Wagner Books

I liked Matt Wagner's work both as writer and illustrator best in Batman VS Grendel (Hunter Rose) limited series. His artwork in Devil's Quest was outstanding and you can see more of the same by his colleague, JK Snyder.

Story is so so, although tempo is good, but ART...I loved this book!!! It is not best trade/graphic novel but it is definitively good enough to buy it for Your collection.

Wagner has come up with a new incarnation of the old Justice Society character. This man is a doctor, a surgeon, and as such is very useful to a superhero organisation. However, it is fairly standard stuff. An accident makes him blind, but he gains complete and total night vision, which leads to a bout of costumed adventuring after dark.

One of my favourite painters is a fellow named Seurat, and one of my favourite paintings I've ever seen is Seurat's Invitation To The Sideshow (English title), so it's not surprising that I quite like the painted art featured in this stylish origin-story for the new Doctor Mid-Nite. Pointillism as an art technique is not to everyone's tastes, and technically speaking, I guess John K. Snyder III's art here is not Pointillism as per its rigid definitions, though I think it verges on it. Certainly the gritty feel in some of the panels is achieved by a dotting effect; are things grimey, or in shadow?--And when the dirty look of the speckling is combined with some bright washes of colour, you get this dirty-beautiful effect. Panels where everything is grey, even though everything cannot possibly be grey, or green, or blue. Again I'm reminded of Seurat's use of colour to determine a mood, and the use of colour in Doctor Mid-Nite keeps the book from becoming too grim an affair. Interestingly, the art's beauty is what also keeps the reader from being emotionally attached to the story at times--colours and dots highlighting their own blatant artificiality, maybe even causing a soporific effect now and then (a criticism that can be levelled at Seurat). A cool style that does tend to hold one at a distance. But then art, like superhero comics, is not life.

As for the story, we have Doctor Pieter Cross poking around, trying to find out who is manufacturing a weird and dangerous steroid called A39. This gets him nosing around A39 user Camilla Marlowe, who forms a strange sort of bond with him once she discovers he's doing more for the city behind the scenes (he's kind of a disgraced doctor) than just writing cheques to charities. But, his and Camilla's persistent investigations into the nature of A39 draw the attention of the so-called Terrible Trio, heads of the company called Praeda, who make illegal steroids, conduct bizarre mystical rituals while worshipping elemental spirits, and plot to destroy the affluent portion of Portsmouth City so that the slums, which they own, can become valuable. Their plan turns out to be quite complex, involving multiple forms of filthy city-wide contamination, like turning Portsmouth River into one big oil slick, and pumping toxic waste throughout the city's sewer system. But first they want to get rid of the pesky Doctor Pieter Cross. Their big attempt to destroy him backfires; it creates Doctor Mid-Nite.

The lead-up to Dr. Cross actually donning tights and a cape to fight evil is unique, because he's just a nudge away from becoming a superhero anyway. He has a cadre of secret helpers placed around the city--people like Lemon, Auntie Scum, Nite Lite, and Ice Sickle...all street-people or other fringe elements--who already helped him distribute condoms to prostitutes, meals to the needy, and run a needle exchange program. Soon they become a hidden army for Doctor Mid-Nite, even going into battle with him at times! Also, Mid-Nite turns his knack for gadgetry to weapons-making, and kits himself out with a nifty arsenal, starting with Black Light bombs. The owl nesting on the grounds of Cross's estate decides it wants to be a sidekick. And Cross himself is portrayed as "quite agile". All of this, plus his discovery that his blindness-- thanks to the machinations of the Terrible Trio--actually allows him to see in the dark, sets him on a superheroic crusade to save the city from being soaked in noxious chemicals, drowned in spilled oil, and overrun with steroid-dependant Praeda-controlled zombies.

The story features a Deathtrap for Doctor Mid-Nite, stealth missions into the chemlabs of the enemy, an underwater skirmish, robotic vultures for the owl to fight, and numerous attempts by the Terrible Trio's chief muscle--merciless Mr. Sham--to destroy our hero once and for all. In the end, it's all a bit familiar; villains seem to like to destroy cities during superheroes' origin stories, these days...to cash in on real estate investments, or, uh, just to destroy. And aspects of Doctor Mid-Nite's debut remind me of Daredevil and Batman, a lot of the time. So this is quite fun, with the art giving it its own special look, but there's nothing new here. Doctor Mid-Nite, in costume, does look great throughout, though I'm not keen on the injections-as-weapons aspect of his arsenal.

Sorry, but Matt Wagner is capable of so much more than what was displayed in this book. There's nothing wrong with it; however, there is nothing inventive or original contained in these pages. Cliche after cliche, our lead character progresses from injured doctor to superhero. While the artwork is nice and definitely a good start for Mr. Snyder, there's not much substance on which to draw on.

A very clichéd do-gooder steps on someone's toes and looses most of his eyesight from the scuffle. Now he's a do-gooder in tights who can barely see! Wonder where I've heard that one before? The writing is canned and the art, while occasionally decent, is mostly just amateurish.

Don't waste your money.

For a student just taking one course on Virology, it is a fairly good text. The basics are all there. The organization and readability is expected for any college student with a solid scientific background.

Learning about virology beyond just a beginning course would obviously take a more in depth text, but as the title suggests, it is BASIC VIROLOGY.

This text was a real disappointment to me. Having taught microbiology for a number of years and looking for something to expand my understanding and knowledge of the field of virology, I was sorry that I added this book to my reference library. All in all, I found it to be poorly written and only slightly informative; at least from my perspective.

The information presented in this book was very helpful in my understanding of virology. The text was very easily followed and subjects presented in a straightforward manner. Basic Virology is a must have!

This is a great book! The method at which the material is presented rivals that of medical textbooks. The graphics and illustration are great! Go UC Irvine! Spcial Events Parking Rocks!

The information is not coherent and is scattered all over the place. Points that could be made in one sentence are stretched out over many paragraphs. Furthermore, the usage of words are often inappropriate in many cases (looks like the authors just ran a thesaurus check) which makes the text very confusing. This book is definitely not recommended for someone without a background in Virology.

I am not sure if the authors deliberately set out to fill pages with fluff or if they genuinely believe they are adding value. The title of the book is so appealing -- but that's where the inspiration ends.

Here are some real nuggets from the "Let Your Imagination Soar" section (activities A-Z):
* Active. Stay active/alert/sociable. [nice idea? helpful?]
* Abroad. Travel to foreign countries. [Anyone ever think of traveling in retirement? Thanks for the insight.]
* Battery. Replace the battery in your car. [I'm not making this up.]
* ESP. Improve your extrasensory perception. [Again, not making this up.]
* Emmy. Watch Emmy awards on TV. [Watching TV? Really?]
* Fire Alarm. Replace the batteries in your fire alarms. [I'm not making this up. Shoot me now if that's what retirement is.]
* Friendship. To have a friend, be a friend. [Is this why you're thinking of buying this useless book?]
* Loaf. Spend some time lazily. [Thanks for the tip.]

The inspiration just isn't there. The appendices are even more insulting to the intelligence of the reader. Like the travel section. 6 pages listing phone numbers for airlines, hotels, cruise lines. Do you really need this book to get the phone number for United Airlines? 13 pages listing the addresses of the local visitors bureaus in all 50 states? Are you going to get an idea of how to create a fulfilling retirement by calling the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism's 800 number? If you're planning travel of any kind, why would you use this book for it in any way?

I thought about whether to donate my copy to the local library, but think I would be doing society a greater good by simply dumping it in the local recycling bin, so as not to cost some poor retiree time with such a useless collection of pages.

I credit the authors with a good title -- but shame on me for not browsing the fluff contents before buying.

I did not find this to be very helpful in planning for my upcoming retirement. To be fair, I have looked at several retirement advice books and not found any to be of much help.

Being newly retired at age 53,I figured I'd better find a way to keep out of trouble.This book is it! There are so many things,even little things,that I had not considered as part of my retirement activities. I have been engrossed in the book since it arrived,and as soon as I get organized,I will be off and running.I would recommend this jewel of a book to anyone who might need a little help getting used to a new life..retirement!!

I borrowed this book from the library and liked it so much that I had to buy it. It has ideas, quotes, resource leads, and an index. This book will continue to serve throughout life.

Reviewed Kathleen Dowdell for Reader Views (2/07)

"How to Enjoy Your Retirement" is a provocative, well-written book about activities you can do to help you enjoy your retirement. This third edition, published in 2006, keeps pace with constantly changing information that is available at our fingertips. In the introduction, the authors advise taking a personal inventory of what you think you will need or desire in your retirement years. Appendix A contains questions such as: Who Are You?, What Do You Do Well?, Why Are You Retiring?, and How Do You Feel About Retirement? This is a useful tool to evaluate your situation since your life will be dramatically changed with an abundance of free time on your hands (unless you plan on babysitting for the grandchildren). If you do decide to spend lots of time with your grandchildren, Appendix B lists numerous activities that you can do with them. Appendices C through I are broken down into additional resources, activities, tips and suggestions that will aid in the transition into retirement. An appendix dedicated strictly to travel provides names, addresses, and phone numbers of airlines, car rental agencies, cruise lines, hotels, vacation homes, and state visitor bureaus as well as internet sites related to travel. There is a wealth of information in these sections alone.

The meat of the book is found in the list of activities alphabetically listed from A through Z which offers a wide variety of ways to spend free time in retirement. There are over 1000 ideas sure to spark the creative side of any brain. Topics such as Chatty Cathy - "get your Chatty Cathy doll fixed by e-mailing Chatty Cathy's Haven" and Seasonal Contests - "start seasonal contests for guessing when the first measurable snowfall will occur" or this is your life - "make a video for yourself or someone else" are sure to motivate anyone to action for activities and further research.

This is a fun, quirky book that can be used for the serious undertaking of searching for activities to do during retirement or as a book of light reading to pass the time. The book can be used as a resource to brighten your mood on a dreary day or to find further information on the web for a topic you wish to pursue. Authors Tricia Wagner and Barbara Day compiled the A to Z activities from ideas and experiences of friends, family, neighbors as well as themselves because they saw how individuals' perceptions of retirement have changed over the years. They felt a need to address the variety of feelings people approaching retirement experience and to share information to help with these ambivalent feelings. Their success is apparent in this 3rd edition. "How to Enjoy Your Retirement" book would make a nice gift for someone approaching retirement or for someone who has been retired for a few years and wants to add some excitement to life by pursuing new avenues and areas of activities.

This hatchet job is truly a scandal. The author has an ax to grind. Skip it.

The author of _Zarathustra's secret_ takes us through the period encounter between Nietzsche and Wagner in a quite graphic tale of one of the first of the modern celebrity farces, that of Wagnerian ego and its hangers on. Although the account is well done, I should wonder if a clever cutpurse like Nietzsche was ever really subjugated and whether he didn't, despite an series of emotional shocks, achieve the net equivalent of going undercover as a Wagner disciple, to his profit or loss in unclear. For all the background music of the philosophic, more than musical, leitmotiv (Schopenhauer gave it away with fake hint, the 'will') this account of artistic overdrive twice over is a remarkable tale of psychological helplessness, in Wagner and Nietzsche. Anyway, worth reading.

A great sage once said, "All history's a lie" and this book only further enhances that point. Which is why I am recommending it.

Kohler not only contends that Nietzsche was a homosexual, but an uber-sissy who was lowered to menial tasks of propaganda and undershorts buying for the heavy-handed Master Wagner. Drawing largely from the diaries and personal correspondence of three megalomaniacs, which we know are highly accurate accounts of objective reality and history, Kohler paints a picture of a menage a trois of ascetic bondage: Nietzsche to Cosima and the Maestro, Cosima to the Master, and Wagner himself to the libidinous gods of hedonism. To top this off, the Dionysian Nietzsche in his final stages of dementia and mustachio maximus, calls out to Cosima, his spiritual Ariadne and soul-bride to come save his tottering soul from the labryrinth of the Wagnerian oppression that continued even after their reknowned split. Thus proclaiming, "C-o-s-i-m-a, you are the only MAN for me." Well Kohler didn't say that, but in saying that Wagner was "a woman" in Nietzsche's eyes and that Nietzsche himself, the constant companion of man-worshippers and man-worship was feminine in affection and mannerisms towards his friendths[sic], we can deduce from Nietzsche's admiration for her as an intellectual equal(remember his MISOGYNY!), that she was the only masculine personality in the triumvirate and thus Nietzsche's love and his homosexuality are validated. Not to mention that Herr Wagner is a dead ringer for Redd Foxx!

All facts and fictions aside, the book made me laugh quite a few times. Maybe the truth was lost somewhere in the translation from German to English but it didn't stop my enjoyment. Why let history and truth get in the way of that? I mean, Nietzschean lore has purported that the young man, while serving in the German calvary during a riding exercise had fallen from his saddle and was dangling upside down under the belly of the horse(Perhaps it was the same horse that he witnessed being flogged and this was what sparked his madness!) and said, "Oh Schopenhauer, where are you now?" Who's buying that but the ghost of Schopenhauer and me?

Once in a lifetime a book comes along ... that is so arm-wavingly silly that it's almost Pythonesque. This book, "Nietzsche and Wagner: a Study in Subjugation" is actually less reliable than Robert Gutman's or Marc Weiner's Wagner books, which were previously the record-holders. But Kohler beats them hollow. I'm sorry to say that this book has the scholarly merit of a UFO abduction memoir.

Kohler doesn't even bother to try to substantiate his various untrue and silly claims. One of these claims is that Nietzsche was homosexual, for which Kohler (as several critics have pointed out) adduces no evidence at all. Maybe Kohler thinks that Nietzsche calling a book "Die Froeliche Wissenschaft" (The Gay Science) makes Nietzsche "gay" in the current sense. (The meaning of "gay" seems to be changing again, but that's another story.) But we have plenty of evidence of Nietzsche's heterosexuality and no evidence at all of same-sex desire or practice. Nietzsche was a misogynist, hostile and contemptuous towards women, also clearly afraid of them, but that doesn't make him homosexual. Kohler seems to think that claiming something is the same as making it so.

Kohler also claims that after the Nietzsche-Wagner split Wagner conducted a relentless and vindictive campaign against Nietzsche on the grounds that he (Nietzsche) was homosexual. Again, Kohler doen't support this claim of a homophobic campaign by Wagner with any evidence. But then, how could he? There was no such campaign. Instead there was the famous letter from Wagner to Nietzsche's doctor, expressing concern for the health of "our young friend N."and suggesting that Nietzsche's nervous problems might be caused by excessive masturbation.

Wagner's letter is splendidly dotty, but it also brings Kohler's claims crashing to the ground. (1) Masturbation is not the same thing as homosexuality. Wagner did not think Nietzsche was homosexual; instead, prescient in so many things, Wagner was the first major thinker to call Nietzsche a wanker (just kidding, Nietzsche fans). (2) A kindly meant, if eccentric, letter to Nietzsche's doctor is not quite the same thing as persecution. It's clear from Cosima Wagner's Diaries that Wagner's private reaction to the split with Nietzsche was regret, a wish to have the breach healed, and an undoubtedly patronising pity for "that poor young man" Nietzsche. These are not the sort of feelings that lead to persecution or a campaign of vilification, as Kohler claims.

As well, Wagner's actual attitude to homosexuals (there were no gays in the 19th Century) is suggested in an earlier letter to a homosexual friend. Wagner suggests that his friend "try to cut down a little, on the pederasty"... The attitude is one of amused tolerance, which won't do now, but it was progressive and liberal by the standards of his time. Wagner wasn't a homophobe.

In fact Wagner didn't respond in public to Nietzsche's repeated attacks (except once, a very indirect reference in one of his essays, without mentioning Nietzsche's name); contra Kohler, the abuse was very much a one-way street, and not in the direction that Kohler suggests.

Kohler also presents a Nietzsche who wrote antisemitic passages in his works during the alliance with Wagner, but who stopped after the split. This is simply and flagrantly untrue. The post-Wagner Nietzsche attacked antisemites, but he also continued to attack and insult Jews. There are many, many antisemitic passages in Nietzsche's work - Nietzsche fans, like Kohler and the reviewer from Kirkus Review quoted above, like to overlook Nietzsche's antisemitism, but antisemites find Nietzsche a useful supporter and resource. You'll find plenty of antisemitic quotes from Nietzsche on proud display on the Web's neo-Nazi sites, and the vast majority of these antisemitic passages were written AFTER the split with Wagner.

And there's Nietzsche's attack on Wagner in which he claimed that Wagner had a Jewish father. There is irony, of course, in claiming an antisemite has Jewish parentage. But it reflects what Wagner himself seems to have believed, that the man who was almost certainly his real father, Ludwig Geyer, was Jewish. For this attack Nietzsche must have drawn on his private conversations with Wagner, in which Wagner poured out personal fears to a man he believed was his friend. The nastiness in Nietzsche's attack is in the betrayal of confidence, not in the claiming that Wagner had a Jewish parent.

I mention this attack by Nietzsche, couched in antisemitic terms and involving personal betrayal, because Kohler skips blithely over it. Imagine what he'd said if it had been the other way round; Wagner attacking Nietzsche in antisemitic terms while betraying an intimate confidence. But in fact there are suspiciously few quotes of any kind from Nietzsche in Kohler's book. Given the book's profound ignorance of the details of Nietzsche's or Wagner's life and philosophies, I suspect this is not so much because Kohler wants to keep it simple, but because he is not particularly familiar with his subjects' work. Given the sort of book he's written, he didn't need to be.

By the way, an earlier book by Kohler, that's only just been translated into English, "Wagner's Hitler", is now available. Friends who've read the German edition tell me that it's even more fanciful, nonsensical, dishonest and incoherent than this book. I'll look for it in a remainder bin.

Laon

NW is not the most academic of books in form, but readability and lack of footnotes do not make a book worthless. Köhler may not have enough evidence to convince the critical, but the material provided is well worth the read. Homosexuality/onanism/anti-semitism: these elements are simply not central to either individual (Wagner's anti-semitism may be the exception). Some of Köhler's conclusions may be questionable, but his observations are not what make the book. The content itself is very interesting, and the intelligent and familiar (with RW/FN) will come away with a great degree of insight. To anyone sincerely interested in either, it is requisite. Perhaps you will not agree with Köhler, so what? The book is simply worth the read. My opinions didn't change from the book, but I have a much richer picture of both men. (I am honesty surprised that anyone could find this book upsetting [see review below]. It's a fun little book, if you hate it, you really ought to relax a bit. Not for tyros: if you've only read a bit of FN or seen an opera, and you want a key to understanding either, forget it. But if you are deep into either, you skip it at your peril.

action here, action there, oh wait, wheres the plot?

What would happen if the ultimate Law Enforcer would meet the Ultimate hunting creature? This book gives the answer, creating a dark, wet Maegacity at the mercy of the Predator. However, in the end, hardcore Dredd fans may be dissapointed, since it was not Dredd's combat superiority that led him to victory.But, for more detail on this, you have to read the book.

First off, I liked the dredd flim and the predator comics so i read this one. I thought it was stupid. I mean do you think that Dredd 'the law' could defeat the best know hunter in the comic book galxey? I mean predator could blow dredd to pieces in a matter of seconds. Buy it if want it for a bad book collaction

First off...I can't really say I'm a fan of Judge Dredd. Great concept, but I could never get into the comic. Being a Predator fan and knowing a little bit about Dredd I thought it would be an entertaining read, and it actually was.

Far in the future, when a post-apocalyptic earth is mired in lawlessness, three 'Mega-Cities' come from the darkness. The last remnants of humanity come together in these cities, and to enforce the law, the Judges are set loose on the streets. When a Predator comes to Earth for the hunt, Judges start disappearing and are found to be the victims of the Predator's grislty hunt. Dredd takes it upon himself to hunt this killer down, only he has no idea what he's up against, and it could very well be the fight of his life.

Its a surprisingly decent story...I wasn't expecting much out of it but it kept me reading. I really enjoyed it, and the art work was pretty good too. The cover is pretty hilarious...and don't worry, no giant Predator eats Judge Dredd. But as for odd things, Dark Horse is usually right there with bizarre, almost ridiculous plot turns. One of the characters in the book is a descendant of Dutch Schaefer, Arnold's character form the Predator film. Dark Horse has a penchant for just putting these bizarre twists in their stories which don't make them better, but actually take the quality of the story down. But overall, Dredd vs. Pred is pretty good and I recommend it to any Dredd or Predator fan.

Hopefully Dark Horse will improve its comics...Dark Horse has utterly ruined the Terminator comic franchise with ridiculous stories, and Predator and Alien have done nothing but take a big plummet the past few years.

Originally a 3-part comic-book series in late 1997, Predator vs Judge Dredd is about...practically nothing! You think I am joking.

The Pred lands on Earth. He stalks around Dredd's Megacity. He kills a few people. Dutch Schaefer's great, great grand-daughter is called in for her PSI skills. She drinks Predator blood. She telepathically knows where Pred is hiding. Dredd goes there and kills him. THAT'S IT!

It's way too short for it's own good. There is no pathos. Slight humor. Bland artwork. A lame story and sudden, truncated ending. Why is Dutch's grand-daughter in it? What does that have to do with anything? Of all the crossovers and franchise blending this one has to be the most tepid. No effort was put into this whatsoever and it can be read from front to back in less than 10 minutes.

A total waste of time!

This book is not a how-to-do thing. You will learn why this cypher was created, how it was created it all the details. Not an introductory book. But very worth to who ever want to enter modern applied cryptographic field.

This is the official discription of the Twofish encryption algorithm by the people that developed it. The book gives the direct discription of what they have done, *PLUS* the reasons behind the choices that they made, and the considerations that were involved. The book has a readable style, and covers this algorithm in greater detail than I've ever seen one covered before. This book is a must for anyone planning to implement the algorithm.

This book assumes that you know something of Cryptography, it would not be a good introduction to that topic. (However the main author's book "Applied Cryptography" serves that function well)

Bruce Schneier is the Yoda of crpytography and information security, if you've heard him there's no need to ask anyone else. This book would probably only appeal to the genuinely avid crypto fan, its Greek to anyone else. It is a thorough exposition of the making of the Twofish cypher, the latest attempt to secure information as absolutely as possible. You must be well versed in cryptography to get anything out of the work.

The back cover promises "Step-by-step instructions on how to use it in your systems." This is why I bought the book. However, there are only a handful of pages on "Using Twofish", and none of them have anything like a step-by-step howto.

In case you've been asleep for the past few years, the AES competition is over. Rijndael won, two-fish lost. End of story. This book serves only as a historical artifact depicting Schneier's failed attempt at lasting fame and glory.

Listen to the *real* crypto experts (i.e. the AES judges) and stick with the solution that they've chosen.

The source code in this book is an ungodly mess that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It is a mish-mash of poorly explained macros and pre-processor directives. It would take a divine miracle to get the source to compile (Scheier neglects to go into the details of how to do a build, he just throws the source code at you and expects you to figure it out). Perhaps, then, it's no surprise why team-Schneier lost AES.

This book was just PR for the AES competition. Now that it's over, the only thing this book is good for is to prop a door open.

In central and western Europe, Marx's millieu, post-Napoleonic Jews had every characteristic of a class. And the class was a middle or capitalist class. Some Jews were also religious, some were atheists, virtually none were Jewish nationalists/proto-Zionists.

Marx wrote of the class extinction of Jewry, not the physical extinction. That should be elementary. What anti-Semite would speak of the "emancipation" of the Jews by the elimination of "Jewry?" You don't emancipate people that you hate.

There was not a smidgen of bigotry in Marx. A plurality of his colleagues in the First International were Jewish. Though he did not coin it, he would have adopted the wisdom that "anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools."

It is also stupid to speak of the Social Democrats, Communists and national socialists (Nazis) as some sort of threesome, presumably in the context of Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. There was nothing "socialist" about the Nazis. They adopted the word "socialism" because of the popularity of the term and concept. They were not about to name their party "the saviors of dying democratic capitalism," which they were. Only a few idiot-Nazis, like Roehm, took the "socialism" semi-seriously and he was put to death in 1934 in the "Night of the Long Knives."

Larry Hochman

I think this is an excellent book, contrary to the other reviews listed. It helped me understand several new concepts related to anti-semitism, particularly how Jews were thought of as being responsible for commercializing the German art world and bringing the bourgeois capitalist element to European culture. The book sheds much light on the development of anti-semitism relative to the increasing nationalist and revolutionary spirit in Germany during the first part of the 20th century. Wagner's general psychology and racist attitudes are conveyed very effectively, and his influence on future national socialist ideology is more than apparent. This book added a great deal to my understanding of the roots of European anti-semitism, and I thank the author for this.

As I see it Rose puts four main arguments. 1 German antisemitism in the 19th century is substantially different from other European strands of antisemitism. I'm not qualified to comment on that, except that Rose doesn't bring out much evidence.

2 German political culture of the 19th century is inherently and ineluctably antisemitic. I'd accept "largely" antisemitic; but Rose wants to make an essentialist case, that you couldn't be a 19th century German radical without being antisemitic, and he fails to support that. Instead we get rhetoric, some of it as heated as Wagner's own.

3 Wagner was always antisemitic, even before 1850, when antisemitic references started to appear in his letters and articles. There it's safe to say that the evidence disproves Rose's case; see, for example, Jacob Katz's "Wagner: The Dark Side of Genius", a book which condemns Wagner's antisemitism on the basis of better research and less tenditiousness. Not only does Rose not actually make his case here, but he couldn't.

4 There is coded antisemitism in Wagner's operas. Here Rose abandons all pretence to academic standards and writes some very silly things. For example he argues that "Die Walku:re" is antisemitic because it depicts incest and adultery sympathetically; but adultery is against the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments is a Jewish document. Wagner's, and "Die Walku:re"'s rejection of the 10 Commandments is therefore antisemitic. Where this leaves Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, and every other opera librettist, poet and dramatist in human history is not clear. By reasoning like this they must all be antisemites. In "Der Fliegende Hollander", Rose argues, Senta's entire village is an antisemitic depiction, because they value money over other values; therefore they must be meant as Jewish. When someone starts looking for antisemitic depictions, and comes up with the idea of a Jewish fishing village in the middle of the Norwegian fiords... when arguments like that are seriously put forward, we know two things. First, that the writer has lost the plot. Second, that the people who should have read the book before publication and got rid of embarrassing silliness like that, weren't doing their job.

I don't know much about the history of 19th century antisemitism in Europe; but Rose's material on Wagner is so hopelessly unreliable and ill-thought-out that it calls into question the reliability of his other material.

There's another comment on this book, apparently written by a believing Marxist, that claims that Wagner made a mistake in making his gods and Nibelungs, in the "Ring", morally equivalent. No, that wasn't a mistake; that was Wagner's _point_. Both the Nibelungs and the gods are involved in a struggle between the values of love and the desire for power. Both the gods and Nibelungs choose power, not love. Wagner was on the side of love, and that is why he makes both sides fall.

Even though Wagner was a flawed human being (but a human being, not a monster; he had a kind and considerate side as well as a selfish and manipulative side), the "Ring" is one of the greatest works of art ever created. And its message is pacifist, pro-love and anti-power, and (ironically, given Wagner's own racism) anti-racist, in showing the moral equivalence of all the different struggling peoples in the "Ring".

The writer of the other comment is right to say that Wagner was a shallow and inconsistent political thinker. But that means that not all of his ideas are bad. His antisemitism shames Wagner's memory as much as the antisemitism of Marx, Bakunin, Proudhon, Schubert, JS Bach, Schumann, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Dostoevsky, TS Eliot and so on and so on, shames theirs. But Wagner's defence of love over power, in the "Ring", strikes me as politically, as well as artistically, not without merit.

Rose makes a mistake in reading antisemitism into works that don't contain it, and another mistake in not recognising that Wagner's works have some moral merit which should not be thrown away.

Laon

What were you taught about Nazism? If you're like me, it was that Nazism was opposed to socialism. Indeed, it was socialism's "opposite": Nazism and Marxism constitute the two polar opposite ends of the spectrum of political thought. That they may sometimes seem to resemble each other is supposed to show only that opposite extremes may wrap around until they meet on the other side, or that fascism is a "confusing" ideology, too vague and elusive to explain or categorize. Hitler, as Ian Kearnshaw and many others claim, "was never a socialist." The Nazis' name: "National Socialist German Workers' Party", is supposed to be somehow a "misnomer"----some kind of "false advertising."

Or so we've been told. Rose's book is one of a growing number which helps to expose this revisionist fable. In fact, as many leading historians know, but don't like to talk about, fascism and National Socialism were both thoroughly socialist movements. They bitterly opposed the "bourgeois" ideology of capitalism: they bitterly opposed individualism, free trade, private property, free enterprise, limited government, and classical laissez-faire liberalism. "Almost the whole of National Socialism," as Hitler would freely admit (at least in private) was based on Marx. He explained in Mein Kampf: "As National Socialists we see our program in our flag. In the red we see the social idea of the movement." The Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 was not at all a case of strange bedfellows.

How can this be?

First of all, as even social-democrat Sidney Hook has admitted, "Anti-Semitism was rife in almost all varieties of socialism." (Commentary, Sept. 1978) Listen to Proudhon, socialist founding father and mentor of Marx: "The Jew is the enemy of the human race. One must send this race back to Asia or exterminate it...By fire or fusion or by expulsion, the Jew must disappear... What the people of the Middle Ages hated by instinct I hate upon reflection, and irrevocably. ...The hatred of the Jew, as that of the English, must be an article of our political faith." (1847, Carnets)

Remember that the most central, fundamental, and essential tenet of socialism is that moneylenders ("capitalists") are evil economic "parasites." "Vampires," "bloodsuckers," Marx called them. The Devil of the socialist catechism is the "bourgeoisie." Indeed, Marx had another word which he used as an equivalent term for "bourgeoisie,"----"Jews." And in place of the word "capitalism," we find the early Marx using the word 'Judentum,' i.e., "Jewry." As early as 1843----a hundred years before the Holocaust----Marx published one of his first and most sensational newspaper articles, a vituperative anti-Semitic temper tantrum "On the Jewish Question," makes Hitler's own tirades look mild. Its thesis is that "mankind will never be emancipated until it is emancipated from Jews and Jewry." It concludes: "The social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Jewry." Period. End of essay.

Understand that this popular piece was written and published five years before the Communist Manifesto (1848) and long before Das Kapital attempted to rationalize this as an economic theory in the 1860s. Rather than that Marx's dubious economic theory of exploitation accidentally drove him to anti-Semitism, it appears things must be more the other way around: that Marx's anti-Semitism drove him to cook up the dubious economic theory.

"If we are socialists, then we must definitely be anti-Semites," Hitler explained during a party speech in Munich, August 1920, "How, as a socialist, can you not be an anti-Semite?"

Note also that even the idea that Germany should wage a "world war" against Russia and the "barbaric" Slavs, and that the Slavs should be annhilated during this German "world storm," was an idea proposed by none other than Fredrich Engels, writing with Marx's approval in Marx's newspaper, in 1849. Both the advocation of genocide, and of coercive state eugenics generally, were originally a widespread aspect of the socialist movement before WWII.

"I have learned a great deal from Marxism, as I do not hesitate to admit." Hitler expalined, "I have really put into practice what these peddlers and pen-pushers have timidly begun."

That the Bolsheviks, German Social Democrats, and National Socialists eventually split up and came to fight against each other (while, of course, mutually accusing each other of being capitalist sell-outs), is no more significant than the fact that various Christian sects often will deny that other Christian sects are at all Christian, and indeed accuse them of being agents of Satan. To anyone who happens to stand outside of such movements, the hyperbole of internal quarrels among sects is hardly to be taken seriously. This is something Rose has come to understand. For another source, see also the unjustly marginalized "Lost Literature of Socialism," by George Watson.

Rose uncovers things we've always known about Richard Wagner, his virulent antisemiticism. He situates Wagner usefully in the philosophic mileau of the 19th Century and revolutionary thinking.However writers like Proudhon,Bauer,The Young Hegelians,and Fichte were relatively insignificant compared to Marx and the impact his thinking had of the ideologies of the 19th Century. Rose should have compared Wagner to Marx to define consummately what the term "revolution" really means. Also all these thinkers save Marx,were reactionary, which is why they appealed to Wagner. Rose's discussion of anarchist Bakunin, Wagner's Dresden Rebellion Days friend is even more problematic since Bakunin was ultimately a political opportunist, who would sell-out to save himself as he did countless times.Wagner was first and foremost a composer of music dramas,operas and his creative philosophic thinking remained energized toward that pursuit,which is why his fascination with 19th Century philosophic thought changed over his life. It actually became more conservative. Despite his early Dresden Days, Wagner was a political imbecile. He couldn't distinguish parties,nor collective wills. Given Wagner's unquestionable dominance in the world of Opera today, the crux of Rose's argument, Wagner's antisemiticism, is indeed a profoundly important one. But I doubt if this discussion will lead toward the banning of his music. The problem of racism in art is perhaps the most important issue facing all those who involve themselves in art. For art deals with communication, one human being speaking to another. One emotion projected outward to humanity. And if this expression emanates from a diseased mind, a racist one, well how can art reflect the highest thought man/woman is capable. Rose's discussion of Wagner's "Ring" was not thorough enough,for Wagner contradicts himself. Wotan is ever bit as self-serving as Alberich, the dwarf who Wagner had earmarked as the representational Jew. Brunhilde as well for all her humanity in saving Siegmund and Sieglinde,plots with the evil Hagen to kill Siegfried, her beloved. No character in the "Ring" is beyond redemption ,all are self-serving opportunists. Rose seems to focus on Alberich as Other, as representative of the lower class, the "lumpen" in contrast to the gods and immortals, when such reference is not important. Instead a discussion of how Wagner projects characterization, or doesn't. That his inhumanity prevented him from projecting a convincing character would have served Rose's argument.

This is a great coffee table book because the cover and photographs inside are clear and beautiful. I was almost afraid to mishandle the book in fear of damaging the images. I do agree that the book ended somewhat abruptly since little was said of the 70's, 80's and 90's decades but 100 years is a lot of ground to cover.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was well thought out with excellent history details. But like all good books, I hated to see it end.

I love Cadillacs, but this book does not do them justice. The people who put this book together can't even identify them. Several photos are mis-named, for example, most of the time the captions for 1958 Cadillacs read that they are 1957 cadillacs (Come on guys) and other captions are very generic becuase I assume they couldnt identify the years. Oh, and get this one... They have a section with star's cars, and they talk about how Elvis gave out caddys left and right, but the photo shown is of Elvis leaning against a Chrysler Imperial, even the Imperial name is spelled out and the editors didnt catch this? Don't tell me they dont know a Caddy from a Mopar. Also several of the photos show beauty shots of hood ornaments and a bunch are shiney, but pitted. Couldnt they have found a rechromed sample? This book is put together very poorly. It is a real waste.

This book is one of the few to celebrate the first 100 years of Cadillac. Text is ok, pictures are lavish and big-sized. There are a number of flaws in the pictures like misspelling the modelyear (or not even mentioning it) and Elvis leaning against an Imperial. On the other hand the format on the book is good, the pictures are great (although a lot of them have been published before) and for a real Cadillac enthousiast like me it was still worthwhile ordering it. But a little more care for the detail would have been appreciated.

This book is a must-have if you are a Cadillac enthusiast and you like books that are chock full of large, beautiful color photographs of classic Cadillacs. I can't say enough how great these images are--the best I've seen, and I have many Cadillac books.

This book is also an unbelievable value .... It is a large and substantial hardcover book that is very nicely put together.

As a history, the book is also very good with a few caveats:

First, keep in mind that most of the pages are filled with pictures (did I mention the pictures?), so there isn't a great deal of text compared to some other books such as Thomas Bonsall's superb (but out-of-print) "Cadillac: The American Standard", but more than some others.

Secondly, considering that this is a new book and that one of the most interesting periods in Cadillac's history is the recent past and plans for the near future, this book ends too abruptly, historically speaking. Once we get into the 70's, the rest of the story happens too fast and we are left with vague and brief references to Cadillac's recent success in pulling itself out of its doldrums. (Rob Wagner, if you're reading this, I beg you or any other author of auto enthusiast books to write in detail about the last 30 years of Cadillac's history. It makes for an exciting story fitting of your writing talent.)

Finally--although I love the fact that this book isn't another "Cadillac can do no wrong" type which ignores their many missteps, even those that took place during the "glory days"--I personally disagree with Rob's fairly harsh criticism of late 1950's styling. This does not count against the book at all, IMO--I just wanted to mention it.

Overall, an outstanding achievement and an absolute must-have. Add some recent history and a bit more detail, and I would give it the ultimate compliment of being as good as Bonsall's book.

Dan Madoni...

I almost didn't order this book because of previous bad reviews but I am so glad I took a chance. This is a great book. The print is normal size and there are pictures (drawings, not photos) on every page. It is printed in green and purple ink and I can't believe anyone would be disappointed. I bought this to put in a care package for my daughter when she is at horse camp this summer and I know she will love it. It has word puzzles, mazes, games to play with friends, and lots of facts about horses. At the bargain book price of only $4, you should snap it up!

It took forever for this to arrive and when it did...it had stains on it. It looked as though coffee or soda had spilled and stained the cover and several of the pages. We had no choice but to gift it that way because it took so long to get to our house we didn't think we would get a replacement soon enough. It was so obviously stained and they shipped it anyway...nothing else in the box was stained.

In this case, you definitely can't tell a book by its cover! The inside of the book does not have the nice, big colorful pictures and print like the cover "implies." The lack of color in the pictures and small print inside the book does not make this very appealing for readers of any age.

Richard Wagner is an important figure for a number of reasons. He is the composer of the Ring Cycle of Operas, Tristun and Isolde and the Maestersingers of Nuremburg. His music at one point was seen as the intellectual pinnacle of Opera. In more recent years his reputation has faded and a good deal of his early stature has been seen as the result of remorseless self promotion.

Wagner is of German origin and worked as a conductor writing in his spare time two operas which were not successful. His first success came with Riezi his third work. He began to estalish impressive credentials with The Flying Dutchman, Tanhauser and Loehengrin.

Wagner had a powerful intellect and was a theatrical innovator. He was the first one to darken the theatre to increase the mystery of the performance. He wrote a large number of essays and academic works which are now unreadable arguing for a new form of art which he described was music drama. Prior to Wagner Operas had been broken into arias, duets, and ensemble pieces. The feel of an Opera was a collection of different tunes. Wagner argued that a Music Drama should flow and he developed the use of musical signatures to represent characters and moods. He also increased he size of the Orchestra and its importance in communicating the message of the Drama.

Wagner as a person was reprehensible. He stole money refused to pay back loans and stole the wife of his greatest disciple. He was also vain, anti Semitic and personally unpleasant. Despite this he has always been seen as one of music's towering figures.

Newman is a disciple of Wagner and he has been seduced by the myth. His book is close to that of adoration rather than a dispassionate account of his life. Never the less it is an interesting work.

The greatest of operatic composers has been dead for over fifty years; today there are many more thousands than ever before to whom the immortal works of Wilhelm Richard Wagner bring their most profound musical enjoyment. But the glorious music of such operas as Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, and the Ring cycle is by no means Wagner's only legacy to posterity. The great composer was anxious to leave the world a true portrait of himself; he fully realized that he was a man of amazing ability; he knew that the story of his romantic life would be a subject of endless discussion and would hold the engrossed attention of all those who longed to gain the fullest understanding and enjoyment of his music.

Ernest Newman of the London Times, the most influential music critic on either side of the Atlantic and the author of many widely read books, among them THE STORIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS AND THEIR COMPOSERS, has made an exhaustive study of the vast mass of original Wagnerian manterial and from it he has written this invaluable study of the man and the artist. It is a story of overwhelming ambition, a story lit with the love of devoted women to whose sympathy their hero was ever susceptible, a story of artistic triumphs, financial failure, and personal passion.

A knowledge of Mr. Newman's book will enable you to appreciate, as never before, what lay behind the enduring beauty of Wagner's superlative music -- music which in its passages of turbulent majesty as well as in those of uplifted flight of soul reflects the proud, indomitable spirit of the unbridled genius who composed it.

The greatest of operatic composers has been dead for over fifty years; today there are many more thousands than ever before to whom the immortal works of Wilhelm Richard Wagner bring their most profound musical enjoyment. But the glorious music of such operas as Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, and the Ring cycle is by no means Wagner's only legacy to posterity. The great composer was anxious to leave the world a true portrait of himself; he fully realized that he was a man of amazing ability; he knew that the story of his romantic life would be a subject of endless discussion and would hold the engrossed attention of all those who longed to gain the fullest understanding and enjoyment of his music.

Ernest Newman of the London Times, the most influential music critic on either side of the Atlantic and the author of many widely read books, among them THE STORIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS AND THEIR COMPOSERS, has made an exhaustive study of the vast mass of original Wagnerian manterial and from it he has written this invaluable study of the man and the artist. It is a story of overwhelming ambition, a story lit with the love of devoted women to whose sympathy their hero was ever susceptible, a story of artistic triumphs, financial failure, and personal passion.

A knowledge of Mr. Newman's book will enable you to appreciate, as never before, what lay behind the enduring beauty of Wagner's superlative music -- music which in its passages of turbulent majesty as well as in those of uplifted flight of soul reflects the proud, indomitable spirit of the unbridled genius who composed it.