The large color photo's in this book are wonderful, but unfortunately, there is not as much information on the architect and the individual projects he worked on, that there are in the other 2 Lautner books I have Purchased ("John Lautner- Architect", and "The Architecture of John Lautner". Also this book is written in three languages and therefore the layout is a little confusing. If you are a huge Lautner fan like I am, you will still enjoy the book, and considering the cost is less than 1/2 the price of the other 2 I mentioned (unless you purchase the softcover edition) I consider it a great coffee table bargain.

John Campbell is without a doubt the most important science fiction editor of the twentieth century. Under his aegis, science fiction was completely recast from space opera into serious philosophical and scientific extrapolation; his stable of writers, led by Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, created the Golden Age of Science Fiction. This collection of letters shows the man at his most private, his most cantankerous, and his most intellectually stimulating. Anybody interested in science fiction will enjoy these letters. I have but two complaints. One, the collection would have been served even better had the letters TO Campbell been included as well, since quite often he is responding to specific questions and arguments. That's a minor complaint, given that the length of the book would have been exorbitant had they done so (although the editors seem to have believed this would be just the first volume in a series, making length less of an issue). A larger complaint is the scarcity of letters in the thirties and forties, when Campbell's influence was at its height. By the time the editors start putting in large collections of letters, Campbell's influence was secondary at best, as most of his original stable had moved on to novels and other editors, and his own interests expanded into little short of crusades: dianetics, psionics, anti-gravity, to name a few, as he began challenging the framework of accepted science and philosophy. Some of those interests remain fascinating, especially his examination of how we think and feel, but others have been cast onto the ashpile of ideas, such as the belief in psionics as the inevitable next stage in human development. With those two caveats in mind, these letters need to be read, and the editors need to put together their long-promised second volume, with a renewed emphasis on the thirties and forties.

This book is excellent, sometimes rambling from one person in the story to another, this makes the book seem alive. The story is about a WW2 Infantry Company that is put into combat (green) and looses many men from wounds, cold and combat fatigue. Overall a very realistic and moving book of the realities of war and the interaction of Officer and Men as they fight the European theatre.

For those who cannot view the Smithsonian traveling exhibit of the same title, this is an excellent substitute. The 60 plates depict the schoolhouses, diplomas, playground equipment, teaching aids, and housing quarters. The text also chronicles the rise and ruin of these schoolhouses, most of which are now gone.

After 18 years in the U.S. Navy, it's about time someone has written about the men who run the heart of a ship. Mr. Campbell shows how a true sailor acts in desparate sitiuations. Definitely one of the best. Look out Bond and Clancy.

"Treaties and Alliances of the World" is a one-volume reference to treaties, which are grouped into chapters by category or by historical period. With it, you can learn of specific European agreements, of cold war treaties, of commodity agreements, etc. However- and this is a large failing- no treaty citations are given. Sometimes a proper treaty title and date are given; sometimes text or a text summary is given; and in some instances the treaty's depositary or an organization (and its address) or a conference or an explanation relevant to the treaty is furnished. This book is more comprehensive and up to date but less pleasant to read and use than J.A.S. Grenville's "The Major International Treaties 1914-1973." The latter does give historical surroundings plus citations with its treaties but, now, is more a history book than a reference of current treaty actions. Edward Grosek. Northern Illinois University. c60esg1@corn.cso.niu.edu

John Quincy Adams Campbell was well named. As determined and purposeful as the president he was named for, he led a life similar in focus on principal.

Almost all of the Civil War diaries, Union or Confederate, recount days of slogging through mud, choking in the dust of other marching soldiers, and of camp boredom. Quincy Campbell, however, is an observant man, a newspaper reporter by trade, a man of detail. Not only does he record the mileage tramped and the direction of the march, when he crosses a pontoon bridge, he steps it off and reports the yardage.

Campbell is also a careful observer of the countryside he marches through. He evaluates the farmland for crops as well as the small towns for prosperity and the scenery for beauty. Aware of its political import, he attends and reports on a "Unionist" meeting in Huntsville in March 1864, a meeting held in response to Lincoln's 1863 Amnesty and Reconstruction Act.

An ardent churchgoer and crusader against alcohol, Campbell is just as determined a Unionist and fervent anti-slavery man. His comments on the day to day life of a soldier in the Western theatre of the war reflect all of his deeply held convictions; he throws himself into battle as ardently as he criticizes his fellow soldiers for getting drunk or his superior officers for what he sees as their blunders.

Campbell's diaries follow the 5th Iowa through the battles along the Mississippi, including Corinth, Island #10, Vicksburg and Chatanooga. The maps in the book, while small, aid the reader in following the action although reading Campbell with an open Civil War battle atlas is more rewarding.

This 200-page volume is better described as an academic monograph that extends the classic mean-variance asset allocation model in a multiple-period setting, hence the marketing claim "portfolio choice for long-term investors." The book will be interesting to those studying finance Ph.D. looking for a good survey -- the latter chapters resember papers in academic journals -- but is entirely impractical to the average investor or even, IMHO, most money managers. Much of the stuff cannot even be implemented on your Excel spreadsheet! So what you have is a very boring and inaccessible book that won't teach you a thing about how to practice strategic asset allocation.

I bought this book based on a brief review in the Economist. It was way over my head. I'm a serious individual investor with training in math but found the tone of the book to be fairly esoteric and of little practical use.

This book sums up recent research on the "strategic" (as opposed to "tactical", see eg Wai Lee's recent good book) asset allocation decisions - those of people wanting to design a portfolio for the very long term.

I am a practitioner, but this is not a practicioners' book on many counts: some of the formalism is hard (eg chap 5 on continuous-time models), it does not include rules of thumb, its basic framework requires a lot of effort to translate into numeric advice (10% cash, 40% bonds, 50% equity or suchlike). A PFP system based on this is some way off (also because real estate is left out).

Yet: (a) the book saves you a lot of time catching up with the literature; (b) it does dispel some bad criticisms of modern portfolio theory, especially in the first two chapters which are extremely useful as a reminder of basic dynamic theory; (c) it does throw in real-world considerations such as why do we advise older people to hold more conservative portfolios, what does labor income do to the basic model, why are bonds advised at all, the "asset allocation puzzle" etc.

You end up your quest for knowledge much the wiser having read this - and my quest was not effortless. I read this book (actually the Web version) while on a summer vacation. Got up every morning at 7 and worked about one hour at a time, first reading, the following day taking notes. In two weeks I sweated it out. It was worth it, and I bought the book too (the physical book is much leaner than the printout).

The Book was alright even though it did confuse some people from what i see.
I am truly sorry to dissapoint the Serbs-Bosnians-Croatians-Slovens and all other Slavic language speaking people but there is no way that you can be descendants of the Illyrians.

Almost all (over 95%) of these people speak the same language (called Bosnian or Serbo-Croatian), and come of the same European racial stock, descended from Slavic tribes that settled in the area in the early Middle Ages. The people of Bosnia are traditionally called Bosnians. For reasons having to do with recent history (and as much with 20th-century ideologies as with traditional religious allegiances), Bosnians whose ancestors were of the Catholic faith are now identified as Bosnian Croats (17%), while those of Eastern Orthodox background are now identified as Bosnian Serbs (31%). The largest group of the Bosnian population, however, are the Muslim Slavs (44% in the 1991 census), descendants of Christian Bosnians who accepted Islam some 500 years ago.

Like the rest of the Mediterranean region, Bosnia was part of the Roman Empire during the first centuries of the Christian era. After the fall of Rome, the area of Bosnia was contested between Byzantium and Rome's successors in the West. By the 7th century AD, Bosnia was settled by Slavs, who formed a number of counties and duchies. The 9th century saw the establishment of two neighboring kingdoms: Serbia (southeast of Bosnia), and Croatia (in the west).

I really dont understand why they are so ashamed of the fact that they come from Carpathia, slavic people are also a great people. But one thing is for sure they arent Illyrians.

Albanians(non-slavic) on the other hand are a different story.Data drawn from history and from linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological studies have led to the conclusion that Albanians are the direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians and that the latter were natives of the lands they inhabited. Similarly, the Albanian language derives from the language of the Illyrians, the transition from Illyrian to Albanian apparently occurring between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.
Even most historians believe the Albanian people are in large part descendants of the ancient Illyrians, who, like other Balkan peoples, were subdivided into tribes and clans. The name Albania is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Arber, or Arbereshë, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durrës. And than you have the Dardanians that are today known as the Kosovar-Albanians.

These are just some of the facts ...albanians still even have the same names, same old traditions and same old language. Just read some more about what historians have to say.

Remember Agroni(albanian name) the Illyrian king?
Remember Teuta (albanian name) the Illyrian Queen?

and you be the judge

Peace
and good luck

I am truly sorry to dissapoint the Serbs-Bosnians-Croatians-Slovens and all other Slavic language speaking people but there is no way that you can be descendants of the Illyrians.

Almost all (over 95%) of these people speak the same language (called Bosnian or Serbo-Croatian), and come of the same European racial stock, descended from Slavic tribes that settled in the area in the early Middle Ages. The people of Bosnia are traditionally called Bosnians. For reasons having to do with recent history (and as much with 20th-century ideologies as with traditional religious allegiances), Bosnians whose ancestors were of the Catholic faith are now identified as Bosnian Croats (17%), while those of Eastern Orthodox background are now identified as Bosnian Serbs (31%). The largest group of the Bosnian population, however, are the Muslim Slavs (44% in the 1991 census), descendants of Christian Bosnians who accepted Islam some 500 years ago.

Like the rest of the Mediterranean region, Bosnia was part of the Roman Empire during the first centuries of the Christian era. After the fall of Rome, the area of Bosnia was contested between Byzantium and Rome's successors in the West. By the 7th century AD, Bosnia was settled by Slavs, who formed a number of counties and duchies. The 9th century saw the establishment of two neighboring kingdoms: Serbia (southeast of Bosnia), and Croatia (in the west).

I really dont understand why they are so ashamed of the fact that they come from Carpathia, slavic people are also a great people. But one thing is for sure they arent Illyrians.

Albanians(non-slavic) on the other hand are a different story.Data drawn from history and from linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological studies have led to the conclusion that Albanians are the direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians and that the latter were natives of the lands they inhabited. Similarly, the Albanian language derives from the language of the Illyrians, the transition from Illyrian to Albanian apparently occurring between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.
Even most historians believe the Albanian people are in large part descendants of the ancient Illyrians, who, like other Balkan peoples, were subdivided into tribes and clans. The name Albania is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Arber, or Arbereshë, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durrës.

These are the facts ...they still even have the same names, same old traditions and same old language.

You be the judge

Peace

This is a great book!It explains the origins of Bosnians,and many other nations in the Balkans.
Serbian propaganda,and many "so called" historians from neighboring Serbia were spreading many lies about true origins of Bosnian Nation.This book explains in details the earliest inhabitants of Bosnia of whom we have any historical details,and they are Illyrians.,a collection of tribes which covered much of the modern Balkans including Albania and Bosnia.
The archaeological evidence from several sites in Bosnia shows that Illyrians were the stock-breeders specializing in sheep and goats.Also,the archaeological evidence from more than 300 sites in Bosnia shows that Illyrians believed in many gods,and they were very warlike.
A warlike tribe in central Bosnia,the Daesitates,whose last rebellion against the Roman empire was finally crushed in AD 9.
From then on,all the Illyrian lands were firmly under Roman rule,and a network of roads and Roman settlements was gradually established.Several roads ran across Bosnia from the costal town of Solona(near Split):these served as delivery routes for the gold,silver,and lead which were mined in eastern Bosnia in Roman times...I enjoyed reading it very much especially because it talks about origins of many peoples in the Southeastern Europe including Bosnians and Albanians.