MS.Chrisawn, a protégé of noted Napoleonist Dr. Donald Horward, has done students of the Napoleonic era a favor by producing a work on one of the foremost combatants of that period, Marshal Jean Lannes. While one can catch a glimpse of Lannes here and there in various volumes, e.g. Marbot, Caulaincourt, or DeSegur, it's certainly rewarding to finally have an affordable, English-language biography in print. MS. Chrisawn believes, and i have to concur, that too often members of the marshalate who missed the Russian campaign, fighting against Wellington, or going down to defeat at Waterloo, just aren't worthy of study. Dr. Horward must agree since he penned the Lannes chapters in David Chandler's NAPOLEON'S MARSHALS. The author bustles her prose along like the commander of an advance-guard but supports the text with indefatigable research among primary documents. The volume is happily shot through with excellent maps by Max Sewell. I enjoyed the work, learned a great deal about the protagonist but came away a bit disappointed with Lannes. I was surprised at his disobedience of orders, his often two-faced personal relationships, his really bad manners, and his complaining. I came away thinking him a competent corps commander but a touchy, hard to deal with subordinate, and a difficult comrade. I enjoyed the author's zesty "purple prose" which I'm sure irritated Dr. Horward, and am happy to fill another gap in the ranks of the marshalate on my shelf.

I loved this book, its biggest problem is that it is too short and you sometimes feel that the authoress has picked the highlights of each campaign and missed out on another data. Saying that the information that is included is informative, well presented and gives an unrivalled picture of Lannes's personality you leave the book feeling like you know him. I have no problem in recomending this book to anyone and hope that more books of this nature will appear in future.

Jean Lannes was one of the most talented of the French marshalate that served Napoleon and undoubtedly one of the most underrated. Starting as a lowly subaltern in a home-grown infantry unit from his native district, he grew into a thoughtful, aggressive, and intelligent corps commander who always did more than his assigned duty. He improved throughout his career, taking time out each day for professional study, learning to control a murderous temper, and was completely loyal, though also completely outspoken, to Napoleon. Blunt, loyal, and at times thoroughly uncombed (as when he told the traitorous foreign minister, Talleyrand, that he was nothing by a 'silk stocking full of [human excrement] to his face), he was also one of the leading soldiers of his day and contributed mightily to the success of French arms. His early death from wounds received in action at Essling in 1809 immeasurable hurt the Grande Armee, and the subsequent promotion of three generals of division to the marshalate at the end of that compaign prompted the army to dub them 'Lannes small change.'

In this new biography of Jean Lannes, author Margaret Chrisawn has hit the proverbial nail on the head. Blunt and outspoken as her topic, she has written one of the best, if not the best, biographies of one of Napoleon's generals that this reviewer has ever read. Thoroughly researched and documented, this book belongs on the bookshelf of every Napoleonic historian and enthusiast, and is definitely in the front rank of Napoleonic scholarship.

The author has captured the tone and spirit of the times and of her subject. Accurate and anecdotal (as when she quotes one of Lannes' neighbors who saw him as a general during the course of the wars on a return home, she still referred to him as a 'little twerp'), it is a lively account of one of the thorough roughnecks who made up the Grande Armee, yet does carefully recount how he continually strove to improve himself.

The author has also unearthed new material from extensive research in France and for a time stayed in Lannes' home district in France and in his hometown, tracing his descendants to get a feel for her character, both as a soldier and as a man. There is much personal material in this excellent volume, more than is generally expected in a biography of this period in history. The book definitely has more than its share of a 'whiff of grapeshot', yet paints Lannes as an entirely human person, and lets you know what and who he was.

Lannes is a thoroughly complex character, both admirable and mysterious. Typically, he exemplifies the men from varied backgrounds and who made up the top rank of the Grande Armee, those who actually, and quite literally, found a baton in their knapsacks. Lannes' relationship with Napoleon is carefully reconstructed here, being both loyal and tumultuous. His two interesting marriages, along with the character of the women he married, is also carefully recounted and is one of the areas in the book where new material has come to light because of the author's dedication to her subject. She writes as if she knew the man personally, and perhaps she really does, having walked in his footsteps in Europe. If other historians were as careful and meticulous as she, Napoleonic scholarship would reach a new high across the board.

The author paints a colorful picture of this most colorful of generals. She also carefully lays out a career that was just reaching its apex when he was killed. The conclusion of the book is interesting, and, in my opinion, most accurate. The author believes that Lannes would have made a definite impact in Napoleon's favor had he lived, a sentiment with which this reviewer heartily concurs. The author is a careful historian, skillfully weaving her tale of personal life and derring-do, and, although she admires her subject, she is also very critical of him and this shows in her narrative of both his professional and personal life.

This book is a keeper. It is a joy to read and is high quality, reliable reference material. The author with this first volume to her credit has taken her place with other Napoleonic historians of the first rank and we should all be looking forward to her next effort with great anticipation.

In my search for better understanding the history of India or better yet, the search for the roots of vedic civilization this book has been my first stepping stone. This book is filled with facts and dates and its own interpretations that guide the reader through to discovering that Indic/vedic civilization is infact the oldest and largest populated civilization of the world, dating back to over 3000 B.C.

It debunks the theory of Aryan invasion. I am totally convinced that Aryans were not some European race that came down to India and suddenly started writing books, prose and vedas, and moved away from their nomadic & barbaric ways.

It has helped me towards the confirmation that Sumerian civilzation (currently the cradle of civilization) was a small 15000 village, as opposed to the Indic civilization at the same time being 300,000 ppl strong. A metropolis compared to Sumer.

Interesting and must read for anyone interested in getting their facts right about 3000 BC area. It is very relevant information to this day.

This groundbreaking work could be considered as one of the 20th centuries-great contributions and scholarship on the history of humanities true historical progressions. The authors, Frawley, Kak, and Fuererstein have given us the cream of their accumulated erudition in this revealing study of Indian civilizations amazing gifts to the civilized world. It gives a refreshing and sound look at concepts that for too long have been incorrectly bent by the western mind views. This book will go far in helping to correct so many erroneous ideas about India and civilizations past in general, that have been in circulation far too long. It deals with many important matters concerning the flow of civilized knowledge and change, and symbology between India, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.

The reader will gain many new insights regarding who did what in the global picture over the last 10,000 years, an excellent resource for students doing oriental, historical and anthropological research. I found this book very concise and believable, written in a simple style that the average reader will appreciate as well.

Also recommended: Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda(x SRF Publishers), also supports many of the concepts put forth in this work and will extend your appreciation of India's contributions, especially in the spiritual area.

George Feuerstein is an excellent writer who is always lively and has many fine books to his credit. In the present book he and his two collaborators - Sanskritist Subhash Kak and Ayurvedic specialist David Frawley - have set out to bring us up to speed on the true nature of Ancient India and the profound importance and continuing significance of Indian thought for world civilization.

By fully taking into account the mass of evidence which has been accumulating over the past century, evidence from archaeology, satellite surveys, linguistic studies, etc., which a Eurocentric and reactionary 'educational' establishment continues to ignore, the authors have written an exciting and revolutionary book which pretty well renders obsolete all previous studies of Ancient India. In other words, it is a book which clearly demonstrates that much of what we have been taught about Ancient India (and which our highly paid academics continue to teach) is complete nonsense. But perhaps this will surprise no-one.

The book falls into two parts. In the first we learn that there was no such thing as an 'Aryan invasion' of India. It is a myth based upon a few idle conjectures of Max Muller along with a couple of scraps of misinterpreted evidence, an ideology masquerading as historical 'fact' (as is so much else today) because it fitted in so well with the Imperialist ambitions and racialism of the West.

India has always been multi-racial and multi-cultural, and the 'Aryans' were there all along. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were abandoned, not because of any supposed 'Aryan invasion,' but for the simple reason that the vast and sustaining Sarasvati river dried up c.1900 B.C., and the people of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization had to relocate further East to the region of the Ganges.

The Indians have no memory of an 'Aryan invasion.' There is no evidence of an invasion and no sign of the cultural break that such an invasion would have caused. On the contrary, India exhibits a striking continuity of culture which qualifies it as the world's oldest living continuous civilization, and one that stretches back to at least 6000 B.C, if not much further.

As portrayed by the authors, the rich and highly advanced Indus-Sarasvati civilization - a civilization of sages, priests, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, astronomers, artists, architects, engineeers, navigators, artisans, farmers and merchants covered an area of over 300,000 square miles (in contrast to Ancient Egypt's 15,000 square miles and Sumer's even smaller area). It held over 2500 settlements, towns, and cities, and conducted an extensive commerce with Arabia, Africa, and the Middle East. Also, where influences can be determined, they flowed, not from West to East but from East to West. In short, pace Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer, everything did not begin in Sumer. It was neither Sumer nor Egypt that was the cradle of civilization. It was India.

Chapter 9, 'Why the Aryan Invasion Never Happened: Seventeen Arguments,' summarizes and concludes Part I of the book. Part II, 'The Splendor of Ancient India: Its Cultural and Spiritual Legacy' provides a stimulating overview of the spiritual heritage of Ancient India, the birth of science, the astronomical basis of the Vedic myths, the powerful and long-continuing influence of India on the West, and the Vedas and Perennial Wisdom.

We learn that the Vedas are of staggering importance. Far from being a mere collection of myths, they represent a crystallization, in symbolic code, of the incredibly ancient wisdom of a balanced and harmonious civilization in which science and religion were not, as with us, opposed, but were mutually involved in the pursuit of truths which had the aim of bringing both man and society into harmony with the cosmos.

Sadly the Vedas, written as they are in a difficult archaic Sanskrit, are little studied even in India, and are even less understood. Given the increasing degeneracy of modern civilization, it is a blessing that a handful of determined scholars have today set about extracting the knowledge from this precious repository that could, if rightly used, help restore us to sanity.

One of the most appreciative interpreters of the Vedas today is the Roman Catholic priest and Professor of Religious Studies, Raimundo Panikkar, and readers are referred to his superb anthology of beautifully translated extracts with detailed commentaries, 'The Vedic Experience - Mantramanjari: An Anthology of the Vedas for Modern Man and Contemporary Celebration.'

Here is a brief extract (slightly modified since it should be set out as poetry). It should show anyone something of what we have lost and what we must relearn from "the treasures of Asian understanding" if, in the words of British scholar, scientist, and sinologist Joseph Needham, "our civilization [is not] to go down in history as distorted and evil" (p.167):

"Now Dawn with her earliest light shines forth, / beloved of the Sky, / Fresh from her toilet, conscious of her beauty, / she emerges visible for all to see. / Dawn, Daughter of Heaven, lends us her lustre, / dispersing all shadows of malignity, / Arousing from deep slumber all that lives, / stirring to motion man and beast and bird, / This maiden infringes not the Eternal Law, / day after day coming to the place appointed" (Panikkar, pages 164-65).

Sanskrit and English belong to the same family of languages, and we naturally resonate with family. Official spokesmen of a Eurocentric West continue to promote the arrogant and wholly false belief that "we have nothing to learn from the East." A few hours spent with Feuerstein, Kak, and Frawley's timely and significant study will soon convince you of the foolishness of such a notion. Don't miss this fascinating and extremely important book.