This book was about a girl and her family who moved to France to their new apartment. There was one problem though, it wasn't finished. Suzanne a french girl with them suggested a castle that was ran by the French goverment and was closed a while ago. They were all excited until Suzanne told them why it was closed. It was closed because of the ghosts that have haunted the castle for a long time. Read this book to find out all the troubles and bad things that have been happening since they got to the castle.

It's so unfortunate that all the books I so loved as a child are out of print. `A Dream of Ghosts', along with `Jane-Emily' and `To Nowhere and Back', are all excellent reads that let young readers venture into the supernatural without getting too scared off. I truly wish the publishers of these books would do children a favor and re-publish what should have been classics.

Elizabeth McCracken, Stuart Dybek, and Tom Grimes deliver the best here (in my opinion), but the other essays are worth reading. There is throughout the book a shared love of writing--even at its most frustrating and formdible. The title, The Eleventh Draft, is a gentle nudge to the rest of us that God is in the revisions; that no one--not even the best (and these writers are good)--writes easily or quickly, and that the process of writing is just as meaningful as the result (even if nobody ever sees your 11th draft but you). :-)

A compilation of essays from former students and teachers of the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, editor Frank Conroy's book The Eleventh Draft attempts to capture the essence of the writer's life. "These essays," Conroy notes in the introduction, "are written by people who struggle with both the visible and invisible realities of language every day of their lives." Consequently, authors including Stuart Dybek, Elizabeth McCracken, and Barry Hannah reflect on the unique nature of their profession. The tone varies wildly; while authors such as William Lashner and Justin Cronin write in a deeply personal manner, Scott Spencer and James Alan McPherson give more detached, less introspective observations. This variance renders some essays less affecting than others, but most are engaging, thoughtful pieces. Despite such a lofty goal this book is an overall success, a testament to Conroy's faith in his selected writers (evidenced in his "deliberately vague" instructions for each contributing author) as well as the authors' individual talents. Those looking for pragmatic tips should look elsewhere. However, prose writers seeking both inspiration and insight should find this book both valuable and enjoyable.

I bought this book looking for something basic. I was hoping for a quick read that would give me the basics so that I could understand the more in-depth Oxford History of Britain that assumes familiarity with England that I didn't have. The very basics were in here, so it met my lowest expectations.

The book, though, is almost 1/4 pictures; pictures of politicians, kings, factory workers and knights fill at least half of every other page. Since the book is only 225 pages or so, I knew it wasn't going to be thorough. I had a feeling, though, that the author's annoying habit of mentioning people once by name with no introduction or background and then forgetting them for the rest of the book was probably due to his need to make room for pictures of medeival churches.

This is a fine brief book. I read it in about four hours even with flipping back to maps and searching the index occasionally to see if someone had ever been introduced before. Before ordering it make sure you actually want the fastest run through English history possible. Probably better for those needing to refresh what they learned a long time ago than for people hoping for a starting block for the subject.

This has been a great introduction to a subject I've always been fascinated with, but have been intimidated by until now. A worthwhile read!

Informed students of Homo sapiens have long noted that there is virtually no justification for the concept of "race" in our species, since the within group differences on almost all traits are much greater than the between group differences for any known taxonomy of racial groups. The same can be said even more strongly for a biological concept of "ethnicity." Yet human beings are keenly sensitive to both "race" and "ethnicity" as biological concepts; i.e., people widely feel connected by kinship and geneology to others of their group---the insiders--- and are very willing to extend this feeling to mistrust and hatred of other groups---the outsiders.

Racial and ethnic prejudices are unmitigated evils, but they can be eliminated only if we understand them from a scientific point of view.

According to the dominant paradigm in social theory for much of the previous two centuries, human beings are an ideological 'tabula rasa' on which virtually any array of cultural beliefs and values can be inscribed through the appropriate socialization practices. This view suggests that prejudices can be eliminated by simply teaching people that they are wrong.

But many students of human society, myself included, have found that human beings have a certain predilection for prejudice and ethnic hatred. This prejudice is easily aroused and leads people to make great personal sacrifices in supporting "their own." Ethnic conflict today is doubtless the leading cause of war and the violation of personal rights, not to mention a major force in preventing economic and political development around the world.

This book, which included contributions by the editors as well as about two dozen experts in various areas of behavioral theory, attempts to develop an alternative behavioral perspective, in which a predisposition to favor insiders and punish outsiders, even at a fitness cost to oneself, is somehow innately human. However, unlike many innately human traits, which are exhibited in virtually all societies (see Donald E. Brown, Human Universals (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991), ethnic prejudice is often absent and must be evokes by charismatic leaders or social conditions. For this reason the editors call this predisposition an "evolved trait of indoctrinability," and the other contributors follow their lead.

Ethnic conflict and Indoctrination is a very fine sourcebook for those who would model the physiology, varienty, and dynamics of ethnic prejudice, but it does not produce answers. This is in part because most of the contributions aim to provide partial insights into the issue by close analysis of particular aspects of the problem. It is also because no one has a generally plausible model of why human beings are so willing to incur fitness costs on themselves on behalf of groups of virtually unrelated individuals. By far the most useful analytical paper in the book, to my mind, is that of Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd, "The Evolution of Human Ultrasociality," who make it clear that the same evolutionary and behavioral mechanisms that account for cooperation and prosociality in humans is doubtless also responsible for ethnic hatred and the predisposition toward violence.

There is no concluding chapter to this interesting multidisciplinary display of modern evolutionary social science, which is a pity. As the editors indicate in their informative introduction, although all contributions take seriously the potential of the life sciences, including evolutionary models, there is no consensus, not even about the definition of indoctrination. As many authors do not specify or make explicit what "indoctrination" means to them, this makes it sometimes difficult to establish whether or not the different arguments and theories presented are mutually exclusive, complementary or relate to different issues. The first editor sees indoctrination as any formal or informal process leading to socialization, a special learning mechanism serving bonding and we-group demarcation, the second editor sees is as political socialization, performed in a purposive manner by an external, specialized instution or staff. Caton would include self-inculculation. The editors indicate that these issues were discussed at the conference, but not resolved. That is not surprising, since the concept of indoctrination is laden with values. It is taken for granted that indoctrination is something bad, and even when it is has a "positive" function, it is "childish" (Caton). Of course it all depends on the perspective one wishes to take, and whose interests are being served. After all, since George Orwell wrote "1984" we know that propaganda comes from the Ministry of Truth.

Although the proposed definitions of indoctrination could just as well refer to persuasion, teaching or social learning in general, almost all authors implicitly or explicitly assume that: 1. indoctrination in premodern societies has served to weld groups with a tight loyalty and 2. that indoctrinability is a universally found characteristic of humans and 3. involves the predisposition to be inculculated with values or loyalties that run contrary to immediate individual interest. (Although schoolchildren might argue that this is exactly what teaching is all about ). Consequently, indoctrinability poses problems for evolutionary explanations: how could such a tendency spread in a population if those who are susceptible to indoctrination risk their lives for a cause that benefits others? Several authors find the solution lies in group selection.

Group selection Rushton explicitly discusses group selection in the special case of human ultrasociality, reffering to the familiar arguments by E.O. Wilson and D.S. Wilson & Sober of groups so tightly cemented that they became "vehicles" of selection. Richerson & Boyd rightly point out that the trouble with a group selection hypothesis is our mating system. Few demic boundaries are without considerable intermarriage, and wife capture is one of the main motives for raids on neighbours. The human groups that compete are demographically very open and violent conflict increases migration rates. Instead, Richerson & Boyd think culturally based strategies are more plausible locomotives of group selection than genetically based strategies. According to them, group selection is based on cultural variation and the marking of group boundaries by cultural symbols. Using these cultural devices, humans are able to create and maintain groups that impose high levels of altruism on their members and punish or exclude cheaters. MacDonald thinks he has found a group (Jews) which has been able to effectively follow a cultural group selection strategy. However, the attempt to make group selection more palatable by invoking "culture" does not help. With Eibl-Eibesfeldt, one cannot see any real differences between "cultural" and "genetic" group selection, since the outcome remains the same.

In an interesting contribution, Wiessner proposes an alternative hypothesis for the evolution of indoctrinability that does not invoke group selection. She argues that indoctrination is required to counteract family solidarity, because strong family loyalty could inhibit the formation of effective exchange networks, necessary as "insurance policies" to reduce risks outside the group. However, Schiefenhövel notes that indoctrination can be directed to partly overcoming ethnicity to build larger alliances, traditionally aimed at creating large-scale networks that serve the ambitions of powerful males. But this ideology did not have the same everyday effects as the one stressing ethnicity and Wiessners recognizes this as she states that indoctrination was and is also used to close boundaries and bind competing social groups.

As a logical correlate of group selection, the evolution of indoctrinability is linked to our proneness to collective aggression and intergroup competition in the form of warfare. However, indoctrination is not only used as an instrument of group antagonism. In relation to the susceptibility of humans to indoctrination for ideologies which lead to intergroup hostility, the conclusion must be that as with many other evolutionary traits in humans, the biopsychology underlying indoctrination seems to be a rather versatile instrument, allowing different solutions to a multitude of ecocultural challenges. Also, as van der Dennen aptly reminds us, a Darwinian approach should also look at the possibility of (indoctrination for) peace and nonviolence as an adaptation to particular political ecological circumstances.

The volume gives little attention to the development of indoctrinability and to the distiction between social learning, teaching and indoctrination. According to Eibl-Eibesfeldt humankind's identification via symbols bears much resemblance to imprinting phenomena, whereas Salter calls spontaneous imprinting the polar opposite of indoctrination. Several authors implicitly assume that indoctrination serves to enhance already existing tendencies. Others indicate that indoctrination is used to inculcate beliefs for which subjects show low indoctrinability, although the difference may be partly due to differences in perception of what constitutes "indoctrination".

The book contains interesting and for the most part highly readable contributions. If any conclusion could be drawn, it would have to be that the predisposition for indoctrinability (however defined) seems to have a biological basis, but its content is culturally stipulated. Perhaps it is more fruitful to focus the future research and the debate the editors call for at the end of their introduction, on what behaviours, rules and norms we learn more readily than others (without using value laden labels) and which require more active teaching efforts than others. Schiefenhövel sees a way out of the indoctrination dilemma: indoctrinate (teach?) children to be vigilant so that the forces of indoctrination do not overpower them.

I work as acoustic consultant, primarily with noise and vibration simulation.

I recommend the book as it has helped me out on a few occasions where I needed to look into new things with which I had not previously worked. It is also useful when there is a need to reference matters you are familiar with, but want the detailed equations or the background assumptions restated.

Having to solve practical problems, I especially appreciate that the author includes references to other work and, more importantly lists 'rules of thumbs' that lead to sensible designs. Such recommendations have saved valuable time and money for me.

So, the scope of the book goes beyond that of teaching. It is quite a useful book also for practical work.

This textbook was helpful in communicating the basic principles of engineering acoustics. Several errors, (k^2 missing in numerator of equation 6.14, page 109) but generally a good reference when coupled with good teaching. Includes around 8-10 problems after each chapter with solutions in the back.

This book may well be everything its poblisher says it is, but it still will be of little use to readers unused to reading mathematical tracts. I was disappointed. With all the contention in this crucial field, somebody needs to go back to the beginning and carefully review the issues -- without bias and animus -- in a way that any attentive reader can understand.

This is a book for mathematically-inclined population and evolutionary biologists and other behavioral scientists. It is not for the layperson. The book is an extended exegesis on Price's equation---like variations and themes. The exposition is a bit rough, but some of the formulations are marvelous.

Price's equation is great for dealing with the interaction of structured populations, but there are other important approaches, including developing Markov processes and/or sets of differential equations to capture the dynamics of interacting social groups.

Although "unique"--as one professional reviewer put it--that doesn't necessarily mean a brilliantly conceived book will be enjoyable. I started, but didn't get very far, so far. The style is opaque with trendy deconstructionist jargon that must first be deciphered into plain English (this is serious sociology, after all). Understanding Wright's own words can be difficult, true, but fun. This is not, so far. (Contrast the fresh air quality of the opening Wright passage with Satler's ponderous text.) Although the book title speaks of "Living Space," note that this book focuses on Wright's early WORK spaces (Larkin and Unity Temple) rather than his houses. Nor are the tiny B/W pictures of those buildings either plentiful or good. I hope to come back to this book after enjoying some others (e.g., G. Hildebrand's The Wright Space [Univ. Washington], or Susan Bandes' Affordable Dreams: The Goetsch-Winckler House [Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State Univ]).

I am pleased to say that this book's form does follow it's function. It is such a pleasure to read a book ,that really jumps out at the reader, and one feels as if they are walking through a tour of one of Wright's structures. The author seems like she really knows what she is talking about, unlike some authors who just research a subject and throw it together and there is a book. Gail Satler is a phenominal author and I'm, sure she is a great person to know. I look forward to reading more of her work in the near future. Everyone should read this book about one of the most influential architect's in the history of the world.

This book explored the origin, the life of Frank Lloyd Wright. The author didn't discuss FLW's other works as such but did explain the nature why Taliesin & its other counterpart were built, & unbeknown to the architect would one day become 2 of the most important buildings in the States. The book contained many pictures (good quality) of the communes participating in many subsistence activities, FKW giving guidance to his disciples, lavish parties & performances that were held there, many aspects of those buildings. On the sideline, the book also displayed the graphics that were utilised by the Taliesin Foundation, Asian art works that were collected by FKW during his trip to Japan (in particular). For the benefit of the readers, building plans were enclosed to relate to the pictures provided.

The endlessly creative mind of FLW took two wildly different locales and managed to create important landmarks of twentieth-century architecture in both -- Spring Green, WI, and Scottsdale, AZ. Following a historical glimpse into Wright's origins, this beautiful volume traces the multiple purposes of Taliesin and Taliesin West. The book closes with a unique look at Wright's collect of Asian art, an important influence on his life and work. A definite treat for Wright fans, the book helps show why these two vastly different architectural gems stand as "his autobiography in wood and stone."

This book does more than just look at forty years of writing about Zappa. The "Companion" comes across as a sometimes scholarly journal of the times in which Zappa's music could actually get produced. Kostelanetz does a superb job of fitting together a diverse mixture of writings from various authors to draw a vivid picture of popular culture and real life in the last half of the 20th century. Through his clever arrangement and organization of these writings, Kostelanetz demonstrates that the youth culture, dada in art, and breakthroughs in recording technology helped shape an environment in which a stubborn, rebellious, and meticulous genius like Frank Zappa could make a forum for his unique talent. This book is thoroughly readable and contains little technical language, yet it does offer much that would be of interest to musicologists, sociologists, historians, and especially artists and musicians. Of course, Zappa fans will appreciate the wealth of details about the man, the composer, the musician, the guitarist, the politician, the social critic, etc. - you get the idea. BUY THIS THING!...

This book is an informative mish mash of different interviews and record reviews by various authors. It covers early Mothers stuff and goes right up through the 90s. Interesting interviews that originally appeared in Guitar, Rolling Stone, and many others. If ya don't know much about Frank and how he was percieved by the public, check this one out.