: the ultimate handbook for the successful comedian? No, it's all true.
The most powerful imagination can't compare with what crude facts have in store. Pure entertainment directly from everyday life. Police reports that seem to come from the pen of an inspired Mark Twain; court transcripts pervaded with peerless drama. With "The dog dialed 911", human nature tops the heap of comedy. Once again, reality meets fantasy. And wins.

"The Dog Dailed 911" is drawn from public records, largely thanks to the "Freedom of Information" act. Included are such "gems" as Senator Kerry's Navy fitness report (the authors note that his KIA record exceeds that of Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Scalia, DeLay, etc. - combined!), and "oral history" of Bush's Vietnam-era service (a copy of his dental record), Kobe Bryant's testimony to a detective regarding his Colorado rape charge, the DUI arrest report for NASCAR driver Busch, etc.

As for the dog who dialed 911, we learn that a dog accidentally stepped on a man's cell phone and speed-dialed 911 - operators, hearing a crying baby but unable to talk to anyone, dispatched officers to the owner's address where they found 150 marijuana plants.

Definitely less than I had hoped for.

This is nothing like I expected...

the entire first chapter (which is entitled: "Adult Entertainment") is full of nothing but sex jokes. This goes on for 30 pages befor you get into the Human waste, celebreties and "the creative uses of the word 'fag' by novelist Terry McMillan".

The third chapter is filled with Drunks and druggies, while the Fourth is about Bill O'Reilly.

The fifth gets slightly more interesting with slurs in Kid's puzzles, prison photos and half naked women.

The sixth deals with wierd things in papers children bring home from school or have on tests.

The seventh was the only non-trash chapter in the book. This dealt with the govenment/Politicians and funny/horrible things they did... like "Tips for Al-Qaeda Detainees".

The eighth is when you finally hear about the "Dog who dialed 911" but it is almost lost among the other trash about animals.

The ninth chapter entitled"Law and Order" deals with wierd laws and punishments. and while some is clean most has at least a hint of dirt about it.

The Tenth chapter is entitled "Freak Show" and is almost entirely about sex... with both yourself and animals.

The eleventh and last chapter (Thank God!) is about all the horiid things people say... three quarters of which deal with sex.

The most interesting thing in the book (besides the 7th chapter) are the prison photos of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, which take up 2 pages in this 216 pages of trash.

I wouldn't mind so much if this was what they advertised it was, but this was nothing like the description...and I bought this as a Christmas present...imagine my shock when I flipped though and found these things...I had to get a different present!

I was very disappointed in this book. Much of the material was rather lame although I liked the "stupid criminal" material.

Particularly offensive to me was the celebrity information, which was largely stuff that would not intrest anyone in the least if it involved an 'ordinary' citizen. It struck me as rather intrusive and rude to make money putting into print things that are technically public domain but is really stuff that isn't anyone's business or of intrest except to the celebrity-obessed. This is a philosophical point that not everyone shares. But even if you like celebrity dirty laundry, most of this was the equivalent of once-worn plain white tshirts, not tawdry lace undies or blood-splattered clothing.

I bought this book as a gift for X-mas, before wrapping it I read through it and i was amazed at how different it was from the description that I had heard. This book was not funny, there were a couple of pages that were semi funny but the entire book wasn't worth the $12 or so, and i feel bad about giving it as a gift.

...You can't argue with success: Wheeler is a real poet and Knott is not. Her two books are worth more than all his put together. Don't argue with the Poetry Establishment.

In reference to "a reader in ny"'s (what is the proper punctuation there?) "shiny & shallow" I take exception. I'm also a great fan of the poet Bill Knott. He's brilliant. And yes I do see crossover between Knott and Wheeler. But although they're both wildly clever, the territory is simply different which makes any comparison between the two poets invalid. Knott is a sufferer--and God bless sufferers. Wheeler is an observer--(I don't know if God blesses observers, but theological considerations are not necessary to this review). In her own oddly guarded, controlled and quite imaginative way, Wheeler's telling us what she sees. May both poets reign. May ALL poets reign.

This book of poems is really cool. Susan Wheeler is intelligent and real. I can relate to the language and images she uses to propel her poems, poems that show me the world, show me myself. This book I picked up expecting to read one or two poems, but ended up reading it straight through one morning. It's odd that you can actually buy this kind of pleasure.

There's skill here, but no heart. Just a poet who knows her intelligence and cleverness but's blocked. If you wrung out the soul from Ashberry, you'd have Wheeler. There's a poet in New England, Bill Knott, who is far more dextrous than Wheeler; he writes similarly, but the reader feels and laughs. Knott is a dazzler. But not Ms. Wheeler.

There's got to more to poetry that this. There's just got to be.