This book is in two halves, only one of which I was really interested in and enjoyed. I have enjoyed some of Horsley's other books but this one, while having good material was too bogged down in the first section on Roman religious practice, mainly of interest to the academic I suspect. I was also disappointed to discover that much of the material has been published before elsewhere.

Nevertheless there is some great material here that should be of value to those interested in the origins of Christianity and the work being done by the Jesus Seminar. Of particular interest to me was the point that Paul was not setting up a religion and cannot be called a Christian by today's definition.

Professor Horsley's anthology of essays (primarily by other authors), and his introductions, do much to appropriately redefine Saint Paul's writings within social and political contexts. Explicitly rejecting the notion that Paul is to be read exclusively as religious literature intended for a religious community, Horsley (et al.) painstakingly demonstrates that the preaching of the crucified Christ was a direct challenge to the Roman Empire. Similarly, the building of Christian communities around the proclamation of the resurrection were intentional rejections of secular values and order.

Living in an age when religion has too often been high-jacked by fundamentalists of all denominations and faith groups, to serve only petty theological agendas, Horsley's collection stands for us as a useful reminder that faith can be something more.

This is a useful anthology on an important subject in Pauline studies. Although the fourteen essays presented here have been published elsewhere, it is very helpful to have them collected in one place. Further, Richard Horsley's introductory material offers a significant synthesis of the material. In short, the collection depicts St Paul as developing an explicitly anti-imperial movement, in opposition to the all-pervasive emperor cult of Rome. Three aspects of this movement are focussed on: Theology (Parts 1 and 3), Patronage (Part 2) and church as an alternative society (Part 4). I would recommend this book to undergraduate students of the Bible, and indeed to anyone who doesn't see what politics has to do with the New Testament. I would also recommend Neil Elliott's 'Liberating Paul', some of which is reproduced in this volume.

This book should have been a classic introduction to musical acoustics. Instead, it tries to hard, is convoluted, often in error, and confuses musicians.

When I taught from this book, I and the class found errors in equations, references to equations, and calculations. When undergraduates are struggling to learn, this is a very bad context.

The book is so concerned with a level of comprehensiveness, that measured clarity is left out. At the same time, for the expert, it is too little. Therefore, it appeals to neither the introductory level nor the more advanced level.

I gave up using this book.

I have used this book as the primary textbook for an introductory course in the physics of music. It is at a somewhat higher level than some of its competitors (e.g. "The Acoustical Foundations of Music" by Backus) but still suitable for non-science majors with weak math backgrounds. It is the most thorough and informative book I have seen at this level. However, the students complained that it was somewhat dull. Also, the section on electronic reproduction of music is out of date--relatively little on CD's etc., and nothing on mp3 and related technologies. Still, I plan to use it again.

I have taught a course entitled "Acoustics for Musicians and Recording Engineers" to Engineering, Music, and Film majors using Rossing's THE SCIENCE OF SOUND. He has toned down the equations enough that the students aren't groaning, yet he's remained true to the interdisciplinary nature of acoustics as a pursuit of physics, psychology, math, and engineering. The structure of the book provides a wonderful outline for the course and it has been an invaluable resource for both me and the students who have wished to continue with their study of acoustics.

I was very excited when I saw this book hoping it'd open me all of the secrets of not-known-until-now world of HDL Synthesis. How wrong I was. The title is very misleading, the book spends just a few pages on synthesis. Overall, this book might be useful for a novice, but even for me, an undergrad ECE major, it turned out to be almost useless. It contains minimum of factual information, often outdated(and this is critical in the ECE world), and only slightly touches the surface on a number of topics it tries to cover. I think the authors whould have concentrated on something specific, instead of giving "what happened in Computer Engineering in last 15 years" review.

I have been a user of VHDL for the last three years and am now beginning to use Verilog, mostly because I am now doing ASIC development. For the new Verilog user, this book is excellent because it covers the gamut for an HDL and FPGA designer -- the syntax of the language,the difference between structural and behavioral constructs, simulation, hierarchical design, and of course the ubiqituous State Machine. Also included are some sections on targeting different types of technology, including standard cell. I found this book quite useful compared to other Verilog books I have purchased.

I have been searching for an Verilog book that will allow me to get up to speed quickly for an particular project. I wanted something that presented the syntax of the language in an clear manner but more importantly would give me an methodology to allow me to use Verilog in the design of an FPGA. This book seems to have "the right stuff". This book along with "Verilog HDL" by Samir Palnitkar seem to be the best that I have seen for learning Verilog

Although this book is certainly comprehensive, the fact that it was written by several people is readily apparent. It is plagued with technical inaccuracies every few pages, and has many redundant sections. With that said it is also the most thorough book on the subject, and provides a ton of useful information. The CD-ROM a glorified coaster, as all of its utilities are antiquated versions. Its discussion on security is weak, and I recommend Guide to Windows NT Security (Charles Rutstein ISBN 0-07-057833-8) for workstation based security.

I have read and reused this book for over 10 months. I found the chapters on using the Performance Monitor for clearing performance bottlenecks very informative and useful.

I actually changed how I detect problems based on information outlined in this book.

Jim Boyce and his team in this book have been able to to something that few technical writers can - combine excellent full-strength data with almost conversation-like and compelling readibility. It's hard to describe a technical book as unputdownable, but this one is. I had already gone through two manuals - in utter frustration - on Windows NT when I bought this manual.

The strengths of the book are clear: all the information you'll need to handle NT is there, from installation to networking (all the many and various protocols, etc), to disc management, discussion on the merits and demerits of the many options that NT offers, messing with the Registry, tweaking the system, security ....its all there, in a lucid enjoyable style. The one teeny criticism of the manual that I have in fact has nothing to do with the manual itself. The edition I have was printed in 1996, and is just barely beginning to show its age. However with NT 5 due out soon there is probably l! ittle more to add to NT 4.

All in all, a super book that is worth its weight in gold.

I was hoping that this book by Gillette and Garson would be an objective treatment of the subject matter, but it turns out to be a disorganized and self-serving treatment of the subject. The book serves to promote the author, his practitioners, and the company (Cook Inc.) that supports Gillette's hospital (Cook Children's). It's a running ad for the Cook catheters he promotes in the book. The authors are primarily his employees, and even his wife! For a more objective treatment on the subject, I recommend the book by B Deal from Northwestern University. Too bad about the Gillette book, I was so looking forward to a fair treatment of the subject.

Davis Holt, I work in the telemetry unit under Dr. Paul Gillette and from what I have seen he is the leading foremost authority on this subject and Pediatric Electrophysiology. Check this book out if you work in this field or need a good reference.

As I see it Rose puts four main arguments. 1 German antisemitism in the 19th century is substantially different from other European strands of antisemitism. I'm not qualified to comment on that, except that Rose doesn't bring out much evidence.

2 German political culture of the 19th century is inherently and ineluctably antisemitic. I'd accept "largely" antisemitic; but Rose wants to make an essentialist case, that you couldn't be a 19th century German radical without being antisemitic, and he fails to support that. Instead we get rhetoric, some of it as heated as Wagner's own.

3 Wagner was always antisemitic, even before 1850, when antisemitic references started to appear in his letters and articles. There it's safe to say that the evidence disproves Rose's case; see, for example, Jacob Katz's "Wagner: The Dark Side of Genius", a book which condemns Wagner's antisemitism on the basis of better research and less tenditiousness. Not only does Rose not actually make his case here, but he couldn't.

4 There is coded antisemitism in Wagner's operas. Here Rose abandons all pretence to academic standards and writes some very silly things. For example he argues that "Die Walku:re" is antisemitic because it depicts incest and adultery sympathetically; but adultery is against the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments is a Jewish document. Wagner's, and "Die Walku:re"'s rejection of the 10 Commandments is therefore antisemitic. Where this leaves Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, and every other opera librettist, poet and dramatist in human history is not clear. By reasoning like this they must all be antisemites. In "Der Fliegende Hollander", Rose argues, Senta's entire village is an antisemitic depiction, because they value money over other values; therefore they must be meant as Jewish. When someone starts looking for antisemitic depictions, and comes up with the idea of a Jewish fishing village in the middle of the Norwegian fiords... when arguments like that are seriously put forward, we know two things. First, that the writer has lost the plot. Second, that the people who should have read the book before publication and got rid of embarrassing silliness like that, weren't doing their job.

I don't know much about the history of 19th century antisemitism in Europe; but Rose's material on Wagner is so hopelessly unreliable and ill-thought-out that it calls into question the reliability of his other material.

There's another comment on this book, apparently written by a believing Marxist, that claims that Wagner made a mistake in making his gods and Nibelungs, in the "Ring", morally equivalent. No, that wasn't a mistake; that was Wagner's _point_. Both the Nibelungs and the gods are involved in a struggle between the values of love and the desire for power. Both the gods and Nibelungs choose power, not love. Wagner was on the side of love, and that is why he makes both sides fall.

Even though Wagner was a flawed human being (but a human being, not a monster; he had a kind and considerate side as well as a selfish and manipulative side), the "Ring" is one of the greatest works of art ever created. And its message is pacifist, pro-love and anti-power, and (ironically, given Wagner's own racism) anti-racist, in showing the moral equivalence of all the different struggling peoples in the "Ring".

The writer of the other comment is right to say that Wagner was a shallow and inconsistent political thinker. But that means that not all of his ideas are bad. His antisemitism shames Wagner's memory as much as the antisemitism of Marx, Bakunin, Proudhon, Schubert, JS Bach, Schumann, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Dostoevsky, TS Eliot and so on and so on, shames theirs. But Wagner's defence of love over power, in the "Ring", strikes me as politically, as well as artistically, not without merit.

Rose makes a mistake in reading antisemitism into works that don't contain it, and another mistake in not recognising that Wagner's works have some moral merit which should not be thrown away.

Laon

I think this is an excellent book, contrary to the other reviews listed. It helped me understand several new concepts related to anti-semitism, particularly how Jews were thought of as being responsible for commercializing the German art world and bringing the bourgeois capitalist element to European culture. The book sheds much light on the development of anti-semitism relative to the increasing nationalist and revolutionary spirit in Germany during the first part of the 20th century. Wagner's general psychology and racist attitudes are conveyed very effectively, and his influence on future national socialist ideology is more than apparent. This book added a great deal to my understanding of the roots of European anti-semitism, and I thank the author for this.

Rose uncovers things we've always known about Richard Wagner, his virulent antisemiticism. He situates Wagner usefully in the philosophic mileau of the 19th Century and revolutionary thinking.However writers like Proudhon,Bauer,The Young Hegelians,and Fichte were relatively insignificant compared to Marx and the impact his thinking had of the ideologies of the 19th Century. Rose should have compared Wagner to Marx to define consummately what the term "revolution" really means. Also all these thinkers save Marx,were reactionary, which is why they appealed to Wagner. Rose's discussion of anarchist Bakunin, Wagner's Dresden Rebellion Days friend is even more problematic since Bakunin was ultimately a political opportunist, who would sell-out to save himself as he did countless times.Wagner was first and foremost a composer of music dramas,operas and his creative philosophic thinking remained energized toward that pursuit,which is why his fascination with 19th Century philosophic thought changed over his life. It actually became more conservative. Despite his early Dresden Days, Wagner was a political imbecile. He couldn't distinguish parties,nor collective wills. Given Wagner's unquestionable dominance in the world of Opera today, the crux of Rose's argument, Wagner's antisemiticism, is indeed a profoundly important one. But I doubt if this discussion will lead toward the banning of his music. The problem of racism in art is perhaps the most important issue facing all those who involve themselves in art. For art deals with communication, one human being speaking to another. One emotion projected outward to humanity. And if this expression emanates from a diseased mind, a racist one, well how can art reflect the highest thought man/woman is capable. Rose's discussion of Wagner's "Ring" was not thorough enough,for Wagner contradicts himself. Wotan is ever bit as self-serving as Alberich, the dwarf who Wagner had earmarked as the representational Jew. Brunhilde as well for all her humanity in saving Siegmund and Sieglinde,plots with the evil Hagen to kill Siegfried, her beloved. No character in the "Ring" is beyond redemption ,all are self-serving opportunists. Rose seems to focus on Alberich as Other, as representative of the lower class, the "lumpen" in contrast to the gods and immortals, when such reference is not important. Instead a discussion of how Wagner projects characterization, or doesn't. That his inhumanity prevented him from projecting a convincing character would have served Rose's argument.

This book followed the proven Waite Group Layout and covered most of the old VCL components. However, if you are looking for the excellent reference most Waite Group Bibles provide don't look here. New VCLs, functions, and any useful information about Delphi specific messages and exceptions have been left out. This book is a waste of money for all but the beginner to Delphi

I bought this book however, it has no coverage on any of the new components that are shipped with Delphi 3 C/S. No Coverage on RemoteServer, ClientDataSet, Provider or any of the new VCLs that you see under Win32 palette page. As far as database applications I see no help in using this book at all. Nevertheless is a good example how Borland should do their documentation

This book contains explanations and examples for every property, method, and event. Everything is sorted by the parent class so if you are working with a component you can look it up and see an example of how to use every aspect of it. This book would have gotten a 10 but there are a few ommisions (some of which are addressed on the enclosed diskette) because it was written prior to the final release of the software. Even so it has answered most of my questions. Better than the help file.

Fr. Richard McBrien is a well-known cleric who has made a career of public dissent in the Church. If this is the position he wishes to take, that is his business. However, when he purports to write a history of the papacy, is it too much to expect precisely that?

Instead, McBrien has provided several hundred pages of typical, tiresome "Catholic" dissent badly disguised as a history book. As a non-Roman Catholic clergyman, historian and theologian, I find that very unfortunate.

For a far better book from an academic perspective, I would suggest Dr. Owen Chadwick's Oxford Dictionary of the Popes as a much more valuable reference tool.

McBrien tries to compress almoat 2,000 years of religious, social and political history into one volume and does a pretty solid job. He gives anywhere from a few paragraphs to a few pages on the over 260 popes throughout history, with the bulk of his text spread out over the popes of the 20th century.

For the most part, McBrien looks at the popes with a scholarly and critical eye, describing how most of the popes throughout history were preoccupied with political and military matters rather than spiritual ones.

However, he does drift from a scholarly, critical examination from time to time. For example, I thought that he was improperly airing out his theological complaints against the current pope in his section on John Paul II (McBrien is theology chairman at Notre Dame), but I enjoyed his passage about the much-beloved pope, John XXIII. (can someone out there recommend any good books on this pope?)

McBrien ends this reference work with some papal facts, like "best and worst" and "firsts and lasts" and has a chronological list, as well as an alphabetical list, of the popes. However, my favorite parts of this book were the introductions to each chronological period of papal history. McBrien gives a general picture of the mood of the day and how each pope dealt with military, political (and sometimes spiritual) issues of the day. He also takes a look at internal church politics and stresses that throughout history, popes were sometimes under control of kings, emperors, powerful families and groups of bishops and clergy.

I've even used this book to settle barroom discussions over popes and in August, 2002, when the press began to ask if Pope John Paul II was going to resign, I referenced this book when people were asking me if other popes have resigned in the past (they did, BTW).

The book is a solid reference if you someone asks you who Pope Eugenius or Sixtus II was, and when they were popes. Since McBrien had 2,000 years of history to cover, it piqued my curiosity to learn more about these fascinating individuals and the times in which they lived.

This book is the most important among my vast library of papal history books because McBrien includes many facts about the popes that I have only been able to find in obscure books. He lets us know who is favorite and least favorite popes are, but that helps to give a more personal approach to this topic, which is refreshing in that most informational (particularly historical) books tend to be so dry. This is an excellent sourcebook for those interested in papal history and can easily be read from cover to cover without the reader ever getting bored with the text. McBrien is an excellent writer and this is by far the most well-written, interesting, and informative books on the subject of popes that is readily available.

My only complaint about this play is that Shakespeare should have had some dialogues where the characters discussed crucial history before the play opens. Gloucester (murdered or dead before the play but mentioned several times) had tried to usurp Richard's crown too many times. History itself is not sure if Gloucester died or was murdered. Bolingbroke for a while conspired with Gloucester and now sees another oppurtunity to usurp the crown.The virtuous John of Gaunt served Richard with honor and integrity and eventually moved parliament into arresting Gloucester for treason. This would of made John of Gaunt's rages all the more valid. Otherwise this play is outstanding! Richard shows himself to be capable of ruling at times, but gains our contempt when he seizes his the honorable John of Gaunt's wealth. John of Gaunt's final rage in 2.1 is a passage of immense rageful beauty. Also, Shakespeare moves us into strongly suspecting that Richard had Gloucester murdered. However, despite Richard's crime, Shakespeare masterfully reverses our feelings and moves us into having deep pity for Richard when he is deposed. The Bishop of Carlisle (Richard's true friend) provides some powerful passages of his own. I can not overestimate the grace in which Shakespeare increases our new won pity for Richard when Bolingbroke (Gaunt's rightful heir) regains his wealth and the death of Gloucester is left ambiguous. 5.1, when Richard sadly leaves his queen and can see that Henry IV and his followers will eventually divide is a scene of sorrowful beauty. 5.4 is chilling when Exton plots Richard's murder. 5.5 is chilling and captivating when Richard dies but manages to take two of the thugs down with him. The icing on the cake is that Bolingbroke (Henry IV) can only regret his actions and realize that he has gotten himself into a troublesome situation. But that will be covered in "1 Henry IV" and "2 Henry IV." We can easily argue that it is in "Richard II" where we see Shakespeare's mastery of the language at its finest.

Richard II was incompetent, wastefully extravagant, overtaxed his nobles and peasants, ignored his senior advisors, and lavished dukedoms on his favorites. His rival, Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV), was popular with the common man and undeservingly suffered banishment and loss of all his property. And yet two centuries later Elizabethans viewed the overthrow of Richard II as fundamentally wrong and ultimately responsible for 100 years of crisis and civil war. Queen Elizabeth's government even censored Shakespeare's play.

Shakespeare masterfully manipulates our feelings and attitude toward Richard II and Bolingbroke. We initially watch Richard II try to reconcile differences between two apparently loyal subjects each challenging the other's loyalty to the king. He seemingly reluctantly approves a trial by combat. But a month later, only minutes before combat begins, he banishes both form England. We begin to question Richard's motivation.

Richard's subsequent behavior, especially his illegal seizure of Bolingbroke's land and title, persuades us that his overthrow is justified. But as King Richard's position declines, a more kingly, more contemplative ruler emerges. He faces overthrow and eventual death with dignity and courage. Meanwhile we see Bolingbroke, now Henry IV, beset with unease, uncertainty, and eventually guilt for his action.

Shakespeare also leaves us in in a state of uncertainty. What is the role of a subject? What are the limits of passive obedience? How do we reconcile the overthrow of an incompetent ruler with the divine right of kings? Will Henry IV, his children, or England itself suffer retribution?

Richard II has elements of a tragedy, but is fundamentally a historical play. I was late coming to Shakespeare's English histories and despite my familiarity with many of his works I found myself somewhat disoriented. I did not appreciate the complex relationships between the aristocratic families, nor what had happened before. Fortunately I was rescued by Peter Saccio, the author of "Shakespeare's English Kings". Saccio's delightful book explores how Shakespeare's imagination and actual history are intertwined.

I hope you enjoy Richard II as much as I have. It is the gateway to Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V, all exceptional plays.

The thing with Shakespeare histories is that almost no one reads them, as opposed to his tragedies and comedies. I don't know why that is. The histories that are read are either Henry V (largely due to Branagh's movie), Richard III (because the hunchback king is so over-the-top evil), or the gargantuan trilogy of Henry VI, with the nearly saintly king (at least by Part III) who much prefers contemplating religion and ethics to ruling and dealing with the cabals among his nobles.

So why read a relatively obscure history about a relatively obscure king? Aside from the obvious (it's Shakespeare, stupid), it is a wonderful piece of writing - intense, lyrical, and subtle. Richard II is morally ambiguous, initially an arrogant, callous figure who heeds no warnings against his behavior. Of course, his behavior, which includes seizing the property of nobles without regard for their heirs, leads to his downfall. Nothing in his character or behavior inspires his subjects so he has no passionate defenders when one of the wronged heirs leads a rebellion to depose Richard II. But Richard now becomes a much more sympathetic figure -especially in the scene where he confronts the usurper, Richard acknowledges his mistakes, but eloquently wonders what happens when the wronged subjects can depose the leader when they are wronged. What then of the monarchy, what then of England?

On top of the profound political musings, you get some extraordinarily lyrical Shakespeare (and that is truly extraordinary). Most well known may be the description of England that was used in the airline commercial a few years back... "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, ..."

If you like Shakespeare and haven't read this play, you've missed a gem.

For starters, the first apparent detail of this book is the glaring grammatical errors. Ok, no big deal, but still, it's an eyesore. The book is complex for the sake of complexity. Each chapter could easily be 2/3 or less the length it is now. The M4 macro is over-used and under-explained. If it used this much, a whole chapter should be devoted to it (at least more than a four page section covering few basics). The examples are poor and many of them simply don't work. A total lack of explanation as to what is actually going on "behind the scenes" as the macro does its work left me hung out to dry on many occasions. With way too much work, I reaped very little knowledge from this book. I can see this being a half-decent reference for those who have extensive knowledge of the M4 macro and previous experience in assembly language. If you're a beginner, stay miles away from this book. Books on a topic as inherently confusing as this need to be clearer and more extensive in their explanations and have examples that work.

This book is the text for a CS course I am taking. Its not easy to read, but neither is assembly language. No doubt, the book makes you dig in and I hate the HP assembly but its a good way to introduce stack machines. I also liked the constant comparisons to C. Bottom line - don't buy unless your ready to work your butt off.

This book discusses everything in detail that you need to know in order to learn Assembly and work with assembly.

It even discusses and explains Assembly code that does exactly what some of the C Control Structure (for(), while(), etc) code looks like in assembly.

This books contains two chapters that discuss different number systems as well as how adding, subtracting, multiplying, and division work with binary numbers including the Assembly code.

Any one that wants to have a better grasp of how the machine actually runs your compile program or wants to write/read assembly should get this book.