Although ostensibly about battles, this book is better read as a snapshot-style history of major wars. The extensive sections on the background and results of the battles provide pretty good accounts of a lot of military campaigns. But Davis's summaries of the actual battles are generally too brief to be informative and the illustrations are poor. In addition, buyers should be aware that the book is primarily a history of Western battles, with a smaller number of battles from other areas added in. Finally, although Davis's writing style is fluid and generally engaging, the book contains a surprising number of grammatical errors that perfectionists may find distracting.

This book provides a concise look at Davis's choice of 100 Decisive Battles. To many people 100 battles may seem little, but Davis's choices are by far the most important battles that shaped history. Many historians may argue with his choices but overall the most decisive ones are described in the book with justifiable reasons. One slight flaw to the book is that Davis does not balance geographically the battles. As a result, we have less-important European battles included and more-important Other battles excluded. The format is easy to follow. Davis takes each battle and writes out the chronology of the battle in the following sections: Forces Engaged, Importance, Historical Setting, The Battle and Results. Each battle doesn't take more than 5 pages. Due to its conciseness, some steps of the battle are left out, but Davis conveys his idea of why the battle is important. One small suggestion to the author would be to include more maps and troop movements for many times the location of troops has tremendous impact on the outcome of the battle. Another small suggestion would be to talk more about the strategies employed. Overall, this book is a great introduction to extensive studying of military history.

Students of military history will find 100 Decisive Battles an important reference to the world's major battles - it covers conflicts from ancient to modern times, providing details on the historical setting, the conflict itself, and its lasting effects. The result will provide a clear reference to any seeking foundation information on military struggles around the world.

If you like Paul Bowen pictures, buy "Executive Jets" by Geza Szurovy, not this one. That book only costs about fourteen dollars and it's way better printed and layed out. (Believe it or not.) Why is it that when I look at the pictures in this book in artifical lighting they look better than they do in full sunlight? I can't quite figure this out. It's an interesting question, because I had to evaluate it in a bookstore, not where I peruse many photo-folios, in full sunlight. Despite it's price, the quality of reproduction is not there. It makes me a little uneasy to think that I didn't quite get what I thought I was getting.

The photos in this collection are not the best work of Bowen, to judge from the Szrovy book, which concentrates only on turbine-powered aircraft.

Who picked the shots? They're bland and predictable, except for one picture of a Lear climbing nearly vertically into the sky.

There are few full-bleed pictures, so why is this book so expensive?

"Air to Air" contains some of the most beautiful air-to-air photography I have seen. This book is quite different from Geza Szurovy's "Executive Jets", recommended by another reviewer below. To compare the two is to compare apples and oranges. "Executive Jets" is about the airplanes as airplanes. The descriptions are technical and factual, and the photos are mostly meant to show features of the planes. There are a handful of interestingly composed photos, but that's not what this book is for. "Air to Air" is much more about the airplanes as pieces of art, and the photography certainly speaks to that. You still learn something about the airplanes, but the text serves more to personify than to explain the airplanes. This is a great coffee table book. Don't expect to take this book to the local air field for identifying aircraft, because that is not the purpose of this book. As for the quality, I find it outstanding. The quality of the print is superior, and the book is itself is nearly a piece of art. And as for the expense, to get a collection of interesting and unusual photography like this must have been massively expensive. In this book you see only a handful of the dozens or hundreds of photos of each plane that Bowen surely shot to get the effects he wanted. Flight time is costly! I highly recommend this book to people who can appreciate aircraft as artwork and who enjoy beautiful photographic composition.

What a collection of aviation photography, some of the most breath taking shots I have ever seen, sure to be a collector's book. The book feature a wonderful collection of aircraft photo Begain with Challenger Jet, and finish with Agusta helicopters. Mostly executive jets, with some light aircrafts and helicopters. Forward by Arnold Palmer.

This is a fun book that should help your youngster develop an interest in American History. It is easy to read an has great illustratiions. You will not be disappointed with this purchase. Look for others by the same author.

The story of Paul Revere is simply written by Fritz. Aftereach account she writes, "And then what happened? This patternthroughout the book makes the book easy to read, as you always know what the next section will be about. The information provided about Paul Revere is authentic. Young readers would find the information appealing. Not only does Fritz give authentic accounts of Revere's ride through Boston, Concord and Lexington, but she adds specific details to each. For example, she tells of how Revere and Adams had to return to a tavern in Lexington to get a trunk of important papers Adams had left, and how they walked right through the American lines in the process. While the actual text is informative yet light-hearted and easy to read, the illustrations provide essential support. This adds to the simplicity of the book. Included at the end of the story is an author's note on historical facts contained within the story that were not completely developed in the text. Fritz in her notes adds to the events so that the reader gets a true account of history. Overall, this book is an appealing, authentic, and easy to read account of Paul Revere's life, perfect for the middle school child!

This book was great! Fritz makes learning FUN! I never knew that Paul Revere forgot his spurs on his ride! Did You?

WHOO! Simmons was one serious nut. And I have never seen a spiraling slide into nutdom so artfully rendered. The authors did a remarkable job at explaining a terribly complex scenario that ended in mass murder. The tale of lunacy, incest, and violence is gripping and very freakish. Simmons is one of the worst crazies America ever produced.

Zero at the Bone is without a doubt one of the most horrifying accounts of family massacre ever written. Williams very clearly gets across to the reader the contents of Ronald Gene Simmons' twisted, sick mind. His obsessive lust/love for his daughter Sheila is horrifying; and the detailed steps Simmons took to wipe out his immediate family detail him as nothing less than totally mad. The reader cannot help but feel saddened for Sheila, for she is truly a victim of her father's depraved actions. Simmons' wife Becky is a tragic figure, yet she possesses a core of steel which sustains her up until her murder. Simmons is nothing short of a monster, and Williams spares no words in getting this point across. A note of caution: DO NOT read this book before bedtime!! It is capable of producing some of the worst nightmares, and I would not recommend it for those with weak constitutions. I am an Arkansas native, and remember very vividly these murders. And 15 years later, it still sends shudders down my spine.

The story of Ronald Gene Simmons is masterfully told. We learn about Gene's life, his family, his intense love and jealousy, his fears and suspicions, and his murders. The monster is made human and we are better able to understand why a man would murder his entire family, then undertake another carefully orchestrated murder spree before docilely surrendering to police.

This autobiography is rather dull, confirming my suspicion that Sartre is over-rated, as much a product of a nationalist culture-aggrandizement machine as of his talent.

Coming from a bizarre family, he was maladjusted and socially inept, and so he lived in the world of books. No wonder he thought and wrote such strange things: he didn't have a clue about how to live as a normal person. Then, in the part not covered in the book, he built a brilliant career as an independent yet professional intellectual from his obsessions. If this kind of thing is your cup of tea - and if you buy into the myth of Sartre's genius - then you will like this book. I approached on its own terms as a literary work, without a fascination for this little toad, and I was left unimpressed. Not even the writing, which a French pal praised to me and which I read in the original, is very good.

As I put it down, I felt, "so what." Sartre was just a self-obsessed, bright twerp of a kid.

Surpassing the likes of Huxley and Orwell in its vision of dystopic horror, told in the guise of a childhood memoir, the story is simple yet brilliantly complex. Jean-Paul is a little boy with no personality ("no super-ego") who longs for fame and eventually takes over the world by creating a new religion, sold as an antidote to fascism. The final irony in this self-reflexive work of fiction is in the title: the boy discovers his own power in that of words, the power to change perceptions and to obscure individual differences (the author knows his Wittgenstein). Infinitely more subtle than any outspoken critique of the Soviet Union, it perhaps has more in common thematically with Nabokov's 'Bend Sinister': the boy's description of himself as 'toady' suggests a kinship with that book's villain, The Toad, founder of the 'Average Man Party'. I would suggest this book was both the peak and death-knell of the existential / nouveau roman era that combined narrative objectivity with moral-ambiguity-by-numbers, a belief attested by the extraordinary poetic and imaginative range of the great French authors since 1964, such as Jean Barth, Donald DeLille and Thomas Pynchonne.

Dear Sir,

I can appreciate your not liking Sartrean philosophy. It is limited, self-refuting, and one-sided. When Sartre says "man is what he wills himself to be" we tend to agree. But Sartre goes on to say that "consiousness is afraid of its own spontenaity." In fact, he argues that there is no "I" behind consciousness. In other words, we aren't really "free" after all. Not to mention his neglect of mysticism and peak experiences, which to me have more validity than "nausea."

So far so good. You're right: people have made Sartre a trend. However, your criticisms of his youth are bogously 'out of line.' Calling him names ("twirp," "abnormal") is immature at best. You show no sympathy for the young boy Jean-Paul Sartre. It seems to me that you display a jealousy to Sartre's intelligence. You put him down because you cannot relate to him. And to cover this up, you try to say that Sartre had no genious in the first place. Obviously you never read his novels, which got him a Nobel Prize. Even you cannot deny that Sartre is one of the only philosophers to be a "writer" too.

Even if Sartre was "maladjusted," as you so unbrilliantly point out, how is this Sartre's fault? His devotion to books was the best thing for him to do. Had he not done so, he would never have become the most famous thinker (next to Freud) of the 20th century. While you were dating shallow girls, young Sartre was seeking truth. While you were getting drunk, young Sartre was being an individual and thinking for himself. Keep that in mind, if you have the courage.

A couple of days before his retirement, Paul Chavasse was approached by a Tibetan monk requesting information on an extremely classified operation he had carried out in 1962, smuggling a brilliant mathematician out of communist Chinese occupied Tibet.

As he recalled his adventure, readers would see Paul Chavasse, who had 3 years before successfully smuggled the Dalai Lama out of Tibet, return in order to extract a 70-year old sickly mathematician. His mission almost ended the moment it began, running into a group of Chinese soldiers and Russian journalist who happened to be passing by as he landed in the remote wilderness of Tibet. His mission was made even harder with the presence of a beautiful Russian house helper Katya in the home of the mathematician, and the relentless diabolically shrewd Colonel Li, commander of the regional Chinese garrison.

Betrayal, torture, deception met Chavasse at every turn. How was he going to return with a sickly geriatric over such long distances of inhospitable terrain at Himalayan altitudes ?

Readers may not get a treat of how harshly beautiful Tibet is, but there is no shortage of excitement as Chavasse fought to remain true to his mission. Unlike other books where the adversaries are depicted rather one-dimensionally, Colonel Li posed as a most worthy foe, Jack Higgins being able to portray him as having realistic mind of his own.

This book is basically a rewrite of an earlier book by Higgins. it features one of his early heroes Paul Chavasse, a British agent. Paul has smuggled the Dalai Lama out of Tibet and must go back to get a Russian space scientist. I found the book very similar in tone to the Quiller series by Adam Hall. Excellent 60s style espionage tale.

Surprises in every chapter in this book! un-down-putable!

This book takes your old high school health class to a whole new level. It makes learning and improving your lifestyle fun! From expert medical advice sites to fitness programs, each site provides valuable information for everyone. You can find general information about health issues or find a site catering to your personal needs-no matter what, you'll find that you have more access than ever before about any aspect of health, fitness, and diet. Thanks!

Everyone should throw out their diet books and purchase your book. Its value is beyond description for every age group. Your book provides limitless information on how to improve one's personal health and, really, one's quality of life. These sites opened my eyes to aspects of health I never knew existed! Good work!

Search engines hold a lot of information... too much information. This book cuts through all the fat and gets right to the good stuff. The problem with search engines is... you have to know what your searching for... well... I've found so many things in this book I never even knew existed so I would have never found them at some yahoo search engine. And the index makes everything easy to find. Well worth the bucks!

This is an amateur printed brochure, a far cry from the color picture and the misleading description that is presented on the site.

I found this book really helpfull and it has helped me on my guitar playing since i read it. It is quite understandable and so easy to help you play as well as a multi-tuitioned proffessional

People who are self taught will dig this instruction book.
I would always recommend buying a book with CD because unless you can sight read music you really benefit from the play along with the tracks. This book in particular teaches classic riffs that are still current (3 doors down, collective soul, creed).
The licks are easy to follow but sound authentic and professional.

The reviewer below misses the point. This book was the first anthology of Asian American writers to come out of the period of the founding of Ethnic Studies. It focuses soley on works by Japanese, Chinese and Pilipino Americans and features the usual suspects, Frank Chin, Carlos Bulosan, etc. It does not inlcude works by Vietnamese or Thai Americans because there was next to no immigration or even refugees from those countries immigrating pre 1965. Get your facts straight and review the text in its historical context and you will find that this text is a valuable source to capture the many dilemmas that Asian American's faced in forging an identity of their own.

You guys should make an effort to buy this book (if it's still around). In it, the editors expose "Asian American" authors who thought it best to represent Asian Americans by making them love "white America" in spite of their own Asian culture! For instance, Pardee Lowe has an aversion toward the tong his father is in; and in order to keep him from these "heathen chinese" he helps convert his father into Christianity (this nation's prevalent religion). You will also learn how subtle racist figures like Charlie Chan represent what whites perceive as Asianness. Bear in mind, the editors are not segregating the term Asian to mean just Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino. Rather, they are merely using Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino literature to convey (this is a part of their argument) that these different subgroups (and then some) within Asia America were not (and are not) assimilated (they did not hate their own culture to show their patriotism toward America). They open their book with "Asian Americans are not one people but several - Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipino Americans." They are not saying "Asian Americans are not one people but only three..." And, yes, I've met Asian Americans who are just as biased as white people, but this isn't the case that the editors are making (nor are they this way). Really, all they are doing is challenging the subtle racist stereotypical view whites have of Asians (which is a prevalent view). Some of you may not know what a stereotype of an Asian person is! Why not find out how REAL Asians are by reading this masterpiece.

You guys should make an effort to buy this book (if it's still around). In it, the editors expose "Asian American" authors who thought it best to represent Asian Americans by making them love "white America" in spite of their own Asian culture! For instance, Pardee Lowe has an aversion toward the tong his father is in; and in order to keep him from these "heathen Chinese" he helps convert his father into Christianity (this nation's prevalent religion). You will also learn how subtle racist figures like Charlie Chan represent what whites perceive as Asianness. Bear in mind, the editors are not segregating the term Asian to mean just Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino. Rather, they are merely using Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino literature to convey (this is a part of their argument) that these different subgroups (and then some) within Asia America were not (and are not) assimilated (they did not hate their own culture to show their patriotism toward America). They open their book with "Asian Americans are not one people but several - Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipino Americans." They are not saying "Asian Americans are not one people but only three..." And, yes, I've met Asian Americans who are just as biased as white people, but this isn't the case that the editors are making (nor are they this way). Really, all they are doing is challenging the subtle racist stereotypical view whites have of Asians (which is a prevalent view). Some of you may not know what a stereotype of an Asian person is! Why not find out how REAL Asians are by reading this masterpiece.

This is to serve as a rebutal to the earlier so- called review. De Man's war time involvement with the Dutch fascists was indeed unfortunate, as was Heideggar's espousal of nazism, as well Eliade's support of the Romanian fascists. This does not however take away from the beauty of their literary and philisophical works. Something that as a Jew I have had to grapple with. Derrida is an Algerian Jew, and was Paul de Man's close friend. His approach to reading is principly an ethical one. Perhaps you should turn your attention to his book on de Man. And perhaps also, you should reread the above book, or first read some other books on deconstruction, as your characterization of it was terribly off base. Deconstruction in it's Derridean form is extremely subtle, requiring a mental agility to grasp the closeness of it's readings. You would be doing yourself a service by reapproaching it more with an attentive honestness not exhibited in the above review. As to the book in question, I have always enjoyed Paul de Man's work, however if you are not familiar with continental philosophy it may not be the best opening into that world-Derrida, Delueze, Cixous and later Hedeggar may prove more stimulating and enjoyable.

Genesis and Genelogy alone is worth five stars. If you don't believe me - read it.

One of the best analyses upon the metaphor subject. The chapter about the Marcel Proust metaphors is pure light. Do not lose it!