Running across a Howard Hodgkin exhibition forever revolutionized my formerly negative view of modern art. It has opened my soul to new areas of art enjoyment not experienced previously. This book has many plates of his work and provides very interesting reading. Let his beautiful art and colors wash over you... Enjoy!

This well illustrated and multifaceted book is an important addition to any library. If only for Marla Price's catalogue raisonne a very valuble addition not in other publications about this important artist. I found the exchange of letters from Hodgkin to John Elderfield insightfull and full of the sort of detail on techniques hard to find elsewhere.

Michael Auping has written a compassionate opening essay on this sensitive man and the development of his work.

Susan Sontag writes about Hodgkin and art after modernism,with a wry and wonderfull humour.

All of these writings are punctuated with marvellous colour plates.

This book is a must.

Gillian Solomon. END

Clausewitz is notoriously difficult for the novice to master -- some would argue that no one has ever entirely "mastered" Clausewitz. Be that as it may, a legion of frustrated amateur strategists can attest to the difficulty of picking up Clausewitz's "On War" and trying to read it through without a guide. In the "Clausewitz" volume in the Past Masters series, the novice as well as the experienced strategist can gain an introduction to the master's life, experiences, and writings that will make the first reading intelligible and that will serve as a quick review of Clausewitz's main concepts in a format that can easily be read in an evening.

This is a book that should stand next to "On War" in every strategist's library.

Too many books talk about how to secure a network, and discuss network-based attacks, but this book is different; it covers how to design, build and test the code at the end of the pipe - the application software.

The book is complete in its explanation of how to make sure your application code, be it web-based or otherwise, is secured from attack.

I learned a great deal from this book, and, based on code and design reviews of my company's code, the authors obviously know what they are talking about - as we made a lot of fixes, and added many new security test cases to our test suites.

Simply put, we never knew we had problems, until we read this book, now it's mandatory reading for all our software engineers.

I bought this book after the *Bill Gates* email came out about Microsoft being serious about security. I figured that when he sends email like this to the company, it's important. And when **he recommends this book** in the email, it's something worth looking at. It is - Writing Secure Code is great. It's an easy read, full of great design, development and testing principles and ideas.

The first couple of chapters revolve around design, in fact ch2 is over 70pp long, and it's all about how to design secure systems.

The bulk of the book focuses on secure coding, including buffer overruns, sockets, RPC, COM, Crypto, canoniclization issues, least privilege, storing secret data, Web apps - and more!

The last part of the book discusses common .NET coding errors, and how to build security test plans.

What makes this book utterly unique is it really teaches you how to design and test secure applications, as well as how to write them. The design and test stuff I have seen nowhere else.

The book is worth every penny, and I now know why Bill Gates recommends the book to all Microsoft developers.

I got this book for free from Microsoft, because our company became a Microsoft Partner. I must admit that at first I was a little bit sceptical about it, because afterall this book is published by Microsoft and they have this reputation of selling rather insecure software themselves. But after reading the first few sections I knew it was going to be a very good read.

The book explains in very clear language almost every aspect of secure programming and gives a good overview of all common security flaws that can (and will!) enter your programming code. You'll learn how to securely design, implement, test and deploy your programs. Ofcourse buffer overruns are handled (Public Enemy #1 according to the authors), but that's only the tip of the iceberg. The book does a great job by identifying and providing solutions to common security pitfalls. Topics that are handled include: database access, user privileges and Access Control, Cryptography, handling secret data, user input, encoding and internationalization, RPC, DCOM, DOS attacks, .NET and writing secure program documentation.

I recommend this book to every programmer out there, even if you're not programming for the Win32-platform. Don't let the fact that this is a Microsoft publication refrain you from buying this book. If you are serious about writing secure programs this is the book to get.

Karl von Clausewitz's (1780-1831) masterpiece On War, has deservedly been translated into most major languages. The Everyman's Library Edition of On War introduced by Peter Paret is the perhaps most widely acclaimed English edition.

Long recognized as the classic the strategic principles of armed conflict, the book continue to influence military thinking. On War is an attempt to reach an understanding of the nature of war itself. The Prussian general defines war as violence intended to compel the opponent to fulfill the will of the proponent. Violence is the means; submission of the enemy is the object.

The ultimate goal of war is political - armed combat is the means to a political end, without which war becomes «pointless and devoid of sense». Another key thought is that the total defeat of the adversary is the essence of war. A critique often heard against this strain of thought is that Clausewitz's focus on decisive battle and over strategic maneuver invites bloodbath.

The book is experiencing a renaissance in the post-Cold War era -reading it may well help to explain the phenomenon of war also in the years to com

Karl von Clausewitz's (1780-1831) masterpiece On War has deservedly been translated into most major languages. The Everyman's Library Edition of the work - introduced by Peter Paret - is the perhaps most widely acclaimed English edition.

Long recognized as the classic the strategic principles of armed conflict, the book continue to influence military thinking. On War is an attempt to reach an understanding of the nature of war itself. The Prussian general defines war as violence intended to compel the opponent to fulfill the will of the proponent. Violence is the means; submission of the enemy is the object.

The ultimate goal of war is political - armed combat is the means to a political end, without which war becomes «pointless and devoid of sense». Another key thought is that the total defeat of the adversary is the essence of war. A critique often heard against this strain of thought is that Clausewitz's focus on decisive battle and over strategic maneuver invites bloodbath. This can also serve to illustrate why the book has carried relevance over the centuries. -It focuses on the -how's of war rather than considerations that are bound to be influenced by Zeitgeist.

The book is experiencing a renaissance in the post-Cold War era -reading it may well help to explain the phenomenon of war also in the years to come.

I have the Regnery edition- "War, Politics, and Power," but this edition surmising Clausewitz's writings seems more widely available. So I offer my review on his writings and recommend this book. This book was widely disseminated in Red China, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union.

Essentially, this book contains the best writings of the German military theorist. Clauswitz, the Prussian Sun Tzu, effectively brought the concept of total war into acceptability. Gone our the days Antonie Henri Jomini's chilvarious code of conduct and honor- Civilians will not only be subject to attack - they'll bear the brunt of the battle in an age of total war. Several points are made- which are crucial to surmising Clausewitzian theory- 1) "War is the continuation of state policy by other means;" 2) "All war is based on the art of deception;" 3) "No one starts war... without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it;" 4) War is "an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will." 5) "If the enemy is thrown off balance, he must not be given time to recover. Blow after blow must be struck in the same direction: the victor, in other words, must strike with all his strength... by daring to win all, will one really defeat the enemy."

To me this work is valuable in its historical context- and as an ardent student of military history.

After reading several books on a similar topic that did nothing but confuse me, I was glad that I came upon C.S. Lewis's work. All of the other books about the existence of God are way off in their own world, and discourage anyone who feels lost in their ideas about God. This book really explained the reasons that God must exist, and then moved on to easily describe the major beliefs of Christians, without leaving anyone out in the cold on what the key issues actually are. This book is perfect for the agnostic, the atheist, and even the Christian that wants to know the logical and simple reasons that C.S. Lewis came to be a Christian. Over and over, his words made me see even the simplest concepts of religion in a completely new light. I was greatly impressed and have already read this book multiple times.

No matter how far along you are in your Christian walk (I'm 30+ years into it), or even if you are a "seeker", just investigating the Christian faith, there is great benefit to be received from this book. Lewis, of course, is a great literary scholar and author, but he is a layman in theological matters, yet he has a better grasp on doctrine and morality than many more learned theologians. Who said theology is just for the theologians anyway? With relentless logic and literary grace Lewis not only builds a solid case for Christianity but equips the believer with analogical paradigms for better understanding his or her own faith. Of course, not everyone will be convinced, but this book has convinced many in the latter half of the 20th century and beyond about the claims of Christ. I don't agree with every point Lewis makes, but the gist of his message is hard to refute.

I have to make a comment about Kathleen Norris' Foreword in this edition. She starts out by making the point that "This book begs to be seen in its historical context". Actually, this book stands on its own better than most without any historical context whatsoever. Having read two books by Norris, I know there are points of disagreement she has with Lewis, and her backhanded way of casting a shadow on the book's message adds nothing and actually detracts. Skip that part and delve right into the masterpiece that is "Mere Christianity".

Mere Christianity was originally a series of radio broadcasts that Lewis began in England during the Second World War. He later made some revisions and collected these broadcasts into four books: Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe, What Christians Believe, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality: or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity. These four books were compiled into what is collectively Mere Christianity. What Lewis attempted to do is give a summary of the basic tenets and spiritual understandings of Christianity. This book, because of its basicness, crossed over the lines of Catholic, Protestant, and the subdivisions thereof. As stated in the foreword of the text, the impetus for this series of talks put on by the BBC was in reaction to the despondency with which many Britons were confronted in the course of beginning another World War. Lewis used wartime analogies in many places in his work. When reading Mere Christianity one cannot help but notice how it is placed in this interesting historical context.

The title of this work serves it well. Mere Christianity touches on the basis of much of Christian thought. It shows Lewis's intimate understanding of his faith and his ability to articulately communicate this to his readers/listeners. While, as with any other work, I did not find myself in one hundred percent agreement with every single statement, far more often than not, I could not help but sense a growing enlightenment of God and the principles of Christianity as I read. After reading some of his other works, Lewis has again not disappointed me in the least with Mere Christianity. The book is easy to read and filled with wisdom.

London, 1992, Greenhill, lst UK ed thus w/DJ, , limited r/p of 1907 ed, 6x9, 447 pp. appendice lists detailed German & French orders of Battle down to reguiment., 1 MAP.
Helmuth von Moltke was promoted to Field Marshal and created Graf von Moltke by the ambitious William I of Prussia and his Chancellor Bismarck on the consolidation of the German empire in 1871, after his triumphs in the Franco-German War. A brilliant intellectual, his strategy and generalship had prevailed against the apparently mighty military power of Napoleon III of France. Napoleon had thought to bolster popular support for his rule by extending his territory to the Rhine. Instead he lost his throne and France was humiliatingly forced to cede Alsace and Lorraine.

By the time this war broke out, von Moltke had already achieved outstanding and surprising successes against Austria in the Six Weeks' War in 1866, and, a perfectionist in organisation, was the creator of the General Staff system of today. Rapidity of attack by the use of railway transport was as successful in France as in his earlier victories, but in France defeat of the army was followed by a people's war before final victory was achieved, exemplified most vividly by the long and horrific siege of Paris.

Against military autobiography in principle, von Moltke was nevertheless prevailed upon to write the history of this war, thus achieving for the reader the best of both worlds - a careful and accurate description of events, combined with insights into strategy which as commander only he could authoritatively give. From the preparations for war and the combat of Weissenburg on 4th August 1870, von Moltke sweeps the reader through his carefully planned campaign including every stage of the war up to the armistice and the homeward march of the victorious German army. Von Moltke is considered by many the most able mind in military matters since Napoleon, and in this unimpeachable work has left for posterity the rare legacy of a complete war recorded from the viewpoint of its commander-in-chief.