I have only read the Gettysburg portion of this book. Abner Doubleday presents a high-level, general's view of the battle, written 20 years later. Movements of large units are described, with very few vignettes of how savage the fighting was. The wounds of his fellow generals are, however, detailed. This book will be difficult for the novice Civil War reader. If you are unfamiliar with the terms regiment, brigade, division, and corps as they were organized in the Civil War, you will probably not appreciate this book. Doubleday does provide detailed, day-by-day order of battle information for both sides in an appendix. Those unfamiliar with the organization of both sides will have to refer to it frequently. There is a detectable bias against Union general Oliver O. Howard, and some antipathy towards General Meade, the overall Union commander, largely because Doubleday was demoted from a battlefield command position he had assumed on the death of his corps commander. Doubleday also provides much less detail after the first day, because only on the first day were his units involved in heavy fighting. If you're looking for an account of the general course of Gettysburg down to the brigade level, this is the book. If you're looking for excitement, you'll have to go elsewhere. It should be noted that there is slim evidence that Abner Doubleday had anything to do with the invention of baseball. However, he did win a Medal of Honor at Gettysburg.

This was just what I was looking for. I was perfect to update my handwriting skills, and has made my handwriting more legible than ever.

Typical Algebra textbook. Hirsch is the master of pull-your-hair-out, frustration!

it is a good book and very informative for pre-medical students and a great fun to consult

Well, I had to buy this book because it was required for one of my management courses. However, since it was my one and only strategic management book, I don't have a frame of reference except with other course texts. As such, it seemingly did an adequete job in prodiving the necessary information. There were times when the professor did have to supplement the text with outside sources, but not too much. The text overall was a little dry, but not overly so- heh, not like my economics books =) (I was an economics undergrad major) If anything, I wish the book utilized more specific corporate examples in its attempt to explain concepts- And perhaps a larger review in strategic tools (such as 5 forces) would have been helpful.

>o'

It's actually two books by two different authors. The last 100 pages consists of extracts from various articles, letters, and journal entries by Leibniz that Bertrand Russell put together to form a coherent statement (since Leibniz never actually wrote a whole book himself). The first 200 pages consists of Russell's analysis of the 100 pages of Leibniz's philosophy.

The Leibniz section is pretty straightforward and interesting. I read the book because I was curious about "monads", which are the metaphysical analog of mathematical points (well, sort of). Before Leibniz gets around to monads, he goes into his theory of predicates (every element of the universe is a predicate that goes toward describing ME), which I found pretty interesting. There's also some discussion of space and time that I liked. The last part of the Leibniz section contains some arguments for the existence of God, which is probably the weakest and least interesting part of his philosophy -- as Russell gleefully and exhaustively points out.

I didn't like the Russell section (2/3 of the book) much partly because he brings other philosophers like Hegel and Kant into the discussion (I'm not very familiar with either); and partly because he goes into such depth critiquing fine points in the Leibniz writings, that I completely lost interest in anything Russell has to say.

What do you visualize when you think about India? Women with dots on their foreheads wearing flowing, silken saris? Ravi Shankar playing strange sounding melodies on the sitar? Beatle George Harrison sitting in the yoga lotus position in deep meditation while patchouli incense wafts through the air? Gentle Mother Teresa ministering to the poor? The language of love in the Kamasutra? Brahman cattle wandering the streets, free from facing the slaughterhouse? India paints a peaceful picture in your mind. In truth, the cattle are treated more humanely than the majority of people in India.

A caste elite dominates India, totally monopolizing the nation's power and wealth. Members of the highest caste, the Brahmin caste, use their power to suppress dissent from those who are not members of their caste. We learn from incidents cited in this book that their suppression has included the use of unspeakable torture, racially based and religiously based exclusion from educational and economic opportunities, and an appalling inhumanity towards non-Hindus. In India, there is no social democracy for the lower castes and non-Hindus. This book repeatedly reinforces this theme.

Caste is a condition determined by birth. There are no social classes in India; there is only caste. In 1980, an appointed commission counted 3,743 castes composed of people who are socially and educationally deprived. Each caste is defined by their traits, such as dialect, and their occupation, such as leather workers or weavers. Over half of India's population are denied opportunities that Brahmins claim as exclusive to their caste.

When the British made India their colony, they assisted in legitimizing the Brahmin position by employing them and collaborating with them by using their existing power over the Muslim minority and the Shudra majority. When India gained its independence, the transfer of power went to the Brahmins, or from the "white" British to the "brown" British. But power over the lower castes had never left the Brahmin Hindus.

In 1938, Mohandas Gandhi, known as the Father of India, defended tradition in The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He did not want to upset the status quo too much, tending toward "separate, but equal" when talking about providing opportunities to Shudras and breaking down the barriers between Brahmins and untouchables. Gandhi saw caste as a natural division of labor. Although Gandhi had visions of a nonsectarian society for India, his words and ideas are largely forgotten in today's India.

At the same time, another leader named Bhim Rao Ambedkar emerged. An untouchable who was educated to the doctorate level in New York and London, Ambedkar called for the complete annihilation of caste. The culture of caste, he said, is "a four-storied building without a staircase." The ideas of another leader are also forgotten. Jawaharal Nehru preached Hindu secularism and called for a national government based upon truth and justice. He wrote: "There can be no equality of status and opportunity within the framework [of caste], nor can there be political democracy, and much less, economic democracy." His attempts to eliminate caste by forced economic development were ultimately a failure. Today, the government, the legal system and law enforcement represent the Hindu elite. Members of the lower castes cannot expect truth and justice from religious and racial bigots.

Statistics about India are staggering - slum and street dwellers account for one half of the main cities' population. This equates to 4.38 million people in Calcutta, 4.12 million in Bombay, 3.2 million in Delhi and 2.1 million in Madras. The top one percent of the people controls 14 percent of the wealth while the bottom fifty percent of the population accounts for seven percent of the monetary resources. In rural areas, only one out of a hundred girls who begin school will finish class twelve. Eighty percent of illnesses are caused by water-borne diseases. Out of 142 major cities, 72 have no sewage systems at all. In New Delhi, with a population of 9.4 million people, untreated wastewater, including 450 tons of solid waste, is dumped daily - directly into the Yumuna river. Unequal land distribution, social inequality, threats of disease, rampant illiteracy, alcoholism, and poverty seem like insurmountable problems when Democracy in India reveals the huge numbers of people affected by the problems.

The population of India is estimated to increase to one billion people by 2000 and 1.7 billion by 2025, but these projections are dependent upon changes in social policies that encourage education of females and improved health care vice sterilization. The government's sterilization efforts are viewed as anti-Hindu, particularly since Muslims may have several wives and many children.

This book brings the reader greater understanding about the institution of caste and how it causes social inequality. The economic health of India suffers because of the immense inequality. India's only hope is mass education, training and human resource development that reaches all of India's people, without regard to their caste, race, gender or religion. Until the population is educated, inequality will cause continued religious intolerance, racial and gender discrimination, and will result in further acts of violence. Although there is a slight editorial error (missing text between pages 133 and 135) in Democracy in India, the authors present a large amount of factual information and clearly interpret the information in the context of caste.

I have a terminal illness, and am always looking for information about suicide JUST IN CASE. This is a very interesting compilation of articles and studies about assisted suicide, and I recommend it to anyone with a serious interest in the topic.