I enjoy the way that Gilbert chronicles Jewish history through maps. I found at least one error in his maps, however -- and one of the more recent maps at that -- which makes me question the accuracy of the entire work. The 1947 Partition Plan Map of Palestine, partitioning Palestine into 2 separate countries -- a Jewish state (Israel) and an Arab state (Palestine) -- is blatantly incorrect. While Beersheva is part of present-day Israel, it is improperly reported to be part of the Jewish partition in this book. In fact, all of the area surrounding Beersheva was part of the Arab partition in the UN Resolution. Similarly, the Arabs were also given a larger chunk in Gaza than what is depicted here. Martin seems to take the outcome of the Arab war -- what Jordan and Egypt were able to wrest and occupy (and incidentally, not give to the Palestinians) -- essentially though not exactly the Green Line map of 1949 -- and represent that land as what was suggested in the UN Partition Plan. In my view, this is a serious shortcoming, especially in light of the events surrounding the present peace process and the history leading up to it.

The author of this book chronicles and displays the Jewish history beautifully in this atlas.

Herzog has some valuable ideas in The B.S factor. His best writing is when he becomes passionate about becoming a "skeptic." But otherwise the book looks hastily written. Many ideas are unsupported. Many conclusions are unstated, leaving the reader to wonder, "what is his point?"

How could anyone not love a book about clarity of speech and thought -- or the lack thereof?

I didn't know Arthur Herzog when I first picked up "The B.S. Factor." I still don't know much about him or his other work. Yet, if I had the means, I'd put a copy of this invaluable book in every library, every waiting room, every reading rack, and every hotel room in America. His is the crusade I've been waging for a quarter of a century.

Herzog cuts to the bone in dissecting a myriad varieties of obfuscation, verbal misdirection, and just plain muddy talk. He concludes his incisive, hilarious taxonomy of verbal fakery with a brilliant essay on living in a healthy state of skepticism. One gets the sense that nothing fluffed or hyped could ever get past him.

Mr. Herzog and I differ on certain political matters, and here is where I find the book's only fault: On occasion, instead of concentrating on his primary mission, which is the exposure of imprecision, flim-flam and deliberate attempts to confuse that litter our verbal environment, he allows his politics to take center stage. Still, he doesn't let it happen often, thank God.

If you are concerned about the deterioration of language, truth, and meaning, but aren't sure yet how deep the rot goes, this is a must-read book. If you're already near to verbal paralysis from the seeming impossibility of getting the people around you to talk straight, Herzog is your spiritual kin, as he is mine. Either way, you'll come away from "The B.S. Factor" enlightened and refreshed.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace, Francis W. Porretto

The prospective buyer of "Battlecruisers" by John Roberts should be warned not to expect too much from this book. First, it's only about the British battlecruisers. All other navies are ignored. Secondly, it's a design history. The text is a synopsis of the Admiralty's meetings dealing with the design of these controversial vessels. Little of that controversy, or of that surrounding its source, Admiral Jackie Fisher, sparks this prose. I found it dry and quite uninteresting. Once the story of the blueprints is told, Roberts' interest wanes. None of the elan of these unique vessels shines through this book. Those who manned their fragile hulls are forgotten; this is not their story. Indeed, in its design tables and rough sketches this book deals more with ships that weren't built, rather than those that were.

Most disturbing is the lack of scale line drawings to illustrate the vessels' appearance. Yes, Roberts has drawn a wonderful 1:200 scale plan of Lion-class Queen Mary provided as a separate double-sided sheet, a couple of nice detail drawings, and sketches of armor layout. But there are no other drawings to show the appearance of the other six classes of British battlecruisers. This is an unforgivable omission in a book of this price and this pretentious title. What this book does offer is 80 large, nicely reproduced b/w photographs, 47 of which are credited to the author's collection. These 47 are not the usual collection of Imperial War Museum photos and were new to my eye.

Aside from the backroom discussions leading to their design, there is little here for the historian. Aside for the photos and the large-scale drawing of Queen Mary there is nothing here for the modeler.

_Battlecruisers_ is, first and foremost, a design history of the British battlecruisers developed immediately before and after the First World War. As any student of naval history knows, battelcruisers combined large guns with high speed (and, consequently, light armor) in a package which some felt would eventually replace the battleship. This, of course, did not happen, and even 80 years later there is a considerable disagreement over these "greyhounds of the sea."

As somone who likes getting into the gritty details of ship designs, I found _Battlecruisers_ to be an interesting book. Unfortunately, though, it's also a short book, a mere 128 pages (plus fold-out blueprints). This is a shame, as while the book of necessity mentrions some of the controversy surrounding these ships, it does not delve nearly deeply enough into the basic rationale for the ships as expressed by their creator, Lord Fisher. On the other hand, one could make the argument that such details are out of place in a design history, and furthermore that Fisher himself was never able to clearly articulate their rationale in anything other than pithy phrases such as "speed is armor."

If you are a familiar with the battlecruiser controversy, then I recommend this book. If you are not familair with it, I would suggest reading the section on the Battle of Jutland in John Keegan's _The Price of Admiralty_, and then reading _Battlecruisers_ concurrently with the relevant chapters in Robert Massie's _Dreadnought_.

If you work with underprivileged kids, as I do, you will find this book's exercises very difficult to use. The exercises require sustained attention for reading long passages, and the vocabulary level is extremely high, even for my 7th grade clients. Many exercises require critical thinking and creative writing skills, which my client's have great difficulty with as well. Most inner city kids I work with are performing 2-3 grade levels behind, and look at me like I am crazy when I try to do these exercises with them.
This book would work great with middle/upper-middle class kids who are taught verbal skills from the get go.

I feel this book is an excellent resource for students, teachers, family, and clinicians. I use this book on a regular basis, incorporating each homework assignment into each session and treatment plan. It is very helpful in defining the appropriate technique to a specific problem area. This book gives specific homework assignments for particular diagnoses. As clinicians, we can use this book to explore assignments other clinicians have found useful. We can also increase our knowledge of new homework assignments. This book is different to other books due to its specificity to various childhood disorders. I recommend counseling classes use this book as a guide to learn techniques. I also recommend families to read this book and try out the homework assignments. As a psychotherapist, I have found this book to be a highly effective tool in my everyday work with childhood disorders.

As an academic novel, Koestler's Call Girls has relatively little to recommend it, perhaps in part because it cuts so close the bone. Reading Koester's description of a small conference of academic "call girls" is all too similar to the real thing. The pompous posturing and politicking of such a group is every bit as tedious on the printed page as it is in person. If one is looking for an enjoyable academic satire, try David Lodge's Changing Places or Small World, try Richard Russo's Straight Man, or even try Jane Smiley's Moo; for a somewhat more serious expose, try Carl Djerassi's Cantor's Dilemma.

Not that I wish to dismiss this work entirely; Koestler's novel is far more successful as a bleak commentary on the direction of the human race, mostly due to the two brilliant short pieces which frame the centeral academic tale. These pieces remaing brilliant and haunting despite the dry centerpiece.

Koestler, best known for "Darkness at Noon", left us a satire of modern academe easily on a par with "White Noise". The book revolves around the smarmy and cynical personalities of several distinguished academics who are attending a conference, and offers readers a novel of ideas which asks disturbing questions about the relationship of intellectuals to society.

I've used this dictionary now for several weeks to prepare speeches on current events. I have found that the entries do not cover the "nuances" of meaning very well. And not all forms of the word are explored. For example, one can derive a noun, adjective and adverb out of most Italian verbs (although the meaning may not be what you exactly expect), and these variations are often ignored. I've replaced my 10-year-old paperback with this version, but will still seek out an unabridged Italian-English dictionary.

I have bought several Italian English dictionaries in the past. There are all different. Some have pictures, but then they do not have enough room and miss some every day words. They are good for beginners and some travellers. The other type of dictionary is the dry word for word transalation without giving you any examples on how that particular word could be used in a sentence. What I liked about Cassel's dictionary is that it addresses both points. First, it is over 1100 pages so you will find almost any word. Second, where appropriate, it gives examples of how to use the idiomatic type words. Any student of the Italian language knows that it is very easy to become frustrated by conjucations and the irregular verbs. That area is well covered here. However, if you really want to learn about Italian conjugations, read the "501 Italian Verbs by Colaneri and Luciani" There is also an appendix for words such as "wild cat strike" and "Warehousing" and slangs such as "floozie" and "flophouse" are also covered. So, this dictionary caters to your every need. The only complain that I have is that some pictures such as certain plants and architectural parts of the building would have made the book much better. All in all a great dictionary for all levels.

This book was written by a panel of scholars who cumulate PhDs in physics, philosophy and theology, and are more of the "liberal" trend (either evolutionists, Neotheist, Postmodern...). The different essays present a variety of views, but are highly speculative. I do not want to question the value of these scholars, I just think that they have to speculate so much because we know so little about Chaos theory or Quantum Mechanics.
The book is anyway a worthy attempt, given that unclear fields such as Chaos Theory or Quantum Mech. belong as much to physics as to Theology or to Philosophy. All interpretations seem possible.

An important study for our entrance into an age unfettered by a religious system repressing scientific progress, moving toward the merging of science and new religious study.

As a new student to Brazilian history, I found the book easy to read, and interesting enough to finish in just about one week. The author moves chronologically through the period in only 11 chapters with topics such as Discovery, The First Conflicts, Fighting the Dutch, and Settling the Interior. I feel I now know as much about early Brazilian history as most Brazilians do. Having a world atlas with DETAILED maps of Brazil nearby is a MUST while reading. Throughout the book there are hundreds of references to various rivers, mountain ranges and coves, but not a single map. This book is 270 pages long.

With many books written by American or other authors, this book has its own flavor: a brazilian flavor. Written by a Brazilian, he tells a story that does not embelish or take sides. A rather fine book!!

It's suppose to be a PICTURE book, but most of the pictures are badly printed in B/W except for couple others in the middle of the book. The author's description of these pictures are very dull also; I couldn't understand what was going on on most of pictures.

I bought the book to prepare for my Chemistry Class next year. Since it was a "PICTURE" book for "Everybody", I thought I would have no trouble reading, but no, I couldn't understand most of the parts, and was totally confused with all the weird vocabulary and hundreds of names. I was disappointed.

The good side: Though I didn't appreciate the book that much, it did have some nice tales that amazed me. And though half knowing, half guessing, I think I did gain a sort of historic understanding of the world from Alchemy to Chemistry, for that I have to say thank You. So overall, it's a badly illustrated book hard for beginners to understand, nevertheless, it's better than nothing.

This is a light-hearted picture book about chemistry with an emphasis on the science in Western World before the 20th century As the author states in the preface:

"I anticipate justified criticism of this idiosyncratic tour due to the numerous sites not visited. I freely admit that there are countless other paths through chemical history, and I apologize in advance for discoveries omitted or given short shrift. However, I want this book to be useful and to fulfill this mission it approach will not help to achieve this goal. Although I have attempted to apologize for the weak coverage given to early science in Chinese, Indian, African, Moslem, and other cultures. This is really more an artifact of the availability of printed books rather than intent.

"Although our tour is meant to be both light-hearted and light reading it tackles some of the important issues that are often too lightly or confusingly broached in introductory courses and are difficult to teach. We do, however, try out hand at humor and some of the earthiness so evident in the Renaissance works of Chauvcer and Rabeliais. Why not include Van helmont's recipe for punishment of anonymous "slovens" who leave excrement at one's doorstep? By providing such vignettes, I hope to reengage chemists and other scientists in the history of our field, its manner of expressing and illustrating itself and its engagement with the wider culture. I hope to provide teachers in introductory chemistry courses with some guidance through difficult teaching areas and a few anecdotes to lighten the occasional slow lecture. And if a few students are caught snickering over a page of Rabelaisian chemical lore or some bad puns, would that be such a bad thing?"

The author also suggested further readings in his acknowledgments:

"The most authoritative is the inspirational four volume reference work, A History of Chemistry (McMillan, 1961-1964), by john R. Partington."

"The development of Modern Chemistry (Harper & Row, 1964), and the more recent book by William H.brock, the Norton Hisotry of Chemistry (Norton, 1993)."

I was hoping that this book by Gillette and Garson would be an objective treatment of the subject matter, but it turns out to be a disorganized and self-serving treatment of the subject. The book serves to promote the author, his practitioners, and the company (Cook Inc.) that supports Gillette's hospital (Cook Children's). It's a running ad for the Cook catheters he promotes in the book. The authors are primarily his employees, and even his wife! For a more objective treatment on the subject, I recommend the book by B Deal from Northwestern University. Too bad about the Gillette book, I was so looking forward to a fair treatment of the subject.

Davis Holt, I work in the telemetry unit under Dr. Paul Gillette and from what I have seen he is the leading foremost authority on this subject and Pediatric Electrophysiology. Check this book out if you work in this field or need a good reference.