Burr Books

What can be said about this monument to Jefferson scholarship? I am sure that somewhere in universities around the United States there are "scholar squirrels who want to put down this invaluable resource in Jefferson studies. It is always the way that mice attempt to gnaw at lions. This is not a perfect work (and my remarks refer to all of the books in the series as a whole), there are somethings, namely Sally Hemmings references which are wrong and will not sit well with American 21st century mores. There is the issue of slavery which was handled much differently 50 years ago than it is now.
Jefferson is not worthy of our interest because of Sally Hemmings and because he kept slaves. Jefferson is great because of the Declaration of Independence and his fight for the rights of man. While it may have been hypocritical to preach liberty and keep slaves, it is doubtful that slavery ever would have been abolished if Jefferson had never gained the prominence that he did. This book and the others that follow show why we should continue to honor the public man even though his private side may have been wanting.

Jefferson: The President second term 1805-1809 is the fifth volume in a series of six, by Dumas Malone and brings us into the last four years of Jefferson's Presidency. I found that the author worked harder to bring out Jefferson the man in this volume... maybe because of the actions of others, (Burr and Marshall), but it is apparent that the author worked hard on this volume.

Jefferson sponsors the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Congress gives Jefferson a little slack, but Arron Burr takes the domestic heat. The Barbary pirates are delt with, but the political views of Jefferson and Marshall heat up to a boiling point. But, Jeferson's second term seems to hit a nadir and he is longing for his Virginia mountain top home where he can finally retire after forty years of service to government.

I found the scholarship to be impeccable, balanced, seemly sympathetic. The overall narrative is detailed and at times engrossing and engaging. Even though we can see Jefferson's excitement with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, we also see heartbreak with Burr and vituperation with Marshall.

Overall, this volume brings us to one of the most interesting times of Jeferson's life... that of retirement. This is one of the most interesting of the volumes so far as we see Jefferson working out the problems that others have wrought upon him.

Dumas Malone (1892-1986) devoted his academic career to studying Thomas Jefferson, and this superbly researched volume reflects that lifelong scholarship. This book is one in a six-part series examining the life of our third President. I read this book for a college class and immediately grasped the unending pressures that President Jefferson faced in his second term. Malone examines the decision-making options available to Jefferson, usually (and perhaps too often) supporting the eventual route that the President decided upon. This volume's research and analysis is worthy of five stars, not to mention the 1975 Pulitzer Prize the series captured. Unfortunately, Malone's stilted prose - the weakness of most academic historians - produces a rather laborious read. Thus, four stars overall.

A good "snapshot" history of the early iron American navy cruisers. Whets the appitite for more information on these ships.

Rob

The description of the transformational growth of the U.S. Navy from a backward, inward-looking coastal defense force to a true blue-water navy lies at the heart of Lawrence Burr's US Cruisers 1883-1904, which is 143 in Osprey's New Vanguard Series. This is a superb volume in the series, which not only delivers a great deal of information in a small space, but offers a very high level of graphic appeal. Overall, a well-put together volume that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in 19th Century navies.

The volume begins with the order of three cruisers for the U.S. Navy in 1883, which the author notes as a watershed change in U.S. Naval policy toward a fleet capable of global operations. Gradually, the U.S. fleet shifted from a strategy of commerce raiding to a fleet capable of sea control, for which the new cruisers were at the forefront. Each class of U.S. cruiser ordered between 1883 and 1904 is described in some detail an further technical details are provided at the end of the volume. The volume is supplemented by superb color graphics and some very nice B/W photos. Overall, this is one of the better volumes in the New Vanguard series.

Nicely put together overview of a very neglected area of naval design and development. This volume also contains a useful appendix which has the book's only obvious technical error: when referring to gun calibers, the author (or perhaps an ill-informed and over-zealous editor) includes a decimal point were none should go. An 8in/51 caliber gun has a barrel length 51 times the 8 inch bore. The book has it written "8in/.51 caliber" which would mean the barrel is 4 inches long. This error should be corrected in any future printings.

To whom it may concern,

I just wana thank the Lord Jesus for all your service. Keep it up

God Bless You All

:)

We bought these books to give at our Women of destiny Conference 2007.
The women truly were blessed.

Hello Saints, new and old. I am currently on a quest to find my divine purpose and this book has more insight than one can imagine. It is definitely an appointed and anointed book of God. Prophetess Bynum Weeks definitely was given a word from God, and I strongly suggest anyone with any level of calling on their life, purpose or passion of purpose to read this book. It will make you analyze yourself, your motivation, and your position to move forward. In and of itself, this book will allow you to move toward receiving your impartation from God and lead you in the direction of better serving your pastor, bishop or priest.

God Bless, Jeremiah 1:10

I haven't read a Kristin Hannah book yet that I didn't love... and I place this one at the top. I sailed through this unabridged audio, read so fabulously by Sandra Burke. This is not the usual kind of story I expected. If you've read other books by this author, you pretty much know how things will go..... but I was pleasantly surprised by the twist in this story.... actually, I loved the way the story ended. I am a true fan of this author and can't wait for her next book. I immediately fell in love with Joy, Bobby, and even the gruf Daniel, with his wonderful Irish accent. This is the kind of book you just can't wait to finish, but never want to end. I highly recommend it. I'd love to see Kristen revisit these people one day in a future story....
JMHO //(*_*)\\

Christmas isn't a time for cynicism or skepticism. It's a time when miracles can happen, which is almost what occurs in the life of Joy Candellaro.

As our story opens it seems that Joy isn't aptly named because there's not much in her life but betrayal and misery. Her divorce from Thom is still new enough to pain and her sister is the one who caused it. Not a time for family happiness!

In spite of all this, Joy determines to celebrate her first Christmas on her own with a tree, the trimmings, and an eye-popping gift that she certainly feels she deserves. However, the holly and tinsel go by the board when her sister, Stacey, drops by to announce that she's going to have Thom's baby. Joy sees red, and buys an airline ticket for Canada. Does she know anyone there? No. Does she know what she'll do when she gets there? Has no idea. She simply wants to escape from a life that has become untenable.

Kristin Hannah fans know that there's good news in the offing, and they'll not be disappointed or surprised when Joy meets a father and son who are enduring more than their share of sorrow. You know what they say about comfort and joy.

Sandra Burr gives a splendid reading of this story of second chances - if you have the courage to accept them.

- Gail Cooke

This book was first published in 1972.Leonard states at the beginning of this book "It is my thesis that the current period is indeed unique in history and that it represents the beginning of the most thorough change in the quality of human existence since the creation of an agricultural surplus brought about the birth of civilized states some 5,000 years ago.""I believe that the time is overdue for the emergence of a new vision of human and social destiny and being." His intention is not to "fabricate a new organizing myth",but to contribute to an understanding of changes that are happening, and to "attempt a few glimpses at transformed behavior and being."Leonard shows how a dis-eased state of being is the normal lot for the individual in Civilization.Being expansionist,the system needs aggressive and frustrated males.The feeling nature and wide ranging sensory pleasures are discouraged, with a focus on "specialized genital activity."Civilization inflames lust but denies real sensual satisfaction.Civilization cannot go on forever, because the earth is a limited system. Leonard outlines various myths which civilization promotes to justify itself, such as the myth of unlimited growth,the myth of the limited good,the myth of inevitable competition,the myth of a separate species, and the myth of glory, honor and duty.The book is full of insights into the dis-ease that is called Civilization.He says that a major portion of what is called education is actually the training of our screening devices, to screen out perception of our own biofields and those of others.Leonard is not in the business of providing some slick instant fix.He knows that lasting transformation takes time, and is largely a matter of awareness, especially awareness of what life should really be about."The most radical act of this age is perhaps to experience four straight days of joy, without anxiety or guilt or regret.Civilization cannot survive very many such days."

This book is about being "wide awake."

George Leonard was writing for people who, maybe pausing from the blinding effects of modern life and labor long enough, might be waking up to that something out there that's way beyond the daily grind, and barely, just barely, comprehensible to humans. When you begin the sometimes agonizing, sometimes exhilirating process of awakening to awareness of what I can think of to refer to only as "more", the ideas George Leonard captured in this outside-the-box book are a helpful, extremely engaging perspective on and proposed explanation of what all the drumming and pounding and agony of civilized life might be about. He says, "The impassioned thesis of [the book] is that beyond the dying of our present culture lies the possibility of a new and better culture ... leading to greater development of human resources, and that fascinating adventures await us in a transformed world." "Someday," he says, "we may gain eyes to see it full face: the radiant and terrible beauty of humankind transformed."

George Leonard is a war veteran, a former senior writer for Look magazine writing first-hand accounts of American life through the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and a scholar of the first degree. The contents of his book range from allusians to Hans Christian Anderson to Newtonian Physics and Magick, and his arguments are about as well supported as something as unprovable as the mega-transformation of human life can possibly be (especially given the microscopic number of answers all of modern knowledge provides for just about anything).

Articulate, highly ordered, clear stream-of-consciousness style takes you to places like this: "This planet does not weigh six thousand million, million, million tons. It does not weigh an ounce. It floats lighter than a feather along a perfect curve of space-time..."

And "We fear, perhaps more than anything else, to give up our neuroses, our discontents, our dis-eases. Simply to be at ease fills us with fear. We rush for the sanctuary of our sickness, the safety of the morning news, the stock market, the pennant. We reach for chemical drugs or consumerism. We plunge into education and culture, and then go on trying to change everything except ourselves."

And "...humans ... have to be afflicted with dis-ease (discontent) in order for Civilization's work to be done."

What if it were true, as he argues, that "...our national goals are difficult to attain - perhaps unattainable - because we have set them too low." What if civilized culture's MYTHS include: Politics. Old Age. Drugs as pleasure. Necessity of war. Disease (dis-ease). Even death.

A bit annoying are occasional wanderings into the complaining, negative drone so common at the time the book was written - the early 1970s. But he knew, even back then, that "the flow of information in a human society is regulated by information. Information is also energy, if only a fraction of that which it regulates."

On some of the book's pages more than others, he achieved the remarkable feat of recording in language those ineffable moments rarely glimpsed, even describing those moments in a kind of self-reflective ripple from which he was at those moments writing: "...certain days of freakish weather..., when time and place play tricks on us, when old loves rise up to mock our unresolve, when our secure faith in the impossible shifts, leaving us no steady place on which to stand. On such a day" we may be summoned "back again to our wildest dreams and darkest fears. To understand the Transformation, pay attention."

What if peace, joy, compassion, health, the capacity and talent of each person fulfilled -- are not merely possible, but inevitable. Definitely something to think about next time you're sitting in a traffic jam on your way to another day of Kafkaesque work, wondering what -- in the world -- we're doing all this for.

Lots of practical ideas for beginner modelers; a must have for beginners! Fast delivery, very satisfied with used copy.

This book gave you a lot of information (hints and tips). Although the book is very basic there is still a lot to learn, and most of the time simple solutions for big problems (in the eyes of the modeler).Those simple solutions are easy to follow, with great results. After some practical sessions you never forget what you learned.

at times...a painful remembrance of her hollocust experience, gertrude is very good at making you feel and think about her painful life experience. she can literally make you see what she describes in her poetry. my favorites were "flash flood age 8" and "fear knows no seasons" and "letter to a small kite." i know the author personally and never would have guessed that her childhood was so dreadful as she is a happy, lovely 92 yo who always has something nice to say about everyone. congratulations to gertrude on her publication.

Gertrude Halstead was a young German Jewish woman living in Berlin in the 1930s and witnessed the Nazi rise to power first hand. Gertrude narrowly escaped the Nazi roundups of jews, eventually fleeing to France where she was later sent to an internment camp near the Spanish border. By writing her own liberation papers (and with the help of sympathetic French officers that were in charge of the camp), she was able to flee over the Pyrenees to Lisbon, Portugal, and in 1941, boarded the last passenger ship to leave Europe for the United States. Gertrude lost most of her family who were to perish in the concentration camps of Dachau and Auschwitz. This remarkable woman today lives in Worcester, Massachusetts, and at the age of 90, Memories Like Burrs is her debut poetry collection and stands as a testament to her ability to compose images of words whose emotional impact upon the reader is as memorable as her personal story of survival against horrific odds. Painting: on the back of his old white shirt/i paint nightmares and the sun exploding/cathedral windows and the light always the light/pattern on the stones at Sainte-Chapelle//i paint black books and books burning/i paint you blind because you would tell them nothing/i paint you free falling from that high window ledge/before they kicked your door in//i paint trenches i paint the charred/ribcage of my father's house/i paint the dead ash gray/and the light always the light

I bought this for my grandmother who can't read novels anymore because she is going blind. She loves Nora Roberts and she says the stories are very exciting and interesting.

I purchased these three novels separately, but read them in sequence. I wasn't expecting to like them as much as I did, as I thought I would find the witch aspect a little silly or offensive, but it was done in good taste. I enjoyed the love stories, as well as the suspense. The characters were likeable. Nell made me want to protect her, and had me staying up late to see what happened to her. Ripley and Mac were just enjoyable characters - an unlikely but cute match. Mia and Sam were the typical star crossed lovers but their problems did get a little tedious at times. Perhaps this was just because it was the third book in a row about the same characters.

For a long time, I have enjoyed romance fiction. Recently, I've developed an interest in historical subjects, and Jean Burr Bradley's Shamrock Green brought these two loves together. Her characters are real and vivid, and the plot moves rapidly. There is never a lull in the novel. I was so involved in the story until I felt like I was walking along the streets in New Orleans with a voodoo curse plaguing me and powerful men trying to run me out of town. But my knight in shining armor comes to my rescue willing to put his station in life and wealth on the line for a beautiful servant girl. I highly recommend this book.

i am seventeen and i read this book and was amazed by it. i paaed on to fellow friends and they thought that it had much time and effort put into creating a great story.

One could make an argument that the tragic tale of the Spiritual Franciscans of the fourteenth century is the fruit of the unfinished business between Pope Innocent III and Francis of Assisi himself a century earlier. Both men, in their enthusiasm of the moment, apparently never faced the crucible of idealism meeting practicality. Francis eschewed the prevailing wisdom of a constitutional government for his new religious movement in favor of a lifestyle extracted from Gospel quotes and Jesus' own example. Innocent, himself one of the most brilliant and realistic men ever to sit upon the Throne of Peter, surprisingly gave his blessing to this experiment. In their defense, neither man probably knew how big this would all become; though Innocent of all people should have had an inkling of the doctrinal and legal problems that lie ahead.

David Burr describes in scholarly detail the victims of this oversight. This is the tale of the men and women who believed that the Rule and Testament of Francis as approved by Innocent and his immediate successor were a sacred and permanent expression of the will of God, a grace granted to the Church in a time of extreme need, and the first fruits of a new age of renewal in the Holy Spirit. As the author admits, just defining "Spiritual Franciscans" is a historian's challenge. Do you include the friars scandalized by the opulence of Francis's funeral and burial site? Those who opposed later papal tinkering and definitions of the vow of poverty? Those upset with the general drift toward urban living and university life? Those who believed that Bonaventure, Peckham, Celano and others were engaged in revisionist history to justify the Order's lifestyle of, say, 1275?

Burr acknowledges the struggles within the Franciscan Order from virtually its inception. He dates the identifiable crystallization of traditional dissent over the vow of poverty to the life and work of Peter John Olivi. A Franciscan scholar and mystic who produced his major body of work in the last quarter of the thirteenth century, Olivi set out, perhaps unwittingly, to undo Bonaventure. As the latter labored to domesticate Francis and his ideals into the mainstream of Catholic life and doctrine, Olivi took the reverse approach. Francis of Assisi was not just another holy son of the Church; he was in fact the prophet of a new age, an exclusive player in the ongoing work of Christ's redemption. Olivi described this new age of the Church as sanctified by absolute adherence to the evangelical lifestyle, total and unglossed in its imitation of Christ. Olivi provided historical urgency to the matter of Franciscan reform: the Order as envisioned by Francis was the very embodiment of this new age.

Neither the Church nor the leadership of the Order embraced Olivi with particular enthusiasm, but his unmitigated defense of the original Franciscan way was music to the ears of friars who believed they had vowed the Gospel expression of poverty [as then understood by exegetes.] Burr does not elaborate on day to day living conditions of friars in the early fourteenth century, but it appears that friars of the literalist tradition were subject to ridicule, at the very least, by fellow friars in their convents. Burr does note that the distinctive, short, and evidently ragged habits of the spirituals came in for special ridicule-in one case a spiritual friar found his habit being used in the privy for unintended purposes.

Burr analyses the writings of Olivi's successors, Ubertino of Casale and Angelo Clareno, and the efforts of successive popes to come to grips with the spiritualist problem. By the early 1300's the debate over poverty was no longer an intramural affair, unfortunate as that was. Spiritualist friars were having considerable impact upon the laity. As the Inquisition discovered, the lines between spiritualist Franciscans and their lay adherents, on the one hand, and beguins and other spontaneous and unpredictable mystical outcroppings, on the other, were becoming dangerously blurred. In his review of Inquisitorial proceedings, the author discovers a remarkable independence of conscience among the laity accused of associations with heretical Franciscans. Defendants with spunk and courage stood before the Inquisition and refused to recant their respect for friars of strict observance simply on the ecclesiastical assertion that their heroes were heretics. The Reformation, in a sense, had already begun.

One might ask if a division of the friars would have been a better solution than persecution. Clement V attempted something along these lines at the Council of Vienne, at least acknowledging the validity of spiritualist concerns. This was, after all, a matter of conscience. Spirituals of good will genuinely believed that they had vowed before God to observe strict poverty in matters of ownership and lifestyle. The Achilles heel of their belief, however, was the corollary that no pope could mitigate this obligation. The second corollary was that the mainstream Order was living in a state of spiritual disobedience to Francis and, ultimately, to Christ himself. Thus the Franciscan Order itself never subscribed to the Clement compromise, and no pontiff after Clement would, either. Particularly not the mercurial John XXII.

If the spiritualist movement drowned during John XXII's reign, it did nearly take the entire Franciscan boat down with it. John's ruthless assault on the extremes of the spirituals led many in the Church to look more critically at those claiming to be the true Franciscans, the Order itself. If a spirituality of Gospel absolutes was now condemned, just what were mainstream Franciscans living, or more correctly, claiming to live? As Burr observes, secular clergy and Dominicans had seethed for years when Franciscans made their claims to uniqueness while living like everyone else. Their own excesses and arrogance notwithstanding, the spirituals had at least played some role in the development of Franciscan identity and mores in its formative first century.

Clearly David Burr is a great scholar--he has spent his life immersed in the controversies of the Franciscan order after St. Francis' death, and now he gives us his conclusions--rather nice of him, in my opinion, as it saves me a lot of work. The main point seems to be that fights over poverty were secondary to fights over the Pope's right to control. Poverty became the flashpoint issue because Olivi wrote that the Pope did not have the right to countermand the vow of poverty. David Burr points out that Olivi had not really said anything new on this point, but that Olivi did spend rather a lot of time discussing what one should do if the Pope gave you an order that went against the vow--as if he thought the Pope might do it; which he did, given that he expected the virtuous church (Franciscan spirituals) to go up agains the carnal church (Church of Rome) in a great battle that would inaugurate the Third Age. Burr gets the power politics right, and introduces us to the people caught up in its whirlwind, and to the moral choices they had to make. (I might add, to ALL the people, which does get rather tedious at times, but does justice to Ubertino of Casale).