Excellent book and excellent adventure book. I especially enjoyed the updates provided in the book which is a reprint by the Cook Society. I am only vaguely aware of the controversy because of a friend who is invloved in high arctic camping. No matter what, Dr. Cook and his Inuit friends are cut of exceptional cloth to have endured so much, almost casually. However, I will say that Dr. Cook appears to be a more pleasant person than Admiral Peary.

Although the Cook/Peary North Pole controversy still rages after over 90 years, I believe that this republication of Frederick A. Cook's My Attainment of the Pole should help immeasurably in eliminating all doubt about Cook's accomplishment.

The book not only is a faithful, easy-to-read republication of Cook's 1911 opus, it contains up-to-date data from well-established polar explorers and historians that validate Cook's original observations. It also confronts the Peary arguments (and what appear to be "dirty tricks") head-on, and emergesw victorious.

After reading the book, I was convinced that Cook was the first to attain the Pole and believe you will reach the same conclusion.

When I went to New Orleans, I only had time for a quick driving tour. This book allowed me to see what I missed, and learn more about the architecuaral styles that surround the area. The book has great info on the styles, and tells how they came to be and why. The iron work in the area is to be experienced! The charm of the homes in the Garden District are brilliantly displayed in this book.

this republishing of the late 1980's version is a delicious remake made better by the new color photographs. Brantley and Brantley have out done themselves with this edition.

This, in my view , is the best book on the subject. It combines extensive discussion of the history of these agents, reviews of the physics of agent dispersal, and extensive discussion of both basic pharmacology and pricipals of treatment.
Any physician involved in preparation for these agents should have this book. Please note, this is not a basic or public interest book, but a serious scientific review.

This novel, like its antecedent I, Claudius, will mesmerize those who love classical history, although casual readers may find it tedious. The two works together form a fictional autobiography of the Roman emperor Claudius, who - at least in this literary incarnation - is both an astute observer of first century Roman political society and an extraordinary character in his own right. Born into the Roman imperial family but repelled by the violence and treachery surrounding it, Claudius retreats from power for much of his adult life. He buries himself in obscure academic pursuits and hides, for what he believes to be his own safety, behind array of weird physical disabilities. When his nephew, the mad emperor Caligula, meets his just reward, the middle-aged Claudius is literally dragged against his will onto the Imperial throne. I, Claudius ends with this bizarre scene and Claudius the God takes up from there with the improbable emperor's own account of his reign up to point of his death. Much to everyone's surprise, Claudius emerges into the public eye as an energetic, able and just ruler. And while the great pride he takes in his enterprise is evident, both the style of his rule and the tone of his narrative is characterized by a wry and self-deprecating humor. Much of the book consists of a detailed recounting of the administrative, judicial and military minutia in which Claudius immersed himself. However, there is a deeper theme at work too, which is the inevitability that innocence in a corrupt world will be betrayed. Claudius's closest friend for much of his life is Herod Agrippa, the grandson of the biblical Herod the Great. Herod Agrippa is a charming rogue and schemer who, while genuinely fond of Claudius, teases him mercilessly for being a fool and warns him, as it turns out in all seriousness, to "trust no one". The irony in the admonition is apparent when Herod himself betrays Claudius, plotting militarily against him and almost succeeding. This is only a side story, however. The thematic climax of the book occurs when it comes to light that Claudius's beautiful wife Messalina, whom he adores with the intense innocence of a teenager in love, has been using him all along for the fool, taking lovers and mocking Claudius behind his back. He finally discovers the truth when she is found to be conspiring with one of these paramours to seize the throne. She is executed for her treachery, but Claudius's spirit dies with her. He re-marries, but to a woman he cares nothing about and who, with his knowledge and acquiescence - for his death has been foretold by augury - begins amassing power on her own and conspiring to make way for her own son by a previous marriage. This son is later to enter history as the decadent fiddler Nero. The book closes with actual historical accounts by Tacitus and Dio Cassius of the real-life emperor's death at the hands of his ambitious wife, who poisons him. The last pages give us the final degradation, a bitterly satirical account Seneca, depicting Claudius - in death, once again the fool - trying to enter Olympus as the deified emperor but being banished mockingly to Hades by the other gods. The book is cynical and deeply sad. It's beautifully written and I recommend it, although it won't be to everyone's taste.

_Donoso Cortes: Cassandra of the Age_ is an excellent biography of the nineteenth century Spanish political and theological thinker Donoso Cortes. Donoso Cortes is famous for his reactionary beliefs concerning the French Revolution and the subsequent ideologies inspired by it and as a political prophet of the coming crises of his age. From his beginnings as a moderate liberal intellectual and journalist in early nineteenth century Spain, Donoso turned to the traditions of the Catholic Church and came to regard his age as afflicted with a loss of center due to the denial of tradition and the established order. Like other Catholic traditionalist counter-revolutionaries such as Joseph de Maistre and Bonald of his time, Donoso believed his age was headed for disaster in its denial of God and his rightful place among men as well as that revealed tradition of God in society so that it could only be saved through outright divine intervention. Unlike the liberals of his time, Donoso understood man to be rooted in sin and capable of radical evil due to his fall from grace. For Donoso, humanity would be entirely irredeemable were it not for the constraints imposed upon him from revealed tradition and the saving grace of Christ. In fact, Donoso's prophecies concerning his age were so dark and pessimistic that many have failed to see any hope for mankind at all in them short of a direct divine intervention. Donoso served as both a journalist and friend to the Queen Maria Cristina of Spain as well as a diplomat to both Berlin and Prussia and later to France. He had various relationships with certain central political figures of his time including the emperor Napoleon III as well as the pope. Donoso predicted the coming bloodshed in Europe, the nationalist and socialist revolutions in the next century, as well as making predictions for an innate saving power residing in the people and traditions of Russia and its civilization. It is the importance of these darkened predictions to the modern age that have made Donoso a figure who was revived in more recent times by various conservative political writers, among them the jurist and Third Reich intellectual Carl Schmitt. Donoso's early writings were written from the perspective of a moderate liberal and emphasized the role of intellect in political affairs. Later Donoso would take a sharper turn towards reaction rejecting the ideals of the revolution, and in his most famous work _Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism_ would outline the major differences between these political ideologies. For Donoso, liberalism represented a sliding point between the traditional order which consisted of the Catholic Church and the monarchy and the extremes of socialism and nihlism. Donoso respected socialism for having its own "demonic theology" and admired (though he sharply criticized) the famous anarchist philosopher Joseph Proudhon. Donoso observed the move away from God through pantheism (represented by democracy which deified the masses) towards His outright denial in atheism and nihlism. Donoso remarked frequently about the dangers of excessive discussion and parliamentarianism and the loss of the role of authority. The author, R. A. Herrara, contends that Donoso served as a Cassandra for his age, a prophet whose dark interpretations were doomed to be ignored in his time, but whose revelations demonstrated profound truths. This book provides an excellent biography of a lonely figure who stood for tradition and the authority of Catholicism in a time of crisis - a Catholic traditionalist and a dark prophet for his time.

George Eliot, born Mary Ann Evens, author of arguably the greatest novel in the Victorian era, Middlemarch, was not just an author but an intellectual giant. She translated works of philosophy from the German and from Latin; knew and exchanged ideas with the brightest minds of the time; was fluent in 7 languages (French, Italian, German, Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Spanish), and was compelled by a natural curiosity to acquire knowledge all through her life.

Her life with a married man created a Victorian scandal, yet by the time of her death in 1880 she was England's most celebrated author visited even by Queen Victoria's daughters.

This biography is a thorough, accessible and engrossing book. Author Karl is a fan of Eliot's yet hides none of her blemishes. While he generally refuses to speculate on a lot of Victorian gossip regarding her life, he at times annoys the reader with some unwarranted attempts to psychoanalyze her (I do get tired of the injection of Freud into literature). The slowest parts of the book deal with her frequent trips to Europe. We learn what she did on Tuesday in Berlin, and then her activities in Hamburg on Wednesday. While I realize that the recording of such information is important in providing a fairly complete detail of her life, I tend to nod a bit at the lengthy reports of her travels.

Historically we are blessed with a huge number of extant correspondence of Eliot. The author makes good use of these letters, yet the book does not turn into an epistolary work i.e. a book of nothing but verbatim letters.

One of my purely personal problems with the book was that I have not read all of Eliot's novels. Mr. Karl, of necessity perhaps, relates much of the plots of her books, and thus creates a real spoiler for the novels that I haven't read. That's my problem, of course, and not the author's.

It would seem that people today are probably unaware of this important author who was known throughout England during her writing lifetime. Her novels and her life are an important part of the literary canon. I heartily recommend this well crafted book

This is one of Barnard's best. After you have long finished the book, you can't get the sound of beating and flapping wings out of your head.

Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski
lived as a child amongst revolutionaries in Poland,
but read about the sea and dreamt of wild adventures.
He watched his mother die in exile in Siberia
and his father follow her to the grave soon thereafter.

Seasons of the mind can be taught to rule the heart.

Joseph Conrad survived a life of tedium and hair breadth escapes at sea,
but dreamt of understanding what drives and saddles men's souls.
He is rumored to have killed a man in a barroom brawl

and then escaped to England to take on a new identity.

There is very little time for true understanding.

Father and author Conrad lived quietly in a London suburb
and wrote in epic stretches that left him sleeping on the floor.
One day he emerged from his writing studio
and did not recognize his own son in the hallway.

Life stumbles on through fields of crowded emotion.
There is no loss of honor in fearing life's many deaths.

New York mustered the second largest number of troops for the war, in total over 50,000 men! From records in the NY State Comptroller's Office these volumes provide an unique source of information for the historian or geneological researcher. There is a convenient index to the first volume.

A must have!

I found the book to be very helpful during my undergraduate courses. As a masters student, I still refer to the book. It gives very good explanations to the basic operation of various op-amp circuits. Together with the well written explanations, the diagrams themselves are self-explanatory.

Generally a well organized and written book!