Ireland Books

Imperial Russia was visited by early aviators and was instantly fascinated by airplanes. Because Russia was the most backward of the great nations, its leaders, beginning with Peter the Great, sought to modernize the country to compete with other Western European nations. Could aviation give Russian leaders the right tool to spark modernization?

Airplanes were sent into rural areas for the first time to be inspected by villagers. Pilots answered questions, passed out literature and gave free flights to amazed peasants.

Dr. Scott W. Palmer explains how "rural believers were taken into the air by pilots in order to prove that there was no God, angels or other celestial spirits in the heavens. Anti-religious flights proved so successful that they quickly became standard practice."

Dr. Palmer describes aviation's powerful propaganda value. "The mastery of the airplane would make possible backward Russia's rapid transformation into the world's most advanced and powerful nation."

Russia's leaders were in a hurry to gain legitimacy from mastering aviation. Russia set about acquiring airplanes and manufacturing methods from other countries in her haste to build legitimacy in the world's eyes.

For years, the Russian aviation industry struggled to do more than make poor copies of airplanes from other nations.

Dr. Palmer relates, "They embellished actual accomplishments, exaggerating, and at times inventing, Russian achievements when, in fact, much less progress had been made."

Record setting flights were carried out to bring world attention to Russian aviation through goodwill. Soviet leaders deliberately insisted on developing the largest airplanes in the world, even if the had no practical value other than propaganda.

Soviet leaders praised their air crews as heroes that flew to better their homeland and "benefit their fellow countrymen" -- not for money and fame -- like Charles Lindbergh had.

With the country stuck in depression, the American aircraft industry eagerly sought sales anywhere it could. In an effort to find customers , the Soviets were invited to visit American factories. As delegation after delegation came and went, Soviet industrial spies quickly set about stealing manufacturing secrets and techniques.

In the Spanish Civil War, Russian military aircraft were proved to be most inferior, and she entered World War II poorly equipped. After the war, German designers and manufacturing technology were taken back to Russia for assimilation into the aviation industry.

By 1947, Russia was able to reverse-engineer a fair copy of the American B-29 Superfortress. Then, at last, Russia was able to surprise the west during the Korean War by developing the Mig jet fighter series by incorporating state-of-the-art British jet engine technology.

Readers interested in aviation or Russian history will find "Dictators of the Air" a fascinating study of one area of Russia's age-old struggle to surpass the west.

"Dictators of the Air" contains sixty illustrations. Dr. Palmer has included many aviation posters that incorporate specific symbols and images for propaganda purposes by the Soviets. The selection of primitive Russian aircraft photographs is very entertaining.

Dictatorship of the Air is an innovative, thoroughly researched and very well-written book on a fascinating subject: the meaning and influence of aviation in Russian history. The author, Scott Palmer, uses an impressive number of archival materials and contemporary sources to build the case that the Russian approach to aeronautical modernization (combining state initiative, crash campaigns, and the acquisition of foreign technology) ultimately achieved far less than Imperial and Soviet leaders claimed. The book's treatment of technology transfer is particularly effective. Palmer does an terrific job explaining the internal economic and ideological factors that forced Russian officials to use espionage to keep up with competitors in Western Europe and the US. The book also contains (among other things) a fascinating discussion of the various "prestige" flights of the 1930s, insightful analysis of the religious foundations of Soviet-era aviation propaganda, and more than four dozen photographs and illustrations that readers will find nowhere else. This is certain to become the point of departure for future work on the history of Russian aviation. ***Highly recommended***

Palmer's book isn't another treatise about the design of Russain
aircraft or WWII military air campaigns. Instead readers will find a sophisticated treatment of original Russian sources, including newspapers, propaganda, poetry, and insitutional state directives that provides a myriad of perspectives on a single, but monumental, event in the history of mankind: human flight. The story of flight in Russia is more compelling and offers a greater understanding of Russian-Soviet life than similar histories of European and American aviation because it
coincided with another unprecendent and no less monumental event: the establishment of the Soviet Union.

Palmer argues that state officials in both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union latched on to aviation as symbol and tool of their nation's progress and as proof of their standing in the modern world. Importantly, while the Russian autocracy failed to successfuly create a nation of fliers through voluntary associations (as was acheived in Western Europe and the United States), the Soviet Union also failed to do so, and rather spectacularly. As in many other endeavors, Soviet officials refused to face the difficulties inherent in their undertaking. They sought to create both a modern state and a modern aviation culture by fiat. Palmer rather dramatically explains how the
tragic story of the Soviets' failed attempt unfolded to the detriment of their citizens.

The book's numerous photographs, prints, and propaganda posters as well as Palmer's original translations of poetry, literature, and state archival material make this a book that stands out from its scholarly peers. Between these fascinating materials and Palmer's elegant prose one almost forgets that this is a work from an academic press.

Palmer's history is well researched and his depiction of avaition under the Imperial and Soviet regime is convincing. My only quibble is with the final chapter wherein Palmer makes a nod to the post WWII era of Russian history arguing that subsequent events demonstrate continuity with the patterns he has described for the first half of the 20 century. It is only in hindsight (and after 1991, save Robert Conquest) that one
could refer to the Soviet period of Russia's history as a complete failure. Given the obstacles and backwardness that so many historians, like Palmer, have described in the Imperial and the Soviet eras, it may be worth examining in more detail the relative success, however ugly the means, that the Soviets achieved in space flight and creating an air fleet second only to the United States during the height of the Cold War.

An interesting book. The first section describes the gradual tightening of legal restrictions on the Jewish people of Germany. Each decree gradually stripping another layer of civil protection by defining them as second class citizens. The final legal step was to define what a Jew was, and how they no longer qualified even as a second class citizen.

The second part of the book tells the story of the same process in Poland. Each step was carefully calculated as part of the final solution of the "Jewish problem." Interesting is Heydrichs order in 1939 where it is obvious that extermination was the final goal. Also interesting, at least for me, was how clearly Hitler considered Jews and Communists one and the same. Rather, you could be a communist without being a Jew, but all communists took orders from the international Jewish conspiracy.

The final section describes the events in the Soviet Union where the Holocaust operated without any restraints. This book is about the destruction of the Jewish population so you will not find any reference to the deaths of millions of Poles, Ukranians, etc.

An interesting book. If you have minimal knowledge of the Holocaust this would give the reader a starting point. Please remember this not going to read like a novel although in its own way it is a narrative. A narrative of the destruction of the Jewish people.

This series of legal documents, decrees, orders, instructions or live accounts describes better than any litterary form the progression in horror which our Jewish parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nevews had to suffer from April fools' day of 1933 when waring the David star was enforced to this community until the end of the second world war in mid 1945.

As a Christian I was surprised to discover that the trauma resulting from the horrifying murders is so deep in the Jewish community that, for most, its members if they do know about the holocaust, actually don't have a real view of it. Naturally the massive and sadistic aggresion against the Jewish people screens, in this book, the fate of the ones who shared their fate for having protected them or for having fought the Nazis.
After all Jewish people suffered between two third and three quarter of the enormous human non-military losses under surrealistically inhuman conditions.

This book should be handled with the respect normally due to religious books: it represents the steps of the martyrdom of the Jewish families under Nazi madness.

The content of the book should be remembered in details by every western culture including Israel's right wing (after all "Nazi" represents the danger of mixing nationalism and socialism...) Americans should learn from this book that being more powerful doesn't mean being better. Europeans could find in it how non elected "public servants" laugh at democratically elected representatives (elected ones disappear over the time, bureaucrats remain and never have to respond for diffused results).

For the content of this book to be fully meaningful, it should be enlightened by Milgram's explanation of how "Obedience to authority" made it possible for these horror to happen.

A major book which supplies everything Jewish and non Jewish need to know. A reedition with a lot of proper photographs of the murders by the Einsatzgruppen, of the Gettos and of the concentration camps conditions would be welcome.

This series of legal documents, decrees, orders, instructions or live accounts describes better than any litterary form the progression in horror which our Jewish parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nevews had to suffer from April fools' day of 1933 when waring the David star was enforced to this community until the end of the second world war in mid 1945.

As a Christian I was surprised to discover that the trauma resulting from the horrifying murders is so deep in the Jewish community that, for most, its members if they do know about the holocaust, actually don't have a real view of it. Naturally the massive and sadistic aggresion against the Jewish people screens, in this book, the fate of the ones who shared their fate for having protected them or for having fought the Nazis.
After all Jewish people suffered between two third and three quarter of the enormous human non-military losses under surrealistically inhuman conditions.

This book should be handled with the respect normally due to religious books: it represents the steps of the martyrdom of the Jewish families under Nazi madness.

The content of the book should be remembered in details by every western culture including Israel's right wing (after all "Nazi" represents the danger of mixing nationalism and socialism...) Americans should learn from this book that being more powerful doesn't mean being better. Europeans could find in it how non elected "public servants" laugh at democratically elected representatives (elected ones disappear over the time, bureaucrats remain and never have to respond for diffused results).

For the content of this book to be fully meaningful, it should be enlightened by Milgram's explanation of how "Obedience to authority" made it possible for these horror to happen.

A major book which supplies everything Jewish and non Jewish need to know. A reedition with a lot of proper photographs of the murders by the Einsatzgruppen, of the Gettos and of the concentration camps conditions would be welcome.

I just love Kate's books. This was another WONDERFUL book. So much fun being taken to Ireland and learning new things in a HOT and WONDERFUL way. A MUST read.

I found the Blaze Harlequin series of books last year and they are a easy, sexy , great lakeside/Sunday afternoon read. In this novel Claire looses everything in one day - she looses her boyfriend, her job and her apartment. So she does the logical (ha ha) thing she hops a plane to small island in Ireland to find some magical water. Will Donovan is an Inn Keeper on the island and for the first time wants to break his rules and sleep with a guest aka Claire.

I have read more Harlequin romance novels and romance novels in general than I care to admit and my collection of books is bordering on outrageous. However, having read as many as I have I absolutely loved this book, it was fabulous I was totally captured by it and couldn't put it down. It is hard for a romance to really really WOW me since I have read so many and Kate Hoffmann definitely did that with this book I strongly recommend it.

~Donoso Cortes: Cassandra of the Age~ is an intriguing political biography of a reactionary Spanish conservative who opposed the radicalism fomented by the French Revolution. Don Juan Donoso Cortes was a remarkable nineteenth century Spanish statesmen and Catholic traditionalist. In his formative years Cortes even flirted with liberalism only to react strongly against it. Cortes embodies Real-Politik and shows influence from St. Augustine, Hobbes and Machiavelli. Born shortly after the tumultuous upheavals wrought by the French Revolution, Cortes was eerily prophetic and saw a dark future of socialism, mass politics, and the rise of the herd. In his country, there was a deep divide between defenders of the monarchy (absolutist, clerical, conservative, and traditionalist) and liberals of varying shades who advocated embracing elements of the 1791 Revolution.

For Cortes, liberalism was the nebulous creature paving the way for socialism and itself was an incubator for socialism, rationalism and democracy (the deification of the masses). He found the idealized abstractions of the French Revolution, that is "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity," to be noxious and repugnant for they made crude caricatures of Christian principles. In promising unlimited freedom, the Revolution only brought strife, tyranny, and bloodletting. Cortes had no whimsical views about the innate goodness of mankind like Rousseau. His worldview accounted for original sin and man's depravity. Thus, Cortes recognized that when people lose their religious moorings, they lose their public virtue as well. When this occurs, Cortes held that dictatorship must fortify established authority, otherwise revolution or anarchy will ensue. For Cortes, dictatorship was a necessary corrective to thwart chaos. Cortes was no totalitarian, however, and recognized that the revolutionary malaise was destroying the intermediary associations between the individual and state. It was destroying social bonds, traditional hierarchy and leading to the creation of hyper-atomized and individuals corrupted by countless -isms (i.e. atheism, rationalism, materialism, and socialism.) Moreover, Cortes was distraught by the moral corruption wrought by these pernicious ideologies, which he characterized as a demonic theology. Yet he had a peculiar awe for revolutionary adherents, particularly Proudhon, because of their fervor, commitment and dedication to their cause.

Cortes was prophetic in predicting a fusion of pan-Slavic nationalism with socialism, (which was unleashed by the Bolsheviks.) He obviously saw the signs. The seeds of discontent were planted in Russia by the nihilism of 19th century Russian intellectuals and by revolutionary agitation from abroad. Fascism too was wrought out by the mass politics and itself was a heir to the French Revolution to which even Hitler acknowledged. Cortes was committed to a movement of Christian counterrevolution and renewal. He was overwhelmed by a sense of pessimism. Ultimately, Cortes held to a Deutero-Isaiah view, believing that deliverance could only come from God. He had no misplaced faith in the masses and democracy. This intriguing book by R.A. Herrera sketches an intriguing biography of Cortes with some interesting quotations. Though, if you want to delve deeper into Cortes' political thought than you might want to buy _Selected Works of Donoso Cortes_.

"An apocalyptic vision that has become a good diagnosis of our own time." (cover blurb)

Cassandra was a legendary prophetess from ancient Greek fable cursed by the gods to utter true and unerring prophecy that was never listened to or taken into serious account. Such a predicament aptly describes the subject of this very short intellectual biography, Juan Donoso Cortes. The author, R. A. Herrera, is a professor of philosophy at Seton Hall University and an authority on Spanish themes in literature. Herrera sheds some light onto this obscure 19th century Spanish ultra-conservative and counter-revolutionary intellectual.

Donoso Cortes was a Spaniard of noble birth who studied at Salamanca at a very young age before his subsequent career as a journalist, diplomat and court-adviser. In his youth he imbibed ideas from the radical French revolutionaries and romantics who were very popular amongst Europe's educated elite. Later on, however, Donoso began to espouse ideas contrary to his youthful liberal inclinations. Donoso's later literary influences were Scripture, Roman Catholic dogma and, in particular, the works of St. Augustine such as _The City of God_. Perhaps Donoso took Augustine's allegory of a "Kingdom of Man" contending with the "Kingdom of God" too literally, as Herrera notes. Donoso became a very devout Catholic in his later years, in some respects resembling a Saint. He noted the various trends that he saw taking hold of European civilization and what has become its almost totally irreversible trend toward liberalism and socialism in the political sphere equaled by deism, agnosticism and atheism in the religious sphere. What particularly irked Donoso, as Herrera repeatedly underscores, was democracy's idolatrous worship of "freedom of speech" and of constant discussion and speculation upon ideas, postulates and theories that by their very nature cannot establish absolute truth-and often at best only serve to define the tyranny of the 51 percent. Donoso argues for the authority of the Church to establish and identify without dispute certain dogmas about life and the nature of reality and put them beyond human discussion. He is also in favor of a strong absolute monarchial government that can protect the Church and the rest of the nation from subversive influences. The main vehicle of subversion is of course the press and its army of propagandist editors and journalists. Many of the radical, anti-Christian social changes have been whipped up by demagogues and rabble rousers inflaming the ignorant masses against properly established authority for the political ends of the demagogues (and needless to say, of those funding them). Donoso believes that a strong dictatorial government is necessary to put people in their place and preserve tradition and order in society. This puts him at the polar opposite of the entire liberal-democratic bourgeoisie ideology with its emphasis on abstract "rights" and constitutional government. In addition to standard political liberalism, Donoso also hated socialism and its belief in the inherent good of man and the possibility of a perfect and just society as the antithesis of traditional Christianity. Donoso held no positive beliefs in regarding human nature. Man was fundamentally evil and disillusioned about his own innate abilities. People are obviously not equal. If it was not for the Church, civilization would not have developed to the richness that it did in Europe because the Church made definite statements about the very things that man cannot know through sovereign rationality and reason. Rationalism and reason could only end the way they did in the later 1900s: in the affirmation of the absurd as the only reasonable way to interpret a cosmos devoid of a higher power that imposes a transcendent order and principles through human and other physical agencies. Furthermore, Donoso advocates the Catholic practice of decoration Churches with elaborate gold and precious stones because it allows fallen man, bound to physical realities in the world, relate to what is above and beyond himself. As Herrera carefully points out, Donoso only drudgingly gave man's capacity for goodness and generosity as much credit as Catholic dogma mandated. Donoso took many other reactionary positions as well. He regarded war as a sinful activity, but sinful inasmuch as man himself is sinful. War is a human necessity and has been used for positive purposes such as defending the innocent and as catalyst for innovation and cultural advancements. He also defended the traditional patriarchal family structure and argued against the feminist ideas prevalent and on the spread) during the1800s. Donoso's _magnum opus_ was an extensive work on what has been dubbed "political theology:" _Catholicism, Liberalism and Socialism_. In this book Donoso explains how radical anti-Christian politics and ideologies are heretical, demonic and satanic deviations of the Christian faith. Except for occasional short-lived dictatorships and reactionary movements that can keep the spirits of liberalism and socialism at bay, the entire world is headed to a reign of the Antichrist. This is the "Man of Sin" and the "Mystery of Iniquity" that St. Paul warned of in his epistles and "the Beast" of St. John's vision in the Apocalypse. Of course, the Antichrist and his worldly hosts will be ultimately defeated by the return of Christ and the Church will emerge redeemed and triumphant, with the universe restored by Divine, transcendent intervention that silences human whining and carryings-on forever. While Donoso recognized the unique role of tsarist Russia as Europe's main force of conservatism, he also believed correctly that Russia would be the first nation to fall to the onslaught of socialist revolutionaries and terrorists and the future bane of Europe.

Such apocalyptic belief is not uncommon today and takes many varieties and forms. Some speculate that Donoso's mind was afflicted by a case of syphilis or repressed homosexuality (as per Freudian analysis). However, I recommend this title to Christians who are interested in politics and how they relate to theology. Are Donoso's ideas taken seriously today? Only in groups in individuals who are far outside of the political/religious mainstream, subject to outright ridicule and derision by the vast majority of today's intelligentsia.

_Donoso Cortes: Cassandra of the Age_ is an excellent biography of the nineteenth century Spanish political and theological thinker Donoso Cortes. Donoso Cortes is famous for his reactionary beliefs concerning the French Revolution and the subsequent ideologies inspired by it and as a political prophet of the coming crises of his age. From his beginnings as a moderate liberal intellectual and journalist in early nineteenth century Spain, Donoso turned to the traditions of the Catholic Church and came to regard his age as afflicted with a loss of center due to the denial of tradition and the established order. Like other Catholic traditionalist counter-revolutionaries such as Joseph de Maistre and Bonald of his time, Donoso believed his age was headed for disaster in its denial of God and his rightful place among men as well as that revealed tradition of God in society so that it could only be saved through outright divine intervention. Unlike the liberals of his time, Donoso understood man to be rooted in sin and capable of radical evil due to his fall from grace. For Donoso, humanity would be entirely irredeemable were it not for the constraints imposed upon him from revealed tradition and the saving grace of Christ. In fact, Donoso's prophecies concerning his age were so dark and pessimistic that many have failed to see any hope for mankind at all in them short of a direct divine intervention. Donoso served as both a journalist and friend to the Queen Maria Cristina of Spain as well as a diplomat to both Berlin and Prussia and later to France. He had various relationships with certain central political figures of his time including the emperor Napoleon III as well as the pope. Donoso predicted the coming bloodshed in Europe, the nationalist and socialist revolutions in the next century, as well as making predictions for an innate saving power residing in the people and traditions of Russia and its civilization. It is the importance of these darkened predictions to the modern age that have made Donoso a figure who was revived in more recent times by various conservative political writers, among them the jurist and Third Reich intellectual Carl Schmitt. Donoso's early writings were written from the perspective of a moderate liberal and emphasized the role of intellect in political affairs. Later Donoso would take a sharper turn towards reaction rejecting the ideals of the revolution, and in his most famous work _Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism_ would outline the major differences between these political ideologies. For Donoso, liberalism represented a sliding point between the traditional order which consisted of the Catholic Church and the monarchy and the extremes of socialism and nihlism. Donoso respected socialism for having its own "demonic theology" and admired (though he sharply criticized) the famous anarchist philosopher Joseph Proudhon. Donoso observed the move away from God through pantheism (represented by democracy which deified the masses) towards His outright denial in atheism and nihlism. Donoso remarked frequently about the dangers of excessive discussion and parliamentarianism and the loss of the role of authority. The author, R. A. Herrara, contends that Donoso served as a Cassandra for his age, a prophet whose dark interpretations were doomed to be ignored in his time, but whose revelations demonstrated profound truths. This book provides an excellent biography of a lonely figure who stood for tradition and the authority of Catholicism in a time of crisis - a Catholic traditionalist and a dark prophet for his time.

The Empress of Ireland is the kind of book you don't want to finish, you feel a stab of sorrow when you realize you've passed the halfway mark. This memoir of the author's relationship with the Irish film director Brian Desmond Hurst reads like a novel. You are fully engaged with the characters and have entered another world. It is hilariously funny, deeply moving and the kind of book you will either read again or skim to reread favorite passages. The best book I've read all year.

Brian Desmond Hurst was a soldier (a veteran of the Gallipoli campaign), a film director (his best remembered effort being the Alistair Sim version of "A Christmas Carol"), and, in the end, equal parts dreamer, grifter and raconteur.

We meet up with Hurst well into his twilight years. Journalist Christopher Robbins is sent to meet the openly gay (and still quite frisky) Hurst, who is searching for a fresh young talent to pen a screenplay about the events leading up to the birth of Christ. A chance encounter of the luckiest sort. Together they travel to Morocco, Ireland and Malta. The friendship that develops, and is so lovingly documented in these pages, is obviously life changing for Robbins. Hurst understood well the business of living in the moment; and though he may have been a bit of a schemer, he opened up a new world of discovery, adventure and infinite possiblities for Robbins.

The years pass, the script gets written and bandied about, but the film is never produced (neither is Hurst's promised autobiography). What remained were the author's copious notes detailing, not only their shared adventures, but many of Hurst's ribald and hilarious stories reported seemingly verbatim. The man was the Irish Scheherazade. Along the way we are introduced to a rogues' gallery of eccentric characters, some royal, some famous, some criminal, some perverted, but all colorful and brilliantly remembered. This volume is often laugh out loud funny. However, Hurst's memories of growing up poor in Ireland, of his family struggles, and the absolute horror of his war experiences, are told with a poignant and shattering clarity.

This has proven to be one of those rare books for me. I never wanted it to end. There aren't enough superlatives in the dictionary to adequately discribe this uniquely rendered memoir. Once read, I defy anyone to forget Brian Desmond Hurst or "The Empress of Ireland."

I love it. Until I opened the book the name of Brian Desmond Hurst would have rung only the dimmest of bells, but apparently he was a figure of renown in the British film world of the 1940s and 1950s, and had a hand in dozens of films, most of them unreleased this side of the Atlantic, and you get the picture he was no Carol Reed over there. (He did discover Roger Moore.) But he was the funniest raconteur you'll ever read about, and we are lucky that young Christopher Robbins was right there catching all the quips and the bonhomie, and that he wasn't too shocked by the older man's rapacious homosexuality to write it all down for posterity. I haven't laughed out loud reading a book all year, and this one had me doubled over, nearly in pain. On every page you'll find something to cherish, and something to remember.

Some parts have the glory of utter bad taste. Teasing Michael Redgrave about his penchant for bondage (of a particularly painful sort), Desmond Hurst explains to Christopher, "There are a few in jokes about Sir Michael in our circle. 'Sir Michael Redgrave, I'll be bound!' and 'Sir Michael is unable to come to the phone now, he's all tied up.' Do you understand?" Christopher though straight-identified shares his patron's love of gossip and scandal. Besides naming names, Robbins also plays discreet and shrouds some of his best stories as blind items. He doesn't reveal the identity of the popular star with a drug problem that made him impossible to work with, but he gives you lots of clues. The name "Richard Dreyfuss" springs to mind.

Beyond the fun and the frivolity, there's a lot of heart in the book. Hurst's memories went way back, to childhood in Belfast, the city where much of the Titanic was built. "Brian's father proudly took him to see the great ship launched. 'When the news came back of the ship's sinking, a tidal wave of grief struck Belfast. There was not a street in either North or South Belfast that didn't have a house in it with the blinds down, because there were some four hundred technicians from the town on that maiden voyage.'" And just a little while later, World War I was launched, and Brian was sent to Gallipoli, the most heartbreaking of all WWI battles. His clear-eyed and incredibly detailed memories form the best account I've ever read of that awful siege.

Late in the book is a sort of defense of Hurst's films; Robbins makes a case for the best of the war films, but the truth is, he is an unlikely figure to be re-examined. THEIRS IS THE GLORY sounds like a truly odd movie: it's the story of the Battle of Arnhem (later immortalized as A BRIDGE TOO FAR) made shortly after World War II as a "docu-drama," in which every actor you see on the screen, and every technician you don't see behind the screen, had to have fought at Arnhem. Could it really be good? I guess it's possible. History has a way of finding the good inside the bad, and happily Christopher Robbins shares that propensity.

I actually haven't read this book yet but it is written by my Greek and Roman Mythology professeur. He's an amazing man. He knows so much about the subject that I'm sure this is a great book.

Dr. Hall was one of my professors as well, and he definitely knows what he's talking about. This book was extremely helpful in all of my classics courses, especially Roman History and translating Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. I'd recommend it to anyone.

This is an excellent book! I used it in one of my classes in college. It really gives insight into daily details of the lives of the Etruscans, which also helps you to understand the Romans better. Very well written, by good scholars.

As I read "Everything Irish" once more, I literally and figuratively shiver with joy, sadness, laughter--with everything that is deep and poignant and true about it. It moved me tremendously in many ways as I read the various poems and moods of the book. This work is a wonderful, significant, powerful cultural and coming of age achievement. The author evokes the spirit of a proud and complicated people, and seamlessly unites the past, the present, and the future. The harmonies of this book are the written counterpart of Irish bagpipe tunes and haunting Celtic melodies as well as Irish jigs! Nancy Zak

Wells' poems are wonderful vignettes and moment-in-time, telling about the Irish experience in America, with glimpses of Ireland itself. Although they are easy to read, and will often make you laugh, they also have depth and poignancy. A "good read" that you want to keep going back to read again.

Judy Wells said: "To be an artist is to embark on a lifelong spiritual quest." In "Everything Irish" Judy joined poet Dale Jensen on a trip to dig up her Irish roots. She makes the reader feel the harshnes of the brutal land. She puts your face up against the moist stones. She saved and dreamed about her trip. And then one summer her dream turned to green. The book is divided into three parts. Part One is "Everything Irish In a Nutshell." It recounts her Catholic girl upbringing. I related strongly to this litaney because of my parochial school days at St. Mary's Catholic Elementary School. I remember we were required to attend confession once a week. I din't commit enough sins to earn my regular penance of five Our Fathers and five Hale Marys so I invented sins. I claimed to have poisoned the city drinking water. I declared that I planted bombs on random perambulators. Judy recreates the days when the nun loomed tall in her habit. I remember nuns walking down the hall with rosaries the size of bicycle chains. "Waking the Dead", part two is the molten core of the book and carries green waves of Irish history. "Warp Spasm" evokes the hero Cu Chulainn who knew the secret language of poets taught to him by his foster father & poet Amairgin. Judy mentions the Goddess Briget who in the literature of early Ireland was the goddess of poetry and wisdom. "The Cliffman" takes us back to the "father" of the documentary, Robert J. Flaherty who shot his movie "Man of Aran" on a barren island off Ireland's west coast. Part Three is "Hunger". It deals with her return to Berkeley and her job as Academic Counselor. After three summers in Ireland Judy took a vacation in Hawaii. She writes in "Antidote" that she wanted the sun to "penetrate my bones". She wanted to "scoop sweet, succulent orange flesh from the papaya instead of opting for a baked potato one more time so I could drink the antidote of my own green culture." The last poem describes an Irish wedding in America. The couple plan to call their first child Shasta. "The trees and grass are green and fertility is in the air". This poem concludes her Irish experience, the rerooting of Irish culture in America to the point that the parents name their chlld after a mountain in California. "Everything Irish" traces the influences on Judy Wells that combined to shape her into the great Berkeley poet she has become. It is a personal and universal journey into the heart of self discovery. Her life and work are a continuous spiritual pilgrimage.

The anthropological account of post-modern society offered in this book is certainly one of the best I encountered in recent years. By brilliantly and engagingly analyzing the late soviet society, the author provides us with original analytical insights into the peoples' relations with ideology, discourse and ritual. A perennial social laboratory for all kinds of cultural experiments, Russia in its soviet phase served A. Yurchak as an empirical field whereby to conceptualize the paradoxical, non-dichotomous and multi-layered post-modern social condition. Moreover, Yurchak joins the exclusive club of genial authors who succeeded in touching the intangible uniqueness of the "soviet experience" - i.e. everyday life, way of thinking, forms of language and power, performance of dream and fake. Thus, this reading is necessary for both the favorites of lively intellectual reading and for everyone who pretends to understand something about "Russians", even if they are already post-Soviet and therefore similar and close on the one hand, but different and inconceivable on the other.
As anthropologist and Russian by origin, I try, in my everyday experience, to explain to my colleagues and friends the world I came from and to show how relevant this world is to any cultural and intellectual account of contemporary life. Yurchak's book is a great contribution to this challenge.

I must say that this is one of the most interesting books I've read so far concerning the experience of everyday (Soviet?) socialism. By reconsidering such an important subject through a solid (and novel) theoretical lens and providing high quality ethnographic data, Yurchak does what every good ethnographer should do: (laconically speaking) bring something new. This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in (post)socialism. Last but not least, it is very fun to read.

This is a very good ethnographic account of some important aspects of everyday life in the later years of Soviet Union. It is interesting, well written, the quality of the research is high, and the account is truly enlightening. As a researcher actively interested in East European ethnography I woud very much like to recommend it to readers looking for interesting and non-banal accounts.

I bought this book after reading "...Brigadier Gerard," by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which was based upon the life of this
man, Baron de Marbot. I'll have you know that I found it every bit as entertaining and fascinating as the "...Brigadier Gerard" book...even moreso for knowing that this fellow de Marbot really existed. When I read "...Brigadier Gerard," I was thinking how amazing some of the adventures were, or how fortunate he had been in this situation or in that one, but when I read about de Marbot, and of his incredible exploits, I was truly mesmerized. The coincidences..the simple twists of fate, the turns of fortune, the moments of chance...Hard to believe that this fellow experienced such awesome adventures... And all the while, amidst these adventures, we are kept abreast of the latest military tactics, the conditions of the land, the townsfolk and the soldiers, of all ranks during a period that seemed not to rest from battle... I tell you it is just a breathtaking piece of work (and for a female to say that is something indeed! )

When I read this book I swear it felt so real that I could easily imagine the sounds of voices or of artillery fire, or of horses hooves pounding or sabres clashing...Even scents came alive..The scent of a grassy knoll, or of a smoldering fire, or even that of the decaying flesh of men and animals...I could see the uniforms becoming more and mroe soiled and tattered with wear and with time...I could see troops moving silently through shallow streams in the dead of night; the moonlight spread across the ground like a sheet...I could see men's breaths when the air turned cold, and I could feel their struggle within when they knew that the end was near, but dared to keep the field.

This book simply pulls you in and doesn't let go. But that is quite alright. You won't WANT it to let go. It is every bit as much of a page-turner as "...Brigadier Gerard" was, and it gave me a sense of history that I failed to find in any of the books
I studied in college. Marbot so intimately describes his friends, enemies, family, and fellow soldiers, that they became not only real to me, but almost familiar to me.

Additionally, It did me well to remember a time when battles were fought in a much different manner than they are today... When words like Honor and Integrity and Duty and Loyalty were of paramount importance, and had substance,...They were not merely breath with sound.

I cannot say enough positive things about this book, and to keep at it here would be like beating a dead horse. Let me just say this: If you are ever at a point where you just can't seem to decide on which direction you would like to go in with your next good read, try this one while you are working it out... More likely than not, when you are done, you will kick yourself for not having gotten it sooner. ( And try "... Brigadier Gerard " too! I have reviewd this as well...!! )

All the history I've read about the Napoleonic Wars was a bird's eye view of grand maneuvers, but it's very difficult for a 21st century person to fathom what life must have been like in the inscrutably proper world of musket lines and lace. In this memoir, we find that the bygone culture of peasants and nobles fighting with sabers, muskets, and horses could still very much be populated by human beings not much unlike ourselves.

Marbot's memoirs consist of two components: one is his own research into the events of the war, and reads much like a normal history book. Of much greater interest to us, however, is his personal recollections and stories, which is much like meeting the man in person over a beer and having him spew his opinions and experiences to you. Unfortunately, this edition does not retain as much of this personal flavor, instead choosing to retain the drier historical stuff that can be "ascertained". This is a pity, as there is a great deal we can learn about the times from Marbot's stories and rumors, inaccurate as some may be.

The proper tone of this book masks from the reader the horrors that we read in today's memoirs, so it is left up to your imagination to grasp the full meaning of what "despair" or a "piteous sight" might refer to.

The original is much less dry and bursts with period detail, although, much like what you might hear in a bar, is more suspect in its accuracy. It was also translated by a deeply biased Englishman, who is so fierce when he "corrects" every mention of English conduct in the footnotes that you begin to wonder just how trustworthy his translation might be. Being from another century, you will also encounter fierce anti-Semitism in a grand total of about 4 of the book's 700 pages, along with a derogatory remark slur on blacks, but this is to be expected reading a book from a less PC century.

I'm a Napoleonic novice,and many things in this book are completely foreign to me, but this narrative gallops right along. This edited version makes me long for the full version. The author appears to write with both candor and a very dry sense of humor (I find myself wincing and laughing-I hope not inappropriately) about incredibly brutal battle exploits as well as about the behind-the-scenes politics. The author's sense of practicality, tempered with his sense of honor makes for a very appealing perspective on the events of the era. Further, it's truly amazing what the soldiers of that era had to deal with, just in terms of physical hardships (at least by today's standards). This book has served to seriously whet my appetite to read and to learn more about this period in history.

We took this out at the library. We read this book, I loved it, as well as my 5 year old daughter. Wonderful lesson of helping others, beautiful illustrations, and wonderfully happy ending. A must have! I'm ordering my own, for me!

This story is about a wood cutter who is given a wish by a faerie for saving his life. The wood cutter returns home with the wish only to find his family at odds over what he should wish for. In the end the wood cutter finds a way to make everyone happy. I like the story, but it is not one of my 3 year old's favorites.

The Faery's Gift is magnificently illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli and features a beautifully written story by Tanya Robyn Batt. A poor woodcutter rescues a fairy in the Forest and is rewarded with one wish. Trouble is each member of his family wants him to make a different wish. You'll be eagerly turning the pages to find out how the woodcutter solves his dilemma. I was completely charmed by this story.

Preston McClear, ...