Division 1 Books

very good service I received the book within 5 days of ordering it very informative book. This book was about my fathers army war days in Italy and the training in colorado, so many of the stories in the book I had heard form my father. Good history!

In the style of Ernie Pyle, the author relates the experiences of members of the 10th Mountain Division who fought the veteran fighters of the German Army in the mountains of northern Italy during World War II.

Author A. B. Feur skillfully puts a collection of personal combat stories together into his book "Packs On! Memoirs of the Mountain Division in WWII". The author is one of the more prolific chroniclers of WWII history and this book may be his best to date. The Foreword is written by Senator Bob Dole and adds a real touch of class to the telling of this unit.

Feur takes us through the unit's campaigns after a well written introduction that gives us insights on the way the unit was put together and how they trained. He then takes us to Alaska and the Kiska Campaign. That campaign turned out to be a fight for an island that the Japanese had already abandoned and left. There were causalities and deaths due to "friendly fire" in the fog and the confusion of the battle that had no opposing forces.

We follow the unit onward to Italy and Europe and into the mountains and snow. The author allows us to see each battle area through the eyes of the different veterans who wrote their memories of the events. This enhances the story telling format and enriches the final over-all story of the unit. The many different and diverse voices make the book entertaining as well as educational. It feels more personal then any straight telling of historic events would have. Feur expertly weaves all these individual stories together and connects them with facts, data, maps and old photos to make this whole book a first class reading experience.

This is book captures the essence of what this unit was all about. The author realizes that strength of this story was to allow the men who were there to tell it--and he does that well! The Military Writer's Society of America gives this book its highest rating of
FIVE STARS!

This is a great book, written by the late Lewis Thomas, who cared deeply about living things on this planet and their future. It's beautifully written, and I found practically every sentence a pleasure to read. I may be a touch biased, however, due to my fascination with biology. In a sense, the book is centered around the author's expertise in basic biology, and topics such as the threat of large scale nuclear war extend from this knowledge base. Fifteen years after its publication the book is not dated at all, as its message that humans must behave more prudently and compassionately, toward one another and toward the earth itself, to avoid extinction, is obviously still very much relevant today. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

In my opinion, Lewis Thomas is the best there is at describing the wonder and beauty of biology. His first book, "The Lives of a Cell" , set the standard against which all other popular writers in biology should be measured. The elegant simplicity of his descriptions of how organisms interact remain as interesting and valid today as when "Lives .. " was first published in 1974. I recently re-read it and found it just as interesting now as I did the first time.
That description also holds for this book, with Thomas once again waxing eloquent, particularly about the absurdity of "limited" nuclear war. His story about the development of Hawaiian Creole is also particularly thought-provoking. The islands were opened up for sugar plantations after 1880 and there was an enormous influx of laborers from many different language backgrounds. They came from China, Japan, Korea, Puerto Rico and the United States and none of these groups could understand any of the others. However, a pidgin language rapidly developed among the children of all groups. This hybrid language was almost completely unintelligible to the adults. Thomas uses this to argue his point that language originated among the children of early humans. The point is highly plausible, as only the minds of children seem to possess the necessary malleability to learn languages quickly.
While I found the book interesting, it is not the page-turning classic that "Lives . . " is. The problem is that so much of this material already appeared in that book. This is unfortunate, for when Thomas is original he is so engaging a writer. Given the ongoing advances in biology, there certainly is no lack of material to write about.

Thomas's collection of essays on life, the universe and pretty darn much everything is suprisingly readable. He puts his theories into poetic prose and makes valid scientific points available in laymen's terms. More than a scientific paper, though, this is a deep peice of philosophy and offers much insight to the human soul. Definately worth reading!

As indicated in the previous review, Dr. Ferrell's thorough research has resulted in what, up to this point, must be considered the definitive study of 35th Division's administrative ineptness, training shortcomings, and combat operations before and during the Meuse campaign. (It should be noted that this ineptness was widespread in the AEF, and far from isolated within 35th Division.) Anyone interested in the history of the AEF should certainly examine this book. I understand that "Collapse at Meuse-Argonne" is just a small part of what will be a comprehensive study of the larger Meuse-Argonne campaign, and if the present work is any indication, every student of the First World War should eagerly anticipate eventual publication of the larger account.

That being said, there are some shortcomings to "Collapse at Meuse-Argonne." The first would be a shortage of maps. Only two are provided, one of northern France showing major rivers and principal population centers, and another showing the portion of the Meuse-Argonne sector in which the division operated, which mainly shows Route Nationale 46, the River Aire, Buanthe Creek, and the principal villages in the area. A smaller-scale map showing 35th Division's sector in the broader context of First Army would have been welcome (from the map provided, one wouldn't know 28th Division was on the left and 91st Division on the right), as would a map showing the principal topographic features in the area, such as Montfaucon and the ravine at Exermont, as well as the local transportation net. A table showing the 35th Division's order of battle and principal officers also would have been helpful.

The index is also not as useful as it really should be. For instance, critical geographic locations, such as Varennes, Cheppy, Very, Charpentry, Baulny and Exermont do not appear in the the index at all. References to George Patton are indexed, but tanks are not. This is not insignificant, as at the beginning of the campaign most of the American-operated tanks were assigned to 28th and 35th Divisions in I Corps. (One platoon was assigned to the far left regiment of 91st Division in neighboring V Corps, but they accomplished little.) To those interested, additional references to tanks appear on pages 39-40, 51, 52, 57, 58, 89, 95 and 96. And, although tanks are mentioned in passing in the text, one is left wondering if any of the operational reports submitted by units of the 35th Division discussed the support (or lack of support) provided by the tanks.

There are also a few minor errors. One rather niggling error appears on page 39, where Varrennes is cited as the location where Louis XVI was captured in 1796 during his attempt to escape the Revolution (it actually happened in June 1791 - and the unfortunate "citizen" Louis Capet was beheaded not long after). A bit more substantive is Dr. Ferrell's misidentification of Patton's 1st (later 304th) Tank Brigade as the "First Provisional Tank Regiment" (28, 37). As in the contemporary British Tank Corps, there were no tank regiments in the AEF. (The plan developed by Patton's superior, the underrated Samuel D. Rockenbach, was to create several tank brigades for the AEF by spring 1919, each brigade to be comprised of two light tank battalions and one heavy tank battalion. Glacial American tank production and the sudden advent of the Armistice prevented the plan from being implemented.)

The style of identifying military units is also a bit clunky. Standard practice is to identify divisions by arabic number (e.g., 35th Division), corps by roman numeral (e.g., V Corps), and armies by spelling them out (e.g., First Army). Instead, Dr. Ferrell spells all of them out (e.g. Thirty-fifth Division, Fifth Corps), which makes the text busier than need be, which in turn makes it more difficult to locate citations to particular units within the text.

These cavils, however, should not prevent the interested reader from benefiting from Dr. Ferrell's scholarship. Recommended.

Collapse At Meuse-Argonne: The Failure Of The Missouri-Kansas Division by Robert H. Ferrall (Professor Emeritus of History, Indiana University), is the story of the American Thirty-Fifth Division during World War I. This military expeditionary force was composed of National Guard units from Missouri and Kansas. Engaging in the battle of the Meuse-Argonne with no previous battle experience and only a minor amount of training, as well as a few weeks of garrisoning in a quiet sector in Alsace, this division and its thousands of men quite literally fell apart in the face of enemy forces in only five days. Historian and academician Robert Ferrall does an impressive work of original scholarship to describe what the problems were (including incompetence officer leadership at the highest levels). The focus upon this single battle offers a "window-in-time" perspective that will prove invaluable for a broader understanding of the difficulties of World War I era frontline combat. Collapse At Meuse-Argonne is a superbly researched and presented body of work that is strongly recommended for both academic library collections and military history buff reading lists.

This is a frank, no-holds-barred account of serving in the Waffen-SS in WW2. The author was greatly affected by his experiences in Russia and the Western Front and has some scathing opinions of American authorities inability to handle the large number of German POWs following the war, which led to many deaths from starvation. He goes to considerable lengths to compare actions of American troops being similar (with regards to atrocities) as German troops, like the continual shooting of a young, wounded comrade during the Battle of the Bulge by American troops.
While Schmidt is bitter about his experiences, he writes reasonably well and his recollections are vivid. I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it for the WW2 buff.

I have to applaud Mr. Schmidt's courage in taking a different position in writing about his experiences and observations. In Germany his published thoughts earned him a prison sentence, a prison sentence that would have been longer had he not been an American citizen. In the United States, thankfully, he only has to suffer the ridicule of narrow-minded idiots who eagerly parrot the same old tired propoganda that only seems to gain greater velocity with the passing of time.

I have read many books concernig WWII and this was one the toughest books to write a review for. This book is many things and it represents many other things to those who read it. So it is up to you, the reader to classify how this book has affected you and how much of it do you wish to relate to and how much do you really think is plain rubbish. As some other previous reviewers have written about this book.

I don't think its rubbish, I think it's a very well written book about Herr Schmidt's experiences in WWII but most importantly it is what happened afterward that this book shines more than others. The book in its essense does not have too many facts about the authors' experiences during the war he clearly states that he doesn't remember all of the facts and all of his experiances. Where this book comes into its own is when the author explains his training before joining the Waffen SS, his feelings, the country's mood and his personal thoughts about the current situation. That is the best thing this book does. If you are looking for a war memorial this is not it. Thia book are about the views of the author, some of which are un-popular and some of which are far fetched to say the least. But they are his clear and frontal views and for writing them he should be at least heard. He shows a lot of Geman pride.

One of the main topics in the book is what happened to the German soldiers who surrendered to the Allies. Since it is well known that all German POW's the Russians had were put to work rebuilding Mother Russia, where most died it is a good question to simply ask what of the POW's in the Allies hands? Herr Schimdit tells it all here and writes it in a simple manner and explains to us what the German people and soldiers had to endure after the war had ended. It wasn' pretty and I would think most who read it will be suprised and than the question again arises, didn't they deserve it?? Read the book and ask yourself.

It is easy for anyone to say they derserved it. People would have a million reasons as to why it should have been. At the same time it is fair to say that the Allies came in with ideals and since it was proved that Germany was the purest of Evil, they wanted to be seen as the Greatest hope for the world. In all of that they failed. Some other points the author makes are offensive and they should be counted on the overal grade of this book but it is only a very small fraction of the book. For the rest of it, it is a very good book that should be read with an OPEN mind and then afterwards you should ask yourself, did they deserve all of that....

As a keen amateur historian, who has researched and read most literature connected with this subject, as well as interviewed (and lived with!) some of the combatants who fought against the German forces, I feel I can make an unbiased and fair judgement regarding the contents of this excellent book. To the uninitiated masses out there, who have been fed an insiduous diet of anti German propaganda from their earliest schooldays, (which interestingly, is probably worse now than its ever been), nothing can be done to reverse the brainwashing spewed out by the media machine, especially in my own country (UK), where the liberal left have "built" a system nothing short of a dictatorship, controlling peoples lives and thoughts to such an extent that intrusion by the state is so commonplace that we now no longer even complain. So to get to the point that I am trying to make, what exactly was ww2 fought for? I would imagine many of the ex combatants living in fear of going out, surviving on meagre pensions and scared to turn up the heating because of the bills must have this thought cross their minds? A land fit for heroes?? The truth of the matter is "He who wins the war writes the history book", and the ammount of dirty dealing and deceit that surrounds the allied powers of this period, even before they "won", makes the German war machine look open and honest. In war, no side is beyond attrocity, but the unpalattable truth is that Germany did for the most part adhere to the Geneva Convention, but alas, to the Allies eternal shame, is the covered up fact of Eisenhowers "Disarmed Enemy Forces" and the deliberate witholding of Red Cross aid to those many thousands of prisoners left to rot in open compounds for months. So Herr Schmidt, be proud of the sacrifices of your comrades, their dignity and honour is evident in every chapter of your book, you fought to preserve a Europe which has nothing at all in common with the EU nightmare of today, perhaps had proud men like my own father, (a veteran of many actions) and your comrades fought together our nations would not be dying as they are now

This is one of the best WWII memoirs I have read. I especially liked how the author relates information in his book to current events and circumstances today.
This is not a narrow memoir only of combat or a boastful account of personal exploits. It is focused on setting the record strait about the role of SS soldiers and the German military in WWII.The author also shares personal insights and observations both about the past and today.This is all accomplished throught the retelling of his time in the elite LAS unit during 1944 until the end of the war.
On a side note the book is produced to a very high quality. Good binding and inserts, much better quality than alot of main stream publishers.

I thought this would be an overly pedantic study of the album, but it is really more of an overview of ALL of Joy Division's recordings with little focus on "Unknown pleasures" itself. This wasn't unwelcome to me as someone who always gets confused as to the chronology of Joy Division recordings. Moreover, the book contains a decent (but not overwhelming) amount of biographical anecdotes which, ultimately, makes this a very readable and enjoyable book.

quite informative nonetheless. Chris Ott does a good job after setting the stage, a little clunky in the beginning, but afterwards, he settles in and gives all the info any fan would either enjoy ... or already know. Now, if somebody would do Closer ...

Good stuff!

JCS

I haven't actually read the book yet but a few of the reviews that I saw seem to have mistaken Joy Division for The Chameleons and Interpol.

this is a book about there worst album. my favorit Joy Divison albums are script of the bridge and turn on the bright lights. i want to have ian curtis's baby.

A short but detailed and fascinating look at Joy Division's seminal freshman album Unknown Pleasures. A definite must-read for any Joy Division fan.

Where to start...I've read a hell of a lot of books dealing with the Eastern Front, a lot of them written from a German point of view. Books like Soldat, The Forgotten Soldier, Black Edelweiss, In Deadly Combat, Memoirs Of A German Sniper, Five Years Four Fronts, With Our Backs To Berlin... and so on. As someone who is intrigued by the German mindset on the Eastern front, this book is absolutel gold. The mindset of a Swedish SS VOLUNTEER. If you crave the vivid combat scenes and wish to learn more of what fighting was like in an armed reconnaissance unit, as dismounted infantry, alongside kingtigers, then this book is for you. Detatiled accounts of ambushing Ivan, counterattacking against all the odds, its an incredible read.

To those of you criticising the author, i say, are you not looking for an account of a member of the 11th ss panzergrenadier division Nordland? Do you not wish to read of his experiences? Do you not wish to learn how he thought? Why he fought? Or do you want some sugar coated edited version where the author shows how remorseful he is. This is how he thought. This is how he fought. Accurate history and a brilliant account. Nothing more. Nothing less. Buy it If you wish to get an incredibly vivid account of how brutal fighting from Pomerania to Berlin really was.

I do think this is a very poor book.
The author's style is really poor.
Secondly, he expresses his strong national socialist and racists views throughout the whole book. The scenes descriptions are therefore very annoying and the book becomes boring. Without any meaningful reflection or analyses.

The only interest in this book is the opportunity to read one fanatical SS's mind and way of thinking. It really fits their reputation. Even after the war, the author still believes the waste superiority of the enemy numbers defeated Germany. How can this be?

I would rather recommend readers to choose instead "the forgotten soldier "from Guy Sajer or "Seven days in January".
This book is not worth buying, I'll send you mind for free if you want.
Best regards.

This is among the finest first-hand accounts I have read.The author pulls you in and you almost live through these times with him. His strong anti-communist feelings shine though, it is obvious this book is written soon after the end of the war by his unbashfull, or unrepentant expressing of his feelings and thoughts. What a fortunate man to survive all he did!!And to firmly believe in saving Europe from Stalin and his ilk untill the itter end!

Both Eric Wallin, and the editor, Thorolf Hillblad served as Swedish volunteers in the 11th Waffen-SS PanzerGrenadier Division "Nordland". This was a truly elite division made up of volunteers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, and even a few Brits. This divsion was, in 1945, the single most effective unit in the defence of Berlin against Stalin's communist hordes. Wallin's description of the communist enemy is quite descriptive. These were, after all, the same enemy that we fought in Korea and Vietnam. I would have liked this book to be longer, covering his experiences as a volunter in Finland fighting the red invasion in 1939, and his earlier experiences in the Waffen-SS. However, this book is still an excellent addition to those interested in Hitler's preemtive war against Stalin, and communism. Those interested in the non-German volunteers that served in the WAffen-SS may want to read the following: "The Last Knight of Flanders" by Brandt, "European Volunteers" by Strassner, "Campaign in Russia" by Degrelle, "The Patriotic Traitors" by Littlejohn, "Charlemagne's Legionnaires" by Landwehr, "Latvian Legion" by Silgailis, and "Galicia Division" by Logusz.

I have read the priceless "Forgotten Soldier" and never thought anything could touch it but this book does. The story begins with much of the war already lost for the Germans on the Eastern front and fights on until the final battle for Berlin. My only regret is the story does not start with his experiences from the start. He leaves good detail of the Russians he is fighting and really opens your eyes to the amount of Mongolians and other ethnic groups serving with the reds. A great book and a must have!

Book is out of print so you'll be hard pressed to find this one for a good price but i
got this book for 25.00 bucks, got a sweet deal, while some will complain about the generalized, but adequate text, those guys at historie & collections know how to put a quality reference ww2 book together.
I'm a 1/6th military action figure customizer and this book was invaluable for me.
If you can find it, definately buy it....you won't be disappointed...and YES the text is adequate!

Very basic, many better reference books on airborne available. I have returned my copy to Amazon.

This book is a delightful source of information on American airborne troops deployed over Normandy. A good refurence on uniforms, weapons and equipment.

A fun read.

Now if only Histoire & Collections could do the same for German paratroopers.

Histoire et Collections has done it again.A fine work of the quality which the collector and researcher has come to expect from this publisher.
I have previous works on the British Tommy in NW Europe and Canadian soldiers. All are elaborately illustrated with charts, individual item photos, and reconstructions worn by models of combinations of equipment and clothing as qoen in northern Europe. In addition there are many lists, charts, and tables gathering together informatioon gleaned from many scarce and obscure publications.
Muxh of rhia work has appeared in the excellent French language periodical Militaria published also by Histoire et Collections. This method of proceeding has the great virtue of first publishing in a more temporary format and inviting the readers to submit corrections and additional data which can be used to improve the final work published in book form.

Anyone familiar with the French language magazine "Armes Militaria" knows that the quality of both the original equipment and the photography is outstanding. This book was published by or in concert with those publishers, and the quality is exceptional. Page after page of clear photos of original equipment, weapons, personal items, insigina, etc. The book is well organized, and covers everthing from the smallest insignia details, to the aircraft that carried the troopers to Normandy. This book is a goldmine of information, don't pass it up.

I got to this book after reading "Disclosing New Worlds" by Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores, and Hubert L. Dreyfus, a very profound work that tries to recover our abilities to make sense of each of us as historical beings, helping us to "live life at its best."

Reading Being-in-the-World has had a great impact on the way I now understand our everyday life in terms of the practices that we pick up -as Heidegger puts it- from the society we are brought up in and not in terms of abstract theories that try to relate our specific actions to mental states. As a management consultant, it guides me away from trying to specify precisely, say, the 'things' a salesman should say and do in a conversation with a client. I'd be better off if I can find another salesman that exhibits the results I'm interested in, and managing a "learning-in-action" program, so that the first salesman learns from the more experienced salesman. As a father, it guides me away from getting my son to hold on to vast amounts of information -the purpose of our modern educational system- but to situating him in an environment where he can pickup successful practices for dealing with diverse situations- including technical and interpersonal problems.

Being-in-the-World was not an easy read for me, since my background is in Computer Science and Management (I had to do some research in the philosophical traditions and problemas that Heidegger was attacking). However, Dreyfus' commentary is most relevant to people in Computer Science and Management - guiding them away from the utopias of Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems.

I recommend this book to anyone willing to make an effort in understanding one of the deepest thinkers on what it means to be a human being "living life at its best."

There's no getting away from Heidegger; most of the intellectual life of the later 20th century is a series of commentaries on or arguments with Being and Time. But the book is almost as difficult as its reputation would have it. Most of us need some help.

Probably the best short summary of its thesis came from Samuel Johnson: "Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." But Johnson died about 140 years before the book was published, so he didn't actually get to read it. Those of us born after its publication could use a more detailed guide to Heidegger's dense and unwieldy work. This, unfortunately, isn't it, in spite of Dreyfus's decades of teaching and the testimonials on the back cover from Charles Taylor and other luminaries.

Dreyfus, who teaches at UC Berkeley, reduces Being and Time to a neutral quasi-psychology in which "being-there is doing something it makes sense to do given the public situation, and given already taken-over public for-the-sake-of-whiches." And that's all, folks. Dasein (Heidegger's term for us human folk) and the world are knowable only through everyday public practice, and according to Dreyfus the point of Division I of this two-part work is to show how it's possible to get through one's day without thinking about it and how that provides the only basis for knowledge.

After being criticised for his failure to address Division II, Dreyful admitted that he had "overlooked warnings, scattered about in Division I, that the average intelligibility desribed there would later be shown to be an inferior form of understanding." Well, duh. Those aren't hints; they're screaming tirades. Dreyfus not only undervalues the importance of Division II; he is deaf to the emotional character of the whole work, which conveyed as much by its literary qualities as by its argument.

Although he tossed in a few half-hearted denials that he's doing anything more than ontology, Heidegger clearly loathed the world of everydayness, the inauthentic being of the "they," and he longed for its supercession. "Existential analysis," he said, "has the character of doing violence, whether to the claims of the everyday interpretation, or to its complacency and its tranquillized obviousness." (H 311) In retrospect it's clear how this position led to his embrace of Hitler--not that one can read Nazi ideology off from the book, but because its hopes and fears were just those played on so expertly by the Nazis. Heidegger saw Hitler as the truly authentic man who could be the conscience of the nation. (He tried to cast himself in a similar role at Freiburg, with results that would be comical if anything about that time could appear humorous.)

But one doesn't need literary sensitivity to see what's wrong with Dreyfus's Heidegger. Why would young German intellectuals have flocked to his lectures if he were simply showing them that everyday skills were the be-all and end-all? It's simply impossible to imagine this spectacled epistemologist as "the secret king of philosophy," the charismatic magus who captivated the young Hannah Arendt in presenting "the thinking that springs as a passion."

Dreyfus's book contains a long Appendix on Kierkegaard, authenticity, and Division II; but its conclusions are just as bathetically deflationary as the main text. Here, too, Heidegger comes across as a multiculturalist liberal. Authenticity is supposed to make available a salad-bar of "marginal practices," a phrase which appears nowhere in Being and Time and which is not supported by the citations adduced. Instead of a stoic and joyful acceptance of one's fate--one of the themes that leads Heidegger to Nietzsche--Dreyfus sees merely a free choice of commitment from the social resources available and a concomitant choice of a role model like Jesus or Florence Nighingale.

And Dreyfus knew Heidegger. No doubt the sage listened politely to whatever he had to say and took it as further proof that Americans had no culture.

I am amazed that this book has not been reviewed. For 30-odd years Hubert Dreyfus has been the beloved guide to Heidegger and Continental philosophy for thousands of undergraduate and graduate students, first at MIT and then at Berkeley. This book is constructed from the courses he taught on Heidegger's work, Kierkegaard, and especially that difficult centerpiece of Heidegger's opus, Being and Time. For the beginner and the expert, he opens Heidegger's questions and claims in distinctive, poignant, simple, accessible ways. I cannot imagine attempting to grasp Heidegger's thought without Dreyfus at my side. Dreyfus' account shows Heidegger in the middle of the struggle with those who came before him as he attempts to make sense of the question of what a human being is. I strongly recommend this book as a helpmate. If you are interested in confronting Heidegger's thought and work, get and read Dreyfus.

BEING-IN-THE-WORLD : A Commentary on Heidegger's 'Being and Time,' Division I. By Herbert L. Dreyfus. 370 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, Eighth Printing 1999 (1991). ISBN 0-262-54056-8 (pbk.)

Anyone who attempts to study Heidegger's commentators will quickly discover that many of them can be even more difficult than Heidegger himself. One notable exception is George Steiner, whose 'Martin Heidegger' (1989) is such an interesting book that one wishes it had been two or three times longer. As a general introduction to Heidegger's life and thought, however, it can only take one so far, and those wishing for a fuller treatment would be well advised to take a look at the present equally lucid and stimulating study by Dreyfus.

He explains that he has limited detailed treatment of 'Being and Time' to Division I of Part One (i.e., the first half), because he considers this "the most original and important section of the work, for it is [here] that Heidegger works out his account of being-in-the-world and uses it to ground a profound critique of traditional ontology and epistemology" (p.vii). Division II, though containing important material, is marred by "some errors so serious as to block any consistent reading" (p.viii), though it is taken up in a 57-page Appendix.

In his brief but extremely interesting Introduction, Dreyfus sets out to answer the question, 'Why study Heidegger?' If I have understood Dreyfus correctly, what he seems to be saying is that Western thought has been fundamentally in error since the time of Plato : "Plato and our tradition got off on the wrong track by thinking that one could have a theory of everything.... Heidegger is not against theory. He thinks it powerful and important, but limited" (p.2).

Heidegger, in other words, although accepting a reasonable use of reason, has seen through the folly of that worship of reason which leads to its unreasonable and excessive use. Dreyfus tells us that Heidegger seeks to clear away five main false assumptions :

1. Explicitness. "Heidegger questions both the possibility and desirability of making our everyday understanding explicit" (p.4). There are and always will be many things in life that cannot be made explicit, that cannot be explained, that are not amenable to "critical reflection," things, for example, such as human skills.

2. Mental Representation. "Heidegger questions the view that experience is always and most basically a relation between a self-contained subject with mental content (the inner) and an independent object (the outer)." For him "there is a more fundamental way of being-in-the-world that cannot be understood in subject/object terms" (p.5).

3. Theoretical Holism. Heidegger "insists that we return to the phenomenon of everyday human activity and stop ringing the changes on the traditional oppositions of immanent/transcendent ... subject/ object ... explicit/tacit ... etc." (p.6).

4. Detachment and Objectivity. "From the Greeks we inherit not only our assumption that we can obtain theoretical knowledge of every domain, even human activities, but also our assumption that the detached theoretical viewpoint is superior to the involved practical viewpoint" (p.6). Heidegger, following the insights of Nietzsche, Peirce, James and Dewey, denies these assumptions.

5. Methodological Individualism. Heidegger, "in his emphasis on the social context as the ultimate foundation of intelligibility [shares with Wittgenstein] the view that most philosophical problems can be dis(solved) [sic] by a description of everyday social practices" (p.7). In other words, they are pseudo-problems.

If Heidegger were only clearing the ground of 2,500 years of sheer wrongheadedness, he would of course still be an extremely important and valuable thinker. But, as Dreyfus explains, he goes further, for "he has a positive account of authentic human being and a positive methodological proposal for how human being should be systematically studied" (p.8). His influence, which today extends into many areas, has been and continues to be enormous as more and more specialists and experts and technicians of every kind begin to appreciate the fruitfulness of his way of thinking in contrast to the often dismal results produced by their own.

Heidegger's 'Being and Time' is a notoriously difficult book, and Dreyfus' commentary is to be welcomed as the first study that succeeds in making it both intelligible and exciting, even to the non-specialist reader such as myself. As one of the clearest accounts of Heidegger's thought to date, it belongs in the library of anyone who is at all interested in this revolutionary and amazing thinker.

The best secondary source on Heidegger's early philosophy available in English. Sets the standard for clear and forthright assessment of Heidegger's achievement.

This is a wonderfully written book that captivated the reader, making the history come alive. Great for adults, as well as for an older child with a thirst for history.

Enjoyed reading this, but at times was not sure as to whom was being described in some battle descriptions. an informatve book that gives a
look into a group of young men that gave their lives defending a flawed
beleif system forced upon them..

Meyer's work is reminiscent of the 19st century general staff studies filled with a truely impressive amount of informations about the control, command and actions of large combat units in the field. As such, it is a very good source as to understand how a german tank division lived and fought in the late war years.

Unlike general staff studies, design for professionnals by professionals, Meyer work aim a wider public. Thus, the austerity of a day by day Operation staff officer's journal is somewhat nuanced by 12.SS soldiers testifies and reminiescences. Nevertheless, the book still is plain "facts and stats" military history and as such maybe not advised for one looking for an easy read or not having either an interest on the action of the division on a specific timeline or the day to day activity of a german tank division.

On the downside, while the Normandy and the Bulge parts are very detailled, the hungarian and austrian ones don't follow and are only spoken off as a sidenote to the division history. Finally, this is not a study on the waffen-ss divisions whether regarding the formation or the political education, the two main differences with standards german divisions. Both are overviewed.

All in all, especially given the price, this is a must have for anyone interrested in the german Wehrmacht as a fighting organisation in the late war years.

This is the battle history of the 12th. SS Hilter-youth division. The division was refered to as the " Childrens " division until the U.S Army faced them in battle ! A very well researched and presented history .

This is an excellent historical reference book. It provides another viewpoint to the Allied histories of the war. There seems to be an obvious bias which is also present in many if not most of the Allied histories. Viewed in the context of contrary histories of the same battles, many points can be clarified.
The 12th SS was a fabulous division of fighting men. I see many training and doctrinal attributes that were used in the Marine Corps when I joined. When viewed in a strictly historical perspective of fighting quality and ability there are few formations that can compare with with the 12th SS. I highly recommend these volumes to historians as well as gamers modeling the battles this division was engaged in.

Francis Seow is a Singapore hero. By Singapore standards, however, he was flawed in that he was compassionate as he gave legal assistance to political detainees in Singapore. By so doing, Mr. Seow became a detainee, himself.

His account of his imprisonment by the Singapore police is as harrowing as anything written by Kafka. No one so articulate as Mr. Seow has described what it is like to be a detainee in Singapore.

I am an American, but was living in Singapore at the time of Mr. Seow's detention. I was in charge of the computer department of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). Many of my colleagues at IRAS were disturbed by the million-dollar budget had been allocated to investigate Mr. Seow's tax matters. Naturally, IRAS determined that Mr. Seow had a considerable tax debt.

Mr. Seow was and is a charismatic and brilliant individual. He had become Solicitor General of Singapore, and President of the Law Society. Had he gone along with the dictates of the Singapore system, he could be living a very distinguished life in Singapore today, in high political office. He now lives in the United States, but has not been forgotten in Singapore.

His generosity, which shows so clearly in his book, was extended to my wife (a Singaporean), and myself recently with his kind review of our book on many of the same subjects, entitled "Escape from Paradise."

My wife and I are Americans who recently honeymooned in Singapore, and we were quite impressed by how clean, orderly, and efficient it was. Yet we knew there had to be a catch, and none of the locals we met were willing to talk about it. So, upon returning home, we bought this book and also "Singapore's Authoritarian Capitalism," by Christopher Lingle, to find out. (To be fair, we bought Lee Kuan Yew's "The Singapore Story" as well, but haven't read it yet.)

After reading these books, we now understand Singapore's dark side. And it goes way beyond the prohibition on chewing gum and being caned for vandalism. Both of these books are important reads for those seeking to understand Singapore and authoritarian governments in general.

My only criticism of both books is that they are written for those who can sit down and finish the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle in 20 minutes or less. The vocabulary, diction, and syntax are unnecessarily tortured (so to speak) in both books. Granted, they're both written by scholarly gentlemen, but I have an Ivy League education, and I can't help but think that both authors' voices would be better heard if their prose was more accessible to the general public. Seow's detention was especially dramatic, but he describes his interrogation by heavy-handed, chain-smoking thugs with a Shakespearean lilt that is completely at odds with the material.

Nevertheless, they're good reads, so make a pot of coffee, grab your dictionary, and dive in.

As a Singaporean, I heard about Francis Seow when I was younger. I remember him as a very eloquent speaker and a potential contender for Lee Kuan Yew's PAP government. I also remember how he was constantly potrayed by the local media as a 'dishonest' tax-evader, a 'collaborator' with the Americans to disrupt Singapore's political stability, a 'womaniser', etc. This book looks into the darker side of Singapore's politics from Seow's point of view. It begins with Seow's account of his early career as a government official, his clash with LKY after becoming president of the Law Society, and his 72-day detention without trial under Singapore's Internal Security Act in the late 1980s. Seow's book is a first-hand account of how a Singaporean has suffered under the PAP government's use of biased legislation and media manipulation to maintain political hegemony. Parts of LKY's speeches in the 1950s and 1960s were cleverly quoted by Seow to show the irony of LKY's government, demonstrating how LKY has become almost everything he used to be against since he came into power. Although the economic success of Singapore since independence is indubitable and has often been attributed to the great leadership and foresight of LKY, this book looks into the lesser known aspects of LKY's regime, and will no doubt, raise many questions for the reader.

Francis' book is an entertaining read with vivid accounts of how and why he was imprisoned. However, considering the circumstances of his time spent in detention, one wonders how he can remember such details about specific interrogation sessions. Some creative embellishment to spice up the narration was probably afoot. Where did fact end and literary fiction begin was a question I pondered constantly. His book is as biased as those favourable on the Singapore regime. Nevertheless, a must read for one interested in understanding Singapore's security apparatus and Lee Kuan Yew.

Jeremy