Gaspar Francia defined himself as a Jacobine, and he was one, in a country so far removed from european cultural currents, and from the conditions that led to the french revolution, he managed to create an exceptionally interesting economical and political experiment. A centralized state, that owned most of the lands, and guaranteed to its people, at the beginning of the XIX century, basic education for all, efficient agriculture, the start of an industrial development, a professional army, and total independence from the powers of the time. He certainly was a dictator, with total and absolute authority. But was feared only by the higher classes, and loved by the people. His "reign" was peaceful, in sharp contrast with the blood shed in internecine wars in neighboring countries, and the executions of his enemies where rare. Rengger is one of the few witnesses to the first period of his government (1819 to 1825, Francia was in power from 1813 to 1840)and because of this, very important. The author is at the other end of the polytical spectrum, extremely critical of Francia's endeavours and actions, his friends are those that oppose Francia, and he despises the common folk that support him. The book should be read taking this into account, but is very well written and very informative.

This book is a good starting point for anyone wishing to learn about reincarnation. It has just about everything on the subject in it. The first chapters on the lectures at Harvard are a little heavy, but once you get past that (and you don't even have to read that part) there is a wealth of information that I think is unmatched in any other book. It is intellectual, without being boring, and fascinating and astounding without being too weird or unacceptable. Well done, and I highly recommend it.......you'll be amazed !!

When you want to find out where some of the most interesting ideas on the planet came from, this book will help you out. I didn't agree with everything I read in it, but I still loved it. What a great overview of some of the most original thinking of our time.

The book features several essays by a wide variety of authors from different academic and political backgrounds and covers both the basics and many details concerning WMD. Some good Aff ideas are within as well. Great for coaches and debaters.

This book is both challenging and encouraging as it forces you to re-examine the basis for your beliefs about research and the effect of the postmodern understanding of research. The chapters on racism in research are of particular interest as they move a long way from the understanding that research methods are useful to challenging western impricalism racial bias in knowledge production. His interesting reinterpretation of Foucault's archaeological method is interesting as it shows how it can be reworked to provide new understandings. The main criticism that I would level is that the collection of essays do not fully push throught the ideas and that he uncritically uses the modernist categories of race, gender, sexuality without examining the numerous other dymensions in the construction of the "individual". Overall this book is excellent for anyone who really wants to think deeply about knowledge production.

Good RESEARCH WRITING USING TRADITIONAL AND ELECTRONIC SOURCES happens when we understand our topics. Nowadays research still takes in the traditional print resources of bookstores and libraries. But it also looks at such nonprint sources as interviews and surveys that we do ourselves; and the reputable documents available through online educational and government Internet sites. It can even include course instructors, who know what is needed for successful papers: after all, they grade them! The author emphasizes not only the ideas and opinions that we bring into research but also the way we respect the information that is out there for us: good, organized note-taking shows what the author's purpose, main ideas and strategies are for every source that we use. Along with logically ordering and tightly connecting ideas, we need to finetune authority and expert opinions, counterarguments, examples and statistics into paraphrased, quoted or summarized evidence while running what will be final copy through outlining, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading. Nancy L. Joseph's clearly organized, reader-friendly book covers all the bases. It also helps to get Joseph Gibaldi's MLA HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS OF RESEARCH PAPERS, Carole Slade's FORM AND STYLE, and the WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS books by Andrew Harnack, James D. Lester or Stephen Weidenborner.

There are a number of books on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some are well balanced, and others simply what one can call sensationalism. Father Joseph A. Fitzmyer, an Aramaic expert, as well as one of the world's best biblical scholars,belonging to the school of Prof.William f.Albright,was involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls project since the 1950s. He edited the Tobit texts of these documents coming from the Essenes. His book is easy to read and provides a lot of information. A must for scholar and layman alike.

Rothschild's _Return To Diversity_ really is an outstanding classic (easily withstanding the cliched abuse of that label!). I have yet to see a better one-volume treatment of the postwar political history of Eastern Europe. Not that Geoffrey Swain and Nigel Swain's book is bad, just that Rothschild is richer and treats each country in more detail.

Rothschild does not deal with the Baltics or other republics of the former Soviet Union. He treats Poland, Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania in their respective sections in each chapter.

His introductory background chapters, one on the interwar period and an even longer one on WW II are excellent summaries, considering Rothschild has already written the classic on _East Central Europe between the Two World Wars_.

I used _Return to Diversity_ both as a student ten years ago, and recently to teach a course on the politics of Eastern Europe; I was very happy to find it still being published. Going back through it, I was amazed how consistently Rothschild treats each country on the topics of leadership politics, economic development, social relationships vis-a-vis each regime, the extent of opposition and civil society, and foreign relations. He did it so well that I was able to construct a one-page "grille" of essential, quick and dirty information to help students compare countries (after having them concentrate on two countries each).

Not only is this book perfect to catch students up on communist history in the most efficient way, I personally find it invaluable to verify basic facts and details quickly. Country specialists will, of course, need to look elsewhere for details for which surveys simply don't have the space.

The updated chapter on post-communist politics (presumably where most of Dr. Wingfield's contribution comes in) is good as far as it goes, but frankly, you'll find more thorough treatments of post-communist Eastern Europe elsewhere in more space than this volume has available.

Overall, this book is well worth the money and easily merits five stars. The style of writing may put some laypeople and students off, but the fact is that Rothschild writes very eloquently as an "old school" historian, and if it sometimes seems dry, it's because of all the information he managed to cram into it. I repeat, this book is the best survey of communist Eastern Europe out there, and will no doubt remain so for some time to come.

The reader will feel the sensuality of the heroine and the longng for the young man. The novel moves with quick action and romantic love scenes, overcomes outside interference with a suprise ending. Light reading with very enjoyable exploits of the two main characters.