James does an excellent job of confronting the problem of chronology in archaeology and ancient history. Is our understanding of the ancient world hopelessly confused because of a confused chronology? James looks at research on the entire ancient Mediterranean, comparing building and pottery finds, writings, and artwork, and the dating techniques used to place them in context. As others--from Immanuel Velikovsky (Ages in Chaos, 1952) to David Rohl (Pharaohs and Kings, 1997)--have argued, James sees the source of the problem in Egyptology. The dates calculated for the reigns of certain pharaohs and dynasties have been used as the foundation on which to cross-date finds throughout the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean. If this foundation is rotten, it throws the chronology of the rest of the ancient world into chaos.

This is a scholarly book, and its very thoroughness makes it a rather dry and seemingly repetitive read. This is mainly because the same kinds of errors have been made or borrowed in all the studies--Greek, Hittite, Egyptian, Israelite, etc.--that James critiques. Still, it is an excellent reference work for anyone trying to understand where our studies of ancient history went wrong and where they need to be corrected.

One of the most interesting of all results in the theory of vector bundles is the famous classification theorem, which says that the set of isomorphism classes of k-dimensional vector bundles over a paracompact space is in a natural bijective correspondence with the set of homotopy classes of mappings of this space into the Grassman manifold of k-dimensional subspaces in infinite-dimensional space. This book is a summary of what was known at the time of publication for classifying spaces in a more general context, namely in the piecewise-linear and topological categories. The basic theme underlying the use of classifying spaces in all of these categories is that the classifying of geometric objects is viewed as a homotopy classification of maps into a classifying space. I only read the first seven chapters of this book, so my review will be confined to these.

The authors review the role of classifying spaces for (principal) bundles in Chapter 1, and this is one of the few books that actually gives an explicit construction of the classifying space for the case of finite dimensional CW complexes. The classifying spaces for the classical Lie groups are then reviewed very quickly. In addition, the authors review what the reader will need to know about the cobordism ring for differentiable, topological, and piecewise-linear manifolds. For brevity, the authors refer to all of these manifolds as "(H)-manifolds." For (H)-manifolds satisfying the property of "transversality", such as differentiable, piecewise-linear, and topological (for n not equal to 4) manifolds, the authors show that the cobordism ring gives rise to a generalized homology theory, and that such a theory can be represented by a spectrum, the famous "Thom spectrum".

Chapter 2 reviews the Browder-Novikov-Sullivan theory of surgery classification of (simply-connected) manifolds. The strategy here, as the authors explain, is to find an obstruction to a homotopy type actually being the homotopy type of a manifold. The notion of a Poincare-duality space is an elementary example of this, since a simply connected closed manifold is one and hence a manifold determines a unique homotopy type of a Poincare-duality space. The authors give an explicit example of a 5-dimensional simply connected Poincare-duality space that does not have the homotopy type of a smooth, piecewise-linear, or topological manifold. The obstruction to a Poincare-duality space containing a differentiable or piecewise-linear manifold in its homotopy type is the existence of a reduction of its Spivak normal bundle.

In chapter 3, the authors concentrate their attention on the homotopy type and cohomology modulo 2 of the space of homotopy equivalences G and oriented homotopy equivalences of the n-sphere SG. This involves the consideration of the infinite loop space of the 0-sphere and the classifying space of the symmetric group on n letters. The cohomology of the latter is shown to lead to a calculation of the cohomology of the classifying space of SG.

The Sullivan theory of the homotopy types of G/PL and G/TOP is considered in chapter 4. This involves the interpretation of the Kervaire invariant in terms of characteristic classes in cohomology or K-theory. For G/PL, one then obtains maps from G/PL into Eilenberg-Maclane spaces or the classifying space BO. The authors then discuss how Sullivan obtained homotopy equivalences by using localization. The situation for G/TOP is similar as the authors show briefly.

The authors continue with the Sullivan theory of the classifying spaces of TOP and PL localized away from 2, along with their associated Thom spectra. To do this this, use is made of the J-homomorphism in the stable homotopy groups of spheres. This leads to a consideration of the classifying space of the cokernel of J, and they discuss the work of Sullivan who has shown the existence of a splitting at each odd prime for BSPL in terms of BSO and cokerJ. The validity of the Adams' conjecture allows a similar analysis for the Thom spectra of the classifying spaces of TOP and PL localized away from 2.

Chapter 6 considers the structure of infinite loop spaces and the "Q-operations" between the i-th and (i+a)-th homology groups (modulo 2) of these spaces. These operations measure the how far the H-space multiplication is from being commutative. Since the H-space multiplications are homotopy operations, these homology operations are a measure of the non-triviality of the infinite sequence of higher homotopies associated with the infinite loop space.

In chapter 7, the authors consider the infinite loop space structure of G/TOP localized at 2, and show that "first delooping" B(G/TOP), and the "second delooping" B^2(G/TOP) localized at 2 can be written as a product of Eilenberg-Maclane spaces, in analogy with the case of G/TOP localized at 2. They mention but do not show in detail that the "third delooping" B^3(G/TOP) cannot be written as the product of Eilenberg-Maclane spaces.

A short presentation of the content and importance of discoveries in Qumran! This short book composed of 4 small essays written by Biblical scholars gives us a brief explanation of the importance of the Dead Sea scrolls discovered in Qumran both in our understanding of Christian and Jewish origins. These documents remain as the only and greatest evidence of 1st century's Palestinian Judaism and give us a better understanding of the birth of Christianity. The Christian ideas about a "Son of God", a mass of bread and wine, a final Apocalypse and some literary similarities in the interpretation of Old Testament prophecies are proof of a relation (although complicated) between Christians and Essenes. Also, the authors explain how the content of the scrolls leave rational Christian faith unaffected and that the sensational documents about "a dying Messiah" or "Mark's little apocalypse" may have been ill-interpreted by their translators. Still, I would have liked to read a more extensive explanation of these matters, because I believe that there still remains more to be said. For instance, James Charlesworth was quite brief in dismissing Allegro's ideas about Christian origins and I would like to have read a better discussion of this subject. This reading defied several of my thoughts and beliefs about the nature of the discoveries at Qumran and gave me a better view of their content and importance.

Carlos Madeira, 21st of August of 99

I have always heard a great deal about the B-32 from my father who was a B-32 flight engineer during WW-II. But due to the low production numbers there is not that much out there on it. Getting this book for dad for christmas was a great gift. He enjoyed it very much and the accuracy of the information was right on. This book is a rare find and a great gift for those lookin for info on a little known aircraft.

The authors treat each of Earth's Systems in a very straightforward manner, using clear and illustrative graphics. They also do a fine job of tying together Earth's systems and processes into an interrelated package, as opposed to simply a series of disconnected chapters. I use this text in my Washington Online course. Al Friedman, Everett Community College

My kids loved this book! The devotions were just the right length to hold their attention; and they both said that they enjoyed the stories and examples that Schaap used because he referenced TV shows, movies, and situations that they could relate to.

I loved this book because it challenged my children to think about where their spiritual journey is headed and helped them to think about what they believe.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a group of scientific police. There are about 6,000 members total, and this book is about the history of the FBI.
The founder, J. (John) Edgar Hoover, was a lawyer. In 1921 his employer, a police officer, asked him to start a group of "scientific police".
Men wanting to apply for a job working for the FBI had to go through very tough tests. For months they would train in finger-printing, riflery, and many seemingly unimportant tasks such as how to tell human blood from animal blood. These would be very useful later on.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, as we know it today, was established in 1924 and is still serving us well.

Forest Health and Protection is an excellent book which include an actual vision the three aspects very important in forest ecosystems. It is a contribution in the forest protection.

The author is faced with the difficult task of showing that T.E. Lawrence embellished his own deeds without taking away from what he did accomplish. While the myths about the man are interesting (the classic Lawrence of Arabia movie) the real story is far more interesting. A great book.

I can't recommend the books of James I. Wong strongly enough. This volume offers an extremely thorough explanation of the history of the Ta Sheng Pi Kua Men (Great Sage Monkey School), from its origins in other non-Shaolin Chinese styles to the present grandmaster of this specific school at the time of publication (1979). Wong explains characteristics of the style, including specoific schools which lead to the development of Ta Sheng Pi Kua Men, including style such as Pi Kua Men (Sage school) and Hou Chuan (monkey boxing). In depth considerations of the Monkey system, characteristics of different Monkey and monkey influenced schools and such. Includes a bibliography of sources (YAY!). Wong also includes a list of Chinese terms with their appropriate characters, perfect for those wishing to pick up some Chinese pertinent to the focus of study. This volume shows and explains two forms from the Ta Sheng Pi Kua Men school. They are: "Lu Wi Hsiao Mei Hua Chuan" (Small Plum Blossom Form), and "Er Mi Tsung Chuan" (Labyrynth, Lost track form). While the photos are nothing to write home about, they aren't terrible, and serve their purpose. You will be happy to know this volume and others by this publisher, Koinonia Productions, is back in print and available for around ten clams new. I recommend this volume and others by Wong to anyone who has an interest in the history of Wu-Shu (Kung Fu) styles. Wong is academic in his approach and treats his readers like the intelligent adults we are.