Brown does an excellent job of introducing the reader to the period of late antiquity in this work. He is able to cover the major political, social and philosophical transition of the Roman Empire of the Antonines to the emergence of the Christian Succesor States with clarity, and accuracy. Although this work does not take an indepth look into any of the many subjects that fall in this period, it is an excellent overview, and maintains a level of scholarship that is almost unparalled in a work of this nature. The book is documented to an excellent degree, so that even the most critical reader can see where it is that Brown is comming from. I would recomend this book to anyone from the avid scholar to the most casual reader.

Brown is able to establish the foundations for anyone interested in late antiquity with clarity and scholarly depth that is unparelled in the field. This book, although taking a broad picture of the period, and focusing on a shallow over view, rather than taking an indepth look into any perticular aspect of the period, is still scholarly enough to interest even the most particular historian, but will catch the interest of the beginer also. Browns conclusions are well thought out, and are based on an extensive, and acurate picture of the period. The documentation is incredible, hundreds of documents are quoted, and carefully indexed, in a book under 200 hundred pages, so the most nitpicky readers can see exactly where Brown is comming from. This should be the model for broad view scholarly work, this is truly an excellent work.

I haven't read many books about hockey coaching, but after recieving this book, I'm pretty happy with it. It teaches you the basic shooting principles and spends some time on each type of shot. Then it goes into sections about buildings skills for each type of offensive play your team might need to work on: 1-1's, setting up plays, etc. A good variety of drills are offerred in this book and the nice thing is you can photocopy them out one by one because they are restricted to facing pages - so that you don't have to carry the whole book around. I'll be using these drills with my kids roller-hockey team and I think it will help.

Not only does this book provide you with detailed drills , it backs it up with specifics on what areas the drill works on , and highlights. It also has well written introductions on individual areas and the skills needed to to become a better offensive player , well worth the time to read and digest the knowledge it provides .

Santa dropped this one in my stocking. It's great, particularly if you are searching for half-ice drills -- about half of the 75 drills are designed for half-ice. The strength of this book is its emphasis on puck movement to create scoring chances. The corollary is also true -- by emphasizing movement on the attack, goaltenders also improve their positioning and mobility. The drills are well-suited to kids aged 9 and up. I have shared the book with other coaches and, perhaps the strongest endorsement --my house league hockey association has ordered copies for all of our coaches!