I really enjoyed this book, although the words were really long. Sherlock Holmes used such ingenuity to solve his cases, proving that the author is also pretty smart. I have some advice for readers, though: don't read it at night. There's a murder in just about every case!

This is a well documented and delightfully written survey of the history of the interpretation of Revelation. Accessible to both specialist and generalist, it deserves to be read by all interested in Revelation

Will Durant, in his congenial The Story of Philosophy, describes Bertrand Russell as "...resolved to be hard-headed because he knows he can not be."-This is a bit unfair, as it doesn't really take into account Russell's philosophy, merely the man. But the two are so hard to separate!-Basically, Russell believes that mysticism "is the inspirer of what is best in man." But that it is absolutely muddle-headed and has lead mankind down numerous philosophic blind alleys in the past thousand or so years (I think anyone who has read Kant or Hegel can't help but come to this conclusion).-University professors (especially those of Philosophy) are excepted from the previous parenthetical remark! -But I don't guess Russell (a Nobel prize winner in literature, by the way) matters so much anymore: This book I'm reviewing is out of print, nobody else has reviewed it and I haven't heard his name mentioned in highbrow discussions for many a year. He was a mathematical genius, wrote prose that could cut like a razor blade concerning the most abstruse subjects in a manner understandable to most laymen, and was a profound skeptic in re matters religious. This latter got him into all kinds of trouble with women's societies and the like back in the earlier part of the century and actually got him fired from the City College of New York. So he packed his bags and went to teach at Harvard.-You see, he was a British aristocrat (an Earl) and all this rabble rousing by the hoi polloi was really a non-issue for him. In his autobiography, he recounts how his mother always told him, "Never follow a crowd to do Evil." Russell never followed a crowd to do anything!-All this biographical elaboration is to help readers understand the man who wrote this book which, in a nutshell, praises the mystical impulse in its pure, unadulterated form while deploring the aforementioned philosophical muddles to which it leads, and, on the other hand, glorifies (justly) the English schools of empirical logic and the scientific progress to which they have lead. One can hardly look at this computer screen and deny this claim. All this in a lucid and thoroughly enjoyable prose. Yes, Russell has seen his days of celebrity come and go (as well as his days in general, one might add,) but if you chance by a wizened looking professor loaded down with heavyweight tomes on metaphysical systems, you might get a rather surprising response if you mention Bertie Russell. - In his day, Russell was the Mick Jagger of Philosophy, and coeds used to quarrel over who got to bed down with him that night when he came to lecture that the stuff a good proportion of their professors were teaching was, quite literally, nonsense.-And just think, he got away with it all! What fun!

A fine selection of Weegee's unposed, spontaneous vignettes of life in the city, at least, as it was in the 30's and 40's, equivalent of today's TV "fuzz and the wuzz". His accompanying commentary, unghosted and punchy, mirrors the b/w images; snappy, to the point. The paper stock used here is cheap, but then, these photos usually appeared in the morning paper...in a time when there were newspapers.

GETTING THE MAXIMUM GENEALOGICAL BENEFIT FROM "Names, Names, and More Names"

The recently published book, "Names, Names, and More Names" by Arthur C. M. Kelly has three main sections of use to genealogists. They are:
#1 Surname and Patronymic equivalents.
#2 Given name equivalents.
#3 Parents and married persons identified by given names only.

#1 Since many individuals were identified by both a patronymic as well as adopted surname in the early records, this information was used to construct these tables. As an example,- if you are working with the family that subsequently became Van WAGENEN, it would be helpful for you to discover (on page 79) that at least four different lines assumed the Van WAGENEN surname, namely, Aerts, Gerriits, Hendricks, and Jacobs in the early 1700s. That information should now allow you to broaden your search for ancestors so that you would consider those with these patronymc "surnames" as possible progenitors of your line.

Additionally, you can extend a search forward as well. For example, suppose that you have just discovered that a Maria STORMS was married to an ancestor of yours. By consulting page 141, you would discover that this patronymic became either BRATT or Van Der ZEE as a surname at the turn of the 18th century. Your research possibilities have now expanded considerably.

#2 The given name equivalent section of the book is particularly useful for discovering other spellings of a Christian name including nicknames. We wouldn't need a table for connecting Hulda and Hilda or Lizzie and Elizabeth but equivalents such as Helm and William or Nolte and Arnold might not be so obvious. The Dutch to English section is useful when determining what a particularly unusual Dutch name had become while the English to Dutch section allows you to discover alternate names for what the name became. For example, note the almost two columns of "Maria" equivalents on pages 207-208.

#3 The final tables in this book are those of last resort. When all other avenues have been exhausted in your search for ancestors, try these tables!!! The theory behind their use is described on pages 217-219. To give an example, suppose you have determined that the `arents of one of your ancestors is most likely a Nicholas and a Maria. Possible candidates appearing as parents (as found on page 244) occur in the Reformed churches of Albany, NY, Bergen, NJ, and New York City from 1655 through 1698 and this same pairing of names is found in the marriage section (on page 308) in the Reformed churches of Flatbush, `NY and New York City. Also, we discover that Maria is mentioned as deceased in the subsequent re-marriage of her husband in the Reformed church of Kingston, NY and New York City in 1681.

This is just a brief outline of how to get the maximum benefit from this excellent pocket guide.

Happy hunting!!!!

I recommend this book for those intrested in relating their personal biography to major national events in our country. The book narrates the trauma of the events from the Great Depression of the 1930's thorugh the bombing of Pearl Harbor to such events as the Cuban Missle Crisis, the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, as well as the Watergate affair and the explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger. The book permits the reliving the these major events for the older generation and provides for the younter generation incites into the events that had such a dramatic impact upon their parents and grandparents. The concept of collective memory focuses both on generational effects and the process of commemoration. This concept allows the reader to understand how we as a people selectively remember and forget historical events.

This book is simply essential for libraries belonging to poets, historians, pre-columbian and otherwise, -- art and otherwise, -- plain literary types . . . (why purchase some dud modern "poet" with only a few jewels in the mud when you can have an entire culture's fragments in one thin volume? -- the real poetry of this book is what isn't read, what is felt beyond, the lost worlds of the Maya, the Toltecs, the Aztecs, and so on . . . all the poems, songs, stories that didn't survive). Some of the most beautiful poems, or as they are called in a few of the selections, "flower-songs", I have ever read anywhere, and from any time, are to be found here. Yes, "I was absolutely riveted . . . ." That these selections are rendered into familiar and comfortable (to modern Western poetic sensibilities) and yet faithful to the original form is more than just a service of the anthropological-historical kind, it is a high literary success by Mr. Leon-Portilla and all those others involved in this project. There is no world like the New World, which is still New to us that have taken up the task of finally "discovering" it after all these centuries following its conquest instead of obscuring it, masking its enchanting past, -- found in histories, stories, memories become dreams, and vice versa, which escaped the conqueror's destructive hand -- in our own kind of lies and reflective interpretations like a great cultural of our own filth muddying their magical waters . . . no less atrocious a crime not just to them but to all men than the ugly graffiti of the American flag on the moon . . . if you want to go digging in the rubble for some real treasures, read this book . . . it's light, -- like gold should be, and, you know, you won't drown with it in your pocket if you take it on travels crossing waters . . . I mean that this is the real gold that the Spanish missed when they tried to annihilate not just a cultural tradition but an essence of mind, an essence of man, which we can certainly make a good go of recapturing, or at least see in the nearing distance, by reading their poetry and song . . . find this book, -- find a real "lost civilization" that isn't lost at all except by our own losing of it. Now how can you throw away an entire world?

I have been daysailing my yawl the Winifred for more than 20 years here in the United States Virgin Islands and have thoroughly enjoyed this book as have my guest aboard. In fact I have worn it out so will be ordering another copy. The arial photographs are excellent and useful and the information pertaining to the flora and funa are a bonus. Anyone planing on a visit to the Virgin Islands would find this book full of useful information even if you are just sitting on the deck of your villa in the mountains gazing at the small islands and cays on your horizon.

Very detailed, scholarly work, description of landforms, geology, soils, climate, vegetation, habitats, animal life, marine life, water resources. Overview of Indian tribes. Bibliography for all subjects is probably 200-300 references. Kruckeburg is Prof. of Botany at University of Washington.

- REVIEWERS SAID: -

"A writer and consultant with a profound understanding of complexity and its applications" Roger Lewin, author of 'Complexity: life at the edge of chaos'

"The best designed and best illustrated of all the complexity and management books. More than just another 'how-to' book , this is a 'how-to-think' book for practicing managers. Within this book lies the craft of management. Armed with the concepts herein, the manager of today is better prepared to face the complexities of tomorrow. Without such mastery, the risk is chaos and confusion." Michael Lissack, Editor-in-Chief, Emergence: A Journal of Complexity Issues In Organizations and Management

"An excellent, easy-to-read overview" New Scientist

"Navigating Complexity contains ideas to provoke, challenge and stimulate those working at senior levels in any role. Battram has taken a huge amount of source material and put it into a form where it can (and should!) be used by innovative managers and consultants. He has done a splendid job of bringing together the different aspects of complexity into a single excellently laid out volume. This book should find a place in the library of any leader, strategist or consultant who likes to create their own models and methods by synthesising ideas rather than following someone else's recipe" Long Range Planning, the Strategic Planning Society journal

"A powerful guide to thinking and managing your way into the new economy." Charles Leadbeater, author Living on Thin Air: The New Economy. "Presents concepts of complexity theory in a structured, well illustrated and direct way which is anything but complex." Management Skills & Development magazine

"He has grasped a wide variety of concepts from many contemporary fields and made them accessible and useful for executives and managers. Breakthroughs in results will occur if they are taken on board." Michael McMaster, Director, Knowledge Based Development Ltd, and author of 'The Intelligence advantage'

"Essential reading for every manager in local government who wants to bring about creative change" Professor Tony Bovaird, University of the West of England

"For me it is the key reference guide to this crucial area of management theory" Nick Zeniuk, co-developer of the Team Learning Lab with Fred Simon and Peter Senge

"Short comprehensible chapters doing just what he promises - taking the interested manager (or other amateur 'nexialist') on a guided tour of the field, from fractals to factories. It requires no maths background, but teaches you how to think about complex issues in today's ways." Jack Cohen, co-author, with Ian Stewart: 'The Collapse of Chaos'

- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Arthur Battram is a consultant and a thinker, writer and teacher in the fields of strategy, change, knowledge management and participation. He coaches senior management teams in the 'complexity perspective' and is the creator of Possibility Space Design, a methodology for enabling creativity and collaboration in groups. His work with senior teams focuses on organisational learning, creatvity and adaptation.

He has over 20 years experience as a facilitator of learning and change, with individuals, teams and large groups.

His earlier career in community development and playwork enables him to make an original contribution to groups seeking sustainable change.

He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on complexity, management, organisational learning and teamwork and is a visiting lecturer and research associate at Aston Business School, Warwick University and The London School of Economics.

Email Arthur Battram at: apb@cityplex.demon.co.uk