Richard Shenkman reviews the facts behind the legends of American History. He researched various books to present a new look at old history. Where could these mistakes come from? Perhaps it comes from the official history books selected by the Boards of Education. Some from entertainments passed off as history. There is always the need to present old history to "prove" the correctness of current politics. If reading opposing viewpoints educates you, read this entertaining book and become a little wiser.

Chapter 1 is on 'Patriotism'. Our national flag was rarely in use until after the War for the Union. Troops used regimental colors or state flags. The Pledge of Allegiance was created in 1892. Shenkman seems to not understand the phrase "our flag was still there" (p.8). The meaning to me is whether Fort McHenry was captured. Using lyrics from a song about drinking and loving would not be objectionable to 19th century military (p.9). Chapter 2 is on 'Religion'. Shenkman corrects the misinformation spread by corporate advertising. The fact that church membership (and the right to vote - p.25) was limited suggests churches operated as a ruling class and limited its membership by choice (p.23). Page 29 tells how Madison and Jefferson refused public prayers. Lincoln was the first president to affirm the usefulness of religion in politics. Lincoln was never baptized and never a member of any church; he used religion as per Machiavelli's advice. Chapter 3 is on 'Work and Play'. Shenkman doesn't note that as workers became wage-earners instead of self-employed in the 19th century, there was a new need for leisure time activities. Almost all entertainment or sports were invented in the Victorian era (p.35). Show business is the true opiate of the people. The work ethic was replaced by the consumer ethic in the 1920s (p.45). Could scrimping and saving ruin the American economy (p.46)?

Chapter 4 is on 'Business'. Business has a long history of getting help from the government: special franchises, bounties, grants, immunities, protective tariffs, and land grants. Originally, corporations could not be created unless it performed a public service: canals, railroads, water supplies (p.53). Page 58 gives an example of censored history which made this book necessary. Shenkman identifies Marriner Eccles as the prophet of deficit spending (p.61). Page 63 notes how military spending supports business. The statistic about cotton production "not until fifteen years after" is misleading; 1860 produced a huge crop. The statistic about railroad trackage is also suspect (p.65). "War is the continuation of [business rivalry] through non-diplomatic means" said Clausewitz. The post war period of "laissez faire" resulted in more economic depressions than any time in history. The output of commodities increased at a slower rate than before the Civil War (p.69)!

The book concludes with Chapter 12 'So Many Myths'. Page 193 tells of praise for Mayes' book; does this result from advertising and pay-offs to sell books? Could it explain the other myths and legends? As long as they can be sold, stories will be created. Look at TV. Just as America devised its own spelling ("jail" for "gaol"), so too they created new national myths (p.197). Are we that different from other peoples? Myths serve as symbols of cultural unity since the days of Remus and Romulus.

I found this to be a pretty good book. It provides fun information about history that you can use to impress your friends. Pick it up.

Solid, ok plot, ok characters, which I hope develop more in later works. I agree fully with the other reviewer. The author writes solidly- short, to the point-, not really well like a PD James or other literary style writer, but it's ok for a procedural. The only odd thing about this book is that it seems to have been originally written in the 1980s -everyone is dressed in 1980's clothes, such as suits with vests, track suits, etc. Most people are still using cassettes, and the references to Hill Street Blues and other 1980's pop culture are only offset by occasional disconcerting references to 1990's music, culture and CDs. This does not really work. If it was originally set in the 1980's it probably should have been left there.

This is a pretty solid debut police procedural with both feet firmly set in the Camden Town area of London. Much like John Havey's Charley Resnick series, the reader follows the professional and personal travails of D.I. Christy Kennedy as he solves a few murders and feels his way though a relationship. Kennedy is decidedly less troubled and dark than Resnick, however. The central case is the murder of the head of a local independent record label who has recently sold out to a major for big money. There's some sort of music insider stuff mixed in, but none of it particularly enthralling in and of itself. It's more fun to watch Kennedy trawl the past and present of the Irish promoter to track down the killer. It moves pretty smoothly, although it'd be nice if Charles managed to make his chapters a tad bit longer (60 chapters over 240 pages = 4 page chapters!), as all the breaks get rather intrusive. His love of music gets the better of him with the rather silly inclusion of song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter (the book's title is that of a Nick Lowe song). These minor annoyances and few bits of a sloppy prose aside, it's a good beginning and I'll definitely look for the next in the series.

This book contains surprisingly many details on its 262 pages. The print is small and hardly any sentence is wasted. It makes a very accurate impression. I easily trust the authors on their facts and arguments. They seem to be knowledgeable and close to the field. Personally I would prefer larger print, more sentences per idea and a little wider scope in topic.

I read this book. Most of all, it clearly explains what is GIOP, IIOP, and CORBA message mechanism. You can understand how CORBA message flows from client to server object. Moreover, if you are interested in security, it is the first starting point to be studied. However, it's content is so limited that I can't get more than the inner mecahnism about message between objects. I hope that the author of this book will write more about layer above message mechanism.(i.e. what CORBA stub, skeleton really do for our objects)

I like this book, because it tells clearly the history of the GTO, and it's helpful to know the various versions of the car. The main quality of the book is the synthesis, because the author doesn't put in the text an excessive number of facts; he writes only the essential informations to know the car, like the aestetic characteristics, the displacement of the engines, the basic characteristics of the fuel systems and the speed gears, the colours, the codes for the identification and other historical informations. The text is accompanied by a lot of photographs in black and white, that represents the cars and their passenger compartments and engines.
The limitations of the book are the absence of photographs in colour, and the brevity of the technical informations about the cars and the engines.
In spite of these limitations, this book is a good point of departure to know or buy the GTO.

Being new to the GTO world and living abroad, this book was my only resource in determining authenticity and value. With the help of this book, I was able to make an educated purchase. I recommend it to anyone interested in purchasing a GTO.

I was interested in the above review until I noticed it comes from the New York town that the publisher hails from. A coincidence? Possibly--but what else is in Armonk besides M.E. Sharpe?

Far exceeding the author's objective--to present a primer on the state and causes of income inequality in the US-this work by an eminent scholar addresses in masterful fashion the many factors related to these issues in a style comprehensible to both the public and experts. Ryscavage presents not only his own prestigious studies but also summarizes and aluates the major works of others. His study provides a strong bridge over the disconnect between economists' views and popular conceptions that ascribe income inequality to corporate greed, soaring profits, deregulation, waning power of unions, and the demise of the so-called social contract between workers and employers. Instead, the author examines relevant measures showing and causing income disparity. ... A must purchase for economic and public policy collections. All libraries. Choice

Probably the best available guide book about Malta, written by natives of the island and others with close connections. as usual with the Insight Guides, it succeeds in giving an authentic flavour of the place in miniature, and I have found it very useful throughout several trips there. Photography is very atmospheric, and almost faultless, though my only gripe is that the latest edition has replaced the Passionist 'cover boy' and his lantern - so typical of religious processions on the Island -with an ordinary, though very attractive, Maltese lass. The boy seemed to sum up perfectly the mixture of youth and devout Catholic faith of Malta. This apart, you will not need another guide to the Island if you have this one.

I'm generally anti-Insight Guides because of the typically shallow, boring way in which they try to tackle large countries. But Insight does a pretty good job with its regional and small-country series. I can imagine better ways to learn about Malta, but this is a nice, functional book if you don't know much about the place.

Since Malta is so small, the authors can go into a reasonably good deal of detail on the history of the islands, their people, and their sights. There's even enough space for a couple of short sections on Maltese architecture, superstition and lore, and classic Maltese automobiles. While this isn't the kind of guidebook you would actually sit down and read for pleasure, it's full of interesting anecdotes on the culture and history of the place.

I'm afraid many of its hotel and dining recommendations are rather elitist, but why not splurge for once?

If you are looking for a good, quick introduction to Sartre's Philosophy, I would not start with _Introducing Sartre_ from Totem Books, but with _Sartre For Beginners_ from Writers and Readers Publishing.

_Introducing Sartre_ focuses more on Biographical information, and brief Literary analysis of Sartre's novels and plays, than on his Philosophical works and their meaning. The illustrations are frequently just "fluffy" caricaturization instead of helping us understand characterization. Why would I want to struggle with trying to determine which figure is supposed to be Aron, Nizan or Sartre?

The book lacks a Glossary (which is further indication of its Biographical/Literary approach rather than Philosophical), and there is no Bibliography (all references must be gleaned from within the text.)

While as a whole, the book was a somewhat interesting read, the weakness of its philosophical examination allowed me to only rate it 3-Stars.

I just finished reading this and was amazed at how much I enjoyed reading about this man's intellectual challenges. While I didn't agree with everything he put forth, I did appreciate his attempt to say what he felt regardless of what others might say in response. While at times [many to be honest] he comes off as a whining, melodramatic, lonely, malcontent there is still something about his body of work that coerced me into attempting to understand the origin of my thoughts and actions over the years. Well worth the few bucks it takes to make it your own!

The existence of this slim volume baffles me. Alright, it is certainly true that Zweig's stories, many of which are absolutely marvelous, are in dire need of a re-release that would hopefully do something to alleviate their obscurity. Very well; perhaps the editors were operating out of this noble idea. Why, then, did they release only two Zweig stories, out of about twenty? And why did they make those two "Invisible Collection" and "Buchmendel"? Granted, both of them are good; the first is even great, certainly one of the man's best. But why only them? And furthermore, why charge the price of a full-length book for such an obviously sparse selection? I don't get it at all.

Bad judgment, certainly. However, it must be noted that neither of these two stories is included in the _other_ incomplete compilation, The Royal Game And Other Stories. Thus, if you liked those (and I don't see how you couldn't have), this book will make a good complement. However, even so, there are _still_ others that are in need of reprint but are included neither here nor there. Argh!

During his lifetime (1881-1942) Stefan Zweig was one of the most celebrated authors in Europe, and anyone who ventures into his writings will understand why. Zweig's insights into and compassion for his fellow human beings is both astonishing and deeply moving. These two tales are among his most beautiful. "The Invisible Collection" is told by an art dealer, who sets out to purchase a print collection from an old man, only to find himself coerced by the man's family into complicity in a heart-breaking game of deception. (The story is more poignant if you know that Zweig himself was an avid collector of autographs and manuscripts.) "Buchmandel" is an equally wrenching tale of a old Jewish man who has a faultless memory for books, who's life falls apart with the advent of World War I. (Imagine a kind of East-European version of Borges' "Funes the Memorious.") These two tales take the art of story-telling to its most refined state, and you'll understand why Zweig's work was considered some of the greatest writing of its time.

Bowles' autobiography "Without Stopping" has been referred to as "Without Telling" by Burroughs. Invisible Spectator follows it step-by-step, especially with regard to the early years. Additions to what Bowles fans want to know are largely limited to some speculations about Mr. Bowles' sexual relationships and a bits of new information from letters, interviews, and obscure publications. Historical context should have been provided given that Mr. Bowles was born in 1910, almost ninety years ago.

The last few decades are glossed over, especially considering the blow-by-blow account of the early years of career-building and travel. Again, these events are known largely from Mr. Bowles' autobiography and Invisible Spectator adds little. Little light is shed on the later years after Mrs. Bowles' death in the 1970s. These years have been highly productive for the subject, and much more interesting to this reader than the virtually prehistoric youth of Mr. Bowles. From the Beats on, the biography serves up the skimpiest information. If you have never read anything about Paul Bowles you will be entranced as his life is fascinating. If you have, there's little new here. The author is a fan, and a biography by a detractor would be much more fun. Regardless, cheers to Mr. Paul Bowles for letting the biographer have access to personal information. I wish he had done a more interesting job with it.

Paul Bowles lived in Morocco for a reason, he embraced the mystery of it,perhaps enjoyed losing his western self in it, and there is no solving in any easy rational way the mystery that is Paul Bowles. But this is a great gathering of the known facts. I appreciate the lack of speculation and reading into things ....the author allows you to accompany him through this life decade by decade, sticking to what is known. And Bowles, however good your guide, remains a territory for the most part unknown.
It may be worthwhile to compare this to Paul Bowles own autobiography Without Stopping published in early seventies.
In this biography you get a picture of Paul as a child, as well as a restless young man who cannot resist the call to Europe. You get Paul as composer of numerous film scores, poems, and a general idea of this middle period before that better known period as writer marked by the publication of that first book Sheltering Sky. Also there is an interesting portrait of Jane, his talented and troubled wife. And a picture of Paul at work with his protege Mohammed Mrabet whose oral tales he transcribed(including:Love With a Few Hairs, Lemon, Boy Who Caught Fire, others). This will give you a very good idea of Paul as glimpsed by an outsider as it is a competent and readable dossier of facts and dates. There are more speculative works about Paul Bowles available but really I think the fiction is the place to go. There you will find the most interesting Bowles, the composer of tales and mysteries, even riddles of what it is to be human. The story of Paul's life is interesting and perhaps it will help some who like to interpret stories with the support of biographical data but ultimately the facts in this case anyway do not go very far.

Although this book is a good basic overview of travel in Italy, it is written in an unnecessarily pedantic style. I found other travel guides on Italy to be much more reader-friendly and useful.

The great asset of the Cadogan series is the in-depth historical and cultural context that the authors set their desciptions in. While all of the usual nuts-and-bolts information on hotels, restaurants, nighlife, etc. is there, the emphasis is on really getting to know and appreciate the cultures you are travelling through, rather than just being able to name the Top 5 sights in each city and take home postcard shots of each. If you read this book, you'll come away with a whole new appreciation for the country and its people, and you'll understand why you've decided to travel there in the first place.