I came to this book with doubts of the authors and context of book, but by the time I finished, I was amazed at the ideas and the perception noted by these men. I would recommend it to anyone.

This is a wonderful work of scholarship. Crippen and Lopreato, concerned about the lack of intellectual rigor in sociology build a persuasive argument to apply methodologies from the natural sciences. (As opposed to the "unnatural" or "social" sciences.) They adopt the intriguing viewpoint that conclusions must be based on factual observation, hypothesis and honest intellectual analysis. Their argument will not be well received by those for whom facts and data must be molded to fit pre-conceived conclusions. The application of the work done in sociobiology and evolutionary science is first rate. This is a must read for anyone concerned about the current state of the discipline of sociology.

In the early years of the century, Alfred North Whitehead described the scientific mind as being characterized by an interest in relating general principles to stubborn facts. This book's premise is that the crisis in sociology is largely due to the discipline's lack of concern with either. Lopreato and Crippen believe that far too much of what goes on under the name of sociology today is either political harangue or mere data collection ungraced by reference to any general principles.

They proceed to argue the case that evolutionary theory is essential for a deep undertanding of sociological phenomena. After an illuminating excursion into the history of sociology, the authors turn their attention to evolution, giving the reader a grasp of the logic of Darwinian thinking before applying it to a number of areas, including sex role differences, stratification, and ethnic chauvanism. The effort succeeds splendidly. Satisfied readers may inclined to examine Lopreato's earlier (and longer) book, "Human Nature and Biocultural Evolution" or E.O. Wilson's Pulitzer prize-winning "On Human Nature."

Many English-speakers are distraught when they realise that the beautiful language of Italy will forever remain a secret to the rest of the world. The native Italians refuse to speak an ounce of their language to foreigners for fear that we should butcher their romantic language. It is quite a loss for those of us who are actually willing to give much time and training to learning Italian. This course "Italian, Made Simple" is probably the most comphrehensive courses ever written, and I have much of my Italian vocabulary obtained from this book!

The book itself has been around for quite some time. It was written in 1960 for the "Made Simple" series. It has been a popular staple of Italian courses in high schools and colleges ever since, and is now one of the better self-teaching courses. The book consists of fourty-one comprehensive chapters, each building on vocabulary, verbs, common expressions, and pronunciation and grammer. About every six chapters, there is a "revisione" - review chapter. These are like unit tests that one should do in full, at one sitting. At the end of the book, there is an Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary section, and contains all words learned throughout the course. (However, you might want to buy a complete Italian-English dictionary after completing the course, so you have a reference for words you did not learn. I suggest the wonderful "New World" dictionary, also available on Amazon.com.)

With each chapter drilling you to the maximum, and such a comprehensive voabulary agenda, "Italian, Made Simple" is not exactly the most simple of methods. It takes quite a lot of time. Each chapter may take from thirty minutes to an hour-and-a-half, and you may only have time to do three or less chapters in a single week. I suggest trying to do one lesson a day, but even I could not do this. The entire course took me three-and-a-half months to complete. However, by the end of this period, you will have learned enough Italian to get you through Carlo Collodi's complete "Pinnochio", and speaking with many Italians. Being an opera fan, I was able to comprehend large amounts of the texts of Italian operas without having to look at the supertitles! (Although, as Italian has changed quite a bit since the time of Puccini and Verdi, it is not always so easy.) I learned more from this course than anything else.

A problem with using this course is with the text, as it was written in 1960, and Doubleday has neglected to update the work, some of the text is considerably out-of-date. This is the Italian of the 1960's Italy - not current Italy. For example, the currently Italian pronouns used for "he" is not "egli" - but "lui" (pronounced "looey"). The current Italian pronoun used for "she" is not "essa" - but "lei". (This is also the same as the Italian word for "you", but one word capitalize it when using it in that sense.) Also, the phrase "per piacere" ("please" in English) is less common these days in Italy. Today, one would more likely hear "per favore". These can be cleared up, however, by watching Italian telision shows or listening to Italian music. (In Washington, D.C. we even get Italian music videos!) These will help to bring you a bit more up-to-date on Italian today.

I would suggest using this course along with the Pimsleur Italian audio courses. Although they are expensive, they help GREATLY with pronunciation, and are extremely easy. They are not as comprehensive as this course, but when used together, you will become quite fluent! (Also, the Pimsleur courses are actually up-to-date, so if you cannot get an Italian telivision show or radio program, they are quite a help! One little error on the course, however. Italy no longer uses the lyra as their monetary systems. It is now the Euro - easier to use and pronounce!)

This is the most comprehensive course I know of. It you learn to deal with the innacuracies due to dating (and I have pointed out the most prominent, already!) and have perseverence, you will be able to converse in fluent Italian, and read and write in the language (I even begin to THINK in Italian sometimes!), it is nessesary. A friend in Italy went through this course, and said to me: "If anyone can get through this course, they truly deserve to be treated as an Italian in Italy!" You should not fear about butchering the language after having done this course! It is a great secret to many who are looking for a great course!

This book is an excellent introduction to the Italian language. Its pronunciation guide is the most thorough I have seen, and pronunciations next to words indicate which syllable to stress, which is not done in the other popular italian books I have used. This is crucial to pronouncing the language correctly. The book is well layed out, pedagogically, if a tad ambitious. It keeps a fairly rapid pace in introducing new grammar rules, and can be overwhelming as a first text. Heavy use of drills really does get the language to "sink" in, however. The reason this book gets four stars, is that the italian it teaches is a bit outdated. Some of the vocabulary it teaches is straight out of 1960, and the pronouns it teaches for "he" and "she", among other words, are not in common current usage in Italy. My friend from Italy explained to me that those works anly used by her grandparents' generation.

By buying this book it really helped me understand the basic-intermediate status of Italian. It does everything in the best way I thought possible, and helped me learn my new language quickly and easily. It takes you step by step so that you don't get confused. Every six chapters there is a brief Quiz to see what you have learned and what you still need to spend some more time on. In the end, you won't be speaking fluently, but very very close to it. I reccommend buying "Living Language: Italian" that will give you an advanced-intermediate status. and finally, buy an advanced book or get a tudor...(TUDORS WORK REALLY WELL!)

HAVE FUN!!!