Lawrence Books

Lawrence Watt Evans hit a home run with his Lords of Dus. I first started reading the series while assigned overseas in the 1980s. I read these stories to my children as they grew up, and all of them went out and bought their own copies as they became young adults.

The stories trace the adventures of Gar, Prince of the Overmen, as he undertakes a quest "to be remembered until the end of time." He succeeds, and like any great story Gar succeeds in a way that is perfectly literally true, but does not resemble his initial vision in any reasonable form.

Lawence Watt-Evans effortlessly creates a group of characters that live and breath in his tales. Some modern speculative fiction has me struggling to find even a single character to identify with whereas I can usually find a half a dozen, believable, and empathetic characters in Watt-Evans' works.

His stories are engaging. The characters have real issues at stake, and they behave in realistic and believable ways. Best of all, his characters undergo realistic changes and growth throughout the stories. Gar at the end of the series would hardly recognize Gar at the beginning of the tales.

This volume also contains some wonderful commentary and previously unpublished pieces.

The price tag might seem a little steep, but consider this volume is one that you and your children will probably return to time and time again. It is one I intend on reading to my grandchildren.

Nicely done Lawrence Watt-Evans! (Yes, I did learn my lesson and will never call you Larry again!) ;-)

I would like to thank wildside press / and other editors for printing this omnibus hardcover edition of Lawrence Watt-Evan's Lord of Dus series.

Please print Lawrence Watt-Evans Missenchanted Sword series in hardcover to! Thank you in advance!

This is a fantastic series with one of the best swords and sorcery story lines since Howards conan stories. Pick up a copy right away!

I started reading this series when I was in highschool in the 80's and went to college and never got the last book. Rereading the previous books and having the final book all in one was a real treat. I had a hard time putting it down and got in trouble with my wife several nights for leaving the light on too long. If you like fantasy similar to the writings of Howard and the other Conan authors I highly recommend this complete series.

Tired of a world filled with death and decay, Garth the Overman is directed by an oracle to go south into the human lands and serve one known as the Forgotten King, where he will win fame that will endure to the end of the world. But, little does Garth dream of what his service will mean. Seeking to avoid the full effect of the Forgotten King's machinations, but pulled onward by fate, Garth will go where he never thought to go and do things that he never wanted to do.

I am a great fan of Lawrence Watt-Evans' wonderful Ethshar series, and now that I can't find any more to read, I decided to move onto his Lords of Dus series. Well, I was not disappointed! This is a great fantasy tetralogy, complete with magic, strange creatures, and lots of swordplay. In particular, I found the author's use of a non-human as the protagonist to be quite intriguing and masterfully done.

So, if you are a fan of fantasy literature, then you must get this book, which is all four books in one. You will not be disappointed!

I can't say enough about LWE and this series. Just phenomenal stuff. If you are looking for something that you will be able to appreciate over and over again, this is the series you are looking for. Gar the Overman is protaganist, but not your typical one. Check it and out and read a masterpiece series.

On March 15, 1979, General João Baptista Figuereido assumed power as the fifth military president of Brazil and extended an amnesty for all political crimes, both by state security agents and by opponents to the regime. While this amnesty assured there would be no trials for human rights abusers, ironically, it provided an opportunity for the most serious movement to challenge the practice of torture by the regime itself, that of the Brasil Nunca Mais project. It is the story of this project that Lawrence Weschler narrates in the first half of this book. Weschler explains how, during a very limited period of access, the members of the Brasil Nunca Mais project team were able to photocopy the carefully catalogued archives of the Supreme Military Court in order to make them public to the world. They filled a void in Brazil in taking up activities that the state never would- mainly that of telling the truth about this dark period in Brazilian history. Of course, the resulting report, Brasil Nunca Mais, speaks for itself. But Weschler's account of how it came to be is illuminating and as relevant today as when it was first published. It is particularly poignant that only recently, in November of 2005, did the Brazilian government move to declassify dictatorship-era files. Perhaps this signals that the Brazilian government is willing to fully engage with the legacies of the dictatorship, but for the time being Weschler's book offers one of the few windows on this shameful past.

The section on Uruguay is also thoroughly engaging and recounts all the anxieties of a citizen-initiated campaign to bring former torturers to justice. Weschler's skillful eyewitness accounts make the reader feel as if the petition drive were happening right now, as opposed to two decades ago.

A Miracle, A Universe is a thoroughly well-researched and thoughtful contribution to general human rights literature and should be read by anyone with an interest in social movements and human rights activism, not just those with an interest in Latin America.

Considering myself to be a young leftist, I had just read Michael Moore's books "Stupid White Men and Dude, Wheres my country?". Of course this was childs play to real writings and i decided to up myself a level. Being born in Australia of Uruguayan parents and living in Uruguay for a few years I already had some base knowledge on the tortures and dissapearences across Latin-America, this book told me more than I could of ever imagined. It opened my eyes to the reality of the situation and just how much the Brasilian and Uruguayan people had suffered, as well as all those other people who faced horrible fates at the hand of dictatorships. The author is completely nuetral and criticises both sides accordingly. This book was the turning point in my life, having always been one of those people that say, "I cant read books, i get to the 5th page and im bored". Now I read them by the dozen, my thirst for knowledge is unstoppable and i owe it to this book. Upon completion I had many emotions flowing through me, but one true desire overpowered them all...then and there I swore to do everything in my power to end these kind of abuses.

This book reads like a work of journalism. It was good because it explained the economic and social conditions that spawn totalitarian regimes and military takeovers. Very good bibliography if you want to further your study. Good Interviews. Very Thorough and Fair. More than I would have been. Names, Dates, and the history behind the story is always given.

An incredible book that describes a few horrific cultures of dictatorship that will hopefully be forever unrecognizable to people in the United States. The most fascinating parts of the book are the theories of how the dicatorships came to be (the Tupamaros in Uruguay and the backlash of the military, etc.); even more incredible is how the leaders of the respective dictatorships stayed in power out of necessary compromises with the government(some are still in power, which will be difficult to swallow after reading this book). It is, in the end, a hopeful book with a warning: "¡Nunca más!" The book asks "how do you come to terms with those that tortured?" (especially in the incredible situation of passing someone who tortured you in the street, described by someone in the book) Another point the author makes is that there can be forgiveness after such horror, and if there's not there may just be more torture. A very worthwhile read, but not for the squeamish.

Lastly, the book provides a good introduction to a much neglected country: Uruguay. There are very few accounts in English of Uruguay, and this is probably the best I've seen. I have also visited Uruguay; it is a fascinating country and well worth a visit. You get a real appreciation for the friendliness of the people after reading what a lot of them went through during "la dictadura."

This is a magnificent book about a terrible subject. From the sixties through till the mid-Eighties, almost the entire continent of South America fell under the sway, or rather the boot, of military dictatorship. The dictatorships were, without exception but with varying degrees of vigour, active in torturing political prisoners. Weschler does a masterful job in describing the various forces that contributed to the overthrow of democracy throughout the Southern cone (not the least of which was American insistence on training Southern militaries and police forces in counter-insurgency in the hope that Castro's example would not spread further south), but the book's focus is not only the depravities of the two regimes -- Brazil and Uruguay -- but on the efforts of survivors of torture and imprisonment to make their oppressors see and recognise their evils.

The first section, 'A miracle, a universe' recounts the incredible efforts that went into collating and publishing the account Brasil: Nunca Mais (Brazil: Never Again), a book which set forth the policies of systematic torture and denial of due process practiced by Brazil's dictators. The truly remarkable aspect of the work was that all the material was obtained from the regime's own archives, over a period of several years, and at great personal risk to the authors. It's an inspiring story, and one that demonstrates the power of the written word.

The second and longer part of the book, 'The reality of the world', centres of the efforts of a committe in Uruguay to call those accused of torture during the country's decade-plus period of military dictatorship to account. In an effort to hasten reconciliation (or so they claimed), the civilian government declared an amnesty for those imprisoned for subversion under the old regime; later this amnesty was extended to those who tortured their political enemies. A group of concerned citizens began an exhausting referendum campaign to put the second amnesty to a vote. Weschler makes their task as exciting as a Hollywood thriller, without ever losing sight of the horror and tragedy which had been their inspiration. It's a beautifully structured, patient, and gorgeously written piece of work. An afterword makes some more general claims about the need to speak up on the subject of torture. 'The scream that comes welling out of the torture chamber is thus double -- the body calling out to the soul, the self calling out to others -- and in both cases, it goes unanswered. Torture's stark lesson is precisely that enveloping silence: it aims to take that silence and introject it back into its victim, to replace the flame of subjectivity with an abject, hollow void.' It is through reading books like Weschler's, and discussing and acting on his suggestions and the example of those in Brazil and Uruguay and elsewhere, that this silence can be partly drowned out. The book deserves -- indeed, demands -- a wide readership.

When I was in high school it was clearly stated in the West Mesa student handbook that a student's participation in activities (not to be confused with sports) was to be limited to a set number of activities that could not exceed a certain number of points. The idea was clearly to distribute opportunities to students at what was then the largest high school in the state of New Mexico (so large in fact the school was on split session, with juniors and seniors attending from 7 to noon before the afternoon shift showed up). Under these rules a student would not be able to be student body president, co-editor of the newspaper, a member of the national honor society, compete in speech and debate, and so plays. But nobody stopped me even though the points associated with these activities (and others) were worth three times the proscribed limit of points.

From this experience I learned that I could do what I wanted despite the rules. This is a rather dangerous thing for a teenager to learn, but when I went to college I used these guiding principle to take upper division classes my first semester of college. I was able to do this for two reasons. First, I entered college as a sophomore, having taken the general College Level Examination Placement test and having received thirty college credits. Basically you took a test and they compared your scores to the average college sophomore, and if you did above average you got credit. At the first college I attended they would give me credit for specific courses, such as Introduction to Physics, because of my score. This astounded me because I had never even taken high school biology, had not taken a math course since my freshman year (you needed one credit of math to graduate) and could not remember how you multiplied fractions (I must have figured it out). Apparently the average college student was something of an idiot if I could get credit for physics. I took three more specific CLEP tests and had 39 credits without setting foot in a college classroom. The second thing I did was to never see a college advisor. After all, they were the ones who knew the rules and would tell me I could not take the courses I wanted to take (i.e., an early variation on the don't ask/don't tell approach to conflict resolution).

This extended journey down memory lane represents my personal reaction to reading "Misfits in America," which is Lawrence R. Level's first volume in his series, "Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam: A Story of the Last Half of the Twentieth Century." The thesis of the book and the subject of its final chapters has to do with the illegality of the Vietnam War, specifically in terms of constitutionality issues regarding the failure of Congress to declare war and abrogating its detailed responsibilities to the president. However, in a larger sense Velvel is not only explaining why the country is the way that it is and why Vietnam became all that it became, but why his main protagonist, Harry Brontz, is the man the Velvel writes about. It is that last part that inspired deep thoughts regarding my past and I think this volume will inspire others to do the same, especially if they did not go on to law school. I was the only member of my college debating team not to become a lawyer, although I did toy with the notion of going for fun (I was trying to get a teaching job of a university that would allow its professors to attend the law school for free) to study constitutional law. Clearly I ascribed to Oscar Wilde's witticism that, "The study of law is sublime, and its practice vulgar." However, after reading the manifesto of reforms that Dean Velvel enumerates in his message to students at the Massachusetts School of Law, I am willing to rethink my position, although probably not my vocation.

"Misfits in America" constitutes an argument, more than a narrative. Although arranged chronologically overall, Velvel will jump back and forth in time to make a point, rather than to simply tell a story. His personal experiences serve as both the evidence and the rational for his scathing critique on what is wrong with the American legal system, from the hallowed halls of "elite" law schools to the failure of the United States Supreme Court. The latter is particularly damning because Velvel is able to castigate the court from both the liberal and conservative perspectives (former debaters particularly enjoy arguments where you win either way). The evidence for these arguments comes from both the real world and the world of academe, with the personal experiences of the protagonists in the book, Harry Brontz and Lionel Wolfe, who are presented as law school classmates and fraternity brothers at Michigan.

The term "protagonists," used to describe Harry Brontz, Lionel Wolfe and other characters in this book, is important because although this is a memoir you can forget about spending your title Googling their names to find out what these former graduates of the Michigan Law School are up to today (Velvel cites Abraham Lincoln early on as a key role model, but his approach here brings to mind Silence Dogood). Those who are so inclined and who are in a position to do so can do their own annotations as to which school is Midwest State, unmask the various characters, and settle the argument as to who had the highest GPA in the history of Harvard Law School. Such points are moot for me because I am more concerned with what is "real" than what is "true," and Velvel's book rings "real" (perception is key, a point made implicitly but repeatedly in this book). Ultimately I see his position as being more anti-conservative than liberal, a natural consequence of the political system being inherently conservative. That all three branches of government are currently controlled by political conservatives only strengthens the point, although it also means incumbents get to bear the brunt of these attacks. But Velvel had harsh words for just about everybody in Washington, D.C., with the notable exception of William O. Douglas, so I see a plague being called down on all of their branches.

I freely admit that I am focusing more on what Velvel has to say about the causes behind the problems that exist today, and clearly I am playing it out in my own mind on much more of a personal level than on the social. After all, there are two books to go in this series and I expect my thinking to progress to dealing more with effects and solutions as I continue to read. Because of my occupational psychosis I will be thinking more in terms of academia than of legal issues, but dealing with students who act more like consumers and who demand to be entertained as a prerequisite to being educated pretty much forces such issues upon me (fortunately the latter plays to me strength almost as much as the former offends me heart and soul). I know that the Rosie the Riveter experiences of World War II and the creation of the birth control pill were the key causal elements in liberating women in our culture, and Velvel comes up with something equally as important as a paradigm shift in the G.I. Bill. That the legislation was intended to have a big impact on housing for veterans but ended up transforming colleges because of the educational provisions seems obvious, and the fact that such profound changes were unintentional another one of those ironies that confronts you with a choice between deep laughter and bitter tears. The impact of sports and the self-perpetuating machine that are the nation's law schools come into play as well.

Until I reached the final set of chapters, which on balance are considerably shorter than the early ones, I was reading this book a chapter at a time before going to sleep. The reasoning behind this approach was that after reading each chapter I needed to go through a personal dialectic, critiquing Velvel's claims in terms of my own knowledge and experience to come up with how it all makes sense to me. The fact that Velvel refers to Professor Kingsfield from "The Paper Chase" as Professor Kingsbury may well be a pun rather than a typographical error or mistake of recall, but Velvel also quotes one of the most significant philosophers of the 20th century, Lawrence Peter Berra, THREE times in the book, so he comes out ahead in my ledger. Obviously I personalized reading this book more than others, but doing so does not preempt your ability to apply the lessons of "Misfits in America" to current constitutional crises or undeclared wars. It was just how I worked through the arguments and I think there is value for everybody in knowing how they were shaped and molded. Do I still do what I want? Count the number of words in this review (or the number and types of reviews I have posted) and see if that gives it away. Meanwhile, Dean Velvel's latest blog has to do with the current events topic of electronic surveillance, and I bet if you read this book you can hazard a guess as to what he is arguing with regards to that particular issue.

This is an important and also a very enjoyable book. That in itself is a rare combination, and worthy of attention.
As a UK reader with no legal background I was afraid that much of the material might be mysterious or irrelevant to me, but I could not have been more wrong.
Misfits in America is volume 1 of a quartet, but it can be happily read alone. The author has a sharp and amusing style, and never pulls his punches. His take on events of the mid twentieth century is refreshing, absorbing and relevant to modern events, and the language is pitched at the intelligent lay reader, not solely at fellow lawyers. The book deals with subjects important to the conduct of a free democracy - the conduct of law schools abd the legal system, the relations of the legal system and the political system, and especially the legality of wars declared by the President rather than by Congress. This might sound dry (and I am making it sound pompous, when it certainly isn't), but it comes vividly to life and sheds light on subsequent events. The author's reflections on Vietnam have led me to consider and partly revise my views on the Iraq war and Britain's involvement in it, no mean feat!

As I have been reading through 'Misfits in America', I am reminded in certain respects of Amoz Os, the modern Israeli writer, who, upon being criticised for some of the political stances of his characters, pled the defense of the characters being fiction - and therefore, by implication, that the stances would likewise be fictional, not necessarily his own. I get the same sense when reading this, that Velvel is using this fictional tale, drawn from his own experience, his own profession and his own time to critically examine the state of affairs both current and recent past, both in society generally and in the legal/judicial profession specifically.

Velvel's idealism is apparent from the very first page. Drawing from Abraham Lincoln's idea that it isn't good enough to do well for oneself, but rather one must also help fellow humankind, and exploring the less materialistic aspects of what the American Dream should incorporate, Velvel proceeds down a path that really would lead to the proverbial 'city on a hill', with alabaster towers that gleam in the distance. Alas, Velvel is not writing that kind of fiction. His fiction remains close the corridor of the progress of history, and so we see in compelling and interesting situations how the idea of America falls short in different ways, while still maintain the ideal.

Velvel's text in this first volume (originally conceived as part of a trilogy, and later growing to become part of a quartet) starts with the natural genius Harry Brohnz, the kind of guy many students hate to have in a class that is graded on a curve, as he sets the bar too high. Even from this start, we see Velvel's idealism, as it clashes with the idea of standardised tests being used as a label and measure of a person. Brohnz went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the 'Harvard of the Midwest', where he met Lionel Wolfe (who will figure more prominently later in the series), and later went to Harvard for law school, while Wolfe would remain at Ann Arbor. Brohnz walks between the privilege his genius gives him and the discrimination his Jewish identity causes, particularly in the 1950s American culture (perhaps best exemplified by the number of Hollywood personalities who had to change their 'too Jewish' names to more mainstream names to maintain popularity).

Velvel explores different incidents in college, in law school, and in teaching that, while fictional, it is almost certain that the incidents described are true (some read such that one simply can't make this up - Dr. Spiderman, for example, has to based on some true event and/or character) - perhaps simply the names have been changed to protect the innocent (or the not-yet-proven-guilty). Perhaps the heart of this volume of the quartet occurs rather more near the end, as he explores some fundamental inadequacies of the judicial branch of the time. While applauding such actions as Brown vs. Board of Education and other rulings that made the Supreme Court 'a liberal bastion, sometimes the liberal bastion, among the three branches of the federal government,' he still takes the judiciary to task for not stepping up to the responsibilities of being an adequate check/balance to the other branches, particularly the presidency as it embroiled the country ever more thoroughly in the Vietnam conflict. He also is critical in other, lesser known cases - United States v. Kras, for example, which turned on issues of equal access to the federal courts in spite of lack of monetary resources. It is clear the Velvel (through Brohnz) found the ruling abhorrent that Kras did not have a right of access because he lacked the $50 filing fee.

Lawrence Velvel is a great storyteller. Perhaps this is unexpected from an academic in the legal profession (Velvel is Dean and professor of law at the Massachusetts School of Law). This is the kind of book which compels the reader to keep reading; even though the general ebb and flow of history are fairly well known, the details that are presented keep the reader looking for more, and the personalities presented are also very interesting - perhaps even more so at the moment, as the country watches the retirement of and selection of a Supreme Court justice.

Five stars!

It's hard to review an achievement such as Lawrence Velvel's tetrology "Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam" but suffice it to say, the struggles to create a law school"for the people" are portrayed in these books in exquisite detail. This is the first in a series of four books, and by far the best in terms of being a critique of of pretense and the internecine fights in academia. The character of the young law professor who takes on the establishment in a fight to the death is nothing if not thrilling--and this is of course fictionalized, meaning that the truth seeps out from every page.

The accounts are fictionalized, for obvious reasons, but as fiction, this is of course a flop--it's not even a roman a clef. This is a documentation of political infighting, conflicting goals, treachery and unbridled power-grabbing. As a depiction of American politics at any level, corporate, governmental or scholastic, it's a winner. You really have to read the entire series to get the full impact, so I won't review each individually. If you have been to law school, deal with lawyers or professors or if you want insight into political scheming, this is a text of huge merit.

Misfits in America is, at its heart, the author's diagnosis of the perceived ills that defined the second half of the twentieth century in America. I might describe the book as a literary memoir, and it is amazingly engaging. Lawrence Velvel is an extraordinary man in many ways, and his years of experience in the legal profession come through resoundingly in the text of this book. Among other things, Velvel is the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law (which he helped found) - a law school committed to providing a legal education to minorities, working class individuals, and others traditionally excluded from studying law. You might wonder just how engaging a story a legal scholar can tell - but Misfits in America is anything but dull, boring prose. Velvel may be an academic, but he is also a born story-teller who kept me fascinated from start to finish. Even as he uses the story to voice his own social criticism of modern American life and justice, making a few points that I don't personally agree with, I never bristled a single bit.

This book, the first in Velvel's Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam quartet, basically tells us the story of Harry Brohnz, a brilliant thinker with an amazing ability to go right to the heart of every problem, a man who should have had an incredibly successful legal career. Harry, though, was handicapped by a seemingly unconquerable commitment to social justice and a belief that good always prevails through hard work and dedication, that one should work for the benefit of others, and that honesty is always the best policy. These are all wonderful character traits, but they are liabilities for anyone wanting to be truly successful in the perverted legal system of post-World War II America. Things should not be this way, and that is what Velvel's story is really all about. He gives us an incredibly refreshing look at our modern legal system, decrying the elitism of the whole culture (especially law schools), and condemning the outright greed and selfishness that is ingrained into and drives far too many lawyers and judges today.

Misfits in America is also a look at growing up Jewish in mid-twentieth-century America, as the narrator, Harry Brohnz, Lionel Wolfe (who becomes the focus of Trail of Tears, the second book in the quartet), and their fraternity brothers at Michigan all come from Jewish households. The college stories are fascinating, not least because, for this class of extraordinary young men, academic success paled in comparison to winning the inter-fraternity sports championship, and the days were filled more with pranks than learning. Velvel criticizes the university system as a whole for, to some degree, wasting four good years of its students' lives; not only did universities seem not to care about academics, they turned a blind eye to cheating. Much more pointed criticism is directed at the law schools, however, where elitism ran rampant. Every school (except Yale) wanted to be Harvard, and Harvard grads (unless they were Jewish) got all the best jobs. Law school itself did little to prepare its students for actual legal work, instead concentrating on demoralizing students and wringing every remaining drop of social justice and ethics out of their systems. Since Jews were unable to land jobs at major law firms (even if they had a Harvard degree, as Brohnz did), both Brohnz and Wolfe go to work for the Department of Justice - where both idealistic young men are further appalled by the attitude of the government, which was just as likely to trod on individual rights as not.

Brohnz is even further disillusioned after his move to the academic world. Unable to get the job he wanted and impatient to move in the direction of constitutional law, Brohnz joins the faculty at a small, Midwestern law school, hoping to make a difference in the lives of at least some law school students. While there, he becomes increasingly disillusioned with the ongoing war in Vietnam. Believing that Johnson's war was unconstitutional (since Congress alone was given the right to declare war), he begins bringing suits against the government arguing this very point. No matter how brilliant his work, though, he draws little attention - he's battling both the elitism that says professors at small Midwestern law schools don't merit attention and a government that has long ago abandoned the principles it was founded upon. Velvel believes that federal judges ignored their constitutional duty during the Vietnam conflict, and that argument forms the crux of this book.

This is both a tragic and hopeful book. Velvel makes no secret of the fact that he believes federal judges continue to ignore their constitutional duties, that the whole legal system is afflicted with elitism of the worst sort, and that America as a society has lost its way over the course of the last half-century. Harry Brohnz, never able to shake his belief in social justice, ultimately comes to believe that most people can always be counted upon to do the wrong thing. Still, he never gives up his ideals, never sells his soul, never stops trying to do the right thing himself. Velvel himself basically calls out those who have perverted the ideals of the American Dream - judges, politicians, academics - and shows how their betrayal of ethics has spread to society itself in the form of business scandals, a loss of faith and trust in the government, etc. Misfits in America is a truly powerful book that challenges all of us, especially those in law and politics, to do whatever we can to insure that the American Dream is not lost to us forever. You will find much more than an inside look at the legal profession in these pages; you will gain insight into the very fabric of modern American society.

This is an excellent translation that reads like a smooth novel.

The thing that attracted me to this particular version of the Odyssey by Homer was obviously the translation by T.E. Lawrence (i.e.: T.E Shaw) - yes that Lawrence of Arabia. Apparently he carried a worn copy around for four years on his person and eventually produced this translation of the famous epic adventure. According to various Odyssy scholars this 1930 period translation remains important: "for it was the first translation which succeeded in offering both the spirit and the narrative of the Greek original".

There are a number of things about the book worth noting. The first is the introduction by Lawrence to his work. It is just a four page introduction but it makes one nervous since his writing seems to be in the William F. Buckley style where writers use complicated phrases and words to impress the reader or entertain themselves but make the whole reading experience somewhat opaque. But fortunately that disappears in the translation itself.

The translation is clear and highly readable like a Tom Clancy or Jack London novel or similar. The words just flow along and the 400 pages quickly pass by. It is an interesting and entertaining story and this translation is well executed.

Not being a Greek scholar or similar I found the first 10 pages or so slow going since I was not familiar with all the different Gods - such as Zeuss, Poseidon, etc and how these all came into play. But once that is absorbed, the story is like any other novel - but here of course the ancient tale of the trip by Odysseus home to Ithaca after battles in Troy, and his son Telemachus and his wife Penelope who stayed in Ithaca. It is the epic story of fights with Cyclops, the Goddess Athene, daring sea voyages, great feasts, singing, and many close calls with death.

A superb story that has lasted through the ages.
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This was my first attempt at Homer and I have to say, Mr. Lawrence's translation worked for me.

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) is an interesting person by his own right, and as the Introduction alludes to, we get his 'voice of experience' atop Homer's sublime poetry. If there is such a phenomena as 'Two birds with one stone,' this would have to be a good candidate for demonstrating same.

I am convinced by my own experience (as out of favor as it may be), that study of the Classics can be a Life Enhancing, and this book was essentially my first foray into this Truism.

Hope you find this review helpful.

T.E. Lawrence (the English officer who brought together the various peoples of the Arabian peninsula against the Ottoman Empire during World War I; better known as Lawrence of Arabia) called the epic poem "The Odyssey" by the Greek poet Homer "the oldest book worth reading for its story, and the first novel of Europe". The tale of King Odysseus, struggling to return to his home of Ithaca and his family after the Trojan War, is one on par with the finest of contemporary fantasy. Combining as it does a sprawling saga of a ten-year adventure with such fabulous creatures as the Cyclops Polyphemus, the hideous man-devouring Scylla, and the lethally-alluring Sirens with many of the gods of the ancient Greek pantheon (Athene, Poseidon, Calypso, Hermes, and others besides), one can even today marvel at its author's imagination and ingenuity. Then too there is the rich humanity of its mortal characters; the cunning Odysseus, his virtuous wife Penelope, his stalwart son Telemachus, the boorish suitors of Penelope, Eurymachus and Antinous, the august king Menelaus, and a great many more. It is a heady mixture. Lawrence's prose translation is written with a lyrical, romantic deftness. It harkens back to the high epic stories of Sir Walter Scott. But Lawrence never minimizes the sometimes brutal craftiness of Odysseus, nor his casual unfaithfulness to his wife, nor yet his still tender yearning for her and his son. And Lawrence glories in the ancient Greek tradition of "manly tales, manfully told", both in the novel itself and in Odysseus's recounting of his journey to his benefactors. Here indeed is a true flavor of those olden times. As wild and magnificent today as it was 2,500 years ago, "The Odyssey", in whatever form it takes, is still a story by which all other tales of fantastic adventure can be measured.

I have read the Odyssey several times in several translations, and this one, by the famed "Lawrence of Arabia" is the best of them all. No other translation that I have read makes this classic more readable and more enjoyable. Some translations plod, and obscure the excitement of the original, this one turns it into a real page-turner. If you've never read Homer and wonder which of the many translations to read, this is the one; I can recommend no other to introduce "newbies" to the classic world of epic fantasy and adventure.

I hesitated in buying this translation of the Odyssey having grown up with verse translations, most notably that of Fitzgerald. A prose translation somehow put me off; it seemed like the very meaning of Homer's words would be rendered into something different. One day, I read about the translation that T. E. Lawrence had made and, intrigued, I decided to read it for myself. I was very glad that I did.

Lawrence made his translation with an eye for the details and color of the text. He claimed that his experiences in the war in Arabia helped him to understand the writer of the Odyssey, and I think this did aid him in his approach to his translation. The introduction to this printing of Lawrence's translation provides an interesting comparison to another widely used prose rendering of the Odyssey, and one can instantly discover how much more vivid and faithful Lawrence is to the original. So, Lawrence's Odyssey is a translation I will return to in my future reading of this classic tale.

I have this deck and i'm just starting to use it. At first, the simple cards, just with the letters elegantly drawn, didn't seem to me very interesting. I bought it mostly for the book, which IS wonderful (i don't regret the money spent on it at all)!

Then...it started calling me. The gentle simplicity of the cards attracted me, the way the cards are small (at least in the brazilian version), i can handle them perfectly. I've been putting them under my pillow when i go to sleep - not that it has been giving me any big revelation dreams, no yet, but it feels...comfortable.
As i said, i've just started using it, but i feel that i get very insightful answers in the book whenever i draw a card. Even if apparently doesn't make sense first, later i realize what exactly the letter wants to tell me.

I think many of people might not feel atracted to this oracle because of apparently 'empty' the cards. Don't do this. It's a wonderful deck, in it's own way. When reading it, since the card shows only the letter and a few numbers, i don't find myself projecting upon it anything. I let the letter take me where i'm supposed to go - it tells me a story, then it listens to me. Feels like an old friend sometimes.

My experiences with this oracle are, so far, really great. I really recommend it to anyone studying the Kabbalah, the Jewish mysticism, culture and religion, the Hebrew Alphabet etc. It brings together things from different cultures and religions (like Zen and Mayan) but in a balanced way. Like the author himself said, it's no "new-age mish mash".

The Oracle of Kabbalah gives the reader an appreciation of the depth and richness of the Hebrew language. Richard Seidman gives you a guide into the mystical capacity of meditating on, and interpreting the Hebrew language. This is a journey into your mystical and spiritual capacity as you connect with the language of the Divine. The symbols are richly provided with both detailed information on the Hebrew language and its Kabbalistic interpretation. I suggest to my students to use the cards as both meditation and to delve into their current state of consciousness. Not just a divination tool but a tool to develop our own connection to the One.

Richard Seidman's Oracle of the Kabbalah is a gift for those seeking to apply traditional wisdom to their everyday lives. The ancient meanings of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are presented along with inspirational discussions that run the gamut from the humorous to the profound and draw on other wisdom traditions. The author's personal reflections help anchor the teachings to our common experiences.

Rabbi Kushner's foward and the author's introduction ground one in the history and application of these mystical letters. The book and its companion set of cards are very user friendly, providing one with an insightful and welcome perspective when seeking direction.

I'm grateful to Richard Seidman for providing me with both a compassionate form of guidance and a readily accessible introduction to these sacred letters. This is a book that I'll refer to again and again.

Usually people don't think of Jews as being mystics, but many of us are. Jewish mysticism is different from New Age mystricism in that Jewish mysticism is grounded in text -- and letters. From there, it takes flight. This book is a good start for Jews and non-Jews alike, especially if you have trouble with the conventional idea of Big-Guy-in-the-Sky God. If the idea of hidden depths in Hebrew letters intrigues you, also take a look at Larry Kushner's "The Book of Letters" ....

If you are interested in learning Hebrew letters,this is a great tool. I would recommend that you purchase this "New" rather than used.I purchased a used one and ended up with just the book and no cards.It was worth ordering again, as I use the cards as flash cards on a daily basis..Plus,the meanings are insightful.

Are the father-centered family, private property, and the state necessary and inevitable part of all human societies?
Frederick Engels, coworker of Karl Marx, says no. Engels demonstrates that these three institutions arose in the fairly recent history of the human race, as a way to establish the rule of the many over the few. And, conversley, when these institutions are an obstacle to human progress, they can be dismantled.
Although this book was written about 125 years ago, the subject matter and his point of view sound surprisingly modern. Evelyn Reed, a Marxist anthropologist, writes a 1972 introduction that updates the original work from the point of view of 20th century anthropology debates abd the rise of modern women's movement. An additional short article by Engels, "The part played by labor in the transition from ape to man" is a lively piece that could be part of today's debates on human origin with almost no hint of its vintage (except maybe for his use of the term "man", instead of gender-neutral "humanity").

Marx and Engels made a fundamentally wrong guess about the nature of human beings. But it is very important to understand their line of reasoning, because they developed quite a few critical insights along the way. Due to political charge associated with their teachings it is practically impossible to find suitable third party narrative of their works. So, the only way to enlighten yourself is to dig right down into originals.

This is a serious, scientific and materialist analysis of development and change in human society and its institutions. Frederick Engels, who along with Karl Marx was one of the central founders of the modern communist movement, wrote this book in the late 1800s based on the latest developments in the then-new science of anthropology. Studying it can help us understand society and be better prepared to organize and work to change it.

Engels takes up the rise of the state and of the family and the oppression of women as early societies became more productive, making possible the division of groups of human beings into those who produce and those who live off them, and the need of the exploiters to perpetuate this state of affairs.

The Pathfinder Press edition also has a valuable introduction by Evelyn Reed, long-time socialist activist and author of works including "Woman's Evolution," "Sexism and Science," "Cosmetics, Fashion and the Exploitation of Women," and "Problems of Women's Liberation."

Why is society so cruel? It seems to be self-defeating. Why doesn't the war of the sexes ever end? In no other species do the two sexes battle against each other.

In this book we learn that things weren't always this way. In fact, oppression and exploitation are recent inventions, if we count that human history dates back EIGHTY thousand years since the rise of homo sapiens sapiens. At one point most cultures suddenly became sedentary and agriculturalist - and private property in the land emerged. Private property of land resulted in an overthrow of the matriarchal family by its male members and in the establishment of a separate group of men who violently protect unequal relationships (the state as we know it today). All happened together in a revolution that occurred in the course of just a few generations some SIX thousand years ago.

Nonetheless, the moral of this story is one of hope. If we were capable of remaking ourselves once, and based on that have advanced dramatically in a limited sense of creating material culture, then humankind can remake itself again and found a culture that enriches all aspects of everyone's lives. But this time the redesign will have to be conscious and conscientious, the beginning of a humane human history in which all participate on an equal basis. Such is the future that socialism and communism promise for us.

As a companion to this volume, be sure to read Women's Evolution, by Reed. Written a century later, it shows that anthropology's evidence overwhelmingly coincides with the theory Engels put forward in this book.

Was human society always overseen by a military and police force?
Was wealth and the means of producing more wealth always the private possession of individuals or a small section of society?
Were women always at the bottom of society, treated primarily as sex objects and machines for child-bearing and child-raising?

And is this humanity's destiny?
In this book published in 1884, Fredrich Engels answers the above questions in the negative. His book is based on anthropological data available in his day from societies around the globe. New discoveries since have confirmed his conclusions and the book is remarkably relevant today.

Most college kids in the 70's were force-fed RICHARD HOFSTADTER's book, The Age of Reform, which ridiculed populism.
But having grown up the son of a immigrant farm boy and county agent, my view of the midwestern populism and farm culture was much much different.

So Goodwyn's book was a welcome documentation of what I had known all along--that populism was a uniquely American movement, and the spirit of the frontier was never rugged individualism, but community.

The Farmer-Laborer Alliances of the late 19th Century, and the People's Party that resulted, always referred to their reform movement as 'cooperation', and quoted Thomas Jefferson, and the founding fathers. In this context, populism was uniquely American. It was a struggle between democratic capitalism vs. speculative and monopoly capitalism.

Real populism was about creating cooperative systems to consolidate farmer's economic power in competition with the railroads and the banks. It was the alternative to the disasterous crop-lien system of the rural south that turned so many of Jefferson's yoeman farmers into destitute sharecroppers, that forced them out of their homes to settle the western plains.

Goodwyn's book debunks the idea the William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech was the defining highpoint of populism, when in fact it was it's destruction. Goodwyn points out that free silver was never more then a shadow movement of an immensely popular political movement.

Goodwyn also debunks the later-day revisionists like Michael Kazin's book, author of The Populist Persuasion, that populism was a style of rhetoric than a coherent set of political ideas or reforms.

While the People's Party was co-opted and destroyed by the Democrat Party, most of the reforms advocated by the populists came to pass in the 1930's with the agricultural reforms of the 1930's. Things like the rural electrification, the regulation of the railroads, the Farm Credit Administration, and the federal reserve all grew out the original populist ideas. Because of the populist complaints, eventually government intervention in the grain and other food commodies marketplace was recognized as the means of democraticizing and strengthing the market system, stablizing the food supply, and strengthening the market system.

But most importantly, the dignity of the common man against the rich and powerful urban elite entered American political discourse.

This is an important book, and a welcome understanding of perhaps the most successful movement by common folks to control their own destiny.

Obviously influenced by the New Social history and the Sixties' social movements, Lawrence Goodwyn attempts a major reinterpretation of the Populist movement in The Populist Moment, an abridged version of his epic Democratic Promise: The Populist Movement in America. Although Goodwyn's main project is a redefinition of Populism and stress on the movement's culture, he also provides a theory for social action that serves as the narrative structure for his history and a useful philosophy in itself. Placing the origins of Populism in Texas and conceptualizing the Farmers' Alliance as the movement's ideological core, Goodwyn's analysis marginalizes the Fusionists and Free Silverites, providing a powerful reinterpretation and the main strength of the book. However, by stressing these aspects of the movement, Goodwyn fails to take in the whole of Populism in all its disparate manifestations.

Before proceeding to the history of Populism, Goodwyn begins his book by introducing his "sequential process of democratic movement-building:" forming, recruiting, educating, and politicizing. (xviii) It is this theory of building and maintaining a movement culture, which provides the outline for Goodwyn's history. For Goodwyn, the movement successfully formed, recruited, and educated a large body of supporters. However, in politicizing, the movement failed to maintain its educational program and cooperative institutions, thereby opening the way for Silverites and Fusionists while losing its movement culture that attracted and held the base supporters.

Throughout the book Goodwyn centers Populism in the Farmers' Alliance of Texas and sees Charles Macune and William Lamb as the movement's unofficial leaders. In response to increasing poverty, drastically reduced farm prices, and, most importantly, the centralization of power and resources, the Farmers' Alliance sprung forth from communities in central Texas as a way for tenants, sharecroppers, and small farmers to educate themselves about politics, economics, and agriculture. Building membership and loyalty through cooperatives stores and the joint marketing of crops, the Alliance expanded across the South and Midwest through a phalanx of itinerant lecturers spreading the group's message. As their cooperatives fell victim to the ongoing economic recession, Charles Macune developed a federal sub-treasury plan that would create a fiat currency for farmers, essentially issuing greenbacks as loans backed by the harvest. While the sub-treasury never came to fruition, Goodwyn defines true Populists as unaligned supporters of the plan and members of the Farmers' Alliance. Consequently for Goodwyn, everyone else falls under the 'shadow' movement of Silverites and Fusionists. With this conception of Populism, Goodwyn locates the movement's demise not in the failure of Bryan's campaign, but in the People's Party support of the free silver Democratic ticket.

Goodwyn attempts a major reinterpretation of the Populist movement and largely succeeds by marginalizing the 'shadow' movement. Furthermore, his detailed analysis of Populism's development posits a truly democratic movement of common folk united by a shared set of concerns. By tying the rise and fall of Populism to his movement theory, Goodwyn provides a tremendously useful framework for understanding the broad implications, successes, and failures of the movement. While his reinterpretation can not be overemphasized, his book falls short by not paying more attention to the 'shadow' movement in the West and Midwest. The 'shadow' movement of free silver and fusion was an important and influential component of Populism; by not giving it attention, Goodwyn tells only half the story. Finally, Goodwyn's analysis of Populism could have benefited from talking more about race. Despite the connection with the Colored Farmers' Alliance, at its heart, Populism was based on white supremacy, deeply problematizing Goodwyn's eulogy of Populism as the last truly democratic American social movement.

Seldom in our nation's history have there been widespread, grass-roots challenges to the economic and political system. According to the author, the agrarian movement of the late 1880s, otherwise known as Populism, was in fact the last such great challenge. Beyond the history of the movement, the author is much concerned with the implications for future democratic movements.

The small farmers in western Texas in the 1880s recognized that the economic cards were stacked against them. The crop lien system and the "furnishing" merchant, the exorbitant prices paid for goods combined with low prices paid for cash crops, and the price gouging of railroads - all of these inspired some farmers to begin forming local alliances that would try to use cooperative methods to bypass those powerful interests that placed farmers in economic thralldom. Lecturers that spread across the South, and even westward and northward, drew upon close-knit farming community ties to eventually establish some 40,000 "sub-alliances" involving two million people, all finally part of a National Farmers Alliance. Through local trade stores, warehouses, and state exchanges, these sub-alliances attempted to buy and sell in bulk. But these efforts met with varying and limited success. Banking interests, grain elevator operators, and stockyards, among others, refused to deal with these farming groups, to accept their notes based on their cash crops and land.

It is hardly surprising, given their radical critique of economic interests, that agrarian organizers would turn to political action to seek redress for farmer grievances. Yet the turn to politics was a highly complicating development for agrarian reform. The agrarian platform was highly radical for the times involving such issues as land reform, labor rights, government ownership and control of transportation and communication, and banking and currency reform with the elimination of the gold standard. But the hold of generational allegiances to the Democratic and Republican parties prevented many farmers from shifting to independent politics despite the fact that their traditional parties were resolutely opposed to many of the farmers' measures. Attempts at reform through the traditional parties were met by cooptation and demagoguery.

The People's Party was formed at Omaha in July, 1892. The party's platform was the agrarian platform containing not only the National Alliance's sub-treasury plan, which was a plan for the issuance of greenbacks, but also calling for the free coinage of silver, both planks having the effect of increasing the money supply. Electoral success was limited. The Democratic Party through coopting of the silver issue and flagrant electoral fraud was able to defeat the Populists throughout the South, where they had their greatest support. In 1896 the People's Party through pre-convention intrigue actually nominated a staunch silver Democrat, William Jennings Bryan, for president, thus essentially ending the Populist movement. According to the author, Populism had become a "shadow" movement, a mere shell of its former orientation.

For the author, democratic mass movements that take issue with core aspects of society face almost insurmountable odds. In the first place, there are the assumptions that the "system" works, that the system contains mechanisms for continual progress and for overcoming problems. In fact, there exists an entire school of thought among historians that contends that the Populists were cranks unwilling to accept social progress and sought only to maintain an antiquated way of life. That school of thought is most closely associated with historian Richard Hofstadter. However, the author finds that the Populists' grievances were real enough while admitting the difficulties of overcoming the received culture. In addition, the author contends that the hierarchical nature of social structures and the accompanying deferential behavior make independent thought and action exceedingly difficult.

Genuine mass movements cannot be top-down driven. The formation of a mass movement that can achieve political viability must proceed from the ground up. Key to any such movement is the establishment of an independent institution that through the participation of its members develops an ideology and strategy that counters prevailing authority. The counter organization must educate and recruit new adherents. The agrarian movement was based on the sub-alliances and their cooperative ventures and achieved extensive recruitment and education through a lecturing system. The politicization step is often difficult to take and sustain because member activism takes on an indirect element in that it is geared to electoral success allowing party elites to then fully engage in the governmental process. Populism was ultimately unable to successfully take the political step.

The author suggests that the failures of Populism essentially defined the boundaries of the possible in fundamentally changing basic structures of American culture. First Progressivism and then liberalism all operated on a basis of incremental reform. In other words, the system works. The policies forming the Federal Reserve, allowing the constant rise of farm tenantry, and permitting the continued centralization and rise in influence of corporations all rejected or minimized the scope of the Populist program.

This book is a short form of the author's complete work, "The Democratic Promise." At times the book takes on the feel of an overview. For example, it would have been interesting to see far more details concerning the actually workings of the various cooperative efforts at the sub-alliance level. And following the twin threads of the Alliance and the People's Party across many states and conventions over a ten year period can be a little sketchy.

The author's insights into forming mass democratic movements and mounting cultural challenges are outstanding. Those insights add to the understanding of Populism. It should give anyone pause when considering the ability of modern movements to impact the status quo.

I was moved, impressed, and inspired by this book. There are a couple of other reviews that do excellent jobs of summarizing, so I will try to limit my ten pages of notes to a few highlights, and some other books that I believe can help the 3 out of 5 Americans that want "none of those now running." The Republican and Democratic parties have sold out (this is best documented in Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It) and it is time we restored the Constitution and demanded Electoral Reform to restore We the People as sovereign.

Written in 1978, this book could not have come to me, and others in the transpartisan movement, at a better time.

The author opens with very helpful overviews of how a mass culture, a mass indoctrination, if you will, is a much cheaper and easier way to keep the mass docile, than a forced or fascist solution. He reminds me of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.

He then moves to the manner in which industrialization eroded democracy, making it a poor facade. I am reminded of Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System

He then stresses how in a damaged or constrained democracy, public resignation and private escapism are the dominant features of the mass public.

He then moves into an overview of the agrarian-based populist movement that was crushed by the railroads, Pinkerton's as an illegal army, and the banks, with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 being the consummation of the banking victory over the people.

He notes that mass protest requires a higher order of culture, education, and achievement, especially in harmonization of disparate nodes. He identifies four steps within which the third is clearly of vital importance:

1. Autonomous institution emerges as a hub
2. Recruiting of masses takes place
3. Educating of masses takes place (40,000 "lecturers")
4. Politicization of the masses actualizes their power to good effect.

The author does a superb job of stressing the importance of internal communication, and says that IF this can be achieved, THEN a new plateau of social responsibility is possible. He calls this plateau of cooperative and democratic conduct "the movement culture."

The populists achieved a "sense of somebodyness." I am reminded of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Bk Currents) as well as Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People.

He examines the Civil War and concludes that it changed everything--it fragmented the nation into sectarian, religious, and racial prejudices. Latter in the book he examines the pernicious effects of white supremacy, which ultimately undid the potential collaboration among poor whites, poor blacks, and poor Catholics factory workers in the Northeast.

The populists tried to break free of the railroads and banks that conspired to keep them in debt forever. Among their brilliant leaders, one stood out, conceptualizing both a large scale credit cooperative (i.e. public ownership of the essentials of society including food, water, energy, and communications), and a sub-treasury that would ensure that natural resources were applied to the needs of the people and not to squatter or absentee landlords.

The seven "demands" of the populists, ultimately crushed by the banks:

1) Abolishment of banks, issuance of government tender
2) Government ownership of the means of communication & transportation
3) Prohibition of alien ownership of USA land
4) Free and unlimited coinage in silver
5) Equitable taxation among classes
6) Fractional paper currency
7) Government economy

The populists opposed "organized capital", emphasized living issues over dead or archaic contracts, and tried to establish their own newspapers because they understood that the mainstream media had been co-opted by the railroads and the banks.

The following quote on page 168, from the year 1892, is eerily relevant to today:

"The people are demoralized. ...The newspapers are subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrate; our homes covered with mortgages; labor impoverished; and the land concentrated in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down our own wages; a hireling standing army (Pinkerton's), unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down; and they are rapidly disintegrating to European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes, unprecedented, while their possessors despise the republic and endanger liberty."

Wow. I am reminded of virtually every book I have read in the past four years on unilateral militarism, virtual colonialism, and predatory immoral capitalism. Just a couple can be mentioned here:

The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back
The Working Poor: Invisible in America

The author draws the book to a close by observing four trends that spelled the demise of the populist movement:

1. Banishment of "financial issue" from public debate
2. Corporate mergers (and one could add, corporate "personality")
3. Decline of public participation in democracy
4. Corporate domination of mass communications

He identifies three persistent flaws in the existing American economy:

1. Land ownership permitting alien, absentee, and predatory landlords
2. Basic financial structure that imposes debt rather than credit
3. Corporate centralization

He stresses that populism is not socialism, but rather a democratic promise emergent. He is optemistic that lessons from the populist failure could be used by farmers, laborers, and others to do a mass insurgency, to "work together to be free individually."

If we are to defeat the current corrupt Republican and Democratic parties, we must do so in a transpartisan fashion: a third party must be based on the disaffected from both of the corrupt "main parties" while attracting back to the debate and the electoral process the lapsed voters and the new voters. I think we can do that for 2008.

In a very thorough manner, Mr. Goodwyn covers the history of the populist movement thru its years as the farmers' alliance and the Peoples' Party! The leading people, the main party newspapers,the conventions, experiments and actions of this great movement are covered in this excellent book! Put this powerfully written book next to the classics by Hicks and McMath! A must have!

If you want get the most accurate information that fit with your daily real critical care practice, with the most clear explanation of each critical care disease...it is your book. It won't tell you more or less information that you need.

probabily the best critical txtbook of the last 3-4 yrs better than fink( only a source of review). I prefer the parrillo book for the practical point of view (waiting for a new edts)but probably is only a personal opinion.
Very interesting and well done the surgical critical care pts.

I know this book from my residency years,when I rotate in ICU,
and this book is an authority in the critical care specialty.
Clear and update,the Best.

This text is clearly one of the best in its field. It is well organized and very thorough. The organization and attention to detail make it a great referrence source and an easy read. It should be in anyone's library that takes of critically ill patients. I would highly recommend it for fellows in critical care medicine. The "Pretest" question and answer study guide that is a companion to this text is also excellent and a great tool for the critical care boards. I am anxiously awaiting the next edition.

This is an excellent review of the most common problems found in the clinical practice of Critical Care. It helps with the initial assessment of the patient and formulates a systematic approach to the differential diagnosis and therapeutic plan. The bibliography is updated and it has detailed illustrations and diagrams. Certainly, recommended as reference for those persons involved in the management of Critical Care patients.

I prefer this text to those in the anthologies primarily because the notes are on the same page as the text. I don't think the background to the play via the introduction is quite as thorough as it could be - the Oxford being more complete I think in that regard - but his notes are helpful and his history of production, though short, is revealing. I tend to side with those that attribute this play to Middleton, but who knows? The play itself is a wonderful mixture of the melodramatic revenge plot with a quite comic over-view of the world in which it takes place.

PreShakespeare, but a lot of fun to read! I enjoyed it very much--- has to do with a man who is carrying around a murdered girlfriend for almost ten years-- he is planning revenge on the king...

This dark tragi-comedy resonates with the dramatic potential of Hamlet, but and edge particular to Jacobean Drama. A play which is still relevant today (many students related it to "The Godfather"), and brimming with cinematic violence, lust, deception, vengence, and, with all this, communicated through beautiful poetry.

Brian Gibbons, editor of the New Mermaids second edition (1991), describes The Revenger's Tragedy (1607) as a minor masterpiece. Judged against contemporaneous revenge plays like Hamlet and King Lear (and even Titus Andronicus), the term 'minor' certainly does not imply inferior. Minor or not, I agree with the four previous reviewers: The Revenger's Tragedy deserves five stars. Also, it is much easier reading than most Elizabethan and Jacobean plays.

Despite its title, The Revenger's Tragedy is no more bloody than Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (fifteen years earlier) and it is certainly not as insanely gruesome and brutal as Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1594). No dismemberments and no cannibalism. Bloody, yes. But not excessively so.

Nonetheless, we learn of a murder, a rape leading to a suicide, and yet another aggressive seduction (or rape, if need be) that is in the planning stage. So ends Act 1. Revenge and mayhem follow.

The plot is not unduly complex. Vindice desires revenge for the poisoning death of his betrothed, Gloriana, by the lustful, aging Duke. Vindice also indirectly blames the Duke for his father's death, though "he died of discontent, the nobleman's consumption". Vindice is perhaps obsessive; he has retained Gloriana's skull and sometimes speaks directly to her.

In disguise he provokes discord between his enemies and leads them to plot against each other. (This ruse reminds me of Malevole's subterfuge in John Marston's play, The Malcontent.) A poisoned skull, a mistaken execution, and a murderous banquet highlight the later acts. The play concludes with an ironic twist, possibly added as a moral lesson, or simply to surprise the audience.

Hats off to either Cyril Tourneur or Thomas Middleton, or whoever may have authored this fascinating revenge play.

Update July, 2007: I recently encountered reference to this lesser known play in a murder mystery. Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972, wrote sophisticated mysteries under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s. Thou Shell of Death (1936) is a revenge murder patterned on The Revenger's Tragedy. In the first scene Vindice speaking to the skull of his dead mistress says: "My study's ornament, thou shell of death, Once the bright face of my betrothed lady ...."

OK. The jury has more or less decided that "The Revenger's Tragedy" is not by Cyril Tourneur after all, but by Thomas Middleton. This is on strictly scholarly grounds. Either way, it scarcely matters, as this play is strictly sui generis. It's like nothing else either Tourneur or Middleton ever wrote.

The best way to think of it is as standing in a relation to the classic Jacobean and Elizabethan tragedies of Kyd, Shakespeare, Webster and Middleton sort of like the way Quentin Tarantino's early films stand in relation to previous Hollywood classics. Whoever wrote this, they were Taking The P*ss. The play starts in next-to-top gear, and accelerates into warp speed fairly quickly. Few other plays of the era (this is roughly contemporaneous with "King Lear", to give you an idea) are so ruthlessly efficient. The basic plot is put in motion by two brothers, Vindice and Hippolito, who are a bit cheesed off because the egregious Duke (of wherever) killed Vindice's wife cause she wouldn't put out. From here proceeds a bizarre and increasingly unlikely series of revenges, climaxing in a frankly chortlesome mass slaying. Vindice is the juiciest role - a bit like Shakespeare's Richard III, he guides the audience through the action, but with far greater economy and far less wrangling of conscience, not that Crookback Dick is noted for his remorse.

By the end, the stage is littered with bodies, and Vindice and Hippolito cheerfully go off to execution, with barely a qualm in sight. This is truly the most cynical and the funniest of all Jacobean tragedies. Whoever wrote it, be it Cyril or Tom, was thinking along the same lines Howard Hawks was on when he (Hawks) turned "Rio Bravo" from a Western into a chamber comedy. It's all thoroughly reprehensible, and great fun. You want depth, try John Webster.

There aren't many four-hundred-year-old plays that I laugh aloud at whilst reading, but this is one of them. Pace the opinion below, it couldn't have less to do with Jonson's careful layering of reality if it tried. It's a brisk, bleak, savage cartoon. Full marks, whoever you were.

Self Coached Runner by Allan Lawrence, Mark Scheid. Excellent book. Purchased orginally in the 80's and loaned it out. Glad I could find again on Amazon.com

After trying several books on training, I always come back to this one. Not at all dated but I just wish Al could bring it back into print. This book took me to a 3:18 first marathon and a 29 minute PR a year later. The author is now one of the top prep coaches in Houston.

This is a book with a series of planned distance runner workouts
to get you in shape for the time you want to run. If you want to run a 40 minute 10K or a 34 minute 10K, the author has got the workouts for 7 days a week that run for months until you are ready to peak. Lots of track workouts, tempo and distance runs. I got in great shape following the workouts for my goal; however, the workouts are tough. I used to do the workouts for a goal a minute slower than my true goal because the workouts were a little too tough. I think the workouts set for specific times were really keyed to make you faster than the time you were training for. If you want to have a planed training program and run your optimum, this is it.

I have used this book to enhance my training for 5k to the Marathon. It is easy to use and makes a lot of sense. I have also had the pleasure of getting additional help from Al in person. He is my idea of what a coach should be.

No matter how much experience you have as a runner, this guide can help you achieve any goal. It is too bad it is out of print; my copy has swelled with rain water from sitting at trackside, been stepped on coming back from workouts, and generally seen more mileage than any of my shoes. Now, if only it would come back into print, I could replace it. The book outlines workout schedules, means to recover from injury, and nearly any other information you might need.