At first glance, this might seem like a good textbook. However, after having to deal with it for 3/4 of a semester, I've learned to not judge a book by its cover.

First of all, formulas are not presented in a way that is helpful. Facts should be highlighted and processes explained more clearly and concisely. As a non-programmer (I've taken web programming, computer science 1 and 2 up through binary trees), I felt that the symbols used for representing a lot of the rules were more confusing, and the text didn't help much in the explanation of what these combinations of symbols actually represented. Luckily I had a friend who could help me sum up what these things meant!

Our instructor also posted solutions to the problems from the instructor's book. One week there were 5 corrections for 10 homework problems (where the meat of the problem was actually approached in the WRONG WAY). Not to mention the multiple typos that any spell checker could have found.

For $[money], I'm sure there's a better textbook out there. To quote one of my friends, there is a better interpretation of Jim Gray's quote:

"This is a great book!" (I didn't read it at all!)
"This is the book I wish I had written!" (Then it wouldn't be so messed up and I'd be rolling in the dough!)...

First I need to explain my background: I only knew a little about databases and SQL in general, but I knew the topic was rather complex and very broad. Since I wanted to understand how transactions are implemented I decided to find a book on them and stumbled upon this book; I am glad I did.

Do I now understand how transactions are implemented? Not 100%, but certainly a great deal more so than before I read this books' chapters on transactions. Indeed, I am far more equiped to work with transactions because this book helped me understand what is going on "under the hood". While it wasn't "code level" details, it certainly satisfied this novices' thirst for a general understanding of transaction implementation plus it piqued my curiousity to go on and learn more about transactions as written by the likes of Gray.

Further, I have been given a nice introduction to Database Theory and the topic of Entity Relationships - an entire study of how best to design our data, which before hand I was completely unaware of!

Two chapters seemed rather difficult and one of the authors was kind enough to suggest I study Susanna Epp's fine "Discrete Mathematics with Applications" before heading back into foray of DB theory.

So, all and all, I found this book a delight and well worth working through.

Database and Transaction Processing by Philip M. Lewis, et al. is written as a multi-purpose textbook and practical reference guide for software engineers. One can use this book both as an undergraduate introductory course in database theory and design, as an advanced graduate-level course in databases, or as a graduate level course in transaction processing.

Being outside of the academia, but still needing a foundational theoretical (but not necessarily formal or overly detailed) reference, I was impressed on the ability of the authors to present concise and useful practical facts. Some other textbooks suffer from overwrought attention to topics in database normalization, correctness proves, and such - this one gives a lot of practical advise in optimization, distributed databases and issues of concurrency control and transaction processing. Chapters are organized in a self-contained fashion, so with a bit of background in databases, reader can just read a chapter in isolation if she is interested in a topic.

In summary, a very useful book.

Troward was a late 19th/early 20th C. new thought pioneer, who sets forth in these very accessible pages the outlines of the positive thinking/mental science ideas that others would refine and popularize. Ernest Holmes cited Troward as a major influence, and it is not hard to see why. Troward grasped and expressed well the new thought concepts of the interconnection between thought and the physical universe. Troward is often overlooked today, but he had a great deal of interest to say.

Unfortunately, though Troward had some ideas that were a bit ahead of his time, some of his ideas proved him sadly a creature of his time. The lecture which describes a kind of ethnic manifest destiny for the English people is not a particularly odd notion for his time, but seems particularly poorly-thought-out today. Troward's good ideas are unfortunately leavened with some deeply flawed ones. Still, this book is worth a read, and the fact that its title reflects "lectures" should not be taken to mean that this is one of those dry impress-the-academics lectures. These talks are neither dry nor unduly sermon-y. This book is an interesting read, even though a few of its ideas are deeply unsatisfying.

The lectures in this book were one of the earliest (1904-1909) explanations of how our minds control our lives.

In it, you'll learn about Spirit and Matter. Spirit is alive, intelligent, and essentially one. The cosmic spirit can be thought of as the universal subjective mind. Our thoughts, or objective mind, impose themselves on this universal subjective mind. Hence, our thoughts ultimately create external events. But there is a universal law of growth. Success comes easiest when we are in alignment with this law.

Unlike many of today's books on positive thinking -- which focus on material success -- this is a deeply spiritual book.

But it's also an old book. It's written in the British English of a hundred years ago.

So, while it's a difficult read, it's also a highly rewarding one.

Having read most of New Thought Literature over the last few years, my quest for the origins and inspirations of current New Thought literature eventually led me to discover Judge Trowards incredible writings. I believe that our current "we'll believe it when we see it" mindset imprinted in our social memory banks can be a barrier to discovering the true nature and source of our own creative powers. To the analytical mind of today that needs a solid foundation and understanding of how his arguments may be true, I find there is no comparison. Though written in turn of the century language which can be a little heady, his discussions and logical conclusions on how we are "distribution centers for divine unlimited creative power" are simply brilliant. I have not found any single other New Thought book that attempts to explain by "logical argument" from beginning to end, the path that leads the reader to understand the Laws of Cause and Effect and The Descent of Spirit into Matter and how to use these Laws to Create our own positive, unlimited life. Incredible Life Changing Book. READ IT DAILY!

Reading the great quotations, the thesaurus, or anything else that features vivid expression is valuable advice. It almost makes up for the book's two fatal flaws. First, "Elements" is jokey, sophomoric, and superficial in too many places. Second, the book's main prescriptions are neither summarized for ready reference nor linked to any underlying principles of good composition. Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" is more systematic and a better choice for my money.

Believe it or not I keep this book by my bed and enjoy reading the anecdotes over and over. The book is fun and a helpful tool if you are new to public speaking. Plotnik is a wordsmith who loves what he writes about. Sure, if you want a pedantic, academic, in depth, boring, "The Bible" of editing, writing, and grammar you should buy the Chicago Manual of Style. If you want to have fun with a good coaching on expressiveness this book will help. I know it made me change the way I did any public speaking. Plotnik made me analyze my speeches, and now I am aware of the sins which could make my speeches stink. Plotnik's sense of humor is a treat in the world of serious-language-salad-tossers, and he doesn't hold back any punches. In addition, his book entitled, Elements of Authorship, is one of the most depressing books I've ever read, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in writing. We mortals need all the help we can get to embrace expressive communication. Like spitting in the ocean; every little bit helps.

I am an Asian who came to this country when I was 25 for a Ph.D. in science and I am in my late 30's. All these years I took my horrible English for granted --awkward, lifeless and monotone. This book was a positive answer after a long search for a solution and finally my English made a much needed quantum leap. Great book!

In response to Hank Adams review on Esther Ross, Stillaguamish Champion. Regarding the weakness ascribed to the book by Hank when Ruby is delving into comments made by Mad Bear about Dick Gregory. In footnote 6 of Chapter 7, a reference is made to the citation for Ruby's claim of Mad Bear's judgement of Gregory. The source cited is Arlington Times December 15, 1966: "Of the Nisquallies, the Tuscarora remarked that they had made a bad mistake by importing Dick Gregory, Negro comedian, to draw attention to their cause. (Gregory was arrested and brought to trial last month on a charge of illegal fishing.) The Indian and Negro problems are not the same. There is no parallel, Indians owned and occupied the land, while the Negro people were brought in as slaves of the white man. Therefore, he said, the Medicine Creek Treaty was not allowed at Gregory's trial." The authors properly cited their source of information before making the statement.

Esther Ross, Stillaguamish Champion, reads like a novel. It is the thirteenth book by Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown, co-authors of several popular Pacific Northwest Indian ethnohistories. American Indian activist LaDonna Harris describes it as "A story about an American Indian woman who takes incredible risks." Esther's daring schemes for tribal identification were played out over fifty years (1926-1976).
Legislators who met up with Ross still mention the fiery-eyed Indian woman chief obsessed with the goal of federal recognition of the Stillaguamish people. The tribe was a signatory of the 1855 Point Elliott Treaty, yet without federal recognition the Stillaguamish could not carry into effect the treaty promises-rights to certain lands, use of certain waterways. Eventually the policy makers with whom Esther kept company by way of her frequent trips to the Capitol declared her a nuisance. Her long-winded speeches, highly repetitive, and her disregard for protocol irritated the officials; she would talk far beyond her allotted time, and she wouldn't go home.
Ruby and Brown invested almost a decade piecing together Esther's story after her son Frank offered them the five footlockers of primary documents and secondary source materials which Esther had kept. While the materials provided a close look at twentieth-century Indian politics and federal policy, the compelling subject was Esther Ross, a woman ordinary and extraordinary, complex and creative, tricky and tenacious as a bulldog.
Ruby points out that Ross "was a double minority, one-fourth Indian and a feminist before that word was coined." Hard to believe that this same Esther never knew she was Indian until near the end of her high school years. Her father was Norwegian, and Esther lived her girlhood in white Northern California society. Her mother, not noticeably Indian, did not enlighten her daughter regarding Stillaguamish blood quantum. Esther's father died when she was ten. When Esther was twenty-two, in response to a call from Indian relatives in distress, Esther and her mother moved to Washington State where Esther, ignorant of tribal history, decided to "uncover her identity."
To strengthen her quest Esther searched the vicinity of the Stillaguamish River for a legitimate source of land to qualify as a land base for her people. She sought ancestral burial grounds from the whites who owned and plowed them. Instead she was offered some bones from an exposed site. Applying her flair for the dramatic, Esther would spill these human bone fragments across the desk of governor Dan Evans in Olympia and later, display them in the national Capitol.
In pre-war days Esther's foot-going treks to visit Stillaguamish families increased the tribal membership to more than sixty, but post-war visits revealed a group more interested in award moneys than in Esther's larger goals.
During 1964 Esther's path crossed that of Herbert Holdridge, a retired brigadier general who advocated buying up Nevada desert land and turning it into a sovereign nation for American Indians. However, she had far greater interest in fishing rights for the Stillaguamish, a matter of sustenance and revenue. Joining the Poor People's Campaign (1968), Esther and her son Frank were bused to DC where Esther made her presence felt.
The Boldt Case would make the difference. The federal government was contesting the state of Washington's control of Indian fishing rights. The government attorney advised that Indians were entitled to fifty percent of the fish harvest; the state had ruled five percent. Judge George Boldt would try the case in Tacoma's U.S. District Court. And Esther Ross would have her "fifteen minutes." Fortunately for Esther-and the courtroom-David Getches represented Esther as special counsel. When she took the stand, he guided her through a review of Stillaguamish River history. Judge Boldt's ruling favored the tribes. The grumbling of non-Indian commercial fishers was heard for years, but the Stillaguamish had won the right to fish.
It would be difficult to add up the thousands and thousands of miles Esther Ross traveled during her fifty-year crusade for Stillaguamish recognition by the federal government. Or to say how many state capitols she visited, how many elected officials heard her speak-badgering, cajoling, but never threatening-on behalf of all unrecognized tribes who 120 years ago had chosen to stay on their homelands rather than accept the reserves chosen by white men. Their great-grandfathers had signed a treaty that would preserve fishing rights, but those rights had been denied the landless Indians. Esther became, eventually, champion for the whole, her mission self-sustained despite her meager income. Esther's complete and absolute dedication was not doubted. Perhaps this accounted for her supporters even among those persons who deplored her outrageous schemes.
Among such schemes was one that would temporarily disrupt the national Bicentennial pageant. The escapade began June, 1975 in Blaine, Washington, near the Canadian border, where three horse-drawn wagons and Western-clad riders headed for the 200th National Birthday Celebration, a 3000-mile trek to Valley Forge. It was son Frank's idea to set up an attack, to waylay the wagon train until the Secretary of the Interior unconditionally recognized the Stillaguamish tribe. Frank called television and radio stations, and Paul Harvey on his daily national newscast announced the impending attack. Indian activism of the 1970s was recalled-siege at Wounded Knee, takeover at Alcatraz, trouble at Fort Lawton. The "attack" might prove to be more than symbolic.
At Stillaguamish headquarters (Island Crossing), Frank stopped the wagons. And Esther, age 71, a wrinkled little woman wearing Indian clothing, stood in the middle of the road and read her speech. An assistant to the interior secretary assured Esther that the document granting tribal recognition would be ready in thirty days. Eight months then passed without word from the government, and a new secretary of the interior, Thomas Kleppe, was appointed.
Two years after the Boldt decision Esther "recruited" a steelhead trout from the Stillaguamish river to play a part in a scheme that stunk to high heaven. Needing to familiarize Kleppe with her drive for tribal recognition, she air-freighted him a frozen 18-pound trout labeled "Washington Salmon." The flying fish had begun to age en route; on arrival, dockers, holding their noses, wanted someone from Interior to take it off their hands immediately. Kleppe's response to Esther was to thank her and mention his preference for beef, saying he had given the beautiful fish to his neighbors.
Esther had problems within her tribe. They referred to her style of leadership as nepotism and resented her hiring whites as assistants. They challenged her right to increase, then decrease, the blood quantum for tribal enrollment to suit her personal intent. They openly wondered how much of tribal funds she was spending on herself. The Stillaguamish wanted Esther stripped of privileges and functions. It was more than two years since the promise made at the wagon train; push needed to become shove. Esther Ross sued the Department of Interior. Judge June L. Green heard the case. On October 27, 1976 Esther Ross' goal was achieved: the Stillaguamish had a recognized place in time.
During January, 1988 Esther began to sicken. Ever-protective son Frank cared for his mother until her death August 1, 1988, a month short of her 84th birthday.

My name is Sandra M. Allen, Chief Esther R. Ross Was my Mom and grandmother.

My brother David has received a history book for his birthday about yrs after grandma passed away in 1990 and we had noticed that the full information wasn't in it about Stillaguamish and this is when we decided to have Esther's(grandmas)story written.

I spent from birth till I was 16years old on the road with grandma and I had an education that I thought should be shared and here it is. To me Grandma was a role model and someone I wanted to live my life by and follow. In the book tells everything both good and bad in some eyes, but everyone has a opion. When my dad (Frank)and myself talked about it too me I wanted a book out because I wanted to have people read and see what she did and was able to do. To me she did more then she was ever given credit for. David and myself gave our education while growing up but in this book everyone can see why we are proud to have had the experience. I have finished high school and college this year will be going on to law school to finish grandmas work... I will be going for Land and Water rights and am very proud to have had her as a Mom and as a role model. My Father Chief Frank Allen passed away one week before seeing the cover of the book on May 14.2001 it was given to us at the gave site, this is to us a wonderful book and has everything in it that we wanted and to my brother David and myself we hope schools will use it and hope that it encourages people to not give up and that one person can make a difference. This women you all are reading about was a legend, role modle,history maker,mother,and friend. She had people who couldn't stand to be around her and she had people who couldn't wait to see her she was a honor to be around and I am proud to say this book is a 5 star. This wasn't to be about facts or to please everyone this book is from us to you the readers its not just one more book Ruby and Brown have written, this is a part of our lives and a way to keep it all together for our children and grandchildren and so on this is opening up our lives to you to share with you what kind of women she was, she was a loving, caring and I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for her and my dad Frank Allen, I would have been like my other siblings out drinking and no education or just given up but my goal in life is to be like her and do as she would have me do. So please take the time and read about my mother/grandmother, and see why we wanted to share her life with you and I hope she can be a role model for you also or your children. I was with Esther till she was taken from us and went on to school and when I graduated I dedicated my diploma to my grandma and dad cause without them I wouldn't have had the wisdom or strength to try and be the most I could be....

So please share this with others and I hope the memories of our life with our mom/grandmother and father will live on. Dad and Grandma always were together and now they are together in peace.
I miss dad and grandma so Dearly but with this it makes it as they are here with us still and I can still her my grandmas voice when I read the book so many memories. Some people have a scrap book we have a history richer to us then gold that is what dad and grandma left me the richest person on earth a life time of fighting and tears and sweat to give me and my children and theirs an IDENTITY and its one we hold close to our hearts.

While it makes for an interesting read as an opposing point of view to the current ideas concerning the origins of Arthurian literature, the authors, in their attempt to "deconstruct" the Arthurian myth and cut it clean from Celtic studies, often make outstanding leaps in logic (without sufficiently reliable sources being cited) and quite often mangle the Celtic evidence (which they are trying to discredit) by utilyzing incorrect etymologies of Celtic words and ignoring Celtic literary themes and archaeological evidence which would tend to discredit their Iranian-origin theories. By throwing the baby out with the bath water, they weaken their argument, for it has been consistently proved by other authors in recent years that there is, without a doubt, a strong Celtic influence over the entire genre of Arthurian literature. This shaky scholarship, coupled with a printing that is riddled with spelling/graphical errors unfortunatley leads to a strong warning of caution to any potential reader.

For those who cling stubbornly to the customary interpretations of the Arthurian sagas as being wholly Celtic in nature, this book may well present what appears implausible evidence. But for those who seek further than the past thousand years for clues about the nature of the Arthurian drama and the quest for the Holy Grail, as well as many of the symbols surrounding it, this book offers much convincing evidence that rings true on many levels. Strongly recommended!

This book was a great pleasure to read.I not only reread Herodotus, I did the Illias as well - again. Great book, well written, loved it.

An attack on the modern intellectual world by a leading light of the conservative "fifties" - that ghastly era that lasted from about 1946 to about 1963. Barzun is upset that the lower orders are no longer deferential to their social superiors, that women and minorities don't settle for crumbs, that students question what their professors say, that universities are not reserved for a small minority of WASP spoiled brats, and that everyone doesn't agree that imperialism is a great project. This is a man who wrote about half a century ago that, walking through the streets of New York City, he was distressed at having to listen to the "Bronx whine" and the "Alabama bleating" of the lower classes. I wonder what groups he could have been thinking about? Thank God that time has passed Barzun and his like by; they were still running American universities, or at least many of them, as recently as the early 1970's. This book is unlikely to appeal to anyone whose thinking is more advanced than that of G.W. Bush. For everyone else it is useful only as a historical document showing what the United States used to be like.

This book deserves six stars, and mainly because of people like the one-star reviewer before me. For me, a non-reader who, it turns out, was that exactly because of all those post-modern "egalitarians" of our day who write the most boring books on earth (*thinking* they can write because they can quote other, equally boring and useless "scholars" in a million footnotes).

To me these essays by Barzun were nothing new. The tune was similar to that of "Begin Here" and "From Dawn to Decadence," which is, he said it as it really is. College has deteriorated to some hippie gathering; the government tries its best to dumb down everyone to achieve some perverted condition of equality by imposing more stupid legislation while refusing to rely on reason; and there are all the trainspotters out there who think that by specialising in one "extracurricular" thing they deserve to be called intellectuals and Renaissance men.

One does not have to agree with everything Barzun says, but he clearly espouses the use of rational mind in this age of TV and anti-everything protests. He speaks of enjoying things because they are good and deservedly so. He advises on thinking as a pleasure, reading as a pleasure, savouring creations of art because it is good, not "original." He approves of earned inequality: if one is more skilful, experienced, learned, or simply more intelligent, it is only natural for these individuals to be respected for what they have achieved. Democratising everything is a crime against humanity because it holds back the best of the best. No wonder he had to call the book "The Culture We Deserve"--because of this deliberate and myopic levelling.

If my esteemed opponent had read these essays with more care rather than his bias by default (I'm sure you hated the book before opening it), he would have noticed that Barzun does not approve of racism or imperialism. Barzun is a historian first and foremost, and he is simply recording the story of the Western civilisation. Simply because he is not being ideological, prescriptive, and normative but rather a man of strong and well-founded opinions, who can also write exquisitely, it does not mean he is wrong. Just because you were of the Gore- or Nader-voting herd with little critical ability and esteem for individual talent, there is no need to compare him to George W. Bush.

Barzun is right in his view of this age as decadent (and he does not make a judgement of this state of affairs, please note), and in that the cause for that is the massive drive to emancipate and to return to primitivism. This century has produced few great figures in history except for populist and militant dictators who have been able to manipulate faceless masses. There is no incentive to set oneself apart because it is regarded so scornfully by the "democratised" majority as showing off or "unfair." In our day, there is little respect for any great achievement, which I think Barzun's work is. Barzun is a tremendous inspiration.

Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball. -Jacques Barzun (God's Country and Mine)

At this point, that quote is so old that I just sort of assumed Barzun must be dead by now. But I heard an interview with him the other day on NPR about his new book, From Dawn to Decadence - 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to Present, which sounds like it will be excellent, and then, serendipitously, I stumbled upon this fairly recent book of his essays. As the title of his newer effort might lead you to assume, these essays reflect a profound concern about the direction in which modern culture is headed. Tackling topics which range from government patronage of the arts to the writing of history to the teaching of Humanities, the book is unified by the theme of decline in the West, but it ends on an upbeat note as he assumes that the seeds of the next great Civilization must even now have been sown in the root of our culture.

Having taught at Columbia for over 60 years, Barzun is particularly interested in the complete hash that we have made of the academy. In Where is History Now?, he offers a devastating critique of the way modern Historians have come to focus almost entirely on not merely social history, but the social history of marginal groups, to the exclusion of great persons, big events and sweeping trends. He traces the beginnings of this problem to the Annales group in France, influenced by Durkheim and others:

It was soon found that many kinds of documents existed, so far untouched and worth exploiting--county archives, private contracts, children's books, records of matriculation at colleges and universities, the police blotter in big cities, gravestones in cemeteries--a whole world of commonplace papers and relics to be organized into meanings. Such documents told nothing important individually; they had to be classified and counted. Theirs was a mass meaning, and it brought one nearer to the life of the people; it satisfied democratic feelings.

One result of this search for arcania is that the history books that are produced are unreadable catalogues of stuff:

History is not a piece of crockery dredged up from the Titanic; it is, first, the shipwreck, then a piece of writing. What is more, it is a piece of writing meant to be read, not merely entered on shelves and in bibliographies. By these criteria, modern man must be classed as a stranger to history; he is not eager for it nor bothered by the lack of it. The treasure hunt for artifacts seems to him a sufficient acknowledgment of the past.

The other main result is that these historians end up specializing so completely in one discrete topic, even within the already unuseful field of social studies, that they lack any broader perspective.

He broaches this topic again in Exeunt the Humanities, wherein he particularly decries the tendency towards overspecialization:

The danger is that we shall become a nation of pedants. I use the word literally and democratically to refer to the millions of people who are moved by a certain kind of passion in their pastimes as well as in their vocations. In both parts of their lives this passion comes out in shoptalk. I have in mind both the bird watchers and nature lovers: the young people who collect records and follow the lives of pop singers and movie stars; I mean the sort of knowledge possessed by "buffs" and "fans" of all species--the baseball addicts and opera goers, the devotees of railroad trains and the collectors of objects, from first editions to netsuke.

They are pedants not just because they know and recite an enormous quantity of facts--if a school required them to learn as much they would scream against tyranny. It is not the extent of their information that appalls; it is the absence of any reflection upon it, any sense of relation between it and them and the world. Nothing is brought in from outside for contrast or comparison; no perspective is gained from the top of their monstrous factual pile; no generalities emerge to lighten the sameness of their endeavor.

If you wish to see an illustration of Barzun's basic point, stop by a newsstand some time and try to find yourself a good general interest magazine. They no longer exist; there are of course many more types of magazines than ever before, but they are so specialized, tabloidized or politicized that you're unlikely to find more than one or two stories in each one that are actually worth reading for anyone other than a fanatic.

In one of the best essays in the collection he takes on the Bugbear of Relativism. Moral relativism is one of the hackneyed phrases that we conservatives toss around to account for the wide variety of ills we discern in modern society. Barzun deftly sketches a brief theory of the history of moral behavior, which posits that this problem is natural and cyclical:

It is a commonplace that periods of strictness are followed by periods of looseness. But what is it that tells us in retrospect which is strict and which loose? Surely the change observed is not in morals, that is, in deep feelings rooted in conscience, which are by definition hidden. The change is in mores--conventions, attitudes, manners, speech, and the arts; in a word, what the people are happy or willing to allow in public.

I suggest further that this change precedes the swing of the moral pendulum. This is not to say that the change is one of surface only, a shift of fashion among the visible upper classes. The public gradually accepts change under the pressure of social need or cultural aims, then comes the loosening or tightening of behavior in the lives of untold others beyond the fashion-makers. Untold is the word to bear in mind. For throughout every change the good habits of millions remain constant--or societies would fall apart; the bad habits likewise--or the police could be disbanded and the censors silenced.

The insight here, the divergence between morals and mores, and the fact that the great majority of people continue to adhere to moral precepts regardless of the current mores, is especially compelling. And the metaphor of the pendulum, implying as it does that the swing back must surely be coming, gives one great reason for hope.

These are just a couple of the issues that Barzun raises in this consistently interesting collection. His writing is wise and witty and not at all pessimistic. Even as he surveys the wreckage of our culture in the final essay, Toward the Twenty-First Century, though he provides one of the clearest definitions of the general concern that animates conservatives:

The very notion of change, of which the twentieth century makes such a weapon in the advocacy of every scheme, implies the notion of loss; for in society as in individual life many desirable things are incompatible--to say nothing of the fact that the heedlessness or violence with which change takes place brings about the incidental destruction of other useful attitudes and institutions.

he also ends on the hopeful note that:

...a last consolation for us--as long as man exists, civilization and all its works exist in germ. Civilization is not identical with our civilization, and the rebuilding of states and cultures, now or at any time, is integral to our nature and more becoming than longing and lamentations.

This kind of faith in mankind and an overall generosity of spirit serve the author well, tempering his often scathing indictment of modern culture with an optimism for the future which is all too unusual in conservative critics. I look forward to reading his new book.

GRADE: A

The world was a lot more scared of nuclear war when this book was published in 1986, and the idea of digging tunnels to save us all seems a little silly to me today. The emphasis on the fact that that besides tunnels we also need the Lord to save us added no credibility to this book. I think the book's only redeeming quality is as some kind of historical document.

I can't add much to what the previous two reviewers have said, other than to add that the materials presented in support of a system of home and local civil defense preparations make total sense--far more than any kind of SDI system so far proposed. The Russians have a saying that "the Americans send men into space with the latest and most advanced technology. We send men into space in tin cans." There are times when low-tech makes the most sense, and in terms of civil defense, this is one of those times, as the authors make clear. One thing I found startling is the documented degree to which the Russians and the Chinese already have these low-tech solutions already in place, and so are not as threatened as we might think by the American "nuclear deterrence."

Buy this book. Read it. Figure out how to apply it to your own life even if you cannot persuade the politicians to abandon their high-tech fantasies for low-tech practical solutions. You will sleep better at night knowing that at the very least you are taking care of your family.

Technology as old as the spade is the centerpiece of this book's thesis on how Americans can be defended against nuclear attack. Leaving aside SDI or any other anti-missile system, this book concentrates on civil defense. The argument made is that MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), in which each nuclear power holds the others' undefended cities hostage to ensure the peace, is seen as immoral (with which this writer agrees). The solution offered is to go low-tech. Pointing out how England and Germany bombed each other into rubble, North notes that war production was largely unaffected (Germany's peaked in August of '44), because bomb shelters protected the populace. Hiroshima survivors within several hunderd yards of ground zero lived because they had enough overhead cover to absorb both the blast and the radiation. (My own military training stressed that 2 feet of packed earth would absorb over 99% of the fallout of a nuclear blast.) The authors propose that America adopt a nationwide system of shelter construction, designed to house the population in the event of a nuclear confrontation. They take pains to discuss stockage of food, water, and medecine, as well as the likely amount of space per person. The benefits are that, by being defended, we are less a target for nuclear blackmail, and the system could be used for natural and man-made disasters. Gary North's reputation may have taken a deserved hit over his call on Y2K, but he's on the money here, and quotes Mao on Chinese thinking on the subject: "Dig tunnels dep, store grain everywhere, and never seek hemegeony." This book should be at the center of the national debate over defense policy in this year's election. -Lloyd A. Conway

Contains excellent illustrations. The terminology and abbreviations may be confusing to some. Needs to be updated as some of the family nomenclature has been changed. I wouldn't recommend this for the average "what's this plant" person.

EXCELLENT first-book to reach for when needing proper scientific terminology. Does include some common names in the descriptions. Extremely detailed and uses extensive abbreviations. I used this book in Univ. of Idaho botany classes in the 1980's and still use it in my daily job now (year 2000). However, it does indeed need to be updated for current terminology and names, including lower-case spellings.

This botany key is used by University of Idaho's botany classes. It is still "the" book reached for by the professional in the work force. Afterall, what else is there that is so comprehensive? However, it is in need of revision due to changes in genus and specie names since its fifth printing of 1981.

If you've got an agenda, why not write a book? And throw in some new age hocum for good measure and get yourself on the whacky late night radio circuit to pump the book. Could Xlibris Corporation be a vanity publisher?

I certainly admire anyone who has the talent and staying power to write a book. From Darkness to the Light is a wealth of information. It is not a mere book, it is the end of my own 13 year search for the truth. Simple Bible stories came to life under his pen. People and places are put in proper order throughout history. What an amazing talent he is. I certainly congratulate him on his book and look forward to more of his writings. thankyou

my uncle wrote this book and it owns. even though i never read it.

I eagerly looked forward to reading this book, and gaining further insight into questions of morality in the moral crucble of concentration camps. But Todorov's thinking is fuzzy in the extreme, moving from cliche to nonsense. There are many extremely good books that cover the same material. The Nazi Doctors, by Robert Jay Lifton is infinitely better, as are The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by Erich Fromm, Treblinka by Jean-Francois Steiner, and Modernity and the Holocaust by Zygmunt Bauman. The only reason I give this two stars instead of one is that the original quotes by concentration camp survivors that he sprinkles liberally throughout the text are extremely interesting. The quotes themselves give insight. Too bad the analysis doesn't match the subject.

In the field of holocaust writing this author is probably one of the better, maybe the best. Therefore, I was interested in the book just because his name was attached to it. The concept is very interesting and a new one, examining the way the victims of the holocaust and the USSR prison camps dealt with their time in the camps and how they survived from an emotional perspective. It is a powerfully written book and the author pours a lot of himself into the pages. This book focuses on the human condition, how they survived and how they cam out in he end. It does not act as a history of the camps, numbers of imprisoned people or methods. If you are interested in the human element in this horrible time in our history then I would suggest this book.

Tzvetan Todorov's work is a must read for someone trying to understand the multiple, competing decision points for everyone trapped in the maelstrom of totalitarian genocide. Much like Hilberg's Victims, Perpetrators, Bystanders, Facing the Extreme tries to consider the mental evaluation processes of everyone during this period of history.

The most useful chapters are in the second section, entitled "Neither Monsters nor Beasts." Many aspects of personal character, coping mechanisms, and consequences are detailed in these chapters.

While Todorov's style (or the translation) are sometimes difficult to follow, the essence of what he is saying is dynamic, challenging reading. The chapter on Depersonalization is especially attention grabbing; while it focuses on life in concentration camps, in our present culture and its problems, it has many applicable lessons.

Todorov also makes many references to other salient works of Holocaust/genocide literature. For the new student of genocide, this may appear somewhat daunting, but Todorov does a fine job of quoting at length those passages that repeating, rather than leave you wondering what the stage whisper allusion was.

For anyone who teaches about genocide, this is a must read. For anyone willing to peel aside the dark curtain and look into the abyss of true dark humanity, this is a must read. Eva Fogelman's e & COurage" is a far more uplifting, positive book than Todorov's, but Todorov exposes dark thoughts that need not be kept like mushrooms, but should be brought forward for discussion and reflection.