This essay collection examines issues which affect the past, present and future of NATO's alliances, presenting a variety of insights on NATO in theory and in practice in the process. From the history of NATO's international interactions and achievements to NATO's changing structure, NATO After Fifty Years will prove important for any studying international relations.

Sean Gillihan's poetry represents, as William Kittredge writes on the back cover, "a vivid and accurate, true new voice in the American West. He's been down the roads, worked the crops, fed the cattle--he knows the drills, and dignifies each quiet thing he talks about." Indeed, Gillihan's poems have a quiet yet confident strength and a calm yet powerful quality of vision that cannot be denied. Though often hailed as a new and strong emerging voice of the American West, Gillihan's poetry owes as much to an Eastern sensibility as a Western one--a quality reminiscent of Jim Harrison's poetry. But Gillihan's voice is all his own, and from these poems it is clear he has full command of that voice; his poetry is masterful, beautiful, and imbued with powerful and honest meaning.

This is a great book that suggests ways to improve literacy today in schools. It explains the need to change in elementary schools. This book is a wonderful resource for all educators!

And, as one person remarks in this study of the Irish conflict, "not enough Christians." Beginning with the earliest history of Ireland, author Rasnic traces the long-time resentment of the Irish toward the British and Anglo-Irish who occupied and controlled their land, and shows how attempts to eradicate Irish history and culture led ultimately to an Irish rebellion and independence movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. In a careful, thorough, and balanced manner, she describes the circumstances which resulted in the division of Ireland into the twenty-six counties of the Irish Republic, heavily Catholic in religion, and the six counties of Northern Ireland which have remained part of the United Kingdom, the population being 45% Catholic and 55% Protestant. With the Irish Republic having as its goal the reunification of the island, paramilitary groups on both sides have long resorted to violence and retaliation.

The author draws many parallels between the deep-seated religious conflicts in Ireland and Northern Ireland and conflicts regarding race in the United States. By examining legal cases and decisions in the United States regarding matters of civil rights, she explains the similarities and differences in legislative and judicial procedure between the U.S., Ireland, and Northern Ireland. She analyzes the terms of the Good Friday Accords of 1998, the events which led up to them, the various factions which had input in crafting them, and the personalities and relationships of the people from both sides which agreed to them, showing clearly the tenuous nature of the agreements and the immense patience which will be necessary on all sides if peace is to have a chance.

As the author points out, the Irish conflict involves many more issues than religion. With sensitive attention, she examines additional emotional issues including the release of prisoners, the reorganization of the police, inequities in housing, discrimination in jobs, the decommissioning of paramilitary groups, the inequality of schools, and even issues such as the routes of parades during the summer marching season, the use of British vs. Irish symbols on uniforms, and the choice of name for the police force. Her interviews with over twenty of the participants in the Accords are enlightening and give a human dimension to this enormous effort at peace, and she spends considerable time analyzing the newly established Human Rights Commission, the Committee on Administration of Justice, and the Equality Commission, all vehicles which are in place to redress past grievances if present behavior can be channeled in positive directions.

Author Rasnic has performed an immense service, especially to legal scholars, in explaining in clear, unambiguous terms the nature and history of the Irish conflict and the terms of the Good Friday Agreements which attempt to resolve it. By making connections to American civil rights law, she puts it into a context which may allow Americans to understand the complexities more clearly. Her personal anecdotes add insight and liveliness to discussions which challenge the reader with their complexity. Anyone interested in exploring in detail the Irish/Northern Irish conflicts and their possible resolution will find this book to be a thorough and balanced guide. Mary Whipple

Unusually entertaining and easy-to-read for a book used by many universities as a text on Papua New Guinea. Contains a wealth of historical facts, economic statistics and keen insights into the people and politics of Papua New Guinea, including many amusing anecdotes from the author's experiences. Though written and published some years ago, it is interesting to note the accuracy of many of the author's predictions as verified by the recent political turmoil in PNG over the Sandline mercenary affair. I thoroughly recommend this book for anyone wishing to know more about the complex and sometimes confusing political and cultural scene of Papua New Guinea.

As someone who makes a living dealing with SGML, I can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone who has to get into the details of the language. The SGML Handbook is the Bible, but it's rather short on examples (ahem). On the other hand, among books for acquiring serious SGML understanding on one's own, Parseme 1st has been, for me, the most useful by a mile. I think this is because it can be read either straight through, as a textbook, or in bits and pieces, as a reference. It's extremely well-organized, and any time you want a precise explanation of CONREF or marked sections but don't want to get distracted from the business at hand, there it is.

On the minus side, the programming paradigms it presents predate some standards such as DOM and SAX that promise to dominate XML processing. But the ideas behind these are clearly present, DOM in the Python paradigm and SAX in the Perl. And don't worry that it's not an XML book: basic knowledge of XML _is_ SGML knowledge. If you read this book, even without the sections on programming, you'll be in a position to understand the strengths and limitations of XML very well.

For me, this is an indispensable book.

Incredibly insightful treatment of the Easter Rising and the man who lead it. This book gives us a new way of seeing this great Irish hero and shows us an in-debt psychological study of what lead him to lead the rebelion. A marvelous book.

This International Security reader is a great collection of the recent work in the realist tradition in International Relations. Here you can read the "classic" authors (like Waltz and Walt) and the "new generation" (Schweller - excellent - and Zakaria). The introduction, written by the editors of the volume, is wonderful: it really "maps" realism and its authors. There is also two essays by John Mearsheimer, the "hardcore" realist and his gloomy "Back to the Future" article. Great book and certainly worth the money. This is the best book in the "International Security" readers series.

Everyone, I mean everyone, should read this book. Those who yearn for a book that transports them to another place have found it here. It is definitely one of the most enthralling and moving travel memoirs I have ever read and that has ever been written. Dont just think about buying it, BUY IT NOW!

Contemporary psychiatry is dominated by DSM-IV and ICD-10 classifications systems, both of which originate in either the Anglo-American and European traditions. This book has adapted these approaches in two ways. Firstly it recognises the importance of a symptom/problem-orientated method of practicing psychiatry for use in the primary care setting (where it less important to make a diagnosis, and more pressing to make management decisions - including being able to recognise when to refer on), and secondly it provides the practitioner in Southern Africa a guide on local conditions, legal requirements and cultural aspects (especially with respect to symptoms that enjoy cultural sanction but which in other settings would be regarded as disordered, such as ukutwasa, in which hallucinations commonly summon the individual to become a traditional healer. This is an invaluable book for the primary health care worker as well as specialist physician currently working in Southern Africa.