United Kingdom Books

Such a great book - well written and thoughtful.

Unlike many books on dance culture which tend to lapse into a who's who type of history, Malbon's sociological approach touches on WHY people go clubbing and what they take from the experience. For a lot of people, it's more than a scene or fad. While clubs come and go (Studio 54, the Misshapes) and venues change (your bedroom, your friend's basement, the secret location by the pier), the longing for the oceanic experience remains the same.

Best one out there. Expensive (DANG!) but well worth it.

Respectful and not pompous though decidedly academic this book reaches out to honestly describe why people go clubbing. Yes, it is about dancing, and drugs, subjects for which words hardly ever do justice. Nevertheless, for those who have an interest in trying to describe the indescribable, this is one of the more readable and agreeable attempts. However, even as I've quoted sections to friends (yes, they're worth quoting), I am left with what another dancer told me quite spontaneously: she likes to dance, be it merengue, salsa, cumbia, because, as she says, I feel closer to God. I suppose it's just one of those things that you either understand or you don't.

ben.malbon@bmpddb.com

I found this well researched book fascinating. I have never before read a non-fiction work in one sitting (Then I reread it taking notes). This work undermines (without ever saying so ) many of the cultural myths that drive our current economy. Commons have been viable and sustainable economies and cultures. I should also add that as an avid science fiction reader I found a description of as alien a society as any I have otherwise read about.

I like to order oneeson@hotmail.co

According to E.P. Thompson (Customs in Common) best work on the subject -- and if not the only then certainly the most important. Sorry, I'm not an academic, just a student. For an insightful review, please look in a history journal.

This is a lovely read about the Elizabethan era, and at the same a serious source for knowledge about the everyday life in 16th Century England.

Maggies book is easy bed table reading. But at the same time has an index at the back to look up a specific reference or issue.

If you just saw a movie or play set in the 16th century this is the book for you! Unless you are already a devotee of the time period, a lot that is presented in a film or play may perplex you.

This book will "un-perplex" most.

Do you love rennaissance faires? Then this again is a great resource. If you are a participant, then it is filled with the tidbits that you either forgot or eluded you ( there is so much to know!).

If you are new to the fair experience, this can give context and meaning to what you see and hear.

Three hearty cheers for The Compendium!!

This book is indispensable for folks new to re-enacting. I find it has information that average history books might not have. The subjects are concise, clear, and have many references if you desire further information on any subject. I am very happy to have this as a resource.

Many historical re-enactors and scholars have known of this indispensable resource on the web only, longing for the day when we could pen our own notes in the margins while enjoying a G and T on the veranda. At last we have our chance!

This book by Maggie Secara is truly one of the finest introductions to the early modern world you're likely to find. Pithy, charming, and learned, this is a book that is hard to put down. As you might expect, it is filled with all the details of renaissance daily life you're looking for, but the book is so much more than mere lists of things. One feels as though the author is taking you by the hand and giving you her own well-informed and personal tour of the past.

If you are a lover of history, you will revel in its pages. If you are a writer with an interest in early modern Britain, you'll want to keep this book in a holster at your side. If you are someone merely with a love of knowledge for the intricate doings of another age: Welcome home!

For the actor or re-enactor interested in Elizabethan England, this book is a practical, look-it-up-now tool for checking historical facts or correct linguistic usage (the term for a barrel-maker or the pronunciation of "Southwark, for instance). For those with a general interest in the Elizabethan era or the history of day-to-day life, the book provides a compelling view of a bygone era, ranging as it does from the broad structures of Elizabethan society to the details of weights and measures, foods and fabrics. (In this sense, it resembles Daniel Pool's What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew; readers who enjoyed that book will almost certainly enjoy this one as well.) It is full of both basic information (such as a list of the Elizabethan peerages) and fascinating details (we learn that a seven-pound quantity of wool is a "clove," that Southwark prostitutes are nicknamed "Winchester Geese," and that one of the favorites of the bear-baiting pit is a bruin named Sackerson.) An especial strength of the book is the author's ability to describe differences between the Elizabethan and modern worlds clearly and succinctly. (A longer and more detailed version of this review can be found at the Troynovant review website.)

For several years, Renaissance re-enactors have been using Secara's online version of the "Compendium" to educate themselves about the everyday knowledge of the historical characters they portray. Just as 21st century people know that "text" is a verb and what a "blog" is, so did the people in the English Renaissance know the value of an "angel" and who the "recusants" were. From husbandmen to merchants to the nobility, these are the things all Elizabethans would have known.

What Daniel Pool's "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" did for the nineteenth century, Secara's "Compendium" provides for the reader who wants to know more about the world of the English Renaissance. While the information contained within this accessible volume was originally designed for re-enactors, it would also be useful for actors, readers (and authors!) of historical fiction, students of literature (impress your English and History profs!) and armchair historians of every stripe.

A few caveats: the layout of the book is sporadic, reflecting its online origins. On the one hand, it feels less methodical (the devalued coinage of Scotland and Ireland is mentioned in the section on gambling), but on the other hand, the connection of diverse areas leads to some wonderful insights (so don't gamble with Scots unless you account for the difference in the coinage). Furthermore, there are both a topic index and a thorough general index in the back to help locate specific information.

The tone of the book is conversational and light, but the information is sound. While the author is upfront about her lack of footnotes and citations, she also provides notes about primary and secondary source materials for those who want to follow up on a detail or question. In consultation with other researchers in the re-enactment community, Secara is also continuing to update the online site with corrections and sources as they become available. Similarly, Secara doesn't pretend to more thorough examinations of the complex areas of religion, politics and economics than she provides. When she is giving a superficial, generalist description, she says so, and refers the reader to other sources for more complete information.

All in all, this is a very useful book for anyone interested in the everyday, common-man aspects of history. It can be read straight through from cover to cover, dipped into at random, or searched for specific details. Better still, it provides a portable version of an online reference that countless people have come to know and rely upon.

My 8-year-old history buff loved this book. He read it very carefully. As he was reading, he would get out other history books to read about whatever he was reading about in this book. When he finished this book, he bought a biography of Elizabeth I. He frequently goes back and refers to this book when reading other books about history. I highly recommend this book.

This is a beautifully illustrated, interesting book. Most rulers receive a 1-2 page treatment (although later monarchs have more pages dedicated to them) complete with ancestral charts, timelines, and other helpful additions to the main text. I'm sure this is meant as a coffee table or reference book, but I sat down, read it cover to cover, and then bothered my family and friends with all the facts I'd learned for the next month. A great book.

so great book the best book about british monarchy ever published . a lot of photos and paintings which make an atmosphire let you live in the old ages moving to the middle ages and to the victorian . beleive me you will live the british monarchy , live with queens and kings walk throw the history of uk as no historymania did before

This book fills a niche, and does so perfectly. I wanted a reference work for literature, but I didn't want to pay $50 for one. This book gives short, concise blurbs, which is often all one needs. It is organized well and is inclusive enough for the average household. Not a book for specialists, but excellent for the layperson and student.

I ordered the Oxford companion to help me study for my comprehensive exams. Even though I didn't use it much for that purpose, I think that it is a must have for anyone planning to major in English in college. The text is in dictionary format; many terms/concepts you find will come up in any college lit course. It is a great purchase and probably much cheaper than what you will find in a University bookstore.

This is a compact version of the 6th edition of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. The emphasis is naturally on British literature (John Galt is not listed as a character in Atlas Shrugged, but as a Scottish novelist). There is coverage of writers from the United States, Canada, Africa, the Caribbean, and India.

Among the entries are:
- short biographies of novelists, dramatists and poets, and also a few philosophers (Swedenborg), historians, scholars, critics, biographers, travel writers, and journalists
- plot summaries and descriptions of poems

Other notable entries:
- literary and intellectual movements, genres, and critical theory
- figures in Irish mythology
- gay and lesbian literature
- literary societies, libraries, publishers, and even coffee houses

Certain topics get a two-page treatment. (Black British literature, science fiction, structuralism and post-structuralism, ghost stories, post-colonial literature, romantic fiction, spy fiction, etc.)

There's no editorializing. They "describe and characterize rather than judge."

In writing my book: "The day when politician will debate about our genes, Understanding the soul of electronicdemocracy.co.uk" which is currently under editor review, I look for a book to assess the characters of historically successful capitalist leaders.

Written as 6 biographies, it is the best books to understand the characters, values and morals of 6 great entrepreneurs in order to consider the individual factor in the system.

This is an excellent collection of articles describing people, firms, and nations that succeeded in modern capitlism. Looking a the four most successful economies of the past two centuries: England, US, Germany, and Japan- Prof. McCraw's expertly edited and coherent collection of articles gives the reader a flavor of what made for great success in the capitalist economy. Each country has three articles: a firm, an entrepenure, and the country itself for a total of 12 articles each written by true experts. McCraw's understanding of capitlism is somewhat skewed toward the modern, however on the whole the book is extremely balanced. Of partiuclar note, is Prof. David Moss's article on the Deutch Bank which dicusses the succcess, failures, rewards, and dark side of capitalism.

The book covers the history of capitalism in great detail outlining the major turning points and how it has evolved to shape modern capitalism. A definite must read for whoever is interested in the nature of a capitalist society.

Natural selection is the idea that shaped a science and altered our understanding of life. It is also, unfortunately and too often, misunderstood and/or used to justify moral beliefs. This book, edited admirably by Philip Appleman serves two purposes. First, the reader is given Darwin's idea of evolution and the context in which it developed, from the scientific environment before the publication of "The Origin of Species" to selections from Darwin's various works. Second, there are a number of excerpts that show how natural selection influenced later thought. This includes not just the fields of science and theology, but also sociology, philosophy, and literature.

It can be difficult to just sit and read Darwin if you are not a biologist because it seems a little dated and obvious (at least if you are familiar with natural selection, as you should be). Additional material provides perspective and helps to see in what ways Darwin's work was revolutionary. Such material can also show how evolutionary ideas have been modified over time by different people. Appleman has obviously read widely on Darwin and evolution, and the readings he provides represents an array of influential and important works. With this book, a person can develop a much deeper appreciation of Darwin's ideas than from simply reading Darwin alone.

I am reviewing the second edition. The third edition is 100 pages longer and includes more recent material, especially concerning the dispute between creationism and evolution. I would not hesitate to recommend even the dated second edition to anyone interested in Darwin and Darwin's influence on scientists and other thinkers; this third edition should be a must-have.

I agree with Gould that this is the best Darwin anthology on the market. It contains a significant amount of new material and details the profound change in scientific and intellectual thought in the past few decades. Darwin is constantly misquoted by creationists, but this book sets the record straight. For example, the chapter on "mainstream Religious Support for Evolution" includes leading religious opinions on evolution, illustrating that many mainline Christians and Jews do NOT subscribe to the antiscientific propaganda of the fundamentalists and creationists. New threats to Darwinism and science are also covered. This is an enthralling read and I highly recommend it.

I have not read the 2nd or 3rd editions of this book. But based on the table of contents that I have seen they are even better. Appleman does a great job of organizing the material. I've often thought that the amount of religious material was a little bit overwhelming. I will probably try to pick up the 3rd edition when I can because of the addtional material. One thing that I thought was a weak point of the first edition that came out in 1970 was that there was a serious lack of current scientific thought. That seems to have been shored up in the later editions and, with some New Humanists thrown in, I definitely think this would be a very good pick.

I was more than pleasantly surprised by the extremely high quality of the reproductions. The book is split up in six chapters covering the main artistic phases in Hockney`s live and giving a lot of information about his paintings.
I find it extremely interesting not just to see Hockney`s work but also to read the details on the creative process leading up to the finished painting. A wonderful book!

Being a tremendous fan of Hockney's work, I was delighted to find this beautiful and informative book.

I liked the chronological organization as the book traced the artist's development over the years. I always find this such an interesting perspective, seeing how an artist's vision changes and evolves. And I also liked the way that the relationship between Hockney's life and his art is explored.

The illustrations were grand too!

A worthwhile book and a good study of Hockney, his life, and his works.

If you want a better understanding of David Hockney buy this book. It is a wonderful display of illustrations and information of a great British artist.

"David Hockney: Paintings" is well written and organized to foster a greater understanding of how Hockney evolves over the course of his career. Moreover, you will be impressed by the outstanding quality of the the black & white and color illustrations.

Authors Paul Melia and Ulrich Luckhardt provide the reader an excellent insight to the artistic thoughts of David Hockney. It also studies and explains the tremendous global popularity of the artist. This is a great book to have in the house.

I emerged from reading Death's Dream Kingdom feeling as if I'd been wrestling with some extreme force, maybe an angel. A very powerful thing, whatever he or it or she was. A mind, I would say, and a brilliant, indispensable one.

My copy of the book prickles with stickers and tabs, and it's got notes all over its pages as testament to my own various connectings with the book and also with the various connectings of one part of the book with another. Early on, only page 6, Davis writes that "America on August 6, 1945 consigned humanistic considerations to the dustbin of history," and that's certainly powerful enough (everyone should take a look at Sherwood Ross's essay, "How the United States Reversed Its Policy on Bombing Civilians"), but the follow-up is more powerful, and more damning: "America has once again found a way to think of history [that will] make it impossible for us to learn from history." Soon after, parallels to my own A Nation Gone Blind appear, as Davis mentions "the elimination of everything within the 'self' that does not conform to the logic of capitalism" (p. 16) goes on with the amazing statement (p. 17) that "we are now bound psychologically as a nation to the cruelest necessity: the internalization en masse of affirmative ways of feeling that wed subjects to the system because such feelings constitute the only way they can relate to experience."

Experience itself, in other words--experience of life itself--is controlled, pre-determined, capable of response only to "pre-selected" impulses, feelings, and data. "We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men / Leaning together / Headpiece filled with straw."

Davis writes a disastrous truth, a truth seldom if ever heard anywhere in the land: "This is why 9-11 was a trauma that could not be responded to traumatically."

"Psychology is the capstone of the ideological process. Its function under capitalism is social engineering: the transformation of quiet desperation into the noisy affirmation of docile subjects wedded to the collective hosannah that deprives them of inwardness."

And because they're "deprived of inwardness," Americans don't, and can't, any longer feel life itself for what it is in and of itself: Life, instead, becomes a falsehood alnd lie for them.

Listen to this: "To summarize with the bluntness the subject deserves, Abu Ghraib enacts what the lie of feeling now is for the average American." (p. 36)

That "lie of feeling" is perverse, corrupt, dehumanizing--and so well conditioned into Americans that, for them, there's no escape from it. And that's why in America there's no real art, no real music, no real literature being successfully created today: Because there's no audience for it. How can there be? The true and only subject of real art of any kind is to address in a way that's both true and also aesthetically true the actuality of what the experience of living inside existence IS. But just TRY telling that truth in America today. It can't be done, and here's why. To tell that truth is by necessity to tell a tragic truth. And here's what happens when you try it:

". . . to engage [this truth] directly is to engage it tragically and to activate the massive resistances that rise up whenever art tries to get an audience to experience how sick they are." (p. 42)

Lies, lies everywhere, and none can be denied. None can be displayed, revealed, and shown for what they are, for the audience in need of recognition has been made incapable of that kind of recognition..

Read pages 59 and following, and the steps in the argument will go something like this: First) "Here, then, is a picture of our true historical situation, what we'd know if we looked at our world without the guarantees [of comfort, happy ignorance, `heaven' and the like." Second) "When a belief becomes dominant in American psychological circles one thing is certain: that belief refers to something that no longer exists." Third) "In its rush to be the mental health wing of the guarantees, contemporary American psychoanalysis has become a primary barrier to the truth. There is no self in Amerika today." And then the crushingly true power of the terrible words: Fourth, "In Amerika today the condition Dostoyevsky described in the legend of the Grand Inquisitor slouches toward its final realization. Miracle, Mystery, and Authority find in Bush, Cheney, and Ashcroft the three functionaries needed to create a lasting, impermeable collective psyche that offers its subjects deliverance from freedom and the anxiety that can never be uttered or allowed to enter the consciousness--that we exist without any guarantees."

Ignorance, from this point on, will be bliss.

And America will wait for its delivery to--the arms of Satan? to the One-World Government wanted by the Trilaterists and the Bilderbergs? to the police state that will finally, for once and for all, make blissful ignorance a requirement by law, while failure to remain blissfully ignorance will be a crime punishable by imprisonment, torture, perhaps by death?

Americans sleep. Americans have been sleeping for decades. And, since 9/11, they've been powerfully gripped in what's virtually a coma-like sleep.

And that's why they'll are now in Death's Dream Kingdom. God help them if they fail to awake. God help them if they do awake.

Walter A. Davis has written a book so vitally important, a book so indispensable to an understanding of what's taken for truth and reality in the American psyche today that every single American intellectual, every artist, observer, analyst, or thinker--if they're serious ones--ought to read it closely.

Eric Larsen is author of the novels An American Memory, I Am Zoe HandkeI Am Zoë Handke, The End of the 19th Century, and of the nonfiction book A Nation Gone Blind: America in an Age of Simplification and DeceitA Nation Gone Blind: America in an Age of Simplification and Deceit.

With a title like "Death's Dream Kingdom," this book isn't likely to sell millions of copies - but it should! A huge number of insights about American society (sometimes the author spells it "Amerikan" on purpose). Particularly enlightening was Chapter 7, "The Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism." Seeing fundamentalist Christianity as a mental disorder that progressively develops until the patient yearns for the end of the world explains a lot about our society. If you read this book, don't feel like you have to read every word or chapter - some of it is rough going. For example, you won't miss a whole lot if you skip Chapter 6, "A Postmodernist Response to 9-11." A very important book if you want to understand what's going on in Amerika today.

Disturbing. Provocative. Perceptive.

This is one of those books that - out of all proportion to its size - is packed with unsettling insights into and theories about our uniquely American character. Though, perhaps, it could be equally applied to many different Western nations through modern history, it is particularly attuned to the angst-ridden United States of the early twenty-first century.

Professor Walter A. Davis, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University, skillfully and artfully uses his command of language, theater, and philosophy to vivisect the type of persons that we have become in this post-9/11 nation and display for all to see the banality of evil that so marks our domestic and foreign policy.

Manipulated by fear and by the mindless pursuit of a lifestyle, which can only be sustained at the expense of others, we have collectively empowered an increasingly totalitarian form of neo-fascism. All that matters is expansion and power. Envy and Greed rule the day. Dr. Davis examines this unhappy state of affairs at length and diagnoses a form of psychosis peculiar to us - individually and collectively - a psychosis which begins with each of us as individuals, but ultimately manifests itself in the corporate body.

Through the use of predominantly psychoanalytical tools - the application of language; the use of classic literature, theater, and philosophy; and, clinical case studies of mental pathology - Dr. Davis proposes a new and radical way of analyzing what ails our spirit in this failing nation state.

The author does not hesitate to tear down the totems of our society. From the halls of academia to the seats of government - from the altars of fundamentalist churches to the boardrooms of Amerika, Inc. - no one is spared his scathing, all-too-accurate criticism. Doubtless, those who would most benefit from Dr. Davis' call to personal introspection and responsibility will immediately reject any suggestion of their own complicity in our society's ills. Sadly, it is also highly unlikely that most of our fellow Americans will interrupt their "happy" thoughts by attempting to read a book named "Death's Dream Kingdom." Such reading might cause too much psychic discomfort and result in too much guilt. Such reading would be too radical. Such reading would require too much thought.

Unfortunately for Dr. Davis and his work, the subject matter of his volume will neither be conducive to financial success nor to receiving the recognition that it deserves. The vast majority of Christians will dismiss him as a raving atheist and, thus, while waiting on the Rapture will miss valid criticisms of today's "feel good", "easy believe-ism". His academic colleagues will attack him as just another retired liberal arts professor and, thus, be content in their insular smugness and political-correctness. Politicians and corporatists alike will excoriate him as one of "those" Marxists and, thus, reject the totalitarian reality of latter-day capitalism. Instead of Orwell's boot "brought down on the human face forever," we are left with the image of a yellow smiley face doing the same.

In spite of the often brutal diagnostics that Dr. Davis brings to bear upon each of us, he is at heart a Romantic and, consequently, offers the prospect of redemption. Unfortunately, that redemption can only come through the self-psychoanalysis of our own madness - the confrontation of our own inner demons that we strive to hide and deny - the recognition of the truth about ourselves. Only by starting there with our psyche struggling with itself can change occur and the pathological processes at work in each of us begin to be reversed.

Finally, he points out in the closing paragraphs of his book how time limited we are in this historical moment and he calls for action by translating "one's inwardness into the terms of responsibility." With the looming crises of environmental catastrophe, a nuclear holocaust, and the rise of a rogue Totalitarian State, our time may indeed be short for self-correction. "Death's Dream Kingdom," is a much-needed diagnostic and therapeutic tool for correcting the insanity that so grips our land.

Never have I read a collection of more powerfully written and organized words. I first heard Dread Beat and Blood as a high school student fifteen years ago and was struck by the rhythm and the tone of Johnson's voice. The words on the page come alive with the images of racial strife and injustice that LKJ creates with his pen. I am currently using these and other poems by dub poets as a teaching tool in my Clairemont High School language arts classes. Spread the word!

the whole idea of dub poetry, and especially the contents introduced by LKJ are here found in written form, powerful, strong, touching. If you read it, you#ll understand more about the focus of LKJ's works.

I am from Brixton, and have to say LKJ put into lyrics what in the 1970's/1980's what most of us could not (our access to all mediums was cut off). The reality he writes about in say, Sonny's Letter is true - believe! It was ignored by politicians (obviously) etc. It's series and when you read or even better LISTEN to the lyrics (he recorded most of this) you will see why so many of us self destructed so early.