Bruce Allen Murphy's "Wild Bill" left me feeling conflicted. Unlike the other reviewers so far, I can't say I loved the book, or that I hated it. Murphy's research is exhaustive and impressive, and his narrative powers do make the amazing story of Douglas' life read more like a novel. He deserves much credit for peeling away the layers of myth that Douglas laid over the true story of his life. At the end, though, I came away feeling that the good that Douglas accomplished somehow got lost in the bargain. There must have been some reason a couple of generations looked to him as a champion of individual liberties. It's there, all right, but it seems to almost disappear in an ocean of negatives. Overall, though, the good outweighs the flaws; this is a worthwhile book for anyone who wants to know more about Douglas, the Supreme Court, or one of the most tumultuous eras in American life.

The author is a good storyteller, and mixes in lots of history, biography, and legal explanations. Douglas comes across as a man with many sides--super ambitious, very smart and hardworking, innovative in his legal opinions, and yet [a jerk] for most people to be around. Much space was reserved for telling about how Douglas grew up and strived to achieve in life--and that section was inspiring for a 30-something to read.

The legal analysis was pretty crisp and easy to understand. Partly it's because Douglas himself wrote in simple terms--though often in revolutionary directions such as the Griswold privacy case. The book also describes the inner workings of the court and the discussions and rivalries among judges. With the Court so closed to most Americans, this part was really fascinating to read. Douglas was on the Court so long, that the book becomes almost a history of the court for the middle of the century.

The guy had 4 wives and slept with girls 1/4 his age. His law clerks universilly despised him, and his own kids pretty much left him. He spent most of his career trying to get a better job than he had, much of the time trying to get into the White House. His legal opinions seemed to be at first just a distraction to his goal of advancing, but gradually, he devellopped a coherent philosophy of personal autonomy and civil liberty. The book gives him much credit for shaping the right of privacy in the US today.

There is nothing wrong with the book. After this one I read the John Marshall biography and thought that was more monumental and "important" if that doesn't gag you. The Douglas book is great, but didn't quite leave me feeling like all Americans should read it as a duty or something. For the Marshall book, I felt proud to have read it, and reccommend it to everyone.

It seems obvious that a tremendous amount of work went into this biography and I feel that the results were absolutely worth that effort and thus I would recommend this book highly. And what do we learn about Justice Douglas? As a husband (four times over), he was terrible. As a parent, he was similarly terrible, enough so that his kids more or less disowned him, and rightfully so. As a boss (to his law clerks and secretaries), he was atrocious to work for. Indeed, looking at the "private Douglas", there is almost nothing admirable about the man. On the other hand, looking at "Justice Douglas", we see a hard-working, extremely bright man, whose views on the Amendments in the Bill of Rights (especially the First Amendment) made him the champion of the poor, the dispossed, the repressed and the oppressed. Moreover, with the benefit of hindsight, I would say that most of his liberal leaning opinions (whether in the majority or in dissent) have held up well over the years, especially in the First Amendment area. Of course, one might conclude that certain issues he had to deal with, particularly on the race front (say, whether a poll tax in the South was constitutional) were less tricky than issues we confront today such as reverse discrimination under the guise of diversity (such as the U. of Michigan Law School case currently awaiting decision by the Spreme Court). It is interesting to note however that in one of his last cases on the bench in 1974, he indicated that he had no tolerance any kind of quotas, even if dressed up in the lingo of diversity.

On a more general note, I would say that writing a biography of a judge is in some ways more challenging than writing the biography of other famous people from other professions like, say, entertainers, athletes, performers or even politicians. For those kinds of subjects, when they "doing their profession", whether for better of worse, the public is watching and, more importantly, reacting. Thus, one can compare the actions of the subject with the response of the public, whether the subject is on the way up or on the way down. However, with a judge, even an influential Justice like Douglas, when he is doing his job, he is simply writing opinions. While it is interesting to see what those opinions are (particularly if a juducial philosophy changes over time as Douglas' clearly did), to summarize or recite all those opinions may not, in the hands of the wrong person, make for such a fascinating biography. However I feel that Murphy did a masterly job.

I read this interesting work while researching "Sacred Blood." It is heavy reading on a notoriously heavy subject, but is especially relevant in these troubled times we are currently experiencing around the world. It makes an interesting case to explain, in the specific case of one town, "how could they let this happen?" Just goes to reiterate that while times change, people don't.

Allen's book looks at the Nazis' rise to power through the lens of a small community in northern Germany. It describes the events leading up to the "takeover," and strives to explain why the Nazis were able to muster a high level of electoral support from the populace (61%). The book focuses heavily on the years before 1936; only one chapter is spent on discussing the events during the war. Generally, the book gives an interesting, refreshing perspective because this is the very first book to look at events from a local town's point of view.

By tracing the personal histories of the inhabitants of Nordheim and the practical workings of the local Nazi party structures, Allen illustrates the reasons for the sudden and powerful rise to power of the NSDAP in a way that is insightful and memorable. By using such details as excerpts from local newspapers, attendance records of Nazi and non-Nazi events, and memories of the still-living Nordheim residents, Allen is able to give an amazingly detailed and yet concise and easily readable view of the events and feelings that proceeded and stemmed from the Nazi rise to power.

The book does give great interviews and words of Vonnegut, but there is no substantial whole. It is poorly laid out, and makes no concrete assertions or comments on Vonnegut's words.

I read only the part where one person interviewed Kirk in the persona of Kilgore Trout. This made a great addition to this book.

This compilation of interviews with Kurt Vonnegut covers 1969 through 1987. Vonnegut fans may recognize some of the conversations from amongst the known corpous (i.e. the Playboy interview from Foma, Wampeters, and Granfalloons) but by and large these come from quirky sources out of the main stream. The wonderfully casual Robert Scholes interview from 1973 is a delight. Also of interest is the 1974 Greg Mitchell piece written in the manner of Kilgore Trout. By all mean secure yourself a copy of this work. One flaw needs to be noted: With Vonnegut married to the skillful photographer Jill Kremetz, why put a pedestrian AP photo on the cover? Chris Huber

This text is used as a college textbook in my Bible and Theology Batchelor of Science program. As such, I expect a college level text to be challenging reading. However, even for the best reader this book is tedious, unless reserved strictly for use as a resource. Unfortunately to use it as a resource, a good index is necessary. This book has only an index of names and an index of authors available, making the indices hardly worthwhile.

It does have some great charts as sidebar content but without an index to them they may be missed. Illustrations are in black and white or blue and white. Color photos are reserved for the book jacket only.

The book, while maintaining a fairly conservative theological approach holds rather closely to a JEDP theory regarding the formulation of the Old Testament. This may be confusing to some who were taught to believe that Moses wrote the books of the law. No alternative theory is given that I could find.

If you are purchasing this book for a resource, there may be one which is better indexed and more visually appealing. If for casual reading or basic instruction in Old Testament history or literature, please choose something written for this purpose. You will not be satisfied by this book. My readability score for this book is zero!

This is a wonderful text for the student of the Old Testament. The authors are very detailed in their descriptions of each Old Testament book. Not only do they provide a fairly lengthy section in each chapter about the historical setting of the book, but they also provide a review of the message, certain criticisms, theology, date and composition, and certain scholarly events surrounding the text (i.e. hypothesis, theories about the text, etc.). Moreover, the book is filled with photographs, maps, charts, and many other visual aids. The authors have also provided the reader with geographical aids via descriptions, maps, etc. Another important element about this book is the authors' handling of Hebrew poetry. The authors give a description of what Hebrew poetry is, how it works, how to read it, and what its purpose was in context. So as you can see this is a very detailed book. If you are wanting a text that focuses solely on the Old Testament, is detailed and very descriptive, then I don't believe you will find a better text than this one.

Old Testament Survey quotes the New Revised Standard Version in order to take advantage of the most recent biblical scholarship. While previously scholars thought there was a first, second and third Isaiah OTS makes a stong case for the unity of Isaiah (chapter 22). OTS follows the general modern consensus that Ecclesiastes was written 700 years after King Solomon died and thus was not written by Solomon. The comments are interesting and accompanied by photos and maps. If you enjoy this book you may also like THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS by Cody Jones. Many of the mysteries and riddles of Proverbs are explored with some surprising new answers. Among them is the identity of King Solomon's ghostwriter who was one of the "officials of Hezekiah" mentioned in Proverbs 25.1. Six translations of Proverbs in parallel aid understanding and numerous drawings and photos give you a sense of the culture of the time.

The topic of school reform and paying teachers as professional is not a new topic. The proposals put forth in the book written by Allen and Cosby are fairly detailed and generous to educational reform. Many of the proposals, such as the infusion of technology into the curriculum, higher pay for teachers, etc., sound like current practices within Edison Schools, Inc. However, current views would include that there never seems to be money set aside for education, and local and state legislatures have been cutting educational funding over the past few years. I have doubts that the amount of funding required for a project of this magnitude could actually be undertaken.

After additional research on this book, I would like to note that it was published in October 2000, over 1½ years ago. The website listed in the book for further updates, support of this project, etc., lists that nearly every one of its pages is under constructions. Readers are not able to read survey results or add their own opinions concerning this project. Is this a legitimate proposal or just a dream? With out follow through for this text, I am inclined to believe that this is not a legitimate proposal developed by Allen and Cosby.

Drs. Allen and Cosby have written a magnificent book detailing a workable answer to our school system plight. Now it is up to us to take the challenge. Do we understand how important is it to truly educate our youth? Are we ready to take the challenge or are we just going to say yes its nice, or too much work and just let things fall by the wayside. All parents should read this book and join together to demand a change to our schools so the children of today will be the well-educated leaders of the future.

This account of the Hmong script created by Shong Lue Yang for his people is a strangely Christ-like tale which reads at times like an adventure novel, but you never forget it is true. Smalley, a Baptist minister, remains fashionably objective in his telling of the story. Useful for linguistics classes and anyone interested in the origin of writing systems.

This was a really good book that talks a lot about Shong Lue Vue and his writing. It goes through the history, the problems, and the different stages that he went through to come up with the final one. It includes all the versions and how they are written. Overall a very good book...if you are interested.

Published over twenty years ago, Naked Angels still holds up as a thorough critical study of the works of Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac. The first section deals mainly in biography, but it seeks to explain why each of the writers explored certain topics and how their experiences shaped their styles. However, if you have studied these three in a biographical sense, the information presented here will not be new to you.

The second section covers the works of the three writers. While there is certainly a wealth of sources that give critical insights into Beat writing, this section brings them together into an often detailed, more often general study of Beat themes, styles, and voices. The Ginsberg section is particularly detailed in its analysis of Ginsberg's long lines and mysticism. Though Kerouac and Burroughs receive their share of treatment, the Burroughs section lacks the further illumination provided by Burroughs over the last twenty years of his life. And the Kerouac section hits only the high points, simply because it would be too difficult to cover every aspect of this prolific writer's work in a mere 70 pages.

This book is a solid overview of the core Beats and their seminal works. Its age shows at times, but it's worth a read as a well-written and well-thought treatment of Beat literature.

Tytell gives an excellent insight into the founding members of the Beat movement. He shows the backgrounds and the motivations of one of the most innovative literary movements in the 20th century. I would strongly recomend this for anyone , especially if they are just starting to explore this group of writers.

This is a useful study of an important subject -- how military forces in developed countries are changing as a result of broader social and political change. The book draws on research by academics, professional military and others working as the 'Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society'. US academic Charles Moskos sets out the overall thesis which is that social and political changes since the end of the cold war are fundamentally recasting how military forces recruit and train their people, operate in military contingencies and relate to their national governments. Moskos sets out eleven major areas which the other contributers use as a framework for reviewing specific military forces. Areas include such issues as preceived threats, public attitudes to the military, the dominant type of military profession in a force, the role of women and civilian employees and so on.

This 'eleven-point framework is both a strength and a weakness. While it enables some useful points of comparision between different national forces, it forces the individual country studies into a rigid structure where areas of difference are underplayed and too much attention is afforded to issues that may not be important to individual countries.

Overall, the book succeeds in showing that armed forces are indeed changing into organisations quite different from their cold war predecessors. But many broader (and more important) issues are not addressed: is this trend a good or bad thing? Are forces changing too slowly or too quickly? How should military forces train their leaders to handle these changes? And most important, what impact does this have on the capacities of countries to defend their national interests? While 'The Postmodern Military' usefully sets out the foundations for this important debate, it does not attempt to provide any of the answers to these critical broader questions.

Definitely interesting book. In this book Moskos outlines his paradigm for the postmodern military along the lines of 5 organizational changes and a number of emerging trends for the military. The book is written from a sociological perspective and examines the emergence of these postmodern trends in different militaries around the world. This is definitely an insightful and fascinating book and so is its examination of other nations. Definitely a read for military sociologists and officers alike.

This book has everything that you may need to know about smart cards. It contains a series of well-written in-depth articles by the experts in the field. Smart cards are the technology of the future -- and they may remain that way. The previous review predicts a smart card revolution for the year 2000. Here it is. Y2K has come and gone. Where are my smart cards? The reality is that the most pervasive use of smart cards has come about by government directive. The King of France has decreed that you cannot use a phone without having a smart card. Much touted experiments for smart card use in the United States have been failures. These include smart card electronic purses for the Atlanta Olympics and for Manhattan. It may just be that smart cards are not a compelling technology.

Smart cards are poised to invade two billion wallets and purses by the year 2000. If you have a credit card, chances are it will have a spider-like chip holding all your essential data. Even your mobile phone uses a smart card. But there are more applications to come, and with it diverse business opportunities for the organisation or individual who is always looking ahead. Smart Cards, edited by Catherine Allen and William Barr with Ron Shultz, breaks the mindset of looking at smart cards merely as an electronic purse. It expounds on the many possibilities that this wafer-thin chip-in-a-card can do to revolutionise the finance and retail sector. In short, it talks about smart-card technology. But don't just take it from me or any of the authors--arrive at your opinion from the cast of major players in the smart-card industry that the authors have assembled. Besides streamlining commercial transactions, the smart card will also have a hand in decentralising the storage of personal information. Hospitals will be able to access a patient's medical history just by reading the individual's smart card, thereby saving precious time in an emergency. At the airport, the smart card will make queues at the check-in counter disappear as travellers can check in electronically with their cards. Besides focusing on the application benefits of smart cards, this book also addresses the stumbling blocks of electronic commerce, namely privacy and security issues. A whole section of the book is catered not only to the issues of privacy but also the existing technologies to counter this problem. Innovative business individuals interested in leap-frogging ahead will benefit most from this book as it forces you to re-think standard business models in electronic commerce. Smart Cards also provides fertile ground for new smart-card applications because it showcases many ongoing trials and pilot projects. My only disappointment with the book is that its research is mainly based on corporations in the United States, a country whose advanced telecommunications infrastructure is actually a disincentive to the adoption of smart-card technology. Europe and some part of Asia, on the other hand, have been more than enthusiastic in their use of smart-card technology, and should be able to offer more real-world insights into the nature of the beast. On the whole, Smart Cards provides a good reading of the pulse of the industry and gets you up to speed with the business opportunities of "intelligent cards" that may soon slim that inch-thick wallet of yours--maybe in more ways than one!

Leslie H. Allen's edited compilation of "Bryan and Darrow at Dayton," subtitled "The Record and Documents of the 'Bible-Evolution' Trial," was characterized as a "contemporary history and a ready reference record for a future in which those issues will loom ever larger until in men's minds they have been squared with the truth." In his forward, dated July 27, 1925, Allen wrote that although he had strong convictions towards one side he hoped his readers would not be able to judge if he was a Fundamentalist or a Modernist. However, in characterizing the conflict in terms of a religious schism rather than as religion versus science, Allen gave his sympathies away. Allen included public statements and incidents surrounding the trial and Bryan's undelivered speech, as well as two-page biographies of William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, passages from Genesis, and three pages from Hunter's "Civic Biology" (the state required textbook at that time). While it is fairly obvious Allen sided with the Scopes defense, this does not detract from his attempt to provide a balanced treatment of the trial. Allen refrains from including editorial comments, letting the chronlogy of events dictate the order statements outisde the courtroom are included. Only when Allen writes in his own voice does he betray his allegiances. Of course, his title reflects that in 1925 the Scopes "Monkey" Trial was seen more as a clash of personalities than the resolution of major issues. I did my dissertation on the Scopes Trial and while Allen's book is not the complete stenographic record of the trial published elsewhere, it was certainly a laudable attempt in its day to lay out the trial for those interested in evaluating the rhetoric of the two main figures, if not the legal arguments made by others that determined the actual case.