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It's an interesting and helpful book that demystifies marketing research. It's filled with common-sense advice, it's well-written, and it's easy to read. A home run!
Breen's books is so good, that it's one of the few books I recommend in my own book, "The Publicity Handbook." Nice job, Mr. Breen!
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Marrin devotes his first chapter to Lee's life and military career through John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, where Lee led the marines who retook the arsenal. The rest of the book divides Lee's actions during the Civil War into distinct periods defined by various tasks and battles (e.g., Savior of Richmond deals with Lee taking command of the Confederate Army after General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded and Lee's Masterpiece is about the Battle of Chancellorsville). What is revealed is the portrait of a young officer who graduated West Point without receiving a single demerit and whose loyalty to his native Virginia convinced him to serve the Confederacy. But Marrin also describes the battles in such a way that young readers can appreciate Lee as a military strategist, both in terms of his many successes and his final defeats.
"Virginia's General: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War" is illustrated with historic photographs and paintings, as well as small maps of each of the major battles of the war. Marrin provides an engaging narrative that covers a lot of information and works in a lot of quotations to maintain the effect that this is an interesting story and not just a history book. I also appreciate that Marrin covers the entire Civil War, since what was happening in the West affected Lee's decisions as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Consequently, this is not the first book that a young reader would turn to for an introduction to Lee, but it for a more in-depth examination of his Civil War career this is a solid choice.
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Makes you want to go out and pound steel.
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There are a couple of boring sections (I found the chapter on safe-cracking to get tiring after a while). And I often found myself questioning whether he was embellishing his stories to make them more entertaining.
Nevertheless, Feynman's adventures are very interesting to read about. He describes how he learned to play the drums and bongo, and how he learned to draw and paint. His visits to Brazil and Japan were also enjoying to read about (I particularly like the part where he is in Japan, and is compelled to eat something that "was convoluted, like a brain".)
Feynman's disdain for the stuffy and pompous is reflected in his unpretentious style of writing which makes this book even more likable and easy to read.
I read that Feynman, after winning the Nobel prize in physics, went to his his high school to look up the results of his old IQ test. To his delight, he scored only 124 (not much higher than the typical college graduate), and is reported to have said, "To win the Nobel prize is not that big a deal, but to win it with an IQ of 124 is a real accomplishment!"
Always struggling to look at things "differently", Feynman became a very sought-after educator, teaching at the United States most prestigious universities, as well as other schools in places like Brazil.
At the end of the day, Feynman's most important teachings might come as: 'Never take yourself too seriously' (as other reviewers have already commented), 'Always keep an open mind' and 'Focus your efforts on what really matters'.
If you enjoy this book (which I'm sure you will), check out what could be considered part two of it: What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character; as well as Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey - both, highly recommendable.
Since so much of the documentation from that time is now sadly out of print, this collection serves as an active antidote to what has become a predominating character asssassination foisted by the new right to the effect that the sixties was all about sex, drugs and rock and roll, which tends to trivialize what actually was said, done, thought, and debated during those turbulent years. If one approaches those times in the proper historical framework, objectively searching for the evidence as to what it was that happened then and how it changed everything, then a book like this can serve a yeoman's purpose by presenting much of the original material for a person's reading pleasure and ultimate edificiation.
To my mind, the sixties represented a time when the younger generation simply refused to accept the world as presented, to uncritically accept the tired old platitudes, hypocrisies, and self-serving myths of the main-stream older generation. Seen in such a light, a lot of the social quesioning, cultural experimentation, and terrifying 'sturm und drang' elements of the times can be better understood.
In the trenches of all the major events, from civil unrest to Vietnam to the counterculture, were people who were actively questionaing conventional wisdom and the tried and true ways of the established society. Many of the selections from this book can help a curious reader to better grasp what the issues were and what the debate on the issues centered around. This is a supremely useful tool in helping to whittle away at the myths being perpetrated by the conservative revisionists about the events of the 1960s. Enjoy, amigo, and keep on trucking!