Campbell Books

Written to share some of the things Johnson has learned about posturing ourselves in God's presence in a way that honors God, this book is for anyone interested in a deeper spiritual life. Using scripture, writings of the early mystics and personal anecdotes, Johnson keeps our interest.

He reminds us to be spiritual aware--not life- sleepers and advises us to create wonder. How to study the Word, and listening to God in our everyday lives are other meaningful chapters.

There is too much to explore in a review. Read the book. You'll love it.

I came upon this book by chance. I have read past books by Mr Johnson and have found all of his writing to go beyond the superficial spiritual issues. Ben Johnson discusses how truely difficult change can be and why. Within the pages of "Living Before God" I found inspiration and understanding of the human heart. I could not put the book down, even for a moment, in my want to see further into how I can grow closer to God. Life can present many challenges to close your heart and mind to God, through the author I found ways to relax and allow myself to hear God again. I recommend this book to everyone traveling their own spritual journeys.

I don't thinks it's too often that you'll come across a book that delivers just what it says it will. John Campbell has achieved this perfectly with his first class text and photos. As a work by a professional archaeologist this could have been the predictable dry words and dull photos that would nevertheless have been subject accurate but fortunately the wonderful images with their complete captions work so well.

Campbell makes the story of the seven million Homesteaders really come alive in the first four chapters. The following seventy photos (in 175 screen) reinforce many of the points with detailed captions and nicely these include a touch of humor here and there. The photos show dilapidated houses, barns and other buildings, household and agricultural implements, rusting farm machinery and vehicles. So many of the exterior shots show buildings just sitting on the empty Plains which to the Homesteaders must have seemed a daunting environment, not only to work but also to bring a family up in.

I think this is a wonderful book of an overlooked part of American history and the only thing that could have made it better for me would be a really classy art paper and finer screen to reproduce these remarkable photos.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This fine book of black and white photography and accompanying text portrays a period of Western development that flourished in the early 20th century and then died with the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. The author, an archaeologist by profession, has taken his camera to the states in the western Great Plains and the Great Basin of the Northwest and photographed the remains of homesteads that were once part of a thriving dry-land farming economy. There are photographs of abandoned farm houses, barns, schools, post offices, hotels, cemeteries, farm machinery and vehicles, and he has written a lengthy account of the period, based on research and personal interviews with descendants of homesteaders.

Today, where once stood prosperous farming communities joined by a network of roads and railways and served by a scattering of rural towns, fulfilling Thomas Jefferson's dream of a nation of small farmers, there is thinly populated ranchland, large hay fields, and expansive wheat growing operations. After decades of unusually high rainfall, these regions have returned to their normal arid conditions, which are unsuitable for dry-land farming. In some places, the prairie grass has reclaimed the land, obliterating evidence that the earth here was ever tilled. Only a few abandoned structures remain.

Campbell's photographs are fascinating and haunting. In many of them the vast sky looms overhead. Often in the distance there is a range of mountains, sometimes snow covered. The sunlight is bright and the shadows deep; the only signs of life are the grass and occasional trees. In all of them, the details are crisply focused, and where the landscape is flat and open, everything is sharply clear right to the horizon. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the West, images of the plains, and the history of homesteading.

To all those who keep looking for help to understand what it means to be human; to all who have the mental tolerance for the presently unconventional; to the brave of mind who can accept what Campbell offers about existence: welcome home. And, don't quit looking.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. This is a great audio book series by a very engaging storyteller. Joseph Campbell describes the monomyth in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces as embodying all the necessary elements of the hero's journey in the many myths in human history. Campbell discovered through extensive research that humankind shares a universal monomyth in its various religions and legends especially pertaining to the creation of the world and humankind. Campbell borrowed the term monomyth from James Joyce's book Finnegan's Wake. Campbell's intuitive insight in human myth proves that for thousands of years these myths display a certain standard structure, which he summarizes beautifully in his book.

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a
region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back
from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons
on his fellow man.

There are at least four major stages that a monomyth has however, in his book, Campbell goes on to describe seventeen stages that some monomyth's posses. The four stages making up the cycle of a monomyth are "passage: separation-initiation-return:" In the passage stage the hero is summoned to journey or embark on an adventure by some kind of event that takes place or from a message, he receives. The hero may embark on this passage willingly or reluctantly. During the separation stage, the hero meets with a mentor or wise man who gives the hero either an amulet or some words of wisdom to be of help to the hero on the adventure. It is during this stage that the hero will go through his first transformation, also known as "crossing the first threshold," as he crosses over to another world or dimension leaving behind the old world. In the initiation stage, the hero goes through several trials or tests. The hero often receives help in these ordeals along the way by allies or from a supernatural force. As the hero completes these ordeals successfully, he proves himself more worthy to continue the adventure. Most importantly, during this stage the hero must pass through a major ordeal that will expand his consciousness, and thereby change his character forever. Often, this ordeal entails the death of an ally or enemy. Once the hero successful accomplishes his ordeal he is rewarded with a gift, it could be intrinsic like the "holy grail, or it can be new found knowledge to better the world with. The last stage the hero travels is that of the return whence he came. Often the hero will undergo further trials on his return before he is permitted to cross the threshold back to the world he left. During his return journey, the hero will use his newfound wisdom or gift to make a safe return home. Once home the gift is used to cure some ill in the hero's home or to impart new wisdom to his neighbors.

Campbell points to the significance of the monomyth in the fact that it describes the cycle that Moses, Jesus, and Buddha had gone through according to their religious adherents. This is not to mention the hundreds of other monomyths told throughout human history. The monomyth proves that humankind shares a common creation DNA in a sense. The monomyth is the perfect vehicle for one to study the Humanities by.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy.

While she was still Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher paid a visit to Yugoslavia, where she had a meeting with President Tito. The conversation turned to China, where Chairman Mao's widow had recently been stirring up trouble for the leadership. Tito remarked that he disapproved of women interfering in politics. "I don't interfere in politics, " declared his guest, eyes ablazing, "I AM politics."

Therein can be found both the secret of Margaret Thatcher's success and the seeds of her downfall. Her supreme confidence helped overcome widespread doubts that a woman could lead her party and her country, but in the end her arrogance alienated the very people she needed to retain power.

Thatcher's story presents a unique challenge to political biographers, largely because her overpowering personality and strident views make a fair assessment difficult to achieve. The writer has to tread a fine line between hagiography and demolition job. Happily, John Campbell's book manages to avoid these pitfalls, and his account of Thatcher's life and times is even-handed, thorough and highly readable. The first volume
of Campbell's biography - The Grocer's Daughter - covered Thatcher's early life and career, concluding with her arrival on the threshold of Number Ten. This second volume concentrates on her entire eleven-and-a-half years as mistress of Downing Street, as well as the aftermath of her removal from power.

The first thing to say is that it's a huge read - over 800 pages. But this is no more than the subject deserves, given Thatcher's dominance, not only in her role as Prime Minister, but also as an inveterate meddler in the work of her ministers. From health and education to local government finance and foreign affairs, there was barely an aspect of policy which Margaret Thatcher did not seek to influence.

All the important events of her premiership are there - the three election victories, the Falkands, Westland, the miners' strike, the Poll Tax, and her dramatic departure at the hands of her own party. But the book goes beyond the big stories to put her premiership in a wider context. Take housing: Campbell shows that Thatcher's policy of encouraging council tenants to buy their own homes, while prohibiting local authorities from building new houses with the proceeds, led to a massive shortage of affordable housing, and by extension to the high
numbers of homeless people still seen on British streets today.

Campbell's thorough research shines brilliantly throughout the book, but U.S. readers may find this depth of detail just too much information to take in. During some passages, even my eyes started to glaze over at so many references to obscure events and personalities from Britain's political past.

Of greater interest may be the sections covering Thatcher's dealings with Ronald Reagan. Thatcher apologists often claim that Britain's standing in the world grew taller as a result of her strong support for the U.S. President. But Campbell makes good use of Reagan's archival papers to reveal the true relationship of these political soulmates.

While they undoubtedly got on well, the President rarely let their friendship get in the way of his policy objectives. Thatcher believed they were working as partners to save the world from tyranny, but Reagan failed to consult her even on such important matters as the invasion of Grenada (a British Commonwealth territory) or his suggestion to Mikhail Gorbachev at the Reykjavik summit that the US and USSR should abolish
all nuclear weapons. Even so, Thatcher never lost an opportunity to catch the presidential ear. Campbell recounts Reagan breaking off from one of her many telephone rants to observe: "Isn't she marvellous!"

One of the most enjoyable sections of the book focuses on the burnishing of the Thatcher image, especially in the later years of her premiership. Campbell documents the change from the clothing of a "middle-class mimsy" to the power-shoulders of a leading lady, and her increasingly imperial airs. The regal touch was most memorably on show when she emerged from Number 10 to announce "We have become a grandmother." But
the author also offers a reminder of her qualities as a consummate actress. In 1990 she delivered a conference speech in which she compared the new bird of freedom logo for the Liberal Democratic Party to the dead parrot from the Monty Python sketch. She had never seen the routine, but delivered it with perfect timing to laughter and cheers from her audience. The following month, she was an ex-Prime Minister.

Margaret Thatcher's fall from power was pure political theatre, and those of us who watched it unfold on our television screens will never forget those dramatic days. The big question in my mind was: could Campbell's account rise to the occasion? The answer: a resounding yes. Every twist and turn of the spectacle is followed, without recourse to melodrama or purple prose, and what could easily have been a disappointing damp squib of a section turns out to be a fine account of a political career in meltdown.

For me, the most intriguing part of the book describes Thatcher's life after leaving Number 10. Politically-speaking, she was dead in the water - there is no role in the British constitution for an unemployed prime minister. But Campbell is astute enough to highlight the human aspects of her new situation. Only days earlier, she was being feted by
President Mitterrand at Versailles. Now, shorn of the Downing Street machine, she had difficulty even using the telephone to find a plumber. Thatcher's refusal to adapt to her new situation caused her successor much grief, and the book relates the despair which John Major felt at her off-stage sniping , especially when he was trying to rebuild bridges
to Britain's European partners.

Having already documented the lives of two former Prime Ministers - Lloyd George and Edward Heath - Campbell is able to view the Thatcher years with a historical perspective. The conclusion of this book, however, is disappointing. A work of this magnitude deserves a resounding finale, but instead it runs into the sand, offering little more than a couple of pages to sum up Thatcher's impact. It's not a bad ending, but I feel that the author could have done justice to the rest
of the book by bringing together more effectively the various strands of Thatcher's life.

That said, the book is a masterpiece of political biography,
meticulously researched and written in that enviable style which both informs and entertains. It may be too soon to call it the definitive biography of Britain's first woman prime minister, but the next time an author sets out to write Margaret Thatcher's premiership, this is the first book they should turn to.

The mid-90's pop band Spice Girls called the ultimate Girl Power as Margaret Thatcher. The British singers were on the money because Thatcher was a revolutionary Prime Minister. She kept her own counsel and could not be manipulated by the popularity polls. This account of her political career is the ultimate study in what Henry Kissinger once said "power is the ultimate aphrodisiac". Churchill and Thatcher proved that Britain produced two formidable leaders who survived Machiavellian daggers over and over again and got their way before being ousted.

Campbell not only is a good scholar, he also manages to not offend sex workers with this book. While perhaps not his intent, his remarks reveal an enlightened and progressive view towards sex workers' rights. Thank you!

"The representation of female prostitution in the movies takes place in a complex, dynamic field in which the forces of male fantasy and patriarchal ideology...merge or collide...." The merging and colliding have given rise to 15 identifiable images of the prostitute--siren, comrade, nursemaid, junkie, baby doll, and martyr, to name some. Campbell--senior lecturer in film studies at a New Zealand university--reviews numerous films mostly from the 1950s on for their portrayals of prostitutes according to one of these images; or sometimes portrayed with a mixing of images though one is usually predominate. In many cases, the images are general labels, or are loosely applied, rather than stereotypes. With changing mores regarding sex, gender dissonance, the bent of "free-market capitalism" to cater to popular culture, and the "interests of female spectatorship [and] varieties of feminist discourse," the character of the prostitute in movies is fluid. Sometimes, a prostitute is even portrayed as virtuous and contrasted with society's moral hypocrisies and sexual ambivalences. And at times, the prostitute represents society's unmet needs and muddled yearnings. Campbell's wide-ranging study based on numerous films in the genre of movies with characters of prostitutes over the past several decades since strict gender roles have been breaking down and formerly taboo subjects have been treated more openly is a benchmark in this area of film studies.

Diana Campbell is my favorite Regency author. Her characters are believable, likeable and humorous. This was the first of her Regencies that I read, and once I started it, I couldn't put it down, and immediately started looking for more. I've since reread all of them hundreds of times...I wouldn't part with any of them.

When Marietta Chase arrived at Twin Oaks, she expected to be greeted by her handsome husband-to-be, Roger Thorning, and introduced to the splendid mansion that would be her new home. Instead Mariett found waiting only Roger's notorious older brother, Christoher, the master of Twin Oaks and the man responsible for turning this great mansion into a gamblers' den and a bachelor's unkempt quarters. Marrietta would have fled-but she had nowhere to run. She would have said no to Christopher's inexplicable offer to marriage if she had not needed a home so badly. Marrietta walked down the marriage aisle at the side of a man she did not know but could only fear-and into the heart of a mystery she had to solve to find her way at last. A splendid story. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down

I just want to add my applause to the previous review. "Meanwhile, Back at the Castle" was one of my favorite books when I was a teenager, and although the book has long been out of print, I've always longed to find it in a thrift store or a used bookstore so that I could have the pleasure of reading it again. No such luck for me, so if you ever find a copy, grab it -- you might not get a second chance. It's a fun, outrageous story, and while it is told with a light hand it doesn't duck some difficult social issues current at the time the book was published. A dated, story, yes, but one I'd love to spend some time with again.

This book is one of my all-time favorites. It's extremely funny; the characters are interesting and well-written, and the plot moves very fast! You can never tell where it's going to go next.

This is the story of a teenage girl and her family (parents and two brothers), who buy a small island in the St. Lawrence seaway when they suddenly come into an unexpected inheritance. The catch is, that when US and Canadian boundaries were established, each country thought this island belonged to the other! So now they don't just have an island; they have an independent country!

Setting up international relations and dealing with things like immigrants are things that the family never planned on, and their creative solutions are hilarious.

Though this book is usually classified as "young adult," I still enjoy it, though I'm long past that age. One warning, though -- the book was set in the turbulent 60's, and it's rather dated. It's been out of print a long time, but I would love to get a copy of it someday.

This is an excellent book both for studying for the exam, and for maintaining credits after obtaining your credentials. If you are certified, you can get 116 CECs from this book!

I have been a medical transcriptionist for many years and currently work for oncologists. However, when I wanted to study for the credentialing exams, I really did not know where to start. Fortunately, I found the Medical Transcriptionist Workbook. It showed me what my weak points were and what I needed to study. I like the way it is divided into sections. I especially like having the answers in a separate booklet instead of at the end of a chapter or the back of the book - that really helps curtail the tempation to "peek". I have recommended this book to a couple of co-workers who have expressed interest in the credentialing exams and will continue to recommend it,

_The Menace of the Herd_ is an early work by Erik von Kuhnelt-Liddehn (writing under the name Francis Stuart Campbell), the famous German Roman Catholic Rightist and anti-democrat, written near the end of the Second World War. The subtitle of this book is ýProcrustes at Largeý, and Kuhnelt-Liddehn bases his argument around the Greek myth of Procrustes who made individuals fit his bed by either stretching them or cutting off their legs ý standing for inflexibility and the herdist desire for levelling. In this book, Kuhnelt-Liddehn shows the dangers of herdism ý seen in democratic levelling, identitarianism, and collectivism ý and opposes this to the traditional Christian principles emhasizing morality, personalism, liberty, aristocratism, and monarchy. The author writes much against the developments of modern man in both technology and government, with a pastoralist hankering for tradition, an agriculturally based life (including the tradition of private property), and religion as revealed in medieval society and in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. The author sees much in city life which lends itself to herdism and much in modern democracy which is really ochlocracy (ýmob ruleý). To the author, technological developments and modern ýprogressý have negative aspects which are so conveniently overlooked and hidden from view by their modern trumpeters. Opposed to these developments and to modern industrialized, democratized, levelled, and urbanized culture stands the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, Christian morality, and the tradition of monarchy. The authorýs advocation of monarchy may appear extreme; however, the author notes that a just monarch rules his subjects out of love (monarchy consists in loving obedience to a just monarch just as one may give oneself freely to a lover in love) and often in monarchies of the past individuals have enjoyed more liberties than in modern day democracies (which amount to ochlocracies). Many other thinkers of the past including Plato, Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and de Toquenville have found democracy (ýtyranny of the massesý or ýtyranny of the majorityý) to be problematic. It is this worship of identity and conformism as opposed to difference and diversity as well as a levelling effect based on ýequalityý which crushes all difference and genuine diversity (as opposed to the false form of diversity which is merely egoistic individualism). This effect may be seen in both the movements of Communism and Fascism (and National Socialism) in which collectivistic, nationalistic, and identitarian (often racist) elements emerge to enforce sameness. In the second half of the book, the author turns his attention to both Germany and America with reference to recent history (the First and Second World Wars). The author finds much to criticize in the Second and Third Reichs of recent German history following the First World War. Against these regimes the author yearns for the Roman Catholic German empire free from herdist instincts gone mad. The author next turns his attention to England and what grew from its colonies, America ý the United States and its republic. The author notes that America lacks a titled aristocracy and that this leads to a constant craving for success and achievement among its citizens. The author is critical of the democratic and herdist elements within American society and contrasts these elements with European society. Finally, the author turns his attention to the Second World War. The author notes that this war involves an epic conflict, but that it must be fought over ýlibertyý and not ýdemocracyý (which in fact is more represented by the Axis forces, both Hitler and Mussolini being ýdemocraticallyý elected and enjoying mass appeal). The author argues for a just peace and for a peace agreement with Germany that is both humane and truly Christian ý as opposed to one which is based entirely on the lust for vengeance. Finally, the author contrasts a mere leader (such as Hitler or Mussolini or even the American President) who is a ýman of the peopleý with a ruler, who often resides completely outside the people as in the old monarchical tradition. It is the herdist tendency in man which poses such a threat to his liberty and to his great traditions, prime among them the religious tradition embodied in Christianity, which the author argues so vehemently against. In an era which has seen the rise of totalitarian regimes, it is important that we heed the words of individuals like Kuhnelt-Liddehn (a.k.a. Samuel Francis Capbell) in our assessment of the dangers of democracy and the readiness with which man can surrender his liberties and give into the rule of the mad mob, i.e. ochlocracy. Since the French Revolution, egalitarian and democratic tendencies have proliferated within government and their dangers must be noted as we witness the rise of totalitarian regimes with full support of the people. Like all his books, _The Menace of the Herd_ abounds in obscure references and useful quotes and pieces of information and reveals the author's learning and profound mind. Complete with footnotes and appendix this book offers a challenging assessment of the modern world and man's need to overcome his base (herdist) instinct.

I'm a big, big fan -- I should say, a devoted student -- of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909-1999), author of a great many articles and books, including "Liberty or Equality?" and "Leftism Revisited," books I've been putting off reviewing for many years for fear I couldn't do them justice. "The Menace of the Herd," published under a pseudonym in 1943 (when Americans were not too interested in reading books by authors with Germanic names), is less well known than the two books just mentioned. But it, too, is a fascinating read, and well worth the effort of tracking down -- especially for other K-L fans, but for any student of history, politics, religion, or culture.

Anyone familiar with K-L's later works will find many of the themes of those works being developed here. Although (as I realized with a shock about half way through the book) K-L was just 34 when this was published, his distinctive style is already fully developed: assertive, contrarian, polyglot, unapologetically Catholic, and richly sourced and documented. He already has his favorite quotes, his favorite examples, his favorite turns of phrase.

And yet, while this book is recognizably K-L, there are many valuable arguments in "The Menace of the Herd" that make it far more than just a first-draft of "Liberty or Equality" or "Leftism." His central point is a dramatic challenge to "herdism" and mass democracy (or "ochlocracy," as he calls it), in which all positive virtues are overwhelmed the lowest-common-denominator of simple majoritarianism. The positive virtues, for K-L, include piety, aristocracy, responsibility, personalism (which he distinguishes from "individualism"), and, of course, Catholicism.

Within this argument, K-L makes many smaller points that any thoughtful reader will want to turn over in her mind carefully. These include a fascinating discussion of the classical Christian view of rewards in eternity versus happiness in the here-and-now (and how this affects life in predominantly Catholic nations); the harm caused by the modern educational focus on "how" (science, math) instead of "why" (philosophy, theology); the myth of militarism and nationalism as conservative or "rightist" movements (K-L calls this, in caps, the Great Error of the Century); and much more. Just as intriguing and thought-provoking are his asides and footnotes, including the relative sinfulness of despotism versus mob rule, the differences between "statism," "nationalism," "racialism," "patriotism," and "imperialism," and this gem: "Neither are the progressivists, in present-day America, revolutionaries or enemies of the order. Being 'radical' or 'progressive' they merely want to continue with greater speed and determination along the established, wrong trail" [p. 218].

At the same time, K-L posits some arguments that may well make his conservative and libertarian fans uncomfortable. These include a strong argument against "capitalism" as a "herdist" instinct, and the above-mentioned opposition to "individualism," as distinguished from "personalism." At one point, K-L argues that advertising increases the cost of consumer goods -- a point Mises effectively demolished in chapter 15 of "Human Action." This is one aspect of the early K-L that is much less prominent in his later works.

Finally, since this book was published in the middle of World War Two, I should note that it contains a fascinating discussion of German and Austrian history, and a study of the cultures and characteristics of "the Germanies," that put both world wars in a new and highly intriguing light for me.

"Liberty and Equality" and "Leftism Revisited" are both, as I've noted elsewhere, books that I return to again and again, trying to absorb the learning and the perspective and get my mind around arguments and insights that are highly counter-intuitive for many Americans -- even contrarians like me -- steeped as we are in a culture that worships "democracy" and the "common man" above all else. "Menace of the Herd" now takes its place beside those other books. I strongly encourage any of my fellow K-L students to expend every effort to get a copy of this for your own library. It more than repays the time and money.

As an undergraduate student taking a Milton class, I found this biography extremely valuable - it provided good background, religious, political and psychological, in what motivated Milton - his core beliefs that drove his most powerful works. Unfortunately, the price is prohibitive - try a library, because this biography is a pleasant read for a new student, and thorough enough for a scholar or more in-dept investigation. The second volume is the notes and annotations for the main biography. Parker and Campbell bring Milton into the 21st century - making him accessible and understandable. It whetted my appetite for more Milton. I wish it was cheaper though!

Parker carefully balances his focus on Milton's life and the poet's immortal works. Parker begins his study by letting the reader know that he is both a lover of Milton's art and an admirer of Milton the individual. One who devotes time to this considerable study will certainly obtain similar sentiments.