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I do agree with the previous review. "Myths of Power" is both a critical analysis of Norbert Elias' historical works and an interpretation of court life in early modern Europe. Jeroen Duindam submits Elias' interpretation to the test. The French court, the court of the Austrian Habsburgs, and several princely courts of the Reich provide the geographical basis of the discussion. One general conclusion emerges: Elias' approach to the early modern European court contains many misunderstandings, especially those connected with the much-heralded rise of the middle class and its inseparable companion, modernization.
In that sense, we may say that the rumours of Aristocracy's death had been greatly exaggerated. Quoting from Hillay Zmora, "until quite recently the reigning paradigm for approaching the various European nobilities has been one of a Crisis of Aristocracy. This paradigm is now itself in what looks like a terminal crisis... The state apparatus was as much an arena for the regulation of conflicts inside the ruling class as an instrument of class domination. The exploitation of the population to the mutual profit of rulers and ruling classes underlay much of the co-operation between them." Instead of declining, the nobility (a group that historians typically has avoided up to now) weathered the Early Modern period by being resilient and adaptable -- though the group was fundamentally changed, it still remained strong.
Other books that I would recommend to read would be "Monarchy, Aristocracy, and the State in Europe, 1300-1800" by Hillay Zmora and (covering approximately the 1815-1914 period) "The Persistence of the Ancient Regime" by Arno J. Mayer
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Grazia Deledda, a Nobel-Prize winner, has written a novel of great tension. No good nor bad guys here: just human beings with difficult lives, in possession of moral values as well as human weaknesses. Worth reading.
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In this particularly instance, I read Peter Sotiriou's Integrating College Study Skills syntopically with Jean Reynolds' 'Succeeding in College' book.
On the whole, I found that they can complement each other pretty well, although there are similarities in content as well as contrasts in approach. Both authors demand the reader to take a pro-active approach in the reading process.
Peter Sotiriou's book is more specific to the reasoning process embodied in reading, listening & writing. The many exercises in this respect are deliberately constructed in a cumulative, step-by-step fashion. This makes the book very helpful for the college student reader to follow. The author takes great pain to explain and illustrate the process of summarising and paraphrasing upon reading, which are two vital information gathering skills for college students.
Jean Reynolds' book is more comprehensive in the coverage of the overall 'study strategies' process. It is also more broad-based, as the author very skilfully uses many success stories of athletes, performers, professional men and women, and leaders in diverse fields to illustrate her points.
I particularly enjoy the author's creative treatment of critical thinking with the aid of the pencil. She recognises the pencil as an inexpensive thinking tool. A very interesting concept...practical, too.
In terms of introducing reading techniques, both authors did their job pretty well. Both provided ample exercises.
To sum up, both books can serve as useful strategy guides for college students. Both are designed to to help you enjoy and benefit from your college experiences.
What the reader gets in this book is a group of stories complied by Catherine Taylor. These stories were solicited from the general public in England. This mismatched group of stories do maintain a teddy bear theme, but that is the only thing that they have in common. Some of the stories are contrived, dark, and simply TOO adult for my tastes. Overall, the quality of the writing and text choices reminds me of college publications that solicit manuscripts from the student population in order to create a publication with many voices. In this case, teddy bears end up screaming the perceptions of the authors, and some of them are not seen with the compassion or tenderness that some people have for teddy bears.
The only reason I give this book 3 stars instead of 2 is because it seems to fill some market, and some adults may like the less-than-innocent themes. The British have a different relationship with their bears then Americans do, and they definitely have a different sense of humor, which also may appeal to some. A few of the stories did meet my expectations, and I found those few to be genuine and well written. However, I still prefer a well written children's book about teddy bears to this book for adults.
A similiar book of solicited compilations about dolls is "Enchanted Companions: Stories of Dolls in Our Lives" by Carolyn Michael and Friends. The writing is much better and the text is better presented. If you also like dolls, I would recommend it over "Teddy Bear Stories for Grown-Ups" until something better about teddy bears comes along.