Edward Books

This book should be required reading for every student in high school. It challenges the paradigm of thinking underlying not just WWII, but the entire concept of war and militarism. This is a book that triggers "out of the box" thinking and compels readers to reassess their assumptions about the success and morality of American foreign policy.

Like nearly everyone in America, I grew up worshipping the myths of World War II that Wood discusses: 1) The Good War 2) The Greatest Generation 3) We Won World War II Largely on Our Own 4) Where Evil Lies in Others, War is the Means to Justice. Over the years I have come to learn how harmful such myths are to not only the peace of the United States but also to the whole world. Wood brillantly expresses the horrors of war as a wounded combat veteran, along with the ways in which those horrors have been systematically veiled by politics and pop culture. Young and old alike should read this timely, eloquently written and ultimately hopeful book.

Anyone wanting to understand the experience of war should read this book. Mr. Wood offers a valuable take on the ways in which the individual soldier is changed by war, not only as it relates to WWII but in terms of how those currently fighting in Iraq may be affected. His discussion of the devastations wrought by PTSD will change the view of many who sneer at those who suffer from "combat fatigue". He is also very good on the manner in which the societal view of war shapes society's willingness to go to war, much as Paul Fussell explored in "The Great War and Modern Memory". Finally, Mr. Wood offers an excellent bibliography for those wanting to read more on the subject.

In a day when armchair warriors reign supreme, from TV to the White House, Mr Wood gives us the true warrior's view. This is an excellent book.

This book is a well written testament to the author's thinking about war. He says that there are four myths about World War II that we need to abolish as a prelude to stopping our passion for war.

He makes some very good arguments, but I'm not so sure that I agree with him.

Myth #1: The Good War -- His argument is that this was not a 'Good War.' That this was a war about killing. Yes, he is right. On the other hand, would he have allowed the Holocaust to continue, to be a matter of policy for all of Europe under Nazi domination, should we have done nothing about Japan's Unit 731 which researched biological weapons by releasing them on Chinese towns? And if not by war, how would we have stopped them?

Myth #2: The Greatest Generation -- He is right again, each generation that fought a successful victorious war has been called something similar. This began with the Revolutionary War and continues.

Myth #3 -- We Won World War II Largely on Our Own. He is correct again. World War II was indeed a world war. Decisions were made early in the war that the US would be the 'Arsenal of Democracy.' We produced a significant percentage of the airplanes, tanks, ships, trucks, etc. used by the Allies. Our combat losses were small when compared with other countries.

Myth #4: When Evil Lies in Others, War is the Means to Justice. I haven't made the transition he has in thinking that the Holocaust, Unit 751 and the other evils could have been stopped in any other way. Should we do nothing in Darfur, Bosnia, and all the other places? I don't have the answer.

Bulwer-Lytton was a massively prolific novelist of the mid 19th century, and this book (and possibly 'The Coming Race') is likely his best-known work, not so much for its literary merit as for the theme, that is to say, the Rosicrucian backstory of the work.

In its most basic skeletal form, 'Zanoni' is a love story in which several very different men vie, with greater or lesser chance of success, for the hand of the orphaned Viola in 18th century Naples. It is in the interaction between the various men of the story, rather than in much having directly to do with Viola, that the Rosicrucian/occult elements come out, as the immortal Zanoni, one the suitors, and his elemental opposite Mejnour, come into contact with the callow would-be pupil Glyndon, various artists, Frenchmen, etc.

From a literary point of view, the story is well told if long-winded, and the style is definitely of a piece with the times in which it was written, i.e. everything is breathlessly exclaimed, the backstory of characters (particularly Viola) is elaborated on for countless long pages regardless of whether it has any importance whatever to the story, and the dialogue reads terribly cliched in the year 2008. It's a long book, and it takes some commitment to get through. It is not a Patterson novel; you will spend a lot of time with the book.

Is it worth it? If you read it just for the love story, read something else. If, like most everyone, you read it to delve into the Rosicrucian aspects of the story, you will spend even more time with it, as Bulwer-Lytton writes with some insight, but expects the reader to follow along closely with the symbology he often brings up only obliquely; with subtle elements such as the structure of the book itself (comprised of several books, multiple chapters each), and to separate the dramatic elements of the story from the magical. For example, Book IV in which perhaps most of the outright 'Rosicrucian' material appears, is laid out to form a systematic curriculum of progressive lessons, or stages, in the neophytes progress, but is not so identified. It is only upon rereading or looking back and laying this out that the reader can point to this and enjoy an 'aha!' moment.

Some of the concepts loom larger than others; each reader will make up his or her own mind. Nonetheless, the ideas of sincerity, devoted self-application, love of others, self-restraint, and studious devotion to the meditative arts are obviously important. The neophyte can expect to be tested at all times; the story of Glyndon's failure in his studies is the norm, not the exception.

The story does end eventually, climaxing in Zanoni's renunciation of immortality for love, amidst the butchery of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, and the fates of the various characters are fascinating and just.

It is a book the serious reader will get much more out of upon his first and second re-reading. Those who simply scan it for the romantic novel is outwardly seems to be will have missed the point entirely.

A profoundly mystical book. Romance, magic, adventure, intrigue,
philosophy... this book has it all... beautiful and breathtaking !!

If you are a serious student of the occult this book is a must! Each and every character and movement has a place in the understanding of the Mystical Dance in which we are all involved. "Zanoni" and "Mejnour" will teach you the harmonic scales, however your ears must be finely attuned to their music. This a great Rosicrucian novel! loreto

After reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke last year (2005), I was in the mood for more magically-oriented fiction. While reading Joscelyn Godwin's The Theosophical Enlightenment, I was re-introduced to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and his novel Zanoni. My first introduction to this work was years ago while reading H. P. Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature". Lovecraft discusses Zanoni and A Strange Story, both of which reflect Bulwer-Lytton's occult interests, and he says certain details of incantations were probably due to Bulwer-Lytton's contact with Alphonse Louis Constant (a.k.a. Eliphas Levi), a French occultist. According to Godwin, "the novel is an encyclopedia of ideas about the occult sciences."

The reason Lovecraft, a fiction writer of the macabre, discusses the work is because he says it "introduces a vast unknown sphere of being pressing on our own world and guarded by a horrible 'Dweller of the Threshold' who haunts those who try to enter and fail." Godwin says this entity is "a hideous personification of one's past thoughts and evil tendencies, which even if not perceived lures the aspirant towards disaster... the only way to conquer it, as Zanoni teaches to Glyndon and demonstrates himself, is by overcoming one's fear and persisting in one's resolve to cling to virtue, come what may." Valentin Tomberg, an esoteric Catholic, calls this dweller (or "guardian") the administrator of the justice of conscience, the master of the school of conscience who stands at the threshold which separates the "surface world" from the "depth world". He discusses it more thoroughly in Letter XVIII of his anonymously-written Meditations on the Tarot. Lovecraft says that despite its flaws, "Zanoni is really an excellent performance as a romantic novel," and Godwin says, "...as far as esotericism in Victorian Britain is concerned, there is no more important literary work than Zanoni..."

Apart from its esoteric side, the book's fundamental story is about love. A character named Glyndon chooses to sacrifice his "love" for Viola to be a pupil of Mejnour, Zanoni's mentor, and realizes the seriousness of the discipline required of him and the consequences for failure when he's enamored, and tempted, by a sensuous woman named Fillide and impatiently disobeys Mejnour. Zanoni, on the other hand, sacrifices his immortality for love of Viola and suffers for it. It's interesting how Bulwer-Lytton contrasts the passionless yet immortal state of Mejnour with Zanoni's mortal passion for Viola. It's as if he places love (or at least the passionate sort) on the mortal plane but passionless "happiness" on the immortal plane. Here's what Mejnour tells Glyndon before he's tempted and faces the Dweller: "My pupil, thy first task must be to withdraw all thought, feeling, sympathy from others. The elementary stage of knowledge is to make self, and self alone, thy study and thy world. Thou hast decided thine own career; thou hast renounced love; thou hast rejected wealth, fame, and the vulgar pomps of power. What, then, are all mankind to thee? To perfect thy faculties, and concentrate thy emotions, is henceforth thy only aim!" Glyndon then asks, "And will happiness be the end?" Mejnour's answer: "If happiness exists, it must be centered in a self to which all passion is unknown. But happiness is the last state of being; and as yet thou are on the threshold of the first." Zanoni's attempt to raise Viola to his immortal state fails, so he fatally "lowers" himself to her state out of love. It's a wonderful 19th century romance, but tragic.

Other occult-type novels by Edward Bulwer-Lytton include A Strange Story and The Coming Race. The latter has been categorized as science fiction and is admired by some occultists for its concept of a mysterious Vril energy. After reading Zanoni, I noticed some very general similarities between it and Clarke's recent magical novel, although I don't think she has publically stated it as an influence.

About a year ago a teacher/performer friend asked me who my first guitar teacher was. Larry McCabe, quite a few years ago. My friend looked surprised, and told me he uses Larry's books in his own teaching, and that Larry had written something like 80 books to date. I had no idea, as Larry was in the process of writing his first book when I had lessons with him. So when it came time to brush up on some basic blues licks for a band I'm in I ended up obtaining some of Larry's books.

This book of blues turnarounds is where I started. What a great book - full of excellent turnaround licks. At this point I've only played through about half of them note for note, but have used those as a basis for coming up with my own licks. And to me, that is the mark of a great book - lots of useful information if read note-for-note, but can also be used as a springboard for creating new ideas.

The licks I've learned from the book thus far are all in the key of C, but can be easily used in other keys if one has a basic knowledge of the notes on the fretboard. I'd highly recommend this book for a beginner wanting to learn stock blues licks, or intermediate players who need to expand their blues vocabulary.

An Excellent Choice for the Early Intermediate Blues Guitarist

A turnaround is a lick played at the end of a section of music. A blues turnaround would be played in measures 11-12 of a 12-bar blues, or measures 7-8 of an eight-bar blues.

Electric urban blues turnarounds are fairly easy to play, and the difference from one to another is subtle. Having the ability to play a variety of turnarounds is an important skill in blues guitar playing. This is the best book I know of that addresses exclusively the subject of electric blues guitar turnarounds.

This a book for a VERY ambitious beginner, or an early intermediate guitarist who has an interest in Chicago blues in the classic style of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, etc.

The licks are all arranged in the key of C. This is for ease of analysis and comparison. The user is encouraged to transpose the licks to other keys - a worthwhile project for exploring and learning the fingerboard. Very, very good practice for learning the art of blues phrasing.

Great book from one of our leading authors. My students (and myself) have consistently benefited from the interesting instruction contained here.

My students and I work from several of Larry McCabe's guitar books and find that the books produce consistently high results.

This book, like the others, is exceptionally well crafted, specific in intent, and the guitar lines are accurately written exactly as they are heard on the CD. Larry McCabe books are the work of a dedicated teacher who has achieved a high level of respect nationally in the field of music education.

Larry asked me to write a review for this book, and I am happy to do so. The object of this book is to teach the art of playing blues guitar turnarounds to a guitarist who has some prior experience but is just beginning to explore electric blues.

If a student knows how to bend the strings and perhaps play slurs, slides, and hammers, blues turnarounds are not difficult to play. What is important is to play them authentically and with conviction. This book does a very good job in advancing those objectives.

A component of this book that is quite effective is that every phrase is written in the Key of C. The student should then transpose each lick to other keys, a desirable skill that encourages individual incentive and ability to solve arranging problems.

The turnarounds sound exactly like the ones played on classic blues recordings by the great artists from Chicago and other urban areas.

I know other teachers who swear by Larry's books, and I am one of them. Great book- effective in its aims, ambitious content, fun to work through, and a great value.

This very fine book has been in print in one form or another since the early-to-mid 1980s. Not many music books remain in print that long, but this is an exceptional collection of model solos in the urban blues style.

The book is quite popular with music teachers (as evidenced by the other reviews) and it is enjoyable and productive for students as well. The book is aimed at the ambitious early intermediate student, and a few of the solos will challenge an intermediate guitarist.

There are 25 full-length solos in the book, each written in notation and tablature, and each recorded note-for-note on the accompanying CD. The band on the CD is excellent. There are five solos in C, five in G, five in D, five in A, and five in E. The solos are played to standard blues progressions, meaning that they may be "plugged in" to similar blues progressions that are found in many, many songs.

The solos sound exactly like the solos heard on real blues records. They are varied and performed with taste, authenticity, and feeling. You can hear why the author was a columnist for Living Blues Magazine and why his work has received consistently high reviews in a number of guitar magazines.

Great book, highly recommended.

I wish all music instruction books were written in this format. The song tabs just go from one page to the next without a bunch of talking/writing in between, and the song numbers in the book actually match the song numbers on the cd...what a rare and unique idea! Of course, none of that would matter if the material were bad, but that's not the case, the solos are great - quite diverse too. There is a lot of helpful information in this book: theory, writing your own solos, a guide to blues styles and artists,etc. - but it's all in it's own section of the book, not sprinkled throughout the book here and there making it impossible to find. As a full time guitar instructor I would just like to say "great job", "great blues solos" and "great, easy to use format". Thanks.

The author of this book, Larry McCabe, is re-releasing books that have gone out of print for one reason or another. This particular book is an old friend. After I received it, I went into my library and found a copy. It has been in print in one form or another for 25 years. Most instruction books don't last anywhere near that long. First, this book (as the author warns) is not for beginners. You need to be familiar with the movable blues scales we all use. If you are playing out, and feel comfortable with the whole neck, get this book. The style of lead is closer to Gatemouth Brown and Freddie King than anyone else. If you don't know who these men are, buy their CDs. You are in for a treat. Please read the author's introduction. There is a lot of good info there. The Tab system is the older style. It should take about 30 seconds to adjust. It's actually easier to read than the current form. If you consider yourself a Rock guitarist instead of Blues, you really could use this book. If you use these solos as a "how to", instead of just memorizing them, they will give you some new weapons. You know, for scaring the heck out of other guitarists.

This is one of the most important books I have ever read. And I have read a ton. I know everyone is at their own place on their path of learning, and the materials we find along the way sometimes speak to us, and sometimes not. But, where I am on my own path, this book ties so much together and is opening me up to so much more that I am just in bliss. I did read 'The Betty Book', the first in this group of three, for the base of their story, and would recommend others do the same. But THIS book....is amazing. I hope others find as many clues to growth and expansion in it as I am.

This is perhaps the greatest spiritual tome I've read.

This book truly captures Betty White's essence -- her work in this realm was decades ahead of its time. Written in a tone unlike many of today's egotistical and self-aggrandizing spiritual mediums, these divine messages will remind your soul of its sacred path. In the end, the profound light of love that Stewart Edward and Betty shared will bathe you. In a time when so many souls in today's world long for this reawakening, count yourself blessed and share her gift with others once it comes to you.

Ken Howard has written an excellent and practical guide to public speaking. From preparation to techniques to control and harness stage fright , this book provides solid useful tips that work for me. I have used this book to prepare for several large audience presentations and found the advice very helpful

Ken Howard, distinguished stage actor and Harvard U. instructor, shares his success factors in public speaking. He writes in a conversational tone and uses his personal experiences making this book easy to read and absorb. He gives examples to help reduce the fear of public speaking along with tips to increase memory. He explains how a speaker can share his/her insights in a professional manner and at this same time let your personality come through. I found Act Natural to be one of the more useful books that I have read on this subject. Paragraph headings include:

1) Making Fear Your Ally
2) Acting is what you Do
3) The Speaker Prepares - Structure and Storytelling
4) Discovering Your Photographic Memory
5) Getting Real - The Power of Emotion
6) Persuading Them
7) Taking Your Act into any Room
8) Letting Go
9) Some Concluding Words About Words

This book, written by Ken Howard, a star of stage, screen and television and an experienced teacher at presigious schools, breaks new ground for those of us who dread to face the frightening task of speaking in public.
Howard draws on his extensive background to give you effective methods to overcome stage fright (you really don't want to eliminate it.) His advice on developing your memory for any kind of speaking situation -- whether addressing a sales conference or handling a job interview, is outstanding.
Howard uses techniques advocated by famous actors' coaches to strengthen your performance and to do it naturally.
Readers of this book will be impressed with the improvement they will make.
In fact, as a long-time student of how to improve my public speaking, I believe you'll find some individual chapters worth the price of the entire book.
I know I did.

The art of writing is a learned skill honed through practice. Now in an extensively updated and significantly expanded second edition, "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" by academicians Joyce Armstrong Carroll and Edward E. Wilson (both of whom are Co-Directors of Abydos Learning International) is a 501-page compendium of instruction on all aspects of the art and craft of teaching aspiring authors how to write effectively regardless of the genre or discipline they are writing in or for. After an informed and informative introduction, "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" is dived into two primary sections dealing with 'Process' and 'The Theory and Pedagogy'. An overview of writing as a process beings with 'Prewriting: More Than the Beginning', continues on with 'Writing and Organizing', 'Writing as a Social Act', 'Grammar and Correcting', 'Grammar through Revision', Grammar through Reformulation', 'Postwriting and Publishing', and 'Assessment'. "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" continues with a major and detailed chapter on the way the brain works in the writing process, before going on to address such issues as 'Learning How to Learn', 'Early Literacy', 'Research', and 'Writing as a Mode of Learning. Enhanced with an extensive and extended bibliography, "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" also features nine highly relevant appendices (note especially the first one offering a List of Genres), and a comprehensive index. "ACTS Of Teaching: How To Teach Writing" is note only very highly recommended as an educational curriculum guide and supplement for the teaching of writing in a college or university level course, it is also invaluable reading for any aspiring writer seeking to become as effective as they can be within the demands of any scientific discipline, literary genre, or commercial enterprise they might find themselves working in.

I have had the opportunity to meet each author in their New Jersey Writing Project in Texas Institute, and I must say this book is an absolute in the instruction of writing. Instead of forcing unreal formulaic writing upon our students, Carroll and Wilson are staunch advocates of voice in writing. If you are looking for a formula or gimmick to teach your students writing, this is NOT the book for you. Instead, Carroll and Wilson use tried and true techniques focusing on the reading-writing connection, pre-writing, and revision that work for students of all grade levels. As a new teacher, this book in conjunction with their Institute has been the most useful tool I have encountered.

Authors Carroll and Wilson focus on students AND teachers as writers. This text is critical to those who teach writing. It includes specific activities and strategies for prewriting,conferencing,revision,publishing. Included are many helpful journal articles. It is the most successful tool I've used in over 20 years of teaching students of all grade and ability levels. It is a MUST HAVE. In an empty classroom beseiged by flames, this is THE text I'd grab !

A description of the U.S. invasion of Iraq might start with 9/11, Bush's Administration, the 1991 war, or Iraq's invasion of Iran. The history of the invasion, however, is not a description of the invasion itself but of what happened before. Robinson, Gallagher, and Denny provide that history.

"Africa and the Victorians" describes the UK's responses to fear of erosion of the British Empire. In the mid-1800s, British leaders assumed that modernization of the world economy would naturally strengthen the empire. Events of the late 1800s didn't work out that way. Rather, political developments outside Europe took a nationalist turn. In addition, the expanding world roles of Russia, Germany, and the U.S. threatened to cost the UK its global preponderance, unless the UK could count on all its traditional assets, especially India.

India was securely in British control internally, but the routes of British access to India ran through the Mediterranean, Egypt and, after 1869, the Suez Canal, or alternatively around South Africa. Nationalist politics in both Egypt and South Africa seemed, to British imperialist eyes, to make both routes less secure. In addition, both Germany and Russia were chipping away at Turkey and thus approaching the Suez Canal.

Thus, in 1882 Britain sent its armies to take over Egypt and safeguard the Canal. Many in London wanted to do this on the cheap by quickly withdrawing and then ruling through Egyptian elites, but the old India hands had their way and the UK undertook direct rule and military occupation.

Although it technically falls in Asia and thus outside the book's African focus, the story continued a few years later on the other side of Suez, with the fall of Turkey and Britain's annexation of the lands that lay on Russia's path to the Canal. Both in South Africa and Suez, Britain entrusted territorial defense to colonists -- Britons in the Cape Colony and Israelis east of Suez.

British troops stayed in Egypt until 1954, at which point the Egyptian politics of 1882 replayed themselves almost exactly. Britain and Israel, along with France, invaded again in 1956 to reoccupy the Canal, but by then the shift in world power already feared in the late 1880s had come to pass, and the invaders were ordered out of Egypt by the U.S. and the USSR. By that time, the U.S. had assumed the UK's role as guarantor of Turkey, Israel, and Suez.

The invasion of 2003 repeats this pattern in terms of taking a supposed overseas interest, perceiving an indirect threat to it, invading to overthrow a nationalist government, and then staying supposedly to develop the country but more practically because the invader looks down on the local political alternatives. The U.S. invaders don't seem shy about potentially repeating Britain's experience of a 72-year-long military presence.

Access to India was, of course, no longer an issue even in 1956, but once started these things take on lives of their own.

In their last pages, Robinson, Gallagher, and Denny make this observation: "Fundamentally, the official calculations of policy behind imperial expansion in Africa were inspired by a hardening of arteries and a hardening of hearts. Over and over again, they show an obsession with security, a fixation on safeguarding the routes to the East. What stands out in that policy is its pessimism. It reflects a traumatic reaction from the hopes of mid-century; a resignation to a bleaker present; a defeatist gloss on the old texts of expansion." This also describes U.S. policy toward the world as of 2003, compared to the Marshall Plan days fifty years earlier.

Note that this book has apparently been published under two subtitles: "The Climax of Imperialism in the Dark Continent" (U.S.) and "The Official Mind of Imperialism" (UK).

With all due respect to Mary Sibley, her summary hardly demonstrates the unique argument of this epochal work on British imperialism, nor its invaluable contribution to the historiography of the subject. To suggest that this book is a mere factual account of British imperialism in Africa is to miss the point; Robinson and Gallagher were ideas-men, and they brilliantly incorporate this look at high-politics (i.e. the 'official mind') to shed light on the motives behind British expansion. Their argument is that the strategic interests emanating from the periphery were the primary motivating factor in British expansion - not metropolitan-based economic interests. What emerges is a complex view of both informal and formal imperialism. Informal imperialism, they argue, may be motivated by economic interests; but insofar as formal imperial expansion was concerned, it was strategic imperatives provoked by incidents at the periphery.

This book, nearly thirty years on, is still considered THE definitive work on the primacy of politics in British expansion, which, along with Cain and Hopkin's work (British Imperialism 1688-2000), respectively form the core of the politics vs. economics debate in the history of British imperialism.

The Victorians had an expansive spirit. Most people believed in restricted government and free trade. Expansion seemed inevitable. The main engine of expansion was enterprise. Their trade associations were mostly with Europeans transplanted abroad.

The idea of Africa moved British statesmen to act. The continuity of Victorian leadership ws remarkable. The ends of Livingston and Gordon haunted the imagination as examples of embattled humanitarians. A policy of supporting trade was embraced in the middle of the nineteenth century under the belief that private enterprise could promote the interests of both commerce and philanthropy. On the continent, though, time-honored practices were upset by the presence of Europeans. There was a gulf between intention and effect.

Up until the 1880's the British sought influence but no commitment on both coasts of Africa. In the west there were local chiefs and Liverpool traders in palm oil. In the east the British worked through the Sultan of Zanzibar. In the east the Arabs were useful allies. There was a conflict of interest since the British sought to extinguish all external and internal slave trading. The search for pliant native powers had resulted in one failure after another in promoting civilized activity and suppressing the slave trade in the interior.

The British sought to devolve authority to make imperialism cheaper. The problem was that receptive African rulers were not strong and strong African rulers were not receptive to British influence. The Khedive of Egypt was broken by the expansion of the European economy. The Sultanate in Zanzibar was weakened by being made to enforce an alien athic.

South African politics changed with the discovery of diamonds. The continuity between mid and late Victorian policy is impressive. A forward policy raised strong criticism of Britain. In 1881 the Transvaal crisis was patched up. Next came the Suez crisis. Twenty years after Egypt was opened to free trade, the Khedive, living from loan to loan, was replaced by another and placed under strict controls by Britain and by France. The foreign controllers were practically dictators in finance.

Occupation of Egypt was undertaken by Britain between 1882 and 1914. The British sought to leave Egypt, but the need for administration continued. The Egyptian affair had started the Scramble and ended the stand still arrangement. The Egyptian occupation destroyed the old informal systems on the coasts of Aftica and unsettled the politics of south Africa.

There was a pattern of colonial demands for imperial extension and British resistance to it. The British wished to avoid arousing Afrikaner opinion. Britain became powerless to shut Germany out of south and east Africa because it relied on Germany in its stand-off with France over Egypt. It was determined to occupy Bechuanaland to dissipate the fear of German encroachment.

After 1887 an inrush of mining and railway enterprise changed the shape of politics in south Africa. By 1894 the gold of Johannesburg was believed to be inexhaustable. There were humanitarian advocates of the colonial office set against the need to placate Boer interests. The new wealth and traffic of the Rand made it inevitable that Kruger would seek a railroad link through Portuguese territory for shipment of Transvaal gold.

Cecil Rhodes sought imperial protection for his mining speculations. The company would plant a colony to occupy the country. Throughout 1889 humanitarian societies agitated against giving administrative authority to a commercial company. The government granted the charter fearing nationalism and republicanism in south Africa. The terms of the charter left little room for effective imperial control. Salisbury negotiated with German and Portuguese interests to obtain for Rhodes areas north of Zambesi. Economic imperialism is too simple a term to cover the mixed intentions of the British government. The company was chartered above all as a political instrument.

From 1885 to 1900 British foreign policy was built on the designs of Lord Salisbury. It acquired a brilliance of formulation. He suffered from a fundamental defeatism. He had a static view of politics.

Africa remained for him an intellectual problem. Baring, the British agent in Egypt, felt there could be no stability without the supervision of British officals and the presence of troops. He felt Egypt did not have suitable political cadres. The safety of the Nile became a supreme consideration. In 1889 when it was suggested to the Germans that the matter of Zanzibar be submitted to arbitration, the stage was set for the 1890's agreements. The Anglo-German agreement was badly received by France

Prolonged negotiations about west Africa with France created difficulties. England focused on the Niger River. England eventually invaded Sudan when conditions were suitable for victory there and ultimately fought the Boers to consolidate the holdings and colonies in the south of Africa and to bring everything under imperial control. In the end there was Joseph Chamberlain in the foreign office who wanted to undertake scientific administration of the imperial entities. At that point Salisbury was old and failing.

Victorians were confronted with nationalist upsurges. During the first three quarters of the nineteenth century Britain enjoyed effortless supremacy. The book is of immense interest. Tables are included quantifying the scope of trade, geographical issues and the shifts in European control.

A book that begs us to call into serious question the nature of the society in which we, live. Using examples from postwar Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, it presents the broader issue, of "how our system really works": Government, media, and such.

Nowhere does the book praise "Stalinism." The issue is simply that of a colonial power smashing a national movement. In the 19th Century the prevailing ideollogy might have been Christiandom vs. Islam; by the 1960's it was the "Free World" vs. "Godless Communism." The essential power relatons of empire remain the same. To criticise the larger power and its bullying tactics is not to whitewash the other side; but the normal human reaction among the unbrainwashed is to take the side of the little guy fighting for his life over the big fat aggressor.

Ensconced in the ivory tower of American academia, neither Noam Chomsky nor Edward Herman would have survived day one of Cambodia's infamous "Year Zero" - an "agrarian reform" that led to the deaths of roughly two million people - one quarter of the population of Cambodia.

Luckily for Chomsky, the governor of Massachusetts (Chomsky is a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA) did not summarily round up, torture, convict and execute the intelligensia and bourgeois classes in Massachusetts. Sadly for Cambodia (or Kampuchea, if you prefer) Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government did just this in Cambodia. Under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, the "crime" of being an elementary school teacher, to say nothing of being a tenured university professor!, was excuse enough for the revolutionary heroes Chomsky sings the praises of in "After The Cataclysm", to kill you and your entire family.

Chomsky's book fails in every conceivable way when analyzing the bloody regime of Pol Pot, attempting to write off refugee reports of the unimaginably large scale atrocities as the spin of an imperialist media seeking to defame the agrarian revolution. Chomsky could not have been more wrong, nor proved more valuable a western mouthpiece for one of the most brutal dictators in living memory.

The fiery anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism polemics and philippics that were Chomsky's milieu during the Vietnam war pigeonholed his analysis of the Pol Pot regime, and it shows in this book. After his bitter condemnations of anything even vaguely pro-American in Asian politics, Chomsky had ideologially painted himself into a corner. Rather than renounce one ounce of his invective, he instead wrote this book, which regardless of intent, reads as an apologist eulogy to the Khmer Rouge.

I give this book five stars because it's a five star work on the excesses of the old guard left in American academic circles, and a lingering stench on Chomsky's reputation. Had Chomsky had the integrity and courage to admit that the emperor Pol Pot had no clothes on, this book never would have been written....The disingenuousness presented in "After The Cataclysm" is nearly too astounding, as if written as a savage and bitter satire of professional academics-cum-polemicists. It's not, and academia is left tarnished for it.

My review from White Crane Journal - Summer 2008

The appearance of new poems by Edward Field is always a cause for celebration. The master poet begins his most recent collection, After the Fall: Poems Old & New with a series of poems that serve as gutsy ars poetica on the engagement of the poet with the world. Under the title "What Poetry Is For" Field surveys the landscape of the wartime Bush years. Some of the poetry is time-sensitive and read as a (hopefully) time capsule to the future. In "Letter on the Brink of War" Field bears witness to what the unjaundiced eye sees at the beginning of a disaster he has lived through before:

They even talk of shock and awe--
another term for blitzkrieg's sturm and drang--
and instead of Jews, the roundup of Muslims,
But you have to ask, Who's next?

"Homeland Security" extends the theme by offering an analysis of the police state tactics faced by those who raise suspicion. Field has a way of writing that delivers the punch with comic timing. It leaves you smiling and wincing at the same time.

Perhaps what I have always loved about Field's writing is its utter lack of pretense and its firm conviction in telling the truth. Beauty is not the word here. Breathtaking is. You read a marital poem like "Oedipus Schmoedipus" or the searing indictment of Jews complicit in the current administration's wrong-doing "But what are Jews doing in this government? / Wasn't civil liberties always a Jewish passion?" and you understand why Plato wanted poets banned from his Republic for their insistence on telling the truth. There is also humor. Lots of it --whether writing on aging in "Prospero, in Retirement" or celebrating his body's resiliencies in "In Praise of My Prostate":

and you still expand, your amazing flowers
bursting forth throughout my body,
pistils and stamens dancing.

Or in his apologia to his lover who must live with "the poet" in "Mrs. Wallace Stevens." When you're dealing with a great poet, the beauty of a volume of selected works like this--especially for the uninitiated--is its ability to offer up new work that captures your affections, and also present the earlier work that serves as confirmation that this genius has roots and, even better, offer a past catalogue of volumes to seek out. Here in one gem are the poems I have loved for many years. Field's "The Life of Joan Crawford" from his 1967 volume Variety Photoplays, "From Poland," and "Mae West" are here too.

As he did in his memoirs published three years ago, Field continues his clear-eye seeing and saying of the world. I believe he writes with the clear understanding that there is a beauty to be found in honesty. With After the Fall Field somehow gives courageous permission to be more honest in our lives. As if saying life is more fun and more compelling by facing the truth of oneself. In all its beauty. I truly believe it.

Edward Field is a poet of joy, anger, romance, humor,sex, the real breathing humanity we all share but rarely find in the overly intellectual, pallid poetry which is the fashion of our time. Reading "After the Fall" is to touch a warm, living , brilliant being, what some of us call a "mensch"! It's a true encounter full of joy!
Harriet Sohmers Zwerling

Ed Field is an amazing poet, and this is another fantastic collection. His new poems feel like classics, and his old poems feel refreshingly new. Read Ed Field now, while he's here-- for fifty years he's been breaking ground for poets, and he deserves to be read. His work is the glue that holds American poetry together. Nobody, before or since, has merged the personal, political, and the pop culture with so much skill and energy. Great great poems!