Asia Books

This book should be required reading for all marines and other U.S. military, including officiers. This soldier writes with his gut and what he says is true. He lived it.I am suprised noone has the guts to put this book on film, instead of the milk toast the movies put out. You do not have to be military to respect the man and believe in our country as he does.

In Your War, My War: A Marine In Vietnam, Sergeant Donald Myers shows us the chaos and hysteria that was the hallmark of active combat in the Vietnam War. His memoir begins on October 30, 1967 when he arrives at Gio Linh and spans sixteen months of lethal combat and mind-numbing drudgeries of military life in a combat zone. What makes Your War, My War unique and distinctive from other Vietnam biographies is that each chapter represents a day's journal entry, juxtaposed with American newspapers that coincide with the entries, enabling the reader to envision the contrast of the American political and journalistic structure versus a day at battle. This contrast of the reality of Vietnam with the Never-Never Land perceptions back home is particularly jarring and informative. Your War, My War is a highly recommended and much appreciated contribution to the growing body of literature on the American military experience in Vietnam.

This book took me back to c/1/12, to the very places I had been, I did't know SSgt Meyers, but I think I was there while he was. Super book, thanks for putting our Battery story in print.

Weak kneed, left wing, doves should avoid the reality of the portrayal of the life of Myers and the Marine comrads he so eloquently shares with the reader. This is not a sugar coated documentary of all that is right with our military strategy on the ground , in day-to-day life of combat Marines, but the true story of how these Marines prevailed in spite of the strategy. Anyone who ever hold a position of leadership where conditions are extremely difficult must read this book. Only a few books ever capture the reality of war, this is one of them. A must read.

I truly laughed out loud at the clever, dry wit with which this tale is skillfully told. The author's insightful observations and well crafted narrative were a real joy to read. I confidently recommend it to anyone who appreciates the idiosyncracies of culture and travel or who is a fan of a well-turned phrase. It will make you want to go in search of your own adventures.

Thankfully bereft of the artificially upbeat gloss of travel guides, Marta Hoilman breezily presents a three dimensional portrait of expatriate life in Jakarta. Hoilman's Adventures flash rapier wit, lending humor and life to the privations and improvisations that life in Indonesia invoked. From indomitable roaches to glorious side trips, Hoilman briskly shares her adventures. If you want the "inside baseball" on expatriate life in Jakarta, then you have found a must read.

If Elvis were alive today he would write a song about Ms Hoilman's way with words. Can't wait for the next installment.

Excerpts from Lemar-Aftaab Magazine's Review

PLEASE VISIT: :

The one major difference between the two was that Baihaqi was a historian whose writing served the court of the Ghaznavids kings. Ghobar was imprisoned by the government for writing truths and voicing his opinions. Whereas Baihaqi received golden treasures and prestige for writing history in favor of the royal court, Ghobar's unbiased writings prompted the ruling governing body to marginalize him and his family to live in fear of their lives from day-to-day. Ghobar has become a capstone for most historians who specialized on Afghanistan. Many Afghans came to realize his greatness after his death. Now, thousands of Afghans rely on Ghobar's writing style and content to learn important historical facts. Habibi (1984) puts Ghobar's contribution into perspective: "Ghobar's seal is cast on Afghan movements in the second half of the 20th century."

Since his writings were earth shattering, some envious and intransigents tried defaming and slandering him by mislabeling him into a certain way of thinking. The truth of the matter is that he was neither a right-wing fanatic nor a left-wing revolutionary. He was a progressive intellectual whose primary objective was to peacefully reform the system.

Ghobar had the patriotic ambition of reconciling Afghanistan's past, present, and future. He wrote: "Until the onslaught of Gengiz Khan, Afghanistan was the shining star of the Islamic world. Neither in cultural level nor in the stage of civilization had she any equal among the Muslim countries" (Gregorian, 1969, Page 22). Ghobar was a strong advocate of justice, civil liberties, and reforming the strict censorship policies. Afghanistan dar Masir-e Tarikh has been widely associated with the movement for a free press and none censorship. Just as activist intellectuals such King, Gandhi, Mandela, and even passivist intellectuals were being punished for exercising their civil rights, Ghobar also became a victim during the regime's informal intellectual apartheid, genocide, and exile campaign. Ghobar along with his brothers, his cousins were imprisoned in the jails of Saira-e Mothi in Kabul. Among the 16,000 captives, they were political prisoners from 1933 to 1935. From 1935 to 1942, they were sent to exile in Bala Baluk, Farah.

In 1952-1956, Ghobar again ended up as a political prison of the regime. Because he participated in a peaceful public protest urging democratic parliamentary elections. This time in prison he conceived the idea of writing the epic. Ghobar's book unveiled a whole world of state oppression, corruption, and criticized the extreme and sometimes brutal measures taken by the government.

During P.M. Maiwandwal in 1967, Ghobar's book was approved for publication. Since the monarchy did not permit private publication houses, the book was to be published in the government-publishing house located in Kabul. According to Wala (2000), Deparment Head for, Minister Benawa designated him to publish the book at the government-printing house. Major figures of Afghan literature oversaw his work and approved of it such as Ahmad Ali Kohzad, Ahmad Naimi, and Muhammad Gul-ab Nangahari. When the ruling elite replaced P.M. Maiwandwal, the book was officially announced banned during a meeting. The banning of the book without any legal or court process did not fair well with intellectuals.

Ghobar has been noted to say, "Legally, the history book I have written must be released. The government can then use its power to commission writers who can distort the facts and history of the past in response of my book."

Although initially printed by the government press, the ruling elite banned it. George Bernard Shaw put it best: "Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads."

The government's biases against pedagogy resulted from fears that people will become socially literate, heighten their sense of social consciousness, and transform their situation and society. However, the government ignored that positive results cannot be expected from political repression, which fail to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. The rulers made empty promises ensuring justice and democracy, but behind the scene was law breaking and corruption. Conspiracy and plotting became common and innocent intellectuals were sent off to fill prison cells. They were individuals who only exercised their rights to speak and write and had not committed any crime. However, even without a case nor judgment against them, these intellectuals and their relatives spent years in the prison cells where they were subjected to all methods of torture. Ironically, it so happened that the place of patriotic and heroic intellectual was in prison and not in the governing bodies of the country. It was these infringements of civil liberties and censorship that were the main causes of the decay of the regime.

Early in 1978, after unsuccessful treatments resulted in his parting of this world in West Germany on February 18, 1978. Ghobar laid to rest in Shohada-e Saliheen. On his burial tablet it is written: Do not tell me to hold my tongue! Oh fate, there are still 1,000 unsaid passages running through my head.

Unlike other questionable intellectuals who have become entrepreneurs that give a slanted historical interpretation based on their ethnic, religious, regional incentives, Ghobar praises and criticizes all the players of the game.

Ghobar was a very learned person, whose research about the period prior to his lifetime was not only based on his knowledge but on vast archives. His book is first of its kind in that it is the most scholarly and scientific in format and content. After forty years, his book is still a popular reference piece among Afghans no matter wherever they lie along the political spectrum: "Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas," Whitney Griswold.

Although Ghobar had to endure constant struggle and courage in the face of dire situations, today his eternal radiance shines like a heavenly star onto Afghanistan's literary and political society.

Excerpts take from an email letter started by Afghans Solidarity
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MGM Ghobar's first book "Afghanistan dar massir e tarikh" is very informative, and it is widely considered a valuable history book written by an Afghan. His second book, however, is mostly based on his personal views.

As a political activist, he strongly opposed the government of Nadir shah, Hashim khan, Shah Mahmood Khan, and Daud Khan. His intentions, in his 2nd book, was to weaken and possibly topple those governments by generating a mass resentment towards the government. He was imprisoned for few year and sent to exile in southern part of Afghanistan. It is easy to sense throughout his book a feeling of revenge. He continuously concentrates on negative aspects of the government policies and actions.

This is an example of how a government used force to do injustice to its opposition and how an individual make use of pen to take revenge.

It important that we avoid getting caught in the fire and as a result form extreme opinions.

There is a good critique (in Farsi) by Negargar on MGM Ghobar's
second book. Negargar points out major differenced between Ghobar's 1st and 2nd book. He tries to prove that the 2nd book is not 100% Ghobar's writings. He thinks a lot has been added to his original writings.

Khalid Shalizi

=============================================
About the MGM Ghobar's book, I urge caution. Ghobar's first book "Afghanistan Daar Maseer'e Tarikh Vol 1", is one of the best history books available on Afghanistan. While I read the second volume with great interest (over a weekend) and found it deeply moving, I would like to point out that this volume is more of a personal journal, rather than a scholarly researched
history book. The story about "Charkhi" family is true, but as far as I know, noone has any stories that either supports or rejects any of the other ones, and since Afghanistan doesn't have many solid historians, this is as good as it will have to get for now. If EC members' disagree, I can take criticism OK, so I would love to hear other members' perspectives on this book. I should point out that Donya jaan Ghobar, MGM's daughter, is a (silent) member of AS. She is a physician, poet, writer, painter and sculptor, a pretty amazing woman. I have met Hashamt, the publisher and MGM's son, on a number of occasions and been to their house in VA. They are fantastic Afghans!

Farhad Ahad

I have read many books about Afghan History, written by notable Afghans and foreign writers, but none have equaled Ghobar's Book. Afghanistan in the Course of History captures the fear, helplessness, and despair that the people of Afghanistan had to endure under the Monarchy system. Ghober's vivid and chilling description of the prison cells, torture chambers, Nadir Shah's and his brother assassination, Execution of Abdul Khaleq, and the elimination of the famed Charkhi family is Spellbinding.

One has to marvel at the thoroughness with which Ghobar discusses not only the brutal Monarchy System, the British involvement, the campaign against the Monarchy and the British from within and abroad but the entire political and economic situation in Afghanistan. Ghobar's vivid descriptions of the brutal regime of Nadir and his brothers', the British interference and the Indian connection offered insights that I have read nowhere else.

This is the one book you need to read if you want to know what it was like to be an Afghan and live under the Monarchy system in Afghanistan. The description scenes are gripping and often heartbreaking. Once you have read this book, you'll understand why Afghanistan is in such a state of chaos today!

Afghanistan in the Course of History is a fascinating portrait of the Afghan History. I have read no other account of the Afghan history equal to this. Ghobar's groundbreaking revelation is a masterpiece. This is literature.

from -Journal of North African Studies
"[A] significant, welcome step forward, not only in the study of African slavery but also more broadly in the history of the African Diaspora. The book is a series of translated primary source documents . . . organised topically and includ[ing] over 80 representative texts addressing the process of enslavement, markets, everyday life, social roles, identity, education, gender issues, status and social mobility, and emancipation. . . . A short historical contextualisation accompanies each major topic, introducing related textual selections.
"Introductory articles by Hunwick and Troutt Powell are among the best available on slavery in Islam and do a good job of orienting readers new to the subject. . . . [This is] the first collection of its kind in any language, and brings together texts from diverse origins. In this, the editors' selective approach matches well with the overarching purposes of the book. . . . Those interested in the origins of slavery in the Sahara and Maghrib will not only find useful primary materials to draw on, but also a broader framework for understanding the nature of the institution and some of its comparative dynamics over time. . . . [The authors] have offered an effective way of enticing the next generation of researchers." -Journal of North African Studies

For all true searchers and researches of the truth about Moslems and Islam and its hidden but still contemporary agenda of harassing, massacring and erasing other's cultures, the "inferior" culture of the infidels, this masterpiece is a must- simply imperative!

Its authors are heroes, no doubt about.

The frequently over looked subject of Islamic slavery is fianlly brought to light in this important new work on the subject. The focus here is on the Africans sent to North Africa via the slave routes stretching acorss the Sahara and those beggining in Zanzibar. Between the 7th century and the present it is estimated that 11 million Africans were taken as Slaves to the muslim world. This book explains how they were captured, transported and most important their new lives in the Muslim world. Usual accounts paint a picture of a paradise where a slave lived as an equal and assimilated into the Muslim soceity. The reality was quite different then the western myth. This book tells of African women chosen only for their sexual attributes then used as sex slaves, any resulting children would be sold or 'pimped' off by the owner rather then living freely as Qu'ranic law sopposedly guaranteed. Here we have a wonderful new account of the Africans deported to North Africa, a story frequently overlooked in western history, which is all to often caught up in self flagulation of describing the Atlantic slave trade.

Seth J. Frantzman

A book that begs us to call into serious question the nature of the society in which we, live. Using examples from postwar Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, it presents the broader issue, of "how our system really works": Government, media, and such.

Nowhere does the book praise "Stalinism." The issue is simply that of a colonial power smashing a national movement. In the 19th Century the prevailing ideollogy might have been Christiandom vs. Islam; by the 1960's it was the "Free World" vs. "Godless Communism." The essential power relatons of empire remain the same. To criticise the larger power and its bullying tactics is not to whitewash the other side; but the normal human reaction among the unbrainwashed is to take the side of the little guy fighting for his life over the big fat aggressor.

Ensconced in the ivory tower of American academia, neither Noam Chomsky nor Edward Herman would have survived day one of Cambodia's infamous "Year Zero" - an "agrarian reform" that led to the deaths of roughly two million people - one quarter of the population of Cambodia.

Luckily for Chomsky, the governor of Massachusetts (Chomsky is a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA) did not summarily round up, torture, convict and execute the intelligensia and bourgeois classes in Massachusetts. Sadly for Cambodia (or Kampuchea, if you prefer) Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government did just this in Cambodia. Under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, the "crime" of being an elementary school teacher, to say nothing of being a tenured university professor!, was excuse enough for the revolutionary heroes Chomsky sings the praises of in "After The Cataclysm", to kill you and your entire family.

Chomsky's book fails in every conceivable way when analyzing the bloody regime of Pol Pot, attempting to write off refugee reports of the unimaginably large scale atrocities as the spin of an imperialist media seeking to defame the agrarian revolution. Chomsky could not have been more wrong, nor proved more valuable a western mouthpiece for one of the most brutal dictators in living memory.

The fiery anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism polemics and philippics that were Chomsky's milieu during the Vietnam war pigeonholed his analysis of the Pol Pot regime, and it shows in this book. After his bitter condemnations of anything even vaguely pro-American in Asian politics, Chomsky had ideologially painted himself into a corner. Rather than renounce one ounce of his invective, he instead wrote this book, which regardless of intent, reads as an apologist eulogy to the Khmer Rouge.

I give this book five stars because it's a five star work on the excesses of the old guard left in American academic circles, and a lingering stench on Chomsky's reputation. Had Chomsky had the integrity and courage to admit that the emperor Pol Pot had no clothes on, this book never would have been written....The disingenuousness presented in "After The Cataclysm" is nearly too astounding, as if written as a savage and bitter satire of professional academics-cum-polemicists. It's not, and academia is left tarnished for it.

Land of the midnight sun.

Reverries.. WBYEATS sailing to byzantium innisfree

The technical mind, AgFd ACS, FSEEE

Medical doctors... Captian Doctor a natural history of the dead

Woodger

Fleming?

debakey, barnard, cooley, howard, christian, denton

medical doctors

Enjoy reading literature written by medical doctors.

MD magazine had short stories also

beware the pogonip





Medical doctors are deft, adept intellectual academic readers thus, also literati.

Nielson's 4th, The Inextinguishable rowing scull to Jupiter and
Beyond.

513-242-2393

This book contains the memoirs Dr. Victor Heiser, international public health administrator for 30 years starting at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The book begins with a riveting account of how Heiser survived the Johnstown Flood by nimbly balancing on the walls of his barn as it swirled in the maelstrom after seeing his entire family swept under the waters in their home. Alone in the world following this disaster, Heiser decided to study medicine, but discovered upon graduation that he much preferred to prevent disease than cure it. He felt that he could do more for more people by fighting public health campaigns than by dealing with individual sick patients. He began his career as a military health inspector overseeing immigration halls at large ports, including Ellis Island. He later moved on to Europe, where he set up health inspection services so that would-be immigrants to the United States could be screened before setting sail from Europe. Following the Spanish American War, he was assigned as chief health officer of the new American colony in the Philippines. After serving almost ten years in the Philippines, he joined the international public health team of the Rockefeller Foundation, where he served as an itinerant medical expert and public health adviser for nearly twenty years.

During his tenure in the Philippines, Heiser worked hard to get cholera, typhoid, plague, smallpox, and leprosy under control. Politically, he was very much a man of his times, and his prose displays the typical racist attitudes of a senior colonial official. He could become very aggravated by what he considered the whimsical behavior of the Filipinos, and he often resorted to draconian measures to contain disease outbreaks. Nevertheless, his intentions were laudable if his methods were sometimes questionable.

Heiser's accounts of his time with the Rockefeller Foundation are fascinating. He explains how the Rockefeller Foundation selected hookworm elimination campaigns as their primary focus: Rockefeller wanted the team to work with a pathogen that was not only common, caused serious harm to society, but also could be seen with the naked eye. He felt that if people could actually see what was making them sick, even if they were illiterate, they would understand the cause and effect relationship between the pathogen and their illness, and would be willing to do their part in supporting the campaign. The hope was that the administration set up in a community for the hookworm elimination campaign would prove itself so useful that the community would want it to continue and expand its scope, leading to the establishment of a full public health service. Heiser relates how well this idea succeeded, not only in the American South, but throughout the world, from Thailand to Abyssinia.

Indeed, aside from the medical details, Heiser's descriptions of his travels are some of the most interesting parts of the book. He tells us of conditions on ships and trains, in cities and country sides around the world. In one of the more fascinating accounts of his travels, he describes the lush green highland paradise of Abyssinia, how in the 1930s he could see terraced orchards of apples and pears from his hotel room in Addis Ababa, and how beautiful the forests and cool clear streams were there. From modern accounts of the Ethiopian environment, it seems those fruit trees and forests are long gone, casualties of civil war, mismanagement, and over-population (perhaps a result of Heiser's work?). Heiser also notes how the Abyssinians, including their leader Haile Selassie considered themselves a separate race from the Black Africans, who they displayed racists attitudes towards, and how they were incensed when the US sent them Black ambassadors. If Heiser's contemporary account of Abyssian society is indeed accurate, it puts Rastafarians' idolization of Selassie in a new light, indeed.

This book has been one of my favorites for many years. I read it first in paperback, and after that fell apart I managed to find a used hardback copy. The book is the autobiography of Victor Heiser, M.D. The book starts with a bang with Heiser as a teenager surviving the Johnstown flood. (His parents were killed.) The rest of the book is mostly anecdotes taken from his medical career. Dr. Heiser is perhaps the ultimate example of the international public health doctor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He spent much of his career as the U.S.'s Director of Health in the Philippines. Much of the book is organized by disease: he discusses smallpox, plague, cholera, leprosy, hookworm, etc. Heiser's main point is that health comes mostly from vaccination, clean water, good food, sanitation, and isolation of people sick with contagious diseases, not from expensive medical care.
Nearly every page of the book has a great story; you get the impression that Heiser must have been a fantastic dinner guest. Heiser's stories of vaccinating the uncivilized tribesmen of the Philippines are medical adventure at its best.
Towards the end of his career Heiser became a representative of the Rockefeller Foundation and spent his time traveling the world selling public health to the masses. The book bogs down a bit here; sometimes you wish Heiser would stop bragging about the number of times he's visited each country and tell more stories.
For the modern reader, Heiser's book is still surprisingly relevant, though maybe not in ways he intended. Heiser and other public health doctors are perhaps the persons most responsible for today's overpopulation of the earth. The fact is that if you save a life, you must prevent a birth somewhere else, or risk overrunning your resources. Heiser had no concept of limits. In my opinion, today's doctors have for the most part still never understood this, with the result that they often cause more harm than good.
Another important point for modern readers is the concept of diminishing returns for medical care. Heiser's book shows this clearly. Heiser, who was starting with Philippine peasants that had never seen a doctor, could save thousands of lives with a few dollars' worth of vaccines. Today we may spend a million dollars on a single transplant patient or premature baby. Are we really getting our moneys' worth? I don't think so.
Overall, a very good book if you can find it.

Professor Hsu knows well--and understands well--the cultural characteristics of contemporary Americans and Chinese. This is not a history text, but rather an in-depth look at the differences between peoples which is the result of history. I would consider it "must" reading for both societies. The 1981 publication date does not make it outdated. In fact, at the present, the insights it offers are more pertinent than ever. Professor Hsu writes intelligently, humorously, and very seriously about a "meeting of minds." He doesn't pull punches, and at the same time he is fair. Chinese and Americans have a lot to learn about--and from--each other. Begin here--and keep this unique "teacher's manual" on hand.

Professor Hsu knows well--and understands well--the cultural characteristics of contemporary Americans and Chinese. This is not a history text, but rather an in-depth look at the differences between peoples which are the result of history. I would consider it "must" reading for both societies. The 1981 publication date does not make it outdated. Professor Hsu writes intelligently, humorously,and very seriously about a "meeting of minds." He doesn't pull punches, and at the same time he is fair. Chinese and Americans have a lot to learn about each other. Begin here--and keep it on hand.

I came across Dr. Hsu's work during my doctoral research and found his observations of the similarities and differences between American and Chinese thinking insightful--at times profoundly so. Here is an academic who writes with clarity and common sense, yet bases his conclusions on years of firsthand experience and ongoing research. Although its last reprint was nearly a quarter century ago, most of what he describes and explains remains pertinent today. Those conducting cross-cultural studies, or otherwise engaged in international exchanges between these two nations, would do well to read and heed this book. Nothing since approaches this even more timely topic with the same sense of philosophical distance and objectivity.

And Then There Was One... is a historical memoir covering the era from 1910 t o 1945. Author Michael Stone was born in Latvia in 1910, grew up in Moscow, relocated to Berlin with his family to escape the Communist Revolution, and emigrated to the United States when the Nazis emerged to take control. And Then There Was One... is a riveting personal saga that spans nations, and offers a very personal view of cataclysmic events that reshaped human history and the world. Enhanced with an appendix, bibliography, and index, And Then There Was One... is highly recommended reading.

(...)Twentieth century lives are often studies in chaos, disruption, and just one damned thing after another. For Michael Stone, born in 1910, it's a century of the murder of Jews and of coming to America and having the freedom to build a successful life. But a successful and culture life was Stone's in Latvia, born into a family of prosperous entrepreneurs. Memories, experiences, fascinating bits of information—The Cotton Club, speeches in Columbus Circle, in the Latvian army, upbringing, siblings and parents, and meeting European men and women who, through their experiences, would define the times. But also there is the malady of the century: the Nazi murder of Jews. A horrifying depiction of the roundup of the Jews of Riga: "Those actions were representative of a number of carefully planned acts of extermination of Jews, not only in various cities in Latvia, but also in other parts of Nazi-occupied regions in Europe." And the terrible personal experiences of Stone. "My initial reaction to being transferred from the hands of the Gestapo to the regular, green-uniformed police calmed me a bit." In an important sense, this is a modern American life: coming from war-torn Europe, a man prospers but remembers, for future generations, the terrible things done in Europe. And it is a history of all of Europe as that history affected poor, helpless people. Stone remembers in a thoughtful, scrupulously detailed way: And Then There Was One is a clearheaded and instructive memoir, related with passion, and with enormous sorrow(...)

Unlike traditional history books, which are written many years after events have actually occurred, this unusual book tells of the cataclysmic world events of the the first half of the last century from the perspective of one who was there. The reader will get a graphic description of the different cultures, customs and events as they then existed.

There are not many people today who can say that they were acctually present in Moscow when the Bolshevic revolution was unfolding. Michael Stone was there. In this meticulously researched volume, Mr. Stone vividly describes how he survived the bloody two-year civil war when his mother was brutally killed. He goes on to describe his family's flight from Russia to the Weimar Republic. He provides a first-hand account of the World War II from the German perspective. Mr. Stone writes with passion about his experience of being arrested by the Gestapo on charges of high treason, which carried a mandatory sentence of decapitation (He was ultimately pardoned by Hermann Goering, personally!) We are fortunate that Mr. Stone, who was thrust into the middle of the century's greatest historic events, survived to preserve the truth from his unique perspective.

This is a must read for all history buffs.

This is an excellent translation. The book contains a number of appendices which are superb analyses of different issues dealing with Alexander's history.
As a professional historian I can recommend the book without hesitation.

MJ Olbrycht

This book is one of two volumes written by Arrian on Alexander the Great. So many books have been written about this fascinating and charigmatic young man.Although most of the documents from Alexander's lifetime have vanished,this one is the closest that we can get to him.

In my own opinion I think that the documents that vanished may have been in the Alexandria library,or possibly were the body or remains of Alexander are.

What I liked the most in this book is the fact that the name of the cities and places that Alexander conquered are also named with today's actual names,making it easy for us lovers of history to relate to today's geography.

The Theban battle is very well written with so many details, not only the amount of horses,companions,hypastis and so on but the way that Alexander he himself planned.How Alexander took care of the innocent people,and how he cared for them,example the battle of Agis. What he did to the citizens of Soli, giving their land and money back.Details of Darius' mother,wife and children.
For instance I did not know that Dairus married his own sister.
there is so much in this book that it is really worth having if you are a true historian buff of Alexander's time.

The details of the army that conquered which tribe and city.How many horses, carriages, elephants, companions were used for each battle.

The treason fo Philotas and the killing of Parmenio,are also detailed here.The revolt of Agis,India and the Persian Empire, plus detailes of Alexander's army.

I enjoyed reading it very very much.I hope that you will do the same.

Arrian's Books, in two volumes, are perhaps the most informative and accurate existing account of the expeditions of Alexander the Great. The accounts are historical and also give insight into the personality of Alexander. Contrary to most histories, the texts are an easy read, with descriptions of places, people, and events giving the reader a good sense of the adventures encountered by Alexander and his men. The tale is told directly. Alexander's sexuality, the love of his troops for their leader, and all the other human qualities intermingled in a real life situation are presented without bias.
The text is in greek and english, in flanking pages. The footnotes are helpful, providing clarity to definitions of words in their historical context. The second volume contains various Appendixes providing added information on Military Questions, India, Mearchus' Voyage (Alexander's Sea Captain), etc.
For one wising to learn of Alexander, this is the best source available.

Henry Glassie has written one of the great books of the 21st Century. His descriptions of the history of Bangladesh provide exactly the context needed to understand the folklife and art that he chooses to present from this nation. Glassie balances his own thought-provoking and insightful interpretations with articulate and intriguing texts, edited together from hundreds of hours of interview material. In this manner, Glassie guides the reader to a great understanding of the incredible artistry of the people of Bangladesh. Reading this book forces one to reflect on a range of important issues -- the central one being a compassionate concern with what it means to be wealthy or poor in Bangladesh, and in America.

"Art" must be taken very broadly, not to misjudge this book by its title. Glassie is such an honest, humble writer, one would forgive him for staying with the high arts, but he brings us into the back yards of potters and other craftspeople who labor in mud and obscurity. What I appreciate the most is his exquisite sense of the moment. Glassie never generalizes or universalizes; he shows us how lives and art change (not constantly, but imperceptibly, and also in sudden surges), and at the end we know more about all people by knowing more about these few.

The author has captured the essence of East Bengal in this marvelous book about art in Bangladesh. While the primary medium is pottery, the book also touches on rickshaw art, engraving, boat building, straw mat production and others. More than a description of art and the artists, it delves into the philosophy of Bengal and reaches depths of religious understanding (especially among the Hindu community); that many of us who lived in Bangladesh did not encounter. If you love Bangladesh, this book is must reading.