Columbia Books

The guide is in excellent condition. And if you can't go to the Smithsonian, this certainly is the second best way to visit.

Really can't say but they were thrilled getting the book.
Was a Christmas gift so haven't gotten feed back on if it has been read yet. They did love the idea as they are going to spend the summer there and wanted to spend time at the Smithsonian.

This guide was purchased for a 12 year old who will be visiting the Smithsonian for the first time. I have visited the Smithsonian several times and feel this guide will be very helpful.

This book is just what you would expect from the Smithsonian, 224 pages of glossy pictures that leave you wanting more. The _Guide_ starts with about 35 pages of useful information such as how to get around DC and some of the history of the Smithsonian Institution. Then comes a quick survey of the different museums starting with that favorite, the Air and Space Museum, which is the home of the Wright Brothers first flying aircraft. And don't forget the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport or you will miss a proto-type space shuttle. After surveying the rest of the Smithsonian museums near the National Mall, the _Guide_ includes a few other attractions in DC such as the National Zoological Park. A few noteworthy mentions in NYC round out the _Guide_.

Of course, you could spend your entire two week vacation at the Smithsonian and never see it all. (Do an online search to see how big it is.) If you use the _Guide_ to plan a trip to DC, one thing I might suggest is that you learn to use the Metro (subway) system. The _Guide_ mentions it, but it is too bad that a map of the Metro system was not included. (Get one online.) If you buy the _Guide_ in order to remember a trip to DC, one thing that will quickly catch your attention is that the National Museum for the American Indian mentioned is the one in NYC. Either way, the _Guide_ is well worth it.

I have been a student of Taoism for over 40 years and try to accumulate as much literature on the subject as I can. This particular book is a very good find. I have been (and still am) enjoying it immensely. And Amazon.com helped me in finding this book at a great value.

Original Tao is a wonderful translation of an often over-looked text. The verses contained within this short work rival and often surpass those found in the more well known Taoist classic, Lau-tzu.

In addition to the translation, Professor Roth's commentary on Chinese mysticism is phenomenal and provides an interesting back-drop to the history of Taoist thought.

I highly recommend this book to both newcomers and veterans of Taoism

The centre of this 200-pages book is the critical edition of the Chinese text and the scholar translation of the Nei Ye (55 pages). Before and after this part, an introduction and 4 other chapters trace the history of the text, its contents and structure, its position in the context of the early Taoist mysticism and its position in the context of the early Taoism in general.

The Nei Ye is not a recent discovery; it was known since millennia but, buried in a supposed Confucian miscellany, its actual contents and significance have been since long overlooked. This book attempts, with success, to re-assess them, placing this work at the origins of Taoist mysticism, as the earliest extant text of the tradition which will later express more widely known works like Laozi and Zhuangzi.

"Original Tao" is a scholar book, it is not an 'easy' reading and the reader without any familiarity with ancient China's history and philosophy will be easily overwhelmed by the amount of names, data, quotations and so on.

On the other hand, its language is not too technical, and basic concepts are never taken for granted but appropriately introduced. And, above all, the new lights it casts on (and the grounds it provides for) the development of the early Taoist mysticism are for sure of great interest even to the layman who knows Taoism only through (more or less sound translations of) the Laozi and the Zhuangzi.

While not really new (it has now about 10 years), this book is definitely to recommend to anybody with a non-casual interest on Taoism.

The only (small) criticism I can make is the use of an old Chinese transliteration system instead of the now more widely used pinyin system.

Original Tao provides a new translation and commentary which revise Taoism's origins and reflect new historic discoveries, uncovering the original expressions of Taoist philosophy and using original texts as masterworks for revision. From an introduction of short poetic verses devoted to meditation to the author's contention that the seminal Taoist work Inward Training is the foundational text of early Taoism, this provides an intriguing new examination.

I don't have much to add to what other reviewers have written. But I want to give the thumbs-up for this book. It should be on the shelf of everyone who wants to read/translate/understand Classical Chinese literature.

I have been studying the Classical Chinese language for one year now and have been suffering through several inadequate grammar references. This wonderful book is the first comprehensive treatment of the grammar of the ancient form of Chinese used by the great philosophers like Confucius and Mencius. It uses modern grammar terminology and examples from the Classics to systematize this very complex language. Bravo.. Mr. Pulleyblank. You have strided through a field in which many have feared to tred! Anthony Barbieri-Low Harvard University Regional Studies:East Asia Program

In the _Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar_, Pulleyblank provides a much-needed, well, "outline" of the grammar of the Chinese classics. My favorite aspect of this book is its extensive examples, which help the reader of classic texts bridge the gap between the orderly world of grammar books and the always-disorderly world of actual texts.

Of course, one can always wish for more, e.g., I might hope for more on the usages of the various "prepositional" particles. Nevertheless, this is by far the best book of this sort I have seen (in a number of years of working with classical Chinese), and a vital aid to the student of classical Chinese.

First off, the more I use this book the more I like it. Despite a few "flaws" it is a book full of useful and subtle knowledge on Classical Chinese grammar and anyone serious about Classical Chinese would do well to own a copy. Despite a few short comings (discussed below) it is the most complete Classical Chinese grammar book available in English. Its emphasis is on the high classical period from Confucius (551 - 479 BCE) to the founding of the Qin dynasty (221 BCE).

This book assumes the reader already knows some Classical Chinese and has a very good grasp of grammatical and linguistic terminology. Examples: 1)...this is done by inserting a resumptive pronoun shi2... 2) Both the subject and a postverbal element may be topicalized in a locative phrase with yu4 nominalized by zhi1. 3) Other modal notions are expressed by adverbial or adnominal particles.

(Those new to Classical Chinese should consider: Classical Chinese : A Basic Reader in Three Volumes, ISBN: 0691118310, which compliments Michael Fuller's: An Introduction to Literary Chinese, ISBN: 0674017269, as these two books have some readings in common. In appendix A of Fuller's book there is a very nice grammar summary and it discusses some of Pulleyblank's perspectives. The grammar summary in Fuller's book is much simplier than in Pulleyblank's, but is a bit more abstract in its approach compared to what is covered in the above three volume reader. Also, Fuller's appendix D contains a very useful glossary of the most important function words. Ideally one would eventually want all these books. Note, Fuller's book doesn't give the pinyin for the actual text being analyzed, he only supplies the pinyin in his vocabulary lists, which for some reason are not always complete. Also, unlike the above three volume reader, Fuller does not provide the reader with a complete translation of the text being analyzed. Fuller's book covers texts from beginning level to advanced level and is definitely recommended. [If one is going to invest the hundreds, if not thousands of hours, required to learn Classical Chinese then one should get all the books that can help.])

Since this book is an outline organized by grammatical and linguistic concepts and written more for the scholar, it is not, in my opinion, organized in a way that is optimal for translating. Since almost everybody learns Classical Chinese by reading sections from the classics, it would be helpful, but likely contrary to the philosophy and aim of the book, if the most common grammatical patterns were summarized into one or two chapters and the full and varied usage of each individual grammatical particle were listed in one place. Sometimes when translating a difficult passage I have to look in three or four places to make sure I have covered all possible uses of one given grammatical particle. In time one remembers all the possible patterns, but it would be easier if the book was organized differently or at least had additional material, even at the expense of redundancy.

The index is very complete, useful and well done. Almost all the characters discussed have both their grammatical usage and meaning given in the index.

There are close to six hundred short examples eloquently translated. The examples are given in both modern pinyin (always with tone marks) and in Traditional (Complex) Characters in a very readable font. It is clear that Edward Pulleyblank is a gifted writer and translator with a fine aesthetic sense. Though the reader should be aware that on occasion his translations for reasons of context (usually not given) or for better idiomatic English slightly deviate from the original Chinese. (On occasion in his examples he adds in words that are not in the original Chinese and are not required for good English, but that none the less improve the translation; in these cases he really should put his additions in square brackets.) In my humble opinion he strikes a consummate balance between the need for literal faithfulness and the need to achieve good sounding and readable English. Most translators have difficulty achieving this balance; they either are too literal and thus sound horrid or are so idiomatic or loose as to be unfaithful to the individual characters and grammatical structure.

Unfortunately, the meaning of most characters in the translated examples are not given, typically only the meaning of the grammatical character being discussed is given, which makes reconstructing the translation more time consuming. A glossary at the end would enhance this book even more: both a glossary of all the characters used in all the examples and a glossary of grammar terminology.

Most of the examples are from Mencius (Mengzi) and some from other classics such as the Shiji. There are a few Daoist quotes from Zhuanzi. There are no examples from ancient medical texts such as the Nei jing, Mai jing, Shang han lun or Nan jing. Only a few minor examples of poetry usage (such as from the Shijing or Book of Odes). Neither are there any examples from the Dao de jing. This I think creates a bias, the statements of fact in this book don't always fully apply to the Dao de jing (too poetic), nor do they always fully apply to medical texts such as the Nei jing, Mai jing, Shang han lun or Nan jing as these books are too specialized.

There are the occasional confusing usage rules and "omissions." Example omissions: the conjunction yin1=because; the locatives nei4=in[side] and wai4=out[side] and their usage with verbs. Though these omissions are likely due to the book's focus on philosophical and historical texts. Despite a few minor short comings it is a very useful book and is highly recommended. It is definitely far more a scholarly study than a grammar textbook, yet for tricky grammar questions it is the book I often consult first.

Both the vocabulary and the grammar of Classical Chinese can differ in the ancient medical classics as compared to the more commonly studied historical texts---even if they were authored in the same historical time period. For understanding ancient medical texts see Appendix II in Shang Han Lun: On Cold Damage by Mitchell, Feng Ye and Wiseman. In addition, see Chinese Medical Characters by Wiseman, Yeuhauan, Zhang and Helme (editor), and Chinese Medical Chinese: Grammar and Vocabulary by Wiseman and Feng Ye. In addition, books by the German scholar Paul Unschuld should be considered. However, his native language is German, not English, and thus he has some unusual word choices, which, in my opinion, detract from his books. Also, his knowledge of Chinese Medicine is theoretical and academic, which limits his understanding.

This is a gem of a book. The author does a wonderful job narrating an adventure story while providing valuable information about the geological and ecological background of this ever evolving part of Alaska. It made for an entertaining and informative read. Having had the pleasure to explore this part of the country by kayak myself, I enjoyed how this book's descriptions of the ocean and landscape captured the experience of exploring the Inside Passage.

I agree wholeheartedly with the other reviewers about this book! I loved the adventure story of kayaking through rough water and harsh weather for two months. The author really brings to life the forest, glaciers, mountains and wildlife of the Inside Passage. The information about the nature and history of the area separates this from a mere adventure story. It's really the story of the coast told through a gripping adventure. And the many sidebars that contain tips for sea kayakers are a great plus. I highly recommend this book!

This is a terrific book. The author does an impressive job of weaving together not only his personal story of his kayaking to Alaska, but also accounts of Vancouver's voyage, the explorations of John Muir, and a lot of natural history regarding the region. It's quite well-written and makes for a book that is very readable and often even riveting.

Wow. What a great read. This is a top-notch adventure story that inspired me like few others. The author and his companion really took on the challenges of the northwest coast and came back with a story of high seas, wildlife and terrible weather. The descriptions were so good I actually felt WET after some of the passages. But it is more than an adventure story. The author weaves in fascinating information about the nature and culture of the Inside Passage, providing an informative look at this fascinating place. I've been to the Inside Passage on three different trips and always learn something new. I think Passage to Alaska would be a great companion for anyone traveling the area or simply wishing to learn about one of the wildest places remaining in North America. And it's a great adventure story, too!

When this book was published, the term `Conspiracy theorists' became more propagated.

You may not be persuaded much by what's described in your book `9/11 The Big Lie', but the fact remains that in history, and through some quirk in the fortunes of contemporary events, the truth never came out and a lot will remain mysteries that may not be discovered for many generations to come, like for instance `Who killed John F Kennedy and why??'.... "The Secrets behind Pearl Harbour!!' ... `Was Arafat given a lethal injection??' ... Angered at having to waste time and manpower `fighting' to prove to the world- using ordinary common sense - many will identify the open questions now raised in this book with possible obsessions by the 'Holocaust against six million Jews....'.....'Was 9/11 addressed against America or to address American public opinion...'How could a man on a mule shake America, and the world...'?

It is indeed admirable how much a `Camera' can do to the human brain.
The impact of the 'picture' is magnificent; it has eclipsed the impact of the written and even the spoken `Word'. And Thierry Meyssan used many pictures to substantiate his viewpoints.

Nevertheless, in this book the questions rose about `the Boeing should have dived on the roof'....... `video surveillance in the Pentagon parking lot, they did not see the Boeing either.' are fruitful and make one scratch one's head.

After having read the big lie I still was dubious as for knowing if the Boeing 757-200 from American Airlines Flight 77 crashed on the Pentagon or not. Even Though I fully agreed with Thierry Meyssan about the FBI lies and contradictions, the Meyssan's thesis was not supported enough and all he had done was asking questions without really answering them. Further to all these accusations here is a book which explains the thesis in minute detail - lots of pictures, testimonies and experts to back this up and this is very convincing. The demonstration lacks nothing and Thierry Meyssan easily quashes all his detractors' arguments to finally put forward a sturdy hypothesis. The Author and his team show a great analytic sense, without setting aside any fact or testimony in their disfavor.

The Basic Question:

- How can a B757 that was said by officials to have
totally disintegrated and vaporized as it impacted
(accounting for lack of substantial aircraft wreckage
on site), have nevertheless penetrated through the 3rd
ring's inner wall with its nosecone (the punched-out
hole on the cover of this book), given that the nose
cone is the most fragile part of the aircraft?

There seem to be zillions of other subsidiary
questions, such as:

- Why the FBI confiscated and has
never shown the adjacent hotel and gas station
security cam videos that must have caught the B757's
impact;

- Why the officially blessed few frames of
Pentagon cam video do not show anything remotely
resembling a B757 and appear to have been doctored
anyway;

- How the "hijacker" pilot (incompetent by
instructors' reports) accomplished an extremely
precise approach and targeting (they say these guys
never learned to land, but the "B757" was just meters
above the ground when it hit, (in effect he "landed the plane"
very precisely);

- Why the little scrap of liveried supposed "wreckage" on the lawn shows lettering only one-half or less the size scale it should be for an AA liveried B757;

- Why the "plane" coincidentally hit the
least populated side of the Pentagon, after apparently
taking extra effort and time to target that position;

- Why after saying the plane was totally vaporized and
disintegrated officials now claim to have an almost
complete reconstruction of the "B757"; why the initial
entrance hole was so small;

- Why after a fire that totally melted and vaporized the plane computer manuals and other papers visible in offices at the
sheared cutoff are totally undamaged;

- Why initial eye witnesses reported a small plane or missile-like object; and on and on and on.

Meyssan deals with most of these questions and I got news for you - as a mainstream mind-controlled American (like me) you aren't going to like his answers!

Anyway let's face it - probably no Boeing 757 ever hit the
Pentagon.

The only evidence supporting the Boeing hypothesis
seems to be the following:

- About half the eye witnesses state they saw either a
B757, a plane with AA livery, or both (i.e. a B757 in
AA livery)

- AA Flt 77 is unaccounted for

- The government has officially stated that AA 77 hit
the Pentagon

- bits of possible 757 wreckage were photographed in
ambiguous settings

I really hate to conclude this, but to me it seems
probable that some form of cruise missile, dressed in
AA livery, was used and all the rest is a USA Mil-Gov
coverup. A horrible conclusion, I know it!

Please read this book and if you can convincingly
refute it, dealing adequately with all the anomalies I've
listed above and settling each concern, please write
your own counter-book immediately, and we'll put this horrible
hypothesis to bed once and for all.

Note that Purdue (Indiana) academics have completed a
government-funded graphical simulation of the crash
that on my reading, unfortunately again, does not come
close to answering all the questions raised above.

I don't know why the mainstream media doesn't at least
look into this? All I've seen are one or two jokey
reviews of Meyssan's first (much less detailed)
general book about 9-11. In one case, the "reviewer"
hadn't even read the book!

Why isn't the public more interested in this? Are we
just so satisified with our Hollywood FX story of
"Fires, Explosions, Arab Villians, American Heroes"
that we can't even be bothered to read and respond
rationally to an important analysis like this one?

"Nothing was wrong far as we could tell,
that's what we liked to tell ourselves,
but no it wasn't that way"

- Stevie Wonder "How Come, How Long"

Pentagate is a very important book about the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon because it points out the problems with the evidence that U.S. journalists won't even touch.

Meyssan has built much of his case on the problems in the official version of what happened at the Pentagon. His first chapter, "One Piece of Debris Too Many", points out that the large piece of debris that appeared to be from an American Airlines jet has not even been inventoried by the Dept. of Defense.

As a journalist for American Free Press in Washington, I have tried repeatedly to get the Pentagon to clarify the status of this important piece of debris that was seen by millions. As of this date there has been NO response to numerous requests. What's wrong with this picture?

Meyssan points to the evidence seen in the video from the Pentagon security camera and the round holes that were pierced in three layers of the Pentagon and builds his case that this was not a Boeing passenger jet that struck the building.

The explosion seen in the video and the nearly perfectly round holes that were bored in the Pentagon are evidence that a cruise missile, painted to look like an American Airlines jet, crashed into the Pentagon, according to Meyssan.

The book has an important chapter by a French military expert on explosives who describes "The Effects of a Hollow Charge". This technical information bolsters the case made by Meyssan.

Meyssan raises a lot of good questions. Now if we could only get some answers from the Pentagon.

Pentagate is highly recommended for those interested in the Pentagon attack by Christopher Bollyn of American Free Press.

A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful, 1759

Burke points out the things all around us that we take for granted but which really are absolutely amazing in his discourse on the sublime. A galloping stead, the expanse of a starry night, or a range of towering, snow-capped mountains. Burke points out these awe-some sights which in themselves provoke us to ask of their origins.

This book can be repetitious as Burke attempts to make, especially on taste, his point absolutely clear (I've got one of the later editions - 1772.).

Additionally, some of the lines in the book are near-timeless and are good to have around to reference from.

Edmund Burke's 1757 treatise, "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," is a clearly written, well-argued, and variously inflected work of philosophy. Coming out of and contending with the traditions of philosophies of passion, understanding, and aesthetics from Aristotle and Longinus to Descartes, Hobbes to Locke, and Shaftesbury to Hume, Burke would seem to be taking on a world of difficulty at the tender age of 28. However, Burke manages to maintain control and exercise great wit in his treatise by confining his "Enquiry" to the ways we interact with the physical world, and how in this interaction, we formulate our aesthetic ideas of sublimity and beauty.

Burke's "Enquiry" is divided into five parts, with an introduction. The introduction is perhaps his most witty segment, as he tries, as Shaftesbury, Addison, and Hume before him, to formulate a standard of Taste, a popular subject of conjecture in the 18th century. Physically, and not without some irony, he chooses to speak of Taste primarily as a feature of eating. In response to his predecessors, though, he does say that since our attitudes toward the world come from our senses, that the majority of people can see (sight being very important) and react; thus all people are capable of some degree of Taste. Education and experience, he must admit, though, do refine Taste. In Part One, Burke examines the individual and social causes which arouse our sense of the sublime and the beautiful, those being the primal feelings of terror/pain and love/pleasure, respectively. Throughout the "Enquiry," Burke insists that these are not opposites strictly speaking - that pain and pleasure are mediated by a neutral state of indifference, which is the natural state of man. (Compare that idea to Hobbes and Locke!)

Parts Two, Three, and Four find Burke explaining his notion of the passions in relation to his basis of the physical world. Grandeur, potential threat, darkness, and ignorance for Burke excite our nerves and produce the sublime, a feeling of terror which is simultaneously delightful as long as it does not cause immediate pain. These he finds both in the physical world and in tragedies of literature and history. Smallness, softness, clarity, and weakness delimit the beautiful, which produces affection and sympathy. The contrasts and interventions that Burke makes throughout the "Enquiry" on these bases are variously inflected with issues of anxiety over gender roles, race, and power. Burke's politics give the work a joyful and troubling complexity to the literary minded.

Part Five, then, is a look at the effect that words, language, and poetry can have in influencing our affect in regards to the sublime and the beautiful. In it, he gathers together statements he sprinkles throughout the treatise on the nature of poetry - that its emphasis on representation of emotion, rather than imitation of objects, gives it a power that is perhaps unequalled even by nature. In Burke's "Enquiry," one can see a nascent fascination with landscape, mystery, and sensation that would find its flowering in the Gothic and Romantic movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His insistent break with earlier philosphers who combined aesthetics and morality is a serious challenge to moral philosophy with regard to art and Taste. His physical descriptions of emotional response prefigures Freud's psychological ponderings in "Three Essays on Sexuality" and "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," as well as linguistic theory. In all, a fascinating and complicated work for being as short as it is.

This review is dedicated to the memory of Vernon Lau. Unfortunately, Burke did not deal in the "Enquiry" with the pain or terror of immediate personal loss. One can only wonder if Burke's obsession with philosophical distance between people and fear wasn't motivated by a loss of his own.

Burke's Enquiry is a surprising and remarkable little work. If you expect the Burke who fits your stereotype of the conservative Tory politician, that is not what you will find here at all--but rather a clear and insightful discussion of our feelings and emotions of awe and beauty in nature and in art, and especially poetry.

Based on self-observation and reflection, Burke takes a scientific, almost Newtonian approach to the fascinating question of what it is that makes us feel the presence of the sublime and the beautiful.

These are amazing observations for a 28-year-old--remarkable as well because they were written in 1757. Consistent with the 18th Century outlook, he refers to the emotions as "the passions," and it's obvious he's done a good deal of thinking about them.

The sublime, for Burke, is generated by passions connected to self preservation and which "turn on pain and danger. They are simply painful when their causes immediately affect us. They are delightful when we have an idea of pain or danger without being actually in such circumstances. This delight I have not called pleasure because it is different enough from any idea of positive pleasure. Whatever excites this delight, I call sublime."

By beauty, Burke means the quality or qualities in bodies by which they cause love or some passion similar to it. He makes sure to distinguish love from lust or desire. This is quite a different view than the Platonic view of beauty as resonant with eternal forms and ideas.

Burke identifies specific qualities that generate beauty: to be comparatively small, smooth, having parts not angular but melted into one another. He cites the example of a dove as a creature having this beauty.

There is a big difference between admiration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects and terror; the latter on small ones and pleasing.

Burke's Enquiry refers almost exclusively to the physical and emotional properties, and he provides many examples of shapes and forms which do or do not evoke the sublime and beautiful--so that we can be clear about what he is talking about. This work is concrete--not at all abstract as one might expect of a philosophical work.

Will today's readers find Burke's work interesting? It's a good bet that many will. The idea of the sublime seems a bit dated, yet it is still with us in great natural scenery, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, etc. And something very much in evidence, for example in the popular photography of Ansel Adams. The concept of beauty in today's popular culture has become so watered down (there's now a beauty "industry," complete with beauty "products") that it should do the contemporary reader good to consider Burke's idea of what true beauty is. There's good reason to hope the idea of beauty in art and poetry may make a comeback--and not be viewed as elitist or aristocratic snobbery.

Oxford's good little edition contains the Introduction on Taste, which Burke added after 1757, and a good chronology and textual notes.

Remember taste? That is something people used to strive to possess. In the tastelessness of this postmodern world, a little consideration of taste would do us all some good.

Gloria Deak's Picturing New York provides a lavish history of New York covering a range of topics; from immigrant waves and their influences upon New York culture to the rise of politicians and establishment of religion and culture. A chronological arrangement of chapters allows for a fine historic overview, while the arrangement of information also lends to browsing. A recommended pick for any collection strong on New York City history and culture.

Deak combines a wealth of photographs of New York City (a majority featuring Manhattan) with an an especially well-written narrative which traces 400 years of colorful history. She organizes the material within 14 chapters, focusing on such diverse subjects as Manhattan's origins, its "multireligious destiny", its emergence as a world-class seaport, its "merchant princes", its multi-ethnic demographics, the ascent of its rich and the struggles of its poor, the metamorphosis of Broadway, the settlement and development of the other four boroughs, its "politicians for all seasons" (ie insightful profiles of Peter Stuyvesant, Thomas Dongan, Fernando Wood, and Fiorello LaGuardia), its triumphs of architecture and urban engineering, its emerging role as a world-class center of the creative and performing arts, the national and international impact of its communications community, and its passion for competitive sports.

All of us have images of New York (most of them of Manhattan and many of them the result of films and television programs anchored there) and many of us know at least something about the city's colorful history. This book both enables us to experience New York in the hundreds of photographs and to learn more about its establishment and subsequent development. Although the volume may seem to be another "coffee table book", don't be misled. While being a window to our nation's most dynamic city, it is also a mirror of our nation's history. At least once a week, I take it in hand and feast upon its contents. So will you.

This is a wonderously enaging book that immerses the reader in the City's 400 year history by means of a related series of sparkling essays and a vivid fabric of images. Gloria Deak boldly engages the entire humanistic adventure that is New York in a way that has not been attempted since John Kouwenhoven's 1953 Historical Portrait.

Picturing New York will open up the City to readers interested in the personalities and events that made and continue to reinvent New York.

Here at The Philadelphia Print Shop, we have been eagerly awaiting Gloria Deák's Picturing New York. Known for her lively and insightful prose, Deák has produced some of the best publications on American prints and maps available to print dealers and collectors. The reader should not think that this handsome new publication is a print reference book like I.N. Phelps Stokes' Iconography of Manhattan Island (1915-36) or Deák's Picturing America (1988). Rather it is a very readable history of New York City where Deák's knowledge and understanding of graphic illustrations adds greatly to the prose narrative. The book is filled with images of prints, photographs, watercolors, drawings, maps, etc., and these images resonate strongly with the text. The city's history is not presented in the usual chronological manner, but instead Deák gives us a new slant on the story of New York by presenting the history in fourteen chapters each with a different theme. This includes considerations on the naming of New York, its religious, seafaring and mercantile history, different sections of the metropolis, its culture, sports, architecture, and so forth. Each chapter can be read as separate entity, but this is also a book that rewards a reading from cover to cover. Deák's style is vivacious, and the book's interesting format and the breadth and depth of Deák's knowledge ensures that this book will provide new insights for all readers. And though not really a print reference book, the publication does include an excellent bibliography and a scholarly documentary listing of all the illustrations used. This is a publication that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in New York.

I am intrigued by the intimacy of Ricki and the young minds in her ethnographic experience. Capturing these moments on video preserves the developmental sketches of their time. Often time, the points of view of children are ignored. However, Josh, an inciteful child,who queries the elements of his environment, brings both the mundane and obvious into an asynchronous focus that creates constructivist dialogue.

The author formulates a community in which you share the learning of two seperate and diverse schools. She invites you into the thinking of the children through digital media and takes you with her as you watch these children develop their understanding of the world around them. Watching this constructivist approach captures the inquiry of the reader and brings out the importance and significance of this type of learning in education.

This book takes a unique view of documenting a classroom setting through the use of video. I found the interplay between the descriptions in the book and the web site videos an enlightening experience. Ms. Goldman-Segall takes you into the Hennigan school (among other places) and lets you feel what is happening in this experimental educational setting. Her observations of the MIT project give a new and different perspective to the roles of the students and teachers in these settings. This is a book that takes full advantage of the tools of technology that we would like students to be using. This will give teachers a better understanding of their role in implementing technology and how it can make them more effective educators.

Goldman-Segall addresses issues and concepts relevant to today's new generation of educators. The context for her research focuses on two very different schools in British Columbia and Massachusetts. Her role as a video ethnographer uncovers some of the social-historical and ethical issues both students and teachers must address in today's post-modern era. Goldman-Segall documents these issues through the use of video and the Internet. In doing so she offers a refreshing medium for discourse and understanding.

Among all of Rothbard's works, Power and Market is my personal favorite. I first read it several years ago and have found myself going back to it ever since. The most important section of the book is his analysis of taxation, about 100 pages long. Every form of taxation is discussed and thoroughly refuted on both practical and moral grounds. Highly recommended!

if you feel a serious need to understand what is being done to you, and your business, by those in charge of the government, look no further! when you are done reading power and market, not only will you be able to criticize, you will understand the situation. by the way, this book reads fresh and new. it could have been written yesterday; and it is that relevance that makes it so special!

This volume is one of the most important economic works of the 20th century. For the most part, the bulk of this work is really nothing more than an extension of the chapter on "violent intervention" in "Man, Economy, and State." Unfortunately the initial publishers of that work balked at the radical views set forth, and therefore forced Rothbard to truncate his analysis. Nevertheless, we are fortunate enough to have this work, in he elaborates on his work in order to offer a complete praxeological critique of *all* governmental action. He classifies government intervention into 3 basic categories; autistic, binary, and triangular, and proceeds to refute arguments for all of them. Dealt with are the more commonplace statist policies such as licensing, antitrust, etc., as well as many generally off-limit areas. Indeed, probably the most startling and important aspect of this work is the lengthy refutation of virtually every significant justification of taxation, from the income tax to the Georgist single tax. Even common "conservative" myths are given no standing, as Rothbard demonstrates that there is really no such thing as a "neutral tax," and that all taxation, however applied, has sharply negative effects on the market economy. In addition to this, Rothbard develops a very stimulating refutation of common ethical arguments against capitalism, showing them to be incompatible with reality and economics. Although by and large the work is solid, I must say that I still disagree on several points with Rothbard's particular vision for a totally free, voluntary society. Nonetheless, we are not very far apart. Altogether, I have to say that this work is a landmark in economic theory, and should be on the bookshelf of every serious radical libertarian.

Power and Market is Murray Rothbard's seminal critique of government intervention in the economy. Originally meant to be part of his magisterial Man, Economy, and State, it was published separately some years later. (For a discussion of this, see Justin Raimondo's An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard at 189-194.)

Unlike most Austrian school economists, Rothbard was an anarchist. In fact, he was the twentieth century's seminal figure in anarcho-capitalist thought. This means that Rothbard thought that not only roads and the like, but also national defense and courts could be provided without a state. (See his Society Without a State in the Libertarian Reader, ed. Machan, for a succinct presentation of his views.)

Rothbard starts out this work with a discussion of various types of government intervention in the economy. He divides them into three types: autistic (violent crime), triangular (tariffs, wage and price controls, licensing, etc.)and binary intervention (taxation and government spending). Following this is a discussion of antimarket ethics. There isn't an aspect of government intervention in the economy that escapes Rothbard's scalpel. As a whole, this is certainly an outstanding book. Take Rothbard's discussion of taxation. Many "right wing" economists support the sales tax on the ground that it doesn't discourage savings and investment. But it reduces people's income and thereby reduces savings and investment. It is a tax on income. [pp. 92-93.]

My main problem with this work is the sometimes simplistic discussion of complex problems and the leaps in logic. (I've discussed this is my review of The Ethics of Liberty.) Take for example the issue of immigration laws. "The advocate of immigration laws . . . really fears, therefore, is not so much immigration as any population growth. To be consistent, therefore, he would have to advocate compulsory birth control, to slow down the rate of population growth desired by individual parents." [p. 55.] Even in light of the entire 2 page discussion of immigration laws, I don't see how this follows. In this (and some other areas) the discussion is narrowly economic. Aren't there good reasons to restrict the type of immigrants? For example, if you have a society that is devoted to individual freedom and responsibility, isn't it wise to prevent immigration from those countries that don't support freedom?

If you want to know the essence of Rothbard, purchase this work; Man, Economy, and State; The Ethics of Liberty; and the Logic of Action.

This is a terrific, pretty light read. The thing that keeps it from getting 5 stars is the fact that nobody followed in Morgan's footsteps to keep it updated. It is an excellent account of early PNW history, but it stops before it gets to more recent events in the region's history.

This is Murray Morgan's masterpiece. I've read most of Murray Morgan's popular histories. Skid Road is more popular, a breezy, easy read that gives great context to Seattle. The Last Wilderness (about the Olympic Peninsula) is my personal favorite, for sheer range of characters and stories, more humanity packed into a book than most novels.

But Puget's Sound has the most depth and detail, from original sources, of any of Morgan's books. It covers each era of South Puget Sound history, thoroughly and with footnotes. Because of that, it reads more academically than Morgan's other books, and weighs much more, too! But if you are a fan of well-written history, there's nothing better than reading a labor of love from an author with great depth and feeling for a region.

Great book. I disagree with comments in earlier review about book being "... a must-read if you want to amuse and/or bore your fellow Tacomans with antecdotes on street names, unusual buildings, etc". This book is a true narrative as the title indicates, with Morgan taking the historical details and breathing life into them, making for both an informative and an engaging read. Although the title suggests Tacoma as a major topic, the book is really a narrative of Puget Sound. Other books of this genre often spend too much time on Seattle and not enough on other places. This book does NOT focus soley on Tacoma - I'd estimate only 1/4 of it is Tacoma. Although Morgan's "Skid Road" about Seattle is more popular, I'd consider this book "Puget's Sound" to be a much better book than "Skid Road" in content, style, and prose. In fact, University of Washington Press just reprinted "Puget's Sound" (May 2003) as one of the Columbia Northwest Classics Series in recognition of its very important contribution to the Pacific Northwest. Great book by a great historian, newspaperman, writer, etc.

It's unlikely this book will be of much interest to anyone not living in the Tacoma area. Just the same, it is a colorful portrait of the city that used to be, the dreamers and scheamers who came so close to creating the west coast's hub city from scratch. The story of Tacoma's rapid rise to prominence, and its equally swift and steady decline is not only facinating, it delivers a valuable lesson on what still happens today when civic cheerleaders go blind with optimism.

This book is a must-read if you want to amuse and/or bore your fellow Tacomans with antecdotes on street names, unusual buildings, et cetera. Perfect fodder for Tacoma's burgeoning barstool-pundit culture.