Wang Books

Tang Xiansu was a contemporary of Shakespeare (and Cervantes!). His masterpiece, _The Peony Pavilion_, a musical drama in the Kunqu style, is Shakespearean in its literary quality--as translated by Cyril Birch--and super-Shakespearean in its length and scope. Its 55 scenes, playing 20 hours, include all of Shakespeare's genres: romance, history, comedy, tragedy, lyric poetry. A magnificent work and vital theatre as done complete in New York in 1999. Birch's brief intro helps you get into the piece; his short book, "Scenes for Mandarins: The Elite Theater of the Ming" (Columbia University Press), tells more and also introduces other playwrights and plays in his elegant translations.

I love this book. It's so romantic and it has a lot of suspense in it.

It is painful to read this book.

The book itself has no definite structure. The plot is very predictable and rather boring (not to mention it makes very little sense). I would highly suggest that you avoid this Chinese Classic.

I sincerely thank Gene Wang for the book. The book is for every programmer regardless of experience. It covers several general topics. I am surprised however, that a second edition has'nt come out. Some of the stuff like "List of Top 100 companies" is outdated now.

Only has 9 pages on resumes but has a section that tells you how to configure your dial up internet connection so you can search the internet for a job. Give me a break.

This book provides important material for software developers. The author shows just what it takes to be a successful programmer. His book is a true guide to a successful programming career. In addition to some theoretical discussions of component programming and software life-cycle, Mr. Wang also gives important hands-on advice such as how to write a winning resume, how to prepare for an interview, and even when to leave the current job and what companies to work for. He also gives overview of some best software tools and the hottest technologies. The book has two drawbacks, though. It seems that the author is a little biased towards Windows development. Other areas, such as UNIX or WWW development, don't get nearly as much attention as Windows development. It is not quite right -- those markets do exist and can't be ignored or dismissed as "obsolete." Second, the chapter on Internet programming seems a little weak. The author managed to write the whole chapter on Internet programming without ever mentioning Java, even though the book was written in 1996. All in all, the advice that the author gives is invaluable.

At first browse, this book looks a bit like one of Julius Bendat's excellent texts on time series analysis: dense in formulas, but rewarding the wade.

And then I tried to actually _work through_ their examples. A formula-rich book is NO place for typos.

I don't mind when the text uses "lossed" for "lost;" I can quickly figure out what was meant. I resent having to do forensics to rebuild what formulas and/or results I should have seen in the examples.

That three-star rating reflects two things: the potential this book could have had, and my expectation that sooner or later there will be an ERRATA listing that helps sort this beast out.

The authors of this book have a great deal of clinical trial experience in the pharmaceutical industry as well as strong academic backgrounds. For the clinical trial statistician there is now a rich supply of software products to aid in the determination of sample size for a variety of modeling situations. So knowing formulas is no longer important. What is important is to understand the basis for the formulas. This book provides the industrial perspective and the main fixed sample size designs. In this industry trials are constructed to show superiority, noninferiority and equivalence. These three distinct appoaches lead to different results because the null and alternative hypotheses change as you change your goal from superiority to equivalence.

This book makes that important distinction and is very scholarly, providing many of the relevant references. Although most clinical trials are still parallel design randomized controlled trials with fixed sample size, there are more and more trials that allow for sequential decisionmaking and hence the actual total sample size can be subject to randomness. The group sequential trials have been the most successful in this regard. But now there are also more flexible "adaptive designs" that are being used. For group sequential designs see the text by Jennison and Turnbull and for the adaptive designs Chow and Chang and a more recent applied text by Chang are very good sources of information. Software packages that are available to do group sequential and adaptive designs are East by Cytel, Seq+Trials by Insightful Corp., PASS by Number Crunchersand ADDPLAN by a German Company. Also statisticians like Mark Chang and Keaven Anderson have created their own routines for adaptive designs using the R programming language.

I am a PhD statistician working in a pharma company. My overall impression about this book is that it is not a handbook for use on a daily basis for clinical trialists. I expected the book to be more insightful about sample size calculations. Examples are very artificial, not taken from real-life.

The book has an academic flavor, however the intended audience is clinical trials practicioners. It would be much better to start each chapter with a couple of strong examples, then description of the methodology, and finally sample size calculations.

I think this book needs a lot of improvement before it can be used as a good reference

Hinton has done a fine job translating some of Wang Wei's more famous works in this book. If you appreciate translations from folks like Watson, Seaton, and Rexroth, then you will like what he has done here. There is a nice introduction to the life of Wang Wei (not too long-winded, just right), and the notes following the poems are clear and concise. This is a nice work to add to any collection of poetry.

The classic nature of this book of poems reflects the authors intellectual background so be sure to read the introduction. The poetry is of a very high quality and although it appears to be not as spontaneous as some Zen poetry this is offset by the quality and insights in his writings.

As he lived from 700 to 761 it is an insight into the age that produced the greatest Zen Master in Chinese history Hui Neng. Some might argue that Zen has never surpassed this age.

As a book for a non Zen person it is fine for its nature insights and interactions with zen masters and persons of influence but there are better books for the unitiated.

The translation appears, from someone who doesnt read chinese to be well thought out and the zen in the poems is not trampled over.

Nobody can dispute the translator's knowledge of Chinese; it's the English that is bizarre. Hinton tends to
translate everything, especially titles, e.g most translators leave Huazi Ridge at that, but H. has "Master-Flourish Ridge." Cf also "At Azure-Dragon Monastery for Monk-Cloud Wall's Courtyard Assembly", "Apricot-Grain Cottage." This verges on the quaint - Chinoiserie. H. tends towards clipped English, but it doesn't match, as I imagine it's intended to, Chinese economy of language, but again a kind of orientalism intrudes, especially when religion comes into question, e.g. "Grasses cushion legs sitting ch'an stillness/up here...Inhabiting emptiness beyond dharma cloud,...("Climbing to Subtle-Aware Monastery"). There are uneasy echoes of Pound and 60s zen freaks. Occasionally, H. is cute:"Dear stone, little platter alongside cascading streamwater..." ("Playfully Written on a Flat Stone"). H. can be mannered, too. Lotus blossoms adrift out across treetops/flaunt crimson calyces among mountains." ("Magnolia Slope"). I'm afraid even H. falls into the trap of all too many English translators of Chinese poetry:they put on their singing robes and start writing English verse.

Christopher Busby

This is a good textbook that is meant as a theoretical introduction to Network Management. It is unique in that it covers quite a bit of the scope of a broad and diverse subject.

This is not easy reading, it has to be studied instead. Chances are that one would have to print RFCs or other Standards documents to get an indepth look at a particular set of standards.

Given how unique this book is, and despite the dryness of subject matter, I do consider it as a good book. As a university course, it does not have many questions and exercises, but that shouldn't take away from the value it brings to the subject.

To make this more like easy reading, it can be probably divided into more than one part and add lots more graphics and illustration to better help the reader.

I was looking into this book from the perspective of understanding TMN standards from a partical implementation point of view. The biggest problem with TMN standards has been the difficulty in following them. The book does very little towards solving that.

It has very few illustrations. It lacks a practical touch. It would have helped to explain TMN standards with respect to some common telecom technolgies such as ATM, SONET/SDH.

It tries to go into details of SNMP and then CMIP which are probably best handled by separate books.

New areas such as CORBA as well other upcoming important telecommunications standards are barely touched. That makes the book some what outdated.

Effectively it becomes a theoretical book with little practical implications.

This is a good practical guide to Network Management standards and technologies. The author explains the Network Management standards and technologies in detail and then applies them to the various solutions. He covers different protocols, standards, architectures, functional areas of Network Management. New areas like CORBA, ODP, Service Management are also introduced. This book can be used for obtaining a conceptual understanding of Network management areas with ability to understand practical systems. For a beginner this book can serve as a good introduction to various areas of Network Management. For an experienced person, this can serve as a reinforcing text. Exercises help to verify our knowledge and extend our thoughts in different areas. This book is not suitable for a beginner in computer science. But a valuable reference for a beginner in network management. Diagrams in this book are simple and do the purpose although better diagramming tool could have been used.

This book is a series of essays on various topics related to World War I. It does not claim to be a thorough analysis of the war, but it does point in directions for further thought and research. I found the book to be quite fascinating. For example, there is a chapter about forced labor behind the front lines that was new material to me. Also, there is quite a bit about how the war was remembered and memorialized that is very intriguing. A major thesis of the book is that Paul Fussell's idea about a big cultural disconnect resulting from the Great War is wrong. The authors endeavor to show that, other than some avant-garde artists, most people continued to understand the world in traditional terms. Overall, a very stimulating book.

It took me a while to understand why I was so disappointed and uncomfortable with this book. The subject matter and chapter topics seemed intriguing; the writing style wasn't bad. Then I began to understand that the problem is with the authors' scholarship. In an attempt to reinterpret the war and make it meaningful for a contemporary audience, they used the inexperienced-author-survey style of writing, which takes an anecdote or two and turns this limited information into the basis for broad, sweeping conclusions that are inaccurate, or worse. As an amateur historian who understands the rules of scholarship, I was finding it impossible to suspend disbelief as I read through this series of interrelated but lightweight essays. Some of the information presented is indeed interesting, but the conclusions are not, and overall it does not hold together well as a book.

If you're looking for a recent WWI publication that is informative, well-researched and engaging, get Winston Groom's book, A Storm in Flanders.

This book is pretty good. As a foreigner, my english is not very good. But this book hardly contains any hard to understand usage of grammar, dialect, ... etc. Personally, I have read many books with similar plots but this book can be summarized as a modern Cinderella.

Although this book is short and contains a simple concept, it was a n easy reading one for children.

The first review of the book is by someone who admits in his text that he has not seen the book!! And he said he hoped an analysis of Confucianism would be based on understanding Confucius' times and history. Well, guess what is in the book? Duh!! This book goes through Chinese and Japanese history from ancient times, starting with Shang dynasty, Zhou dynasty, Laozi, Confucius, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Mozi, Yang Fei, Han Feizi, Xunzi, and then on to Buddishim, Neo-confucianism, Zen Buddhism and then finally Mao Zedong! This book is exceptionally thought-provoking. It seeks to understand "pyramid societies" such as China and Japan which were not founded on the principle of equality, and draws a distinction between societies based on ethical systems, which he says Japan is, and moral systems, which he says China is. Even more interesting is the explanation of why and how Maoism took root in a Confucian China, and how China is attempting to more towards an ethics-based system like Japan.

I am a Chinese American who grew up in Taiwan, and I would consider myself fundamentally a Confucian follower even though I have spent all my adulthood in the U.S. I read an excerpt of this book from another site, and I really have to wonder about the author's background and motive for writing this book. He claims he is explaining the Confucian mind to the Westerners, but, (from the excerpt I read) the way he explains and describes the parent-child relationship makes it sound almost abusive and psychotic by Western standards, and I certainly disagree with his semi-clinical style and inaccurate analysis. Of course I do appreciate someone taking the effort to write a book about the Confucian mind, but one really has to start with China's long history and the times that Confucius lived in, and I would prefer the author did not write in a manner that seemed to be dissecting and judging the Chinese/Confucian mind under a microscope. It's about relationship and sensitivity to other's feelings, what's wrong with that? I could only wish the Western mind be as sensitive, prudent and thoughtful as the Confucian mind, especially now.

While Sale demonstrates a sound background on the subject, the book reads more like a rough draft. The chapters are divided into seperate periods within the environmental movement but the events within each chapter are not presented in chronological order. Sale tends too jump back and forth between events which makes it somewhat difficult to bring the entire picture together. In short the information is fairly complete but rather disjointed in its presentation. This is a bit disappointing for a book whose purpose is specifically to present a historical overview of the era. All things considered, for a few more pages there are other books on the subject that are much better.

Anyone who wants to get a better understanding of the evolution of the Green movement in the United States will find this short, concise book a worthwile read. The book covers the first three decades of the movement, which essentially began when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962. Environmentalism really established itself quickly after the publication of this book; the threats that Carson discussed struck a nerve with the American people. This growing concern led to the establishment of a number of organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, as well as forcing politicians to start paying attention to environmental issues. But as Sale points out, the environmental movement has experienced numerous setbacks. First off, the political establishment has persisted in its resistance to legislating truly effective environmental policies. Second, there has been a considerable backlash from big business. Thirdly, many of the idealistic organizations of the 1960s and 1970s have essentially sold out in their effort to play hardball with the big boys, thus diluting the revolutionary aspect of environmentalism and, hence, giving rise to "radical" environmentalists. All in all, this is a good book, very well and clearly written and bountiful in relevant information for those wanting a better understanding of the environmental movement in the United States.

Darren Staloff offers a compelling and insightful study on the influence of Enlightenment thought on Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Staloff starts with an introduction on the Enlightenment, followed by a lengthy chapter on each of his three subjects in question, with a little more emphasis on Jefferson. Staloff asserts that the influence of the Enlightenment was most evidenced and put into practice in this country during the period of the framing of our government, and especially through the thoughts and actions of these three prominent founders.

As Staloff mentioned, the Enlightenment was the combination of a diverse set of ideas and beliefs espoused by a host of philosophes, including Newton, Locke, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau and so many others who helped define this new mode of thinking. They were believers in science and railed against `enthusiasm', defined as political and especially religious zeal. They believed in the importance of education, reason, commerce, and in most cases a more republican form of government. Staloff discusses this much better than I can. In essence, these philosophes and their writings contributed fodder to the three founders he discusses in their attempts to help frame our government and setting forth the direction they wanted the country to take.

Hamilton was a most accomplished man in life, championing the American cause during its struggle against Great Britain, serving in the continental army as an aid to General Washington, primary author of many of the essays in the Federalist Papers supporting the Constitution, serving as Secretary of Treasury during the Washington Presidency, and symbolizing the primary voice for a stronger central government. Hamilton was never beloved, nor is he today. He had character traits that don't usually win admiration, but the power of his mind and his influence could not and cannot be denied. He was a controversial figure in his time and remains so. But as Staloff confirms, it was Hamilton's vision of America, with its emphasis on a stronger central government and increased wealth and power though industry and commerce that became the eventual reality. Hamilton really understood the essence of realpolitik.

John Adams was without doubt one of the most dedicated men to the cause of American independence. Adams was a principled man who did not always take popular positions, but he took them because he believed it right, such as defending the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre incident. He worked tirelessly in his diplomatic positions, especially in securing loans from the Dutch. Adams also had a profound belief, as the others did, in the value of education as being the best safeguard to protect liberty. Through the crafting of the Constitution to its eventual implementation, Adams was a renowned constitutional theorist and contributed greatly to the concept of a system of checks and balances. Adams was not without his own faults. He could be excessively vain and easy to anger. Some criticized him for being monarchial and disdainful of the people. Adams, through his broad knowledge of history, developed a keen awareness of human nature, thus wanting a system of checks and balances in government.

Staloff's last chapter is dedicated to the political life of a true Renaissance man, Thomas Jefferson. The gifted writer of the Declaration of Independence who, among other things, championed freedom of speech and religion as well as limited government, would also be the source of America's romantic vision. It was Jefferson, according to Staloff, who was the first to establish a vision for his country. In his case, he believed in the superiority of the independent yeoman farmer and a fiscally responsible as well as restrained federal government. He helped create the party system and ably led his political faction to power.

Jefferson was seemingly both radical and conservative depending on the issue. He abhorred slavery, yet became defensive when he felt his home state of Virginia and the rest of the South was being assaulted by the political and economic forces of the North. Jefferson saw the dangers of slavery and its threat to the Union, yet he became a forceful advocate for states' rights and did little to hinder the `peculiar institution'. He was more radical in his belief in the value and necessities of periodic revolutions as a means to stop the growth of oppressive and unchecked governments that threatened the liberties of the people. Regardless of what you thought of the man and the society he was part of, his brilliance and contributions, like those of Hamilton and Adams, were profuse and far-reaching.

Staloff makes a good effort in showing the influence of the Enlightenment on these particular founders and the making of our nation. Its influence was undeniable, but it wasn't the only influence. Many of these men looked to the Greek and Roman models and the developments in the British state. Much has been written recently on the founders and the early history of our republic and that's an understatement. His portraits of these three distinguished founders are well worth reading, even if there isn't a lot of new information. A solid, well thought out book.

~Hamilton, Adams and Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment~ is a forceful attempt to lay the foundations of the American republic squarely upon the Enlightenment. It aims to present three founding fathers in particular as the embodiment of Enlightenment political thought. This book is good for no other reason than the fascinating vignettes sketching the life, thought and politics of Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson - the triumvirate that forged the early American Republic.

Hamilton is presented as a shrewd practitioner of Enlightenment realpolitik who banished his youthful idealism after enduring the battlefield deprivations of the War for Independence. Hamilton is perhaps the most lionized of the three gentlemen. Staloff judiciously explains how the adroit his role as Treasury Secretary and Hamiltonian economic policies earned him recognition as father of modern statecraft in America.

Adams the quintessential Yankee is presented as "an American curmudgeon." He authored a number of important political tracts such as his 1765 Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law and his 1787 Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States of America. This sketch is perhaps the haziest of the three. It occasionally stirs off into directions that have little to do with the life and politics of John Adams.

Jefferson - the visionary Virginia squire - is presented as a Romantic man of letters and an Enlightenment rationalist. Jefferson's rationalism is of course tempered by a quixotic romanticism shaped by his unique experience in both France and rural Virginia. Staloff weaves together a pugnacious portrait, vaguely sympathetic and at other times disdainful of Jefferson. He covers everything from Jefferson's agrarian vision, his zeal for meritocratic public education, his racial views and finally his constitutional thought.

Staloff presents the Enlightenment in his introduction, and presents abstract principles of the Enlightenment. He postulates the idea that America's founding ideals "are inconceivable outside of an Enlightenment context." He declares, "historians of the Enlightenment recognize it as the source of our modern, secular worldview, from our ideals of religious toleration, individual liberty, and free speech to our practices of representative government and unfettered development." Staloff sketches a background of the Enlightenment and attempts postulate how the politics of the Enlightenment were the crux of the American founding. Staloff further proclaims, "wherever this worldview has taken root, it has transformed society, sweeping aside traditional values and institutions in its wake." I object that the guiding purpose of the founding fathers was to sweep aside the institutions and customs of the past. The American Constitution in many ways fortified traditions, customs and institutions of old, and sought to improve upon them. Unlike revolutionary Enlightenment France, Christianity was not swept aside by an Enlightenment intelligentsia to forge a secular state. Moreover, many time-honored traditions chiefly from Britain lived on in America after the founding as many live on today. Staloff spuriously postulates that the United States "was forged in the crucible of the Enlightenment; no other nation bears its imprint as deeply." Such a bold statement certainly fits France more so than the United States.

That the Enlightenment influenced the founding generation is to be admitted, but the American revolutionary and founding generation had innumerable other influences perhaps much more profound. In his book the Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, historian Bernard Bailyn made a more accurate statement in tracing the sources and traditions of the American founding. Bailyn never purported America to have just one intellectual foundation, but rather he recognized the complex interplay of traditions and eighteenth-century innovations. Such influences included: the (1) Classics, the (2) English Common Law tradition, the (3) Enlightenment, (4) Puritanism and the (5) English Libertarian Tradition. In the Roots of American Order, Russell Kirk advanced a similar but somewhat distinguished hypothesis tracing the roots of American order. First, the groundswell of classical education in the years leading up to independence profoundly influenced the founders. Hamilton, Adams and Jefferson were deeply ingrained in the classics, well-versed in Latin, and ancient history. Second, the Anglo-American common law tradition was indebted to the English common law tradition of Blackstone and Coke. That legal tradition came to life long before the Enlightenment and can be traced back to ancient Saxon law and the Magna Carta. Third, the Enlightenment did influence American founders. But its influence was limited and the character of Enlightenment thought embraced by Americans was much different. Radical social critics like Voltarie, Rousseau and Beccaria had a rather marginal influence in America. The founders tended to look more to conservatives like Hume and Montesquieu. What's more, American political thought had a depth of originality that transcends immediate European influences. In Enlightenment France, it was hoped to restore the ancien régime. In America, the founders embraced the classics not to emulate Greece or Rome per se, but learn from their troubled history, and affirm their rejection of any modern political parallels to the despotic ancien régime. Forth, Protestantism and the ideas emanating from covenant theology were instrumental in shaping the covenant origins of the American polity and the political thought of the founding generation. Natural law had a distinctly Christian flavor in eighteenth-century America. The pamphleteer Alexander Hamilton had proclaimed, "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." Fifth, the English libertarian tradition in the eighteenth-century as embodied in Cato's Letters by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon were a powerful influence on the founding generation. These Old Whigs had stressed the Country and Court dichotomy. They defended equality, localism, and property rights, and opposed the spoliation of countryside by the court party to buttress their corrupt system of patronage and privilege. The colonists saturated in Old Whig libertarian thought naturally gravitated to these ideas.

In précis, Staloff's book is intriguing at times, particularly his sketch of Hamilton, but his hypothesis is lacking substance. Overall, there is much to be wanted. I found the thesis fanciful, reductionist and otherwise unsubstantiated. It remains rather ridiculous to purport the overarching foundation of the American founding to be ideals of Enlightenment, particularly when so many other weighty influences are completely marginalized. Separated from the book's reductionist thesis, the book is marginally redeemed by the expositions on the life, thought, and political activities of three prominent founding fathers. This book probably will only resonate with modern-day Enlightenment ideologues looking to vindicate their modern, liberal, and secularist ideology by claiming the American founding generation as their own.