Ireland Books

Children of the Dead End is as captivating to read as any more respected novel of development. There may be some problems with the formal structures of the novel in regards to the genre, but it is a wonderful read nonetheless. I truly enjoyed reading the book, and it was successful in eliciting my emotions. As a true-to-life account of the hardships that Irish Catholic families dealt with at the turn of the 20th Century, Children of the Dead End deserves to be canonized right along with anything that Joyce had written.

This story is truly autobiographical of my grandfather's early life and is very moving and effective. His early years in Donegal were difficult and fraught with the perils of poverty. Nevertheless, Grandpa overcame is lack of formal education and humble beginnings to be a successful author. His later years were no less difficult as he struggled for decades with the debilitation of MS, but he raised, with my grandmother, three amazingly strong and successful women. This autobiographical novel teaches us all abouth the indomitable strength of the human will and spirit.

This is one of the most memorable books I have ever read. The writer tells the story of growing up in Donegal and his exit to scotland in search of work. You are drawn into his life and the people he loved. There is an honesty in the writing that moves you to tears.

this book is the most moving book I have ever read. It tells the story of a young man making his way in life. Born in Donegal, Ireland working his way through Scotland and the USA. It will move you to tears and lead you to book after book from this very talented writer.

Having read Children of the Dead End for the first time I was taken over by it.It is a story of extraordinary main characters,humour and the bleak portrayal of life as a near slave,potatoe digger and the harsh life as a navvie. I was amazed at the life that the main character"Dermod" lived.He left home at the age of 12 without an education and he went to the hiring fair and worked to send money back home to his family.He has to face the harsh reality and he gambles his money and becomes a heavy drinker. He experiences life without a roof over his head. This story is said to be Patrick MacGills autobiography. Some of the Characters are fictonal while others are said to be true characters. Mac Gills descriptive power is Compelling and I never wanted to leave the book down. Children of the Dead End is an undiscovered classic of Irish litriture and it should be comended.

I have devoted a good portion of my life to the study of mathematics in general, especially algebra and number theory. This book is an extraordinary reference to many areas of number theory and extremely approachable. The book can be studied on its own or as a companion piece to more specialized texts such as Marcus's Number Fields.

I picked up this book as a junior in college and was simply stunned. The flow of ideas is so natural that there are times when you can even read the book like a novel. The exposition is clean, and the proofs are elegant.
However, keep in mind that this book IS a GTM. Hence, it requires pre-requisites by way of approximately a year of abstract algebra. As the author says in the preface, it's possible to read a the first 11 chapters without it. However, to appreciate the beauty of the theory, I would sincerely recommend algebra as pre-req.
The first 12 chapters can be considered 'elementary' (not easy, just fundamental). The others are specialized algebraic topics. For instance, the chapter on elliptic curves is useful to get a flavor of the subject. However, it includes very few proofs.

If ever there was a textbook of which one could say that it was a thing of beauty, this has to be it. The book is very clearly written, and it is readily accessible even to those without a deep understanding of algebra or analysis; despite this, it manages to touch upon a great deal of relatively sophisticated material, and in a way that makes clear the links between the problems of the past and those of the present. I'd imagine that the book would constitute an essential item of reference for anyone with more than a passing interest in number theory.

I am currently finishing my third year of undergraduate math at Brown University, and have just completed a course that used this particular book. I have to say it's the most WELL WRITTEN math book I've ever read, and I've read many, many math books by now (more than I'm willing to count as I'm typing this). Professor Rosen (and Ken Ireland, God rest his soul) have made a book that has both fun and interesting problems as well as clear explanations of proofs in the text. It does of course require that you know the basics of abstract algebra (in particular, one is expected to know that "1" is a unit and therefore cannot be prime, so of course when we discuss problems involving factorization into primes, one will of course ignore the number 1). One is also expected to know the basics of formal logic (i.e. understanding how a proof by induction works, how a proof by contradiction works, and knowing that any proper subset of the natural numbers will have a least element), and I choose to point this out simply because MrBigBeast's review makes it obvious that all these facts were not understood. Despite the fairly large amount of assumed knowledge (this is a book intended for advanced undergrads and first year grad students, afterall), this book takes one on an amazing adventure through the depths of elementary number theory, as well as introduces you to very advanced topics in both algebraic and analytic number theory (ever want to know about Zeta Functions? This book treats the topic quite nicely, making a fairly difficult concept accessible). Truly a gem of a book and worth buying even if you never use it for a course.

I'm currently an undergrad math and phsyics major at Brown, and I loved this book. Rosen is a great teacher and a great writer. As per the post below mine, the submitter is being overly nitpicky. If a reader cannot realize that unique factorization of Z+ extends to Z or understand immediately the nature of "1", then perhaps the reader shouldn't be trying to learn advanced number thoery. As per using the conclusion in the proof, it's called proof by induction. It's easy and trivial enough that I'm sure they didn't want to waste the readers time going through the incredibly obviouse steps.

The book is great. The problems are fun and interesting, and the book gradually generalizes which makes the abstraction easier to conceptualize. If you need something with tons of really baisc excersizes and proofs that will walk you through every step of the way, no matter how small, then this book may not be for you. But if you are a seriouse student looking for an interesting and insightfull introduction to the subject, I highly recomend this book

David Glantz may not write in the most exciting way or use tons of hyperbole or focus alot on the human facet of his stories on the Russo-German war, however as far as wealth of information on the Soviet side of things go there is no one better equipped in the western world to write about The Great Patriotic War. His access to Soviet military information is unprecedented and his attention to detail of the military operations second to none. When I first began reading Glantz's tomes on the war I had preconceived notions about this conflict. If Hitler had stayed on course for Moscow after the battle of Smolensk, if he had not split Operation Blau into a Stalingrad and a Caucauses dual front and kept those troops together for a concerted drive to the Volga, if Barbarossa had been launched in May instead of late June, if the Rasputista and bitter Russian winter had not intervened, if if if. And i truly believed Hitler could and should have won this war. After starting on Glantz's books around the year 2000 or so, and truly realizing the awesome potential in manpower and equipment the Soviets had, and realizing in these readings how unprepared materially and logistically the Germans were to fight this war my whole mindset has changed. I believe even if the Germans had taken Moscow Russia would still have won this war. Other then the Germans developing atomic weapons before anyone I have radically altered my view on Germany's chances here. The Soviet Union was destined to win this war no matter what the cost. Barbarossa more then anything else, was Hitler's greatest mistake in the war. I owe this new view to the works of David Glantz. His information is incredible, his summaries superlative, his conclusions inescapable. Dry and technical it may be, but for my money there is no better writer on The Great Patriotic War then David Glantz. Remember, Germany lost the war and 90 percent of her casualties on the Eastern front. Remember, the Soviet Union lost 27 million dead and most of her agricultural and economic bases and STILL won this war. She probably could have done so, although at even greater cost, without a second front in Italy in 1943, and in France in 1944. The Russian contribution to World War II must not be downplayed in the west. The war against Germany was primarily a Russian one, and David Glantz deserves accolades for being one of very few western writers to acknowledge this fact.

So, this is something that's only for professionals and hardcore fanatics, but it is highly recommended for them. It contains everything you ever wanted to know about the Red Army between 1941-43, and even more.

OK, nothing's perfect (5 stars means it's as perfect as it could be in our imperfect world), I can tell you one complaint. At one point he claims that command turbulance wasn't that bad even during Barbarossa. He cites statistics. But what I would've needed is some comparison. It's fine to know that less than X% of certain types of commanders were relieved of command, but it would've been nice to read some comparison: how was it with other armies... Without those, the data just hang in the air... (There were a few similar points - it's not much in a book well over 600 pages. So I still give it the 5 stars.)

Excellently detailed book! Some of the information is rehashed from previous Glantz books but put into very good context, especially with the enormous amount of details, tables, statistics, and facts. For those who are interested in learning more about the Eastern Front, and by more I mean really in depth like how many tanks per division/brigade/corps at certain periods during the war, what type of nationalities made up some of the rifle divisions/corps, or how many men were some divisions down to at one time or another (one guards division had 80!!! out of a required paper strength of over 10,000!!), this is a very good investment and you will not be disappointed! He also addresses some of the 'what if's' and 'myths' that have been created around the Eastern Front for the past few decades, so a big help in that respect as well.

Glantz does his usual excellent job on the Soviet military in World War II. He covers the campaigns, and the structure and development of the red army during the early part of the war. Separating much of the formation, commander and OoB material into the companion volume is actually a plus. Both volumes are easier to handle becuase of the size and it is easier to use two books to cross reference material.

Although hundreds of histories of Soviet-German war have been published in the last decade or so, they have for the most part either focused on large-scale operations, told the story from a predominantly German perspective, or, most likely, done both. Another unfortunate result of this has been the number of revisionist works, in some degree or another based on Viktor Suvorov's Icebreaker. In part this was out of necessity due to a a number of factors, including the lack of access to former Soviet archives as well as the repression of histories deemed embarrassing to important wartime heroes. David Glantz has once again answered this dearth of reliable Soviet-perspective war history with his newest volume Colossus Reborn. Using a massive number or Soviet primary sources he has written the comprehensive history of the Soviet-German war.

Glantz' book is divided into three parts to tell this story. The first is a chronological discussion of the first 30 months of war, subdivided into the initial period, which covers the war up to the Soviet counteroffensive at Stalingrad and then the second period, which covers the remaining 12 months. This first part of the book not only discusses the conventional view of the war but also clearly exposes the many Soviet operations that have lay hidden in virtual obscurity since war's end. Glantz also does a fine job showing how the Soviet-German war affected the course of WWII in general. Perhaps out of necessity this part of the book is rather concise. In any case it is still eye opening to have the vast number of counterstrokes, counteroffensives and strategic offensives laid out as they are here. As he himself points out, prior histories of the war have led to an almost constant and simplistic portrayal of operations as smooth periods of Wehrmacht offensives in the summer and Soviet offensives in the winter. He also clearly dispels the myth that the Red Army was simply along for the ride after the surprise attack and shows how Stalin and the Stavka repeatedly during the initial period of war attempted to organize counterstrokes as well as full counteroffensives.

Part two of the book is a very thorough look into the force structure of the Soviet army. This section is as comprehensive as one could possible ask for and retain a modicum of readability. Even as such, it is certainly the most difficult section to work through as it is basically a detailed look into how every aspect of the Soviet forces were reorganized from Front down to battalions in some instances. As such is feels at times to be comprised of endless tables of organization. This should not be overstated however, as this type of attention to detail is what most readers of Glantz have come to expect. Furthermore, it is this level of detail that sets him apart from most other widely published WWII historians. He does not simply explain to the reader that a particular type of unit was employed in a particular defensive or offensive action. He thoroughly explains how that type of unit came to be and gives the prior organization of similar units and why they failed to work.

Part three is a thorough analysis of the leaders of the Red Army and those that they led. The first subsection is broken up primarily into mini biographies of every major general, commanding every Front, Army, and Corps and all of their variants. It does so and gives a very interesting breakdown and percentages by year of the surviving and thriving general staff as well as command failures and traitors. Glantz then gives a very enlightening look into the soviet soldiers; who they were (ethnicity and gender are investigated here) how they survived, why they fought and what methods were used to keep them toeing the line, particularly after the hideous and demoralizing losses of the first six months. This section is probably the most readable of the three and is a very well written look into the human aspects of the war.

Finally, Glantz has once again written a history of the Soviet-German war that is groundbreaking, to say the least. Using sources that only he seems to be able to gain access to, he has delved more comprehensively into the factors that allowed the Red Army to first survive and eventually defeat Hitler's Wehrmacht, than anyone else before him. Yes, this volume reads quite dryly at times and the tables of organization can seem daunting but it must clearly be understood from the beginning that this is not a book for the casual history reader by any stretch. This book is meant for the dedicated historian of the Soviet-German war-those who need more than a basic overview of the military operations and geopolitical ramifications of the war. With all that said the only weakness that this book has are some instances of sloppy writing and subsequent poor editing. At times-particularly in Part I-this poor editing is truly frustrating and frequent. For the most part though, this is never more than a minor irritation. As a whole Glantz can, once again, be said to be the undisputed master of Soviet-German war history.

A very interesting and concise history of Greece from the 18th century to the present. It includes detailed examinations of all the major turning points in Greek history in the last three hundred years; the Greek war of independence, Greece under the Nazis, the Greek Civil War and the dictatorship. All of the important passions that have overcome the Greeks are woven into the story as is the story of the destruction of the Greek peoples of Anatolia (The Pontic Greeks and Smyrna Greeks and others) as well as the ethnic-cleansing of Greeks by the Turks from places such as Adrianople, Constantinople and Rumania and Bulgaria. The conflict over Macedonia is highlighted as is the tragic story of the 100,000 strong Greek community of Egypt that was also cleansed by the Nasser regime.

A fascinating history,

Seth J. Frantzman

This is a great book for both an introduction as well as an on-going reference source on modern Greece.
Highly recommend it to students or anyone interested in learning the history of the modern state, without getting bogged down with boring details.

I enjoyed reading the book but in some parts I had difficulties to understand the context. Somehow, Clogg jumps from one subject to the other. Also, there were very difficult historical words which are especially difficult for readers whose mother tongue is not English. Admittedly, the book has not been written for foreign readers but I think that even an English native speaker has a problem to understand words like "irredentism" and "shibboleth" if he didn't study history. Another problem is the title of some chapters. He calls one chapter "The legacy of the Civil war 1950 - 1974" although the civil war in Greece was between 1944 and 1949 or so. How can he call this capter in the abovementioned way if he writes about military rule and the Cyprus conflict? He admitted in a way that Britain and the USA have contributed to the beginning of the Cyprus conflict but he doesn't write much about it. I read the book but sometimes I did not understand it, in particular the context. I wished he would have written also more about the Ottoman rule in Greece or even the beginning of the history of Greece. The book would have been thicker, indeed, but it would have given more information. Also, he should have given the book a slightly different title, for instance "A Concise History of Greece - 1770 - 1990". This would have been clearer because as a reader you think that he has written about the whole history of Greece. However, all in all it was a good book. I enjoyed it.

Now in an expanded second edition, A Concise History Of Greece by Richard Clogg (Fellow of St. Anthony's College, Oxford University, England) is a straightforward, scholarly chronicle of the modern history of Greece, ranging from the Ottoman rule of the late 1700's, to the pressures of Balkan strife and political modernization of the present day. Deftly written and carefully researched, supplemented with tables, short biographies, as well as a listing of the royal houses of Greece, A Concise History Of Greece is an excellent and scholarly survey of the modern growth of the nation which is a strongly recommended addition to academic World History collections in general, and Hellenic History supplemental reading lists in particular.

Richard Clogg is a renowned international scholar who has been writing about Greek history for decades. This work is a popularization (from footnotes deliver me) that should prove very helpful to the layman with more than a casual interest in Greece. It invites comparison with C.M. Woodhouse's also famous history, but I must declare myself incompetent to decide if one is better than the other.

Clogg's section on the Ottoman period is blessedly brief and his discussion of the Nazi occupation and Communist insurection are to-the-point yet incisive.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the work is the great bunch of pictures gracing nearly every page and showing the days of glory in Modern Greece as well as some of the saddest. The maps are also helpful.

There are no footnotes but the selective bibliography will be useful to most readers. There is also an appendix giving thumbnail biographies of some luminaries in modern Greek history.

For most, Charles Dickens is the only source we've encountered regarding the awful human misery of the early industrial revolution. However, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx reported on it, too. Indeed, most of their criticisms were far more applicable to the raw capitalism of contemporary England than their native Germany.

Engels stayed in Manchester, the premier industrial city of the time, during the early 1840's to research his book. And he produced a devastating indictment of the truly miserable and life-threatening living conditions he found. Unlike Marx, Engels had a pronounced flair for writing; he makes it a fascinating, eye-opening journey back through time.

The topics he includes cover: struggling labor movements, the denigrating effects of immigration on domestic workers (due to competing subsistence-cost labor), the ignorance and crippling of child workers, the sexual exploitation of women workers, the displacement of male heads of household by lower-cost and more pliant women/children, the unbelievable filth and subhuman housing conditions workers endured, the dangerous and unhealthy working conditions of miners/factory workers, rampant substance abuse, doping of children by babysitters, the total lack of legal redress for the poor, the displacement of labor by machinery, and the role of unbridled competition in perpetrating economic distress.

While we all know communism has failed, its rise was due to these very real and serious problems, some of which remain with many Western workers today. And most of these conditions do very much persist in emerging economies right now. So, even though the book is well over 150 years old it is still highly valid!

The main fault of course with Marx/Engels' communist philosophy is that ALL humans are greedy and lazy - it's just that the clever ones (whether they originate from 'bourgeous' or 'working' classes) will always exploit the others. And it doesn't matter whether the system is capitalist or communist - those at the top will always exploit those below for personal advantage. Probably the best response has been the progressive social reform in Western nations over the last 100 years. (Revolutions and dictatorships usually only lead to mass murder.)

This chilling book is the real-life Oliver Twist exposed.I think Fredrick Engels wrote this book,in part to clear his conscious.And largely, to shed light on the fetid ,wretched underbelly of the 19th century industrial-age society.The nameless toilers working ten to twelve hour shifts,in a factory operation they had no vote or control over.Marx and Engels had many valid arguments for improving the workers lives.Did their end-results justify their means of social revolution? Engels would be amazed at the former textile towns,like Manchester,absorbing the large influx of Asians,Moslims and Africans today.It is still being debated,whether history has proven Engels & Marx right.This book is still a historical classic,thats presumptive findings give the modern reader,reason to pause. So,look all around you. -A Great Book !

Fabuous book. Engels wrote this when he was only 24- and what a tour de force.

The work is detailed, beautifully observed and elegantly written. Despite the depressing nature of the subject matter, the tone is always possible about a better world beyond the evils of capitalism.

Unfortunately 150 years after this masterpiece was written things dont seen to have gotten better under capitalism. Rather, the old evils of poverty, infectious diseases, starvation have been replaced by the modern evils of capitalism: obesity, alienation, mass materialism, depression, plunging fertility and marriage rates and so on...

Engels was the engine behind Karl Marx, one that gave him all the support he could, so to permit Marx to dedicate himself almost completely to the completion of his works. Judging himself many degrees bellow Marx in terms of intelect, Engels nonetheless is capable of writting a book such as this which describes all the impoverishment of the working class in the beginning of the industrialization in England, being helped by some well porputed factories labor fiscalization agents who allowed Engels to flip trough their reports. Strong terms like "the dark satanic mills" describe fully what were the working conditions of the time in a so rich country as England. An historical document lest no one forget what can happen again if the free hand of capitalism is allowed to run free of any barriers.

Friedrich Engels' classic "The Condition of the Working Class in England" was written when he was only twenty-four, and had but recently abandoned his Calvinist upbringing for a more critical, socialist, point of view. Yet this book reads as if it were written by an experienced political commentator or a radical sociologist, without actually at any point becoming melodramatic or dense.

Engels' main purpose is to confront the bourgeoisie with the reality of their mode of production and to contrast this with the rhetoric of "free choice" and "civil liberties", as well as the capitalist apologia of the political economists of his day, in particular Andrew Ure. With great insight into both the causes and effects of the capitalist system, Engels catalogues the endless want, filth, despair and misery experienced by millions of labourers every day in 19th century England. He pays attention to housing, to factory safety, to unionism, to the physical condition of the workers, to alcoholism, the state of the Irish underclass, to prostitution and disease; in short, all the ills attendant on industrialization.

What gives this book such power is that Engels on the one hand proceeds in an analytical manner, making use above all of sources from the bourgeoisie itself and from Parliamentary reports, in explaining the functioning of the capitalist system and the competition between capitalists and between labourers. On the other hand, he writes in a particularly readable manner and at no point bores the reader with the mere summing-up of statistics. On the contrary, every analytical truth is accompanied by a vivid description, taken from Engels' excursions into working-class neighbourhoods, of the terrible state of humanity that the economic laws of capitalism cause for a great number of people.

For those interested in political economy, it may come as a surprise to see how much of the functioning of capitalism Engels already understood at such an early point in the development of theory. This gives the lie to the many theorists who would later claim that it was Marx only who worked on economics and that Engels was a mere epigone; this book should be a vindication of Engels. His later sketches of the political economy and of the historical development of capitalism would lay the foundation for both the Communist Manifesto and Marx' economic works. But the core insights that would create the modern theory of socialism are for the first time fully expressed here, and in a most appealing and shockingly effective manner.

In other words, an absolute must read for every person of intelligence.

Cork Silver And Gold: Four Centuries Of Craftsmanship was published to coincide with the exhibition in the Crawford Gallery Cork, but stands alone as well as the first to detail the work of Cork silversmiths and goldsmiths, and will appeal to specialty art collections. Both public and private holdings were culled for this feature: what results is a display which will serve as both a history and a reference to any dedicated jewelry student studying Cork craftsmanship.

Cork Silver And Gold: Four Centuries Of Craftsmanship was published to coincide with the exhibition in the Crawford Gallery Cork, but stands alone as well as the first to detail the work of Cork silversmiths and goldsmiths, and will appeal to specialty art collections. Both public and private holdings were culled for this feature: what results is a display which will serve as both a history and a reference to any dedicated jewelry student studying Cork craftsmanship.

Cork Silver And Gold: Four Centuries Of Craftsmanship was published to coincide with the exhibition in the Crawford Gallery Cork, but stands alone as well as the first to detail the work of Cork silversmiths and goldsmiths, and will appeal to specialty art collections. Both public and private holdings were culled for this feature: what results is a display which will serve as both a history and a reference to any dedicated jewelry student studying Cork craftsmanship.

Cork Silver And Gold: Four Centuries Of Craftsmanship was published to coincide with the exhibition in the Crawford Gallery Cork, but stands alone as well as the first to detail the work of Cork silversmiths and goldsmiths, and will appeal to specialty art collections. Both public and private holdings were culled for this feature: what results is a display which will serve as both a history and a reference to any dedicated jewelry student studying Cork craftsmanship.

Cork Silver And Gold: Four Centuries Of Craftsmanship was published to coincide with the exhibition in the Crawford Gallery Cork, but stands alone as well as the first to detail the work of Cork silversmiths and goldsmiths, and will appeal to specialty art collections. Both public and private holdings were culled for this feature: what results is a display which will serve as both a history and a reference to any dedicated jewelry student studying Cork craftsmanship.

This book is the best in many ways. Spectacular designs, wonderfully written patterns, easy to follow schematics, special directions for special stitches. I love being able to make Aran style sweaters in crochet. The way the book is written it is also easy to use certain stitches and design my own sweater. Yes, you can do cables with crochet and they are beautiful!

This book and Lily Chin's upcoming book are the only crochet books I've ever found that have sweaters I would actually wear. Instructions are clear. I'm mostly a knitter who dabbles in crochet and I had no problem with these directions.

I have a confession: I developed and edited this book for ME! Usually, in the book business, products are developed with a target reader in mind. Well, I broke the rules when I asked the designer, Jane Snedden Peever, to create the garments for Crocheted Aran Sweaters. I *love* every sweater in this book! In fact, I've already made half of them, and have yarn picked out to stitch the rest.

Plus, I've used the stitch patterns, which are explained in the Pattern Work Encyclopedia, to make other sweaters for me and my husband, and an afghan for his office.

Every time I wear one of the sweaters from this book, at least a handful of people admire the work and marvel that they're crocheted rather than knit. The work looks very intense, but most of the garments are actually easy to stitch. Scottish Reel, for example, has blocks worked in a variety of stitches. It looks really hard. But it isn't, because you make rectangles, working one stitch pattern after another, and then sew the pieces together. I made my Scottish Reel sweater in three days (of course, this is part of my job, so I stitched for seven hours a day).

Another thing I like about the sweaters in this book is that practically any Aran-weight yarn can be used for any of the sweaters. You can walk into any yarn or craft shop and probably find a yarn that'll work. How cool is that?

I hope that you enjoy this book as much as I do.

I absolutely love this book! I wanted to take a brake from knitting and knew this book would be just the right thing to use of some yarn that didn't work out for a different project. The patterns are timeless and the possibilities are endless with the wide variety of yarns available. I've made the cover sweater and the crewneck cardigan and I couldn't be happier with the results. Crochet looks so neat and tidy and the stitches give such wonderful texture. The instructions are very clear and the stitch patterns are easy to remember so you don't have to do much flipping around. This is a definite must for anyone looking to crochet sweaters.

What a wonderful book! The patterns are so amazing looking and so detailed. I can't wait to get started! After reading this book, I'd definitely recommend it.

Heading to Germany for the Football (Soccer) World Cup in June 2006? Take a detour to Berlin and be amazed by the vibrancy and architecture of this new/old city. Reading Ruth Baja Williams' "Detour Berlin" is an excellent introduction to your visit, giving the city a unique flavour from the perspective of a 20-year-long visitor. The former East Berlin is currently being transformed with renovated apartment buildings, stunning new high rises, and everywhere there are trees and parks to soften the built environment. As you wander around Alexanderplatz recall Ruth's experiences there, imagine the life she describes of her friends residing on the `other' side of the Berlin Wall. Visit cosmopolitan department stores, putting yourself in the position of a long suffering 1960 -70s East Berliner attempting to purchase scarce, very basic products. Picture yourself living in West Berlin, separated from family and friends by a forbidding wall. Allow Ruth, through her warm, yet incisive observations, to take you on a journey that will make your own visit so much more meaningful and appreciative of a lifestyle often taken for granted. Ruth's prose is vividly accessible as she generously shares the daily lives of her family and friends in a way that brings a European city into the realm of understanding of a non-European. Do detour!

Ruth Baja Williams memoirs of post-wall pre-unification Berlin are hard to put down. Buy this book and you're guaranteed to be caught up in her vivid storytelling abilities and compelling gifts for observation. In a way, her book also serves as a mini-biography of her husband Charles Williams, one of America's most gifted and creative singers and teachers (he created the role of Sporting Life at the Metropolitan Opera's premier performances of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1985).

What a read! Ruth took me to Berlin, placed me in her family, and brought me a rich, honest encounter with a place I knew little about. Thank you Ruth (and Charles) for letting me share your wonderful detour to Berlin.

Ruth has witnessed a period of our modern history which is too little known and understood by much of the supposedly educated Western world - and written so well and thoughtfully about her experiences. We share her disappointments, admire her achievements with the German language, freeze with her, are inspired by the stoicism and even good humour of individuals who have suffered so much in war, feel the warmth of her German friends, can imagine the hassle and frustration of crossing into East Berlin and appreciate the fascination Ruth and Charles had with the events, culture, history, politics and customs of Berlin.

This 20 year detour by an interracial American couple in Cold War Berlin is an interesting, compulsive read which also permits valuable insights into personal interactions within the culturally diverse international community.

A compelling account of a 20th-century love story set in Cold War Berlin. Ruth Baja, a girl from an upper class Philippine background, marries Charles Williams, a black American singer, against her family's wishes. They find themselves in Berlin--temporarily they think--soon after the Wall divides the city. They stay and raise a family while Charles pursues a European career. This is a voyage of political, cultural and personal discovery, told with wit, poignance and grace. You'll fall in love with Ruth and Charles, and with Berlin too.

This is an awesome book. Buy it and enjoy it.
Libro cojonudo. Disfrutarás como un chaval.

Este es por lejos una de los mejores libros que he leido. El autor encontro una manera muy agradable de contar una historia de la que la mayoria de la gente no quiere saber, concuerdo con otros comentarios, este no es un libro de texto, sin embargo como historia aporta mas que muchos libros de texto (al menos a nosotros los no filosofos de profesion) y de una manera muy interesante. Este es un gran libro que le deja como herencia al lector el reto de ejercitar la imaginacion y recuperar su capacidad de asombrarse con las cosas mas cotidianas.

Este libro llego a mis manos por casualidad en la biblioteca de Nueva Acropolis. Concuerdo con uno de las opiniones vertidas en esta página: No es un libro de introducción a la filosofía, si estás buscando filosofía no compres este libro. Este libro es un cuento en el que el autor va dejando a medida que se desarrollan los mágicos acontecimientos de manera inteligente una breve reseña de las corrientes filosóficas, sus representantes y sus ideas. Mi formación en este campo era NULA (ese curso no lo lleve en el colegio)...después de leer este libro, me intereso la filosofía y pude comprender de que se trata. Si te gustan los cuentos ágiles, la lectura amena, quizas un poquito de suspenso, debes adquirir este libro. Disfrutarás de su lectura y adicionalmente cuando termines de leerlo, sabrás un poquito desde Socrates hasta Popper, pasando por Nietsche, Lock, Santo Tomas de Aquino, Espinoza...Me despido de Uds. me voy a leerlo de nuevo.

Este es un libro bastante entretenido sobre la Historia de la Filosof?a, pero no debes catalogar este libro como un texto in extenso del tema, porque lo mas seguro es que te vas a defraudar. Cierto que nos habla de las principales corrientes filosof?as, pero no debemos pretender que abarque todo el contenido de todas o de alguna de ellas, critica que imagino es con la que mas se se?ala este libro. Como una introducci?n a un curso de Historia de la Filosof?a no es mejor ni peor que los otros cursos de introducci?n, y como quiera que sea, pasa a contar exactamente la misma historia que los dem?s libros. ?qu? hace entonces que este libro sea para mi especial? Es la forma en que Gaarder lo hace: convierte la introducci?n a la historia de la filosof?a en una novela que llega a desbordar todos los limites de imaginaci?n entre un padre y su hija.

Si nunca te has interesado en la Filosof?a, te aseguro que este libro clavara esta palabra en tu mente. Esto, sobretodo, si eres de aquellos que temen los libros textuales y formuleros. Pero si has incursionado en alguna corriente filos?fica con alguna profundidad, no mires este libro deseando analizar lo que seguramente ya sabes de la corriente que deseas, porque es seguro que sabes mas que lo que aqu? se presenta. Pero, como quiera que sea, como sucede con cualquier libro, siempre tendr?s algo que aprender de el.

Me han regalado el libro por mi 15°cumpleaños. Realmente es interesante ver como se desarrolla la trama de tal manera que los personajes principales van evolucionando. Por una parte Sofía la niña que corría el riesgo de convertirse lo que se llamaría un "apatico humano" logro superarlo mediante las enseñanzas de un completo extraño. No es un libro sobre las opiniones del autor acerca de preguntas filosóficas. Al contrario si eres el tipo de persona que te agrada pensar en ellas este libro te ayudará desde el princio al final a razonarlas un poco más por tu propia cuenta y saber opiniones de antiguos filosofos que tal vez coinciden con las tuyas.

An expansion and refinement of the author's Ph.D. dissertation on the diplomacy of Gouverneur Morris during very troubled times in Paris.

Gouverneur Morris was an intelligent man of solid good sense, with an obvious love for life. Dr. Miller, as befits one holding a law degree, writes as an advocate for the historical reputation of this important figure from our country's early days. In my opinion, she wins her case.

Anyone interested in the diplomatic efforts of our country in its infancy will enjoy this book.

I hope that the talented Dr. Miller will continue writing graceful books on equally interesting subjects.

This well-written and lively book should go a long way in restoring Gouverneur Morris to his rightful place among the Founding Fathers. The prickly Morris has had a pretty bad press over the years, but Envoy to the Terror provides a vigorous, in places brilliant, and ultimately convincing defense of Morris' conduct. Miller shows how Morris energetically defended America's interests under extraordinarily difficult circumstances and successfully disproves charges made both at the time and by later historians that his term as minister to France was a failure.

We learn to see our future by looking at our past, and contemporary French and American relations--as they relate to French censure for America's enlarging foreign policy and the U.S. zeal for "democratization" of the larger world--can be viewed in greater focus by narrowing in on the history of our two countries during the French Revolution and the French `Terror' that followed it. The American diplomat pivotal to this period-the only one on whom Washington could depend for analysis of what was happening abroad-was Gouverneur Morris, today one of the lesser known founding fathers, who as United States Minister to France from 1789-92, during the height of the atrocities taking place there, turned out to be profoundly perspicacious in seeing the terrible future of this, one of America's first adventures in `democracy building,' and its unpredictable, and sometimes terrible results. In Dr. Melanie Miller's insightful revisiting of the historical record of relations between the United States and France during this fateful and terrible period, as set down in her recent biography of Gouverneur Morris, Envoy to the Terror, Dr. Miller tells us much that is relevant to French and American relations today.

Gouverneur Morris may be the virtually unknown, underrated key to understanding the American Revolution, and this exciting new book tells his story from a fresh viewpoint. Thorough-going scholarship combines with bright and lively prose to bring Morris to life and set the record straight on his role in the establishment of the American Experiment. Dr. Miller shows that the conventional view of Morris has been much too limited and is due for thorough revision. This study is much more thorough than the recent popularizing biography of Morris by Richard Brookhiser. If you liked that book, which acknowledges Miller's ground-breaking research, you should read this one to learn the whole story. This book is invaluable for serious students of the Revolutionary period.

Gouverneur Morris has been a long underrated yet instrumental figure during important times. He took a critical part in the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, and he played as crucial a role as his predecessor, Thomas Jefferson, in his position as U.S. ambassador to France during the Terror, when French and American citizens alike sought his intervention, hoping to avoid losing their heads by guillotine. The author provides plausible explanations for this strange obscurity. Melanie Randolph Miller does much to humanize Morris's daily life, times and dilemmas, not to mention the big and small events of the French revolutionary era, deftly weaving into her text original and previously unknown sources, such as his own meticulously kept diaries, letters to and from his mistress, Adele Filleul, comtesse of Flahaut and other paramours, and urgent communications with key protagonists: the falling and fallen royal couple, Danton, Robespierre and the Girondins, among many others. The author's prose is brilliantly precise, enhanced by a dry and intelligent wit, and I agree with reviewers that the book is written with "the discipline of a historian but a novelist's eye," "a page turner." I admit that I found myself dragging my heels as I read along because, truth be told, I didn't really want to finish. In the final stretch, I stayed up way past my bedtime, skimming excitedly to learn what happened in the end, even though of course I already knew. I recommend Envoy to the Terror to anyone with more than a passing interest in the events of revolutionary Paris.