Walter Scaife may be an important figure in the emergence of the American historical profession, but the republication of this book is no favor to anyone seeking an introduction to the history of Florence. Scaife wrote his study over a century ago; since then, we have learned an enormous amount about the city of Florence during the Renaissance era, none of which is reflected here. More troublingly, the excerpts I have seen reflect a firmly Protestant view of the world, full of implicit criticisms of the "superstitious" life of the Florentines. Such an approach does profound injustice to the richness and complexity of late medieval European Christianity, and reinforces all-too-common American stereotypes of the "heroic" northern European reformers who saved the world from the papal anti-Christ. Even if Scaife doesn't make such statements explicitly, they color his view.

Students and others who encounter this book might not realize just how misleading and incomplete its picture of Florence is. The book IS of interest for those interested in American Protestant intellectual life in the nineteenth century. Anyone interested in learning about Florence, however, should turn to the work of more recent authors such as Gene Brucker, Alison Brown, Dale Kent, and many others.

I know William Jay Smith is a respected poet, but I found his poems to be lacking something. His style seems to be stuck in adult mode, but with children's-poem-style. I'm probably not making myself very clear here, but I didn't find myself hating the book. I just didn't like it, and keep seem to work myself up into saying much about the book. And that should say it all.

I contracted chronic Lyme disease a year ago and was not diagnosed for ten months. During that time I got worse and worse and not one doctor helped me. In fact they were rude and didn't listen. The over all feeling in the medical community is one of disbelief and hostility. This book is the epitome of those feelings. Reading this book made me feel the same way I did listening to a doctor tell me that the positive test was not significant. This book does nothing more than berate those that are already sick and frightened. It makes you feel as though you are the one with the problem. The disease is all in your head. Also I think I should add that the author of this book was appointed to the Lyme Advisory community for California and then was promptly removed because the people that had Lyme Disease were so angry with his attitude towards them. Beware of this book. It will do nothing other than make you feel bad about a disease that is not your fault. Which leads me to the age old question, Which is worse the cure or the disease? When there are books like this on the market perpetuating the horrible attitude towards truly sick people it is neither. Until this opinion is dispelled, there is no disease and there will be no cure despite how sick you really are.

This book will only confuse you if you are looking for real answers to the Lyme disease controversy or help for an undiagnosed illness. Barbour does not give you enough information to make informed decisions regarding treatment or diagnosis of an actual entrenched and untreated case of Lyme disease. Your money will be better spent buying books by Denise Lang, Karen Forschner, or Polly Murray.

Alan G. Barbour's book not worth reading
Alan G. Barbour is no friend to the Lyme patient. I suffer from chronic Lyme disease and was terribly disappointed and angered by this book. There was a pervasive, underlying thread which downplayed the number of Lyme cases, the severity of the disease, and the complexity of the disease. Barbour's disregard for the plight of Lyme patients is demonstrated in his inexcusable lack of treatment guidelines besides a cookbook reliance on a short term antibiotic therapy which has been clinically proven wrong for many patients. Many, many people are suffering with Lyme disease and cannot get proper treatment. If you buy this book, you will be, in my opinion, adding to this suffering. You will also be less informed when you have finished this book than before you began. Please don't add credibility to Barbour as a Lyme disease expert by buying this book.

This book is poorly written and won't be very useful to most readers. The authors are not, by any measure, distinguished scholars, and that is unfortunately reflected in the quality of the work. The economic analysis is extremely weak, not very relevant and not very thoughtful. Readers would be much better served by referring to journal articles published in this area and completely avoiding the text.