Music Books

I look forward to going home every night (and probably much to my neighbors' and roommate's dismay) to try to play and sing at the same time. The music is for the piano to accompany the rest of the band, so it doesn't always carry the melody. But it's awesome and not too bad. The abundance of sharps and flats may scare some, such as me, but in the end the chords are not too difficult; there is a lot of repetition. I am particularly fond of many of the songs. I hope this helps! Personally, I prefer Parachutes.

It feels great to order something and get exactly what you intended and had in mind, all at the same time it being in wonderful condition. It was a smart order.

This is a great set of tabs.. I never could have figured out the tunings or alot of the effects without many more years of experimenting.

Grab it while it is available. These punk rock music books suddenly go out of print.

The level is a high end of intermediate.

I have been playing the violin for 9 years and teaching myself the piano on the side, so this book was a little hard for me. I loved the fact that these are the actual parts to the songs, not some simplified score that doesn't sound anything like the original. "The Scientist" was the first song I learned and by far the easiest. I recommend this book to any musically inclined Coldplay fan because you'll end up loving their music more.

Absolutely beautiful color photos taken all over the world and used as cover art for the popular CTI jazz label in the 70's. Landscapes, nature, travel shots, creative concoctions and the occasional portrait, all manipulated with color, create a stunning photo album and art book.

This is a great book. A big book with clear pictures. I love the way Pete reviews his photos. He's a great artist!

For me just one minor point. Some pictures are printed over two pages. This brakes the picture in two and is a little distraction because the book doesn't fold open all the way.

But certainly value for the money, a recommendation!

I'm a professional jazz pianist, and a former pro photographer, and this book is just terrific. If you are a jazz fan, you already own some of these covers, and if you're interested in photography, you've probably been influenced by Turner's incredible color sense. This big collection, with his notes on the pictures and beautiful printing, is just a "must buy." I'm going to a dinner next week with a bunch of musicians, and I'm taking this book along to share. It will probably be more popular than the food.....

It's fascinating to me how the energy and freedom of jazz is reflected in Turner's approach to photography. Intensity, unusual color, surprising juxtapositions.....an inspiring blend. And he photographed the top players, the masters of jazz (with some pop in the mix, too).

This is great: all of the best Pete Turner jazz record covers in one place. Many of these covers I saw for the first time as new releases in record stores by some of the best jazz musicians around; Milt Jackson, Paul Desmond, Freddy Hubbard, Wes Montgomery and so many others. To have a compendium of them in one beautifully designed and superbly printed book is an event worth celebrating.

The covers, by the confirmed master of color photography, Pete Turner, were always certain to grab my eye - and not let go. I don't know what I enjoyed more: looking at the covers or listening to the records. Fortunately it wasn't a mutually exclusive choice.

It is these photographs that inspired me to choose a career as a photographer, the best career in existence. I have Pete Turner to thank for that.

In the sixties and seventies I bought some of the LPs featured in these pages and I can remember being mightily impressed with Pete Turner's stunning color work. I had seen some of this, during the sixties, in the Twen, the German magazine that specialized in powerful photography and graphics to illustrate features.

Turner reveals in the book that A&M's Art Director Bob Ciano decided to treat the LP cover like a magazine spread and run the graphics across the front and back and I think this is why some of Turner's photos have such impact: stunning, very graphic color images frequently presented twenty-four inches wide. Shown in this kind of format no wonder his work is difficult to forget.

I've looked through this book a lot and the work still impresses but I would query the connection to jazz. So many of these photos are surely interchangeable with many of the covers. On pages twenty-two and three there is the famous red giraffe as used on a Antonio Carlos Jobim LP, great photo which, when it was reissued four years later, ended up as a green giraffe because of a printers gaffe. Red or green it really doesn't matter and it could just have easily been on a cover for Wes Montgomery or Milt Jackson. I think Bill Claxton for Pacific and Contemporary records and especially Francis Wolff for Blue Note produced much stronger jazz cover photos.

Pete Turner will probably be remembered best for his almost abstract photos that appeared on lots of LP covers. The book is well printed in 175 screen with a very clean and elegant layout and it's a suitable celebration for a photographer with a unique color style.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This book is great. It is filled with a variety of coloratura pieces (definitely not for the average soprano). These pieces help the singer to showcase her technique, range, capacity for languages, acting ability, and endurance. As some of the other reviewers have said: it is not for beginners. It is full of entertaining pieces. It does not have any repeats from the G. Schirmer Arias for Soprano, which is great (apparently the old version of that and this book do, however).

I needed this book for my voice lessons and it was a great price and in wonderful condition. Thank you!

This book is filled with arias that are well known and arias that are rarely sung. It's nice to have a little bit of both. Great for a serious opera singer looking to expand her song list or for auditions

The goal of the editors does not appear to have been to present the most difficult coloratura soprano pieces, but to set out a range of music that the student and instructor could use in order to develop flexibility in the voice. Well done!

This is a fantastic book for the genuine coloratura soprano, as well as offering a good selection for light lyrics who are looking to increase their agility and move into the coloratura repertoire. While offering a few easier selections, such as "Poor Wand'ring One," many of these arias are very challenging and should definitely not be undertaken by the beginning singer. It is great to have these blockbuster soprano arias all in one place!

I got the book as a gift from my sister and initially dismissed it as a bargain bin cheapie that she picked up last minute. A fearful, insomniac child prompted me to begin reading it and, am I glad that he did.

This is ESSENTIAL READING.

The diary-like entries give you day-by-day accounts of every single session the Fab Four did, as the title promises. But... well, it just gives you a whole new insight to the band. Yeah, the recordings retain the original magic, and maybe even gain a little more because you can see that it took a whole lot more than talent and luck for them to make it big and change music. The book lets you see just HOW MUCH HARD WORK was put in by not only the band, but by everyone around them: George Martin, the engineers, the assistant engineers, the tea boy, everyone!

It's like a musical version of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods: not only were they the most talented around, but also the hardest-working.

A whole new appreciation.

As somebody mentioned before, don't start reading before bed because you will not be able to put it down.

This book is required reading for the diehard Beatles fan. I suspect that the studio documentation was just the normal level of detailed information they kept on those who recorded there, but in hindsight, having this particular info and retaining it looks pretty genius. A detailed account of every time the Beatles were in the recording studio with documents from the studio and the recollections of those who were present. The author is meticulous and obviously a fan himself. I really consider this book the Beatles bible.

As the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent" I know the years of research it took for me to compile the information on 121 live shows, 60 unreleased songs, 266 questions and answers, and prepare for 32 interviews.

Mark Lewisohn had to dig even deeper because of the amount of material that could be documented. The work is super-human. The Beatles deserved George Martin and Mark Lewisohn.

It is easy for those that wish to find fault even with a Rolls Royce but don't worry if you would have used different words for an A Flat Augmented 7th Chord or a bridge in a song, he gave you the most complete information at your fingertips and this can't be improved!

Thank you for your time,
Craig Fenton
Author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent"

First, I find it amazing that anyone kept this information in such detail in the first place.
Secondly, it is amazing that it was ever complied and put into a book.
Thirdly it was amazing that anyone would a.) Publish the book, b.) Buy the book in the first place and c.) Actually read it, which I have. Perhaps most amazing of all is how imminently readable and enjoyable it really is.
I imagine prerequisite being that it is important for the reader to have a love of the art of recording as well as a serviceable knowledge of the Beatles' collected body of work. Mine is the first edition and, yes, there are minor flaws, but honestly they are few in number and nothing of the "glaring" type which actually demeans the book.
I had initially picked up the book in a shop and glanced through the photographs, then I absently read an entry and was hooked. I think this is, all-in-all, a very exceptional journal and a valid history of one of the greatest recording acts of all time. Over the years I have met numerous musicians who, although they might not be dyed in the wool Beatles fans, still recognize their incredible contribution to recording technique and innovation. Kudos of course to Sir George Martin as well.
I cannot conceive of a more definitive account than this.

I'd been wanting this book since I first heard about it several years ago, but it was out of print. When I recently discovered it had been re-published, I ordered it and it's everything I'd heard it was. I wish Lewisohn had access to John, Paul, George and Ringo's solo sessions and would do similar books on them.

I've only gotten about a quarter of the way through this book. It has a LOT to offer. It covers lots of different rhythm possibilities while introducing you to various chord voicings and inversions.

It will take me a long time to get through this one, but its worth it. Terrific text.

This is something more for intermediate players though. If you don't know some basic music theory, you could get lost fast.

This will give you more confidence and a greater understanding of how to construct old-school blues progressions. This book is fairly dense and will require quite a bit of time to "soak in". I have found that this book, in conjunction with "Blues You can Use" work well in further advancing my blues skill and knowledge base. Not for beginners, and not a book of "licks you should know".

This music book was more than I hoped for! I use it at my lessons and my teacher loves it too. Theory, finger work, strumming, it's all in here for the blues wanna be! Good delivery time too.

I have been teaching and arranging for guitar players for a very long time, and one of the problems I repeatedly encounter is the red hot lead guitarist who can't play rhythm worth a bean. I have to explain that even if it's your group, you will spend two thirds of your time playing rhythm. Then I have to convince them that what they are doing is awful, and believe me, it is. The most popular method is what I call "the thrash". The way I make the problem clear to them is to play backup myself while they take a solo. Then I point out that if that kind of rhythm is what they want, THEY have to be able to do it too. Then we start in on Mccabe's book. The Cd's numbers are screwed up, but you can figure it out. (I doubt if the author is responsible) I love this book. Before it came out, I had to do demo tapes to show what to do. Now I just write down the page number. Six weeks of serious work will make you better. Six months of work will make you a lot better, and very popular with your fellow musicians. Make no mistake; this book is aimed at blues and rock. If you are working in that field and play guitar, get this book. If you are working in this field and play some other instrument, you might want to suggest to someone in the group that he buy it. Self defense.

When you are like me and have played Blues self-taught guitar (well, with the use of other books) for some time, you have a couple of shuffles you can do and some rhythm guitar patterns. This book will enlarge your arsenal of rhythm playing substantially in the fields of rhythm patterns, chords and voicings. It is nicely demanding and this book will make you a better and more self-confident player when you play with others or for yourself. It generally goes in a jazzy direction and so you will learn nice-sounding tunes that will make you use the entire neck of your guitar. Nicely made, good explanations, the best book I found so far.

Great Conga book. Was recommended to me by others. The only thing that I don't like about this books is that it doesn't use standard notation.

I found this book invaluable for learning the basics of conga drumming without a teacher. I used it for several months before hitting my first conga class, and was really glad I had worked with the book. I was able to pick up right away with the rest of the class on several of the rhythms. However, I will warn anyone using the book that this drumming world is steeped with "variations". That is, you'll frequently find that your teacher is using a slightly different variation than the one taught in the book. This is fine, however, since it's usually easy to alter what you're doing slightly.

One of the more impressive aspects of the methods in this book is the holistic approach, for example, teaching how to feel the clave underneath the rhythms you're playing. The book also does about as good a job as any book can at teaching the hand technique, although I highly recommend complementing this with good videos of accomplished conga players. Youtube, for example, is a great resource. Here again, though, you will find different philosophies of technique, and again your teacher may have his own emphasis.

This book is extremely readable and it teaches you terrific grooves right from the get-go. I'm a pianist who has decided to learn some percussion and I am having a blast learning to play the conga. Even my non-musician girlfriend has learned some of this stuff!

Very recommended! I think Alan Dworsky used a very clear graphic way of teaching the Conga playing, without getting into music reading instead, he uses symbols for the diferent strokes, and easy numbers. It is great for begginers but stil a good book for advanced players, because it goes through many aspects of the conga.
If you are into conga playing, get this book for the price of half a conga lesson I am sure you will get some mileage out of it. I have been playing congas for years and I discovered a few things in this book I didn't know. Go for it! (...)

I agree with all the other reviewers... this is a great book for beginners and advanced (as well as folks somewhere in the middle, like me).

One thing I didn't expect to like, since I can read regular music notation, was their concocted music notation. To my surprise, I like theirs better. It's very intuitive, and after a while, you can pretty much sight-read the rhythms. If I hear/see a conga pattern I like in the future, I'll probably write it down using their notation.

this is a great practical theory primer, and the practice CDs are great!

Useful material here, with plenty to keep you going for a long time. Steve gives you lots of examples on how to use triads and extentions and not just a bunch of theory. The CD's are very helpful in hearing the applications. After all, it is music and having an opportunity to hear what the material should sound like was a great aid in helping me understand the ideas.

This book gave me so mouch to chew on it will be years, if ever, before I put it down. I have played and performed on guitar for 30+ years and studied music in college and I still have discovered that the more I know, the less I know. I felt that I had hit a brick wall in playing and performing and this book gave me so many ideas and options that I had not considered. I emailed Steve Khan to thank him and got a personal response a day later. Not only does he have a lot to give in this book he is truly a nice guy. Buy the book, work at it everyday, utilize the things that work for you and become a better guitarist.

If you already know your basic chord theory, know all your barre chords and jazz chords, play well from lead sheets, etc... then you are ready for this book. Kahn discusses the use of leading tones and the basic triad as tools for playing guitar in a combo setting. He does a good job of covering the no-man's land between rhythm guitar and lead guitar. The book is well written, in an easily accessible style, by someone who really knows what he is talking about. There are many gems sprinkled throughout these pages. If you are a beginner or weaker intermediate player, pass on this book for now and come back to it later.

First of all, let me qualify my review by saying that I am 40 years old and have been playing since I was 11, mostly classic rock, blues, and rockabilly (with a bit of jazz). This book, in my opinion, is geared toward the intermediate to advanced jazz guitarist as the text references focus on upper 4 strings to be played over a bass guitar. Cool concepts and useful stuff if you're in a jazz band. Me, I play 99% of the time as solo (fingerpicking rythyms, chord-melody solos, etc), therefore I didn't gain a lot of insite out of this book. There is a nice discussion on triads, but I already knew this concept, plus the author never tied any of it the CAGED system.

In this book Erdman strings together a series of meditations on the process of preaching, including philosophical and theological reflections, practical thoughts on preparing to preach, the art of preaching, and prayerful reflection on Scripture. I like the variety of expression this book has. Instead of being a string of "how-to" tips and tricks (though there are some in it), it avoids that kind of simplicity by broadening its scope to questions about why and how we prepare and preach in the real world.

On one level I am torn about how to rate this book. From time to time the things Erdman writes are insightful, helpful, and outright wonderful to read. His encouragement for pastors to be pastors and keep their own souls and congregations rooted in the Word of God is a sorely needed corrective for the self-help pop-psychology that passes for most preaching today. There are several chapters I will keep with me for future encouragement, and several have already influenced my own preparation (to its benefit).

On the other hand, there are ways in which the meditations don't deliver the kind of direction and insight they could have. I don't think it helps pastors very much to be encouraged to not take moral stances when clear moral issues rise to the surface of culture and church. I agree that one of the more important jobs of a pastor is to listen and listen and listen (pg. 103), but another job pastors have is to speak clarity into cultural confusion where it can be spoken. Then there are moments that seem more to be a result of a fairly tinted political view of the world rather than a biblical reflection on things. At times even prophets like Jeremiah seem to be snatched out of context to support a hesitancy to proclaim God's Word into a broken and rebellious world.

As I read I wavered between genuinely appreciating Erdman's insights and writing style, and being irritated. Sometimes irritation is good for the soul as it exposes our own shortsightedness, but I am not sure that's the kind of irritation I felt. Overall, however, I am glad this book is on my shelf.

This is a book that all who call themselves preachers should read. It confirms those things which we know to be true about preaching and at the same time challenges the task of sermon writing. It reminds the reader of what the task of preaching is, which is bringing the Word of God to God's people, not God's people bringing a Word to God. As Erdman writes, it is more than a how to book on preaching. It offers the reader a new way of looking at the Word and how it frames our lives. As one who dares to preach and teach regularly it reminds me of the true frame of all that ministers are called to do and that is scripture. This manuscript is a challenge and a joy all wrapped into one.

"The best way to be a really good preacher is by not trying to be good at all."

"Go ahead, preach as badly as you can. You can't do it."

If I could just keep those two great bits of advice in healthy tension, I'll be a much better preacher this Sunday.

Knowing Chris Erdman and his giftedness, I was prepared for a great read on the "countdown to Sunday." Not only was I not disappointed, but I feel I am somehow far more prepared for the rest of my Sundays; and far more prepped to engage life and God in a number of ways. Yes, it is officially a practical book about preaching (but far from a cheesy formula or bad sermon itself), but unlike any book in this genre since Dennis Kinlaw's "Preaching in the Spirit," it is far more....it is spiritual formation woven into the stuff of daily life and world events; with a special focus on sermon preparation and preacher preparation.

Of course anyone who grasps the implications of:

1)our living "in modernity's last gasp"
2) U2's "inhabiting" their songs as an encouragement for us to inhabit the text
3) working your week so one can actually spend time with loved ones and sleep well on Saturday, and actually worship with, and enter sabbath with, the congregation
4)"our fear of each other... is at bottom, fear of death"

is a genius in my book!

The book is a model for how to work your week as the sermon grows. Interspersed among the daily guidelines are powerful prayers and fantastic theological and cultural insights. Erdman's eminently helpful suggestions and his engaging conversational tone dovetail with his loaded prophetic statements about (for example) the subtle insidiousness of extreme nationalism. He must be wrestled with.

His four page chapter on hospital visitation shines. I don't dare give it away, but I dare say it changed almost everything about the hospital visit I made today. And probably my sermon this Sunday.

And coming to view funerals as "dissent from death", as well as coming to terms with the fact that "Death would love to help us write our (funeral) sermons" refill me with the hope and life of the gospel.

I particularly enjoy that many of the author's suggestions I have stumbled onto over the years; and several of his ideas I can now incorporate and test-drive. But how I wish I had this book, and Chris Erdman as my preaching professor, twenty years ago.

But if I could eventually say with him that"I nearly always come out of my Fridays with a much clearer sense of what the Word wants to do among us come Sunday," it's not too late.

And I am already drawing from it as I teach preachers in our network.
Maybe I'll eventually practice most of it, and not just preach it.
Let the countdown begin.

This is a great pastoral tool designed to help a pastor preach more faithfully and realistically. The author encourages the reader to preach their own sermons using their own life experiences, not the experiences or words of others.
The book is broken down into daily "spiritual formations" which help the minister focus on the sermon at hand that they will be preaching on Sunday and live the principles in that sermon.
Countdown to Sunday helps the preacher to peel off the mask they often feel forced to wear and to and be themselves. His best advice? You have to be real. It's only then you can be useful to God.

This is a good book for every new pastor to read. It should be required reading.

Mr. Erdman is a preacher. He gives a simple outline on how to prepare sermons through the week. The book was strong in slowing down the preaching preparation. I tend to develop a sermon in one day. Maybe this is done because I preach twice and teach twice, where Erdman seems to develop one sermon a week. His book also gives a lot of grace to the minister as he encourages us to try to fail. He implores to allow the Biblical text to be the highlight of the sermon and not the illustration. He makes a good point in stating that we are too concerned about making the great sermon or making the top delivery of the material. Instead we must focus on allowing the text to mold us. The book is good as a counteraction to the success mindset in the church. It is not the best book on preaching, it is more of a book on some of the poor practices within the Christian world when it comes to preaching. If you are looking for a book to help you develop sermons, this is not the book for you. If you are a perfections when it comes to sermons, this is the book for you.

Hi,
I'm happy with the book, fast shipping to my home.

First, 2 pages about how to hold your pick in your hands. Than: work on scale exercises!

It's well written, but it's still up to you: lots of practice!
Some things are less explained, but it's for the advanced player, you have to know already some basics about what scales are, how they are formed. In fact you don't need it, but it's nice to know it beforehand.
But maybe there are things explained in Creative Guitar 1 (wich i don't have), but you can follow without that book if you already can play.

I'm still at the first chapter and playing slowly, but I'm looking forward to work it out. Finally good exercises for stretching fingers and playing scales. I'm looking forward for the sweep picking and tapping exercises.

Extensive picking exercises really get your fingers doing the stuff that's tough to do. Lot's of insight from the master. Really a large number of variations on each topic so there is bound to be something that will highlight a weakness of yours. Then it's up to you to spend the time practicing them. The CD is great for improving over as well. A steal when you consider what lessons covering this material would cost.

I have been a great fan of Guthrie Govan (the author of this book) since I read his articles in the pages of Guitar Techniques magazine (also a great resource):)
I really liked the way the author summarized and verbalized the techniques that are involved in playing. For me, it was a great way to explain how each technique should look like and feel like which for this part, I believe is the sign of a good teaching technique.
This book is great for people who have played for a while and think are pretty familiar with the majority of concepts the instrument has to offer and Guthrie here throws a monkey wrench into the system. As guitarists we realize that the comibations and scale patterns are virtually endless but he offers combinations and ideas that sound melodious and musical.
I particularly liked the sections on picking (a great simple explanation of a big topic), the immitation of other instruments on the guitar (now I don't need that mandolin) and the two handed techniques deserve hours and hours of expirementation.
If you have been playing for several years and if you feel like you in a bit of a rut this one is for you.

This guitar book is great for people who kind of know a good amount about the guitar. It has many helpful tips and it contains a lot of good examples to practice.

Tear their faces off with blazing virtuousity is what you'll do when you master the techniques in this book! I have quite a few other technique books by Troy Stetina, Satriani, and Musicians Institute I believe. They are alright and have some decent and some useful information in them but have not made the impact on my guitar playing I was hoping.

Particularly useful in this book is that exercises and ideas are written in both standard notation and tablature. Sometimes its easier to see patterns in standard notation than it is in tab form; notation also helps a lot in learning the fretboard. I was worried this book would skimp on the technical side of playing and be geared more to standard scale exercises like other books I own. This is not the case. Two handed tapping, eight finger tapping even, legato picking, strange sequences similiar to those found on Vai's Passion and Warfare album, odd rhythm grouping patterns, double stops, and even how to make your guitar sound like a Hammond organ and other intruments are included.

This is a fantastic book geared to highly technical guitar playing. References to other great guitar albums are also sprinkled throughout to expand your listening library. I would highly recommend this book to anyone serious about mastering the guitar and wish I had it years ago myself. I've been playing for almost 15 years now.

Makiya is not a Zionist or a Neo-Con, so it's hard for the Manichean anti-Americans to demonize his evidence and arguments against the totalitarian-drooling status quo in the Middle East. In the first half off the book, he relays heart-breaking anecdotes about sons unable to kiss their dying mothers after a chemical attack, children raped in front of their parents, prisoners forced to drink gasoline and shot so that they would explode, children surviving mass grave shooting, all in that "noble" Arab Gov't known as Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The second half of the book is a scathing indictment of the Edward Saids and Noam Chomskys of the world who rationalize the inhumanity all too prevalent in the Mid-East, specifically in Iraq, "Saddam was a victim, The U.S. is worse, Saddam's strong!" and all that junk. Because Makiya isn't a GOP Zionist, these criticisms are particularly strong and persuasive. The book is a much needed call on the part of Arabs and Muslims to adopt a Liberty-based morality instead of a relativistic, ethnic allegience based morality. A good book for all to read.

As an arab-american familiar with the brutal insanity of Saddam Hussein's regime, I've always been puzzled by the Arab talking heads who routinely criticize the U.S. for it's targetting of Iraq. Makiya's writing was instrumental in helping me understand this in somewhat deeper terms than simple anti-americanism, though his insightful and revealing writing has only heightened my frustration.

Regarding the current political climate: You can certainly question the U.S.'s motives, but if you find yourself struggling to find "smoking guns" vis-a-vis terrorism and WMDs to ethically support replacing Saddam's regime, look no further than this book.

Beautifully written; there are points at which you will literally be moved to tears.

Now that the American government is controlling Saddam's infamous Abu Ghraib/Ghurayb prison, the site of many atrocities like those described in Cruelty and Silence, we owe it to ourselves to study the crimes against humanity that were perpetrated there. Arguments about whether the old death chamber should be destroyed or maintained for future generations go without much notice in the United States, as do the reports of ongoing investigations to insure we follow legal guidelines in handling the prisoners we now hold at Abu Ghraib. We owe it to ourselves to operate this facility in a manner which testifies to our philosophy and way of life. And when we question ourselves, the cause in Iraq, the price we pay, the chances of success, we should understand the nature of the vicious regime which created the dysfunctional and factionalized Iraqi society we see today. Cruelty and Silence helps us develop a long-term perspective to the challenges ahead.

This is one of the best books I have read all year. Ten years old, it is still agonisingly relevant. In its bearing witness to human cruelty, human indifference but also human courage, it is as unflinching, as passionate and as magnificent as the works of Primo Levi. Beautifully written, meticulously observed, focussed on people, not abstractions, it is a book that haunts me and will continue to do so for a long time to come. If you have any doubts at all about the rightness of invading Iraq, read this book. There will be no doubts left, only a terrible regret that the ousting of the Saddam regime was not done long, long ago.

Makiya achieves two goals in this 1993 book: he details the "rising curve of cruetly" in Iraq under the rule of Saddam Husein and more broadly throughout the Arab world, and he castigates Arab intellectuals for their silence on this topic.

Even though it is 13 years old, this book is highly relevant today for people trying to understand the middle east. Makiya warns that "Sunni-Shi'i hatred is today [in 1993] the most virulent potential source of new violence," thus accurately predicting Iraq's current quandry. Iraq's Sunni minority will "fight to the bitter end before allowing anything that so much as smells of an Islamic reupblic to be established in Iraq. They see in such a state -- whether rightly or wrongly is irrelevant -- their own annihilation." I wonder if the Bush administration was aware of this viewpoint as it planned the invasion of Iraq.

The book tackles the topic of cruetly through several first-person accounts, including a survivor of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, an Iraqi arrested and interrogated by the secret police, and Kurdish witnesses to chemical attacks and mass deportations and shootings. The reader learns about the anarchy of the intifada, the brief and unsuccessful uprising against Saddam in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, where rebels resorted to wanton vengence-killing, and the returning security forces were paid cash bonuses for killing Shi'i males. Based on documents captured by Kurdish fighters, Makiya analyzes the efforts of the Iraqi regime to eliminate the Kurdish independence movement as a threat to B'athist hegemony, an operation code-named "Al-Anfal," a reference from the Koran to parceling out the spoils of war, which appears to have involved the razing of thousands of villages, as well as the killing of 100,000 non-combatants. The author also touches on violence against women, a widespread problem in the mid-east, and apparently a tactic that the Iraqi regime institutionalized as a strategy for dishonoring entire families.

On their own, these stories are chilling, just like other historical accounts of terror and genocide. They are even more disturbing when one stops to consider the implications for peace and prosperity in the middle east today. Makiya notes that the "terrible force of memory...tends always to sow dragons' teeth in the shape of the children and survivors of the dead," and he warns that the legacy of Saddam Husain for Iraq may be a continuation of violence, terror, cruelty, and silence.

In the second part of the book, Makiya takes Arab intellectuals to task for their support of Saddam during the Gulf War and for their wilful ignoring of the violence and terror that characterized his regime and that are all too prevalent throughout the middle east. Ideologies based on cultural nationalism, which ignore the importance of human rights, are "morally bankrupt," in Makiya's view. I found his arguments persuasive, although to be fair I have not read the writings of those he criticizes.