Europe Books

Fabulous book. If you want to understand the French, this is a great book to read. It is amazing that such a cultural country took so long to come into the 20th century. I recommend this book highly.

As a frequent vacationer in France, some customs -- especially in the countryside -- bewildered me. Ms. Tindall weaves details of country life into an exquisite tapestry (tapisserie) that explains much that was confusing. She moves her readers back in time and gently brings us to the present.

I took this remarkable book by Gillian Tindall on vacation and enjoyed it very much. It is quite an impressive bit of social history scholarship. Tindall has really raked the public records to reconstruct this history. I had a bit of trouble keeping the villagers straight as time passed and new villagers arrived and departed the scene. But that does not matter; I grasped the overall picture. Even Celestine, whose letters first interested the author in the project, becomes but another character and the real subject of the book emerges as the evolution of rural France in the 19th century.

It is really quite a fantastic story, and, of course, I was wholly ignorant of the backward conditions in the Berry region until well into the 19th century. I always thought of France as in the forefront of the industrial revolution, the enlightenment and the political changes in Europe. But I now know that that was pretty well limited to Paris and perhaps a few other urban centers.

The book makes clear that lack of transportation was the chief culprit. People did not have horses and the paths were largely for walking and did not accommodate wagons. And the distances were vast given the conditions. The villages had no stores, no inns, no tradesmen. Goods were mainly consumed by the farmers themselves with only a small surplus available in good years for sale locally. Money was not in use and French was not used until the 3rd Republic pushed schools and roads into these rural areas. Essentially, as the author points out, notwithstanding the revolution and the Napoleonic period, the Berry in 1830 was much like it had been in 1430.

The author also hints at the romantic myth that the French have bestowed on their rural areas. She does not go into detail, but hints that this view results in their inability to lessen subsidies to their farmers or modernize their agriculture. All these Frenchmen, especially those in the middle class, with summer homes in the countryside, are apparently convinced that way back their ancestors were peasant farmers with a deep love of the land. The English and we Americans certainly do not encourage this illusion: that we are the salt of the earth - or at least the descendants thereof. We have our own myths, but our agricultural subsidies are based on the fact that farm states have more representation in the Senate than their population would justify and the strength of the agribusiness lobby. In other words, no romantic notions, just good old greed and political power. This is easier to deal with.

I had in mind to get 'Celestine' for a long time when it presented itself to me on a 'bargain table' at the LA Times Festival of Books... what a treasure! It is a quiet and gentle diversion into another world and time. Beautifully and lovingly written by Gillian Tindall, the book speaks of the timelessness of the human condition, of loyalties and relationships, of loves and passions and hopes and dreams, some realized and some not. Truly, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I highly recommend this book.

Gillian Tindall shows a great deal of erudition in painting with great exactitude the evolution of a French village over almost two centuries, showing how the life of the village and its people were affected by the arrival of the railroads, the changes of political regimes, the influences of the wars. She has been able to capture the spirit of the french peasants of the Berry with a deep understanding and she gives the impression of feeling much affection for them. Her book is warm and " vivant " and wonderful

I came to this book after reading several books on the Caucusus -- Yo'av Karny's 'Highlanders' (2001) being the best -- and a couple on Chechnya -- Khassan Baiev's memoir 'The Oath' (2004) the most profound of those. Admittedly, I came to Tishkov's work skeptical: he is Russian, after all. For those of us perhaps a little too eager to see local resistances to 'imperial' power and statehood as liberatory struggles, Tishkov engages us in a real marvel of anthropology, teasing apart threads, and questioning assumptions. Like Baiev, albeit in a very different way, Tishkov's professionalism, his belief in the rationalism of the anthropological method, carries this book. It is certainly possible he may have carefully selected and then edited his informants' words, but to what end? Throughout the book I was successively impressed by his unwillingness to engage in "a debate over the truths of who did what during the Chechen war." This is not to say that Tishkov avoids pointed commentaries about either Russian hubris or Chechen entrepreneurial violence, but it is to say that he does a profound job in helping his readers understand the precarious nature of war and peace, especially in a cultural climate where "even the slightest of differences can be used to justify violence."

Tishkov presents a blanced, well researched account of the two Russian-Chechnyan conflicts. Filled with interviews of both Chechnyns and Russians, the book gives a factual account of the war mixed with personal stories of the survivors. Highly reccomended if you want a down the middle view.

This is a very good book about the Chechen War written from the viewpoint of the fighters. Most books on this topic are written by Liberals apologists for terrorism, who sympathise with the rebels and blame Russia for the terrorist acts committed by Chechens. Others are by extreme Conservative Christians who just hate all Muslims. Chechnya went from being a struggle for independence to a Holy Jihad. If you want to hear the real story from the voices of the Chechens, here it is! This book is easier to read then Wolves of Islam, and I reccommend reading both!

Following the tide of change that resulted in the breakup of the Soviet Union, the people of Chechnya proclaimed their independence in November 1991. Inevitably, many events took place between the newly formed nation and the Russian Federation, leading to the invasion of Chechnya by Russian troops in early December of 1994. A conflict that Anatol Lieven, the author of Chechnya: Tombstone Of Russian Power, has referred to as "the greatest epics of colonial resistance of the past century". Thus, for the next ten years, one bloody war after another reduced a thriving country to rubble; the Chechens enduring unimaginable suffering with no end in sight. To date, the struggle for self-determination has somehow, develop into an "Islamic" guerrilla war. Chechnya: Life In A War-Torn Society is not an account of the war; rather it is a reflection on a Chechen society forced into a never-ending, cruel and traumatizing war. The author of this scholarly text, Valery Tishkov, is currently the director of the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Therefore, his views on the conflict can be deemed authoritative and to some extent, biased.
In the first five chapters, the author seeks for the answer by explaining the historical context of events such as Stalin's atrocious deportation of the Chechens to the lifeless steppes of Kazakhstan during World War II, which the Chechens suffered in silence, undoubtedly created bitterness in their memories. Yet he asserts that it is not a reason for the unending conflict. Nor, according to Tishkov, do ethnic, tribal, or religious disparities explain the tragedy of this war. Tishkov however places the core of the problem in the early stage of Boris Yeltsin's presidency when rivalries between factions paralyzed the operations of the government in dealing with the Chechen crisis. He perceives the bloodshed as the result of unresponsiveness and puzzlements on the Russian leaders when the Chechen crisis first emerged and the reluctance to deal with General Dzhokhar Dudayev, whom the author introduces in chapter six, while the situation is still in control. All through the book, Tishkov observes the first war and its aftermath through the eyes of fifty-four Chechens whom he and his associates interviewed at length. These "informers" have infused his account of the war with an exclusive directness and subtlety. Their recollections offer a distinctive ethnographic description and analysis of the war, the outcome, and what precipitated it.
According to the survivors and Tishkov, the Chechens success in the first war can be attributed to the use of "guerrilla warfare", with tactics such as ambushes and attacks on the enemy's lines of communication which the author of Resisting Rebellion, Anthony J. Joes, stated as one of the vital strategy for insurgents to succeed. Tishkov goes on to express his admiration for the Chechen fighters' ability to overcome the psychological fear and intimidation and master the techniques of guerrilla warfare. Nevertheless, in chapter seven, when they staged and recorded their attacks, Tishkov portrays the exhibitionist behavior of the Chechen fighters as acts of terrorism. The author fails to realize that it is one of the ways that terrorists can get their objectives across to a wider audience. In his book Terror In The Mind Of God: The Global Rise Of Religious Violence, Mark Juergensmeyer, the noted sociologist and the Director of Global and International Studies, explains it as a theater that terrorists use to conduct terror for their audiences whom they are trying to terrorize. Yet, Tishkov fails to mention the atrocities that Russian troops committed on the Chechens that provoked the situation in the first place. On the aspect of religious, from chapter eleven to the rest of the book, Tishkov emphasizes the negative influences of Arab outsiders in the conflict, such as the al-Qaeda terrorist's network, whom he feels is using Chechnya as a stage determined to turn it into another Islamic state similar to the Taliban of Afghanistan. Tishkov's Chechnya: Life In A War-Torn Society is a recommended book since it does not try to venerate or condemn either side of the conflict but to expose how the war-monger parties in both Moscow and Grozny have made the erroneous political decisions that brought war to the Chechens and terrors to the citizens of Russia. Last but not least, the reader of this book must approach it with an open mind and not to form their judgments prematurely. Such as, in the view of some Westerners, the conflict is being about a small brave nation fighting against an imperial monster, or, in the view of Russia, an armed coup d'etat in Chechnya led by General Dudayev, resulting in the rise of an aggressive paramilitary regime that challenged both the Russian state and its armed forces. Nevertheless, it is a conflict that for Russia, according to Joes, who ranks it as one of the most disastrous counterinsurgent experiences on record, with the full implications of which have yet to manifest themselves.

Unlike many other books on Chechnya, this one offers a unique ethnographic account and analysis of this war and of what preceded it. Although very academic, it offers 'direct voices' of Chechens (mostly) that either suffered the war or have escaped it and now live elsewhere. The book does not attempt to glorify or condemn either side but, on the contrary, demonstrates how hawkish parties in both Moscow and Grozny have committed acts of political shortsightedness that dragged the country into war.

While this book is not going to satisfy anyone whose opinion has already been formed, especially anyone who views this conflict in terms of a small brave nation fighting against an imperial monster, it is more scientific and balanced than any other book that exists on this subject in English. It also takes a stab at Western preconcieved notions such as a failure to recognize ethnic cleansing of Chechnya in 1991-94 when the city of Grozny has been cleansed of non-Chechens who were forced to leave the republic or killed, their appartnments having been taken by the militants.

In short, this book will please you if you are looking for a balanced account or if you have an open mind and are not already set in condemning the Russians. After all, these are Chechen voices too.

The emotion that produces Vishniac's work,in the Eastern Europe Jewish comunnities a few years before the II World War is hard to put in words, because it's really a world that vanished not because of progress but because someone, with hatred, erased it from earth.
I feel grateful to Vishniac cause he allows us not to forget.

This book moved me a great deal. The black and white images convey such innocence in the children. The simplicity of the beautifully produced photographs juxtaposed with children's songs and rhymes (in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English) gives the impression of viewing the images in a gallery. The photographs, the narrative, and the publication itself are of very fine quality. And the message is unforgettable.

This is a powerful book. In its pages we find starkly beautiful black and white photographs of children laughing, crying, playing, studying, working, in the course of their daily life... unaware of the horrific nightmare that will overtake them soon and destroy their world.

The children's eyes look at you with all the innocent curiousity and wonder of eternal, universal childhood. You look again and apprehension grips you: in a few short years after being photographed, the future of many of these children will be brutally terminated in an unmarked mass grave or a crematorium. The poignancy of this harsh reality is driven home when you read editor Mara Vishniac Kohn's dramatic description of her father's desperate, futile efforts to use his photographs as a means of arousing the conscience of the world and inspiring action to save these children and their families. We learn that Roman Vishniac sent these photos to the White House, only to recieve a perfunctory note thanking him for "the excellent pictures you sent the President."

I must express my heartfelt compliments and appreciation to the editors, Mara Vishniac Kohn and Miriam Hartman Flacks, for the way in which they have presented these precious images-- accompanying them with the lyrics of appropriate Yiddish children's songs, in the original Yiddish and English transliteration and translation, rather than the standard dry caption text. I am especially grateful to the editors for including the music and annotation for these wonderful songs.

This book belongs in every home and library.

In a haunting collection of black-and-white photographs, Roman Vishniac records the lives of Jewish children in Eastern Europe in the early part of the century, before the start of the Holocaust. The text is a series of children's songs (in Hebrew with English translation), which are touching and show how much children are alike whether they're from one side of the world or another. But the shadow of the Holocaust, while never shown, shades readers' appreciation of the images. This is a book I will not soon forget.

I am an amateur photographer. 90% of good photography is in finding the right subject. These photos are stirring.

The USS Macedonean (originally HMS) is largely forgotten today, but her legacy is intertwined with the early days and wellfare of the young American republic. She was the first English warship to be captured by the American Navy, and was instrumental to putting an end to the Barbary pirates, and even had a hand in the reopening of Japan to the world.

It is only fitting therefore that a book would be written about her. De Kay's book, "Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian" is an extremely entertaining read, one that well worth the time. There aren't many single ship biographies out there about the American sailing navy, which makes this book a solid gem.

Chronicling the Macedonean from her construction in a shipwayd in england, to her (What was left of her) final destruction at the hands of a fire in 1922, De Kay weaves a entertaining account of the ship, her glories and her more tarnished incidents. The true cast of character is diverse, ranging from the honorable John carden, who lost the Macedonian to the USS United States and never commanded a ship again, to Commodore James Biddle, who's own tenure as captain was filled with sickness and death on the ship, to "Commodore George DeKay" who successfully used the Macedonian to bring much needed relief to an Ireland suffering from famine.

The Macedonian's history was filled with political intruige, madmen, jealousy, courage, an death. De Kay chronicles it all in vivid color. If you enjoy C.S Forester, Patrick O'Brian, or Naval History, I'd strongly suggest this book.

You don't often find a biography of a ship. Especially a ship which has a history as rich and varied as this one. The lives, careers,countries this ship saw. Wonderful history. It ties time together and does what few teachers can, makes history live. With a broadside!

The USS Macedonean (originally HMS) is largely forgotten today, but her legacy is intertwined with the early days and wellfare of the young American republic. She was the first English warship to be captured by the American Navy, and was instrumental to putting an end to the Barbary pirates, and even had a hand in the reopening of Japan to the world.

It is only fitting therefore that a book would be written about her. De Kay's book, "Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian" is an extremely entertaining read, one that well worth the time. There aren't many single ship biographies out there about the American sailing navy, which makes this book a solid gem.

Chronicling the Macedonean from her construction in a shipwayd in england, to her (What was left of her) final destruction at the hands of a fire in 1922, De Kay weaves a entertaining account of the ship, her glories and her more tarnished incidents. The true cast of character is diverse, ranging from the honorable John carden, who lost the Macedonian to the USS United States and never commanded a ship again, to Commodore James Biddle, who's own tenure as captain was filled with sickness and death on the ship, to "Commodore George DeKay" who successfully used the Macedonian to bring much needed relief to an Ireland suffering from famine.

The Macedonian's history was filled with political intruige, madmen, jealousy, courage, and death. De Kay chronicles it all in vivid color. If you enjoy C.S Forester, Patrick O'Brian, or Naval History, I'd strongly suggest this book.

Fascinating account of how the capture of one ship from the British during the War of 1812 boosted national morale and elevated the United States in the international arena. De Kay skillfully illustrates how the US's leaders shrewdly manipulated the Macedonian's psychological power by sending her on highly visible missions. As a result, the Macedonian was there for over 100 years' worth of some of the US's most fascinating history, and captained by some of the most colorful officers in the United States Navy. De Kay masterfully ties the Macedonian's history with our history. Excellent!

During the War of 1812 many early land battles ended terribly for the United States. Our soldiers were volunteers who lacked the training to sustain the fierce attacks of the seasoned British troops who had just defeated Napoleon.

America needed a boost of confidence to thwart those in the land who would capitulate to the British rather than fight what they saw as a loosing battle.

In a short span of several weeks, two sea battles took place against the British. These intense conflicts with cannons blazing and men fighting as they never fought before, resulted in victories for the U.S. Navy.

This turn of events brought the British government great shame in their own country and gave the Americans much to celebrate.

In the first battle, the British ship sank, but in the second the Macedonian was captured by Stephen Decatur and his brave and dedicated crew.

When this ship was brought to America's shores the people were greatly motivated to try and fight everywhere to save their country. the War of 1812 is often called the second American Revolution and could have marked the end of this new form of government.

The defeat and capture of the Macedonian was so grand and uplifting to the U.S. Navy and the American people that it remained in service and was kept as a reminder of our strength for about 100 years.

The story that unfolds about this ship brings so much rich history about the United States and its people that it is well worth getting excited over.

The other reviews allready tells you what you need to know about the very good analysis this good provides about the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union. In addition to give a comprehensive understanding of what happened the writer also manages to put new light on common assumptions. For instance he illustrates that Gorbachev's huge unpopularity among many Russians is rather unfair, as any Soviet leader in his position would have to make many of the same decissions. He illustrates that one should be careful before jumping to conclusions about Gorbachev's democratic and open policies as these policy was an absolute condition for getting political loans - the only type of credit that the Soviet Union was able to get in the 2nd half of the 80s.

The book has two mayor weeknesses in my view. First, the book gets too unfocused as a result of first telling a story about why autoritarian empires tends to collaps and why and how oildominated economies tends to experience certain problems, before he starts on the story about the downfall of the Soviet Union. This could be made much shorter, clearer and integrated in the actual story. If he wants to write a story about the problem all the world's oil economies experiences, the sensible way to do this is to write another book about it. This weekness is not very important as you can skip these chapters if you want to read about what what is written on the cover - the collapse of an empire.

A more serious problem is that the writer is like a sales man that keeps giving you new arguments for his product, even though you are convinced and are ready to buy. Sometimes less is more - a few tables can illustrate the point better than 600 tables that by no means is equally informative. Include 1 or 2 quotes where it offers a clear added value to the writer's own text. It is not necesary to add several quotes of varying informative value to virtually every argument. This is a more serious problem as it more difficult to skip the quotes or tables that is not very interesting without reading all of them.

All in all though, for anyone interested in the Soviet Union and its collapse, this books provides an uniqe insight - even insights that can give new insight into other books about the same subject.

This remarkably accessible, lucid survey of recent Russian history is a must-read for anyone interested in global affairs. Yegor Gaidar, an acting prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, provides a concise yet comprehensive summary of the course of empires during the 20th century, and draws some pointed lessons. His goal is to counter current nostalgia for the glory days of the Soviet Union. getAbstract admires how effectively he executes his objective, with a step-by-step recapitulation of the economic blunders that led inevitably to the Soviet Union's dissolution. However, he also shows why those who expected democracy to grow must face the fact that it is on the retreat - and he leaves no doubt about the dangerous crossroads at which Russia stands.

Cassandra was the Trojan woman whom Apollo gave the gift of prophesy-and the curse of never being believed. Yegor Gaidar sees that Russia's future depends crucially on coming to grips with its past, but present events make it clear that his prophesies, like Cassandra's, fall on deaf ears.

In his new book, Collapse of an Empire, Gaidar has a pressing purpose: to alert Russians-and the world-to the dangers denying the real reasons behind the collapse of the USSR. Gaidar has a strong historical sense (which is often absent among economists, alas), and from his understanding of history (most notably, of Weimar Germany and post-Hapsburg Austria-Hungary), he knows that imperial collapse can be disorienting and dispiriting to the empire's subjects, even if the empire brutally repressed them. He also knows that demagogues and revanchists can exploit this disorientation and depression to achieve power. Those suffering from post-empire depression are very susceptible to demagogic myths that imperial glory was destroyed by "stabs in the back" from enemies foreign and domestic, and that restoration of this glory requires the people to unite behind an authoritarian leader who will ruthlessly pursue traitors at home and take revenge on foreign foes.

But he foresees that this is ultimately the road to disaster:

The legend of a flourishing and mighty country destroyed by foreign enemies is a myth dangerous to the country's future. . . . This is the picture that dominates Russian public opinion: (1) twenty years ago there existed a stable, developing and powerful country, the Soviet Union; (2) strange people (perhaps agents of foreign intelligence services) started political and economic reforms within it; (3) the results of these reforms were catastrophic; (4) in 1999-2000 people came to power who were concerned with the country's state interests; (5) life became better after that. This myth is as far from the truth as the one of an unconquerable and loyal Germany that was popular among the Germany that was popular among the Germans in the late 1920s and 1930s.

The goal of this book is to show that picture does not correspond to reality. Believing that myth is dangerous for the country and the world.

As an aside, I can speak to the ubiquity and power of this myth. I have had a couple of Russian students in the United States. Both were intelligent and worldly. One had lived in the United States for 10 years. Both were going to business schools. And each believed that Gorbachev and Yeltsin were American agents, and that the collapse of the USSR was a CIA plot. The first time I heard this I was surprised, but thought it was an aberration. The second time I heard it I was stunned.

But back to Collapse of an Empire. Gaidar's basic thesis is that the economic-and hence political-collapse of the USSR was inevitable:

[The collapse of the USSR] was preordained by the fundamental characteristics of the Soviet economy and political system: the institutions formed in the late 1920s and early 1930s were too rigid and did not permit the country to adapt to the challenges of world development in the late 20th century. The legacy of socialist industrialization, the anomalous defense load, the extreme crisis in agriculture, and the noncompetitive manufacturing sector made the fall of the regime inevitable. In the 1970s and early 1980s these problems could have been managed if oil prices had been high. But that was not a dependable foundation for preserving the last empire.

Gaidar recounts the chronology of collapse in excruciating detail; too much detail at times for my taste, but a choice that Gaidar defends as necessary to overcome the power of the myth.

Gaidar shows that agriculture was the Achilles heel of the Soviet system. Stalin ruthlessly exploited agriculture to fund industrial development. This worked for awhile, but only served to demonstrate that supply curves are much more elastic in the long run than the short run. In the short run, peasants could be forced to turn over the bulk of their harvest in exchange for a pittance. In the long run, however, the attempt to extract surplus from the countryside and the necessity of attracting labor to manufacturing and megaprojects led to a flow of the best and most productive labor out of agriculture and into industry. Soviet agriculture became progressively less efficient as a result. Combine this with assorted insanities, like the virgin lands program, and what was once the world's breadbasket became a farming basketcase.

Forced to import larger and larger quantities of food, but non-competitive in the production of machinery or other manufactured goods, the USSR relied on the export of oil to pay for it. With increasing oil output from rich western Siberian fields, and spiraling prices (courtesy of OPEC and declining US production), for a time the USSR was able to overcome the creeping weakness of its agriculture sector, and even go on an aggressive military and political offensive that spanned the globe. But soon declining oil production (attributable to extremely inefficient Soviet practices) and plummeting prices (courtesy of growing non-OPEC output, burgeoning Saudi production, and more efficient consumption of energy in the West) conspired to create an acute fiscal crisis in the USSR.

Gaidar chronicles the results of this crisis, and the government's (and Party's) incompetence in dealing with it. The rigidity of a centrally planned system, the rudimentary nature of the financial system, the acute political constraints facing the country's leadership, and the geronocratic nature of that leadership, made it impossible to respond. Things spiraled out of control. Price controls prevented smooth adjustment to external shocks. Fear of political unrest prevented the leadership from lifting the controls. Faced with incredible strains on the budget, the government ran the printing press overtime. Partial "reform" measures, and improvident policy choices (such as the anti-alcohol campaign that deprived the government of a large share of its domestic revenues), only made things worse. In the end, everything came tumbling down.

Gaidar's narrative is compelling. To a Chicago-trained economist, it is almost axiomatic that socialist system that suppresses and distorts almost every market signal; deprives individuals of the ability to make coherent economic choices; and resorts to force in an attempt to make its irrational system work; will fail in the end.

To the Russians who grew up in the system, or who grew up in the aftermath of its collapse, alas, it is not so obvious. As Gaidar notes, the fall of an empire seems anything but common sense to those that lived it. Putin and the siloviki are exploiting this to the hilt, and are perpetrating the myth that the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the economic and social chaos that followed this collapse was not due to the inherent defects of the Soviet economic system, but instead resulted from malign external forces. The recent "elections" indicate that large swaths of the Russian populace have fallen for this myth hook, line, and sinker.

So for the present, anyways, Gaidar is doomed to play the role of Cassandra, prophesying that disaster will follow Putin's Plan, but cursed to be disbelieved and ignored. Putin and the siloviki, like the Bourbons, have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. They have not learned from what destroyed the Soviet Union, but have not forgotten that the Soviet Union was once a colossus before which the world trembled. They want to restore this colossus (admittedly, and happily, without all the totalitarian baggage), and are pursuing this goal relentlessly.

I believe that Gaidar is right that down this path lies ruin. I fear, however, that Russia will have to find this out the hard way. So Yegor Gaidar is a prophet without honor in his own country, among his own kin, and in his own house. But I believe he is a prophet nonetheless. And I heartily recommend that you read his excellent book.

Professor Gaidar has done it again! He has given us another thoughtful work on Russia, yet not purely from an economic perspective- although there is lots of that in the book- but in terms of the context of history. Readers new to Gaidar would do well to get hold of his work 'State and Evolution'. This work also brilliantly examines recent of events in Russia in the context of the development of nations.

I look forward to more from this man's pen. And my sincere appreciation to the Brooking Institute for making this work available in English. Possibly, with the level of interest in such a work, its sales may not be high and Broooking may be making a financial loss. But to readers like myself, I feel a great gratitude of debt to both the author and publisher.

Buy this book and enjoy an intellectual feast! It is simply fantastic!

Yegor Gaidar's Collapse of an Empire is an insider's view of the causes and events that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The author is has a fascinating and improbable background. He served as acting Prime Minister, First Deputy Prime Minister, and Economics Minister of Russia under Boris Yeltsin in the early 1990s but is an academic economist rather than a politician or bureaucrat. He received his PhD in economics under the Soviet educational system but, somehow, developed a solid understanding of economics of free markets. In Collapse of an Empire, Gaidar offers his historical and economic perspective on the Soviet collapse as a lesson and caution for today's Russia. It is as close to a definitive work on the Soviet collapse as I have yet read.

Gaidar starts with two general observations, one on empires and one on oil, and then proceeds to describe the Soviet Collapse.

Empires

Empires come in two flavors: Overseas empires (British, French, Dutch) and territorially contiguous empires (Austria-Hungary, Tsarist Russia, Ottoman Turkey, Soviet Union, and, on a smaller scale, Yugoslavia). Of these two types, the overseas empires are the easier to dismantle: The imperial power can simply declare the former colonies free and, possibly, repatriate a limited number of colonists with a claim to citizenship in the mother country. In territorial empires, diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious groups usually reside in close proximity to each other and often have longstanding conflicts over rights to land and under the law. Abolishing a territorial empire leaves all these conflicts in place, ready to boil over as soon as imperial control has been lifted. Members of the formerly dominant ethnic group may even find themselves a minority in one of the successor states and subject to the rule of one of their formerly subject people. Many of the troubled areas of the world today (Balkans, Middle East) are parts of former territorial empires where population segments have not succeeded in making peace with their neighbors.

Oil

Countries with significant natural resources, especially oil, have generally not been on the forefront of democracy or economic liberalism. Gaidar attributes this phenomenon to the steady stream of revenues the sale of oil provides the ruling party. Secured by this source of income, the government has no need to reach an accommodation with its people that gives them a voice in how they are governed. In exchange, the tax burden on the population often remains very light. The western democracies grew out of accommodations that essentially gave the people a voice in how their countries were governed in exchange for their acceptance of the government's imposition of taxes.

Soviet Collapse

Prior to WWI, Russia was one of the largest grain exporters in the world. In the West, industrialization followed the production of an agricultural surplus which released excess farm labor for industrial employment. Russia followed a different path after the Bolshevik revolution. Rather than building an agricultural surplus, Lenin and Stalin seized the grain and other agricultural products of the countryside to feed the urban and industrial populations. Simultaneously, they reallocated labor from agriculture to industry to support their goal of rapid industrialization. The result was an economic and human disaster. Soviet agriculture never recovered, never produced a sustained surplus, and the country became dependent on imported grain. (See Robert Conquest's Harvest of Sorrow for details). By the 1970s, the Soviet Union was the world's largest grain importer.

At that time (the 1970s), the Soviets were able to pay for their grain imports by exporting oil. This was the time of high oil prices and the Arab embargo on oil exports to the US. Grain prices were low, so Soviet trade balanced nicely: Expensive exports, inexpensive imports.

In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran. These events led the Saudis to become concerned about a Soviet drive to the Persian Gulf and a threat to their kingdom. To counter this perceived threat, in the mid 1980s the Saudis greatly expanded their production and export of oil causing the world price to drop from the $30-40/bbl range to about $10/bbl. Obviously, this price change damaged the Soviet balance of trade.

At about the same time (mid 1980s), the world price of grain shot up significantly. This further damaged the Soviet trade balance.

If this wasn't enough, the volume of Soviet oil production declined in the late 1980s for two reasons. First, to generate foreign exchange, oil production had been focused on the most productive fields which were exploited at a rate that was harmful to the long-term productivity of the fields. Second, the reduced availability of foreign exchange and the continuing requirement to import grain led the Soviet government to reduce imports of industrial materials from the West, including equipment for oil drilling, production, and transport.

By 1989, food subsidies constituted a third of the Soviet national budget. Retail prices were fixed at artificially low levels, which was one form of subsidy. At the same time, the Soviet government was subsidizing the import and domestic production of food. The costs of producing or importing food were as much as 70% higher than the retail prices. With a net outflow of hard currency and a grossly imbalanced domestic budget, the only way to "pay" the government's bills was to print more rubles. With prices fixed by the state, the resulting inflation could only result in shortages at the retail level and a huge increase in individual "savings" since there was nothing for the population to buy with its rubles. By 1991, of 1200 officially recognized consumer goods, 1150 were not readily available.

Declining credit-worthiness drove most western commercial banks to refuse to make further loans to the Soviet government, leaving Gorbachev with only the option of begging for foreign aid from the capitalist governments. Gaidar even suggests that he made the following deal with George H. W. Bush at their Malta conference in 1989: In exchange for US financial assistance, the Soviet government will refrain from using force to maintain its control of its Eastern European satellites.

Throughout its 70+ years of existence, the mantra of the Soviet government and the Communist Party had been that The Party had a special role in the Soviet system because of its unique "wisdom", its understanding of communist economics and the Soviet man. By the late 1980s, the Russian people and even the Soviet bureaucracy knew that this was a lie. However, the inertia of the system did not allow The Party to admit it's "wisdom" had been wrong and that a major economic reform based on free markets was desperately needed.

By revealing the true history of the Soviet Union (e.g., the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact), Glasnost destroyed any lingering myth of the legitimacy of the Soviet Empire. In the end, the Empire could only be maintained by force, but the use of that force would have ended any hope for financial aid from the West.

The August 1991 coup was only the farce that followed the tragedy that constituted the history of the Soviet Union.

This is a scholarly analytic type book that investigates not only the colliseum building itself,but the spectacles that took place inside.The book also describes why the Colliseum was built as well as how it was bulilt.The Colliseum according to my read of the book was an important propoganda and public education tool of the Roman rulers.It showed the populace that not only had Rome conquered,but that all the beasts and "savage peoples" of the world were Roman possesions for amusement.The building may have also served as a warning,"you too could end up here" and was an outlet for high risk takers to make a name and a fortune. Also alot of these gladiatorial spectacles were actually public executions of criminals,the sword of a gladiator maybe no worse than the electric chair or gas chamber!Unfortunately no work on the Colliseum has covered the gambling on an immense scale that must have gone on at these events.For one I have always thought that the Gladiatorial helmet that is always used in movies and art appears awkward. It seems as if the fancy ornate designs and rims would block not just the peripheral view but about every other one as well.The author points out that these helmets that were found in the buried ruins of Pompeii may have actually been "parade helmets",used for the pre-fight spectacle to identify and give status to the Gladiator.In the arena he may have found such a helmet in fact a great disadvantage. That's the kind of research contained in this book.In regard to the wild animal fights the author spends alot of time breaking down and analyzing the industry that was involved in transporting "wild beasts" of all descriptions from various parts of the world. It must have been a great part of Rome's GNP.The author also questions alot of the traditional source material for acounts in regard to the Colliseum and its spectacles.It seems in times past that writers may have been as prone to exaggerations as they are today.You'll leave this book with a good knowledge of "the Games" and realize that alot of them were anything but "fair contests" between men and beasts.Rather alot of stage theatrics and "smoke and mirrors".Could it be that the the Roman popes banned these spectacles not only for the brutality,but because they were just plain boring.In fact these games were continued on well into the Roman Christian era,so there may not have been an initial Christian "moral outrage" when Rome was Christianized under Constantine.Anyway,I got my tickets to my first(and last) game from a scalper who had "copped them" free from a "charity organization"On the final page I seriously believed that the Retiarius Gaius was using steroids,and someone had spilled their greasy nacho cheese on my"Gladius" t-shirt.I also had to move 2 seats over because I believed the man next to me was coming down with a case of "bubonic plaque"That's how real this book is.

This is a rather specialized account of the Colosseum, and any student intending to visit the structure should read it. It debunks some myths about the place, but shows that it is a fascinating world wonder which deserves the attention of all visiting Rome. The research seems impeccable.

All the reviews here so far were written on the tourist side, not the scholar's. The great merit of this book, in my view, is that it fits both audiences in a very nice manner. Scholars would of course expect a more exhaustive treatment, but it's striking that there are almost no other academic books devoted to the subject of the Colosseum. Many studies on this building and other amphitheatres concentrate on technical, architectural issues, but this book offers concise and clear analyses on social aspects of gladiators, the interpretations of the Colosseum through the ages (a fascinating part!) and other varied issues. Profs. Hopkins and Beard are two leading authorities in Roman History, but their text is lively, fluent, good-humored and very pleasant - I wish all scholars could write like this! Therefore: for specialists, it's not a thorough book, but very welcoming all the same.

As for the occasional interested tourist, as others here have also said, this book is as useful, appealing and enjoyable as it can be. Having been to the Colosseum myself, though, I don't agree with the advice of getting there one hour before it closes (last entrance allowed is at 3PM). Packed crowds of tired tourists with noisy kids are better to be avoided if you want to take your time inside, so get there as early as you can. Also, like the authors, I strongly recommend a visit to the nearby Palatine - but get a good guide, so that you can understand the ruins you're seeing (use Oxford Archeological Guide, Coarelli's book, or even Blue Guide Rome).

Small though it may be, this wonderful book contains a wealth of information on the Colosseum. The authors - scholars in this field - very ably guide the reader along this amazing structure's long journey through the ages up to the present, debunking myths along the way. Although details on the formidable challenges faced by those who built the Colosseum are relatively few, its history and archaeology, as well as snapshots of the lives and times of those who used it and performed in it, more than compensate. Occasionally, the authors challenge the "generally accepted" interpretations of some of the often-sparse archaeological and historical evidence and offer alternative views. Near the end of the book, useful advice for the potential visitor is provided, followed by an extensive bibliography. The writing style is clear, friendly, authoritative and quite lively. This book can be enjoyed by anyone, but especially by those fascinated by ancient history and archaeology.

The Colloseum in Rome is arguably one of the five most famous buildings in the world but there are very few books about it. At least I have found that to be the case, as I have always had a fascination for the place. May this is the macabre side of me coming out. But it is not just the gladiatorial contests and many other blood letting contests that went on including wild animals fighting both humans and one another or the naval battles that were fought there. Yes naval battles, with real ships and the arena flooded with water. I readily admit that I find these interesting and have done for many years.

However the main attraction of the Flavian Amphitheatre, to give it its correct name is its architectural beauty. It is a building that we would be hard pressed to replicate today, even with all the modern building techniques that we now possess. A building that could fill with people and empty at the end of the games quicker than most modern football stadiums. A building that has stood the test of time. It is only vibration and pollution from modern day traffic that is now affecting the building more than the last two thousand years ever have.

A building that had more happening underground than ever happened above ground. Gladiator quarters, infirmaries. Lifts and hoists moved by an intricate network of pulleys and cables, that allowed wild animals to be brought up to the arena level.

This book tells you everything you need to know and more. It is well written And has some illustrations, but these are secondary to the excellent text.

Let me state, before beginning to comment, that I did not read the English version, but the French one. The comment therefore pertains only to the contents.

There is a great deal of information in this book: technical, historical and cultural.

If there is something to pick upon, it will be that the book focus too much in France - but then, this is only normal and it may be argued that France having been one of the most important cultural centers of Europe this is no bad thing.

The book is very well written: in some places it may be difficult to understand unless one already knows something about printing and casting, but it is always very clear. The logical integration of the book - I mean, the connection of ideas - and the balance between facts and interpretations is extremely good. In fact, it is possible to read it for very long hours indeed, which is rare for books on books.

As far as I know, in terms of quality, it is the very best book on this subject.

Some people will deplore the lack of pictures. But I think the flow would be compromised and, in any case, there are other books which illustrate printing history.

Excellent

The written word isn't going away. Prose may read from the commercial to poetic, we may read more package copy than works of literature, and more off a screen or monitor than printed on the page; but read we do and will continue to do. One could say that reading is as natural (and necessary) a function as breathing, eating or drinking; but, in fact, the book has an techno/economic/political origin. And, why not learn something of that origin? Just how did the book happen? Why? And, once the proverbial genii left the bottle, how did the book change everything? Things just don't happen. Dots are not just connected. Or are they?

Febvre and Martin explain it all and with all its historical, political and economic implications. David Gerard translation is lucid and fluid and the book is a lovely read.

The Coming of the Book is essential reading for anyone interested in book history, the development of modern literary languages, or the growth of capitalism in early modern Europe. It's an excellent example of the social history that the Annales school of sociologists and historians worked to produce: coherent narrative drawn not from specific important events but from the interpretation of massive amounts of data on the 'everyday' professional lives of early type founders, journeyman printers, shippers and booksellers. Most importantly, Febvre and Martin analyze the affect that the unique pressures of print as a capitalist enterprise (the capital investment in type, the costs of paper and of labor, problems in transport and marketing) had on the development of standardized print-languages, the development of 'mass' culture, and the spread and evolving functions of literacy.

Lucien Febvre and Jean-Henri Martin have integrated careful archival research with a lively recounting of history which transcends individual rulers in this account of early printing. The book is particularly interesting since we also live in a time when the economics and sociology of information dissemination is changing quickly.

The reaction of the early copyright system in place at medieval universities to new realities, of the technical innovation necessary to make good type founts, and of early print censorship were particularly interesting. I also enjoyed the discussion of the documentary evidence about Gutenburg and his unhappy relations with his financial backers.

Febvre and Martin's, The Coming of the Book, is a scholarly work without the dry academic tone of a textbook. Having said that, this isn't a casual read, as the authors will provide some of the details of edition sizes, costs, and distribution. The authors themselves give the reason for the present work, "...we hope to establish how and why the printed book was something more than a triumph of technical ingenuity, but was also one of the most potent agents at the disposal of western civilization in bringing together the scattered ideas of representative thinkers." In support of this thesis, Febvre and Martin spend a considerable portion of the book on technical issues such as the invention of the moveable-type press, how books were constructed, economic and social forces affecting the distribution and printing of books, and the geography of the spread of books. About the last third focuses on, "The Book as a Force for Change."

The first three chapters are devoted to the introduction of paper into Europe, the technical difficulties associated with the invention of the moveable-type press in Europe, and the basic construction of the book. It is important to note that both paper and moveable-type presses were not unique to Europe - they were invented in China centuries before. However, aside from paper there is no direct evidence that the moveable-type press was imported; it seems more likely that it was an independent invention. The major problem facing inventor(s) of the moveable-type press was finding suitable materials and processes for the creation of metal type founts. Febvre and Martin devote relatively few pages to such enabling forces as the development alphabetic languages (Douglas McMurtrie in, The Book: The Story of Printing and Bookmaking, provides a more complete summary). But they do spend some time discussing processes in related industries that provided adaptable techniques - the use of clay moulds to make relief inscriptions and the use of brass die-stamps by moneyers to strike coins to name two.

The next four chapters are devoted to the book as a commodity, the economic and social conditions affecting its production and sale, a short section on apprenticeships, and geography. Here the authors discuss the growth of book production into an international trade and its subsequent fracturing into more localized businesses, due in part to a series of wars and the increasing popularity of printed material in the vernacular. Febvre and Martin introduce the reader to the great printer/publishers of each age, Anton Koberger, Jean Petit, the Estiennes, etc.

It is the last, and longest, chapter that is devoted to how the book enabled some of the changes that occurred in Early Modern Europe. If there is one event that most readers will be familiar, it is the Reformation. Febvre and Martin discuss the distribution of Protestant literature and the ineffectiveness of the various laws and censoring edicts enacted in France, and other countries, with the intent to stem the spread of such material. But this chapter isn't limited to the Reformation. It also covers the effect of printing on Humanism and the knowledge of Latin and the classics and the effect on the development of modern European languages.

Throughout, Febvre and Martin provide details on the sizes of editions, and sometimes their geographic distribution, of the most popular works in each period; be warned though, the authors do not translate the French, Latin, Greek, and German titles. You can see how the increased availability of books led to social and cultural changes, which in turn led to changes in what works were produced, which lead...well you get the picture. As with many of the scholarly works I've read of late this one is also nearly devoid of illustration. It isn't a fatal flaw, but it would have been nice to include more maps and perhaps some images of incunabula. Though I haven't picked it up yet, The Smithsonian Book of Books looks like it makes up for this lack with over 300 color plates. You can also, as I did, find plenty of images and the occasional map on the web. One thing I do want to point out is that the Verso paperback edition is rather fragile. After a single reading the book is falling apart. If you are more careful than I was, you can probably keep it together.

If you are interested in learning some of the details of the invention of the moveable-type press in Europe, the economics of early printing concerns, and some of the social and cultural changes books enabled I'd recommend reading, The Coming of the Book.

I've spent the past year spending literally thousands of dollars on various books about ancient Greece. I wish to write about it, and I've read about 60 books so far on the subject. I found this book in a secondary book store, and as I've read so many specialty books, almost passed it up. Feeling the need to step back and get a more general perspective on how everything I'd been reading about fit in to the scheme of things, I bought it. Boy, am I glad I did. I've read many types of collections in my time from short stories to articles, and one never really thinks of the editor who put it all together. With this book, however, I was struck early on by the fluid and expert way the various articles and excerpts by varying archeologists went together as if it were all written by the same author. The choice of the little examples of ancient life, or the passing mention of a political outlook did a great job of illuminating whatever the excerpt was about, and since the excerpts had to be edited to fit the chapters, much credit must go to Mr. Nardo for his choices of passages as well as his choices of books to borrow from and his progression and layout of chapters. If you are starting study of Ancient Greece, there is no better place to start than this book. If you only want one book to get a general understanding of the greeks, this has to be the one. I've never seen this sort of thing done this well before. One thing that astonishes me is the price of it here on amazon, though, as I only paid 12 dollars for it at book store which had 3 of them in the Northgate mall in Chattanooga. Go figure.

As general reference books for students go, this is absolutely first rate. The author, who has written numerous smaller books on the subject, goes all out here, providing almost a whole library unto itself about the ancient Greeks, their history, institutions, ideas, etc. This should be on every educated person's shelf, not to mention every library shelf.

Historian Don Nardo edited this large compendium of articles by himself and other noted classicists about ancient Greek civilization. Extremely well-organized, thorough, and informational, the volume covers all aspects of Greek history and culture, each aspect covered in a separate chapter that begins with a helpful introduction by the editor. The articles themselves also have introductions providing brief backgrounds of the various contributors. A chronology, glossary, bibliography, and indexes, all quite large and useful (especially the bibliography, which is one of the best I've ever seen for ancient Greece), round out this first-rate volume, which I highly recommend to students and teachers alike.

Wow! For high school or college students doing research on ancient Greece, or for anyone interested in the ancient Greeks in general, this is an extremely comprehensive, well-organized, and useful book! It starts off with a general overview of ancient Greek civilization written by the editor, Don Nardo, who is a noted authority on the subject. Then there are dozens of articles witten by other well-known historians, each covering some aspect of Greek history or life. There's information on democracy and and how it came about, about Greek literature, about Greek theater, which started in Athens, about commerce and trade, and weapons and war, and lots more. In the back of the book are short biographies of important people and gods and Greek places, and a huge!! glossary, and best of all a really huge bibliography, that gives the reader plenty of ideas about where to go for more information (though it seems to me that only scholars would need to look furhter than this book). The price is kind of high, but students should be able to find the book in a nearby library. It will be well worth the effort!

I teach high school history, including a course on ancient history. I spend quite a bit of time on the Greeks and Romans, of course, and I have used a number of Mr. Nardo's small but superbly written and well-documented books in the past as supplementary materials to the regular text. His LIFE IN ANCIENT ATHENS, AGE OF AUGUSTUS, LIFE OF A ROMAN SLAVE, LEADERS OF ANCIENT GREECE, and several others have proved invaluable as sources of information for both my students and myself. Mr. Nardo's more recent COMPLETE HISTORY OF ANCIENT GREECE, which I'm reviewing here, is easily the best single-volume overview of the ancient Greeks I ever seen for this age group. Though much larger and more comprehensive than his other books for young readers, this one is extremely well-organized, both chronologically and thematically. The essays he has chosen and edited are all clearly-written, highly informative, and each perfectly captures or illustrates an important aspect of Greek history or culture. Nardo's own quite fulsome chapter introductions are also very informative, well-written, and up-to-date. The appendices of this book also deserve special mention. The glossary is huge and accurate, the best available in any non-scholarly book about ancient Greece that I am aware of. The bibliography is also massive, again, the biggest and best I've seen outside of scholarly works. ... it is also proving a tremendous aid to me personally by giving me one, compact source from which to draw facts, topics, and ideas. Would that more professional historians took the time to write as much first-rate material for high school students as Mr. Nardo does.

Bombs exploding in Moscow and Saint Petersburg? Russian planes pouring Napalm on villages in Chechniya and Daghestan? If you wish to know why all this is happening all you need do is get a copy of Amir Taheri's book, already regarded as a classic. The book was written before the Soviet empire collapsed and clearly forecasts the disintegration of the USSR as " the last colonial empire of the 20th century." Narrating a history of over 1000 years, from the time that Islam arrived in the lands that later became Russia, the book provides a detailed study of numerous ethnic groups, languages, cultures and civilisations spread from the Ural mountains to the Far East and from the frozen steppes of the north to the Caspian Sea in the south. One of the first books to tackle this complex subject " Crescent in a Red Sky: The Future of Islam In The Soviet Union" may at first feel a bit heavy going for the uninitiated, especially because of the copious footnotes and addenda the author provides. But a little bit of patience and time would procure great rewards. The reader discoveres an entire world about which very little is known in the West. For example did you know the symbolic signficance of those strange domes in Saint Basil's church in Moscow? Taheri's book gives the unexpected answer. The chapters that deal with the Russian and then Soviet periods in the history of Muslims in that part of Eurasia are especially fascinating. They reveal an underground world that continued to exist side by side with the official Russian or Soviet society for almost two centuries. The book tears aside the masks of many Russian and Soviet leaders to show their exceptional brutality in dealing with the Muslim nations under their rule. Peter the Great and Cahterine the Great are revealed as barbarous conquerors who built their empires on hecatombs. Lenin, Stalin and Ferunze are presented as mass murderers who drew the map of the Soviet empire in blood. Even Mikhail Gorbachev, the darling of Western lberals, is shown ordering the use of force to crush revolts in Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Taheri's book accurtaely forecast the wars in Chechniya and Daghestan which are now raging. Once you have read the book you will know that this is not the end of the story. More wars could come in Tatarstan, Bashkortstan, Ossetia, Ingushetia and other parts of northern Caucasus. Although the Soviet empire has collapsed, the Russian empire continues to cling to its bloody existence. Taheri's book shows that this empire, too, is sure to disintegrate. The time when one nation could rule over whole subject nations is gone. I wish Boris Yeltsin, the Russian President, would read this book to understand why.Western leaders, especially in the United States, also need to read this book to get a measure of the biggest problem that new Russia is facing as it tries to build itself a new future. A READER IN CASABLANCA

Although written before the fall of the Soviet empire, this books charts the course of relations between the Russian nation and Islam during the past 300 years or so.
At times this book is difficult for the average interested reader because it is so full of facts and unfamiliar names.
But those who persist will be amplyu rewarded, if only by the beauty of the wrtier's prose and his strong narrative sense which is closer to a literary novelist than a journalist.
R.B

As this review is being written, the attack by Chechen guerrillas against a theatre in Moscow is still going on.
The outside world is trying to understand why so many desperate men and women decided to risk their own lives by seizing hundreds of innocent people hostage in a Moscow theatre?
The answer comes in this book to which I return whenever there is something dramatic between the Russians and the Muslim peoples who live amongst them or are teir neighbours.
I wish Vladimir Putin had read this book before vowing to crush the Chechens who have been at war against Russia, and for their own independence, since trhe 18th century.
Believe me it is not enough to say "terrorism and repression" to understand.
A READER IN PARIS FRANCE

The liberation of Afghanistan from the Taleban last year has attracted international attention to a vast area the size of the United States and known as Central Asia.
It was there that the colonial empires of the 19th century played what is known as The Great Game.
The term Central Asia is misleading because the lands concerned resemble a secluded area rather than one that is at the centre of things.
The region may achieve centrality because of its oil and natural gas resources, and the rivarly it is generating among America, the European Union, Russia, China, India, Iran, and Pakistan.
This book by an Iranian author and journalist tells the story of Islam in the entire Soviet Union of which Central Asia was part until 1991.
Much research has gone into this volumnious study, one might even say too much research, and the torrent of details may prove tiresome to some readers.
But the prose is fast paced and journalistic in the best sense of the term, thus compensating for the heaviness of the facts, names, dates and figures.
The book appeared more than a year before the collapse of the USSR but clearly predicts that event.
One would have preferred more detailed maps with this volume.
The author should do a sequel to bring us up to date about developments in the region in the past decade or so.
A READER

Very little is known about the huge landmass that forms Central Asia and the Caucasian highlands with the Caspian Sea, the world's biggest inland body of water, in the middle.
This book tries to fill the gap by providing an exhaustive, and yet highly enjoyable, account of the history, geography and culture of the many different nations that inhabit the area.
The book was published a year before the fall of the Soviet Empire and clearly predicts the end of Communsim and the USSR.
But the chief interest of the book is the fact that it brings so many peoples out of obscurity.
In recent years such places as Chechnya have gained notoriety. We also know about the overspill of terrorism from Afghanistan into neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. But little material is available on the background of these conflicts. This scholarly book is, to my knoweldge, the most authoritative source available in English.
I receommend it to students and scholars as well as the intersted general reader. A READER

I have read husserl's the crisis and enjoyed it very much. I think that this book has lost none of it's relevance. It is a thorough analysis of what science can and cannot do. For me as a landscape architecture teacher this books delivers a good antidote against all too positivistic scientific thinking within the university. It opens our eyes to the fact that science can answer certain questions very well but at a loss of meaning and sense. It peals off the layers of history that hide the shaky foundations of science and reveals the scope of science and that much is beyond this scope. It is meticulous in it's analysis, but in that it is thorough and not shallow. I can advice all who are interested in the relation between science and the world to carefully study this book.The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader: Philosophy and Painting (SPEP)The World of Perception

Edmund Husserl's "The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology" resonates well. The following are my impressions and reflections after reading this very interesting book.

Every object-subject composite (relation) is a "phenomenon", and Husserl begins his phenomenology from Descartes' doubt that cannot be doubted. Husserl notes that the phenomenon is open to exploration. We explore so we can discover what is pregiven, so we can find our preconditions. Husserl reminds us that Kant was sterred from his slumber by Hume's skepticism. Kant's "appearance" is embedded in a space-time manifold, and as such it represents a phenomenon that hides the "thing-in-itself". The phenomenon is a composite uniting the provisional with the universal, and Kant had to feel it to be so reactive once Hume and Leibniz made their points known. Husserl reminds us to look beyond the ego-soul of Descartes, and to look beyond the dualism where Kant got stuck.

Every feeling is such a composite, so every feeling is also a phenomenon. Every feeling holds the slightest spark of awareness. I might add that every law of nature given by an equation is experiential in the sense that the law is first conceived in the mind, and then later is it empirically verified. Therefore, the law as an equation is abstraction that forgets the experiential. Because natural laws are experiential they involve feelings, and therefore these laws are phenomenological too. It is not surprising that Husserl is very critical of objective philosophy and positive science that has lost track of the subjective ingredients that come with all phenomenon.

Husserl tells us that meaning may become lost in history, and meaning relates to the preconditions of history which has to do with the geometrical horizons that history grows into. Husserl (page 49) is translated to write: "The geometry of idealities was preceded by the practical art of surveying, which knew nothing of idealities. Yet such a pregeometrical achievement was a meaning-fundament for geometry, a fundament for the great invention of idealization; the latter encompassed the invention of the ideal world of geometry, or rather the methodology of the objectifying determinations of idealities through the construction which create `mathematical existence.'"

Science grew out of traditions, and geometry is no less a tradition. The pregivens are found sleeping, Husserl tells us that the pregivens are taken for granted. Husserl (page 69) writes: "Only a radical inquiry back into subjectivity - and specifically the subjectivity which ultimately brings about all world-validity, with its content and in all its prescientific and scientific modes, and into the `what' and the `how' of the rational accomplishments - can make objective truth comprehensible and arrive at the ultimate ontic meaning of the world."

In Husserl day (right before World War II) positivist science and existential philosophy lost their meaning (I add that the meaning is still lost today), as these were all about extensions of the status quo that were no longer connected to their original preconditions.

To find the original meaning there must be a reactivation of the construction of geometry, among other exercises. Husserl tells us that meaning is discovered by reactivating the construction that have hid themselves in history. This leads us to what is self evident and beyond doubt.

The precondition of history is the stark reminder that the universal has connected with the provisional; this is the stark mystery of life, the relation again.

Husserl's phenomenology studies the precondition as it is, rather than through presumptions that derive from an extended historicism that has lost its meaning.

Husserl has much to say about intentionality, and the validation that is always sought when truth statements are attempted. And we all see people that seek validation; the pay received for a hard days work; the affirmation that is required when gifts are exchanged; the suicide note that betrays its own reason for being, as no message is needed to announce a departure unless the issue of validation is found even in the confused.

We see the need for validation in others, but can we also see it in ourselves too? Ask yourself if you seek validation in all your activities? Am I to expect an angry reaction, a denial? If so, an emotional reaction (the phenomenon again) that denies validation is an emotion that is found announcing its need for validation. In which case, the announcement is only concealed from you, but the meaning is clear to me and others that the answer is found to be yes again. If emotion is not expressed, and the answer is - yes -, then there is no disagreement. Therefore, the challenge remains to answer - no - while expressing a more reflective emotion. This challenge may be impossible to meet, as a calm denial today may follow by an angry release tomorrow, and this will cause me to return to my original conclusion: that the intentionality that seeks validation is a universal, and leads to Husserl's intersubjective person. But note also the emotional issues. It is no wonder that Husserl takes his phenomenology into psychology.

This drive to seek validity is what gives birth to our "objective" meanings, according to Edmund Husserl, but note I put objective in quotations to refer to the observation that I am referring to a subjective transcendentalism rather than an objectivity that Husserl tells us is illusory. Science and logic can give us no help if the emotional temperament is missing, yet scientism is found today expressing its need for validation. Dawkins's "The God Delusion" is an expression that is asking religiosity to love science too. But how can religion love science if scientism lacks the emotional certitude to deal with its own pregivens? It is not unsurprising that atheist Sam Harris is now making a call for contemplation within atheistic circles. Contemplation delivers the reflexive capacity to deal with our drive for validation, for both believer and nonbeliever.

Husserl (page 168) writes on elementary intentionalities that seek validity: "The being of these intentionalities themselves is nothing but one meaning-formation operating together with another, `constituting' new meaning through synthesis. And meaning is never anything but meaning in modes of validity. Intentionality is the title which stands for the only actual and genuine way of explaining, making intelligible."

All objective philosophy and positive science are unreal, that is, they all depend on pregivens that are subjective in nature. To question the pregivens is to enter phenomenology, and it is here that psychology transforms itself into Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. All "objective" science requires its purification by a transcendental psychology. Husserl (page 257) writes: "a pure psychology as positive science, a psychology which would investigate universally the human beings living in the world as real facts in the world, similarly to other positive sciences (both sciences of nature and humanistic disciplines), does not exist. There is only a transcendental psychology, which is identical with transcendental philosophy."

All of our beliefs are dependent on Husserl's pregivens, and to explore the pregivens is to enter the transcendental world that rediscovers hidden meanings of dimensionality. This activity engages our emotions, and so it is that the innate feeling is found supporting a universal grammar. As long as we remain true to our purpose, to love our self, to love others, to love God, we may always re-look at our slumber and find the hidden dimensions in our own mistakes; we can always overcome our feelings of doubt in this way, finding a deeper feeling expressed in a deeper beauty. This allows us to purify our feelings, by referring to the original intention that was never meant to do harm to ourselves, others or God. Husserl's universal drive that seeks affirmation is no more than the past that seeks wholeness with the present, it is no more than what I call the affirmation of Trinity, it is the work of the Holy Spirit among our vast plurality. This insight was meant to be shared, but in sharing this expect the emotional outcries that are found seeking their own validation.

Disclosure: My agenda is declared in my profile.

It is somewhat ironic that Phenomenology, as a term or as a philosophical school, has yet to really reach the popular consciousness, given that phenomenology is in many respects a study of consciousness and how reality impacts consciousness. Phenomenology in the most formal sense of being a school of philosophy is largely traced to Franz Brentano (1838-1917) and Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). Husserl's great work at the turn of the last century, Logical Investigations, set the stage for the development of phenomenology as a way of seeing, a descriptive study with roots in empiricism going back to inspiration from Aristotelian ideas. This is a key word - description. Rather than being a set of constructs and principles typical of previous philosophical systems, Phenomenology attempts to describe reality fully as reality is presented to our senses.

Phenomenology is different from scientific study in that it does not pretend toward a universal truth or experience unmediated through our subjectivity (a principle modern science seems to be incorporating more and more). Editor Dermot Moran has a solid introduction to the subject, including distinctions of different kinds of study, some of the personalities involved in the development of phenomenology, and the current state of the discipline.

This book by Husserl is one written late in his career. The Nazi party was well on its way to taking complete power in Germany, and other forces of despair were very present in the Western culture. Husserl's protege Heidegger had gone from phenomenology to existentialism, a philosophical framework that Husserl distrusted, but understood as completely in keeping with the overall crisis of meaning and purpose that he saw taking root in society at its very core.

Husserl's work from 1900 forward was always involved in recasting and adapting phenomenology to the current culture; each of his books in that time had as a title or subtitle 'An Introduction to Phenomenology', and this particular text was no different. Often overlooked in this text's presentation is that it was actually unfinished at Husserl's death, and had once again taken phenomenology in new directions. Perhaps the most radical departure of this version of phenomenology to Husserl's earlier constructs is the incorporation of psychological ideas.

Husserl's concern is to overcome the lack of meaning found in science and technology, the lack of telos and the lack of an inherent moral structure. Husserl traces the history of ideas and search for meaning in intellectual enterprise, and ends with a sense of a 'life-world' that draws closer to the aims of existentialism than he had ever done before.

This is a fascinating text.

Husserl is a tremendous apologist of "philosophy as rigorous science." This volume ("The Crisis") serves as the philosopher's clearest and most distinct exposition of the problems that beset modern Civilization and that still prevent many of us from appreciating an understanding of reality unmediated by empiricist and historicist biases. Most succinctly, Husserl has shown how and why it is possible for practical judgment to remain unbiased, and for theoretical/pure reason to remain in touch with life.

Husserl has helped later generations re-discover a rational/classical alternative to both modern reason and modern irrationalism. With Husserl, the critique of modernity points to a reason above "the machine." That is why Husserl rejected the anti-rationalist disposition displayed by his brilliant student, Martin Heidegger, whose inconclusive turn to pre-Socratic Wisdom arguably suffered from an inadequate understanding of the Socratic/"mediating/moderating" Quest for wisdom.

With Husserl, two options were disclosed to public attention: 1) a "new [atheistic, nihilistic] thinking" finding its core representation in Heideggerian "Existentialism"; 2) Classical (pre-Cartesian, non-Machiavellian) Rationalism, or "rational life" not subject to the Cartesian tendency to decay into the historicization and mechanization of reason/philosophy.

Most scholars today have found a way to dilute "Existentialism" to a degree that makes it possible to place "Existentialism" at the service of the powers that be (conformism). Among the very few who prefer to seek out a classical, non-historicist understanding of reason and history, we find two of Husserl's students--Jacob Klein and Leo Strauss. The first helped expose the essential link between Husserl's teachings and classical Socratic/Platonic philosophy; the second, inaugurated an exceptional return OF classical political rationalism--of a School of Philosophy, in the Platonic sense--at a time when the "temple" of science (the Academy) had become a sea of suspicion-breeding sophisticated ideologies.

It need not surprise the disinterested bystander that Strauss has henceforth become target of many an ideological reprisal. What is perhaps most "disturbing" about Strauss is that he makes it extremely difficult to critique rationalists such as Husserl for their (unremarkable?) inadequacies. That is because with Strauss such a critique presupposes access to a degree of speculative reason that is higher, and NOT lower, than the one exemplified by Husserl: one must understand an author as clearly and distinctly as he understood himself, BEFORE claiming to understand him "better."

Written at the end of his career and on the eve of the Holocaust, the Crisis stands, I believe, as one of the greatest one volume educations in print today. Unlike his more "technical" works which rigorously deal with phenomenology in itself, the Crisis is more of a look at the need for phenomenology and phenomenological psychology in modern humanity's life. Looking at the history of science and philosophy, Husserl traces the development and "success" of scientism and materialism. In doing so phenomenologically, Husserl makes a very strong case for the need of phenomenology in order to overcome the lifelessness of materialism and inaugurate a "heroism of reason" and humanism. Anyone interested in philosophy, science, sociology, civil rights, etc. I urge to read this book actively and critically. For non-specialists and people who aren't "scholars" of any kind or degree may find the language a bit dense or heavy at times, but ! . . . it's good for you. The volume also features appendices which include the classic Vienna Lecture as well as other essays and lectures. The Crisis is a classic and brilliant look into science, philosophy and society which, unlike a lot of theory today, offers a cohesive system grounded in humanism, to wit, Husserlian phenomenology. Please read this book.