Pitt Books

This biography dates from 1976 and leans noticeably towards a psychological profile of the William Pitt. Pitt is portrayed as a manic-depressive, who spent many years in the political wilderness of opposition in the British House of Commons, being anathema to King George II (and later George III). The book gives credit to his oratory, his ability to make life almost impossible for those, in power, who he opposed. Pitt became part of the government (`The Ministry') during the Seven Years War, and was seen as driving the most successful phase of that war - The conquering of French-Canada, India, West Africa.
Alying is at his most effective when dealing with Pitt and his family. Pitt's grandfather Thomas was a thunderous influence, Pitt's relationship with his elder brother and the various of his sisters was intense, emotional and volatile. The various family connections to the Grenvilles and how this played out in the politics of the day are very clearly illustrated.
There are two areas of difficulty for this reader - one is the basic problem on English Aristocracy, when someone of the characters becomes a Lord. In the text a key player (e.g. Sir Richard Grenville, becomes Lord Temple, John Chateret an early
adversary of Pitts becomes Lord Granville, William Murray becomes Lord Mansfield). It becomes hugely confusing when these people are initially established by their common names to have them change midway into their titles.
The other major problem I had with the text is that it does not give a flavour of the vast effort put into the resourcing of the armed forces in Britain at the time. There are references to the difficulty in raising money and manpower, but the sheer effort involved in keeping the war underway was phenomenal - better books in this regard are `The Bells of Victory' by Richard Middelton and `The Sinews of War' by John Brewer. The main implication of this fault is that it lends too much credence to the `great man' theory ie. that Pitt's superhuman energy alone, shifted the country from lassitude to almost unconditional victory, and as a corollary that Pitt was surrounded by weak-minded ministers who ultimately concluded an unsatisfactory peace. The Duke of Newcastle is the chief victim of the flip side of this `great man' emphasis.
Perhaps as a consequence of this the absolute public outrage which is associated with Pitt's initial acceptance of the previously corrupt post of Paymaster General , and later with his acceptance of his pension and peerage, is underplayed. Pitt spent many years in opposition, deriding the corruption involved in government, for this he was the Whig most admired by Tories, also he was admired by small traders and `the public', their disappointment was therefore most intense when he was seen to abandon his principle.

The book does well on Pitts personal life - he was irritable and irritating, unable to form close friendships, though his seems devoted to his wife and children.
He was frequently in physical pain through gout, and the book lends a lot of credence to the manic-depressive theory of the stages of his life. He is portrayed as a close friend of America, both during its struggle with French Canada and later, with English taxation, which ultimately lead to the Revolution. More detail on this aspect can be found in Fred Anderson's magnificent `The Crucible of War'.

Overall then I think the book is a good read, suffers from too psychological an analysis of Pitt's character and gives insufficient weight to the interaction of other characters within the British administration of the day.

I picked up this out-of-print 1961 work in a local used bookstore thinking that I would get a more rational and honest examination of faith healing from Pitts, a levelheaded and educated Presbyterian minister, than I would from TV's barking-mad charismatic clowns like Hagen, Hinn, Popoff, Copeland, et al. And I wasn't disappointed.

Pitts' contention, even though he was still in a wheelchair at the time he wrote this book, was that faith healing is real. He is humble enough to say that he doesn't know how exactly it works, and he admits that it fails more times than it succeeds, and sometimes fails for the believer (like himself) and works for the nonbeliever, but from his own experience and observation he believes that it is a real phenomena, especially when used in conjunction with spiritual healing (i.e. repentance) and traditional medicine.

Pitts begins by examining primitive man's beliefs about illness- that it was an unnatural curse brought on by malevolent demons or gods- and shows how man reacted to that belief by developing the practices of religion and magic. Although there is a similar origin, Pitts does an excellent job contrasting the two and showing how the preeminent faith healer of his day, Oral Roberts, was really practicing a form of superstitious primitive magic, rather than true Christian faith. Religion is self-abasing, humble, reverent and submissive towards the Divine Power, seeking to persuade and propitiate it through sacrificial prayers and offerings. Magic is self-asserting, haughty and self-sufficient, seeking to control a nonmoral and impersonal force through incantations, magic words and weird rites which will_compel_the Divine Power to do as the magician desires. Whether the TV faith healers are ordering around demons (to whom they attribute all physical sickness) or demanding and expecting health, wealth and power from God, what they are really practicing is Magic (signs and wonders) not religion (Christianity). It was amazing to read that in 1961 he could still call Roberts' Assemblies of God denomination a "fringe sect". Today these people are invited to the White House to advise Presidents! God help us!

Pitts acknowledges that some illness may be caused by sin and some even by demonic influence, since such was the case in Jesus' time, but for the most part he believes illness is caused by the same natural factors that cause rain to fall from the sky or the stomach to require food. As such, he does not disparage doctors and traditional medicine and honors them as instruments of God. Obviously though, there are limits to human knowledge and medical science, which is when faith healing comes in. Pitts clams to have witnessed miraculous healings in cases where doctors have given up. The first requirement is that the patient have faith that they will be healed. The second requirement is unremitting prayer by others, with the possible accompaniment of laying on of hands or anointing with oil. Pitts adds the testimony of eminent men, some of them medical doctors, to his own witness in support of faith healing. Pitts makes the distinction between functional and organic disorders, since skeptics would at this point be wondering if he's merely talking about the healing of headaches and lower back pain. When he is talking about miraculous cures, Pitts is talking about organic disorders (cancer, heart disease, etc.) not aches and pains which the mind could be fooled to ignore through the mass hypnosis of emotion-driven Oral Roberts-type healing revivals. On the other hand, Pitts wonders, despite disapproving of such mass healing services because of the spiritual dangers and the fact that there has never been one proven organic cure resulting from them, if perhaps mass hypnosis_is_God's way of working.

And that was where I was lost. Pitts is well aware, as am I, of the power of the mind to not only convince itself of anything, but to affect the body as well (e.g. fear will cause the body to sweat, shake, increase blood flow, adrenaline, etc). If so-called faith healing is merely a result of some sort of mind-body function we can't yet begin to understand, then I don't see where the supernatural comes in. And Pitts himself admits that miraculous healing isn't restricted to mainstream Protestant sects or even Christianity. It has been practiced by ancient pagans and modern day primitives, Catholics, Quakers, Mormons, the Christian Scientists, Pentecostals, spiritualists, and mesmerists, among others. If faith healing was successfully practiced by so many different religions and non-religions, wouldn't that indicate that so-called miraculous healing is the result of natural mental and physical processes which are not yet fully understood, rather than being a specific Christian spiritual gift?

Personally, I believe in miraculous healing. Who am I to limit what God can do in this world? I've witnessed an elderly person undergo surgery to have a cancer removed, only to have the surgeon tell me that the prognosis was bad because she saw that the cancer had spread to other parts of the body and she wasn't able to remove all of it. With many people praying for the patient, a month later the same surgeon announced that she could not see any cancer in the X-rays and the patient made a full recovery. On the other hand, I definitely do not believe in the healing ministry of TV con artists like Benny Hinn or Peter Popoff or any of them, not least because there has never been one verified organic cure performed through their hysterics and incantations. Add to that their theological lunacy, their false prophecies, lies, and their shady financial dealings and you can say they don't inspire much faith in me. In short, I believe God will heal who He wills, for His own reasons, but it happens, if relatively rarely. We can only pray. However, it is not in the power of any person or institution to compel Him to heal, as some of these modern day Simon Maguses would have us believe (Name It/Claim It).

Pitts' book raises as many questions as it answers, but it's definitely worth reading if you can find it. In the end though, physical healing is really an insignificant part of what the Christian message is all about. Every faith healing must inevitably end in the failure of death and it's then when the individual will find out if they've spent enough time worrying about the condition of their soul rather than the maintenance of their body.

How is one knowledgeable about history to approach this "schizoid" book? On one hand, popular and semi-popular history series of WWII seldom inform the English-speaking reader about anything related to Polish sacrifices and achievements in WWII. This book, which is a part of the HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II series, is a notable exception.

There are numerous illustrative photos. The cover itself shows a graphic picture of one of the Katyn victims with his bullet-holed skull. There is a moderately-good description of the murders themselves. (Of course, we now know that there were over 22,000 Polish officers, intelligentsia, and other members of the cream of Polish society systematically murdered at Katyn and adjacent locations, not 4,500).

Why on Earth did Barrie Pitt, for all his knowledge about WWII (he has written several tens of books on this topic), give a platform to a Soviet Communist propagandist who, of course, tried to blame the Germans? Almost all relevant evidence implicates the Soviets as perpetrators of this heinous genocidal crime. (In fact, in 1990, the Soviets finally admitted their responsibility for the crime at Katyn Wood--after 50 years of lies).

Being a fellow person stricken with Cystic Fibrosis, I can relate to alot of what the author went through. I enjoyed her book, especially the first half, then I feel she dabbed too much into her relationship with her beau and the age old "why me" mentality. I've come to the conclusion that she was clearly having a rough time, presumably a lung infection, at the time she was writing much of this.

This is a most interesting book and covers a topic of some importance in Cuban history. It contains valuable information and definitely should be read by those interested in the topic. However, the reader should be aware that the author views US actions against Cuban bandits through somewhat partisan and left of center lenses. It lacks an update to present times. Supplementary information can be found.

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My husband is a "Clive Cussler" fan, so I do my best to acquire as many of Clive's books for him, as possible.

I was very disappointed to learn that MAYDAY was the original title published in England and was the same story as Mediterranean Caper.

It's sad when two different titles of the same book, leaves the shopper to believe that they are two different stories.

We still love Clive, but don't care for the practice of publishing under a second title.

This is certainly a quality bible, based on the NIV. However, the print is very small. I have the KJV Pitt Minion and though the print is also small it is much more readable. The paper in the KJV seems to be more opaque, but it may be just a bolder print.
I will add that the French Morocco leather that they used is nice and the binding allows the bible to lay open flat. This edition also comes with a concordance, which my KJV doesn't have. As always, Cambridge does make the highest quality bibles. Even with the small print, it's a nice Bible. Still, preference should be given for more literal translations such as the KJV, NKJV, NASB, or ESV.

This is a classic 60's graduate text.
Orthogonal polynomials, Lasers and Hilbert spaces are almost entirely lacking,
but data on real world systems abounds.
Most of the mathematics is well grounded
and the basics are covered as this was a course text
for those in organic Chemistry as well as physical Chemistry.
Decay of forbidden and metastable states and Einstein transition probabilities
is discussed as more statistical mechanical than quantum mechanical in basis.
As a graduate text in the 60's it wasn't enough
even with all the observational data included.

Strangely enough, Amazon shows the contents of a completely different book. The title of this recorder book makes it sound intriguing. Still, Amazon should fix the problem so we see the correct book.

Having drooled over William Fox-Pitt since Pony Club I am very disappointed to be giving this book a poor review. My expectations were perhaps too great. The first few chapters (Flatwork, Jumping) and those at the end (At The Competition, Get Your Horse Fit) I felt were a waste of paper. They essentially covered the basics and common sense tips experienced riders already know. Readers can go to other more specialized books for advice on these topics. However, I did enjoy reading more about William's background and early days.

The chapter I wanted more from was Cross Country. This book should have been re-focused as "Cross Country Schooling for Success" and more technical detail could have been added throughout. The take home message was to approach each fence with confidence, look ahead, maintain contact and keep your horse between hand and leg. Stay balanced with a secure lower leg. The text rarely got more detailed than that and training tips "if you look into a ditch, you'll end up in it!" again common sense advice. Experienced riders will want so much more, therefore I think this book will be better for the beginning event rider. But then photographs of advanced level jumps are not immediately relative to them. Also, the short two pages on introducing a young horse to water were basic. I've read a better guide in Practical Horseman magazine.

One of the main problems is that the text is by Kate Green. Although I appreciate many riders have another person write for them, I think you still want to feel that you are paying for William's advice. So you want it to read like William has written it, rather than just put his name to it. Thus when discussing photos of William riding over fences, it should read "Here I came in too fast, my reins got too long" etc etc., rather than "This pair came in too fast" or "This rider let his reins slip". Although many riders are photographed in the book, we can easily pick out William. The book would have a better feel, if it read like he wrote it.

The best part of this book is the excellent use of sequenced photography. There are some great shots and certainly a few photos that will make you cringe. It is nice to visualize where things went wrong, and this can be a great training tool. But I can imagine some of these photos discouraging the nervous rider. Experienced riders may appreciate this book as a good review and relish the photography - as I did.