Wagner Books

This is a great book. Very nice articles/histories. The photos are nice, but there are only a hand full of interior shots. I received this book as a gift three years ago. My two year old loves it for the photos (he calls it his Engine Book). I purchased another copy for my father (a flight instructor). From 2 years to 72 years, all can appreciate this book.

Excellent photography, interesting text, this book has it all. From the 717 to 777, it gives you a good idea about Boeing's latest products. As a Boeing pilot, I recommend it!

This book was great, It tells soooooo much info about 717's, 737's, 747's, 757's, 767's, 777's, and a lot of upcoming planes. It is soooooooooooooo good.

I recently bought this book because i am a plane lover and hope to one day be a comercial airline pilot. With the full color pictures and articles on the "7 series" of boeing jetliners, this is a great book for all modern jet lovers alike.

I am a screenwriter. And I find that Vladimir Propp's structure works great for my stories. Have a look at it and try to apply it to any modern movie:

1.. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);
2.. An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'go to this place');
3.. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale);
4.. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim questions the villain);
5.. The villain gains information about the victim;
6.. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);
7.. Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy;
8.. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);
9.. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);
10.. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;
11.. Hero leaves home;
12.. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
13.. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against them);
14.. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
15.. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
16.. Hero and villain join in direct combat;
17.. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
18.. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
19.. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revivied, captive freed);
20.. Hero returns;
21.. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
22.. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
23.. Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another country;
24.. False hero presents unfounded claims;
25.. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
26.. Task is resolved;
27.. Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28.. False hero or villain is exposed;
29.. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);
30.. Villain is punished;
31.. Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

This structure works for many stories and films. I do recommed the book for any writer and screenwriter especially for those who write modern fairy tales. It's a must!

This is the first work to systematically characterize and describe a corpus of folktales. It includes a list of possible plot twists, in their correct chronological order for any story, and numerous examples from actual Russian fairy tales. This translation in particular reads well and makes a point of not departing from the text's literal meaning in any significant way. I would highly recommend this work for anyone interested in folktales or oral literature in general.

This seminal work is essential for an understanding of structuralist theory and the theory of folklore. It differs from the psychological view of the folktale in its descriptive ability. This theory is based on objective description and sytagmatic conjunction and complementation. Because of that, it is more applicable and flexible than any psychological dissection. Also, two people will reach roughly the same conclusions with this method- something impossible with a psychological approach. This is excellent for anyone interested in attacking the down and dirty working parts of a narrative.

This is an attempt to work out the underlying structural patterns (types of characters, what they do, how they are ordered) of Russian folktales, based on classic collections made in the nineteenth-century. If you are fortunate enough to have read a large collection of such stories -- preferably in translation, not "retold by ..." -- you will soon see the point of Propp's argument. Other European, and some non-European, traditions provide an almost equally good starting point, although the examples often are not so close as to be immediately convincing. Ideally, "Morphology of the Folktale" would be bound with at least a selection of the Russian folktales Propp analyzes, but this does not seem likely to happen.

Taken by itself, however, Propp's exploration is going to seem both dry and confusing. Try to imagine a book about the five-act structure of Shakespeare's tragedies being read by someone who had never seen or read a play before, and you may understand the problem.

Although Propp's exposition sometimes seems labored, he presents a convincing case that at least some oral prose narratives are built up of a stock of situations and events which can be slightly reordered, multiplied, and otherwise complicated, but amount to a "language" (a vocabulary, grammar, and syntax) of story-telling. This puts a new light on the problem of the distribution of folktales, and how they develop variants, two of the great issues of folklore studies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Despite its origins in a single body of oral literature, Propp's methods have been applied to other literature with known or suspected oral roots, sometimes with slightly contradictory results. I know of at least two different Proppian analyses of "Beowulf," for example. This is due at least in part to Propp's attempt to introduce fine divisions between similar plot elements, which, again, seem to work better with his source material than with other groups of stories. (And "Beowulf" has long been recognized to include elements later found in European fairy tales, so the possibility of applying Propp's structures was more intriguing than revolutionary.)

In "Feud in the Icelandic Saga" (1983), Jesse Byock reviewed efforts to apply Propp's methods to the Sagas of the Icelanders, another body of prose literature supposed to be grounded in oral techniques. He argued that a different approach is needed to their formally realistic stories about personalities, and the functioning of society; which does not diminish the validity of Propp's approach to the wonder-tale.

These four "Meditations" deal with, as has been noted in other reviews, a very diverse number of topics. Primarily, however (and apart from the scattered passages of philosophical interest), they are criticisms, or more accurately explanations, of culture. Although they deal with issues such as sholarship, literature, science, art, and of course philosophy, the recurring theme in all four is culture. What it is, what kind of culture is desirable, how culture comes about, etc. These discussions are found in each of the Meditations, some more fragmentary than in others.

These are some of Nietzsche's early writings and they reflect that fact. They are similar to "The Birth of Tragedy" to certain degrees in style and in content. They are not fully or even primarily philosophical works. Nietzsche is here still under the influence of Richard Wagner and Arthur Schopenhauer and although it can be seen that he is breaking away from those influences (for instance, the Meditation on Schopenhauer does not focus on Schopenhauer's actual philosophy as a source of education for Nietzsche so much as Schopenhauer the man, and the Meditation on Richard Wagner is not as strong and unified as the other Meditations are and it does not present a wholly flattering picture of Wagner, dwelling as it does on his psychology - it's tenor is not always one entirely of approval) he has not really begun his philosophizing yet.

The other way they show how early on in Nietzsche's career they are is in the writing itself. While "The Birth of Tragedy" had technical issues even ignoring the philological and philosophical concerns (as amazing a work in aesthetics and culture as it was), these four works do as well. Don't get me wrong, even in Nietzsche's first book his command of language shows itself and these are beautifully written pieces in their own right, but neither his first book nor the four Meditations can quite measure up, stylistically, to Nietzsche's later works like "Twilight of the Idols".

Still, the Meditations are interesting in their own right. "David Straus, the Confessor and the Writer" deals with a number of topics. One of these has to do with faith and doctrines of beliefs. Nietzsche, who used to enjoy reading Strauss's "Life of Jesus", blasts Strauss mercilessly (in a way that really hasn't changed if you happen to watch any TV at all) for putting up his own secular faith in place of religious faith and you can almost hear the unspoken words "Last Man" which Nietzsche would write so contemptuously of in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". The fact that Strauss shared similar views on religion as such with Nietzsche mattered little. Strauss, in Nietzsche's opinion, tried to change the fundamental views of the world (from the supernatural to the material/deterministic) without drawing new conclusions from that. Basically, Strauss was viewed as one of those who saw Darwin and that which he stood for as of great benefit to mankind without realizing the kinds of change such a shift in worldview that implied. Essentially, Strauss represents the type (the Last Man) that has ultimately been victorious, in large parts of the world, over Nietzsche. The kind who shifts his superstitions to material science but keeps the Christian morality, or the Christian conclusions based on that premise (which, because of the shift from afterworld to this world, is no longer a valid premise).

Later on, Nietzsche bashes Strauss's prose, although the final examples of bad German that Nietzsche picked apart in the original are simply cut out of this version because of the translation difficulties. It would be somewhat pointless to hear a German criticism in German _of_ German if it has all been rendered (deliberately badly) into English.

"On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life" is an interesting piece which points out a central tenet of Nietzsche's philosophy of life. A thing may only be "good" to the extent that it is life-promoting. This is, I'm pretty sure, the main reason Nietzsche fought so hard against anything he perceived as nihilistic. Nietzsche says in here that to a certain extent, for man to function, he must be "unhistorical". On the other hand, he applauds the type who can be as historical as possible and still function. Throughout these meditations you get a sense of Nietzsche's approval of the "higher" or aristocratic type that was to culminate in his conception of the overman.

"Schopenhauer as Educator" is, as I have said, not so much about Schopenhauer's philosophy as it is about the lesson's Nietzsche took from Schopenhauer's life. Nietzsche claimed, towards the end of his life, that this essay was not written about Schopenhauer but about himself. While I don't really buy that, I am inclined to grant, after reading it, that some of the attributes Nietzsche praises in Schopenhauer were either slightly altered or completely fabricated and that Nietzsche was writing into this Meditation things he admired and wished to emulate. For one thing, I don't think you could really say that Schopenhauer was "cheerful" in any sense of the word. Schopenhauer was a pessimist in more than just a philosophical sense and his writings about anything contemporary or tangible seem bitter (not just the stuff about Hegel).

I'll leave off the final Meditation. It's not as clear as the others, but there is a lot of interesting cultural commentary, including a very great deal about art and culture. There is one passage I would like to quote as an example: "Wherever 'form' is nowadays demanded, in society and in conversation, in literary expression, in traffic between states, what is involuntarily understood by it is a pleasing appearance, the antithesis of the true concept of form as shape necessitated by content, which has nothing to do with 'pleasing' or 'displeasing' preciesly because it is necessary and not arbitrary." (Richard Wagner in Bayreuth pg. 216)

Although there was a revolt against form in the early part of the 20th Century, like most revolts it made certain gains and was summarily crushed.

These Meditations constitute necessary reading for any serious Nietzschean (and I use that term without any sense of irony - if Nietzsche hadn't wanted adherents he shouldn't have left any writings, unsystematic or not) and help greatly with a proper understanding of his ideas (which can be misconstrued if you start with later writings and don't read them analytically).

This translation is, of course, excellent and the Cambridge Texts series is about the best on the market right now. Even though I have the paperback editions of Nietzsche's works the binding is more durable than some hardcover books I have purchased.

Nietzsche and Wagner were adept at picking on their contemporaries in a way that is so thoroughly unpopular now that I would not be surprised if this book is never again printed with the Introduction by J.P. Stern which was in the 1983 version reprinted in 1989, and which I purchased in 1990. It is clear from that introduction that David Strauss had read the first portion of this book and furnished his friend Rapp with a clear question about Nietzsche's character in a letter of 19 December 1873. "First they draw and quarter you, then they hang you. The only thing I find interesting about the fellow is the psychological point -- how can one get into such a rage with a person whose path one has never crossed, in brief, the real motive of this passionate hatred." (p. xiv) Those who are familiar with legal procedures, or how the media treats anyone who is suddenly perceived to be a fink, might enjoy this book as something that might be considered an unforgivable outburst today. Who could wish for such a triumph now, over intellectual paths which crossed twice? When Nietzsche was young, he perceived a scholar who displayed the real Straussian genius. Later, Nietzsche could only find a writer who, "if he is not to slip back into the Hegelian mud, is condemned to live out his life on the barren and perilous quicksands of newspaper style." (p. 54) I could have rated this book a bit higher, for being much more truthful than is expected of scholarly work today, but the kind of scholars who read these books might have no idea what I meant, or they know that they are better off not raising questions about those political issues which are most questionable. Nietzsche's real fearlessness began here.

Nietzsche wrote "David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer" in 1873, the first of his Unfashionable Observations, at the behest of Richard Wagner. David Strauss was an eminent theologian, whose The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1864) had had a tremendous impact due to its demystification of Jesus' life. Strauss had contended that the supernatural claims made about the historical Jesus could be explained in terms of the particular needs of his community. Although Strauss defends Christianity for it's moral ideals, his demythologizing of Jesus appealed to Nietzsche.

Nevertheless, Wagner had been publicly denounced by Strauss in 1865 for having persuaded Ludwig II to fire a musician rival. Not one to forget an assault, Wagner encouraged Nietzsche to read Strauss' recent The Old and the New Faith (1872), which advocated the rejection of the Christian faith in favor of a Darwinian, materialistic and patriotic worldview. Wagner described the book to Nietzsche as extremely superficial, and Nietzsche agreed with Wagner's opinion, despite the similarity of his own views to Strauss' perspective on religion.

This Unfashionable Observation, accordingly, was Nietzsche's attempt to avenge Wagner by attacking Strauss' recent book. In fact, the essay is at least as much an argumentative attack on Strauss as on his book, for Nietzsche identifies Strauss as a cultural "Philistine" and exemplar of pseudoculture. The resulting essay appears extremely intemperate, although erudite, filled with references to many of Nietzsche's scholarly contemporaries. The climax is a literary tour de force, in which Nietzsche cites a litany of malapropisms from Strauss, interspersed with his own barbed comments.

Nietzsche's second Unfashionable Observation, "On the Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life" (1874) is "unfashionable" because it questions the apparent assumption of nineteenth century German educators that historical knowledge is intrinsically valuable. Nietzsche argues, in contrast, that historical knowledge is valuable only when it has a positive effect on human beings' sense of life. Although he acknowledges that history does provide a number of benefits in this respect, Nietzsche also contends that there are a number of ways in which historical knowledge could prove damaging to those who pursued it and that many of his contemporaries were suffering these ill effects.

Nietzsche contends that history can play three positive roles, which he terms "monumental," "antiquarian," and "critical." Monumental history brings the great achievements of humanity into focus. This genre of history has value for contemporary individuals because it makes them aware of what is possible for human beings to achieve. Antiquarian history, history motivated primarily out of a spirit of reverence for the past, can be valuable to contemporary individuals by helping them appreciate their lives and culture. Critical history, history approached in an effort to pass judgment, provides a counter-balancing effect to that inspired by antiquarian history. By judging the past, those engaged in critical history remain attentive to flaws and failures in the experience of their culture, thereby avoiding slavish blindness in their appreciation of it.

The problem with historical scholarship in his own time, according to Nietzsche, was that historical knowledge was pursued for its own sake. He cited five dangers resulting from such an approach to history: (1) Modern historical knowledge undercuts joy in the present, since it makes the present appear as just another episode. (2) Modern historical knowledge inhibits creative activity by convincing those made aware of the vast sweep of historical currents that their present actions are too feeble to change the past they have inherited. (3) Modern historical knowledge encourages the sense that the inner person is disconnected from the outer world by assaulting the psyche with more information than it can absorb and assimilate. ( 4) Modern historical knowledge encourages a jaded relativism toward reality and present experience, motivated by a sense that because things keep changing present states of affairs do not matter. (5) Modern historical knowledge inspires irony and cynicism about the contemporary individual's role in the world; the historically knowledgeable person comes to feel increasingly like an afterthought in the scheme of things, imbued by a sense of belatedness.

Although Nietzsche was convinced that the current approach to history was psychologically and ethically devastating to his contemporaries, particularly the young, he contends that antidotes could reverse those trends. One antidote is the unhistorical, the ability to forget how overwhelming the deluge of historical information is, and to "enclose oneself within a bounded horizon." A second antidote is the suprahistorical, a shift of focus from the ongoing flux of history to "that which bestows upon existence the character of the eternal and stable, towards art and religion."

Nietzsche's third Unfashionable Observation "Schopenhauer as Educator" (1874), probably provides more information about Nietzsche himself than it does about Schopenhauer or his philosophy.

Schopenhauer, in Nietzsche's idealizing perspective, is exemplary because he was so thoroughly an individual genius. Schopenhauer was one of those rare individuals whose emergence is nature's true goal in producing humanity, Nietzsche suggests. He praises Schopenhauer's indifference to the mediocre academicians of his era, as well as his heroism as a philosophical loner.

Strangely, given Schopenhauer's legendary pessimism, Nietzsche praises his "cheerfulness that really cheers" along with his honesty and steadfastness. But Nietzsche argues that in addition to specific traits that a student might imitate, Schopenhauer offers a more important kind of example. Being himself attuned to the laws of his own character, Schopenhauer directed those students who were incapable of insight to recognize the laws of their own character. By reading and learning from Schopenhauer, one could develop one's own individuality.

"Richard Wagner in Bayreuth" (1876), the fourth and final of Nietzsche's published Unfashionable Observations, was intended as an essay of praise to Wagner, much like "Schopenhauer as Educator." Nietzsche's relationship with Wagner had been strained by the time he wrote the essay, however, and the tension is evident in the text, which emphasizes Wagner's psychology (a theme that would preoccupy Nietzsche in many of his future writings). Nietzsche, himself, may have been concerned about the extent to which the essay might be perceived as unflattering, for he considered not publishing it. Ultimately, Nietzsche published a version of the essay that was considerably less critical of Wagner than were earlier drafts, and Wagner was pleased enough to send a copy of the essay to King Ludwig.

Herein lie the seeds of Nieztsche's notion of Eternal Recurrence, which will germinate in The Gay Science, and bear fruit in Zarathustra.

Neitzsche's treatment of the four "types" of history in "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life" is facsinating, both in its own right, and as a prelude to the notion of eternal recurrence.

This is really a book that must be read by anyone serioulsly interested in Nietzsche's philosophy.

The same comments of my review for Dover's reprint of Peter's full-score of Wagner's second opera of his "Ring" cycle" hold for the equivalent reprint of that publisher's edition of "Parsifal" (though NOT for "Tristan und Isolde", alas...):

Unlike Schott's editions (which Dover uses for its reprints of the other 3 operas of the cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" {"The Nibelung's Ring"}, the Peters version reprinted here DOES have the voice and instrumental staves mostly arranged in proper order, making things a great deal easier to follow. [Alas, there's one exception - having the voices and stage-directions (though not stage instruments - that part at least is already in proper order) between the violas and the 'celli (harking back to Baroque "basso-continuo" usage) - at least they're consistent with it which helps...] Also the fonts used by the Peters engraving are a fair bit clearer than those of Schott in their first editions (their current edition of the complete works of Richard Wagner is SUPERLATIVE but no doubt fantastically expensive!!!).

This score is not only a steal at the price, it's an excellent score, period (though I could visualise it using fewer pages if the engravings were done differently whereby the systems would have been somewhat smaller but done for a larger paper-size). No qualms about my recommendation - GET IT!!!!

Even if you're not a musician, it's pretty easy to follow the music on the full score while listening to a cd (of course you have to be able to read a score!); you then can understand much of Wagner's technique and effects (the violin arpeggios e.g.), recognize the leit-motivs and their variants.
The price of this 800 page book is a bargain, and it's really enjoyable to go deep inside the music.

Parsifal, Wagner's last opera, and the only one written for a Bayreuth premiere, tells the story of Percival's recovery of the Holy Grail. It was written with the same passion for Christian mythology with which the anonymous medieval English mystery writers wrote their plays. Unfortunately, this powerfully spiritual music drama provides the setting for one of Wagner's most disgraceful bits of anti-semitic insensitivity. Hermann Levi, the premiere's conductor, waited backstage to enter the pit and begin the performance. Seconds before he entered, Wagner grabbed the score from Levi's hands, stating coldly, "give it back, I can't have a Jew like you conduct this." Then, after a tense pause, he smiled and said, "I was just joking. Here." Unquestionably, Wagner was two things: an insensitive brut whose anti-semitism later inspired the sociopathy of Adolf Hitler, and a musicodramatic genius. Dover reprinted an early twentieth century Peters edition of Parsifal. From a scholarly viewpoint, Peters is a most reliable German publisher. Dover provides a translation of the cast list and the table of contents. Unfortunately, there is no English translation of the text, and no glossary of German musical terms. Nonetheless, any good recording will provide a reliable libretto, and the musical terms can be looked up in any good German or musical dictionary. As always with Dover, the book is easily read and built to last. It may be a little small for podium use, but it is perfect at home in front of the stereo. There is, unfortunately, no reprint of the original title page, as the Tristan and Walkure scores have. The original title page serves no purpose really, but sometimes it's fun to open to that title page...and dream.

Wagner's Parsifal, his "last" opera, is also in many ways his most moving on an intellectual and spiritual level. Full of Schopenhauerian resignation which rises beyond the pessimism of The World as Will and Idea into the world of Buddhist renunciation, Parsifal uses Christian metaphor to show the futility of striving and the peace to be gained from release.

However, this review will obviously be of the Dover edition of the full score, not the opera itself. Also, I won't comment on the previous negative review, except to add that the reviewer should do Wagner and the world a favor and read Macgee's The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy, and give the slanderous and bizarre Wagner-Hitler link a well-deserved rest. Wagner was an anti-semite, but to somehow link this to Hitler is a classic example of the genetic fallacy (where did this idea ever come from, anyway? The Nazis loved Beethoven far more than Wagner's left-wing revolutionary aural madness,it never really fit with their style....)

The Dover editions of Wagner's full scores are the most useful editions available for actually listening to and studying Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerken, and are a bargain at twice the price. Professional musicians will of course recognize that the G. Schirmer editions are the ones most often used for actual performances and rehearsals, particularly the Schirmer piano reductions (either the good old green hardbacks or the orange paperbacks). But even professionals make good use of the Dover editions, since they are ideal for sitting down with a good set of headphones and a cup of coffee to take in the brilliance that was Wagner.

I really enjoy this book and recommend it highly to anyone serious about praying for their leaders. I refer back to the book often and I am reading it again, even now. Mr. Wagner's teachings are clear, easy to understand and learn, as well as, incorporate into my life. The author mentors his students, very well, encouraging them to be all that scripture challenges them to live out, in being a support system to those in any role of leadership. I will continue to give this book to friends as a tool, to be used to become a blessing in the world, as they pray each day.

I had a Divine appointment with this book.
I'm fairly certain it was written just for me!
And probably for you too...

When I bought this book, I didn't even know that I could be "called" to intercede... I just knew I was desperate to answer this urgent call that was taking my sleep from me and drawing me to my prayer closet. With a heavy burden to intercede for my Pastors and another Christian leader I was desperate to know HOW to go about fulfilling this urgency,in my spirit, to pray. Thank God for this book!

I don't know why this book isn't required reading for every person who wants to be a Pastor. I should be! Imagine where the church as a whole would be if everyone had a proper prayer covering..... just a thought.

LOVED the book! It's a MUST READ for sure!

A seminal book on personal intercession. I've used Prayer Shield as a textbook, and I've sent copies to several ministers to help them initiate prayer support for their own ministry.

The concept of intercession being one of the gifts of the Spirit is ground breaking. Wagner's treatise on the different functions of intercession is vital for any serious prayer ministry.

The bottom line of this book is if a pastor fails in ministry the congregation needs only to look at their amount (or lack) of prayer support to answer the inevitable question of "Why?"

Prayer Shield covers the topic of personal intercession.. e.g. of those who are commited to pray for and cover an individual (such as a pastor or the leader of a ministry) in prayer. It begins by sharing some true stories of the power of prayer, and also develops what the Bible teaches on the subject of intercession and prayer partners.

The second chapter explores intercessors from every angle.. I feel that one of the most powerful insights in the book is the concept of different types of prayer assignments, and how to determine which type you fit into as an intercessor. E.g., some people specialize in thoroughly praying a request through, and they desire details and feedback and keep prayer lists and prayer journals detailing their requests and how/when God answered them. Others tend to be more prophetic in nature. They find it hard to take requests from people and do not like to keep lists.. they prefer to come before the Lord and get their prayer assignment directly from Him. You need to give lots of details and feedback to those who specialize in praying a request through, but you don't want to bog a prophetic intercessor down with too many specific details and requests. Peter identifies 4 types of intercessors. The book help leaders to determine which prayer-type their intercessors are so they can give them prayer information/requests in a manner that works best for them.

Subsequent chapters develop why pastors and leaders need personal intercession, and how they can begin developing and mobalizing personal intercessors. It teaches leaders how to recieve intercession and how to develop relationship with their intercessors and how to supply them with the information they need to be effctive.

(A personal note.. I used to be one of Peter and Doris Wagner's personal intercessors, and I can attest that they live what they teach in this book.. and as an intercessor, I found their system very workable.)

I thought deeply about writing this review. Dr. Wagner is a long-time well-known excellent author and Christian leader. His writing on praying with power is excellent, and it is easy to read and is a guidance book for change. He importantly addresses the timely subject of Gifted intercessors. I am asked many times by both the young and older adults just how do you listen and hear from the Lord. This important book with a strong and powerful biblical base is a great book for guiding and helping all.

Best selling author C. Peter Wagner draws from experiences gained through decades of service in ministry and study to answer practical questions on making prayer effective. "Praying with Power" is the sixth volume in The Prayer Warrior Series.

Concrete examples of prayer, both Biblical and contemporary illustrate praying with power. These stories tell of a church in Africa known as the Kiambu Prayer Cave and the victory over Mama Jane's Sorcery. Wagner tells of a fresh energy being experienced by members within the Church of China, Peru, and other nations throughout the world.

Wagner discusses topics such the gift of intercessory prayer, two-way praying, hearing God's voice, three levels of prayer, as well as three levels of spiritual warfare, healing prayer, spiritual mapping and targeting our prayers for the community and the nations.

I found the reflection questions especially helpful in self examination. These questions are excellent as discussion in small group studies. Wagner challenges the reader to develop aggressive, spirit empowered, intentional prayer.

Wagner is founding president of Global Harvest Ministries. GHM have developed several strategies to help the body of Christ flow with paradigm shifts, in the areas prophetic intercession, deliverance, prophecy, power ministries, the New Apostolic Reformation, marketplace ministries, and spiritual transformation.

This final volume of The Prayer Warrior Series concludes with C. Peter Wagner's most personal insights into the dynamics of prayer and spiritual warfare. This is an important and timely book for anyone who has a burning desire to pray more powerfully than you ordinarily have been doing. "Praying with Power" is a book that will show you how to pray effectively and hear clearly from God.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3H353VY84ZM2Q

Good book about how God wants us to have effective powerful prayer. This book will teach you how to have that. God does hear our prayers and answers.

I really enjoyed this piece of fiction. The story is very well written and the characters are extremely likable. I couldn't put this book down, I finished it in two days. Mr Wagner is an author worth looking for.

I really enjoyed the interaction of Graig and Jesse, and Sage. These guys took my breath away. I liked the erotism of the men involved int his great story.

The story of Craig and Jesse was amazing. The caracters are so believable. The writing is supurd. The story is fun, and easy to follow, everything flows really well together. I have read many gay love stories, but this one tops them all. Kudos to Mr. Wagner for giving us Craig and Jesse.

This a must read.

After reading the story of Graig and Jamie. I became so involved in their charaters and their lives. I could not put this book down. Craig is a very strong character and has a great personality. Jamie is is a weakling and the author has done an excellent job of portraying that.

This is an excellent read....

This book gives a fascinating glimpse into the minds and hearts of newspaper reporters. The section of how reporters covered the Black Dahlia murder case was interesting, if not a little disturbing. Very thorough look at L.A. and its newspapers.

Rob Wagner has performed a great and long overdue service. He has chronicled the history of L.A. newspapers in the first half of the 20th Century---a "Front Page" era when L.A. had a half-dozen dailies, with many editions per day. Wagner is to be particularly congratulated for recounting the rise and fall of the original L.A. Daily News, a peach-colored oversized tabloid much revered in its day. The DN, at one time the circulation leader, hosted an array of great writers, from the legendary Matt Weinstock (THE L.A. columnist of his day)to Jack Smith and Jim Murray. The book is painstaking in its research of circulation figures and union struggles---spiced with rollicking anecdotes about great newspapermen (and women) of the day. This is the definitive history of Los Angeles newspapers.

Red Ink, White Lies is an impressive and informative chronicle of the successes and failures of six Los Angeles daily newspapers during an era of the city's fiercest newspaper wars and competitions. Author Rob Wagner (who is a veteran of more than 26 years as a reporter, city editor, managing editor, and night editor) interviewed dozens of newsman and women, resulting in a vivid and candid portrait of prewar and postwar newspaper reporters, including their lifestyle, ethics and professionalism. From celebrity journalism to mob era police corruption, reportage of ethnic minority communities and the "red-baiting" 50s, Red Ink, White Lies is a thoroughly fascinating, insightful contribution to the 20th century history of journalism.

I love to read about Los Angeles history, and I thought I've studied just about everything on this city. But this book just blew me away. It's a totaly different take on early 20th century Los Angeles told by the men and women who lived it and reported on for the city's daily newspapers. It is filled with anecdotal accounts of L.A.'s most sensational crimes, mobsters, and bad cops. It tells the history of the city not from the scholarly ivory tower but through the eyes of the newspaper reporter, editor, and photographer who witnessed these actual awesome events. A real wonderful read. It's well-sourced. I got a kick out of the who's who at the end of the book that lists and provides bios of nearly 200 L.A. journalists of the day.

Every Jewish fanatic who thinks they know everything about Wagner's relationships w/Jews and who base their opinions on the fact that he was an anti-semite ought to read this book. Loads of stuff not previously known, at least not by me. jww

Having read many books on the life of Wagner over the years, I can safely say that this biographical sketch by Brener ranks among the best. The author is a retired attorney who is also a music and art critic. Like most of us who love Wagner's music, Brener is troubled by the composer's less than admirable traits -- his manipulation of his friends, his skipping out on debts, and particularly his anti-Semitism. How could a man who wrote some of the most moving music and insightful music dramas in Western civiilzation be such a defective human being? Brener sets out to understand Wagner the man in human perspective and succeeds admirably. He focuses mainly on Wagner's public views of "the Jews" and his private, long-standing and meaningful friendships with many individual Jews. A retired lawyer, he has done his homework, deposed all the key witnesses, and developed an argument that leaves no stone unturned. Brener makes a compelling case for Wagner as a nuanced human being rather than the black and white monster as some biographers portray him. In addition, the book is extremely well written and hard to put down. I came away with a greater appreciation of Wagner and a deeper understanding of the nature of prejudice. Highly recommended.

This is not the usual diatribe that we expect on Wagner's Antisemitism. Instead it is a biography focusing on the composer's relations with the Jews. Brener makes a sharp distinction between "the Jews" in Roman type and the same phrase in italic, the former representing Wagner's Jewish friends, the latter the Jewish community that he despised.

The main characters are Karl Tausig, Heinrich Porges, Joseph Rubinstein, and Hermann Levi--all close associates of Wagner and all Jewish. The chapters on Levi are especially revealing, a sharp challenge to orthodox opinion by such scholars as Peter Gay. The analysis of Wagner's major tract on the subject, "Judaism in Music," is adequate.

Brener is a good writer with a refined sense of tone and wit. He knows the primary literature backwards and forwards. His mastery of the secondary sources seems less secure but still sufficient for his purposes. Obviously he has visited most of the places he discusses, for his descriptions of them (both then and now) are vivid.

His theme is summed up in a concise sentence that concludes his preface: "I do not beleive that, at the deeper levels, the man who created Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and Der Ring des Nibelungen could possibly have been the monster that so many have painted." He proves his point well.

I enjoyed this book and learned much from it. I recommend it wholeheartedly to fellow Wagnerians.

Despite a few notable exceptions, Milton Brener's Richard Wagner and the Jews is nearly the only book that deals fairly with the famed opera composer's anti-Semitism; and as such, this book is a welcome corrective to some of the more shrill anti-Wagner screeds of the last few decades. Brener does not intend to excuse Wagner; he merely comes closer than most in explaining him.

Besides being probably the greatest artist who ever lived, Wagner was also a bundle of contradictions. However, this bundle of contradictions never seemed to be able to realize that he was just that. Indeed, Wagner did possess anti-Semitic attitudes, but his anti-Semitism was of a different stripe than that espoused by the Nazis. Wagner called for Jewish assimilation within the German population, which certainly did not conform with later Nazi policy. Like many a 19th-Century anti-Semite, Wagner seems to have seen Jewishness as almost an abstract, metaphysical concept. Of course, that does not excuse him. He did indeed say vile things about Jews, and he needs to be held accountable for those attitudes, but to simply (and wrongly) call him a proto-Nazi is not only intellectually dishonest, it wrongly stains the reputation of an artist who created stupendous, deeply human works-of-art.

As Brener also points out, there is nothing inherently anti-Semitic in any of Wagner's great works of art. Unfortunately, some writers, such as Robert Gutman, seem to have a compulsion to find even the most tenuous, implausible Anti-Semitic connections in Wagner's work. It is simply impossible to find such links. There is not the slightest overt connection to anti-Semitism in any of Wagner's works, and if there are any such covert links, then one would have had to have entered the composer's mind to see them. Wagner's many genuine friendships with Jews complicate Gutman's position even more.

This is simply a fabulous book. And, along with The Darker Side of Genius and The Ring of Myths, it is also the most responsible volume available that deals specifically with Wagner's most famous character flaw.

Also included, as an appendix, is the composer's infamous essay, "Judaism in Music". While the essay is bitter and paranoid, it is helpful for a frame of reference to the preceding 300 pages. Needless to say, I find Wagner's argument that Jews are incapable of generating higher culture to be utterly worthless. Schoenberg & Mahler (and many other Jewish artists) obviously dismantle that argument, and as for Wagner's claim that Jews are incapable of high art because they are "rootless", we only need to look at Aaron Copland, a man of Lithuanian Jewish heritage, who used Appalachian & Mexican melodies and rhythms to create incredible works of art.

A blend of fiction and non-fiction that make the reading very believable. It show the trials and tribulations that this little band of people face on a daily basis just to survive and find the courage to keep on going.

A must for all age groups.

Once started I could not put it down. The relatiionship of the man & woman slowly evolve and grow beautifully.

I related to the feelings of the man (Anbessa) and the little girl (Caraga) and the troubles they faced as she grew and matured.

Can not wait to see if there will be another one.

It reminded me a lot of Jean Auel and her book"Clan of The Cave Bear"

WONDERFUL STORY...WORTH BUYING AND READING....I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN...WELL WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED...VERY FACTUAL AND BELIEVEABLE FICTION...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY AN AVID READER....

Have you ever wondered about things like love between a man and a woman, a father's love for a child, or modern positions for making love? In the book "The Second Peoples: The Beginning," those questions and more are answered. The two main characters are Umfazi and Anbessa. Anbessa's name is Amharic and means lion, and Umfazi's name is Zulu word for woman. It should be noted that the names used in this book are real names or are derived from real names. Umfazi, a very young woman is about to give birth to her first child. She is alone and afraid, she has just lost her entire family and tribe in a horrible fire. As the book opens she is hanging in s tree and is experiencing some very painful contractions. Anbessa, a young man who has witnessed fire and smoke coming from a mountain has ventured away from the safety and security of his tribe to find out where the fire is coming from. During Anbessa's travels he hears moans coming from the direction of a tree and at first he thinks it might be an animal, but upon further inspection he sees Umfazi. She is obviously about to give birth. At first Anbessa just watches Umfazi but she is in so much pain that he decides to help her.

This is a highly unusual action for a male to take, a man witnessing the birth of a child let alone assisting in that birth because it is considered offensive to the spirits. Men were never around women during birth or when they had their monthly cycle. The birth of Caraga, Umfazi's daughter, is the first of many different or unnatural circumstances that happened in this book.

Anbessa and Umfazi are two people alone in the wilderness, with a newborn baby, battling the elements and wild animals. They often are forced to move from place to place in seach of shelter, safety, food, and clean drinking water.

During their travels they do some things that are definetly considered different. One of those things is that they fall in love. This is highly unusual since women were basically used for mating (sex) and for men's personal pleasure; there was to be no pleasure for the woman. Anbessa and Umfazi develop feelings and make love to feel closer to one another.

Another thing that the couple did differently was the way they made love. The traditional way was for a woman to get down on her hands and knees and the man would could from behind and do his business. One night as they were mating Umfazi decides that she wants to look at Anbessa while they mate, thus the beginning of a new sexual position. Caraga was the apple of Anbessa's eye which in modern times would not be unusual but at the time when the story takes place men did not associate with children. Yet, Anbessa played with Caraga and loved her like she was his own child, even though she was not.

The Second People: The Beginning, was a very different type of book for me. It interwove love and anthropology, two things that I did not think could be linked together. This was a beautiful story and on the RAW scale it is a 4.

Simone A. Hawks