In this very thought provoking book, Hugh M. Hamill has selected a multitude of texts in order to give the reader a multidisciplinary outlook of the phenomenon of caudillismo. Articles by historians, political scientists as well as caudillos themselves allow for the neophyte to take a peek into this the world of these great and not so great leaders of Latin America. This book is a must for anyone with an interest in the particular world of Latin American politics.

I originally intended to give this book to my uncle for his 65th birthday, but when I started leafing through it, I found myself completely drawn in. An incredible lineup of wine writers have contributed to this book, making for some truly fascinating reading on the history of wine. I kept a copy for myself, and bought another one for my uncle (who told me he much preferred it to the ties and golf paraphrenalia he received...!)

The talented and benignly eccentric Lord Berners wrote music, painted pictures, became a British diplomat, and developed an extraordinary writing style filled with wit, irony, and clarity of expression. I recommend listening to his ballet scores and his incidental music to a 1947 motion picture of "Nicolas Nickleby," but I also urge Anglophiles and lovers of British literature to read this slender and delightful volume of memoirs. The time is 1900, when, as Lord Berners writes, "international war still seemed a remote menace, and there were no passports." Gerald Tyrwhitt - for that was his name until he assumed Lordship in 1918 - has left Eton and is now preparing for a career in the British diplomatic service by visiting France for a year to perfect his faulty French, and to savor the culture of Europe. He is also experiencing complete freedom from academic and maternal control for the first time, encountering a late adolescent sexual awakening, and developing an artistic vision that will be the basis of his later creative life. In France he stays with an extraordinary woman, Madame O'Kerrins, the widow of a French-naturalized Irishman, who takes in British borders to support the Château de Résenlieu. The book documents his year's stay with Madame O'Kerrins and a few of her relatives and borders, and reveals the excitement and joy that a seventeen-year old British aristocrat feels when he confronts that totally different culture of provincial France. Written with the care and perception that is characteristic of Lord Berners' work, the book explores the changes that take place within the author. For example, Lord Berners explains his turning away from the heaviness of Romanticism and the overbearing denseness of Wagner's music and adopting the lighter, more impressionistic feelings of French music and art. These impressions, I believe, were solidified during this period and lasted his entire life. His music indeed sounds more like Satie than Wagner, and the lightness of his later work is influenced by the French. His perceptions of the people he meets and his descriptions of the provincial town of Gacé are beautifully written. His prose moves lovingly over each page, and his account of falling in love for the first time in his life with Mademoiselle Henriette is extremely poignant. I heartily recommend this short memoir by Lord Berners, for I am certain the reader, like myself, will be encouraged to explore his other works. In fact, I am beginning his "Collected Tales of Fantasies" as soon as I post this review!

"The Choephoroe" ("The Libation Bearers") is the second play in the Orestia trilogy of Aeschylus. It takes place a few years after the events covered in "Agamemnon," which tells of how Agamemnon returned victoriously from the Trojan War only to be slain by his wife Clytemnestra, who never forgave her husband for having their daughter Iphigenia sacrificed so the Achean fleet could sail for Troy ten years earlier. "The Choephoroe" finds Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, living in exile in the nearby kingdom of Phocis. However, in obedience to a command given him by the god Apollo, Orestes returns to Argos to avenge his father. Seeking out his sister Electra, Orestes disguises himself to enter the palace where he kills Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Orestes attempts to justify his act of matricide but in the final scene of the play becomes consumed by madness and flees from the Furies, the punishing spirits of the gods who will hound him for his hideous crime. The Orestia concludes in "The Eumenides," where Orestes is expiated of his crime and Aeschylus completes his dramatic argument for the civilized notion of justice.

The story of the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes is a unique tale from ancient mythology because it is the one story which serves as the subject for plays by all three of the great Greek tragic poets; both Sophocles and Euripides called their versions of the tale "Electra." All three have their own perspectives on the tale and what makes the Aeschylus version stand out, besides being the middle part of the only extant trilogy from these ancient dramatic competition, is the confrontation between mother and son. After hearing that Aegisthus has been slain, Clytemnestra knows that Orestes has returned and sends her servants to get the ax with which she slew his father. But when they confront each other she reminds him that she gave him birth and nursed him through infancy. Then she argues that she was justified in killing Agamemnon. Finally she threatens him, saying Orestes will be tormented forever if he kills his mother. Orestes replied he would be tormented by his father's curse if he spares her.

This scene in the play's fourth episode is arguably the most powerful ever written by Aeschylus. Notice that neither Sophocles nor Euripides try to compete with this scene and pretty much avoid the fatal confrontation in their versions of "Electra." There might be a tendency to seeing the play as the flip side of "Agamemnon," setting up the stage for the climax of "The Eumenides." Obviously I want to make an argument that this play stands on its own, even when separated from the Orestia.

The author succinctly opens your mind and prepares it to receive a well delivered, global perspective that makes sense of today's tumultuous realities and brings a clear vision of mankind's brilliant future. To miss this book might be to miss the opportunity to capture and guide your own spiritual destiny. An excellent read for the spiritual seeker of truth.

Elizabeth Hallam provides us with a superb book on the crusades told through the words of contemporary or near contemporary writers. The chroniclers were chosen to represent the often conflicting views of the crusades from the viewpoints of the Western, Byzantine and Muslim worlds. A panel of leading experts provides short essays linking the words of the chroniclers.

The book is divided into seven chapters, starting with the Muslim world before 1096 and ending with the Mediterranean after 1453. Superb illustrations and six maps accompany the beautifully written text. Short biographies of the key individuals involved in the crusades and a glossary enhance the reader's understanding of the period. The bibliography leads readers to 20th century books on the crusades.

Anyone interested in the crusades should add this book to their library!

Although Deleuze mentions that this bookfs aim is to make a typology on cinema, for readers, it will be the object of thought more than that. In this book, Deleuze considers many films in which time is not subordinate to movement any longer (the time-image). His way of developing theory is like Bergsonfs one on time and memory, but his theory of time has variations that are reflected in various films and becomes a profound notion of the world with dynamic extension. Deleuze proposes us not only new concepts through films but also the question: What is the world? Deleuze creates a system on cinema as same as he analyzes clearly what is new and what is different from the past films in films of neo-realism or the new wave. While many people have mentioned to genres in films, Deleuzefs analysis of the border between the genres is one of the most precise.

If you had gCinema 1: The Movement-Imageh, this book would be more interesting for you because you could compare the two books. Moreover, this book treats so many films that you must find ones you have ever seen, which makes this book more fascinating.

Inventors are individuals who have an intuitive ability to recognize inherent flaws in the way things are done, or the tools used to do them. They are able to apply their creative skills to visuallising, describing and sometimes, fabricating a working model incorporating their improvements. While often the drawings or models are adequate for evaluation, they require the skills of a trained technician, an Engineer, to bring them to production standard. Then, to convince the public that they must have this newer, better mousetrap, requires the altogether different skills of a promotor/marketer. Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, the founder of Lotus Engineering, possessed all these attributes. Indeed, his innovative application of these diverse (in ordinary mortals) skills is undoubtedly the key to his recognition as the most influential figure in the development of the modern motorcar. Colin Chapman was undeniably, a genius. To reveal this fact without recourse to cliche requires someone with knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of "ordinary" Engineers, and an understanding that extremes of temperament, or eccentricity are often tools of a superior intellect, used to motivate, to inspire enthusiasm for advanced concepts. Chapman protege and fellow engineer, Hugh Haskell has performed this task admirably. A perceptive writer, and associate and friend to many of the central figures in the phenomenon that was Colin Chapmans' Lotus, he was able to convey the facts behind the myths in engaging, yet authoritative, discourse. He fondly recalls the Chapman-inspired enthusiasm that was part of being a member of the Lotus team. His insightful narrative conveys, in terms familiar to the layman, the brilliant originality of Chapmans' engineering achievements. He takes us from Chapmans' childhood, through the formative years, and the times when "Lotus" was synonymous with leadership in innovation. He also tells how, when forced by circumstance, Chapman was able to find loopholes to achieve an outcome against the efforts of short-sighted officialdom. Almost unbelievablely, there were occasions when the Chapman innovations were so far ahead of the pack that the rule-makers legislated against him to "level the playing field". Haskell hasn't avoided the issues that Chapmans' unconventional approach to matters financial aroused in the minds of many. Indeed, he includes anecdotes that confirm the young Chapmans' admirable negotiating skills. The book also describes Chapmans ventures into other fields,...from bathroom furniture, through luxury cruising yachts to micro-light aircraft, the fertile mind of Colin Chapman left his mark of originality, and his minimalist design philosophy is apparent in many of his creations, light on material substance they may be, but they're full measure for clever engineering. A winning combination. This is a damned good book, a tribute by one engineer to a colleague who happened to be one of the Twentieth Centurys' greatest automotive engineers. Read it,...be inspired.

At last - clear, concise and practical advice on the thorny issue of defining the purpose, vision and supporting values of an organisation. The Committed Enterprise is a thoughtful, thoroughly researched and well-presented book, which captures the experience of 125 organisations in private and public sectors. It is a practical necessity for those companies who would like to do 'better' as well as for the consultants advising them.

AN HISTORICAL NOTE: Hugh Duncan came to Carleton College for the spring semester, 1961, to review the manuscript for this book with a seminar of twelve senior sociology majors. I was privileged to be one of the dozen. The experience was unforgettable and life-changing. Dr. Duncan's work generated new models for seeing how communication functions in society. The concepts presented so vividly in this work have remained with me for a lifetime, providing the lens through which I have seen the world and my lifelong work with language.

Dr. Duncan referred to this manuscript as his attempt to define, alternately, "the sociology of language" and "the sociology of art". He leaned toward the latter.

This work is non-technical and eminently readable -- a rich tapestry of scholarship and illumination. It is my privilege again, after nearly 40 years, to commend it to the inquiring reader.