The Spanish Conquest of the Americas has primarily been discussed in militaristic terms. Cortes and his small band of Spaniards, along with several thousand disaffected native allies marched on the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and in brilliant (some would say fortuitous) military maneuvering subjugated the New World. However, thanks to the efforts of historians like Dr. Inga Clendinnen, of La Trope University in Australia, zones of proximal development are reshaped. The Aztec were not the only ones conquered. Dr. Clendinnen's awarding winning work, Ambivalent Conquests, Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570, suggests that the Spanish not only went and conquered several New World cultures militarily, but spiritually as well. As the title suggests, the work focuses primarily on the Mayan culture in the Yucatan peninsula in the years following the military conquest. Clendinnen's meticulous research and easy conversational reading successfully argues that the Mayan developed a passive resistant syncretism to the spiritual conquest that was imposed upon them. The New World cultures accepted military defeat, but in an effort to keep some semblance of their former lives (in this case, the Maya) would pay lip service to the Spaniards' religion, but would still practice the hated idolatry in secret. While the conquerors were assimilating the Maya, the Maya were assimilating the conquerors' religion. This in turn necessitated the extension of the inquisition by the Spaniards to the New World in the paradox of Christianity at the time - convert or be killed. Clendinnen shows that the ambivalence was not how the New Worlders would come to know Christianity,rather, how the religious and the Old World settlers in their "competing visions" for what the Yucatan would eventually become. Dr. Inga Clendinnen deftly uses the historical brush to paint a picture of Mayan syncretism. The title is apropos; not only were the Indians of the New World conquered militarily, but spiritually as well.

Overall, Inga Clendinnen's book serves as a vivid illustration of history. The images from the text stick to memory, and specific events and people (Diego de Landa, Nachi Cocom, Francisco Hernandez, and Fray Francisco de Toral) from almost five hundred years ago, come alive. The book is divided in two parts: the Spaniards and Indians, where what happened in Yucatan between 1517 and 1570 is examined from two different perspectives. It almost seems like there are two books within a book, as there are two beginnings and two epilogues, yet the connection between the two parts is never lost. The structure of the book is not only interesting, but also appropriate to the message the author seeks to convey: it illustrates the idea of "confusion of tongues", the fact that the perceptions of the Maya and the Spaniard were almost irreconcilably different. The book is also thoroughly researched, employing both primary and secondary sources. I enjoyed Clendinnen's discussions of the books of Chilam Bilam, of Landa's Relacion de Las Cosas de Yucatan, and of the confessions that Landa extracted from the Indians in 1562. I also appreciated the fact that where information is unavailable, and deduction from what is known goes a little far, the author is not afraid to acknowledge it. I should also mention that the author makes an implicit assumption that the reader is Christian, and has a good understanding of Christian faith and practices. When explaining Mayan human sacrifice, for example, Clendinnen writes that "we have somehow to detach ourselves from our Christian-drenched notions of sacrifice..."
In terms of evaluating the persuasiveness of the book, I should say that although in the beginning of the book, she raises the question about to what extent the information that Indians confessed under torture was exaggerated or true at all, toward the end of the book she seems to have accepted the assumption that there was at least some truth in the confessions - that human sacrifice and crucifixions did happen, and were not just a product of Landa's imagination, as she had previously suggested. So she never really proves that human sacrifice and crucifixions did happen, but kind of explores the possibilities of "what if they did" and "what if they didn't." Also, in the epilogue, the author makes a quick conclusion that the events of 1562 were significant because it was only after these events that the Maya finally accepted Christianity, or some Mayan version of it. It does make sense that the events of 1562 and the general intrusion of friars into the Maya spiritual domain would demonstrate to the natives that Spanish presence would not be temporary, that the Spanish were there to stay, and must be taken seriously. But this is in the political realm. As for the spiritual realm, it is unclear why the violence, the sufferings inflicted by the friars, and the destruction of Mayan idols would result in the Maya acceptance that "the time of the old Gods was over", and that Christian deities and the Christian God would now rule. The events of 1562 do not demonstrate the superiority of the Christian faith relative to the Mayan beliefs. Why didn't the violence the friars inflict on the natives make the natives reject Christianity and to revolt against the Spaniards, instead of accepting the Christian faith?
This raises the further question of why some populations abandon their religion and accept the faith of the group that conquers them (after all, this is not the only time this scenario came up - Islam spread with the Muslim conquests, for example), while other populations or groups hold on to their own religions and religious practices for very long periods of time while living in exile (Jews in Christian and Muslim countries for example). What factors does the likelihood of accepting the religion of the dominant group depend on - on n the political coercion and missionary offensive of the conqueror, or perhaps on the ability of conquered peoples to resist this offensive by shielding behind the strength of their own religious beliefs and practices? What influences what form the acceptance of the religion of the dominant group take - absorption of new religion into the old religion, absorption of old religion into the new religion, or perhaps complete abandonment of former religious beliefs and practices in favor of the new ones. How unique is the Maya case? Or perhaps the acceptance of the new faith isn't something that abruptly takes place at conversion, but a lengthy, gradual process that takes generations, whereupon the old faith gradually fades away? If so, do elements from the pre-conquest period still survive in the religion of the Yucatan Maya? All these questions deal with the larger implications of Clendinnen's book: implications for the understanding of the domination of the conqueror (both military and religious) and the resistance of the conquered peoples, not only in Yucatan, but throughout the world. Do true conquests happen, or are all conquests to some extent ambivalent?

Despite the difficulties related to a lack of historical sources, Clendinnen produces a convincing argument about the Mayan's resistance to colonial domination. She gives the natives a voice, bringing the Mayans to life, realistically showing their strength and autonomy from the Spanish. Inga Clendinnen's book about the Mayan-Spanish relationship during the Spanish conquest is as enthralling as it is informative.

Finally a book anyone can understand not just those in the legal field. Being in the legal profession myself I find this book to be my bible. It's easy and takes you through the process step by step. The only thing you must watch out for are the forms which are constantly revised by the courts. Although this book gives you the names of the forms you will need, it is still your responsibility to check and make sure it's the most current one. One great way is to log onto the court's website where you can download the most recent forms for free. I find this book very helpful and hope you will too. Best of luck!

The earlier review is old. It was written in 1999. This book was updated in 2001. I found the book to be helpful, up-to-date and the most clear of all the CA divorce books.

I highly recommend it -- forms change all the time, it is always important to check copyright dates on any book when using the forms. Plus check on-line resources to make sure the forms are accurate.

The information and advice in this book is far superor than any of the other titles in the catagory.

The earlier review stating the forms were out of date is completely wrong and must be referring to an earlier edition of this book.

Plus, the review was posted in 1999. The new edition of this book came out in 2001.

This is an excellent book and if used right can save a lot of money.

Above normal production with some very nice touches. Very well written and complete text, although there is a painful flaw to this publication. The floor plans and a vast number of the desriptive pictures are improperly sized for viewing. Greene & Greene's art-like floor plan drawings have been reduced to something impossible to read and interpret. Considering the price of this volumn, this is an inexcusable flaw. As a coffee table publication this might be acceptable but for the money its a shame the publisher did not catch this oversight.

I grew up in Pasadena and have been waiting for a book like this on the greene and Greene brothers. This book makes all the other previous books look naive, fawning, and lame.This book treats the subject, that is, the architecture, properly.

....as all Edinger's books are, but this one contains more of his less useful Jungian prejudices in one place than most of his other books, with the possible exception of ARCHETYPE OF THE APOCALYPSE.

In discussing the transformation of the Western God-image, Edinger implies that "animism"--experiencing the divinity of nature--is a less advanced psychological stage than realizing that a God-image organizes the psyche. The animism argument is an outdated one and has been pummeled both by ecopsychology and by the aboriginal feeling for the sacredness of place. Edinger was an excellent Jungian analyst, but he was obviously no ecologist. Nor do his descriptions of traditional spirituality as less developed than, say, individuative methods do him or Jung much credit. Why do Jungians so often forget that Jung was a theist?

Given this, his dream (p. 74) is informative: finding himself in an alien-feeling world, he sees that the people listening to him are afraid of catching an infection from him--upon which he dances a jig, no longer afraid of them, and says, "Jumping Jehosephat"--an able description of the missionary enthusiasm with which a former Jehovah's (Jehosephat) Witness goes about acting his part in a kind of exteriorized play in which the world's a dangerous stage of "conflict and intrigue."

A plus is that this book is free of all the alchemical, etc. imagery originally reproduced to good expository purpose by Jung but wearyingly repeated by so many of his followers in their explanations of his thought; even the mandatory photo of Jung is absent. Another plus is that the selections from Jung's letters were well thought out and provide fascinating insights to readers who haven't read what's been published and translated so far of Jung's voluminous correspondence.

This book is an expansion and follow-up to Jung's equally wonderful book "Answer to Job." Edinger talks extensively about the evolution of Western man's idea of God. His "God-Image" (not God literately), but rather man's perception of God and how that has changed through-out the centuries. Edinger continues to strike a wonderful balance between scholarship and accessablity. Although, this book is by no means "lite-reading", it is a thoughtful book that the educated lay-person would find helpful, particluarly for those on a spiritual path.

This is the only book I have ever seen that touches upon what is for me the most important impetus to pray the Liturgy of the Hours: it is a prayer of unity for the whole church, and next only to Holy Mass, unifies believers, even those praying it in isolated circumstances, with the rest of the Body of Christ. This is an exciting book, and the chapter on apostolic prayer is easily worth the price of the whole. It may not make praying the Liturgy of the Hours itself exactly exciting, but it will clarify your reasons for doing so and make the discipline seem worthwhile.

Fr. Charles Miller's wonderful little book, "Together in Prayer: etc" was my textbook for a class entitled: The Psalms: the Prayer of the Church at St. Charles Seminary, outside Philadelphia, PA. I highly recommend this for the layman who would like to appreciate the psalms better, but have had trouble connecting to them in a meaningful way. Fr. Miller speaks, with great love, about the beauty and timelessness of the psalms by relating them to everyday situations. Fr. Miller shows how our everyday situations have a voice in these ancient poetic expressions. Although there are many Psalm scholars who will appeal to individuals involved in more serious study (such as Walter Bruggermann), Fr. Miller's "Together in Prayer" offers an accessable entrance point for the neophite. Anyone who reads this book will come away with a new appreciation for the Psalms.

Sometimes, very high quality source code is dumped onto the Internet just because it is old. For FORTRAN 77/90+ programmers that occasionally use or otherwise maintain legacy FORTRAN IV (a.k.a. FORTRAN 66) source code, this textbook provides valuable continuity back to the older standard. This title was published while the FORTRAN 77 standard was being finalized, so it still largely reflects the FORTRAN 66 standard - at the same time, it further discusses the up and coming FORTRAN 77 standard and the relationships between the two.

The preliminary chapter (Chapter 0) is most valuable as it provides a concise overview of FORTRAN 66 in about 40 pages. Later chapters instruct on some of the long forgotten FORTRAN 66 tricks that sometimes cause the eyebrows of modern programmers to furrow when trying to understand inherited code. I also found this book to be very helpful in understanding the use of characters variables in FORTRAN 66, which may be foreign to the FORTRAN 77/90+ programmer use to explicitly declared characters variables. I regret that the book did not acknowledge some of the antiquated non-standard features such as ENCODE and DECODE commonly seen in old source code.

Understandably, the actual presentation of FORTRAN 77 is less than complete, and the book is a self-proclaimed "advanced" book, so this is certainly not the best book from which to learn modern FORTRAN. And while there are other older books that can help one's understanding of FORTRAN 66, this hardback just also happens to be a fine tutorial on the subject on programming. Apparently, this title was quite popular and in print for many years.

I enjoyed reading this book and learned new information about cats that I had not previously known, including the fact that some "big cats" purr. I think this book is very informative and would be interesting for children to read or to just look at the wonderful pictures, which includes drawings, maps, and photographs. My particular favorite photograph is on page 14 and 15. In a full two page layout there are two cute cubs sitting in a field. It's an amazing picture. The book has a reading level of 6th grade (Accelerated Reader) but would be enjoyed by children ages K-12 for the illustrations.

This volume is a simple and a useful tool for anyone who is interested in improving his/her writing. This book is organized in 7 parts: Grammar; Sentence Errors; Sentence Clarity and Variety; Punctuation; Mechanics; Diction; and Paragraphs, Essays, and Research Papers. It also includes two glossaries: one of Usage and the other of Grammatical Terms. It offers the basic and essentials of grammar and usage. It also includes the rules for punctuation and the necessary elements for making up good paragraphs, essays, and research papers. This book belongs to a particular kind of reading: the one you never finish to read because you always have to check it if you want to write better! . The amazing adventure of writing is a hard task. As a non native speaker, to write in English could be a terrible nightmare. Doubtless, "The Brief English Handbook" is going to accompany me from now on.

of the comparative historical grammar of the Slavic languages. The complicated phonological changes are presented in taut and concise fashion. The morphology, as often happens, is more resistant to a satisfactory, integrated presentation. Highly recommended.

Although some claim you can't find a decent one volume Bible commentary, I've got an accredited B.A. in Theology, and I say you certainly can. The contributors of this commentary are from the highest levels of academia and present material worthy for the pulpit and pew alike.