In 1835, an extraordinary series of articles appeared in the New York "Sun," one of the city's newspapers. The articles told how astronomer John Herschel, with the aid of an advanced new telescope, had discovered life on earth's moon. Of course, the articles were pure fiction, and the story has become known as the Moon Hoax. The articles, written by Richard Adams Locke, were published in book form under the title "The Moon Hoax; Or, A Discovery That the Moon Has a Vast Population of Human Beings." A reproduction of an 1859 New York edition, with a new introduction by Ormond Seavey, was published by Gregg Press in 1975.

Locke's Moon Hoax is one of the most remarkable works of 19th century U.S. literature. Ormond Seavey's intro to the 1975 edition does a good job of placing the hoax in literary and cultural perspective. Seavey notes, for example, that the hoax appeared at "a time when the tall tale was first recognized as a characteristically American narrative" (p. xxiv). Seavey also makes note of the reaction of showman P.T. Barnum to the hoax, and draws a parallel between the Moon Hoax and Edgar Allan Poe's 1844 "Balloon Hoax."

The text of the hoax itself is a charming piece of literature; it could be seen as a pioneering work of science fiction. The text's flavor of authenticity is enhanced by the many technical details about the new telescope; Locke even names the glassmaking firm that allegedly created the lens for the device! Locke's descriptions of Herschel's bogus discoveries are delightful. We learn about the lunar oceans; trees; gigantic, obelisk-like amethysts; unicorn-like creatures; tailless beaver-like humanoids; and most wonderfully, "Vespertilio-homo," the winged human-like species alluded to in the book's title. "The Moon Hoax" is a marvelous book that deserves to be rediscovered by new generations of readers.

This is my favorite one of the series so far. It gets bettter with every chapter. I didn't want to put it down, and I don't even like science fiction! The book was filled with great detail. I found myself caught in the adventure with the characters. There was a plot that you could really dig into. The suspense, romance, and adventure was incredible. I can't wait to read the next one!

This book was awesome! I really liked it. It was very suspensful. Four girls move away from their hometown and make a pact to return to their favorite hangout in six years. When they get to the Waxhouse it is boarded up and they break the window to get in. The girls are frightened by the wax figures in the dark. When the figures keep on being moved the girls know someone is in the house with them. They try to get out but someone has put pad locks on all the doors. Someone who wants to hurt the girls.

The Great Depression remains one of the landmark events--many have called it the "defining moment"--of the twentieth century. By almost all measures it brought about a transformation of the role of the federal government in the American economy, as Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal set out to bring "relief, recovery, and reform" to the beleaguered populace. President Roosevelt and his New Dealers achieved almost mythic status as selfless saviors of the economy.

In recent decades, cracks have appeared in this seemingly impregnable façade. Mistaken and inappropriate monetary policy now appears to have been a major factor in both the Great Contraction and the slow recovery. Moreover, New Deal programs probably retarded rather than promoted recovery from the depression. The unintended and undesirable long-run consequences of such programs as Social Security, AFDC, and agricultural price-support and output-restriction programs were visited on the postwar American economy. The harmful effects of the artificial separation of financial activities and government controls on deposit-interest rates were felt in the United States in the 1970s, and finally led to the removal of those controls.

In addition to increasing doubts about the beneficial effects of New Deal programs, questions have begun to be raised about the selfless motivation of those in charge of the programs.... Nearly all of these studies aggregate across spending categories and over the years from 1933 to 1939.

In The Political Economy of the New Deal, Jim Couch and William Shughart argue that important information and insights are lost by such aggregation. Using more recent data, they disaggregate categories of New Deal spending and examine its determinants over time.

Couch and Shughart find that both economic and political influences were important in determining the allocation of total spending per capita, loans per capita, and grants per capita across the states. Presidential politics were much more important than congressional politics in determining the allocation of New Deal spending. The authors conclude that "The weight of this evidence thus points to a political explanation for New Deal spending patterns: other things being the same, more federal aid was allocated to states which had supported FDR most solidly in 1932 and which were crucial to the president's 1936 Electoral College strategy" (p. 190).

Overall, Couch and Shughart conclude that political considerations were an important and often a dominant determinant of the allocation of New Deal funds among states. By no means were the New Dealers selfless and disinterested bureaucrats, allocating dollars only on the basis of individual need.

All in all, The Political Economy of the New Deal is a well-written book that makes us think further about the motives of the New Dealers and politicians in general. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the New Deal and the politics of the 1930s.

This compilation of Locke's political writings not only contains his famed second treatise, but also suplementary essays supporting his views and espousing other particulars. The book is a must for any one interested in political philosophy in the least simply because most of the ideas espoused were incorparated into the foundation of our country. The essays set up locke's basic democratic theories and his version of social contract society. the reading is mildly technical and archaic, but not too bad. an excellent start to any one interested in philosophy

This book does a nice succinct job of surveying many psychological paradigms as they relate to education. There are brief summaries of many developmental, cognitive, and behavioral theorists, and their ideas are presented in an easy to read manner. The book touches on most aspects of psychology that are necessary for the beginning or veteran teacher.

Having some experience in Windows Help but none in recent editions of RoboHELP I wanted a book that grounded the instruction in my help authoring experience. I wasn't disappointed. As a matter of fact I learned a few things I hadn't considered, such as tips on indexing your project. I liked the division of the basic Getting Started and the more specific Digging Down sections. It allowed me to get a quick overview and then pick what to focus on for more detailed stuff. I also liked the index, which proved useful in helping me to find specific areas later.

I had considered taking a course, but after working through the workbook found that it wasn't necessary. Your results may vary.

John Locke was without a doubt one of the sanest and soberest souls ever to put pen to paper. Here philosopher Jonathan Lowe provides a fine and thorough introduction to Locke's greatest and most influential work: his _Essay Concerning Human Understanding_.

Lowe not only provides clear and sound explications of Locke's own views, carefully placing them into historical context, but also inquires into whether Locke's views can be defended today -- and, perhaps surprisingly, finds that many of them are defensible though perhaps in need of modification. And Lowe does not hesitate to add his own views where necessary, by way of suggesting how a modern follower of Locke might carry his philosophy forward in light of scientific developments since Locke's day.

The result is more than an introduction to Locke -- it is a scintillating volume that will be a pleasurable read even for longtime readers of Locke. Lowe has a knack for picking out the most interesting features of Locke's thought and presenting them in a new light.

For example, I was quite struck by Lowe's remarks on Locke's "particularist" (Lowe's term) view of logic. Locke, as his readers may know, was extremely critical of syllogistic formalism, holding that while reasoned arguments may indeed be put in syllogistic form, it was nevertheless ridiculous to maintain that the use of the form itself is what gives validity to an argument. As Locke famously remarked, God was not so sparing as to make men barely two-legged and leave it to Aristotle to make them rational.

Lowe trenchantly notes that Locke's critiques would apply equally well to the Frege-Russell variety of formal logic; Locke, very much like Brand Blanshard in _Reason and Analysis_, held that we reason by connecting terms through their _meanings_, which a strictly formal logic provides no way to do.

Lowe's remarks on this point are food for thought not only on the matter of formal logic but on the question of what allegedly divides "rationalism" from "empiricism." Elsewhere in this volume, Lowe suggests that the firm distinction between these allegedly opposite schools of thought cannot be made out; and Locke was quite clearly a rationalist as regards knowledge even if he believed we arrived at all of our our ideas "empirically." That is, Locke clearly still has something to say to the rationalist philosophers of our own day -- and through Lowe, he says it.

And says it well: it is very much to Lowe's credit that, through his own lucid prose, he has allowed Locke to speak so clearly. The reader of this excellent introduction will find Locke to be fine intellectual company -- and also Lowe, a clear thinker and graceful writer whose own admiration for Locke is never explicitly stated but is nevertheless obvious through the keen sympathy of his presentation.

All in all, then, a delightful volume very much in the Lockean spirit.

This is an outstanding volume from one of the most important thinkers of Western civilization. This is a bridge linking the two major classics from Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding and the Two Treatises of Government. In this volume, we see Locke's dependence on Stoic philosophy (especially that of Seneca) and the effect that Aristotelian philosophy had on him.

"As the Strength of the Body lies chiefly in being able to endure Hardships, so also does that of the Mind. And the great Principle and Foundation of all Vertue and Worth, is . . . That a Man is able to deny himself his own Desires, cross his own Inclinations, and purely follow what Reason directs as best, tho' that appetite lean the other way." And how does one do this? Locke's answer is through education (i.e., through habit).

Anyone wishing to understand the thought and philosophy of Locke, can not afford to ignore this volume in the corpus of Lockean writings. This edition is a very scholarly edition, there is another modern edition available as well. To bad the editors of the Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke are not very organized, at the rate these volumes are being produced, the complete writings will not be available during my lifetime.

The world needs a modern edition of the writings of Locke, he is too important a thinker not to have this - if nothing else, for us inspiring Lockean scholars. :o)

This is the finest English-language commentary on the magnum opus of the deepest of the modern political philosophers (Harvard's Harvey Mansfield calls Espirit de Lois the most comprehensive work of political philosophy since Aristotle's Politics). Contrary to the now prevailing opinion that Montesquieu was merely a philosophe (as opposed to a philosopher) who was a lesser light than his contemporaries or near contemporaries such as Rousseau (and even Voltaire!), Pangle restores Montesquieu's rightful place among the pinnacle of modern liberalism. In particular, Pangle rightfully argues that it is not Adam Smith but Montesquieu who deserves to be called the founder of capitalism, and how Montesquieu's own economic thought is a culmination of the modern liberal project: the attempt to replace the flourishing of (classical) virtue with more lowly yet achievable goal of peace and prosperity through unleashing selfish interests or passions as the goal of politics. My only regret with this work is that Pangle did not elaborate how crucial Montesquieu's economism was to the Founders of the American republic, in particular Madison and Jefferson.