This text exhibits the clear and straight forward expositional style one expects from Murray Spiegel. Many basic and advanced results are given as well as a useful discussion of non-inertial coordinate frames. This text in addition to "Schaum's Outline of Lagrangian Dynamics" by Dare A. Wells comprise excellent companion texts for either of "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" by Cornelius Lanzcos or "Mechanics: From Newton's Laws to Deterministic Chaos" by Florian Scheck.

Instead of using mediocre mechanics text such as marion and thronton I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys problem solving.

Solved Problems - Theorems on moments of inert

The other guy said it better than me, but Bookchin's book is one of the few that really get's down deep into the process by which anti-authoritarian ideas and movements get generated and how they achieve, or can achieve, social change. Wonderful both for theory and history.

From the few dozen workers who first listened to Giuseppi Fanelli as he presented "The Idea" in 1868, a nucleus of Anarchists slowly grew in Spain. "Anarchistic ideals are difficult to fix into a hard and fast credo. Anarchism is a great libidinal movement of humanity to shake off the repressive apparatus created by hierarchical society. It originates in the age-old drive of the oppressed to assert the spirit of freedom, equality, and spontaneity over values and institutions based on authority." (p. 16) Nineteenth Century Spain was rife with oppressive and authoritarian institutions-a culture medium, as it were, for Anarchism.

Bookchin traces the growth of the movement, explaining the various forms through which the anarchistic "Idea" developed. He briefly explores the influences of Proudhon, Kropotkin, and Bakunin, and contrasts them with the bleak realities of the Spanish political situation. The Spanish anarchists were not an unruly mob of bomb hurling terrorists, they were "freedom fighters" in the best sense of the term. Many exemplified self-discipline:

"The more dedicated men, once having decided to embrace the "Idea," abjured smoking and drinking, avoided brothels, and purged their talk of "foul" language. They believed these traits to be "vices"--demeaning to free people and fostered deliberately by ruling classes to corrupt and enslave the workers spiritually." (p. 48)

"Anarchist-influenced unions gave higher priority to leisure and free time for self-development than to high wages and economic gains." (p. 50)

"A very compelling case, in fact, can be made for the argument that Spanish Anarchism refracted the spirit of Enlightenment Europe through an Iberian prism, breaking up its components and then reorganizing them to suit Spain's distinctive needs." (p. 51)

Bookchin threads his way through the maze of Spanish politics, explaining the labyrinthine changes of government and policy. At each step, whether liberal or more totalitarian, the poor kept on getting poorer and the rich kept on getting richer. At one point, a system known as Turnismo existed. "Liberal"and repressive regimes would regularly share the power back and forth. When capitalists and land-owners needed to reduce the power of unions, a "liberal" regime took power, and while promising land reform and better working conditions, repressed the unions. At other times the more totalitarian regimes ran things, at times easing a few restrictions to keep the populace content. (One can perhaps imagine a bit of "turnismo" in the Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations!)

Anarchism flourished in both the countryside and in the cities. Many pueblos had traditionally run themselves by ideals approaching anarchism. These folks accepted the "Idea" readily. syndicalist unions also found themselves attracted to anarchism.

Anarchists formed their own schools. Francisco Ferrer founded the Escuela Moderna, with "a curriculum based on the natural sciences and moral rationalism, freed of all religious dogma and political bias ... [there was to be] no atmosphere of competition, coercion, or humiliation. The classes were, in Ferrer's words, to be guided by the "principle of solidarity and equality ... Instruction was to rely exclusively on the spontaneous desire of students to acquire knowledge and permit them to learn at their own pace. The purpose of the school was ... to create solid minds, capable of forming their own rational convictions on every subject." (p. 117) This system was so successful that within a decade over 50 such schools existed in Spain. Eventually, however, Ferrer paid for his "radical" educational ideas with his life; the government executed him on October 13, 1909.

Bookchin traces the encounters between socialists and anarchists. He takes the time to establish the difference between the two groups (To oversimplify: socialists depended on central organization, while anarchists looked to the local "grupos de affinidad" (affinity groups) for decision making). These differences became crucial during the Spanish Civil War, when communists fought anarchists in the streets, rather than working with them to defeat Franco and his Fascist minions.

The book does a great job of explaining the world into which the Spanish Civil War burst in 1936. Bookchin, however, does not enter that conflict. He leaves that to other writers, and perhaps with good reason. The Civil War led to the total repression of Spanish Anarchism. Having the book stop while the Anarchism was still in the ascendancy and not yet being systematically destroyed, first by its "revolutionary" allies, and then by Fascism.

In his concluding remarks, Bookchin makes a bold claim: "Although Spanish Anarchism was virtually unknown to radicals abroad during the "heroic years" of its development, it could be argued in all earnestness that it marked the most magnificent flowering and , in the curious dialectic of such processes, the definitive end of the century-long history of proletarian Socialism." (p. 278)

"The genius of Spanish Anarchism stems from its ability to fuse the concerns of traditional proletarian socialism with broader, more contemporary aspirations." (p. 286) Bookchin concludes by showing how "The larger problems of abolishing hierarchy and domination, of achieving a spiritually nourishing daily life, of replacing mindless toil by meaningful work, of attaining the free time for the self-management of a truly solidarizing human community ... [all this can be sensed in] sectors of society that were never accorded serious consideration as forces for revolution within the economic framework of proletarian socialism."

This book is required reading for anybody who wishes to understand the causes of the Spanish Civil War. It also presents some of the greatest Anarchist accomplishments in recent history. Bookchin related the history well and held my attention. I strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in Anarchism, in the Spanish Civil War, or who has ever read Garcia y Vega's REVOLT OF THE MASSES. It also makes understanding Orwell's HOMAGE TO CATALONIA much easier.

Five stars for scholarship, five stars for making history accessible, five stars for explaining difficult situations and concepts.

(If you'd like to dialogue about this book or review, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

Bookchin does an excillent job of presenting the often chaotic history of pre-Civil War Spain in a clear and organized manner. Possessing a clear writing style and an excillent grasp of the movement in general, Bookchin's book is an asset to anyone interested in Spanish history or Anarchism in general.

Anyone who is serious about becoming a writer, non-fiction or fiction, should get this book, write in it, highlight the points and study it like they are taking his course.
He starts you out with writing to yourself. Then takes you through each step of the process of preparing what you wrote for the reader.
Murray talks to you like are sitting in front of you. You feel like he can hear your questions, answers them, and then shows you what he is talking about.
The most important part of the whole book is Chapter 9, "'Read' as a Writer". He analyzes today's writers as a writer, a major step to really understanding the craft.
Other writing books tell you about practice sessions, structure, and voice. Murray shows you how to do the work.
Yes it is a very...book, but weather it is a textbook or not, it is a book of valuable information for those of us who can't work at the Boston Globe or go to Harvard--yet our passion to write is very real.

Author, Donald M, Murray, practices what he teaches: he writes with a singular voice. I could picture him talking to me in an earnest, friendly way.
I liked the way he led us through his process of writing an article about his grandmother. I also enjoyed reading drafts of his students writings and their finished, successful product. I was enticed to keep reading and therefore learning.
The book has widespread application. My nephew, a college professor, used this as his favorite textbook, yet I adapted the information easily for younger students. It works for both enthusiastic or reticent writers.
I was going to purchase a later edition at our local college bookstore, but found the topics written about were too controversial for my taste and too adult for me to use to teach younger students.
"Write to Learn", 2nd edition, is more than a textbook. It is a LIVING book!

I read this book for a college english class. We used the book for its every facet, and I got a lot out of it. The book is divided into chapter like sections that made the writing process seem less complicated. His personal writing style appealed to me as I read through the chapters on the begining of the writing process. I recomend this book to anyone with the urge to become a better, more creative, writer, and to anyone with the money to do so. This book is a small paper back...i don't understand the price ($35.00!).

Murray's primer on prayer is actually a collection of the great preacher's writings on the subject. It is best to read this with an open copy of the scriptures nearby. The reader is advised to spend some quiet meditative hours, allowing the Holy Spirit to encourage and correct. This book is a bargain, too, for the price.

This book is a must read for any Christian who is seeking an intimate relationship with the Lord. I began reading it during a difficult time in my life (when we all seek answers) and Andrew Murray literally took me by the hand and taught me that the most important thing one can do to develop intimacy with the Lord, receive direction in life from Him, and really begin to understand the heart of the Father, is through the single act of continuous, disciplined prayer. It has transformed my Christian walk and I am confident it will do the same for you. However, it is not an easy path and you will find that God is not a microwave. You can just pop in your prayers and expect an immediate answer. Our Lord desires a deep, intimate relationship with His children and it is through deliberate, disciplined prayer, followed by obedience, that we get there. It costs a great deal, but the reward is incomprehensible. Buy this book!

This work by Dutch Reformed Pastor Andrew Murray is actually 5 of his books in one volume; Abide in Christ, The Prayer Life, Waiting on God, With Christ in the School of Prayer, The Ministry of Intercession, and The Secret of Intercession.

What distinguishes this book from many modern day books on prayer is that Pastor Murray's focus is squarely on the Person of Jesus Christ and establishing a relationship with Him, whereas many of the modern day works on prayer focus on how to squeeze your desires out of God, as if He were a "Jeanie in a Bottle," granting your every wish.

Pastor Murray's work is no mere intellectualization of prayer, but rather gentle, Godly, scriptural guidance on how to experience the Person of God through His only provided means of doing so, and that is by prayer.

Rev. Murray uses scores of scriptures to illustrate that it is God's will for His children to experience and enjoy Him in His fullness. This work will transform the prayer life of anyone willing to humble themselves before Him.

G. R. Beasely-Murray (B-M) set out to write a book on his full understadning of baptism, and the results are amazing. I would warn you that this book is not easy reading, but is necissary reading for those who are truely interested in God's word. It seems like B-M did not leave any stones unturned in his quest to understand baptism. He brings anthropology, history, literature, theology and many years of knowledge out in this book.

B-M starts with a pre-christian history of baptism and cerimonial washing, including the Baptisms of the essenes, John, and the baptism of Jesus. He then looks at the formation of Christians baptism in the bible (broken down into each book starting with acts). Then he does a topical look at what Christian baptism means and theology about baptism: icluding grace, repentence, and faith which are almost always overlooked in modern discussion of baptism. The book ends with a look at infant baptism.

B-M is thorough in his quest to figure out baptism. He rest his arguments on facts and logical conclussions instead of assumptions (normally a problem with modern theologins). Instead of writing a book to support his denominations theology, he has the courage to challenge it (and other denominations as well).

Although this in not meant to be an "easy reading" book on the vast subject of baptism, "Baptism in the New Testament" is well worth a careful read by the serious Bible student. This scholarly book is written by a Baptist, but as the back cover says (and I agree), "his discussion transcends denominational lines." Baptism is a vital part of the Christian experience, yet it is so often misunderstood, especially when it comes to any possible role baptism has with salvation (specifically, justification). Beasley-Murray concentrates much attention on the historical aspect of the doctrine and shows how baptism has been practiced and believed in the last 20 centuries. I would heartily recommend this book to the person who is serious about his/her study.

This is the most thorough and scholarly study of the subject of baptism I've ever seen. It is particularly noteworthy that the author, a Baptist, challenges the doctrines of his church at several points. Unfortunately, at the end of the book, he fails to maintain his earlier conclusions when discussing the question "Is baptism necessary for salvation?" In spite of this inconsistency, this is an outstanding work.

I found this children's Bible quite by accident at my local one-stop-shopping-center grocery store. It is BEAUTIFUL -- both the language and the illustrations. It truly captures the mystery and beauty of an actual translation, while making it understandable and enticing to its intended audience. In addition to retelling more passages of the Bible than I've seen in any other story Bible, this book has an appendix containing a map, an index of places, and an index of people. It is a wonderful, intelligent introduction to The Book.

My husband and I had been looking for a long while for a children's bible for our 4 year old that kept intact the wonder and mystery of God and the scriptures through the text and illustrations. It seemed to me that all I could find were very cutesy texts and pictures that could be appropriate for very young children but seemed dumbed down for older ones. Or the other extreme, that it was too 'adult.' Or that it didn't have a very complete list of stories. We found our solution with this bible. My son loves having these stories read to him every night and can't wait for the next one. We do have to paraphrase some of the sentences in most of the stories, as the book is for older children. I am very happy that we finally found this children's bible which I feel acurately conveys the spirit of the scriptures and the awe of God to our son and us. Thank you Murray Watts and Helen Cann.

This book is absolutely a wonder to read; and with the excellent illustrations, you can't help but understand its content whether you're a child or an adult. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the Bible, as it is extremely understandable.

This is my favorite book about not only Jimi Hendrix, but Robert Johnson and Charlie Christian too. Occasionally Charles Shaar Murray gets a little carried away during his wordy descriptions, but it doesn't matter. If you want to learn about the evolution of African American guitarists, this is the place to start.

Perhaps the best book written on rock music.

Unlike the usual gossip-laden rock bios (which I sometimes relish too, I'll admit), Murray's book is a serious piece of work. I've yet to come across a rock author as capable as Murray in analyzing the most important aspect of our Jimi-worship-- the MUSIC. Murray's book delves into the sociocultural groundwork of Jimi's musical style, and makes very astute leaps in connecting Jimi's music to various influences. Murray is perhaps the most intelligent rock biographer I've ever read (and I've read most of the major ones). At certain times, it's as though Murray's descriptive skill nearly matches his subject's musical genius. In any event, this book certainly does Jimi justice. Murray's descriptions of some of Jimi's well-known material are awesome. He describes an instance of Jimi's tight playing as (sorry if I slightly misquote) a "propulsive ball of rhythm, densely packed with ideas," and so forth. Murray is singularly able to verbally express what we deeply feel about Jimi's music, but have a hard time explaining to others. You know how tough it is to convince non-believers why you KNOW that Jimi is a genius, when they think that he was merely a hyped-up, noisy, wildman-clown, right? Well, read Charles Murray's book. I think it'll sooth your soul, and you'll come away with a deeper knowledge and appreciation of his subject. Hats off to Murray!

Many reviews here are about the old edition of Mathematical Biology (the softcover one volume, 2nd ed). Recently J.D. Murray split the second edition in two hardcover volumes. Volume 1 discusses mainly models that use Ordinary Differential Equation, while slightly more complicated Math is required for Volume 2. These new books have added topics (modelling of marital interaction, temperature-dependent sex determination, wolf territoriality, etc). While sometimes the model is still very simple and in its inital stages (e.g. marital interaction model), the books show how much biology and applied mathematics intersect, and they make very interesting read.
There is a certain lack of analysis of the nonlinear cases, so for those who need examples of amplitude equations, different ways of perturbing a linear model, these books are not so good. These books might be too complicated for a bio person with not much mathematical background, but it is very accessible to those with some math background, and are certainly easy for Math or Physics people who want to know more applications to biology.

A few decades ago mathematical biology consisted mostly of evolutionary and predator-prey models. This has changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of computational biology and gene sequencing projects. The applications of mathematics to biology are now exploding and this book is an excellent example of that. The book could best be described as the application of nonlinear dynamical systems and reaction-diffusion partial differential equations to biology structures and processes. Readers with background in these areas of mathematics will find their ideas applied beautifully in this book. The best sections of the book for me were the discussions of synchronized insect emergence, models of testosterone secretion control, insect dispersal models, calcium waves on amphibian eggs, mammalian coat patterns, models of hallucination patterns in the brain, and modeling the transmission dynamics of HIV. Numerous exercises end each chapter, and the mathematical algorithms can easily be coded in Mathematica or some other high level language. This is a fine addition to the literature on mathematical biology and for the price it is a real bargain.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although a tough read, it is well worth your time and effort. The sections on spots and stripe formation are excellent and quite interesting. An excellent book!

In the early 1960s, Yoko Ono established herself as a challenging and often puzzling artist. She worked across the boundaries of media, making impossible to categorize her work in any field. A pioneer in conceptual art, video, and installation, Ono also crossed the boundaries into design with projects that took the form of advertising and designed artifacts. Alexandra Munroe and Jon Hendricks have surveyed the forty years of Ono's career in a richly illustrated book with essays and contributions by many scholars, including Kevin Concannon, Joan Rothfuss, and Kristine Stiles. The superb documentation includes an anthology of Ono's own writings compiled by Jon Hendricks, together with an excellent chronology and bibliography. Ken Friedman. "Alexandra Munroe with Jon Hendricks: Yes Yoko Ono." Book review published in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

I was at the SFMOMA to see her YES exhibition, and exactly what I expected, I was overwhelmed with delight... Her art is whimsically amazing. Her music touches your heart and soul. Seeing all the people there that day, I was glad that Yoko is finally getting all the respect she deserves, after all these years... Also caught her live performance at the Los Angeles's Roxy almost 6 years ago just took my breath away. I truly think she's one of the true visionaries of our time.

The price of fame can be extremely high; Yoko Ono came to prominence because of her relationship to super-celebrity John Lennon. Without this association to Lennon, she'd probably be relegated to the rarified world of conceptual art and never be a household name. But the fame came at a high price; she was villified for her influence on the pop-cult Beatles and blamed for their demise. This is unfair; the Beatles would have evolved and changed without any help from Yoko Ono or Linda Eastman McCartney. And then she suffered the cruelest blow of all, to have her husband murdered by a crazed fan.

I became a fan of her art in the 60's when I read about some of her "performance" art; one favorite; she dressed herself in her best dress,gave scissors to members of an audience, sat down in a chair and encouraged them to take snips out of her dress. At first, people were shy to do so, then as one or another became bolder and snipped bits from the dress, the group became practically frenzied and she felt even worried they would go farther than just snipping a dress with the shears. A wonderful elucidation of human behavior and original; it gave new insight into ourselves and thus was truly a work of art. Other works that impressed me were photos of the bottoms of bare feet, from under a glass surface, and of course the film of buttocks, which I personally never did have a chance to see, but loved the idea of.

This book is a tremendous resource of information into Yoko Ono's varied art including her music. (No reason why a CD can't be part of a book, great idea.) This book is a fine retrospective, and I only regret that Yoko Ono will never fully take her place in modern art because of the diluting influence of pop culture on her history, and because conceptual art still has not been given the same validity as other media. (Christo perhaps is the only one to have transcended this barrier, because he sells prints of his monumentally engineered and staged concepts.)

When I was given this book as a gift, I liked scotch, but was usually at a loss when choosing a new one to try. Jim Murray obviously loves whisky, and this book opened up so many different styles to me that it's been invaluable. I have literally worn this book out. The way he describes these whiskies makes your mouth water. And he helped me discover the difference between Tennessee whiskey and bourbon. Long live George Dickel!

This book is a great read for anyone who enjoys whiskey. Most Whisky books which tend to get bogged down in details about the distillation process and cumbersome ratings systems. Murray instead devotes a short but informative chapter to the making of whisky. The book is divided into sections by country(Scotland, Ireland, USA, Canada, and the , rest of the world) and then subdivided into distinct whisky producing regions (such as Speyside or Islay). Within each region, Murray highlights a couple of whiskys. for Each whisky Murray discusses some history and any unique characteristics. photographs of labels and the distillery are provided for many of the whiskys.

while novice whisky drinkers will find this an interesting read. This book is great for those who know a little about their whisky and want a good introduction to the variety of whiskys in the world. The reasonable price makes this great value for money.

This book is an outstanding guidebook by the world's expert on whisk(e)y. Unlike many whisk(e)y writers, Jim Murray does not just limit himself to Scotch or Irish. Mr. Murray has been to all of the Canadian, American and Irish distilleries beside Scotch distilleries. Mr. Murray has an appreciation for fine whiskies of all type. He does not directly compare Bourbon with Scotch and has an appreciation for each. Bourbon drinkers rejoice, someone who also appreciates Bourbon. Mr Murray also gives one a feeling for each distillery.

One note: Do not buy this book if you already own his The World Whiskey Guide as the text is essentially the same.