Wang Books

This is a great book for building the foundations of communication theory. Serves great as an introductory text on analog and digital communications. Concepts are explained very well.

I read this book for 2 of my semesters in my undergrad. In the beginning I didn't like the book much but today all that what I got from this book is helping me back in my Grad studies. One of the finest. Much better than many around.

My only concern about this book is that I have discovered it too late, after graduating in electronic engineering! Really, many explanations that Prof. Lathi gives about Shannon, Nyquist, and the exchange of bandwidth for SNR, both intuitive and rigorous, would have helped me very much at that time.

I really recommend this book for several reasons:
1) Clarity
2) examples
3) Historical background for the development of analog and digital communications.

I hope Lathi will write many other books like this one: I've never found any explanation better than his. He makes you love the subject.

The nice thing about this textbook is that it provides the needed background in probability and random processes. The first nine chapters discuss in detail how digital and analog communication systems work. Chapter 1 is an introduction to communications systems, and signal analysis is covered in chapters 2 and 3. Here the student is encouraged to see a signal as a vector and to think of the Fourier spectrum as a way of representing a signal in terms of its vector components. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss amplitude and then angular modulation. In the digital age many might feel that modulation should be deemphasized. However, modulation is a basic tool of signal processing and its understanding is therefore still necessary. Chapter 6 deals with sampling, pulse code modulation, and delta modulation. Chapter 7 discusses the transmission of digital data while chapters 8 and 9 discuss emerging digital technologies in communications as they were considered cutting edge in 1998. Chapters 10 and 11 are the promised chapters on probability and random processes, sufficient to the point of understanding what is covered in this book. Chapters 12 and 13 discuss the behavior of communication systems in the presence of noise. Optimum signal detection is the subject of chapter 14, and information theory is introduced in chapter 15. Error control coding is the subject of the final chapter of the book.

The best features of this book are its visual style with plenty of diagrams and also its numerous worked out numerical examples. The mathematics is as complex as necessary to explain concepts, but the author doesn't lose sight of the forest for the trees in this aspect of the book. Exercises include not only traditional numerical type problems but computer exercises as well. Although there are entire books written on what this book covers in chapters, particularly in the last half of the book when the author is surveying topics rather than laying foundations, this is a good first book to read even on these advanced topics as far as getting the big picture and seeing how these topics tie into the design of communication systems. Highly recommended.

EXCELLENT:
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This is an amazing book with many sections that are gems! Shannon's theorem is explained so beautifully in such detail that I have never seen anything like it. The chapters on Optimum signal detection and error correction codes are so beautifully written and easy to follow that I want to congratulate the author. The section on how to calculate the power spectral density of different line codes like bipolar, split phase, and polar was the easiest to read yet very detailed.

BAD:
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However the book is scattered. The same material sometimes is covered in multiple chapters in bits and pieces. Partially this is because the author wants to first introduce some of the concepts without discussing probability and later covers them again after studying probability. But, this still can't explain why things are so scattered. The new chapters added in the third edition covering some of the new applications are not written well. The contribution by a guest author to one of the chapters was horrible!

What will make this book excellent is to get rid of the guest author and some of the new material, clean up the presentation of the fundamentals and present in a more unified matter.

This book is a good relief from reading Proakis. I have read many advanced books which were easy to read. The reason Proakis was hard to read wasn't because the subject was advanced but simply it wasn't written well.

p.s. My second edition was read so often that the glued pages started falling out. I bought the third edition and once again the glued pages fell out! I don't know if it is because this is one of the books I most frequently use or just the binding should be improved.

I read this book several months ago. I don't know. I was not particularly enamored with the writing style. The story was more about Dominica, and Haiti seemed to be a sideline story.

However, I did gain some insights and it prompted me to read more books about the island, particularly Haitian History. I have learned a lot and have a better understanding of why Dominicans who are obviously the descedents of Africans, will curse you out if you call them black or African. I understand the effectiveness of the Trujillo's campaign to whiten his part of the island through screwing with the minds of the citizens.

I also understand why they tend to have some serious hate for Haitians. I am still learning.

Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola
A very good insight into the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Very interesting reading.

I've been born and raised in Haiti. A few months back I've looked at the reviews of some Haitian and Dominicans, and I thought maybe this book was bias. I relunctantly purchase it because its always good to listen to one side of the story. This book is superb. The arguments which I believe the author produced to explain the situation in haiti and St. Domingo makes perfect sense. Michele Wucker's argument falls hand in hand with that of a Haitian Author called Nicholas Jallot in his book "histoire secrete d'haiti". Although I am skeptical to read what I havent researched myself, I still give this book a 5 star

In reading this book, I learned many more things that I have not known. The island with all of it inhabitants shares a rich and tortured history. There seem to be many uncovered facts in this book, such as the Dominican Republic actually obtained it's Independence from Haiti, that Haiti actually took the steps that eventually liberated the entire island. Though much of the time seems to have been spent in the Dominican Republic with many oblique references to Haiti, a fair amount of that time illuminating the perverse dislike each has for the other, in some ways the idea of blaming the party that for obvious reasons is unable to counteract the argument. For the most part this book illuminates much more of the history between the Haitians and the Dominicans, more and more about the immigration issues that seem to rear its erstwhile head in many places, and why folks seem to be driven to improve upon their personal life spaces. How some of these enclaves come to be, and remain that way. Little is discussed about Arristede and many of his predecessors, the wasting of the land itself and how it came to be that many Haitians would eventually choose to live in the Dominican Republic or the United States, or why Haiti is the most impoverished country in this hemisphere by far.

Well written and informative, an excellent perspective into the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A must for anyone interested in traveling to Hispanola with an interest beyond the fancy, secluded, all inclusive resorts!

this book is an excellent information source for both professionals in need for a reference on a db2 topic/ students trying to get into db2 / certification hunters interested in ibm 730 exam db2 administrator for V9 .
very well written.

if you looking for a db2 beginners book...its a right choice...even if you are a exp. dba, this book can come handy anytime for any reference or as a guide..

If you are new to DB2 this is the book you need.
It covers all the basic information you need to start working with db2, in a easy way.
If you also want to get certified get the DBA guide or one of Sander's book, and you are all set to go.

I bought this book solely on the strength of the positive reviews here (stupid, I know). Unfortunately, my opinion doesn't most everyone else's. I needed a book that would give me a quick look at using DB2 SQL as an application programmer. This book devotes 1 chapter to SQL, and the information is very basic. The rest is study guide stuff (architecture, DBA stuff, etc.) that simply isn't very helpful to someone trying to learn how to actually work with the database. I come from an Oracle background, and the transition to DB2 is anything but instinctive or easy. It's a real pain, actually.
If anyone knows of any good, practical DB2 books for database/ETL programmers, I would love to hear about them.
Thanks,

bk

This is an excellent book for DB2 if you are a beginner or even an intermediate skilled user. This book covers not only DB2 9, it covers DB2 9.5 and the facts that pertain only to v9.5 are duly bulleted/annotated with the version number. This book treats DB2 from a DBA point of view so the SQL examples are pretty basic if you are a hardcore SQL programmer. If you are looking only for SQL programming for DB2 this is not the book to buy. But for an administrator, this is one of the best reference books on the desk. Since this book has lot of visual examples, you see what the authors are talking about rather than forming a mental image. Also, it covers XML/XQuery in DB2 in detail. Moreover, this book is an excellent reference if you are taking certification in DB2.
If you are on the lookout for the one book that will kickstart your DB2 career; this is the one.

William Cronon's book Changes in the Land illuminates the relationship and impact the European colonial settlers had with their environment in New England. The main premise for this book is that different human cultures interact with their environment according to their cultural norms and subsequently have varying effects upon their surrounding environment as a result. Furthermore, Cronon illustrates that these effects created by humans on the environment have consequences which in turn affect the human population and its society. Ultimately he accomplishes the task of showing historically that Americans have the live it up now and pay for it later approach with the environment they live in and unfortunately most Americans still have not learned from previous mistakes with regards to the environment because they still think in terms of wastefulness instead of practical conservation. Even though the concept of Americans being wasteful with their natural resources is common knowledge today, this book truly shows the magnitude of wastefulness European colonial settlers had with their natural resources and the resulting negative consequences for the ecosystem and their own society. Changes in the Land does s superb job of highlighting the fact that this wasteful relationship that Americans have had with their environment has been ongoing since day one they set foot on the North American continent.

William Cronon definitely has the expert knowledge to write a book on the subject of environmental history. In a sense you can say his whole life has involved history and the environment. The afterword in Changes in the Land clearly shows that this book was not only a work that was initially started while he was at Yale as a graduate student, but also was influenced by his own interest of history and the environment even from his childhood. According to Cronon he was inspired as a youngster by his father who was a professor of American history at the University of Wisconsin and by growing up in an area that already had citizens aware and concerned about environmental issues. (pp. 171,173) Furthermore, Cronon's list of academic positions, writings on environmental history, and professional memberships are too numerous to account for in this small book review. Needless to say, after reading his list of lifetime accomplishments in this area on his website it is overwhelmingly clear he wrote this book from an authoritative viewpoint on the subject at hand.

Cronon accomplishes this authoritative viewpoint by juxtaposition of different perspectives and integrating evidence and information from other disciplines. Cronon initially uses the contrast of Henry Thoreau's account of the natural environment in1855 with an over two hundred years earlier account of the environment in New England by an English traveler named William Wood from 1633. Thoreau was obviously disenchanted with changes that had taken place in the environment since William Wood's day which was evident in his comment, "Is it not, a maimed and imperfect nature that I am conversant with?" (p. 4) Famous intellectuals, early naturalists, and traveler's documentation of the landscape were only some sources of evidence. Cronon also used a wide variety of other sources of information such as colonial town records from the courts and legislation, ecological data, and archeological records to build his case although he was wise enough to note that "caution is required in handling all these various forms of evidence (and nonevidence), together they provide a remarkably full portrait of ecological change in colonial New England." (p. 8) In chapters two through five he juxtaposes the European colonists' and Native Indians' society by comparing their relationship with and effect they respectively had on their environment. The general points Cronon makes, hopefully not oversimplifying too much, were firstly, Europeans viewed the natural resources of New England as commodities and the value they attached to them were based on whether or not the were valuable commodities in Europe. Secondly, Indians had a subsistence economy and moved to different locations depending on the season of the year which dictated where adequate food supplies could be found verses the Europeans who had fixed settlements in which they utilized agriculture and husbandry to generate food and eventually a profit for the excess that they cultivated. Thirdly, Indians' perspective of property was they owned the use of the resources on the land and shared the use of the resources with others where as Europeans perspective of owned property was that they owned a specific tract of land identified by clear boundaries in which the land and everything on it was owned by the individual. This comparison served to highlight the impact and consequences on the environment by European colonists due to the way the viewed land and natural resources of New England. The remainder of the book dealt with the consequences of the Europeans interaction with their environment.

Chapter five more or less made the point that due to the impact of diseases on the Indian population and the subsequent restructuring of their social and political system they needed to find a way to survive. One way to survive was to trade with the Europeans and a commodity that was valuable to the Europeans was fur. Indians participated in the decimation of animals that provided these furs and hence they got sucked into the European mercantile trade economy in which eventually they ended up trading their way of life away and the environment suffered for it in the process by losing large populations of animals. Chapters six and seven clearly illustrated the wasteful practices of European colonists with the natural resources such as timber which lead to deforestation, hotter summers, colder winters, and more floods as a consequence. The wasteful shortsighted practices of European colonists were also pervasive by the use of their non-friendly environmental agriculture and husbandry practices which only resulted in a vicious cycle of destruction with the environment they lived in. Cronon used an eyewitness account of the colonial time period to conclude his book. A Swedish traveler Peter Kalm summarized nicely the shortsighted wasteful practices of the Europeans colonists by saying "the grain fields, the meadows, the forests, the cattle, etc. are treated with equal carelessness." (p. 168) Kalm concluded that "This kind of agriculture will do for a time, but it will afterwards have bad consequences, as everyone may clearly see." (p. 169)
With that being said, Cronon did a wonderful job a presenting his case and providing evidence which made this book a very interesting read. The only downside for a reader (which is no fault of Cronon's because he is only the messenger), was the disappointing feeling and thought that this is typical behavior of humans when interacting with their environment and why don't people in general learn from their past mistakes?

This is a very good piece of work. Cronon manages to keep all possible biases aside. He attributes ecological changes or problems to both natives and colonists. However, he argues that English Colonists were responsible for the greatest amount of damage. It was not a 200 page book on Europe ruined America but a well written analysis on European, in particular England, ways of life and how they dramatically altered the face of America. Natives and Europeans has two completely different ideas of property, life, etc. Without criticizing the English he shows how the English colonists ideas of agriculture changed the face of New England. It was not a thirst for destruction but a way of life or agriculture that Europeans worked with for 2-3000 years. Cronon does a good job showing how English recognized the problem, although little was done to fix it, and attempted to find solutions. It was a well balanced piece of work and narrated from a neutral perspective.

This text was assigned as part of a college history course. As part of my initial reading I found the text to be wordy, indirect and a little overly complicated. However, after reviewing the test for an essay it became far more easily to take meaningful information from. Cronon does an excellent job explaining the transition of Indian culture and society. He also does a very good job of explaining the complex interaction between Indians and European settlers and the American wilderness. In my opinion Cronon focuses on capitalism and the transitions towards capitialism and Indian society. Overall a good history read, very applicable to American history.

This is not so much a book about New England per se as on how ecology should mould our understanding of history. For too long historians have ignored the ecological/environmental dimension to history, especially colonial history; and Cronon's book is one among a number of path-breaking works that serves to redress the balance.

As Cronon convincingly argues, the strength of ecological analysis in writing history lies in its ability to uncover processes and long-term changes which might otherwise remain invisible. Indeed, ecological change is used throughout the book as a window through which to uncover the complex long-term changes wrought by the arrival of the puritans to New England since the seventeenth century. The full impact of European colonisation cannot be understood apart from the new relationship they established with the New England ecosystem though their commoditisation of resources and their involvement in the international capitalist economy, both of which greatly impacted the land and its previous inhabitants, the Indians. These changes were cultural as much as they were simply environmental or economic: the arrival of the pig, for one, was bound in a cultural relationship to, among other things, the fence, the dandelion, and a very special definition of property.

Of course, the book also offers up fascinating insights into the changing New England landscape from 1600 to 1800. It corrects misconceptions about an unchanging primeval forest before the arrival of the Europeans, or of Indians as passive agents in subsequent changes wrought. It also establishes the origins of the environmental problems in the region such as deforestation, soil erosion, and resultant climate changes - the legacy of which we still live with today.

If this book interests you, so should other landmark studies on ecological or environmental history, such as Alfred Crosby's `Ecological Imperialism' or Donald Worster's `Dust Bowl'.

William Cronon's book was a seminal effort in 1983 that established a new way of thinking about history. It has stood the test of time. The book describes the modes and manner of the ecological impacts that English settlers had on the New England landscape in the colonial era. Some impacts were intentional, others not so much. For example, by the time first permanent settlements were established beginning at Plymouth in 1620, many Indian villages had already been devastated by European diseases (Europeans, especially fishermen had been frequenting the New England fisheries for decades).

The English settlers brought the English methods of farming, new concepts of property, and a market economy that overwhelmed the tribes and transformed the landscape. Forests were cleared, beaver were over-hunted, fences erected, new and domesticated animals and plants were introduced.

An added bonus in this 20th anniversary edition is a delightful afterword by the author reflecting on the book and how it came to be only through repeated serendipity. An added bonus for Wisconsin readers are his reflections on growing up in Madison as the son of a UW history professor and how those experiences shaped his professional life.

Cronon sagely instructs us to asks 'how so Alien a Then could have become so familiar a Now'. Changes in the Land also wrought changes in the way we think.

The book's research is fairly thorough. The work flows well from one region and topic to the next, and is an interesting addition to the history of the revolutionary period.

Elizabeth Fenn synthesizes an outstanding concoction of accounts into a cohesive narrative of smallpox's movement across North America. Her account sheds new light on a field relatively untouched by historians. Infusing modern insight into historic accounts, Fenn provides the reader with an excellent vantage point to understand not only the physical and medical impact of the smallpox epidemic in North America, but also the political, social, financial, and military ramifications of its impact on everyone - from American troops to former slaves enlisted into the British forces, to Canadian fur trappers, to Spanish settlers in Mexico, to the Native Americans of all of North America. Fenn's mixture of narrative and analysis marks the perfect amalgamation of compelling storyteller and critical historian. She butresses even a seasoned expert's historical framework and enlivens the work with tempered passion for her subject.

Pox Americana provides the reader with an accurrate, detailed, and delightful account covering one of American history's most important events. Fenn structures the work with precision, never failing to captivate the reader's interest or sharpen the reader's historical perspective.

What a fantastic single-vision narrative. This text adds an interesting new dimension to an entire time period. Exceptional research on individual experiences.

This is an excellent work. It bogs down a bit in the second half but only for 30 or so pages as the author gets into the detail of some purported statistical analysis, information that could have been handled as an appendix. But overall it is a wow!

Starting with the impact of smallpox on the American Revolution, 1775 - 1782, Elizabeth Fenn continues her study with concurrent analyses of Mexico, where Church burial records provide a very solid underpinning for the magnitude of the epidemic, the Canadian interior, the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. The devastation was appalling

Fenn's effort was no simple task. The unexpected bonus is that for the first time I began to understand the magnitude of trading patterns that had been established by Native Americans on the North American Continent, before the arrival of Europeans.

This is a wonderful book, very enlightening and very well worth your time.

Pox Americana offers an exhaustive study of Small Pox in general; however, the title leads one to believe that the focus of the book is going to be centered from 1775-1782. Elizabeth Fenn spends the first three chapters discussing the American Revolution, but only in sparatic terms. The first chapter is a brief history of "Variola." Washington and the troops are mentioned only after countless anecdotes of many other people from many different time periods are written. After chapter three, the book becomes more confusing. Plains Indians are discussed, and I am still oblivious as to how homosexuality relates to this epidemic. Later, the Russians are discussed as well as fur traders. The virus spread across the entire continent, I understand this, but the book was suppose to focus on the American Revolution period, and only three chapters of the book were devoted to the main topic. Honestly, the book should have been 134 pages because after that, the book becomes too confusing and repetitive. Lastly, not to nit-pick, but Fenn refers to Small Pox as "Variola" throughout the entire book. The scientific and proper form to write the name for a virus is the first (genus) initial and the second (species) written out, i.e. V. major. The fact that Fenn repeats this rudimentary mistake so often takes some of the scholarly value away from this otherwise potentially useful study.

This dismal book consists of the diary of a fiery, misanthropic dwarf in a city-state in
Renaissance Italy. The dwarf's words depict his poisonous and precisely wrathful actions.
Consumed with hatred the dwarf feels himself to be clean and all other humans and dwarves,
except the most cunning and fiendish of them, to be foul. He is incapable of love and
has honed his disgust and loathing into a razor-sharp contempt. He's the sadist we dare not
to be.

The characters in the book potray the dwarf as one with his master, the prince, and it is
rightly so. One of the tragedies of the book is that the prince fails to see this.

The whole story and most of the dialogue is allegorical. Although exhibiting reprhensible
attitudes, one sees the Dwarf as the hero of the story. At the least you might identify
with the sides of yourself mirrored within him. And I assume Pär Lagerkvist meant it to be
so.

Aside from some slow parts (a war and a feast) the book flows nicely. It's also entertaining
to follow the dwarf's reactions to guilt, love, humiliation, art, politics, religion and
psychology. Rich images and the Dwarf's personal narrative swallow the reader into a world
that still continues...

Although mostly allegory "the Dwarf" is a great story in it's own right. This book's
message about our lesser parts has something to offer us all.

The book is set as a journal for Piccoline. Not set-up as a diary, where the entries are entered via a date, but more of an account of the events. No chapters, no sections, no representation of passage of time (outside of the events discussed), just new paragraphs double-spaced down with a bolded first capital letter. No dialog, or conversations, aside from the interaction with certain people, but still al woven into the paragraphs and not braking up the pages. This style is nice. It adds a flow to the entire read yet doesn't seem drawn out.

Piccoline is one angry little guy. He hates everything there is about humans; being a dwarf he seems himself as a different `being.' Every smile, laugh, togetherness is nauseating to him. The sole item in his world that he actually respects and idolizes is the prince. In Piccoline's eyes the price can do no wrong and wants to be like him. Because of his job and his devotion, he has the rust of the Prince and Princess, which he eventually uses to his advantage.

As a reader you want to sympathize with the character presenting their story, with Piccoline, it's a different story. That is not to say the book isn't good, quite the contrary, I found it very fascinating to see the world through the eyes of a pissing vinegar, angst filled, bitter, mean little man. Some of his actions are unbelievable, but the better you get to know him the more it makes sense.

To take part in the evil of a servant dwarf is an adventure all its own. Here, an example:
"Then she asked me what I thought of her. I said that I considered her a voluptuous woman and that I was sure that she was one of those who are destined to burn for all enernity in the fires of hell.
...it was natural that the Savior should not listen to her prayers. He had not been crucified for the redemption of such as she."

A masterpiece of literature that I think many should read, if you can handle the audacity of this dwarf. Very enjoyable.

This is a bitter little morsel of a book about the fear and hate that lies within us all. It may be a small seed inside you, but it is definitely there (listen to the album "Hate" by the Delgados for more insight into this idea), and it has the power to consume you if you do not keep it in check. The main character, the dwarf, in this book is similarly small, but his hate spreads quickly and soon infects an entire Renaissance court. This book addresses the ways in which people commit evil deeds to achieve their goals - how fear can be used to gain advantage in any given situation. Does evil exist innately or do we create it when it is useful to us? Is the dwarf the source of this evil or a by-product of our need for evil to exist? What came first - war or the desire for it? This is a great book.

'I am twenty-six inches tall, shapely and well proportioned, my heads perhaps a trifle too large.'

With this, Piccoline the dwarf begins his tale of hate and murder. He is the special servant of the Prince, and is devoted to the man like no other on this Earth. For Piccoline hates, despises, denies each and every single living thing, human, dwarf, animal: it does not matter to his hatred. He delights in his hate, lavishly describing his distaste for this or that person, or for this or that emotion.

Consider:

'I seized the opportunity to sneer...'
'They are buffoons, though they do not know it, and nor does anybody else...'
'I stood there defenceless, naked, incapable of action, though I was foaming with rage.'
'My hatred was so alive that I almost thought I should lose consciousness...'

All this and more within the first fifty pages. He is consumed by his hate. Yet, at least in the beginning, there are occasional flashes of some other emotion - not love or kindness, but at the very least some sort of neutrality. He admires the paintings of the 'genius' Bernardo, and still later admires the weapons of war that the man designs, but would never call him a friend. There is, of course, the love for the Prince, but this is a white love ringed with black, for he only loves the Prince when the Prince is commanding him to do bleak things, or when the Prince holds him visibly higher than the other servants.

Towards the middle of the book, a war begins with a rival kingdom, and it is here that Piccoline almost succumbs to an ecstasy of negative emotion. He revels in the violence and terror, killing another dwarf he finds merely to be part of the destruction. He compares this murder to the time when he killed the little Princess' cat, and the comparison is dispassionate and intelligent. Later, the dwarf sets into motion his greatest triumph, an orgy of death and despair that ruins both kingdoms, perhaps forever.

It is difficult to recommend this book, yet I believe it is a necessary read. A diligent reader would not deny himself the pleasure of a treatise on love, so why not dip into the opposite, a dirge of hate? We all suffer from the emotion, whether cold hate or fiery, rational or not so much, and through Piccoline, we are able to view every terrible aspect.

In a telling section, Piccoline describes the creation of dwarfs as such: '...Our race is perpetuated through them, and thus and thus only can we enter this world. That is the inner reason for our sterility.' It is here when it is made clear to the reader - if it is not already - that Piccoline is a metaphor for the hate that we all carry within ourselves. He is hatred unleashed, unrestrained, and unapologetic. We may feel remorse after our actions, Piccoline never does. Strip away all positive qualities from a human being and you are left with this terrible creature. He embodies the desires we should not give in to, indeed, he executes them with glee

The end is as expected as it is chilling, and serves as a lesson to us all. At the risk of spoiling, I will say that Lagerkvist does not take the easy way out by killing the dwarf. No, he is left alive, though suffering, and this is an important choice. While incarcerated, the two kingdoms set about rebuilding their shattered empires, forging ties of peace and harmony, and Piccoline seethes. He knows that one day, perhaps soon, perhaps far away from now, but one day, he will be summoned again to do his master's bidding. He will be set forth on the world, to spread his seeds of hate and torment, and until that day, he is content to lie silent, forgotten, hating.

The Dwarf is a wonderful allegory on various aspects of the human condition, particularly in the realm of politics, statesmanship, leadership, and nation-building; it is also a novel that has a lot of applications to current global political situations, despite the fact it is set in medieval Italy. The titular character, the dwarf Piccoline, is one of the most chilling literary creations of the 20th century. Piccoline is the physical manifestation of the corruption, the dark-side, the hidden cruelty, and the amorality of the prince he serves. By extension, the Dwarf is the shriveled ethical and moral part of ourselves as a society. The image at the end of the novel, of Piccoline in chains, miserable, yet completely confident that the Prince will once again require his services, is a frightful, sobering, and potent image that serves as a reminder that evil and those who would be its agents are always close by and ready to act.

Lagerkvist was the Nobel Laureate in 1951. He is a great, often overlooked writer. He has a gift for tackling moral issues and presenting them through plots and characters that are never dated. I also recommend his novels Barabbas and The Sibyl.

No one who can read French should read Barthes in English but if you must read him in translation avoid this one. Trying to follow his thought in this version is nearly impossible. Although I managed to finish this short book and glean from it the general intention, it was not worth the time it took to untangle the mangled sentences. Simple words were changed into incomprehensible ones. Admittedly, the author's wish to imitate his satirized material may account for the difficulties of translation but that would account for only a small element. This book should be replaced with a new translation.

This is one of the great mythology books of the twentith century.And still relevant today.That people are so scripted by the slogan,we have forgotten the 'essense' of the product.That we have bought into the cosmetic idealisation of the image,rather than the true appearance of the natural object or root meaning of the word.This philosophical book is deep reading,not just for literary francophiles, still around today.That we are aroused and mystified by the ritual act and the shiny decor,surrounding the hidden object,rather than the nuts and bolts of the product itself alone.And its the mystique surrounding our language,toys,actors and art-work; that inspires, entertains ,educates the soul and mind of modern people.Without mythology ,the core of society would wither.And mankind would simply revert back to the dark sterile caves of oblivion.

A problem with the take on myth that Barthes develops in his Mythologies is that he privileges the illusory distinction between myth and revolutionary speech. Myth for him is speech that naturalizes the ideology and relations of the bourgeoisie, while revolutionary speech upsets this. Both, however, are charged with producing the situation the present and interpret. Myth is productive. Myth is the revolutionary speech of bourgeois interests as seen from its receivers rather than its producers. Revolutionary speech is myth as seen by its producers. Producing his own myths is man inventing himself.

Barthes does, however, provide a tool kit for examining and analyzing the mythic. He also created a field guide for identifying species of mythologizing. From these tools an interested party could derive tools for the intentional production of myth.

from fenris23 dot wordpress dot com
and frequency23 dot org

In Mythologies, Barthes offers a series of snapshots with titles such as "Plastic," "Striptease," "Toys," "The World of Wrestling," and "Operation Margarine." His aim is to reveal the ideological abuse hidden in these myths, which are manufactured to read as reality.

Though complex, Barthes essays are accessible, charming, and funny. I have taught Mythologies to first-year college students, because it does not require its reader to have read volumes of theory to engage in Barthes' clever reflections.

My favorite essay might be "Toys," which demystifies modern (1954-56) French toys as designed to produce consumers ("users") rather than creators. "Toys" exemplifies how, 50 years later, Barthes' myths are still alive and worth reading.

I was assigned this text as the final leg of a Greek and Roman Mythology course. Having no idea what to expect, I easily read through the collection of short essays and was thoroughly entertained. Even in translation, Barthes is graceful, lighthearted, and humorous in telling of the modern myths surrounding him in 1950s France. A very well-educated philologist, lexicologist, and sociologist, it wasn't until after writing the short essays here compiled that he rigorously developed his semiological/structuralist theories. Those with knowledge of structural linguistics and semiology and those without such a background alike will certainly enjoy every essay of this brief collection.

Furthermore, the longer essay, "Myth Today," which follows the shorter essays published originally in the 50s is replete with extremely interesting, albeit dense, critical theory. While someone with little knowledge of structural linguistics or semiology will have some difficulty with this final essay, it is certainly worth the struggle.

A Soldiers Play is one of the best war stories that i have ever read in my life. If you are looking for a mystery book with twists and turn, this is the book you have been looking for.This book reaches many points that you may not expect. A Soldiers Play has a great deal of Loyalty, Betrayal, and Racism.By the time you finish reading the book,you will detect those plus more.What really made the book good for me was that i had the oppurtunity to act out one of the roles in my class room. I played one of the main roles "Vernon C. Waters". When you act it out, it gives you the chance to know the character better

A soldiers play is a mystery novel. In the novel a sergeant is killed and many soldiers are accused and this keeps you guessing throughout the whole book. This book is a play that is so well written and is written in such a great and precise language. This novel I recommend to anyone who likes a good mystery. This book includes many themes like betrayal, and racism. This play will keep your head spinning with clues and it will surprise you at the end.

This play By Charles Fuller is a really interesting play that leaves you in AH. This play is based around the murder of sargent Waters who was a black man. Throughout the play clues are thrown at you that just make you want to turn the page.During the time period of the play there was still descrimition aganist blacks so that also adds to the action and the main conflicts in the book.
Otherwise reading this play it is great to act out it gives you a viratery of characters to choose from and diffrent emotions to put across. I say that solider's play is a great book if you like shows like law and order and mystery soliving movies. I grantee if you purchase this book you will not be disapointed. Also if you are into movies you can check out a solider's story based on a solider's play.

The drama A soldier's play was an amazing book. Which is about sergeant that betrayed his men that unlimitedly led to his death now Devenport which is a black lawyer has to come and sort out this mess with a racist captian Taylor on his back. The left my at the edge of my seat anxious to turn the next page. But the ending will left me asking for more

This play was a good one, very intresting. This play written by Charles Fuller. There was a lot of drama, the characters would act like in real life. I liked the topics that were being used for example racism, betrayal and friendship. I liked this play because their was a lot of action the racism exicted between the same race. Eventhough their were events I didn't like the play was good. Sargeant Water did a good job on doing his role. This play is about a Sargeant that treated his same race with no respect and in which at the their was a murdured and someone put to jail. This play was so good that you would want more.

The type size in the paperback edition is far too small for my (middle age) eyes.

I had the profound experience of reading The Age of Lincoln. It is a great gift to all of us. Its interpretation is radically different. It sends the consensus theory of U.S. history packing better than anything I've ever read. The consensus theory, that there never was serious social conflict in the United States, was what every aspirant historian had to believe if they wanted to survive as a professional historian when I was young. This theory, along with overt racism and sexism, drove me out of the profession. Some of what Vernon Burton wrote even surprised me, especially the depth and violence of the class struggle in the United States during the nineteenth century. As a fellow southern historian, I am especially happy to read what he wrote about varying attitudes towards race among southern whites and organized, armed resistance to racist terror by blacks during Reconstruction. I cringe when I read the phrase "the racist Southern whites" which is repeated over and over by even the most politically correct historians. I share Burton's nostalgia for the moralistic, non-conformism of the transcendentalists and the southern yeoman values of Lincoln. These values are still there as part of our national heritage. I might be a blind optimist but I believe they are now reasserting themselves. I hope this book will be widely and carefully read and understood. It is not too late.
We can still be the hope of the world. We are in the process of becoming one nation with freedom and justice for all: what Lincoln wanted.

Dr. Burton succeeds in bring the reader back into the feel of the mid 19th century America. He calls the period roughly 20 years either side of Lincoln's inauguration "The Age of Lincoln". This is not a Lincoln book. Its about the transformation of the United States. The major themes are well documented by both the author and other review's here.

What is stunning is how accessible the book is to the non-historian. This is not a thesis work but a portrait of Americans. Woven around the framework of obvious historical events are individual stories and social trends. Specific stories, well researched and cited. All told in great narrative. I read alot of nonfiction and the occasional fiction , I can't label what the style is but its a bit like a Ken Burns documentary. You see the pictures. You hear the music. As you read. Its an easy to read book...something we readers can appreciate. Yet Burton is on solid factual ground. He brings so many facts and stories to light that I'm sure the work adds to the period's research. Even the book's cover adds to the overall work- a striking bloody red, white and blue across a typically American rural setting at sunset. Its a carefully chosen artwork circa 1861 entitled "Our Banner in the Sky" oil work by the American painter Church. Look at it here.

The reader is immersed in a difficult, painful yet singularly American period. The authors keeps the readers attention with a subtle yet brilliant literary style. Just read the first page.

A five-star work and one of the better books you'll ever read.

This book draws together all the various elements of the decades surrounding Lincoln's presidency, and shows how the social pressures led to the Civil War and its eventual resolution.

Orville Vernon Burton brings scholarship, passion and his own biases to this unusual account of the United States through the end of the 19th Century and a bit beyond.

Burton tracks the impact of ther Thirteen, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution on personal freedom for whites, blacks and everyone else. It is a fascinating book for several reasons.

First, Burton is a fine and conscientious scholar of the era. His research is evident on every page. His description of the Democratic Party, its role in the attempt to perpetuate slavery and in the awful depradations visited upon blacks after they acheived freedom is fully told here is fully told here. Burton also tells the history of the unfettered capitalism of the era and the attendant political cronyism that attended its rise. Here, there is a whiff that Burton might be an anti-capitalist himself, but it is difficult to tell with certainty.

What Burton does describe here is the heroic story of common people reaching out for personal freedom, for the right to be free of any kind of oppression. And here, Burton himself is heroic. He tells this story in great, almost overwhelming detail. His treatment of the Reconstruction Period is especially well done and will sadden most readers with its detail and possibly sicken some as well. As the zeal of the North's purpose cooled after the war, the Democratic Party became the handmaiden, if not the instigator, of terrible deeds. This is the most detailed social history of the period I have ever read.

Burton brings to life the enormous, jarring forces of change as freed slaves attempted to join the political, economic and social fabric of the nation, while defeated Southerners worked to subjugate them once again, while immigrants arrived in droves to expand the labor force and push down wages. The nation was still expanding westward, seeing the Native Americans as a force to be conquered, if not worse. Capital was being exploited in the form of new industries, bringing people off the farm into the cities where they became dependent upon the capitalists - and not without anger and resentment at their exploitation.

Burton tries to describe all these currents converging, with the blacks being stripped of their civil rights in the South, not being welcomed in the North and the capitalists colluding with the politicians to oppress everyone.

To his credit, Burton does the job well, but not perfectly. The march toward the end of the book and the end of the 19th Century becomes a bit bedraggled as Burton tries to wrap things up neatly. He doesn't do it neatly, but it really doesn't destroy the high quality of his work.

Overall, a truly unique and important history, even if a somewhat slow read.

Jerry

Excellent book. Provocative story, well written. The Norton Critical Edition is especially useful in evaluating the text.

This is a definate must read. Written as a poetic play, Soyinka captures the Yoruba experience during the British occupation of Nigeria. It captures their perception of their colonizers, their religious ideologies in sharp contrast with that of the British, their political stance including about Yoruba persons who worked for the British at the time(hence, the mimic men/women) and their trauma and lamentations regarding the slave trade. The title refers to a specific issue that main protagonists will struggle with, leading to the Yoruba/British clash of religious and political ideologies. The result unveils the hypocracy of forced-conversion and explores issues of (in)humanity, suicide and freedom by examining each group's relationship with their leaders, their understanding of the divine God(s) and destiny. This book is one of the texts used in African literature classes.

In this play Soyinka gives such roundness to his characters that it is hard for some to decipher their goodness or "badness" as characters. The play is a story of the western colonizers' failure to recognize African culture as substantial. The play deals with the Yoruba religion and a specific ritual that is thwarted by an ignorant colonizer who does so for reasons traced back to ethnocentricity and racism. The man who is deemed to kill himself is pitied by the westerners and this shows their hippocrisy. By demanding that suicide was immoral and could not be a spiritual endeavor they denied the status of one of the most important men to grace Western Civilization with their presence: Jesus Christ. Christ gave himself away the same way that the character in this play does and did so for spiritual reasons that transcended himself.
THe play gives great insight into African culture and builds with intensity to a hugely climatic ending that is rewarding for the reader to experience.

At a university seminar in the US recently, Prof. Soyinka was asked to respond to charges by certain critics that his writing wasn't 'African' enough. He responded, saying "The people who say these things, I refer to as neo-Tarzanists, people whose Africa is the Africa of Tarzan, swinging from tree to tree. That's not my Africa", he said, to a standing, thunderous ovation. It is difficult to imagine a writer in English today with a wider grasp of the language. Some of his work is unbelievable - metaphor, irony, the supernatural, interwoven with tragedy, lyricism, and language. Top-draw.

Soyinka both entertains and asks subtle questions about mass psychology, individual psychology, and universal human struggles of the will.