Frank Books

Meyer was a former Communist, but he atoned for this by the many contributions he made to the anti-communist cause and to the conservative movement. The latter, I believe, owes an incalculable debt to him. Before 1960, Meyer, who was at the time a senior editor of National Review, began arguing that there was no inherent contradiction between the two major streams of the Right in America, free-market principles and traditional values.

        He further argued that if the conservative movement was going to succeed, adherents of both lines of thought, natural allies on most issues, must be fused together. Supporters of a conservative economic policy, he taught, couldn't expect their policies to be enacted without the backing of social-issue conservatives. And it was equally true, he continued, that social-issue conservatives couldn't expect their policies to be enacted unless they allied with economic conservatives.

         The presidential elections of 1980, 1984 and 1988, as well as the congressional elections of 1994 and 1996, were manifestations of the wisdom of Frank Meyer.

In this book, Frank Meyer attempts to consolidate two threads of conservative tradition (later referred to as fusionism) - that of libertarian conservatism (stressing individual rights and economic freedom); and that of natural or traditional conservatism (stressing virtue and order). Meyer makes the case (persuasively I believe) that while many in the conservative movement tend to stress one tradition over the other, there is no inherent mutual exclusion between them. In short, there ought not to be a rift between those that focus on different elements of the conservative tradition. Essentially, Meyer presents the individual (not community, not "society", and not the state) as the atomic unit. And from that unit radiates out all other constituent beliefs about the individual - the right to life, liberty, and property - including the freedom to pursue virtue as well as vice. Yet despite this valiant effort made by Meyer, the tension between the two traditions of conservatism still exist to this day. Those wishing to understand that tension in a historical context would certainly do well by reading this book. In any case, whether one agrees with Meyer's attempted fusion, In Defense of Freedom is a wonderful read in conservative expression.

Meyer was an influential thinker in the neoconservative movement. He basically argues that American Conservatism is the fusion of two lines of thought or ideas that are in Europe thought contradictory (and maybe this is part of the reason why Europeans have such a big problem with American conservatism). These two ideas are the importance of individual freedom and the importance of tradition or a code of ethics needed to civilize an otherwise naturally savage species.

This is what Thomas Sowell calls the "constrained vision" of human nature. Liberals tend to embrace the "unconstrained vision," which assumes that people are just naturally good and that ignorant policies are the only thing keeping us back from developing the utopia we could easily create. Liberals believe that if high-minded third-party decision makers tell the public how they should live their lives and impose their values on everyone else that utopia would only be a few years away.

The problems with this thinking, according to the constrained vision, is that first, in order for the government to have the power to create such a utopia a totalitarian regime must first be established, and second, even if a totalitarian leader managed to force his (or her as may soon happen) vision on everyone else, according to the constrained vision this will likely only make things worse, not better. Most social "programs" have unexpected consequences, and have historically only tended to make the problem in question worse than it already was.

According to the constrained vision we should focus on process and incentives, not lofty outcomes. Welfare might have a lofty outcome for example (to lift people out of poverty), but when one focuses on incentives created one sees that welfare will only create more poverty. People with the unconstrained vision in the sixties saw this before it even happened. When Barry Goldwater heard about welfare he said all this will do is create a caste system in America. Paying people to not help themselves is about as strong a reinforcer to NOT help yourself as could possibly be created.

So instead of people preempting your decisions and telling you how to live your life, conservatives emphasize individual freedom combined with an emphasis on classical virtues such as stoicism, reticence and honor. This is a recipe for fuller, more self-actualized citizens who create more and together, through good competition, make society a better place for all who live in it, including the poorest. (There really are no "poor" people in America after all. The average person who lives below the poverty line works 16 hours a week and spends $2.50 for every $1 earned. This is a behavioral problem, not a societal problem!) Liberals instead focus on instant gratification, getting in touch with "feelings," and the destruction of personal responsibility, which creates a society of dependent complainers who have been conditioned out of helping themselves. This removes the incentives to succeed by destroying meritocracy and in the end pulls everyone down to the mean. Society as a result will suffer.

Conservatives emphasize fairness in process; liberals emphasize fairness in outcome, which necessitates the creation of unfair processes in order to force the preconceived "fair" outcome. This unfair process typically punishes success and resourcefulness and rewards laziness and sloth. Thus we can see that conservatism is not so much a religious movement (this is a HUGE misconception), as it was actually spearheaded largely by completely secular thinkers whose common feature was an opposition to all forms of fascism, which includes all forms of socialism.

Meyer thought that liberals tended to be relativists who deny the existence of right and wrong. Their relativism, which they think makes them "enlightened," really only makes them gullible and susceptible to naïve social planners who want to rush in and "fix" everyone else's life. Frank S. Meyer, along with William Buckley, were the fathers of "fusionism," which is the stance much of modern conservatism is based on.

A daring book. heraled of 21th century. Unfortunately we have no information about the author. please send us a brief about his brography , born...,studied at..... etc.

A daring book. heraled of 21th century. Unfrtunately we have no information about the author. please send us a brief about his brography , born...,studied at..... etc.

I am highly fascinated by this book. The author felt and spelt the emerging directions of the convergence--media, telecommunications, entertainment and technology.

The world continues to converge day by day, and this "revolutionary" perspective, as Koelsch rightly worded the emerging convergence in one word, amazes everyone, everywhere, everytime.

A glance at the contents gives a feel of what is this all about:
Part I: The Infomedia Imperative, Part II: Home Sweet Electronic Home, Part III: The Information Superhighway, Part IV: Infomedia: Revolutionizing Business, Industry and Government, Part V: Changing Our Lives.

If you get only one fathering/parenting book, this is the one to get. It covers everything from the importance of dad's involvement to child development to spousal communications and more. Bob Frank has been on the forefront of fathering trends for years and has many years of experience as both a parent and a family therapist.

Highly Recommended.

Dr Frank really understands today's family and offers valuable advice for father's. I recommend it be REQUIRED reading for every father. This book will help you become more in touch with your children and you will gain a better understanding of why your role as an involved father is so important in their life!

As a 50-year old looking back at my parenting experiences, I found this book reassuring in those things that I did right and revealing about those things I could have done better. It is a book not just for fathers. It would be a mistake to give it to a father and say,"Here, this is what you must do." It is a book to be read and experienced together by parents willing to create a partnership in raising their children. The book covers concerns from before the baby's birth through young adulthood. It offers a wealth of anecdotes and practical suggestions to help parents nurture and guide their children while maintaining a balanced parenting relationship. I wish I had this book before my first child was born, but, it is not simply another "newborn parent" offering. If I had received this book at any stage of my children's development, I would have found it insightful and helpful. I plan to send it to son, daughters, nieces, and nephews. A great gift to be given by a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or friend. Robert Frank's professionalism and caring shines through.

This book is a must-have for any Italian American who has roots in Alabama. My family is mentioned in the book and thereby will live on in loving memory. This book is not only important Alabama history, but will be a resource for history buffs across the board!

If you have family members that immigrated to the US and settled in the Ensley, AL and Bessemer, AL areas then this book is a wonderful addition to your home library and a big help with your family research. The families mentioned in the book were not mine but the other related discussion helped me understand more about my Italian heritage.

It is a good book, has good information,and has good pictures

this story is fun for the kids and will ignite the readers imagination.

Whenever I see yet another children's picture book celebrating the heyday of jazz, bebop, and swing I always wonder how interesting that book is to the intended child audience. I mean, sure "Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa", by Andrea Davis Pinkney is fun, but do child readers dig it? Or do they just see it as yet another history lesson disguised as a book? With this in mind, "Jazzy Miz Mozetta" is extraordinary because even though it covers some old-fashioned odes to the dances of yesteryear, kids will enjoy reading and watching this extraordinary heroine as she bops, jitterbugs, and re bop she bams her way through the night.

One evening, sweet Miz Mozetta decides to doll herself up for a stroll in the moonlight. She applies Pretty Plum powder, Tango Mango lipstick, and a dress of a distinctive red sheen. Once outside, she runs into three of her friends while across the street some kids dance and jive to their beatbox. In a rare humor, Miz Mozetta asks the kids if she can join in, but their skepticism puts her off. Her friends won't join her either, so it's up to her apartment she clumps where she decides to turn up the radio and dream of dancing days. Fortunately for us, the tale doesn't end there. Her friends, lured by Miz Mozetta's spunk and the music from the band, put on their finest swing clothes and zoot suits and start some serious jitterbugging. Now it's the kids asking if THEY can join in on the fun and by the end everyone's cutting a rug in Miz Mozetta's snazzy living room floor.

There are tons of children's picture books out there that have elderly adults as their heroes, but few in which those adults dance as wildly and extravagantly as this. Author Brenda C. Roberts has a good ear for the cadences and wordings required for such a jazzy snazzy book as this. There's wonderful repetition and the characters speak affections like, "chickadee" and "honey dear". When Miz Mozetta's friends come in to dance the night away, one man's hair, "was shiny and slick and blacker than black and smelled like shoe polish". Couple this with first time children's illustrator Frank Morrison and you've got yourself a pretty little picture book. Morrison may never have helped create a book for kids before, but he's the perfect person to pair with Brenda Roberts' words. His Miz Mozetta all akimbo arms and straight strong legs. Characters in this book twist their bodies into an assortment of strange shapes and angles. Best of all are the wild dancing sequences where the multicolored elders regard the baggy clothed youngsters then burst into magnificent twirls and romps.

The book's certainly the kind of thing to wake the kids up with, that's for sure. If you want a high stepping picture book to accompany your dance-centric storytime (of which books like "Dumpy LaRue" and the aforementioned "Ella Fitzgerald" would have to be a part of), this book has your number. A visual stunner with a great sense of wordplay to boot.

This book sparked my interest as one my husband and son would enjoy together. It has far exceeded my expectations. We all enjoy it immensely. The book definately has a jazzy tone, and it's a great story. My son loves to say that he "spun so fast he dissapeared!"

Iris, in trying to purchase her first bra-an item she needs desperately-starts a business called "Just ask Iris." Unfortunately the elevator in her building is out of order so she uses the fire escape instead. She not only meets the inhabitants of her new Manhattan apartment building, but also, she manages to pull you into the story. A very fast paced read. I'm a middle school teacher and find this a fun resource to discuss landlord laws and living conditions in the city.

I wish that Just Ask Iris were a series because her life is so funny! She has a lot of problems throughout the book such as getting a bra. She makes money and lots of friends that she can turn to, even the crazy Cat Lady. I like the way she figures things out and how on every page there is at least 1 laugh. I recommend this book to girls 8 and up. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

Iris is 12-years-old and growing. Everybody seems to notice this except her mother; her mother wants Iris to stay a child for as long as she can. But even a mother can't stop Mother Nature and Iris is growing up --- in fact it's time for her to get a bra. The problem is, her mother says she can't afford to buy Iris a bra right now. Iris can't turn back puberty! What is she going to do?

Then a cat comes down the fire escape one night and invites himself through their security gate, right into bed with Iris. He's a big softie, and Iris loves him. Every day he comes down to visit her while her mother's at work, and she feeds him. She names him Fluffy, and they sit together on the fire escape in the summer sunshine.

Iris worries about the cat, especially since he takes walks around the neighborhood everyday. Iris starts looking around for Fluffy --- the upside is, she gets to know her neighbors. There's a great big man all covered with tattoos, who looks just like his great big pit bull. There's a wacky parrot who cusses a blue streak (especially if anybody tells him he's a dirty bird). There's an old man who lets his dog out every day to do his business in the stairway. And there's the loony Cat Lady. Everybody tells Iris, no matter what else she does, to stay away from the Cat Lady. But Iris wonders if Fluffy came from the Cat Lady's apartment, and she has to find out.

Now, while Fluffy and his wanderings may take Iris's mind off her money problems at home and her girl issues, the problems are still there. How do all these plot switches help her in her quest for new lingerie? You'll want to read this book to find out just how. A girl determined to get herself what she needs, and help everybody else in the process, is unstoppable!

--- (...)

This book was recommended by my Dutch mother-in-law who loved the story as a young girl. It is a wondeful tale of animal and human, and teaches that we truely need each other to survivie. I enjoyed this more than any other man/wolf stories Ivé ever read.

I read this book as a child and have never forgotten it. Wrapped up snugly in my warm bed in England, having imaginary adventures in far off Canada. I also remember a further book called Son of Kazan. I have searched many times over the years to find either of these books, I am now 56 years old , and I am grateful to Amazon for making them accessable to me, I was beginning to think I would would never find them. I highly recommend Kazan to any child for an exciting and stimulating read.

An exciting and deeply moving story, Kazan is a must-read for anyone who loves and appreciates animals and nature. They story is told mainly through the eyes of Kazan, a dog who is one-quarter wolf, and this point of view truly enhances the sense of adventure. I felt an instant kinship with the author even though the story was originally written in 1914.

I thoroughly enjoyed KNIGHTS OF THE LUNCH TABLE. The story is quite witty, completely kid-friendly, and has some unexpected depths. I can't wait for the next one!

"Knights of the Lunch Table" is a wonderful graphic novel that will have readers of all ages laughing out loud. The great characters, wonderful art, unique storyline, and witty references to the actual legend all made this story one of my favorites, and I'm positive my family will treasure this story for a long time, as well as any others Cammuso plans to write. In short, this is one graphic novel you would not want to miss.

"Knights of the Lunch Table," by Frank Cammuso is the Holy Grail of kids graphic novels! It's a wonderful tale about making friends, testing your limits, and overcoming challenges. The book is a retelling of King Arthur but with a twist that will make you laugh out loud. Kids will love it and adults will appreciate Cammuso's ingenious method of weaving modern day middle school with Arthurian legends.

A must for any child, even those reluctant readers. The storytelling is fast paced and the drawings are awesome!!!! If your kid enjoys adventure and humor, it's your quest to pick this up.

I was impressed with the detail of where the main characters lived and how the terrain and surroundings were made an integral part of where monements of insite took place. Where and how the main characters of the family interacted with one another. Particularily in light of the family history which was was delicately and slowly portrayed in the book. I was particulary impressed and held captive with the last chapter. It took unexpected turns and twists and I found myself holding my breath until the end of the chapter. My heart raced and I was completely spellbound.

The Last Secret is the type of book that should appear and be endorsed by Oprah Winfrey.

I was impressed with the detail of where the main characters lived and how the main characters family interacted with one another. Particularily in light of the family history which was was delicately and slowly protrayed in the book. I was particulary impressed and held captive with the last chapter. It took unexpected turns and twists and I found myself holding my breath until the end of the chapter. I was spellbound.

I recently read Frank Jones's "The Last Secret" and I feel the need to address my feelings of this book here. I first must say that I was quite skeptical of the novel because of the subject mater that it deals with. I am a survivor of incest and childhood sexual abuse, so when I started to read this novel I was quite cynical about how true to life this book could really be. I started reading this book on a Wednesday and was finished with it the next day (Thanksgiving). I simply could not put it down, the book captured my attention in both content and with the issues that it raises. I found the issues expressed mirrored my own so radically that I really had to take a look at the relationships I have been in and see if I had behaved in a manner depicted in the book. I would recommend this book to any survivor of childhood sexual abuse as I have found it to be very theraputic. I also can recommend this book to supporters of survivors as I think that the insight that is given on the mind and feelings of a victim/survivor are invaluable. I also love the setting for this book and since I also live in the San Francisco Bay area I found the book to be true in every sense of the word. The language used is simply beautiful, it truly reads like poetry. I think that this book is one of the best I have ever read, only rivaled by "1984" by George Orwell. Do your self a favor and pick this book up for you or a friend. I am sure that you will not be able to put it down once you pick it up. This book is one that Oprah should place on her reading list! This book should be required reading for all students or english and psychology.

I'm hooked. Marshall Frank writes books you don't want to put down. This is another great mistery with more turns and angles than you can imagine.
Once again, he calls on his many years as a homicide captain to create a really great read.

Marshall Frank, author of six books, has proved an exceptional ability to write absorbing who-dun-it's time and time again. According to his website he is able to do this by embellishing on real life experiences during his 30-year career investigating homicides in the Miami-Dade region of Florida. In doing so he creates a realistic, action-packed, suspenseful detective story with his recent release, The Latent - a fiction novel, that I found difficult to put down.

The Latent focuses on one main character - the completely stressed out, heart-broken police investigator, Rock Burgamy. Haunted by a childhood experience and the loss of his young son, Rock battles an inclination to numb his sorrow and stress with booze. And these are not his only secrets. Twice divorced, Rock is slammed regularly with alimony and child support payments for his two other children. In order to keep up with it all, Rock must take as much overtime as possible. Unfortunately, with all of this happening at once, he delves further and further into the bottle. But he is a good man, a stubborn man who will not let a case go unsolved without giving it his all - even if it means his life or sacrificing love.

A chain of gay men killings appear to have a connection and over-worked Burgamy is assigned the case. Plots thicken as the investigation deepens and poor Burgamy walks into several situations that set him up for a fall so big that he cannot get out alone.

Fantastic and intriguing insight into the underground street-sex establishments is only one of the many angles in this book. Problems within the police department from budget constraints and personal temptations to office politics is another. I am confident that The Latent will take readers inside this dark and dangerous world so smoothly that everything else fades away unnoticed.

ISBN#: 1-4137-9890-x
Author: Marshall Frank
Publisher: Publish America
Published: 2006

~ Book Reviewer: Lillian Brummet - Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment - Author of Towards Understanding, a collection of poetry. (http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit)

The Latent is a really great and well written book, I am not much of a mystery reader, but this book was certainly an exception. Rock Burgamy is a wonderful character, and it would be such a pleasure to read more books by Mr. Frank with Rock as the main character.
This is a must read book for mystery lovers!