Shaw Books

is the most moving account of the 54th Massachusetts Vol. Inf. To have waded through the regimental histories, 'Robin's' own letters home, newspaper accounts, to pull this glorious moment in history together so that multitides can share is so important.

A good fundamental book for understanding how Robert Gould Shaw came to command the Massachusetts 54th, but one that offers little about his relationship with the regiment or the issues that shaped its legends. Because this book (and point of view) formed the basis for the motion picture "Glory," many of its shortcomings were repeated in the movie and in subsequent public perceptions about the composition, behavior, and fate of the first all-volunteer African-American regiment formed in the American Civil War.

I strongly endorse this as a starting point for Americans interested in the life of Robert Gould Shaw but recommend they continue to "Blue Eyed Child of Fortune," a collection of his personal correspondence. "One Gallant Rush" tends to portray Shaw as a sort of doomed saint rather than a complex character succumbing to the moral and political aspirations of his family, his own ambition, and the then-prevailing attitudes about the worth and importance of African American soldiers (and men).

This book was at least partially the basis for the movie Glory, which starred Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, Matthew Broderick, and Denzel Washington (who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). The movie is reasonably historically accurate, though there are parts where they took liberties with the truth. The book sets the record straight in a number of ways.

The book, however, is largely a biography of Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw was born a child of privalege, and raised to be an abolitionist and a devout Christian. When the war started, he saw it as his duty to enlist, first serving in the ranks of a New York regiment, and later securing appointment as a Captain in the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. When the Emancipation Proclamation was announced and the recruiting of Black soldiers began (this was part of the actual proclamation) the governor of Massachussetts decided to recruit his own regiment of Blacks, and appointed Shaw to be the colonel. The regiment served briefly in the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, before leading the charge on Fort Wagner, to the south of the city, in which Shaw was killed and the regiment decimated.

This book, as I said, is mostly a biography of Shaw. Since he wasn't anyone particularly prominent, and since he only lived to be 25, there's not a lot to say, and the book is as a result rather short, about 150 pages. Shaw comes off as committed, intelligent, perhaps a bit naive, but brave and skilled. It's an interesting character study, and an interesting but brief account of this one action in the siege of Charleston. There isn't, however, much else to the book, so be warned, it's rather thin. If that's what interests you, however, it's worth the effort.

Having seen the movie Glory for the first time this past weekend, I couldn't help but wonder about the 54th and its Colonel Shaw. So, when I got my hands on this book I had very high expectations. I have to say that I was very happy with the quality of this book. It has just enough sentiment for Colonel Shaw and his family, yet it also portrays the 54th as the heroes I believe they were. I would recommend this to any history buff, or to anyone who finds that they had the same thirst as I after seeing Glory on television. Great book..

Matthew Broderick portrayed Robert Gould Shaw, in the movie "Glory," as shy, idealistic, tenacious. In real life he was all these things and more: more complex, more a product of his age and social class (what we today call "classism" was universal then), struggling to escape the iron grip of his abolitionist mother, wrestling with notions of race which we today would call "racism." Burchard's book is still the best for bringing him back to life: sharing army life with his friends, courting his future wife, organizing and forming the first black regiment to serve as a regiment of the line (the rest were mostly used for bushwhacking or manual labor). He surely knew before accepting the job that he would face unpopularity, uncertainty, and execution if captured. Twenty-five-year-old Robert showed awesome moral courage in taking it on, and one of the virtues of this book is that it makes Robert's record believable, first in his choice, and then in sticking with loneliness, exhaustion, discouragement, fear of death, and obstacle after obstacle, to prove that "Black Men can fight as well as White Men" and therefore can meet the coming demands of citizenship. Another virtue, for older students maybe, lies in its portrayal of the "classism" and "racism" which formed the unexamined background of most Americans in the 1860's, against which we can measure how far we've really evolved since then. All in all, an excellent book for young people in American History courses, to supplement the movie "Glory" which is often used to illustrate the Civil War and its human side.

This book is extremely clearly written and is pleasant to read, which is impressive for a text book. However, sometimes it lacks depth on the material it covers. It would be hard to use this as a reference text book and in the class I am taking, the professor finds it necessary to supplement it with other materials.

I just want to contribute my five stars.

I'm not a specialist or active in this field, but I enjoy trying to to keep up with interesting things I was lead to in college. Hence perhaps I provide the ideal perspective of the perpetual student...

I have several of the other standard texts, which I have at least perused to understand their level and approach. I find Mandl and Shaw to be the best *introduction*. Here are some reasons I like it:

- It is the best book of the bunch that is both completely deep in what it covers and self-contained (but of course it course strictly assumes the implicit prerequisites: core quantum mechanics and everything you are likely to have studied if you studied that).
- It focues on the canonical approach. I'm a rabid Feynman worshipper, but in my opinion the path integral approach is best left to the second pass, because it requires two hurdles: a math one-- path calculus--, and a physics one-- shifting focus to the Lagrangian approach to QM. I find the canonical approach a better continuation of core quantum mechanics, hence a better entry point. So learn to count breadth-first; and then have fun discovering you can count it depth-first too.
- The text has a thoughtful logical order of development: Spin 0, 1/2, 1... I think I see a pattern...

Lastly, it is sprinkled with really physically deep commentary on results. Eg, how to understand spin and statistics; or when they frankly describe high-k regularization (a.k.a. math fudging) as possibly modeling new real physics. This arena is both foundational and cutting-edge-- "unfinished"; I like it that they tell it as it is.

When this book was first written, the intermediate vector bosons had only recently been (indirectly) observed, giving more weight to the gauge theory of electroweak interactions. The first edition did not treat the electroweak theory at all, but this, the revised edition, does, albeit using a formalism that is now considered to be somewhat antiquated. In particular, the methods of functional integration are not used at all. Canonical methods are used instead in the quantization procedures. The reader interested in a fast overview of quantum field theory could benefit from a perusal of the book. There are no fresh insights on quantum field theory in the book, and so it should really be considered as more of a bread-and-butter overview of the subject, with emphasis on the calculations of cross-sections rather than on a deep understanding of quantum field theory. The latter is very difficult both to explain and to research, and readers will have to look elsewhere to obtain this level of knowledge, or, better yet, figure it out for themselves and propose new approaches to quantum field theory, that not only predicts the results coming from scattering experiments, but also solves the major unsolved problem of quantum field theory: the existence of a bound state.

I never had a formal QFT course in my life, so I was curious to learn it on my own. My curiosity was only incresed by what is called "QFT methods in condensed matter physics", which I am exposed to quite a bit.

The book by Mandl and Shaw is certainly easy to read. In my case I obtained some idea about how the diagrammatic techniques look in covariant form. However, many questions I had had are still left unanswered. While it is obvious that the book is out of date, and it is hard to blame the authors for that, there is no even brief overview of the field and the basic problems it faced in that period. There is no mentioning of the approaches altenative to diagrammatic techniques. In general, the book is not very systematic, but rather present more detailed solutions for several problems that the reader is assumed to be already familiar with. Therefore, I assume, the book is good only as a supplementary material for those studying diagrammatic methods for QFT.

This book is an introduction to QFT for beginners. It starts from basic lagrangian and hamiltonian formalism, outlines a basic but selfcontained treatment of the bosonic and fermionic free fields; the focus shifts then to interacting fields and introduces the concept of radiative corrections with several examples; gauge theories are then presented in a simple form and the Standard Model of electroweak interactions is described briefly. Simple exercises in every chapter.

I enjoyed the character of Cealie Gunther, the amateur grandmother detective, in this exciting adventure story.

Cealie goes to Chicago for her granddaughter's high school graduation and finds that her smart granddaughter is very scared and isn't going to school. One of the janitors has been murdered at the school and, for some reason, her granddaughter is now scared of attending.

Cealie then decides to substitute at the high school and find out who the murderer is.

I loved the fact that by the end of the story, Cealie has not only solved the mystery and connected with the man she loves, but also has mega-respect for teachers. Being a teacher myself, I always appreciate the acknowledgment that our job is not easy.

Being 50+ years old, I loved the love story and could identify with the feelings of an older adult -- but for teens, I could imagine the groans when the main character discusses her feelings about a sexual relationship. If they can get around that idea, though, then I think they will enjoy the rest of the novel.

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

I had to take a hiatus from reading novels for a while, but I am back! I'm here to say that Relative Danger was a great book to start my reading comeback! What a page turner! As an international traveler, a doting grandmother and an independent, active baby boomer, I could identify with Cealie. I highly recommend this great book for everyone who enjoys romantic murder mysteries, but especially all of you baby boomers! I had a very difficult time putting this book down.

Relative Danger by June Shaw (Thomson - Gale 2006) is a mystery written from the perspective of a baby boomer. It is the first adventure for Cealie, a sexy grandmother, who is out to "find herself". She stumbles on a mysterious death at her granddaughter's (Kat) high school while in town for Kat's graduation.

Relative Danger is an easy and fun read. Although it's a mystery, Relative Danger is laced with humor and insight into the aging of woman who was recently widowed and coping well.

The reader will relate to and love the characters, from Cealie's single parent, somewhat depressed son, Roger to perky but honor student granddaughter, Kat. And then there is Gil, Cealie's sometimes boy friend, and my favorite, "Chicken Boy".

Cealie becomes a snoop when Kat avoids school just before graduation because of the suspected murder of the school's janitor. Cealie was determined to see Kat graduate based on son Roger's deceased wife's wish that her daughter graduate.

There are unexpected twists and turns in the plot that will keep the reader in suspense until Cealie finally solves mystery.

Relative Danger is a great launch for what could be a series for Granny turned private eye Cealie. However, as a male, sometimes I found that I was given too much information about some of Cealie's female "problems".

Ironically, this look into how a widowed Baby Boomer overcomes aging problems may make Relative Danger a surprise best seller.

I highly recommend Relative Danger. It just may be a book that will make rainy summer vacation days a little sunnier.

Cealie Gunther is a super sleuthing amateur homicide detective but not by choice. Her granddaughter, Kat, is scheduled to graduate from high school soon but the murder of a janitor at her school and the implication of her favorite teacher has her staying home from school with no desire to graduate. Cealie made a deathbed promise to Kat's mother to always be there taking her place when Kat graduates, gets married, has babies and other memorable events in life.

That deathbed promise causes Cealie to seek a position of substitute teacher at the high school Kat attends so she can secretly investigate the murder and get Kat's favorite teacher off the hook so Kat will go back to school and graduate.

June Shaw has created interesting and realistic characters in Relative Danger. The suspense begins to mount right from the beginning of the story and each chapter ends in a cliff hanger, which made it impossible for me to put the book down. Ms. Shaw's well written and structured book coerced me into reading her book to find out what was going to happen next. The number of suspects increases as Cealie gathers new facts and when the culprit is finally caught, I was completely surprised. I never would have guessed.

Relative Danger is a wonderful cozy mystery and will keep you entertained throughout the story. When it ended, I was sorry that there was no more to read. However, the story ends with Cealie receiving a mysterious email from her cousin Stevie that begins with HELP!!! So, it looks like the murders, suspense, intrigue, and cliff hangers may not be too far away. I can't wait.

I highly recommend this book. You won't regret reading it.

Caelie Gunther arrives in town a few days before her granddaughter Kat's graduation only to find out Kat may not graduate at all. Caelie made a deathbed promise to Kat's mother that she would see Kat graduate, so she is determined to make Kat graduate.

Kat explains that a school janitor was killed. Her favorite teacher is no longer speaking to her so she has no interest in going to school. Caelie signs up to be a substitute teacher at the high school to get Kat back in classes.

In the school Caelie encounters some rude students and there are some mysterious incidents as well as more violence. Can she find the killer in time for Kat to complete her final exams and graduate? Will the fact that her ex-lover Gil Thurman is in town at his new restaurant sidetrack her plans?

I enjoyed Caelie. She is a great senior sleuth. She is a lot of fun and cares about her family but doesn't want to be tied down to them or them to her. Apparently she moves around a lot. She doesn't want to get tied down in a relationship either. This makes her a very interesting character and also very three-dimensional in my eyes.

The sparks always fly when she's with Gil. There is a lot of mystery as to what might develop between them. I hope that eventually something does.

I like the way Caelie interacts with her granddaughter and son as well.

I highly recommend this book.

Most books on self-defense are page heavy in photographs. Obviously, most martial artists don't read. Though this book has its share of photographs, providing the necessary how-to, what I like most about this text is its presentation of a self-defense mindset not dominated by the macho kick-butt attitude which most books on the subject present. Instead, this book details a way of encountering each type of self-defense circumstance from a conscious frame of mind. This is something I have not seen presented in other texts on the subject. I also like the fact that the author, Scott Shaw, goes back into history and references the more mindfull self-defense idealogies of ancient masters. Shaw then brings these concepts to this modern era by commenting on their applications.

This book may not be for the macho martial artist who thinks he or she can kick everybody's butt. But, it is for the martial artist, like myself, who appreciates the deeper understanding of the true art of self-defense.

As a martial artist virtually forever, I really enjoyed this book. It is not one of those books on self defense that you pick up, skim through the pictures, and then put on your bookshelf. Nor is it one of those macho who can kick who's butt the fastest type of mindless self defense manuals. This book really needs to be read. I think any martial artists, or for that matter, non-martial artists, who really wants to gain a new insight into not only the realms of self defense but a new and different way to look at life and life encounters should read this book.

What I like most about this book is that it teaches a very refined method of self defense. This book is not about how to develop the hardest punch or the fastest kick. It details a much more subtle style of self defense than that. As a female martial artist, I really appreciate the way the author outlines a method where your victory is based more in a calculated understanding of fighting than a fist to fist, knock down brawl. In fact, I have taught several of the techniques presented in this book to my students. I hope to see more on this subject from the author

The reason I like this book is that it is not just another martial art book which simply presents a bunch of photos on hand-to-hand combat techniques. As martial artists, we already know a bunch of those. What this book does present, which is absent from so many other texts on self defense, is a way to encounter combat situations with a more complete understanding of how to deal with your opponent and your environment. It is not just a bunch of photos on how to kick somebodies butt. If you get this book, Read It. Don't just look at the pictures.

My Instructor told me not to waste my $$$ on this book. The first two or three chapters are acceptable, yet the remainder of the book is very poor. It has the simple basic strikes and counters that all "How To" books of Karate manuals have.
It is not the Way of Self Defense as the title would attempt to allude one.

Seldom do I use the word extraordinary, but seldom is there a poet like William G. Carrington. I read this newest endeavor of his in one sitting and have gone back to re-read it several times. Through his words this extraordinary man takes you along as his heart journeys through life. Not only does he open up his heart to the reader he also gives us a glimpse of his soul. This book along with "Cowboys on Chrome Horses" which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize should be on everyone's book shelf lover of poetry or not. Good poetry paints for us a picture. Mr. Carrington is an artist of the highest order. May his pen never run dry.

I realize that I've already done a review but I just read this book again from cover to cover and found again some things that I didn't see before. William Carrington is indeed a wonderful poet! His words have sincerely touched my heart.

I would recommend this wonderful book to anyone that likes poetry at all. When I read it the first time, I was only going to scan it, but as I read...there was no way to put it down until I read the entire book. You can feel the warmth, love and also the hurt that this man has endured. I have personally met Mr. Carrington and he seems to be a fine man. I was so impressed with this book that I bought several and gave them to friends and even had one of the poems printed on the new menus for my restaurant chain. I placed copies of the book on the counters in my restaurants and printed several of the poems and displayed them. Everytime I read the book, I see something new in a poem. This book was written with feeling and depth. I have read these poems when I was happy, when I was sad, and just needed something to do, and I've enjoyed every time. I would be proud to give this book as a gift to anyone....it is just that I honestly enjoyed reading the poems.

I LOVED the poems in this book. They are heartwarming and sincere. A great book to read while curled up in front of a fire with a glass of wine and a special friend.

Absolutely wonderful! The author's words touched my heart. He has the ability to speak only to the reader. I think every woman's dream is to hear words like these spoken to her, if only once in a lifetime.

I have read dozens of grief & loss books in the 13 months since the suddent death of my 18 year old son. This is one of my least favorite. In fact, I still haven't finished it. It is a difficult read and very heavy into theology. There is very little about the author's own experience in losing his wife and the mother of his children but much more slanted toward Biblical teachings. I'm going to slog through it but it has been one of the least helpful to me in my difficult journey.

Sadly this book seemed to slip by without a lot of press. As an avid reader of Christian books, I was amazed at the truth and honesty behind this one. Stephen Broyles writes as a real man who has experienced real loss. This is a book on grief and loss by someone who has truly experienced grief and loss--not a gushy bit of fiction meant only as a sappy tear-jerker. While Broyles does use his own experiences as examples, this is not a book about him--it is a book for you. His message is real and true and powerful. It will leave you thinking not of your loss, but of what you can gain for yourself and your faith.

While many who have suffered the loss of a friend, child, or spouse will no doubt appreciate Stephen's willingness to come alongside them as friend and caretaker (which is extremely hard to do on paper), I read this book after having suffered the death of a relationship with my girlfriend. He helped me to see that I am not alone, that I was protected and sheltered even in the midst of the greatest storm I had yet faced. He imparts the hope, truth, and person of the God revealed in Jesus Christ that I cling to as I face larger trials ahead. The book blends narrative and theological exposition seamlessly, showing clearly that our theology and our daily life, our God and our self, walk together hand in hand because of God's promise to never leave us or forsake us.
While it is somewhat cliche to say that something is "real," even powerful testimonies can get sucked into the vortex of what other reviewers have already noted as "Christian Cheese-ball Techniques and Easy-Answers." The Wind That Destroys and Heals simply blows it all away (forgive the pun). Furthermore, Stephen's tactful biblical-linguistic scholarship offers readers a chance to see their stories in the light of those who came before them (the Psalmists especially). As such, he brings us to the Lord in humility, seeking understanding and to be understood, undergoing transformation through it all. I can only say thanks to Stephen for his courage to give me a window into his life, to speak of his personal agony with wisdom and patience, and for teaching me how to wrestle and embrace our Lord at once, never separating the God of wrath from the God who defines grace and forgiveness for us.

Stephen Broyles book is like a quiet, gentle friend's presence in a time of grief. He shares the story of his wife's death and his own journey through grief not so that you can enter into his grief, but so that he can walk beside you in yours. His vulnerability, honesty, and willingness to enter into the most difficult of feelings and questions are a refreshing balm to the soul. He also takes on the difficult questions of faith that arise in grief with a respect for the complexity of our feelings, God and our faith in God. There are no quick fixes or easy answers or platitudes. Instead you will find a companion for the dark days and nights of grief and the road markers pointing to healing and joy for when the time is right. This book is beautifully written and truly a work of art.

Where do faith and tragic loss meet? In this incredible book, the author takes us to such a place in his own life and that of a wife and mother of two young children whose life was taken by cancer. Broyles powerfully demonstrates that faith and despair can coexist by inviting us into his story, and into the biblical story of a God who is mysteriously and graciously present not only in the joys of life, but also in the depths of tragedy and brokenness. I highly recommend this to any reader who looks for faith beyond quick fixes or easy answers.

The text is exactly as described and promised. A very practical tool for the bachelor's or master's student.

the shipping for this item took forever! book is in nice condition though.

It's interesting that books on fieldwork tend to exclude extended discussions of note-taking as a part of fieldwork. The focus of many guides on fieldwork methods usually is on completing audio or video interviews and on the use of photography in fieldwork. This book fills this gap in research methodology. The writers show good, practical techniques for taking notes during ethnographic and oral history field research. More importantly, they convincingly demonstrate how creating good fieldnotes is essential to completing good ethnographic studies. Each section of the book blends practical ideas with theoretical generalizations in ways that not only show readers how to complete field research, but the discussion also reveals why these techniques are useful. The chapter that provides ways to turn fieldnotes into written ethnographies is an especially helpful discussion of a challenging task. In this particular chapter, and in the book in general, readers can find ideas that can also be applied to the use of other field-generated resources such as structured audio/video interviews and photo sessions. This book is also valuable as a resource for understanding and examining various written ethnographic studies. In this respect, the insights offered by Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw give readers good ideas for evaluating written ethnographies and useful perspectives for understanding the process of completing ethnographically-grounded research and how ethnographic study contributes to the representation of culture.

I had checked out several research methodology books to find out 'how' to keep fieldnotes. I had been looking for very 'practical' and 'down to earth' reference which can offer me the real examples and approaches of fieldsnotes. Although there were good research methodology books, I could hardly find the reference for 'fieldnotes'.



The content of this practical and theoretical guide to fieldnotes is quite satisfactory and now I think I know how to keep my own fieldnotes. The text size, however, is so small that I got tired of reading it. On the whole, I am satisfied with this little booklet (small in size but big in quality) and I would love to recommend this book to those who are interested in writing qualitative research articles.

Jimmy Lee, PhD Student, mmed, Florida State University

Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw have put together not only an excellent handbook for writing ethnographic fieldnotes, but an insightful study of the practical issues confronting anyone doing interpretative writing about culture.

The book's primary focus is on how to effectively take and maintain fieldnotes. They appropriately begin at the ground by discussing how to take jottings and other quick notes, providing memory cues for the later write up of complete fieldnotes. Always keeping the focus on the task of writing, while balancing that with the task of honest and rigorous reporting, they give excellent advice for how to create a clear record of your field experience. While their focus is primarily on an ethnographic style of careful observation of interactions, their ideas remain useful to those with other theoretical concerns. Because they are always keeping an eye toward the end product of a finished, written document, this book also provides and excellent resource for how to use your fieldnotes in order to write a finished ethnography.

But this is not just an excellent book for ethnographic fieldworkers. Reading the book not only gave me solid ideas for my fieldwork, but also for the task of reading and note-taking around text-based and image-based culture. Additionally, I see this as an invaluable tool for someone engaged in more journalistic research, and for those of us who teach and tutor writing.

Takeo Doi's "The Anatomy of Dependence" is in truth a psychological analysis of Japanese society through his linguistic interpretation of the Japanese concept of amae. Though the title of the book translates amae as "dependence", the semantic meaning of the word has a much deeper importance in Japanese culture and has a more positive connotation. The originality of Doi's hypothesis of Japanese psychology stems from his refusal to accept that the peoples of Japan and the rest of Asia cannot be understood through psychological analysis. Here, Doi explains his basic argument against using Western terminology to describe Japanese emotions, "...the forms of a person's thoughts are controlled by an inexorable laws of patterns of which he is unconscious. These patterns are the unperceived intricate systematizations of his own language-shown readily enough by a candid comparison and contrast with other languages, especially those of a different linguistic family, " (67). What Doi proposes is that Western psychology has yet to understand Japanese culture because it lacks a Japanese vocabulary.
Doi's text ventures to create a Japanese psychological vocabulary branching off from his concept of amae and built on the structure of Western principles of psychoanalysis. Amae, as Doi interprets it, is the interdependence of indulgences afforded between Japanese people of close relations. In Japanese society, Amae is expected to be given by parents to their children throughout their lives. Amae is also afforded to the elderly, leading some outsiders to wrongly assume that the elderly in Japan are in some way slighted, being treated like babies or small children. Within romantic or marital relationships, amae is expected to be exchanged freely as a way of expressing love and affection. The idea of dependence in Western psychology has connotations of weakness or inability to cope with reality. This is mostly due to the individualistic structure of modern Western culture, in particular, America.
Some of the most satisfying and convincing analysis in Doi's text are the parts of his argument where he openly attacks the Western interpretation of Japanese society. Doi daringly takes apart almost 20 years of Western analysis when he confronts Benedict's conclusion on Japan's total lack of guilt in her pivotal book, The Chrysanthemum and The Sword, "...[Benedict] seems to postulate guilt and shame as entirely unrelated to each other, which is obviously contrary to the facts, " (48). Benedict tried to say that Japanese people feel shame towards the group to which they belong but have no sense of guilt on an individual level. What Benedict is really talking about is the concept of betrayal.
Guilt in Western thought, as Benedict uses it in her text, is defined as a betrayal to oneself. This inner conflict is an individual experienced when there is a conflict between the id, ego and super-ego as Freud used them. Though Japanese people may not feel guilt towards themselves in the Western way, they do feel guilt towards the group. This is what Benedict defines as shame. Doi uses this idea to conclude that, "Even with the Western sense of guilt one might, in fact, postulate a deep-lying psychology of betrayal, but the Westerner is not normally conscious of it, " (49). Doi continues to hypothesize that at one point in history Western civilization did feel guilt towards the group as they do in Japan. With the advent and spread of Christianity, guilt was shifted from the community to one's individual relationship with god. With the industrial age, god was essentially dead. This left the only source of guilt to be found within oneself.
Doi is able to, within a page of text, turn the West's perspective on Japanese culture right back around at itself to create a very convincing and audacious psychological analysis of both the West and Japan. This book is one of the few satisfying texts written about Japanese society and the Japanese self. For the first time I feel that Japan can be described as something more concrete than merely inscrutable.

This is a great look at the Japanese mind that is actually turns out to have universal applicablility. After reading it I saw the western world in quite a different way, there are so many things that we can not see because we live in one culture. I did have a problem with the book though , which might be the author's or translator's fault, the constantly sexist language. The word man is used over and over again for both sexes which makes the book confusing at times. The author is also a died hard fruedian and so the book carries with it all the applicable baggage.

In The Anatomy of Dependence, Takeo Doi presents a psychological study of Japanese society through the concept of amae. Amae is a Japanese word that means to act in a self-indulgent, or childish, manner toward people with whom one is very close. It is this idea that Doi believes is "the essence of the Japanese psychology" (65). However, he makes it clear that amae is universal to everyone and that even animals show signs of it. What makes the Japanese unique is that they have the only language with a word for amae. This difference in vocabulary, Doi believes, is one of the reasons why the Japanese and the West have developed such different psychologies.
Doi does a really great job explaining how having a word for amae can shape the way Japanese people think. Doi argues that "it should be possible to discuss the psychological characteristics of a people in terms of the language it speaks" (66). This is because one must use language to express oneself. If there is no word for a certain emotion in a language, it is difficult for the native speaker to logically think about or express that emotion. In this way, the Japanese are able to speak of and deal with amae; whereas Westerners have trouble with it. Since Western languages do not have any words equal to amae, the concept of amae has not taken hold. This is part of the reason why, Doi asserts, the West considers feelings of dependence on or "passive love" (21) from a group to be inferior to individualism - we do not fully understand it.
Doi shows us that this concept of "amae lurking in the heart of each individual Japanese" (61) is the underlying cause of many social norms. For example, the honorific language system in Japan is an attempt to amaeru (the verb form of amae). By using language that exalts the listener, the speaker is allowing the listener to indulge in their own selfish desires. In other words, it is used to baby one's superiors. Another example comes from the fact that Japanese tend to prefer doing things with a group. Doi shows that amae's origin is the need to cope with separation from the mother during early childhood. Due to this fact, the group is most important because it takes the place of the mother by allowing individual members to amaeru without fear of rejection.
Compared with Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Doi's work is much more credible. Whereas Benedict was not able to do any field work in Japan, Doi is able to give us specific examples of where he gets his ideas. For instance, Doi tells us of his experience of traveling to America for the first time and how the phrase "help yourself" struck him as terribly rude. He took it to mean "nobody else will help you" (13), when it simply means to "do as you please." He also refers to an English patient of his who switched into speaking Japanese solely to be able to use the word amae during a session. Examples like these really help give this book credibility. They help show us that the author is not making rash generalizations in an attempt to prove a theory.
With The Anatomy of Independence, Doi is able to present us with a convincing argument for one of the reasons why Japan has developed in such a different fashion than the West. Although I enjoyed reading this book, I believe that Doi spends more time explaining Freud's theories, especially in the chapter 5, than is hardly necessary. I also believe that parts of the book rely too heavily on the assumption that the reader has read many other psychological studies, leaving the reader unsure of how an idea makes sense. Despite these two flaws, Doi's psychological analysis of Japan is worth reading for its insights into the Japanese mind, especially if one has not read any other books on Japanese psychology.

The Anatomy of Dependence was first published in 1971 under the title 'Amae no Kozo' and almost immediately gained national and international recognition. The author, Dr. Takeo Doi, is one of Japan's leading psychiatrists. His experience in the US, where he made several extended research stays, allowed him to reflect on the nature of the Japanese mindset. He begins his book by recording common experiences of minor alienation that every Japanese living abroad has undergone, such as being given the choice between several options of food or drink that Americans propose "as if to reassure themselves of their own freedom."

A peculiar trait of Japanese medical studies is its heavy use of terms borrowed from the German, which entered the Japanese language at the turn of the twentieth century and which are pronounced in a way that makes them understandable only by Japanese trained in the medical sciences. Doi's main breakthrough is to record the feelings and emotions held by his patients in Japanese terms, and to show that these terms form a constellation of meaning structured around the notion of `amae'.

Part of the interest of this book comes from the fact that amae is very difficult to translate but very easy to grasp--it is the emotion felt by the baby at the breast towards his mother, the need for a passive, unconditional love, the unwillingness to be separated from the warm mother-child circle and cast into a world of objective `reality'. Such a relationship implies a considerable blurring of the distinction between subject and object; it is not necessarily governed by what might be considered strict rational or moral standards, and may often seem selfish to the outsider. Doi contends that it provides an invaluable key to Japanese behavior.

In a way, the Anatomy of Dependence belongs to the field of Nihonjin-ron, or commentary about Japanese-ness, a genre much reviled by social scientists but that still enjoys a high degree of popularity among the Japanese public. Its quest for `the soul of a nation' or `the structure of the Japanese personality' will appear as naive and uncouth to sophisticated readers, who might nonetheless remember that Freud also made sweeping generalizations about the future of Western civilization. To those who might object that Dr. Doi's analysis lacks intellectual rigor and smacks of culturalism, one may object that, first, the description of Japanese behavioral traits is grounded in language structures and that, second, these structures are enacted through speech acts and clinical situations.

Takeo Doi spends some time discussing the New Left and the students movement of the 1970s, which he interestingly compares with Momotaro, the monster-slaying character born out of a giant peach. Interestingly, he doesn't apply his frame of analysis to the most evident of all dependency relationships: that of Japan towards the US, all at once the indulgent motherly figure and the domineering hegemon that blocks Japan from becoming a power in its own right. The anatomy of this political and societal dependence has yet to be written.

The Anatomy of Dependence by Takeo Doi is a look at one facet of Japanese society. Unlike other authors who study Japan as an entire society, Doi focuses on the aspect of unconditional love between parent and child and how it relates to the overarching characteristics of Japanese social structure. Doi relates many theories from many fields of study, notably psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Doi relates his theory of amae with Western schools of thought and how these schools relate to Japan. He is remarkably capable of writing without expressing culture bias, and much credit needs to be given to John Bester for translating the book so well. With Anatomy of Dependence, Doi is able to explain many traditional Japanese behaviors to a Western audience by relating them all to the concept of amaeru, a verb expressing a concept that has no equivalent word in English. Amaeru is `to act in a self-indulgent, or childish, manner toward people with whom one is very close' and Doi's main argument is that amae is the crux of Japanese psychology. It is the attempt to explain the full nature of amae that allows Doi to explain the connections as a psychologist.
The concept of amae is a characteristic of humanity and many other mammalians such as dogs and apes. The term itself and its implications are mostly ignored or misunderstood by people in Western cultures. A basic definition of amae is `to depend and presume upon another's benevolence.' This definition may be applied to common everyday relationships such as mother-child, master-apprentice, sempai-kohai, and between friends. Amaeru, described above, is best stated as the need to be loved, to depend and to be dependent on others. The way that every native Japanese citizen handles amae is the core of the mental psyche. He is able to write confidently about Japanese social nuances and psychology after being a psychologist himself for over twenty years. Amae is the root of the Japanese psyche because everything relates back to it, from apologies to the development of the self-awareness. The instinctual awareness of amae is in every human being, but Japanese society is more in touch with it. This is the crux of Doi's thesis and argument, an argument that has valid arguments and falters only every so often.
Doi does a very good job of explaining things in this account. Anatomy of Dependence is not a book for someone who does not understand psychology. Psychology and its many ways of analysis are the bases of Doi's perspectives. Oftentimes in the book he will recall a patient of his whom suffers from a lack of amae or one who fails to amae properly. He does this with care and ease to the subject, explaining social concepts like enryo, tanin, giri, and sumanai. These four words relate to the Japanese sense of companionship, its inner and outer circles, its duty or loyalty, and its way of apologizing. There are many concepts explored in the book and they are explained with appropriate depth for the time spent on them. Doi is definitely a highbrow writer, assuming that his reading audience is as intelligent as he is. While the more casual reader will be put off by this tactic, it allows for more knowledge and depth to be conveyed. Additional reading can benefit almost every topic that Doi speaks of. There are entire books on the insider-outsider social structure, but Doi can only focus on them for just a few pages. The basis of Anatomy of Dependence then is not to make someone intimately familiar with all the social ambiguities of Japanese society but to make the readership aware that each aspect is influenced by the amae.
Thus Doi is able to explain amae in the Anatomy of Dependence. He does not leave many stones unturned by the end of the account. There are a few places where Doi falters, however. A section on Eastern and Western appreciation for aesthetic beauty falters. Doi is a psychologist, not an artist. He is able to make surprisingly few cultural generalizations, but one that he does make is that the Japanese have a greater appreciation for aesthetic beauty because they are in a culture where amae is recognized and practiced many times daily. While the Japanese society has been hailed for centuries as having many beautiful pieces of artwork, poetry and philosophy on the subject of aesthetic beauty, the explanation Doi gives is a little weak. Apart from this, Doi makes about .1% of the cultural generalizations that Ruth Benedict makes in Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Doi's highbrow writing may also be considered a pitfall of the book, but it was written for people in the psychiatric field and not for the layperson uneducated in Japanese society. This book is not a casual read for a person who is just getting into the study of Japan.
That said, the book fulfills its primary objective. The primary objective is to make people, namely psychologists, aware of the Japanese sense of amae, a cultural sensitivity that is not to be found in Western cultures due to the greater sense of individuality that is placed on them as soon as babies develop self-identity. Doi writes and speaks as a psychologist and that can be perplexing to the reader. However, he is able to explain amae with such remarkably clarity and his experiences as a psychologist make the book highly credible.

To prick a thorn out of a lion's foot one will surely gain new friends and old enemies. The story of Androcles, a Christian who is about to be sent to the lions for being a heretic in the Roman Empire. A cynical, humerous, poignant, and hypocritical story of religion versus humanism. The book is intended with the introduction with Shaw's discourse on Jesus and Christianity. Although I found it dryly written, which some wit involved, he makes some good remarks on the problems of Christianity. Mainly is the devout in which they will surely go to the lions before giving up their gods. Hypocritically the Romans could care less who their gods were or whether they believed in them, so long it was not a Christian god. The introduction acts as a set-up to put one in the mind set of Shaw and to understand his point of view which makes the play that much easier to understand and funnier to read. The play itself is a wonderful entry into the classics of the thearter.

Do not be tempted to pass over the essay that begins this book. It is a delightfully thought provoking essay that sets up the story of the play. Shaw writes of his views of organized religon with support for his thesis. It is important to read this before diving into the play itself.

The play is wonderful, but the theater program must be 200 pages long. You need all the 111 pages before the play to get all of the meanings of the play.

Androcles and the Lion is an allegorical work which points out that kindness is not necessarity altruistic - it can be of worth. Shaw's writing is brilliant and well worth the reading.

I first this read this book in Baltimore, MD at the tender age of 7, 1952. I thought that I would never see this book again in my life time. But fate has it that I'm able to read it again. I've used this book in my lectures and motivational speeches. Because I love the message that it portrays and illustrate to children as it did mine. Thanks for letting me share. I'm 57 yo now.

I teach 7th grade learning disabled students world history and I use Androceles and the Lion to teach sequencing skills. After I read the story, I ask the students to number in order in which they occur, several events in the story.

After viewing the movie Glory for many years I came across this book and purchased it immediately. Robert Gould Shaw grew up in an influencial home which had amazing political and social connections with the abolitionist movement. His words preserved from the past through today and gives us insight on what he was thinking about after fighting at Antietam as well as his feelings about his role and service for this nation.

A must for any civil war reenactor or student of the American Civil War.

Robert Gould Shaw's letters home are a very realistic look of the Civil War battles by a unique individual with many perspectives. The brutality of battle along with the emotional turmoil from such a young officer bring the war to life. The authors have given us a true picture of a brave officer and the war. As you read the letters of Shaw you want to pull the blankets closer on the cold winter nights he spent in the field. You can share the suffering along with Shaw at the loss of friends. The courage and love of family and devotion of country are evident throughout his premature adult life. God bless the 54th and may Robert Gould Shaw and all that served with him and under him never be forgotten.

Russell Duncan's compendium of letters both exalts and puzzles.The job of editing the letters and setting them in the context of war, family ties, friendships, etc. is thorough and, for the most part, makes them accessible. Let's not forget, though, that the editor omitted some letters that don't support his main thesis: that Col. Shaw was a rich young pleasure-lover who fought to get back to his privileged existence, never changing this outlook throughout the war; he "never fully understood nor dedicated himself" to the cause of Black freedom (pp.1-2). So here we are presented with a young man raised by abolitionists who went to all the hazards of preparing and leading something new, a black regiment, before dying in the middle of it, without understanding what he was about, or dedicating himself to it. It's fashionable to "debunk" the heros of yore, but even those letters we have tell us otherwise, and Duncan reverses his appraisal, back and forth, several times. We should also beware of measuring citizens of other times against a modern baseline on classism, racism, etc. Apart from these problems, found in the introduction and some footnotes, the book lets Shaw speak for himself (he does it eloquently and enjoyably) and the reader can draw his/her own conclusion on ideas, events, and character development.

it's must have book I love this book

If, like me, you have seen the film "Glory", where Matthew Broderick plays Col. Robert Gould Shaw, white commander of the black 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War, you will see only a brief a glimpse of who Shaw was in his short life. Broderick does a masterful job of capturing some of Shaw's personality, but if you want to get inside this young man's head and find out who he really was, I highly recommend reading the book, "Blue Eyed Child of Fortune", ed. by Russell Duncan.

This collection of Shaw's letters shows a far more complex and conflicted young man than Broderick was given a chance to play. While his parents burned with the abolitionist spirit of Boston's intellectual elite, Shaw struggled with his own prejudices and his own self doubts throughout his short life. Never an exemplary student, he dropped out of Harvard to work in his uncle's New York firm, but rapidly found the work boring and unsuited to him. Struggling to find his place in the world, the Civil War came along and gave him a sense of purpose and direction.

Enlisting first in the 7th New York Guards, he served until his enlistment was up, and then joined the 2nd Massachusetts, gaining position as an officer. He "saw the elephant" at Winchester, Antietam and Cedar Mountain, was slightly wounded in two of those engagements, and found out first hand about the horrors of war. During winter camp in 1862-63, his father visited with word that Shaw had been tapped by Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew to command a new black regiment. At first, Shaw refused this offer on the basis that he felt a strong bond with the men he had fought and bled with, but then changed his mind and accepted the position of Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts.

Returning home to Boston to take command of his new regiment, he was deeply conflicted over whether these men would pan out to be good soldiers, but as time wore on and they proved their worth, Shaw's respect for his men grew, as did their respect for their commanding officer. After three months training, they left for duty in South Carolina after a grand parade down Boston streets. Shaw chafed for some action for his men, and the first that they saw was the tragic raid and burning of Darien, Georgia under the command of Kansas jayhawker Col. James Montgomery. Shaw was outraged at this action and very nearly refused his orders from his commanding officer, but reluctantly had to obey and ask his men to do what he felt was utterly immoral and against the codes of war. He would write letters of protest to his father and to others.

Eventually, in his quest for real action for his men, they were assigned a diversionary action on James Island to allow Union troops to land on nearby Morris Island for a planned assault on Fort Wagner a few days later. Sustaining light casualties in a skirmish, Shaw was impressed that his men were indeed up to snuff as soldiers, and so, a few days later, after a long exhausting march in a storm to Morris Island during which they got no rest, they were assigned to the lead attack column on Fort Wagner on the evening of July 18, 1863.

Sadly, Union intelligence on Ft. Wagner was badly flawed. It was originally thought that the fort held a complement of only 300 men and that after days of relentless shelling by the Union navies, that the fort would be softened up enough to withstand a frontal Union assault. However, most of Wagner's nearly 1500 men were in a massive bombproof riding out the shelling, and so, when the Union assault began with the 54th leading the attack column, they took the heaviest casualties, including the young Col. Shaw, who foresaw his own demise while speaking to Lt. Col. Edward "Ned" Hallowell, his second-in-command, while on a steamer on the way to their assignment: "If I could only live a few weeks longer with my wife, and be at home a little while, I might die happy, but it cannot be. I do not believe I will live through our next fight."

Rather unfortunately, Shaw was right. He was killed upon reaching the parapets of Wagner, a bullet through his heart killing him instantly. His body was stripped and thrown into a common grave with his men, and his father asked, when the Union finally took the fort a few months later when it was abandoned by the Confederates, that his body be left there with his men. Shaw's burial spot now lies somewhere under the Atlantic Ocean, the island having eroded significantly in the past 140 years since Shaw's demise and burial there.

This book will give you a great insight into a very conflicted, complicated and yet reluctantly heroic young man who was just coming into his own at the time of his tragic death. I am sure that he would have shunned the limelight had he survived the war to live to old age and would have been content to live life with his beloved Annie, to whom he was married a mere two months before his death. Annie would never remarry and lived the rest of her life as his widow, dying in 1907. The war would doubtless have made Shaw and given him the potential to focus his life and go on to great things had he lived to do so. Having lived so much of his young life with such rebellion against his mother's domineering apron strings and not quite sure what he wanted out of life, the war gave Shaw a brief opportunity to find out what it was he was made of. In so doing, he achieved the one thing he never dreamed of, immortality.

Read this book if you are eager to know the "real" Shaw. Letting him speak for himself is the best way to know this fascinating man who died so tragically young at the peak of his life. Follow it up with "Where Death and Glory Meet", Russell Duncan's excellent biography of Shaw. By the time you finish these two books, you will feel as if you know Shaw quite well. If you want to know a few of his men, read "A Brave Black Regiment" by Capt. Luis Emilio, a regimental history of the 54th, "On the Altar of Freedom" by Cpl. James Henry Gooding, a black soldier in the 54th, and "A Voice of Thunder", the letters of Sgt. George E. Stephens, another black soldier in the 54th. I just hope that more letters and diaries from this regiment surface and are published someday. Doubtless there are more hiding in attics and other unknown places.

This book comes highly recommended for good Civil War reading of a primary source, along with the other books mentioned that are by Shaw's soldiers. Together, they beat any historian's account of this historic regiment. Read them all if you are interested in Civil War or black history.