I purchased the German language version of this book in a little out of the way bookstore in Berlin, belly laughing as I thumbed through the pages. In any language, this tiny text is a priceless gem of hilarity. Yes, its potty humour, but the illustrations and story line will make the most serious readers laugh until their tummys hurt. The book is money well spent.

My sister sent this book to me several Christmases ago and it has become a tradition for Christmas reading at our family get together even though it has nothing to do with Christmas. It is wonderfully illustrated and the "reading" takes on a life of its own in shared entertainment value. It is a great book to read aloud to a group and appeals to all ages. It is so funny. I loved it.

Forgive me please, but if have any toddlers in your home, potty talk is likely to be a common topic. This book is hilarious, for children and adults alike. It provides very detailed descriptions, complete with lovely sound effect details and great illustrations, of the act as performed by various animals, so that the mole can figure out "whodunnit" on his head. If that appeals to you at all, you should buy this book. We originally received this book in Norwegian, and I could not wait to see the English translation -- I have not been disappointed.

This is a very comprehensive edition of this book. It covers just about everything there is to cover about the show, the characters, roles of re-curring actors and more. It's an improvement over the original version that came across as more of a text book. This version has a better color and more eye-appealing graphics inside. The episode guide is very handy while watching episodes from the video collection (mine's from Columbia House). The only drawbacks I can think of is that it could use more color photos and I did notice one trivia answer that was incorrect--The coffee pot is a direct-line hook-up and is not a radio receiver... but aside from minor things like that I heartily recommend this book.

Brenda Scott Royce's book is a great book about Hogan's Heroes. It is very thorough - covering all aspects of the show : history, cast, collectibles and highlights of each episode.

Brenda Scott Royce is also the founder of the Hogan's Heroes Fan Club....

Hogan's Heroes is my all-time favorite TV comedy show, not just because of the humor, but because of the interaction of the characters and the World War II setting. I can't think of one single episode throughout the entire course of the series that I don't like for one reason or another. It was well-written, well-acted and well-produced/directed, and deserved more than the few Emmys it received at the time. It's hard to say enough good things about this book, which to date has been the ONLY book on the series! Brenda Scott Royce, herself a long-time fan of the show, did a fantastic job. Just about everything most real fans of this classic and underappreciated TV series could want to find out is here. There are plot synopses of all the episodes of the series and original air dates, sections about each of the main characters/actors, and interesting related information. Only one area is lacking, a slight deficiency of photos. But the end result is still a treasure trove of information, thanks to the author's extensive research and interviews.

It was great to have the band members themselves give their view of things, but there's little that couldn't be summed up in a couple of pages. Instead you get countless variations on a few themes: John Fogerty loves the blues, CCR worked hard with John in control, John is a vindictive jerk.

It would have been nice to have heard from a broader range of people: childhood friends, early fans, etc.

if you love Creedence you'll love this book ,do yourslf a favour and read this book about your most favourite band . however not enough photos and they should have been in color .

I've enjoyed reading this book many times. I've like the fact that they talk about some of the good times.

This book should drop the, "No Holds Barred Fighting" from its title as it deals ONLY with submission wrestling - that being said, it's a pretty good little submission wrestling book. The text is very logically presented and all the basics of submission wrestling are covered (grips, stances, gear, takedowns, escapes, drills, etc.). The photos are clear and the descriptions of techniques are top-notch. I counted 27 submissions demonstrated in this book, which isn't a lot; however, there are many books on the market, which deal with just submissions if that's what you're looking for. This book is a good value for the money and contains a load of useful info for persons interested in the sport, as well as for self-defence.

This book describes submission grappling techniques and basics in a very clear format. A compact text with lots of photos it is reasonably priced and well worth the small investment. The book focuses on grappling and is influenced by western submission grappling ("shoot" wrestling). I especially like the early chapters on basic drills (such as shrimping) that lay the basic groundwork for fighting on the ground.

I have been training in various Martial Arts (Combat Jujitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, American Wrestling, Boxing, and Arnis) for the past 15 years. I also serve as an Infantry Officer in the United States Marine Corps.

In his book, Mark Hatmaker provides excellent instruction on submission wrestling. His approach is practical and progressive. He demonstrates effective techniques that work on the mat or in combat.

I highly recommend this guide for anyone interested in the combat arts!

I couldn't put this book down, yet it always left me feeling very sad. I just couldn't believe there could ever be a happy ending, yet I couldn't stop reading it. If the subject matter hadn't been so depressing, I would have enjoyed it more. I want to see what else this author has written. I did like her style.

Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama

The value of life and the shortness of it all: one of the themes that are touched upon in DREAMING WATER. Gail Tsukiyama's style of writing creates a very beautiful story about a woman who is dying of Werner's disease, a disease that ages a person at twice the normal speed. Hana Maruyama was born like any normal healthy child, but by an early age her parents, Max and Cate, noticed that her growth patterns were not normal. There was something terribly wrong with her, and after much testing with doctors, by the time she is 13, they have diagnosed Hana with having Werner's disease.

Knowing that Hana's life would be short and that her parents would most likely outlive her, they treat every day as something precious, and every passing year as something very special. And with each passing year, Hana's symptoms worsen. She seems to be fine for many years, until she develops cataracts while in college, and from then on, her life becomes a roller coaster. She is no longer in control of her body. Every day Hana wonders what new symptom would she experience, as her body ages faster than it should. By age 38, Hana appears the age of an eighty-year-old woman.

The book spans a period of two days, but within those two days, the reader sees into the thoughts of both Cate and Hana and learns about their lives. We learn about Hana's father Max, who was a second generation Japanese American, interned as a boy with his family in the camps during WW II. Max, who had died only a few years ago, lives through the thoughts of both Cate and Hana, and we learn about his years spent at Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming, and how he dreamt of water and how much he longed for it. Living in the parched dry lands of the camp, Max lived a life of imprisonment and shame. He brought this shame with him after the war was over and the Japanese Americans were released. Max rarely talked about the camps with Hana or his wife. It was from Max's father that Hana learned about her father's family and their time spent in Wyoming.

We learn about Hana's grandparents, and their love for their granddaughter. Max and Cate's marriage was not approved of by either set of parents. Cate's parents disapproved of their daughter marrying a Japanese American, and Max's parents had hoped their son would marry "a nice Japanese girl". Max in turn told them, "But I'm marrying a nice Italian American girl".

But the birth of Hana, a few years after their wedding, helps unite both families together. Both grandparents are ecstatic, and finally acknowledge the marriage that they had originally disapproved.

One of the themes of DREAMING WATER is racial prejudice, but the true story is about Hana. She knows she only has a few years left, and so the story takes us into two days of Hana's life, her memories, and the people she loves. The book is very short and concise, yet Tsukiyama was able to fit an entire story about the Maruyama family and their love for their daughter Hana. It is a very moving story, and I consider this book one of the best books I've read in 2002.

This Tsukiyama's new novel moved me deeply as her previous works. Hana is a Japanese-American woman, whose disease stopped her growing in her teens and caused rapid aging. Racial discrimination (her father had been interned in a camp in the WWII) and the disease prohibited her from enjoying youth and life. After her father died, she has been only living with her Italian-American mother, Cate. The story deals with their only two days and their recollections, but on the first day's night, Hana's friend, Laura came to see them with her daughters who were Hana's godchildren. Especially the elder child Josephine got nervous since her parents' separation, so Laura wanted her children to meet her best friend, Hana, and of course she wanted to meet Hana for herself.

The storytelling is perfect. So are the details. For example, on the first encounter, Josephine simply said to herself that small Hana reminded her of "a character in a George Lucas or Steven Spielberg movie." And then things began to change...

Thank you, Gail, for your heartwarming story, especially in this new age of discrimination. I want to read more about Josephine's changing.

T.R. Pearson's novel, a Short History of a Small Place, takes the reader by the hand down a winding path through the history of a family and life in a small town. The narrator, Louis Benfield, is a child retelling the stories told to him by his father. The story is told through the eyes of a child but from the perspective of an entire town.
The story rambles along but the reader is never lost. Louis will start a particular story and then sidetrack to another story but he always returns to the first. Also, there is always a reason for him to divert off track. Background information is usually given in the ramblings that add to the original story. If Louis were not to go off on tangents at some points, the story itself would suffer.
These stories are the history of the town but they are never told by the people they happen to. Louis is telling the stories his father told him. However, Louis' father didn't even experience every story he tells his son. The stories are colored with the opinions and observations of an entire town. This gives the reader a little insight into what small town life is like.
However, the more the reader learns about life in a small town, the more obvious it becomes to the reader that everyone at some point in their life has experienced what living in a small town is like. Even if you've never lived in a small town, any high school can be compared to small town life. In the novel, whenever something highly dramatic happens, a mob is conveniently around to witness every aspect of everyone's life. And those who had the unfortunate luck to have missed the event hear about it so often that they have trouble remembering whether they were really there or not. High school life can be the same way at times. If something happens to you on Monday night it is amazing how many people know exactly what happened by Tuesday morning.
What is so great about this book is its use of humor. Never during the highly dramatic points does the reader ever feel like the situation is serious. This goes back to the perspective the novel is told in. Because the novel is told from the perspective of the town, serous situations can be transformed so the reader can see the humor in it. Also, the reader is shown the humor in everyday life as well.
Reading T.R. Pearson's novel, A Short History of a Small Place, is an experience that cannot be missed.

"A Short History of a Small Place" is on my personal list of ten best American novels. Mr. Pearson is a Southern story-teller to the bone, interrupting himself, digressing, supplying minute detail, but always focusing on the main thread of the story, always evoking a sense of place, and always, always depicting characters whose eccentricities are both endearing and defining.

I first became acquainted with Mr. Pearson and this, his first-published work, in the mid '80s when I was living in North Carolina and heard this novel read on a radio program, a medium which suited it perfectly, given Mr. Pearson's conversational style. Soon after, I read it for myself, and have since reread it in entirety and in part, enjoying it even more with each new visit.

Through the eyes of young Louis Benfield, who though apparently innocent is a keen observer, the reader meets the inhabitants of Neely, NC and learns some of the history that causes them to do the things they do. The ancient Miss Pettigrew, who has never recovered from being jilted is a not-too-distant cousin to Miss Haversham. The Epperson sisters with their petition and seemingly unending quest, Louis's mother who washes dishes and stares out the window (behavior that the reader comprehends immediately, but Louis only gradually), the town Sheriff who is not as fearless as he seems to Louis, all are fully drawn portraits of endearing people.

Every year, close to Christmas time, I take out "A Short History" and re-read the Christmas pageant section in which Miss Pettigrew's appearance causes such a stir that the dog (that would be the dog playing the part of the donkey in the Christmas play) knocks over a candle and nearly sets fire to the whole church. It is both uproariously funny and completely recognizable for anyone who grew up in a small place (regardless of geography) and participated in the yearly church Christmas pageant.

Since "A Short History", I've eagerly awaited each of Mr. Pearson's successive novels and have enjoyed all of them;his humorous observation of human frailty remains keen. With each successive novel, he has tightened his style and honed his descriptive abilities, which is admirable, but I must admit that it was the expansive, langorous style of his first story -- a style of story-telling that took me back decades to a front porch, summer heat, and my grandmother's voice -- that I most admired and enjoyed.

This is a book that I did not ever want to come to the end of. I thoroughly enjoy reading stories told through the eyes of children (To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Sawyer, Catcher In The Rye, to name a few), and A Short History Of A Small Place ranks with the very best of those stories. I admire the author of this book greatly because I think adults are quick to forget how we viewed the world as children, and T. R. Pearson remembers incredibly well and is able to remind/involve his readers and take them back to those times. This is a book that literally makes you laugh out loud and leads you to re-reading certain parts because they were so enjoyable and made you think to yourself "Hey, I remember exactly how that felt!" How wonderful that Pearson could so succinctly put into words feelings and senses that are all too often unexpressable. I truly admire Pearson for his magnificent writing. It's a wondrous story that I will always remember. And I will read it again and again.

I am only about 3/4s through this book, and I couldn't be more enthusiastic. I happen to love Kenny Werner's piano playing--always heard him and thought "Well, I'll never sound like THAT!"-- only to read his book and have him address this very attitude with unbelievable accuracy. I've already changed the way that I practice my instruments, and I just put some of his approach to work in a 3 day recording session with some players that I admire very much. While I had couple of brief self-doubt meltdowns, the whole experience was so much easier than I had even hoped for, and yes, even "effortless" at times. I know that changing my perspective, and my expectations made a huge difference in my ability to enjoy the moment, and as a result, the music that came forth. I am recommending this book for anyone who has ever played a musical instrument--at ANY level--and stopped, even if it was a long time ago. This book explains what might have gotten in your way of the music-making experience. I also want to recommend it to those of us who play professionally but are either frustrated with our own progress or just not enjoying it as much as we did when we were young. There's no reason music can't be that fun again.

I read Kenny's book while I was at sea for 3 months, and listened to the CD many times. My playing has really opened up, and I think he's right about all of it. When asked about effortless mastery, Bird said,(paraphrased) "Learn all the technical stuff and then forget it,just play!" That is strictly analogous to practicing correctly, and entering the space. Werner's remarks about the importance of learning the melody, how our minds ruin it for us because we continually rush through the music thereby missing what in fact we are after, practicing up-tempos by just "wiggling your fingers", his observations RE: Bill Evans and Horowitz videos, his "get real time" approach to self-assessment about how to really improve, how to practice, the distinction familiar and unfamiliar as opposed to easy and difficult, and his concept of the Learning Diamond...it is lovingly written... it encourages and shows how to give ourselves permission to really play from our hearts...and effortless mastery emerges from that...boldly insightful and generous.

This book is great as it has helped me realize why i play the trumpet and helps me drop any ego i have. I enjoy playing the trumpet and it is truly easier to sit down and just practice something now because of the books great view points and explanations. great book for any musician

This first novel by Ann Werner is a must read for SciFi fans. A seemingly everyday occurrance of moving into a new place turns into a series of mysterious events that are quite out of the ordinary. The intelligent and gusty herione, Amanda Harris, is thrust into a place where her experiences are 'out of this world'. "The People Next Door" keeps the reader in constant suspense and sometimes horror. Moral and ethical issues are brought to bear leaving the reading questioning themselves about the events going on in the world today.

A breakout hit of a first novel, "The People Next Door," carries shades of the finest works of horror/science fiction. A well-written heroine, Amanda Harris, finds herself in the lucky position of owning a new home. Soon, however, the irritating neighbours go from being minor annoyances to being a major threat, and the plot begins to pick up a manic pace.

Amanda is written as a very plausible heroine - no shrieking and wailing for this woman, but neither no Sigourney-Weaver overkill. Werner has a deft touch with her characters that bring you into their heads, and keeps you there while you bite fingernails on their behalf.

From vanishing memories and time, and implanted chips, Amanda's story sets you to the edge of your seat, and keeps you pinned there throughout. The plot unravels wonderfully, jacking up the tension a little at a time with each revelation, and the villains of the story are a definite surprise!

So, kick back, lock the doors, and mark the time. Then, if you think you can handle it, give "The People Next Door," a read, and prepare to be shaken.

'Nathan

First, remember the name Ann Werner. Then, put the word "Author" after it because after reading her first novel, "The People Next Door," you will always, always say ANN WERNER, AUTHOR!

Ann Werner, Author, has created a spine-tingling; things that go bump in the night; leave the light on sci-fi thriller where the reader experiences a range of emotions starting with that little chill to goose bumps -- to full blown heart palpitations.

Ann Werner, Author, has brought to life, Amanda -- a warm, humorous and intelligent female who does not walk away in the face of fear, but takes the bull by the horn to save self, daughter, home and cats. Yes, her beloved cats. Ann Werner, Author, writes with a touch of Stephen King, adding the descriptive style of Anne Perry. She sets a scene and you are there! Amanda is also every alleged over-the-hill aged female who encounters that spark triggered by l-o-v-e and rides it out it accordingly.

Personally, I thank Ann Werner, Author for keeping me awake all night with one of those special ' I'm scarred but can't put this book down until I find out about THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR' novels.

Dolphindli@aol.com

History ebbs and flows. The illusion that we are somehow at the 'end of history' and that civil organization and values as they now stand are beyond history's broader and deeper currents might be the great popular Myopia of our time. Spengler in this book has applied his voluminous knowledge and interpretive skills to the rise and fall of civilizations. Does the 'West' conform to the definition of a civilization in the age of global communications and entertainment? If so, are its prospects different than those of its predecessors? Schools no longer prepare the mainstream student for learning and argument at this level. Spengler's thesis hinges on the leading intellectual & aesthetic edges of the last 1000 years of our culture as compared to those of civilizations of antiquity, notably the Greco Roman.

There are scholarly contrasts to Spengler's study. William McNeill's 'Rise of the West' provides a direct challenge to many of its conclusions. Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' or Werner Jaeger's 'Paedeia' (on Greek classical culture) might be good comparative reference books, but these have now been relegated in public familiarity to dusty and esoteric academic departments. Spengler's work, however, falls squarely and uniquely into the realm of a great work of the Deist tradition of Western social philosophy, from which its reputation for skepticism comes. Its apparent mysticism emanates from the deep investigation into the intellectual attitude of the Western mind. There are, of course, other traditions in the 'Western' mix which have broad and predictive implications. This opus should not be misconstrued of as a work of pessimism. Constructive action and faith are, in fact, its basis for the prospect of vigorous and sustained regeneration of the human cause.

This is an exacting study. It requires a critical attitude to penetrate and to see that it has a fundamentally human and hopeful (and debatable) message. Decline of the West does in fact provide drama, grandeur, context and understanding to the sweep of history. It is accessible, though, to the determined general reader and constitutes a significant contribution to 20th Century thought. Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

Decline of The West is a book squarely beyond the range of typical modern literary critique.
The fact that Dr.Spengler discovered a true existence of a living form in the history- and life-cycles of civilizations has been deliberately ignored by critics. The importance of this discovery for History as a science is on a level of Copernican helio-centric (Sun-at-the-Center) discovery in spatial sciences which inaugurated the modern advance of physical science. Yet it has not brought the official recognition that is its due.
Today, as it was 500 years ago in "The Middle Ages", the ruling spirit of the establishment feels threatened by the new revolutionary discovery and is trying to find ways to live with it without the consequences and implications of Dr.Spengler's discovery presented in this book. The Roman Catholic Church tried to spread ignorance of Copernicus as well, but will its modern-day equivalents be more successful in hiding the discovery?
It is up to the interested reader not to let this crime happen any longer.
Having in mind the huge scope and distance both in Time and Space that Dr.Spengler's book covers, the enormous energy and time spent by him in creating the material presented in this book becomes even more astonishing considering that the book is so deeply involved and touching upon the daily events of the times we live in.
Dr.Spengler in his work definitely belongs to the realm of the modern "TABOO," and precisely uncovers all the important facts and ideas, that our "accepted" intellectuals of the day DARE NOT touch upon, and prefer to avoid and misinterpret and misrepresent Dr.Spengler's thought and observations---for these are all too unnerving to them and too uncomfotably revealing about the character and direction of the times we live in.
Even though the Author has died many years ago, his insight and thought is squarely present in our every day problems, troubles and uncertainties.
Seldom will one find a philosopher, political scientist and a natural scientist-all in one and yet so penetrating in his thought and truly relevant and accurate to the daily life many years after his death.
Despite our civilization's boasting about the hitherto unheard-of levels of progress, creativity and prosperity unimaginable only a few dozen years ago, "Decline of the West" deals with the significance in them. The vision, understanding and practical forecasts of Dr.Spengler's scientific discipline of History encompass all of those and go beyond, at all times maintaining the "eagle's view from above" of life.
The 20th century is known for its false prophets and broken ideologies, yet amid all the storm and dust raised in the conflicts of this century, people have not noticed that all this time there existed a profound voice of calm unshaken in his beliefs and unmistaken, unshakeable in the strength of his experience and position, always proven right by facts beyond his control.
This is Dr.Spengler, and that makes him a lone example of a true scientist of politics.
This revelation then has to tell us something profoundly significant about the nature of our Western civilization's Information Age stage and the direction it is heading in, when a person from a 100 years ago can tell us so much more intimate and relevant things about the politics, science and life of people many years after his death, than the leading historians of the day can.
The average person's inability to tell truth from faleshood in the news goes beyond mere wealth of information phenomenon, and the popular Computer represents the vehicle of the Information Age, nothing more.
Today it is easy to be unaware of the profound and deep metaphysical roots underlying our advanced technical civilization's materialistic developments, yet Dr.Spengler in this work masterfully uncovers them.
That is why this book, Decline of The West is so important, and will help the modern reader understand much better, than through any other immediate means, the true scope, understanding and meaning of the age we live in and of the age our descendants will live in.
It is a true example of the intellectual nihilism of our times when works such as those of Dr.Spengler are deliberately passed by the intellectual elite keenly aware of its inability to deal with the disturbing insights of Dr.Spengler's mind, and consequently of its inability to rise to the rank of Spengler, prefering instead to sometimes select quotations from this great thinker in order to make themselves look bigger and wiser, --thinkers such as Hughes, Fischer and Connelly are among those.
To paraphrase Spengler, nobody can escape from History's all-encompassing reach, we humans only have a luxury of pretending that we can, and like a grotesque Ostrich we bury our heads into the daily mass-circulation media training our minds, making us increasingly less capable of exercising independent thought and judgement.
In the introduction, Spengler quotes his spiritual father, poet-philosopher Goethe with the description of confidence in life:"Inward form of significant life which unaware and unobserved inspires every thought and every action." That this description is no longer adequate for the life of Western Man provides a food for thought, since everything genuine in the way of feeling and thought is left open for unrestrained dissection and criticism by the standard-bearers of the modern intellectual inquisition which stifles any richness in the modes of thought in our universities, and has assumed the role of the judge, prosecutor and the jury in Media's daily virtual courtrooms, alias mass-circulation news. Hence the public truth of the moment holds sway.
The lack of inward form in our daily personal lives should not therefore come as a surprise since we are trained daily to seek programmable inspiration from the external world of the macrocosm, shunning away from our own inbred microcosm and the wealth of inspiration it could have provided us with, had we given it a chance.
At the very least "Decline of The West" enables the interested reader to form his or her own conclusion, which is something that Spengler's past critics could not afford to do.

Decline of The West is a book squarely beyond the range of typical modern literary critique.

The fact that Dr.Spengler discovered a true existence of a living form in the history- and life-cycles of civilizations has been deliberately ignored by critics. The importance of this discovery for History as a science is on a level of Copernican helio-centric (Sun-at-the-Center) discovery in spatial sciences which inaugurated the modern advance of physical science. Yet it has not brought the official recognition that is its due.

Today, as it was 500 years ago in "The Middle Ages", the ruling spirit of the establishment feels threatened by the new revolutionary discovery and is trying to find ways to live with it without the consequences and implications of Dr.Spengler's discovery presented in this book. The Roman Catholic Church tried to spread ignorance of Copernicus as well, but will its modern-day equivalents be more successful in hiding the discovery?

It is up to the interested reader not to let this crime happen any longer.

Having in mind the huge scope and distance both in Time and Space that Dr.Spengler's book covers, the enormous energy and time spent by him in creating the material presented in this book becomes even more astonishing considering that the book is so deeply involved and touching upon the daily events of the times we live in.

Dr.Spengler in his work definitely belongs to the realm of the modern "TABOO," and precisely uncovers all the important facts and ideas, that our "accepted" intellectuals of the day DARE NOT touch upon, and prefer to avoid and misinterpret and misrepresent Dr.Spengler's thought and observations---for these are all too unnerving to them and too uncomfotably revealing about the character and direction of the times we live in.

Even though the Author has died many years ago, his insight and thought is squarely present in our every day problems, troubles and uncertainties.

Seldom will one find a philosopher, political scientist and a natural scientist-all in one and yet so penetrating in his thought and truly relevant and accurate to the daily life many years after his death.

Despite our civilization's boasting about the hitherto unheard-of levels of progress, creativity and prosperity unimaginable only a few dozen years ago, "Decline of the West" deals with the significance in them. The vision, understanding and practical forecasts of Dr.Spengler's scientific discipline of History encompass all of those and go beyond, at all times maintaining the "eagle's view from above" of life.

The 20th century is known for its false prophets and broken ideologies, yet amid all the storm and dust raised in the conflicts of this century, people have not noticed that all this time there existed a profound voice of calm unshaken in his beliefs and unmistaken, unshakeable in the strength of his experience and position, always proven right by facts beyond his control.

This is Dr.Spengler, and that makes him a lone example of a true scientist of politics.

This revelation then has to tell us something profoundly significant about the nature of our Western civilization's Information Age stage and the direction it is heading in, when a person from a 100 years ago can tell us so much more intimate and relevant things about the politics, science and life of people many years after his death, than the leading historians of the day can.

The average person's inability to tell truth from faleshood in the news goes beyond mere wealth of information phenomenon, and the popular Computer represents the vehicle of the Information Age, nothing more.

Today it is easy to be unaware of the profound and deep metaphysical roots underlying our advanced technical civilization's materialistic developments, yet Dr.Spengler in this work masterfully uncovers them.

That is why this book, Decline of The West is so important, and will help the modern reader understand much better, than through any other immediate means, the true scope, understanding and meaning of the age we live in and of the age our descendants will live in.

It is a true example of the intellectual nihilism of our times when works such as those of Dr.Spengler are deliberately passed by the intellectual elite keenly aware of its inability to deal with the disturbing insights of Dr.Spengler's mind, and consequently of its inability to rise to the rank of Spengler, prefering instead to sometimes select quotations from this great thinker in order to make themselves look bigger and wiser, --thinkers such as Hughes, Fischer and Connelly are among those.

To paraphrase Spengler, nobody can escape from History's all-encompassing reach, we humans only have a luxury of pretending that we can, and like a grotesque Ostrich we bury our heads into the daily mass-circulation media training our minds, making us increasingly less capable of exercising independent thought and judgement.

In the introduction, Spengler quotes his spiritual father, poet-philosopher Goethe with the description of confidence in life:"Inward form of significant life which unaware and unobserved inspires every thought and every action." That this description is no longer adequate for the life of Western Man provides a food for thought, since everything genuine in the way of feeling and thought is left open for unrestrained dissection and criticism by the standard-bearers of the modern intellectual inquisition which stifles any richness in the modes of thought in our universities, and has assumed the role of the judge, prosecutor and the jury in Media's daily virtual courtrooms, alias mass-circulation news. Hence the public truth of the moment holds sway.

The lack of inward form in our daily personal lives should not therefore come as a surprise since we are trained daily to seek programmable inspiration from the external world of the macrocosm, shunning away from our own inbred microcosm and the wealth of inspiration it could have provided us with, had we given it a chance.

At the very least "Decline of The West" enables the interested reader to form his or her own conclusion, which is something that Spengler's past critics could not afford to do.

Few non-Muslims are even aware of the Hadith, a huge collection of the sayings of Mohammed and episodes from his life. However, reading those documents is very revealing. The misogyny is unrelenting. Mohammed is directly quoted as stating that women are deficient in intellect and that is why the Koran counts their testimony as being half the value of that of a man.
Islam is suffused with the cruelty of slavery. Mohammed left many rules for slaveowners and over 11 million Black Africans were kidnapped from their homes for service in the Ottoman empire and its precursors.
The Hadith reveal Mohammed as the violent war lord that he was.

Are we a product of our enviourment, loving to hate what our religious cults have been teaching us over centuries ?
A mind that is completely shilded from other ideas and thougthts is like a room with no windows.
The book opens many windows, letting us see outside And also helping us look inside ourselves.
A MUST READ.

"We Hate what we do not Know." Such is how the book starts. Mr Hofmann sheds the lignt in a very concise and summarized manner to some of the major misconcetpions about Islam, a religion so much misunderstood by the West. This book,written by a German dignitary convert,is an excellent introduction to Islam to the West.Simply put: a Must Read.