C Books

I read this book years ago when it came out in hard back. It really helped me understand what my son was going through as a police officer. I just bought it again to give to a friend who's son is coming back from Afghanistan and wants to join LAPD, and I read it before passing it along because he says he added a few new tales. It is a fun, and fascinating book to read, and i recommend it for every young person who wants to be a police officer, or any mom who wants to know what their kids are going through thier first year out.

This book has a lot of potential to be interesting, but in the end, it falls short. This book is decent, a very quick read, and at times it does a very good job of capturing the reader's interest.

The major problems I had with this book were the two I mentioned in the title of this review, namely a lack of depth and style. All of the author's stories seem to stop just when they're about to get interesting. Furthermore, Dunn doesn't write with enough detail or style to effectively convey the intensity and feeling of any of these situations to the reader. While I am sure Dunn is an excellent police officer, he is obviously not a professional writer. Overall, this is an okay book, but that's about it.

I believe this is a fantastic book for anyone thinking of joining law enforcement - or just trying to get a feel for what its like to become a cop.
I've also just completed the book "Gangs of Los Angeles", a candid look into the world of LA street gangs. I've done my best to retell their history and explain their culture in a way only an LA street cop with gang expertise could.

I first read this book when I was in High School I thought it was great, few weeks later I joined the LAPD Harbor's Division Explorer Scouts. One day while working at the station I met Sgt. Feula (a character mentioned on the book) I was very surprised, he did not know his name was mentioned on the book. He took me on several ride-alongs and I learned alot from him few months later I shipped out for the Military, he retired and I never heard of him:.... ///Sergeant Feula if you ever see this messege; thank you for everything, day by day I get closer and closer to become an LAPD officer, I will take what I learned from you and put it to use... Martinez///

This book is hands down the best book relating to firsthand police work I've read. Truly does give you a good sense of what it might be like to work in L.A. as a cop.

After about 5 years as a java developer, I took a new job as a .NET / C# developer. This book was a great starting point for me. Going from java to c# is a relatively easy transition, but this book makes it much easier and quicker. The book compares the two languages and highlights the differences which made it easier for me to pick up. I'm not a person who reads many books, for work or pleasure, so I don't have much to compare it with. But out of the 10 or so books in my work library, this is the second best book I've used. (The best I own is Effective Java. I'd really like to get one like that for c#.)

This was truely an amazing book, I've read many .NET books, all of which assume zero knowledge of programming, or very little. So when I skipped the first few chapters, or skipped them (Since I've been a Java Developer for several years), I missed valuable differences between Java and .NET.

Be sure you do know your stuff in Java, or else this book will seem over your head. This is not a beginners book. But if you're a Java developer, or have similar programming experience, this book is 100% for you.

My only quirk with this book, is that at times, it's more of a refrence/comparison, over how to use several key .NET features. And it seemed to jump around a little. So actually I'd probably rate this book a 4.75...but rounding up gives us a 5, which it pretty much deserves.

I highly recomend this book out there for anyone who is NOT a beginner programmer, or comes from a Java background. This book is a MUST read for you.

This books hits the spot for java developers, the intended audience. A one page description on delegates, for example, has all the information you need to get started with delegates. The Oreilly book has a long winded chapter on it and the essence was lost in the obtuse example provided.

As an experienced Java developer who was "forced" to move into the C# and .NET world, I turned to this book to help me make that transition. I am very glad I did so. This book provided nearly all of the background I needed for that transition, and it still serves as my primary C# reference a year later. (By the way, working in the C# and .NET world is not as bad as I feared it would be.)

If you are accustomed to Java and new to the world of .NET and Microsoft books in general, you will find the majority of these books to be written for a less sophisticated audience than you are used to. My advice is to be very cautious what you spend your money on, as many of the books about Microsoft programming topics are not worth the investment.

This book, however, is very much worth the money you will spend on it.

i could have sworn this book was from microsoft press. This book did a *great* job of being unbiased, and presented "just the facts". It did so in such a clear manner as well, straightforwardly laying out the similarities and differences between java and C#, and each's strengths and weaknesses (briefly).

definitely recommended!

For anyone wanting to know St. John of the Cross this book is excellant. For anyone struggling with the "Dark Night" this book is a must. Very reassuring and comforting to know you don't walk alone and that God is always there. This book will deepen your faith.

Like many saints, when you approach St John you feel like you are approaching a figure who is more than human. St John seems to have reached heights and depths of the human psyche and spirit the ordinary mortal cannot hope to match.

Certainly St John's path contains many paradoxes and contradictions; I am sure if he had been born in the same period in Japan he would have been a great Zen Buddhist monk. His path is also soaring and frightening, designed to purge the Christian contemplative of every ego desire and attachment which hinders our union to God. His path of union is also terrifying for its intensity and the degree of suffering it seems to require.

St John himself only seemed to reach the state of union through a 'dark night' while he was imprisoned in a bleak monastary prison for allegedly breaking several rules of his order. Tortured, beaten, and starved, the Sanjuanist monk experienced an incredible mystical experience which led him to write several beautiful poems modelled on the Bible's book of 'Songs' and also on the Psalms and Lamentations of Jeremiah. He later explained the meaning of his poems as the means through which anyone, provided they can practice enough self discipline and trust enough in the grace of God, can achieve an intimate union to God in this life.

Unfortunately I doubt in our consumer age, so focused on immediate gratification of every sensual and physical desire, so obsessed with money and wealth and possessing material things, and so denigrating of any form of 'useless' focus on the 'impractical' which doesn't productively 'do' something, can really well appreciate John's message. John was no believer in compromise; it was either the way of the cross, which meant giving your life over to Christ at all cost, or you risked perdition.

Strangely though, his works have enormous popularity and are cropping up everywhere. His works seem to fill a void, a great void in the human spirit and heart, which no material good or amount of money can fill. Perhaps few if anyone can ascend to the top of Mt Carmel in our era, but we can at least try, even a little.

Always go with hard cover books, becuase they last a lifetime! Spend the extra 5 or 7 dollars so that you don't have to spend the extra $20 to get a replacment book. I haven't read it yet, but to have all of St. John's works in one place is deffinetly a good deal. Buying one book is way cheaper then buying 4 or 5 books.

This is not an easy read, but something that is well worth the effort! Parts of the text have changed my life already. I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to draw closer to our Lord.

A masterpiece. The clarity of the text is unsurpassed and the effect is ultimately transcendant. I can see how it might be difficult for people who have not participated in at least the first night of this process to absorb the experience he is trying to relate. Nonetheless he is absolutley correct. If you could only have one book in life, this would definetely be a consideration, in that it completely details the process of the mystical experience. I could ramble on forever, but just buy it. It will be the best money you've spent. Bless.

I first encountered the books of Schaeffer in the mid 70s when I was a new Christian at the University of the Philippines. My cell group leader would often quote him. What I like about him then was he was able to explain the Christian faith in a rational and philosophical manner.

Reading again his "The God who is There" thirty years after brought these fond memories of him. I am privileged to renew my acquiantance with this intellectual giant.

A good friend who knew that I just bought Schaeffer's five volumes commented to me -- "Don't forget your wife and kids". Yes I intend to read the rest of the remaining 21 titles in the collection. This is my way of paying tribute to this great man. Mabuhay ka!

Thank you all for your reviews. You have already said just about everything I would have said far more elegantly than I could have. About the only thing that I would add is that were it not for this man (his "How Should We Then Live" film series to be precise) I would not be a Christian today.

Dr. Schaeffer was the first man in my life who said (without words), "It's OK to be a devout Christian without getting lobotomized."

Prior to Schaeffer I backslid twice. After Schaeffer I have been steadfast and stable primarily because I developed a fully formed Christian World View and Reformed Theology. (30+ years and still going strong)

Then I discovered Edith Schaeffer and the "softer" side of my Christian faith began to bloom.

I owe a tremendous debt to Dr. and Mrs. Schaefer and can't recommend this particular imprint highly enough. If I could give it more than 5-Stars I would!

Here a list of Edith's work that will help you develop the "softer" of your Christian faith:

The Tapestry: The Life and Times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer

L'Abri

Christianity Is Jewish

Forever music

A Celebration of Marriage: Hopes and Realities

Art of Life

Common Sense Christian Living

The Life of Prayer

10 Things Parents Must Teach Their Children (And Learn for Themselves)

Affliction

P.S.
Personal note: My faith has even survived the onslaught of the Schaeffer's obnoxious, abrasive, loud-mouthed, narcissistic son! I thank God that Dr. and Mrs. Schaeffer also taught me how to put my faith in God not men. However, Franky's sad outcome is a constant reminder to me that ministry to the world must never, never, never supersede ministry to my family (which seems to be the take away lesson of Franky's book "Crazy for God" - as in, "Don't let your kids end up like Franky Schaeffer!")

this collection is well printed and bound, contains all the books in 5 easy to handle volumes, good clear fairly large text and diagrams accurately reproduced. Francis wrote the foreword to this collection and explains some minor differences in the printing to previous stand a lone books.

an excellent buy

Francis Schaeffer pinpoints the problems of humanism and how they affect the 20th century. He give insights to the Christian to help him understand history and art and philosophy from a Biblical point of view. Schaeffer discerns the meaning and lack of meaning in the humanities for the bewildered secularized Christian.

Having recently reread many of the works of Francis Schaeffer, it seems right to list several lessons he can teach Bible-believing Christians (and others) today. Schaeffer was a prophetic generalist, pastor, apologist, and primarily an evangelist. That latter is how he typically explained himself.

1. Schaeffer had a passion for God and truth. This came out of his intellectual conversion as a teenager, after he read both classical Greek literature and the Bible, as well as from his intellectual crisis that hit him after over a decade of ministry. Having not see the reality of Christian love and the work of the Spirit, he questioned everything for several months, yet returned stronger, spiritually and mentally to the task.

2. Schaeffer cared deeply about the lostness of modern people. NonChristians were not "objects" for this man of God, but image-bearers of God who were hopeless apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. When Schaeffer exegeted culture, he did so with an angle on how so much of culture reveals a lack of hope and meaning. In his apologetic conversations, Schaeffer would not cognitively spare with opponents, but try to lead souls to truth through love and reason--and not without tears, as he often said.

3. Schaeffer was an unapologetic generalist for the cause of Christ. He studied the areas he thought pertinent to ministry and the calling of the church in his day. While some wrongly took his judgments as the last word, they were almost always a vital first word and call to further study and prophetic engagement with the world under Christ.

4. Schaeffer was not a self-promoter, but sought God for life and ministry. The L'Abri ministry of apologetics, evangelism, and study in the Swiss Alps developed as Francis and Edit responded to the needs of questioning students. Later in his ministry, Schaeffer was sometimes promoted too heavily. This may have been the fault of his son, Franky, who produced the film series, "How Shall We Then Live?" and "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" (Franky is a sad story. He went on to leave Protestantism for Orthodoxy and to write series of not-so-thinly disguised autobiographical/fictional works criticizing his parents and their religion.) Schaeffer never even planned to write books, but wrote when his lectures and discussion were so well received that books were requested.

5. Schaeffer loved the arts, could recognize aesthetic goodness even in nonChristian (or anti-Christian) art, and gave Christian artists permission and vision for artistic endeavor. On all of this see Art and the Bible, recently republished with a foreword by musician and author Michael Caird. He often spoke of bringing "beauty" into the Christian life.

6. Schaeffer had a deep knowledge of and love for Scripture. The Bible was a living reality for his man. He said in The God Who is There that we must be studying the Scriptures daily in order to present the truth to unbelievers. He himself read at least three chapters from the OT and one from the NT each day. His writings exude biblical truth and wisdom. Let us do likewise (Acts 17:11).

7. Schaeffer was "a man of the Reformation," who, nevertheless, was not doctrinaire or haughty about his Calvinism. Schaeffer realized that the Reformation was necessary and that we must remain "a reformed church always reforming." The Reformers, while hardly perfect, brought the Scripture back to its rightful centrality and also opened up social and cultural wonders for the West, as Schaeffer pointed out in How Shall We Then Live? and A Christian Manifesto. While Schaeffer believed in and taught The Westminster Standards, his appeal radiated far wider than Reformed and Presbyterian circles.

In a time when some, such as emergent author Brian McLaren, are calling us to be "post-Protestant," this means needs to be heard and headed. The Five Solas of the Reformation are not optional for Christianity, but are its life blood. Nevertheless, those who hold to the Five Points of Calvinism (the TULIP), as I do, should do so with conviction, but also humility. Five Pointers can and should work with Christians of other persuasions so long as the essential gospel is not compromised.

Therefore, let read and reread Francis Schaeffer. I suggest you purchase The Collected Works and work your way through them--for the glory of God, for the good of his church, and for the furtherance of the Kingdom. If you think you have "no time" to read, then make time. Eliminate distractions and immerse yourself in these books.

Since starting a new way of life on www.thedailyplate.com, a website that helps determine the amount of calories you need each day to get to the weight you want to be. I refer to this book several days a week because all the calories and nutrients are displayed on every recipe. Plus, I haven't found a recipe we didn't want to make again. Honestly, I'm sad I didn't cook this way years ago.

The recipes truly are fast, and I love the fact that they give you an entire menu with easy vegetable sides and desserts to use as well. Some of the vegetable dishes I make nearly weekly come from this book, as well as the main dishes. I love all of the Cooking Light cookbooks, and this one is different and something special.

I purchased this for my daughter's birthday. She is trying to eat better while buying local items and still making things she and her SO will enjoy at the end of a hectic workday.

She says this is great. She likes the pictures and suggestions with the recipes.

As with all Cooking Light publications, this one is chock full of tasty entrees with accompanying side dishes. All laid out in an easy to read and easy to prepare format. The meals in this book take very little time to create and they never disappoint! Highly recommended!

I LOVE this cookbook!!!!! It was a Christmas gift and ever since we've been having great dinners nearly every night. I don't even want to go out anymore. This book contains easy to make meals in under 30 minutes (with the exception of the chapter on crockpot cooking). What I love about this one is that it plans the entire menu for you, and gives you steps to follow to prepare 2-3 recipes at once. Meals are usually a protein and a side, and sometimes include salads, breads, veggies, etc. And the best part? They're very light.

I've made probably 30-40% of the menus in this cookbook now, cooking them nearly every night. The only down side is the more expensive ingredients (sometimes) and quite frankly the time it takes to find and purchase all of the ingredients in the grocery store. I spend a lot more time in the produce aisle these days.

Two favorite chapters are the section of meals for two people, and the "20 ingredients" chapter, where you keep 20 ingredeints on hand to make each of the 20 recipes. Favorite menus include peppered beef tenderloin with orange-herbed asparagus and crusty french rolls, pan-seared chicken in proscuitto-fig sauce with roasted green beans, caesar-style green salad, and whole grain rolls, chicken piccata with garlic-basil pasta and steamed green beans, and seared chicken with avocado and tortilla chips con queso... yum!!!!!

I loved Water for Elephants so much that I had to read about more elephants. This is a fast read but very worthwhile.

I loved being able to get the books so quickly and in topnotch condition especially since they were not available in local bookstores

This is the best pet story ever. It begins with a baby elephant whose life's destiny was altered several times, most noticeably when it crossed paths with Bob Norris. I rejoiced in the absolute miracles in this book, and really cried at the sad moments. But the ending was superb, and I was tempted to call Bob Norris and tell him myself how much I loved his story. I have never been more impressed by a relationship between a man and his pet than by this book. Bob Norris is a remarkable person. You will not regret buying this book!

I loved this book. My 7 year old loves elephants and although this is a bit over her reading level, I got it for her and ended up reading for myself. It is a wonderful story about a female elephant and her rescue from Africa, then her tales of growing up on a ranch out west in the U.S. It is a fascinating story about African elephant life, the rancher who adopted her, Texaco, Malboro, African politics, and circus life all rolled into the unusual story of an elephant named Amy. I had no idea elphants were socially such advanced creatures. Plus, I got so much information in such a quick and easy read. Thanks to Malcolm Macpherson for his well researched story.

The true story of Bob and his good natured Amy. It is a wonderful read for anyone who loves animals but Amy's story did not really end the way the book implies. Instead, Amy resides at Riddle's Elephant & Wildlife Sanctuary in Arkansas. I don't believe the author intentionally misleads the reader but I think the plans just fell through in the end and everyone decided it was best. I saw first-hand the excellent care and freedom she is given at Riddle's and approve whole-heartedly of the true ending.

An English major's best friend. What did I do without it? It's fun to pick up and read snippets but mostly it comes to the rescue when I have literary term questions or am stuck on a poetry problem. I ordered it from Amazon since it beat campus prices.

I've had this book for almost a month now, and I have to say that I am very impressed. I bought it because it was suggested as an extra source of information in my English Literature class. I am still waiting for the recommended text (Abram's 'A Glossary of Literary Terms'), so this one has definitely come in handy. Each time I look in it, I find new words and phrases to learn about (including the ones I 'have' to look up), and it is a delight. My mother used to tell us that her mother's frequent recommendation was 'Make a friend of your dictionary!'and I have. I like knowing which 'big' words I can use to truly express myself, and Cuddon's 'Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory'(published by Penguin in 1999 and revised by CE Preston), is going to be a very good 'friend' indeed! In my opinion, it is on a par with Abram's text, in fact it might be more accurate to say that they complement each other. I definitely recommend it to anyone studying English Literature, and anyone who just likes to read.

This book is an excellent and indispensable resource. I've used it quite often to look up and correctly apply different terms when writing essays and looking up references. However, it's also a fun book to look through and to pick out random entries in learning more about the wide range of literary terms, concepts, and histories that are comprehensively covered in this text.

This is a handy inexpensive reference book with much more than a dictionary on some interesting items but less on lots of other things, so it is very specific to literary purposes giving special help in history of literary terms. Since it works more like a history of those terms it gives J.A. Cuddon a wonderful opportunity to display his research skills and demonstrate interesting connections that otherwise would be missed. It works well as a required text for entrance level literature classes in the undergraduate level.

As an author, have you been guilty of "log-rolling?" According to "The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literay Theory" complied by J. A. Cuddon, this literary term is: "The practice by which authors review each other's books. Vulgarly known as "back-scratching." Being retired tree farmers we have a different concept for the term.
Extensive, forthright annotations and great essays take the browser on a delightful tour of the literary arena. From Abby Theater to Zhdanovshchina, Cuddin uses both irreverence and erudition to teach us that the words and phrases we use seldom mean what we believe.
An excellent reference for the writer's bookshelf.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Taxes, Stumbling Blocks & Pitfalls for Authors 2007."

INTRO
This is the magnus opus of J.N.D. Kelly, a Protestant who has done his research on the the beliefs, doctrines, practices and creeds of the early Christians (1st century until 8th century).

CONTENT:
This book has an easy to follow content and table of contents, is very easy to read, and the chapters are all in chronologically increasing order. This revised edition actually contains a NEW chapter - "Mary and the Saints" - which was actually the first chapter that I read. The content and exposition of early Christian's doctrines is very fair, balanced, yet erudite, not trying to lean towards any modern belief-system or pull any punches. The author writes very convincingly and with great prosaic skills.

CONCLUSION:
Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical Protestants, and Roman Catholics will find many fascinating and uplifting facts regarding the doctrines of the early Christians. Even tho the book would benefit from better paper and print quality, and a bible verses index, I hope that everyone reading this book will form or strengthen their collaboration in word and deed with Christians from other traditions/confessions/denominations.

If this classic work on the formulation of basic Christian doctrines teaches its reader anything, it is that Christian men and women once worried incessantly and carefully about matters that we moderns and post-moderns too quickly dismiss as quibbles. One can consider this obsessive and even perverse, yet it stands in stark contrast to an approach to Christian theology that is perhaps best described as careless.

A read through Kelly's more than five hundred pages of classic exposition of the processes that led to definitions of Christology, canonicity, Trinity, and the like is a warning shot across the bow of a generation that would be well served by worrying just a bit more about things that matter very deeply.

Kelly's survey comprises four 'parts'. Part I: Prolegomena surveys the trends and material witnesses that formed the basis of Christian deliberation in the first five centuries. Part II: The Pre-Nicene Theology names that Council (325 A.D.) as a watershed, probing deeply into the incipient doctrines that would be crystallized and canonized by subsquent colloquys. Part III: From Nicea To Chalcedon follows the afterwinds of Nicea through to one of the essential Councils. Part IV: Epilogue projects into Chalcedon's future the lines of thought that were developing at the time and picks up a few miscellanies.

Because Kelly's work (see also his Early Christian Creeds stands as a reference point for historical theologians, a deeper survey of his eighteen chapters is in order. The author's first chapter sets forth an apology for his choice of doctrinal development from the close of the first century through to the middle of the first ('The Background', pp. 3-28). On the one hand, it makes sense to begin outside the parameters of the New Testament. On the other, the creative surge of the first five centuries gave way to 'formalism and scholasticism in the sixth.' Kelly's heuristic rubric utilizes a vertical and a horizontal dividing line. The vertical distinguishes the different temperaments of East and West. The horizontal recognizes a concrete passage with the reconciliation of Church and State under Constantine, a development of which Nicea is the emblem. When Kelly surveys the matrix of the post-apostolic era in terms of Judaism, religious trends in the Roman Empire, Graeco-Roman philosophy, Neo-Platonism, and gnosticism, one becomes aware how ahead of his time the author stood in 1960. His perception of a highly traditional Judaism clothed in the language of Hellenism but with a Palestinian soul and his delineation of gnosticism as a habit of thought rather than an organized religion would only later come to represent scholarly consensus.

Chapter II ('Tradition and Scripture', pp. 29-51) examines the interrelationship of scripture and tradition at a time when there was no fixed canonical 'New Testament'. Kelly judiciously treats the combination of oral and written apostolic material that must have oriented the nascent church and the problems forced upon the community by the gnostic utilization of scripture for ends that were not aligned with apostolic teaching. 'The Bible as interpreted by the Church' that became the Christian norm, an affirmation and confidence that would require considerable qualification in due course.

When these scriptures eventually crystallize into a 'New Testament', Kelly judges the composite to have included the deuterocanonical books on the theory of an 'elastic' Hellenistic attitude towards the sacred writings (Chapter III, 'The Holy Scriptures, pp. 52-79). Irenaeus is the first to have used the term 'New Testament' and to lay the uniquely Christian scriptures as equal in authority alongside the Hebrew canon, now by implication called the 'Old Testament'. Sectarian tendencies often led to and/or were generated by a disdainful attitude towards the latter, an historical datum that ought to weigh heavily on the conscience of Christians today. Kelly is particularly helpful when he addresses the Christian hermeneutic that found in the Christ event a fulfillment of scriptural anticipation and even promise. Here he brings to the discussion the differing Alexandrine (alt., Alexandrian) and Antiochene temperaments that were to exist in tension and even contradiction most notably, more than ever in the context of christological controversy.

Kelly initiates his survey of Pre-Nicene theology (Part II of the book) with a chapter on 'The Divine Triad' (pp. 83-108). The word 'triad' is presumably chosen in order not to prejudice the slow and tortuous process that ended in the choice of 'trinitarian' language. The author rightly recognizes that the early conversation's monotheistic assumption was a legacy of the Bible and Judaism rather than philosophy. The secondary nature of the philosophers is evidenced in, say, Justin's conviction that Plato and subsequent Greek thinkers had access to Moses. Yet this visceral monotheism was complicated by Christian conviction, for as Kelly writes: 'Before considering formal writers, the reader should notice how deeply the conception of a plurality of divine Persons was imprinted on the apostolic tradition and the popular faith.' How to reconcile both convictions? Kelly presents the apostolic fathers as witnesses to the tradition rather than interpreters of it. The beginnings of an 'angelic christology' are present in Hermas.

Such conceptual innocence ended with the apologists, who began to develop a language for 'describing eternal distinctions within the Deity'. Yet this new attention to the nuances of plurality do not compromise their fundamental conviction: '(the) Logos was one in essence with the Father, inseparable in HIs fundamental being from Him as much after His Generation as prior to it.' Monotheism was not in doubt, though it's expression in the light of the Christ event and New Testament reflection on it was to require considerable time to reach its mature form. Shades of what would become known as 'economic Trinitarianism' were visible in Irenaeus' writing, though not to the detriment of this pre-Nicene giant's ability to recognize 'the mysterious three-in-oneness of the inner life of the Godhead'.

By the time his gaze falls upon the third century, Kelly is prepared to employ the word 'Trinitarianism' (chapter V, 'Third-Century Trinitarianism', pp. 109-137). This is as it should be, for attention now fixes with regularity upon the distinctions within the Godhead that urge new vocabulary and sophistication if they are to be adequately described. From North Africa, Tertullian framed the question in terms of two diametrically opposed approaches, the first asking about the Three-in-One in his eternal existence, the second inquiring into his self-revelation in creation and redemption. A purely analytical approach would have severed the tendons of monotheistic conviction, but Tertullian of course was alive to that danger and too wedded to the biblical materials to fall victim to it. Tertullian was prepared to designate the Son a persona and to use the term trinitas to describe the Godhead. To speak of distinction between the personae was to discern a distinctio or dispositio but emphatically not a separatio.

Outside of what history would judge to be orthodox, dynamic and modalistic monarchianism was to seek to preserve the deity's unity by ascribing the appearance of plurality to presentation and appearance alone. He is distinct, according to this view, in his operations but not in his existence. Meanwhile, Clement and Origen in the East were temperamentally more inclined to focus on the distinctions than the unity of the triadic God. The three persons were each a 'distinct hypostasis from all eternity, not just ... in the economy'. Clearly this view militates against modalistic tendencies. Kelly lingers over the persistently subordinationist tendencies in Origen's synthesis, a legacy that was to prove both fruitful and complicated.

Chapter VI, 'The Beginnings of Christology', begins with the observation that the primitive confession 'Jesus is Lord' contained the recognition that Jesus Christ was divine as well as human, an affirmation that by its very nature would require the unpacking of its complex implications (pp. 138-162). Christology proceeds along the lines of the 'double premiss of apostolic Christianity, viz. that Christ as a Person was indivisibly one, and tht He was simultaneously fully divine and fully human ... (T)he task of theology (was) to show how its two aspects could be held together in synthesis.' Unilateral solutions to the christological conundrum were not lacking: Ebionism denied the divinity of Christ altogether. Adoptionism, too, considered Jesus to be merely a man. On the other extreme, Docetism (and its cousin, Gnosticism) denied the humanity of Jesus Christ, placing all its christological eggs in the basket of his divinity. The latter attempted to preserve the notion of divine impassibility by rendering the human aspect of the Christ a mere appearance.

One of the considerable achievements of this chapter is that Kelly reminds us how close Gnosticism came to winning the day. 'Orthodoxy' conquered in the end by holding fast to the reality of Jesus' two natures according to the primitive apostolic confession, even when the ambiguities inherent in this stance must have seemed inconvenient and troubling. Tertullian was the first theologian seriously to address the relationship that must exist between the two natures, divine and human. He laid down the important premise that both nature must have remained unchanged. As the chapter title suggests, these searchings represent but the beginnings of Christology. Yet they establish the logical parameters and habits of mind that were to endure into the mature phase of the discussion.

Kelly introduces soteriology as that topic about which 'no final and universally accepted definition of the manner of its achievement has been formulated to this day', a rather startling observation in a book that tends to treat creedal consences reached in the first five chapters with something akin to reverence (chapter vii, 'Man and his Redemption', pp. 163-188). By the time of the Apologists, the relationship of Adam and his sin (as the second Adam and his righteousness, Pauline language all of it) to the rest of the human race has become the soteriological locus of attention. Irenaeus--building upon and moving beyond the work of Justin--changed everything by offering a theory of 'recapitulation' that sought to bring the biblical materials into a coherent soteriological system that did more than simply choose a preferred biblical vocabulary of salvation and ignore the rest. Origin saw humanity being offered a 'new start' in the second exemplary Adam of the biblical drama. The theologians Kelly canvas largely emphasized the example of Jesus, mankind's mystical union with the Christ, or even a species of penal substitution without reaching the kind of detailed synthesis that was to become the gift of the Councils when other areas of theology came under their treatment.

When he comes to the topic of ecclesiology, Kelly notes the poles of particularity and universality that came early to the communal instincts of the Christian movement, together with the emergence in second century between a catholic church that maintained the apostolic faith over against multiple heterodoxies, which did not (chapter VIII, 'The Christian Community', pp. 189-220). Fairly early in its life the Church was forced to declare its mind with regard to the orthodox 'sacraments' and the effect of these (or not) that ensued upon their enactment by non-orthodox parties.

Eventually, Christian reflection upon Christ's deity passed the Nicean watershed and attention became focused on new concerns. The road from Nicea to Chalcedon entailed intricate consideration of the two natures of Christ. The 'Christological controversy', it turns out, was not to end in Nicean harmony. Part III of Kelly's work takes up this next stage of Christology in the making.

The Nicene Crisis was set off by Arius' reduction of Christ's status to that of a demigod, in keeping with his insistence that the Father alone is the eternal God in the fullest sense of the phrase (chapter IX, 'The Nicene Crisis', pp. 223-251). Arianism was condemned at Nicea in 325 in an enduring creed that establishes Christ's co-equality and co-eternity with the Father. Talk of Jesus as a creature would henceforth be considered heresy. Yet the creed's statement hardly specifies the manner in which its Christ can be fully human. In terms of Christology, Nicea represents a penultimate consensus. It is worthwhile to linger over Kelly's treatment of Athanasius, the young Egyptian who represents the 'moderate' position of the Nicene party. Athanasius was able to maintain in tension the deity and humanity of Christ in a way that foreshadows the Chalcedonian achievement. Kelly notes the 'battle royal' that the extant literature portrays with regard to the conflict of Sabellians and Arians. Orthodoxy, in the person of Athanasius and the company of the Nicene party, was to steer a course between such extremes and such articulate extremists. Passion, one might surmise, is not enough to generate orthodox belief.

Chapter XI ('Fourth-Century Christology', pp. 280-309) is the book's pivotal chapter. This is so in part because of the critical christological analysis that came to the fore in that century and in part because Kelly's survey of the 'Word-Flesh' (associated with Alexandria) and 'Word-Man' (associated with Antioch) christologies is masterful in its clarity. Nicea did not only settle problems. It created new ones by the brevity of its claims regarding the Son's deity. Critically, Appollinarianism forced the Church to reckon with the two natures of Christ--human and divine--and to struggle in the direction of articulating their relationship. Even so moderate and intuitively acute moderate Alexandrian as Athanasius was unable finally to provide a satisfying description of 'the structure of the Godhead'. Kelly is surely correct to observe that it would fall to the Antiochenes to bring dogma into vital contact with the historical Jesus. They found 'the Alexandrian truncation of Christ's humanity unacceptable and set about developing the vocabulary that would serve the Chalcedonian project of accounting for Christ's two natures. Though Nestorianism lingered over the horizon, Kelly achieves a sympathetic reading of some fathers who would eventually be derided as 'Nestorians before Nestorius' because of their concrete convictions regarding Christ's humanity. This is surely accurate historiography. This chapter augments the reader's comprehension of how orthodoxy was increasingly becoming the ability to hold in tension the christological paradox without caving in the urge to allow the Son's deity or, conversely, his humanity to practically erase the reality of the other.

Between the years 428 and 451, there occurs what Kelly calls 'the decisive period for Christology, viz. the short span between the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy in 428 and the council of Chalcedon in 451' (chapter XII, 'The Christological Settlement', pp. 310-343). In preparing his reader to understand the collision between the 'Word-Flesh' and 'Word-Man' christologies that shaped the anteroom to Chalcedon, the author alerts him to the prevalence of personalities and politics in what would be mistakenly apprehended as a merely abstract and conceptual controversy. Indeed it turns out that Nestorius himself might not have been a 'Nestorian', though it was convenient for his adversaries to concur with the notion that he subscribed to a view of Christ's two natures as essentially distinct and ununited. If this quintessentially Antiochene figure was willfully misunderstood as dividing the two natures, so was Cyril--his erstwhile Alexandrian opponent--somewhat recklessly said to have united the two natures in a way that denied Christ's humanity.

Curiously, the controversy was in part fueled not by a discrete attempt to define the relationship of Christ's 'two natures', but rather by the question of how Christians should refer to Mary. Cyril, the Alexandrian, preferred theotokos ('God-bearing') while the Antiochenes preferred anthropotokos ('man-bearing') or at most christotokos ('Christ-bearing'). Nestorius suspected that theotokos denied Christ real humanity. Cyril saw in Nestorius' preference for anthropotokos a virtual adoptionism via the denial of Christ's real deity.

It is worthwhile to hear Kelly's own appraisal of Cyril's strength, one that emerges from his focus on the 'structure of the Godhead' not in terms of the need to explain the two natures but rather by an almost chronological scheme that attempted to explain the Son's status before and after the incarnation:


Cyril thus envisaged the Incarnate as the divine Word living one earth as very man. Here lay the strength of his position from the religious and soteriological standpoints; the Jesus of history was God Himself in human flesh, living and dying and rising again for men. Understood in this light, his horror of Nestorius's rejection of Theotokos is comprehensible.

Kelly tells us that it was when Cyril came to accept that it was possible to make a distinction between the two natures that did not imply a separation, the Alexandrian bishop found it possible to accomodate a settlement with the moderate Antiochenes, yet not before becoming rather lavish with the anathemas he pronounced upon his eventual partners-in-compromise.

Personalities and politics also shaped the lay of the land subsequent to the Chalcedonian Definition. Dyophysites (on the extreme 'Antiochene' side) and Monophysites (on the 'Alexandrian')--quotes now seem appropriate in the wake of the Definition--continued to denounce the work of Chalcedon. It would fall to future councils to reassert the substance of the Definition with allegedly increased clarity.

Christian faith necessarily stewards and negotiates reflexes with regard to human nature and the human condition that are profoundly optimistic, on the one hand, and deeply pessimistic on the other. It was the fourth and fifth centuries when this paradox came to the fore in Christian thinking (chapter XIII, 'Fallen Man and God's Grace', pp. 344-374). The dominance of the Bible's creation narratives and the Pauline wrestling with the relationship of Adam and his sin to humanity in general supplied the prevalent motifs.

In the West, Ambrose, Ambrosiaster, and Augustine worked towards a theory of original sin that presumed the race's moral solidarity. Mankind was at least contaminated and possibly even culpable in Adam's sin. Augustine's view of the human race as a 'lump of sin' incapable of helping itself without assertive divine interference ran counter to Pelagius' uber-optimistic conviction that human 'free will' could not be obstructed in any real way and was indeed the pivot upon which a person's destiny hinged. Augustine's logic leads inexorably in the direction of a doctrine of predestination, since human intervention is the sine qua non of any redemptive outcome. Augustine, notoriously for both supporters and detractors, followed that logic to its end, arguing that God elected certain individual from eternity past to know the benefits of faith and redemption, passing over other less fortunate souls who nonetheless have no claim upon their Creator for having overlooked them in his salvific movements.

Pelagianism was, in the end, condemned. The evidence suggests that Augustinianism enjoyed a fate somewhat less than universal approbation. On balance, its penetration of the divine and human wills worked more faithfully with the biblical materials than its rather humanistic alternative, though sectors of the church remained and remain reticent about pushing its logic further than the biblical materials themselves appear to warrant. All orthodox positions underscore that salvation is a 'gift', though different sectors parse the implications of this affirmation in diverse fashion.

At the beginning of his chapter on soteriology, Kelly warns his reader that it was not until the twelfth century that the effective of Christ's redemption would receive anything near the definition that the christological controversies demanded of the church's first five centuries (chapter XIV, 'Christ's Saving Work', pp. 375-400). Instead one finds apparently unrelated theories that Kelly argues can and should be viewed as complementary. The notion of recapitulation--presented by the apostle Paul and developed by Irenaeus--is in Kelly's approach the thread that unites the evident disparity. In discussing physical, mystical, and realistic theories of redemption, the author is particularly attentive to how 'ransom' notions work themselves out in terms of who pays the price, who receives the price, and how exactly the liberation of the ransomed is made effective. Augustine steps for the bearer of a mind capable of uniting the diverse forms of conversation about redemption into the closest thing to a unified theory of redemption that the church of the first millennium would produce.

In all of this struggling to know its mind, the Church had necessarily to establish its own identity. Who merited full inclusion in the great conversation, and on what basis? To whom was full fellowship to be extended and from whom withheld? Though the answers to these questions were for some time held to be implicit, they would be articulated with relationship with the Constantinopolitan Creed in terms of four adjectives: 'one', 'holy', 'Catholic', and 'apostolic' (chapter XV, 'Christ's Mystical Body', pp. 401-421). Because these terms are as much theological as sociological, the proper relationship of the human assembly known as the church--in all its far-flung corners--to Christ himself would come in for intense discussion. This reviewer finds Kelly to be a particularly useful guide with regard to Rome's emergence to preeminence, a prerogative whose merits were not always and entirely clear to all parties.

In chapter XVI ('The Later Doctrine of the Sacraments', pp. 422-455), Kelly portrays the church wrestling with the role of the priest, of the medium, and of the believing recipient in the gradually emerging collection of sacraments. True to form, Kelly wisely indicates the role of the restoration (or not) of Christians who had lapsed under persecution in driving forward the definition of the sacraments, by what criteria they can be assumed to function, and upon whom they should be conferred.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the author's 'Part Four'--entitled 'Epilogue'--contains just two chapters, one on 'The Christian Hope' (chapter XVII, pp. 439-489) and the other on 'Mary and the Saints' (chapter XVIII, pp. 490-499). Several turns of phrase in these two chapters encourage the view that these subjects fall into an 'epilogue' as much because the author was able to come to them only lately as because they are afterthoughts in the development of early Christian dogma.

In his consideration of eschatology, Kelly surveys the twin elements of the apostolic teaching that forever consign Christian thought to managing the tension between the once-and-for-all 'nowness' of a new kingdom, on the one hand, and the expectation of a spectacular consummation at the end of ordinary time, as another. Along other lines, the early church struggled with the nature of resurrection. Was it chiefly a corporate experience or, rather, did it represent the endpoint of individual human existence and its entrance or even release into the world to come? Is the nature of the resurrected body identical with that of what we know in this world's experience or, alternatively, is resurrection metaphorical of the eternality of the soul or is the human body as we know it susceptible to a transformation that requires continuity with present experience in the light of an intensified or glorified extension of it?

Does prophetic and apostolic expectation merge with the famous twentieth chapter of John's revelation in a way that constructs a chiliastic or millenarian hope, or is this vision rather to be construed as a picturesque representation of the church's experience in this age.

Finally, is the blessing of the life to come representative of a perfect contemplation of God or will we yet see through a glass darkly, even if (much) less darkly?

From the perspective of this reviewer, none of these considerations ought from either a historical or a theological viewpoint be consigned to marginal status, and so it is advisable to read this chapter of Kelley's work without undue attention to its label.

Finally, the author takes account of the natural preoccupation of the early church with honoring the mother of its Lord. Defining the nature and duration of her virginity may seem a colossally unfathomable preoccupation to moderns but was arguably a natural sidebar to the reverential instinct. Signs of a cult of Mary are evident, if just, by the third century. Yet the orthodox Church's respect for the person some would both describe and address as theotokos was restrained by the gospel's own witness to her need for correction by her beloved son.

It is difficult to assess a work like this in a few words. One attempt to do so finds recourse to the word 'classic' to characterize the enduring power of Kelly's synopsis of a body of material that easily overwhelms a lesser student. This reviewer has no hesitation in doing so.

Early Christian Doctrines is perhaps the finest such synopsis to see the light in the last century. That it is read still by historians and theology students is testament not to some preternatural ability to anticipate academic development since its first publication, but rather to a uniquely masterful statement of what we knew not so long ago that somehow still stands as an adequate point of departure a half century hence.

Kelly's treatment of the first few centuries is an outstanding work and a rightfully a standard in the field but THIS PRINTING IS TRASHY (hence 4 stars rather than 5). The paper is of ultra low grade quality and the binding is pretty crummy also. You are much better off buying the more recent printing by Prince Press.

`Early Christian Doctrines' by J. N. D. Kelly was my textbook for a course of the same name in 1964, over 40 years ago, when our Philosophy Department thought it could not assemble a large enough class for Medieval Philosophy. The joke was on them, because the class came to but three students, two Philosophy majors (myself and a classmate) and a `heretic' who was clear about the fact that he was taking the class to support arguments for his specifically anti-Christian point of view. I am not really qualified to address this book as an historian, and I could address it as a general scholar and from a philosophical point of view (which I will to some extent), but I really wish to present the book to this third fellow in our class, and to the opposite camp, extreme Christian conservatives.

For starters, I am really impressed that this unassuming book is still in print and going strong. The fact that it has gone through a number of editions and revisions says a lot about the value of the book even before you crack the spine. From the point of view of the casual scholar who may not read scholarly books for a living, I find the book just a bit weak in its layout. To the inveterate reader of bibliographies (me, for example), I find a weak presentation of very brief and cryptic scholarese references in the back of each chapter, and no general bibliography at the end of the book. This is unfortunate to those who would like, for example, to find out more about the major players in the first five centuries of Christian doctrinal development. Most people have some notion of St. Augustine, but most people don't have a clue as to when and where in history Origen, Arius, Eusebius, and Irenaeus, among a cast of hundreds, lived, worked and wrote. The author is basically speaking to an audience who knows the careers of these figures well, at least as far as we can know them from this far remove.

But none of this really detracts from the overall value of the book to the average intelligent reader. The overall impression one gets very early on is the notion that for almost 200 years after Christ, the body of documents, the foundation of the modern New Testament, and even the exact composition of the Old Testament inherited from Judaism, was not firmly defined. This is in sharp contrast to, for example, the Koran, the foundation of Islam, which was written by a single individual within a single lifetime and, to my limited knowledge, has undergone very little modification. The problem faced here is how to reconcile the character of Christian doctrine as revealed by God when the plain physical fact is that it took 250 years to decide from a larger body of writings, which were `holy' and which were not! And that doesn't even start to get into the problem of translations from Greek and Hebrew to Western European languages! What I take from the author's very scholarly point of view of this issue is that this is not at all a difficult problem. Selection, translation, and interpretation may be difficult, but the nature of faith plus a bit of understanding makes it all quite understandable. The written documents are human artifacts and no matter how much divine inspiration had a hand in the conception, it was still a fallible human who put pen to papyrus or sheepskin and put thoughts into a poorly standardized natural language.

I will not deal with the problems of translation, as Kelly's book is not about archeology or philology. For this, check out `Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About' by the distinguished computer scientist, Donald E. Knuth. Rather, Kelly's main interest is in the interpretation of these documents by the early church fathers.

For those fundamentalists who are inclined to take every word of their Bible translation at `face value', it may be surprising to discover that some of the most important makers of `Early Christian Doctrines' including the great St. Augustine, were very definitely interpreting New Testament writings to explain things which, on the face of it, seemed either bizarre or utterly simple. Some of the very earliest writings even went so far as to interpret some statements with allegorical meanings.

This being said, we should also be reassured that this interpretation was often done within very carefully prescribed limits, threading the needle between the excesses of Gnosticism and the oversimplifications of Arianism. I for one am really quite surprised to see that there was a quasi-Christian sect, the Gnostics, who had an interpretation which looked remarkably like the old Greek and Roman myths. But, even 1000 years before it was promulgated, the mainstream church fathers seemed to follow the principle of Occam's razor, paraphrased by Albert Einstein, which said that doctrines need to be just as complicated as need be, but no more complicated!

For those who thing the interpretation of 2000 - 4000 year old documents which became our Bible is an uninteresting pursuit fit only for scholars, you only need to look at the abomination to which Biblical literalism can be put in nominally political works such as Ann Coulter's book `Godless'.

My main object in reviewing this book was less scholarly than it was to bring this book's point of view into the radar of the average well-informed reader who needs to evaluate statements seemingly based on scripture.

Professor Kelly has served us well over the years!

I purchased this book because I was told by the most reliable scholars that is this is the classic must read! They were correct.

"Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion Of Europe, 900-1900"
by Alfred W. Crosby. Cambridge University Press, 1986.
The implication of this book's theory is that the Europeans succeeded in the "New" World due to the imperialistic strength of European flora and fauna. European cattle and European horses conquered the plains of both North America and Argentina, making them "neo-Europes". When Columbus introduced the pig, (either inadvertently or consciously), he knew that that the porcine animal species would "conquer" their local environment. The author's excellent writing follows this theme throughout his book, but, in my opinion, he spends too much time on New Zealand ... pages 217 to 268.

Yet, if the author's thesis is correct, the book becomes a disparaging comment on human efforts. For example, compare the Pilgrims' landing in 1620 with the landing of Hernando De Cortez (1485-1547) at Vera Cruz in 1519. The Pilgrims snuck ashore, onto that Rock in Plymouth, on a cold winter's day. There was no one to meet them, as the locals (or "indigenes" as Crosby likes to call them) had all been killed off by strange and new diseases. The diseases were probably brought over by Englishmen; otherwise where did Squanto, the Indian chief, learn his rudimentary English? (Just as my aside, if the Scots, who first settled in Ulster, Ireland and then came to North America, are known as Scots-Irish, why weren't the Pilgrims known as "Anglo-Dutch"?)

In February 1519, more than a century before the Pilgrims, Hernando De Cortez landed at the Rich Villa of the Holy Cross, Vera Cruz, with some 500-600 men, to face not thousands, but hundreds of thousands. To instill courage in his men, Cortez burnt his boats. The Spanish had to go forward and they conquered an empire. On the other hand the Pilgrims occupied a dead village. In both cases, European diseases were the deciding factor, but the achievement of either group was entirely different. Crosby's book treats them as if they were equal.

I believe that Alfred W. Crosby has hit on something that bears further investigation. In the late summer of 2004, I attended a wedding in Slovenia. As we drove through Germany, I noticed goldenrod by the sides of the corn fields. I asked and I was told that goldenrod was introduced as a flowering plant but was not doing so well in Europe. I wonder if Crosby's thesis was borne out by the lack of success of goldenrod ...and other American plants? Don't get me wrong: since I am allergic to goldenrod, I am happy it was NOT successful in German farm fields, but why?

Crosby brought up an argument that I've never heard before - and argued it quite well. This book has a wealth of well-researched information that documents the ecological dominance of nations that underwent neolithic developments over those that did not. He also is very careful to demonstrate his technical knowledge while at the same time making the book accessible to all students of history. Loved it.

The most impressive and pleasant aspect of this new approach to world history is the non-anthropocentric perspective Crosby adopts. He tells the story of the expansion of a tightly connected group of European organisms, which includes humans alongside with other domesticated animals, crops, weeds, viruses and bacteria.

The book shows that humans were the leading elements in this great expansion beyond Europe and across the oceans - but they would not have managed to successfully invade, occupy and dominate vast areas of the planet such as America, Australia and New Zealand if they had not been supported by a powerful combination of fauna, flora and germs. In fact, often enough these supporting organisms even took the lead in making the "new-found" territories hospitable for Europeans. Once they had arrived to faraway lands with similar climatic conditions as Europe - but with much less people, germs, domesticated animals and plants - the horses, pigs, cows, sheep, bees, rats, weeds and endemic diseases carried by European vessels began spreading quickly in these totally unexposed areas, and thrived mainly by destroying the native organisms.

Another important point developed by Crosby is that this apparently aggressive invasion and occupation of other continents was actually the consequence of a long process started many thousands of generations before, and of which Europeans were totally unaware. They were simply the ones most prepared and willing to cross unknown oceans (in fact, for centuries they had to painfully learn all about winds and currents - for which many a vessel with all its human and non-human crew had to be sacrificed) and settle down many 1000 of kilometres away from their original home, because the "old continent" had become overpopulated, deforested and overgrazed. Their "ecological imperialism" was in the end part of their struggle to survive and reproduce (to the disadvantage of other human and non-human organisms).

Thus, Crosby urges his readers to think of this propagation of certain humans and their accompanying flora, fauna and germs in detriment of others as a natural phenomenon. In fact, he often compares the European ecological expansion with an "avalanche" or a "bursting dam", i.e., something that had to inevitably happen given the circumstances. In this scenario, it becomes clear that these organisms were vehicles for a great "biological revolution" (in the words of the author), where humans were the spearhead of the movement - but hardly the all-knowing, dominant, free agents they mostly imagine(d) themselves to be.

Book Review: "Ecological Imperialism"
In his book, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, Alfred W. Crosby investigates the roots of European domination over the western world. He calls the places where early Europeans settled "Neo-Europes" with special emphasis on North and South America , Australia , and New Zealand . In his prologue he ponders whether Europeans dominated their environment and other cultures because of their technology, or whether the consistent "success of European imperialism has a biological, [and] an ecological, component.". Crosby 's thesis is that Europeans were successful imperialists because wherever they went their agriculture and animals thrived; and the indigenous populations and local ecosystems collapsed under their biological advance.
Crosby begins at the beginning, discussing the one big continent, Pangaea, supposed to have existed in pre-history and the slow development of life forms other than reptilian, in particular Homo sapiens. The break up of Pangaea (this hypothetical super-continent) caused the "the decentralization of the process of evolution," that is, when the land cracked apart flora and fauna were spilt between the newly created continents. That continental split is the reason similar species are found in Europe and North America.
Eventually Crosby brings the reader up to the end of the Ice Age. Ten thousand years ago humans were exploring the islands of the Eastern Atlantic including Australia . Once on these islands humans domesticated plants, piled up mounds of garbage, spread disease, and hunted animals into extinction. Normally the despoilment of indigenous flora and fauna occurs over tens of thousands of years. In locations where humans arrived with mature hunting skills a sudden extinction of local plant and animal life occurred. These sudden prehistoric, or Pleistocene, overkills were the first concentrated impact humans had on virgin ecosystems.
The virgin ecosystem of Porto Santo Island was the destination of Portuguese settlers during the 1400s. Porto Santo Island was completely uninhabited and filled with untouched flora and fauna. One Portuguese ship captain brought a mother rabbit and her babies to the island. The rabbits loved Porto Santo and thrived in the island environment. So much so that soon the settlers were blasting away at the rabbits in an attempt to exterminate the entire local rabbit population. It seems the rabbits could not determine the difference between the crops meant for human consumption and the crops meant for bunny consumption. The rabbits won in this instance and for a time the settlers moved elsewhere, "defeated by their own ecological ignorance."
The experience of Spanish invaders in the Canaries showed them that no matter where they went, even if they could not out-fight their opponents, Europeans could dominate their enemies anyway. "In all these [new] places, the newcomers would conquer the human populations and Europeanize entire ecosystems." The Spanish learned from their experiences in the Canaries that their livestock and crops would succeed in these new environments; they also learned they could easily defeat the local natives without traditional warfare. The various "plagues" and "sleeping sicknesses," which the Spanish called peste and modorra, killed off and weakened natives who had no natural immunity to ailments common to the Spanish. In essence, sore throats and colds were the winning weapons of the conquerors; it was the flu that subjugated the Canaries.
The unfortunate natives of the Canary Islands , the Guanches, did not survive their meeting with the Spanish sailors. These previously isolated people died rapidly from dysentery, pneumonia, and venereal disease. According to Crosby "few experiences are as dangerous to a people's survival as the passage from isolation to membership in the worldwide community that included European sailors, soldiers, and settlers." When the Spanish conquered the Canaries the Guanches lost their land and therefore their livelihood. Some Guanches joined the Spanish army and went to fight in the Americas ; the Spanish sold others into slavery. The majority of Guanches however died of disease and the entire population became extinct.
Unlike the Guanches of the Canaries, the Maoris of New Zealand did survive despite great odds. When invaded by Europeans the Maoris assumed they would become extinct. European rats annihilated the Maori rat, an animal that was a food staple for the natives. The Maori fly might have help ward off the incursion of sheep that quickly destroyed the local flora, but invading European houseflies wiped out the local flies. Clover took over where ferns had been, and the Maori waited for their own extinction. The Maori population hit bottom in 1890 but then began a mysterious recovery and 280,000 people claim to be Maori by 1981.
In the 1500s Europeans arrived in the Americas with horses, technology (weapons), domesticated plants (crops), farm animals, germs, insects, diseases, weeds, and varmints. The garbage piled up by farmers encouraged varmint populations (mainly mice and rats) which spread disease and attacked human food supplies. Crosby devoted an entire chapter to the spread of weeds around the world. Weeds are not specific plants. "Weed" is a general term applied to a plant that spreads rapidly and encroaches on other plants. The study of where specific weeds appeared and when, aids in tracking population movements. The weeds brought by Europeans were actually another unintentional imperial victory. Weeds repaired damaged top soils and provided feed for livestock. " Rye and oats were once weeds." "Weeds are the Red Cross of the plant world; they deal with ecological emergencies." "Weeds thrive on radical change, not stability. That, in the abstract, is the reason for the triumph of European weeds in the Neo-Europes..." Weeds were resilient and thrived in soils laid bare by European plows, and damaged by drastically altered ecosystems.
European populations exploded in the Americas and Australia . What distinguished these Neo-Europes were the large food surpluses they generated. Neo-Europes led the world in food production "relative to the amount locally consumed." Other cultures actually produced more food per capita and per hectare, but the Neo-Europes exported more food than any other society. Especially successful exports from Neo-Europes were wheat, soybeans, pig products, and beef. Europeans consistently chose to settle in temperate climates where their animals and crops thrived. This was prudent and logical, it would have made no sense for Europeans to settle in torrid climates where their livestock would have suffered, and their favorite crops could not be grown.
The wind also aided European imperialists. When faced with strong winds the Portuguese marinheiros, true sailors, did not turn around and go home or sit sail-less in the water until the winds changed. Marinheiros would "sail around the wind." Sailors would tack close enough to the contrary wind to keep moving and then find a wind that they could use to continue their course. The Portuguese who perfected this "crabwise slide" called it the volta do mar, literally "going back to the sea." This understanding of winds allowed marinheiros to sail out on trade winds and back home on the westerlies.
Smallpox was the big killer of the Aztecs and the Incas in Peru ; the Huron and Iroquois in Mexico ; and the Amerindians of the United States . Crosby claims the victories of the Conquistadors over the Amerindians were "in large part the triumphs of the virus of smallpox." Besides smallpox Europeans brought dysentery and influenza; those epidemics killed almost the whole indigenous population of North America . In effect, the domination over ecology and culture by European invaders was more of a biological accident, than a well-executed military takeover.
Virgin soil epidemics spread through populations who had no prior contact with European diseases. These populations had no immunity to protect them. Virgin soil epidemics had many dramatic consequences. First, the epidemics effectively committed genocide, killing entire populations of native people around the world. Second, certain diseases (measles, influenza, tuberculosis) effected people fifteen to forty years of age more than others. These young adults were responsible for most of the labor involved in supplying food, procreation, raising children, and defending the society. The third and fourth effects of virgin soil epidemics were cultural optimism on the part of the conquerors, and cultural fatalism on the part of the conquered. When Europeans arrived and slew their rivals without raising a sword they believed that God must be on their side and this belief affirmed the rightness of their imperialistic actions. When the indigenous people died by the hoard from mysterious ailments they developed a fatalistic view of their own destiny and supposed the white man's Gods were the more powerful.
Ecological Imperialism is interesting, occasionally humorous, and easy to read. Crosby accomplishes his goal of writing a big book. This author presents a convincing and encompassing explanation for the incredible success of European imperialists. The book leaves the reader with more questions. How aggressively imperialistic were the original conquerors if all they had to do was show up and their opponents fell to the wayside? Crosby argues convincingly that Europeans were triumphant because the places they chose to conquer had ecosystems and indigenous populations that surrendered to the biology of the invaders.

Alfred Crosby is widely credited for popularising the ecological dimension of the history of imperial expansion. For this reason, and perhaps this reason alone, his book is worth a read.

The book, first published in 1986, revolutionised the way we think about European imperial expansion into the New World. How a few hundred disoriented Europeans armed with spears and misfiring guns managed to overwhelm entire Inca and Aztec civilisations in the early sixteenth century, for example. Crosby convincingly casts aside traditional political or military explanations by attributing the astonishing Portuguese and Spanish victories to bacteriology: how diseases such as smallpox and measles that the Europeans unwittingly carried with them wiped out thousands of New World inhabitants, severely crippling their defences.

The larger point that Crosby drives across is a profound one. Historical events - in this case, European expansion and imperialism - can be explained predominantly by ecological factors. In the clash of `biotas' between the Old and the New World, the Old World won. Convincingly. Hence the presence not just of Europeans in the Americas, but also of pigs and dandelions. According to this thesis, ecology shaped European expansion; creating `Neo-Europes' in the New World that facilitated European migration, precipitating the `Caucasian wave' from the 1820s to the 1930s. Unlike in most other histories, in Crosby's ecological history, humans form the backdrop and inexorable ecological forces take centre-stage.

Refreshing as this perspective is, the way that Crosby has rendered it is problematic in on a number of accounts. By excluding humans from the picture; or at best relegating human developments to the sidelines, Crosby emerges with a dangerously reductive picture of historical development. Deterministic ecological explanations cannot alone account for European expansion - after all, we must not forget that the first European transoceanic voyages were motivated by curiosity rather than necessity. More problematic is the book's implicit assumption that ecological influence was unidirectional. In concentrating on explicating the Old World's ecological victory over the New, Crosby neglects to examine the influence that New World ecology had on the Old.

Nonetheless, Crosby's work remains a landmark study that deserves a read. Moreover, it packs a punch as a piece of writing - its lucid narratives and provocative assertions laid out with the bold and elegant strokes of a master-artist. Yet Crosby's work is also increasingly a dated study that has been qualified over and over by new works in the field, or in the related field of environmental history. Those interested in the subject should by no means stop at Crosby's book.

I read Emily of Deep Valley before I knew it was a Besty-Tacy book. After reading the entire series I went back and read Emily again and found the references to Betsy and Tacy along with other friends in the series. I would suggest reading this book after the one where Betsy graduates from High School, just to put them in chronological order.

This book is great for children and teens. They will learn about life in the early 1900s in a very readable and enjoyable way.

While this book is not necessarily a "Betsy-Tacy" book, it does (IMHO) rank up there with the best of the Lovelace series, especially as it appeals to an adult looking for recreational reading. Not that younger readers (the vast majority of the "B-T Fan club") couldn't enjoy it, but Lovelace tackles some social as well as adult emotional issues in this book that are lacking in the "B-T" books, or are arrived at more blithely, precisely because the characters (Betsy vs Emily) are so vastly different, tempermentally. As a man, I'd say that this book has far less saccharine in it, than the B-T books.

Don't get me wrong! I 'found' these books when my children came of 'reading to' age, and, since we HS, we all enjoyed them immensely. Especially as we live near enough to "Deep Valley," to make a pilgrimage to see where "Betsy and Tacy really lived." That was a field trip I'll long remember, and so will the kids!

What appeals to me in this book, is the female protagonist, and her mix of compassion and strength. She is determined, strong of character, no-nonsense, and yet loving, needing to be loved, and eventually finding love. She (dare I say it?) embodied characteristics of a typical Minnesota woman, and reminded me of both my mother and my wife..which is high praise, in my book! 'Emily of Deep Valley' was one of those moments in life, when a work of literature actually embodies human emotion, causes you to identify, makes you remember your own life lived, and simply, truly moves one.

I am surprised that (as an actor/singer) no one has made a film or concocted a children's musical/opera of any of these books. They embody the best of American humanity [prior to a multicultural age] I have read in a long time. I can say honestly, I will return to visit Emily another spring, to enjoy her story all over again, and will encourage my daughter to do the same, when she becomes a teenager.

Okay, my secret is out--I'm an addict. These books have entranced me my whole life with their warmth and their wonderful characters. This is how I've learned much of my early-20th century history, as a matter of fact. Much as I adore all of the Betsy books, Emily is my favorite, I think. Her painful shyness and lack of self confidence are overcome by sheer determination and a focus on others rather than herself--a lesson of worth for young girls. However, the book is never preachy or dry; it is a rich, delightful story that engages the reader and delivers its messages gently.

I love the Betsy-Tacy books, and was extremely sad because of the ending of the series of the books. One day, my mother brought home 'Emily of Deep Valley', and I wasn't exactly excited. I refused to read it, and said I liked Betsy-Tacy better, although I hadn't seen a word of 'Emily of Deep Valley'. And though I said that I didn't want to read it, I couldn't resist looking at 'Emily of Deep Valley'. Soon I became enthralled with it, with everybody in the book. I've always loved the Betsy-Tacy books, but this book has something the Betsy books doesn't. Maud Hart made everything perfect, but it didn't seem like a corny fairytale. I recommend this book to those who are looking for more classics and Betsy-Tacy books.