Living History Books

I was impressed with the accounts of Finney's labors, especially the ones where he goes into details of the great conviction of sin, and power of God that attended his preaching. We can learn much from these examples in presenting the gospel to the lost today. He was straight with people and called sin-sin, but he also loved people enough to tell them the truth so they had a chance to be saved. This book is hard to put down.

I've read this book for the second time and find it more profitable the second go 'round. Its a great resource for ministers and those interested in the revival of their faith or that of their church body.

There are many "case studies" of Finney's experiences and life stories. There are also many templates for us to apply in ministry today.

The underlying strengths of Finney are seen throughout the book. Prayer, great understanding of scripture, and a radical reliance on the Holy Spirit are exactly what the church needs today.

It's a privilege to rise to Professor Bell's challenge in the book itself and be the first to drop a public note about this book. It's an impressive distillation of a wonderful body of writing in c16 Italy--he's done a fine job of evenhandedly presenting a very large, notoriously difficult to trace, and sometimes outrageous (and entertaining) corpus of material. Another indication (were one needed) that social context in period studies is neglected to one's peril.

A very lively and fast-paced look at advice manuals of the 16th century. He takes a lot of different sources, from manuals written by uptight husbands for one specific person, to widely-published manuals from priests, doctors, quacks, lawyers, and women from all walks of life, to show how middle-class Renaissance Italians looked at things like childbirth, conception, raising children, how spouses should behave, and how widows and widowers should live. What I liked best about the book was the wide range of manuals he takes from -- it's a popular history to be sure, but you come away with a pretty good idea of how people were expected to behave and what was normal for the era. The index and footnotes are splendid -- worth the price of the book itself in my opinion.

The informal tone of the writing makes the book a fun read, but the way he can synthesize all these facts he's got is what makes the book worth the money. I certainly would consider this a valuable addition to my history bookshelf.

If All the Swords in England tells the well-known tale of St. Thomas Becket and King Henry II through the eyes of two twin brothers, Simon and Edmund. Separated in their youth by the death of their parents, Simon, who is lame in one hand, becomes a servant to Becket the exiled Archbishop of Canterbury. He witnesses the sufferings of the Archbishop's household in France and the numerous attempts to bring about a reconciliation between the estranged churchman and his sovereign.

Meanwhile, Edmund comes of age in the royal court. He sees first hand the rages of a king obsessed with protecting his royal power and extending it even into the realm of the Church. The King will not reconcile with his former friend due to Thomas's insistence on standing up for the honor of God.

This book starts off slow but the climax is exceptionally well done--even if you know what's coming. In St. Thomas Becket, one can see a reflection of Christ, who fearlessly stood face-to-face with brutal, murderous men having nothing to defend himself with but the cross. All in all, this book is a fine introduction to the life of a very admirable man, and is easily read by young folks 12 and up.

Barbara Willard's If All the Swords in England, first published in 1961, makes a happy comeback in this quality paperback edition by Bethlehem Books.

The drama unfolds during the turbulent years of the argument between King Henry II Plantagenet and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning juridical authority in church matters.

After the tragic deaths of their parents, brothers Simon and Edmund Audemer are separated. Edmund becomes a page in the court of King Henry II, while Simon becomes a scribe in the household of Thomas Becket.

Willard's use of the literary device of the two brothers allows the reader a "first-hand" glimpse into both the characters of Thomas Becket and Henry II as well as into the climate of the times.

The book is full of exciting episodes (including a miracle), and interesting characters. Barbara Willard's If All the Swords in England presents a timeless story of courage and conscience. It is also an excellent introduction to the heavier Becket by Anouilh and T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. Grades 5-7.

Derek has written for the person who truly believes in God and has decided to make a life-wager commitment. If you are this kind of person willing to go-for-it, who will risk it all for the sake of God-Person completeness, then this is the book for you. It is short book yet complete. Every word counts and if you use it as a handbook, then you will have a dog-eared copy soon after. You MUST want Gods Best. There is a whole chapter on this very point. I wish everyone who reads this book Gods Best! Any YOUR CUP WILL RUN OVER. " To summarize, I will list the things you must do if you want God's best: 1. Want God's best. Do not settle for less. 2. Focus on Jesus. 3. Meditate on God's Word. 4. Make friends with the Holy Spirit. 5. Hear and promptly obey God's voice. 6. Be careful how and what you hear. 7. Be more concerned with eternal than the temporary. Make sure your priorities are right. 8. Let God choose for you."

Derek has written for the person who truly believes in God and has decided to make a life-wager commitment. If you are this kind of person willing to go-for-it, who will risk it all for the sake of God-Person completeness, then this is the book for you. It is short book yet complete. Every word counts and if you use it as a handbook, then you will have a dog-eared copy soon after. You MUST want Gods Best. There is a whole chapter on this very point. I wish everyone who reads this book Gods Best! Any YOUR CUP WILL RUN OVER. " To summarize, I will list the things you must do if you want God's best: 1. Want God's best. Do not settle for less. 2. Focus on Jesus. 3. Meditate on God's Word. 4. Make friends with the Holy Spirit. 5. Hear and promptly obey God's voice. 6. Be careful how and what you hear. 7. Be more concerned with eternal than the temporary. Make sure your priorities are right. 8. Let God choose for you."

The bulk of this book is dedicated to examining the extent to which the Maoist state reduced income inequality in Sichuan province, and the consequences for living standards. Bramall finds that significant gains were made in both these regards. There is also an excellent review of the Great Leap Forward famine which covers the famine throughout China but focuses mainly on Sichuan. This makes sense because Sichuan was the hardest hit province, and nearly half of the deaths came from there. He concludes that 30m died in the famine throughout China (it seems that by now most scholars have settled around this figure). He points out that there were actually two famines. One in 1958 concentrated almost exclusively in Sichuan and Gansu, and the more widespread famine of 1959-61.

The former is found to have been a consequence of maldistribution. In the afflicted provinces, per cpaita calorie consumption increased in 1958. However, the statistical system broke down and there was a large degree of geographical mobility of labor. This resulted in maldistribution which caused widespread starvation.

The larger famine of 1959-61, however, was a result of a decrease in agricultural productivity. Bramall finds the culprit in the Commune form of organization, and the sichuan leadership's politically motivated decision to organize into a commune very quickly.

I am deducting a point from this book (actually, it should be more like a 4.5 ) because when one thinks of discussions of economic planning, they generally think of the effectiveness allocation of resources to productive uses and the consequences for production. In fact, a rather long chapter on theoretical issues related to planning seems to imply this sort of focus (e.g. deindustrialisation in the UK is discussed in the context of the potential for planning). However the book focuses almost exclusively on equality and inequality. To learn about the effectiveness of Maoist planning of production, one would actually do better to look at Bramall's more recent book "Sources of Chinese Economic Growth: 1978-96." Don't be misled by the title, since the Maoist conditions were among the sources of growth, they are reviewed in depth in that book.

This detailed economic history of modern Sichuan Province by economist Chris Bramall is a balanced, illuminating lesson about the pros and cons of industrial planning and egalitarian oriented interventions as a development strategy for deeply impoverished areas.

The title requires explanation to avoid misunderstanding, in that it sounds like a radical leftist cheerleading tract, but actually is far from it. Presumably the title was chosen as an attention grabber, highlighting the counter-conventional wisdom conclusion the empirical research supports.

Why counter-conventional wisdom? If someone argued Shanghai/Jiangsu did ok on the Mao era, few would object strenuously, but Sichuan? Sichuan was devastated far worse than any other province by the Great Leap Forward famine of 1959-61, which Bramall spends an entire chapter analyzing. (Among estimates, Bramall argues that the higher famine death numbers are the most plausible). Later, at the end of the Mao era in 1976-77, Sichuan was again facing a severe food crisis (though not massive deaths this time). These two episodes would hardly make anyone suspect that economic development happened between these two dreadful endposts, but in fact it did, quite rapidly, both in traditional measures and Amartya Sen's alternative "capabilities" view, which Bramall is sympathetic to and employs extensively. Unlike 1970s nonsense written about China, this is not due to uncritical use of official PRC stats. Intepretations can be debated, but his empirical work is solid.

The title aside, this book is not only about the Maoist period. It discusses Sichaun's experience under the ROC, and discusses how the post-famine development phase served as a good foundation for the rapid growth in the first phase of the reform period. (A theme continued in more detail in his follow-up book _Sources of Chinese Economic Growth 1978-1996_)

Bramall points out that the post-famine growth-with-equity phase was even more impressive given the amount of resources that had to be diverted because of external military threats. The "third front" was the duplication of industry in the interior in expectation of American invasion of the Chinese mainland during Vietnam. It is now known that Mao was planning to send the PLA to North Vietnam if the Americans bombed the area of NV near the Chinese border. He felt that the Americans would retalitate by invading China itself, and the extensive third front economic strategy was preparation for this eventuality.

This is purely an economic study. For a more social-political view of rural Sichuan, there are two village studies in English: Stephen Endicott's "Red Earth: Revolution in a Sichuan Village" and Gregory Ruf's "Cadres and Kin: Making a Socialist Village in West China, 1921-1991". Both would make a good companion to Bramall's technical study.

David Goodman's "China's Provincial Leaders, 1949-1985" also contains rich information about the province level politics of Sichuan.

Bramall also wrote a related journal article showing that there was no connection between the date of decollectivization (which varied from 1977-1983 in Sichuan) and rate of agricultural growth; "Origins of the Agricultural 'Miracle': Some Evidence from Sichuan" by Chris Bramall. China Quarterly Sept 1995.

A wonderful book which captures the essence of both modern and ancient Japan with numerous photos and concise written text. This book gives the reader a very accurate, yet perfectly simple taste of Japan. I highly reccomend this book to those who have never been or those who frequently visit Japan.

Here is a beautifully illustrated world, a door into Japanese painting, architecture, music and visual arts. An introduction to Japanese Shinto and Buddhism. Various articles by thoughtful artists and historians. A fine, illustrated cultural overview of Japan -- recommended for travelers and Japanophiles.

This is based on my upcoming review in First Draft Magazine:

KEEPING HEARTH AND HOME IN OLD ALABAMA by Carol Padgett.
Menasha Ridge Press, Birmingham, Alabama. 2002. ISBN
0-8732-522-2.

At first glance, this seems to be one of those pre-packaged
books of old-time advice and recipes that could be reproduced for
each state in the Union--just change the name "Alabama" to
whatever state you want to insert.

However, though this is a wise marketing strategy, this book
is somewhat personalized for Alabama, making it worthwhile for
the historical footnotes it contains, as well as for its
entertaining recipes and bits of wisdom.

Where else would you be reminded that, because of the power
of "White Privilege," many old Southern recipes developed by
black slaves and domestics were credited to the white families
who passed them down the generations? This is something to
ponder.

Where else would you find advice from Harriet Beecher Stowe
on how to boil water properly? Where else would you learn that
asbestos is best in protecting your stove from setting the house
on fire? And you'll be grateful to learn that a dining table
"should be firm and solid and not so shaky that the guests fear
some catastrophe." So much for the advice I got from my wife:
always carry a matchbook to dinner, in case the table wobbles and
you have to level it.

In other words, this is a browser's book, a book for the
waiting room or the bath room. You can pick it up and learn
something totally useless almost anywhere in the book--and once
in a while you'll be startled with a useful piece of information:
"Many children form habits which are not nice, such as spitting
on the floor...and yawning." We have to be thankful for small
improvements over the past century.

--Jim Reed, author of DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS HIDDEN COMFORTS UNEXPECTED JOYS Learn more at: jimreedbooks.com

If you are curious on how your great grandmother, or great-great grandmother lived, this is a must read. Full of interesting recipes, household hints, protocol and family rearing tips of the 1900's. This book is one of a series (several different states have been written about) The book is written in an easy to read format, and would be enjoyable for anyone over 12 years old. This book has some humor and is written for the layman, and not the college student. This book may also be of value for someone writing historical fiction novels. If you are a romantic, and love reading books and watching movies set in the 1900's, this book is for you! Great Value! I am looking forward to reading more in the series. I give it 5 Stars!

Hooray! There is justice in the fact that a translator who has given us many fine translations of Far-eastern wisdom, has turned his attention to the wisdom of the ancient west!

This delightful book, full of wise and frequently ironic sayings drawn from classical sources, repays careful reading. Happily, if you were put off Greek classics by the rather boring approach adopted in modern-day college studies, this book will blow all such aridity away! It bridges the gap between between east and west and makes us conscious of the fact that - in antiquity, at least, there was much common ground between the wise men of the orient and occident. Though this text gives you the sayings of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes etc. it was an inspired choice to select Greek material which had been preserved in Arabic sources. We often forget that the Arab universities in Spain provided Western Europe with its first complete sources of Plato, Aristotle etc. It also shows that - historically, the Islamic world has had open, intercultural dimensions, something not that easy to grasp in view of the contemporary focus on 'fundamentalism' and a perceived 'otherness' dividing cultures.

An appendix contains Greek aphorisms showing a close over-lap between eastern and western culture, if not direct borrowings.
All in all, this is an excellent source for our day and age.
Too many terms identified with Western philosophy have been corrupted by inadequate translation. The cover of this book, for instance, refers to the 'good life,' 'virtue,' and 'action' etc. But the 'good life' - 'eudaemonia' in Greek, means being guided by a 'wise guardian spirit' in regard to life as a whole. It also means 'blessedness.' Not quite the same thing as utilitarian economics, the illusion that wealth or the love of money is a good in itself - as many sayings in this book will confirm. 'Virtue' suggests something rather subjective, but in Greek, 'arete' means the pursuit of excellence, actualising the full range of human (and spiritual)powers. Cleary doesn't get that academic with these terms, so forgive the reviewer for taking that liberty!

The point is, we think we know what those terms mean - seeing them through the lense of indequate translation and long engrained misinterpretation.It might even be that Heidegger fell foul of this himself, given the fact that he shared Nietzsche's disdain for Platonism. Don't swallow, uncritically, the jaundiced view of the Greeks and their legacy, being touted today. Read Cleary's contribution, and you will appreciate the wisdom of your ancestors. East or west, the philosophy of antiquity has something valuable to teach us.

fairly good piece of work... it manages to show a lot of the wisdom of the ages without having to spend hours sifting though plato or socrates translations. I prefered Phanes publishisher's _Pythagorean Sourcebook_ though...

I was browsing among the impoverished English-language section in a local bookstore and this immediately caught my eye with both title and jacket photo. I grew up and went to college in New England and it will always be called home-thus the nostalgia. This lovely and evocative book combines photography that you can drink in (and be transported by) with a very readable text...I find very often in "coffee-table" photo books the accompanying text is either boring or excessively esoteric. This is neither. Dos Santos' impeccable technical skill is obvious, although there is a slight bias toward a stereotypical New England simple-and-spartan ethic as far as subject choice goes. Overlook it and give this book a once-through. You won't regret it.

What a wonderful book! Both the prose and photos are terrific. The authors have truly captured the essence of New England and country life. As a new owner of one of the 25 profiled homes, I can honestly say (o.k., I am a little biased) that this is a book worth buying. SRS

Life as it was meant to be. Rich and full of relationship. Takes on the traditional male position in a relationship and challenges men to move into deeper and richer relationships with themselves, their spouses, and their families. If you are a man you should read this book. If you are a wife or dating a man, you should pick this book up for your boyfriend, husband, father, friend, uncle, whatever..... It's like AMEX "don't leave home without it."

On a friend's recommendation I bought this book for a dear friend and though its not for woman, I read parts of it anyway. It gives insight and inspiration that I would want any man that I date to have read.