A great way to familiarize yourself with the Dead Sea Scrolls. I like the layout of the text, examining the scrolls cave by cave. Many beautiful color photos, almost a coffee-table book, but more than just a photo album. For those hesitating to purchase this book because of Davies' involvement, I would suggest that his minimalist views on the historicity of the Bible are not a factor in this book. My only complaint - more than once, documents/scrolls were mentioned in passing as if the reader should already know about them, then, a few pages/chapters later, the document was explained in detail. Coupled with "Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls", the reader would have a good introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Where does one start the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls? One would do well to start with copies of the texts. The biblical texts may be found in _The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible_ translated by Martin Abegg et al. The non-biblical texts which includes the sectarian texts, may be found in _The Dead Sea Scrolls_ translated by Michael Wise et al. (Incidentally there are no unpublished texts of any significance. These two volumes cover the field.)

Then one needs a book which explains where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found such as Jodi Magness' _The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scolls_. But as the starting point one needs _The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls_.

Philip Davies, George Brooke, and Phillip Callaway have written a "complete" introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first section of the book discusses the discovery of the scrolls, their editing, and their publication. The second section discusses the history of the time of the scrolls, including the sects of that time.

Perhaps the third section should have been divided into two. The third section begins with chapters on how to make a scroll, script styles, Carbon-14 dating of the scrolls, and how to reconstruct a scroll from fragments. (If one has never read of the techniques for scroll reconstruction, this chapter is a must.)

Next comes the bulk of the book. The most significant scrolls from each cave are discussed. Cave 1 had a number of the sectarian scrolls. Cave 4 had the largest number of scrolls. The scrolls from Caves 5 to 10 receive only two pages of attention despite the sensationalism surrounding the Greek scrolls found in Cave 7 (and see also page 190).

The fourth section of the book discusses the settlement of Qumran. (One should be sure to refer to Magness' _Archaeology_.) The fifth section discusses the meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I will leave these for the consideration of the reader.

Included in _Complete World_ are a list of the contents of Discoveries in the Judean Desert, a chart of paleographic Hebrew, a list of the scrolls by cave, etc. _Complete World_ is a feast of reading with the scrumptious photographs of a coffee table book. This book deserves more than a five star rating.

The three authors on the latest book about the Dead Sea Scrolls are among the top in the field of archaeology. Together, they present careful evidence into the history and meaning of the manuscripts found in the Dead Sea. The book is easy to follow, starting with the finding of the scrolls, then moving into a historical backdrop of the world as it was in ancient times for the authors of the texts. An added advantage in this book is it lays out exactly where each scroll was found, the condition the text was in, and the background for the scroll being reviewed. A small section was devoted to the Copper Scroll, one of the biggest mysteries in all the scrolls found to date. This is an easy read with a comprehensive account of one of the most important archaeological finds in the past century

This is an excellent and handsome pocket world atlas that I keep in my backpack whenever I'm travelling overseas. The maps themselves are fantastic, except for the USA. The problem is that the state boundaries are drawn with such a lightly-coloured red that you can't make them out. Adding to the difficulty is that the major highways are drawn with a dark red, further obscuring the states. The map of the north-east USA, for example, is practically illegible. This problem doesn't occur for other countries since the US is the only country with so many major internal states. The maps of other continents have a nice thick red line separating countries, which is important for Africa and Europe.

It contains a pretty thorough gazetteer, showing the flag and some details of the world's countries (although some info may be out of date by the time you buy this; Afghanistan, for example, is detailed as saying "war is raging between the Taliban and the remainder of the government nations"). The book also contains small street maps of 20 cities across the world, including NY, Paris, London, Tokyo, etc. but they didn't include Los Angeles, Budapest, Prague, Beijing, Shanghai, or Moscow for some reason (but they do have Amsterdam and Brussels??). The page edges are gilded with a gold-like appearance. Really nice. Since I keep my book in my backpack all the time, I put it in a ziploc bag to keep the gilding from wearing out.

Except for the problem with the states of the USA, this is an excellent book due to its appearance and small size. The poorly drawn maps of the USA aren't a big deal to me since I have larger reference atlases at home I use to look up funny little imaginary states like "Arkansas."

It's a hardcover pocket size atlas of the world! It's perfect for travelling, taking to school, and is very helpful!

It has political and mostly physical maps of all the seven continents of the world. It also shows the major oceans, lakes, seas, bays, etc.

Besides showing large mass' of land and water it also shows narrow rivers, and mountains. From the rocky mountains to the African Sahara, from snowy siberia to icy Antarctica, this atlas has maps of every single place in the world!

--------------AHMED MASHHOOD------AGE 12----------

This book makes a fantastic gift and you must order one for yourself. An attractive cover reveals accurate and visually pleasing maps of the world over. Maps are easy to find and read. A great choice!

After owning a number of atlases and eventually giving them all away, I happened upon a second edition of the Oxford Encyclopedic World Atlas. It was nothing short of perfect. It had compiled comparative world data, organized in an informative way and treated each country with a wonderful summary. It was useful and beautiful.

Therefore when the fifth edition was announced I placed my order. Rarely have I've been so disappointed when expectation sees reality.

First of all, the wonderful global comparisons of oceans, climate, wealth, energy etc., have been replaced with common continental summaries. Worse though is the fact that these summaries consist only of those incomprehensible theme maps of temperature, precipitation, vegetation and land use. It was because all the rest of the atlases had these useless enigmatic diagrams that I gave them away. I defy anyone to dig any useful information off a January Temperature map. I rather suspect that this information is more readily available and cheaper to obtain making the publication more cost effective for OUP. That it becomes more useless to the reader by the same turn doesn't seem to matter.

The country summaries have been ordered a-z as opposed by continent. This certainly makes it easier to find them but renders them out of any context whatsoever. But even here the work is substandard. For instance in the summary of Argentina, the section on the Economy ends with "...which are heavily" One wonders - heavily what? Sloppy.

Why UOP would take such a solid franchise and ruin it through conscience manipulation and sloppy design and editing is beyond me.

For the killing of truly useful tome OUP should not receive even one star, but I will give it two. The first is for the editions that bravely preceded this one. And the second is for my hope for the sixth edition. In the meantime I strongly recommend that the staff at OUP convene at the pub for it is apparent that their office decisions regarding the Oxford Encyclopedic World Atlas are abysmal.

It's so easy to use and great for my daughter's book reports. Well worth the money. I think the other reviewer who doesn't like the revision is mistaken.

A+ 16K big book. Worth every cent spent.I think every scholoar who is global-minded should have one. I like this atlas so much that I sent this as a gift to my college professors who love it very very much. Every-one will love it and after learning from this book you'll no longer feel surprised to some unknown countries/cities and you'll have a cultural/ historical/geographical perspective toward analyzing some happenings.

Harvard Business Review article, published in March-April 1992, by three Vice Presidents from management consultancy firm The Boston Consulting Group. Philip Evans is co-author from recent bestseller 'Blown to Bits' (2000).

The article starts with a case study on the reversal of fortunes represented by Kmart and Wal-Mart from 1979 to 1989. This example serves to explain the four principles of capabilities-basded competition: (1) the building blocks of corporate strategy are business processes; (2) competitive success depends on providing superior value to the customer; (3) strategic investments in support infrastructure that links units and functions; and (4) the CEO is the champion of a capabilities-based strategy. The authors conclude that the key to competitive advantage has moved from strategic positioning to anticipation of market trends and quick response to customer needs. "The prize will be companies that combine scale and flexibility to outperform the competition along five dimensions: (1) speed; (2) consistency; (3) acuity; (4) agility; and (5) innovativeness." So the challenge is to become a capabilities-based competitor. This challenge requires managers to see their business in terms of strategic capabilities, then, to identify and link together essential business processes to serve customers, and, finally, reshape the organization to encourage the new kind of behavior. Thankfully the authors introduce a four-step guide for this process, using Medequip - the medical-equipment company - as an example. The main advantages of competing on capabilities is that it provides a way for companies to gain the benefits of both focus and diversification, it enables growth by transferring essential business processes, and advantages built on capabilities are easier to transfer georgraphically. The authors make greate use of examples, such Kmart vs. Wal-Mart, Wachovia vs. Banc One, and Honda.

Although the authors disagree, this article expands on Prahalad & Hamel's core competence-theory (1990): "But whereas core competence emphasizes technological and production expertise at specific points along the value chain, capabilities are more broadly based, encompassing the entire value chain." Strong point of this article is that it makes the core competennce-theory more practically understandable and provides good insights into the implementation of that theory into organizations. Although somewhat outdated it is a great, clear article which I recommend to managers and MBA-students. The authors use simple US-English.

A very portable concise world atlas by George Philip is a scaled-down version of the Great World Atlas by the same publisher. The atlas starts with a statistical section, followed by a very good thematic section, called "the world in focus". These attractive pages include photos, graphs, maps, and explanatory text. A section on world flags precede the reference maps, which, too, are scaled down from the larger Philip's atlases. Surface height is indicated by relief coloring (which is rather saturated), but the gray-shading has been omitted here, adding to the legibility of the maps. There is a well-balanced coverage of the world, with Europe and North America getting about the same percentage of maps. The maps are not too accurate, and while some of them show detailed information, others remain quite empty. There is a very basic index-gazetteer of 17,000 names, which is a bit less than most of its competitors of this class. Since there are no urban area maps of the most populous regions, may suburb cities are not included, which is one of the main minor points of this desktop size atlas. For office use, it will probably suffice most of the time, but I would use it sooner for educational purposes, even for children. For serious world news following, there are certainly better alternatives. But all in all this release can certainly compete with other atlases in its class, especially because of the high quality thematic section.

This is another in the American Girls Short Stories series about Molly McIntire, a ten-year-old girl living on the home front during World War 2. When Molly is paired up with her friend Susan to do a report on George Washington, she believes that this will be the best report ever. However, when Susan starts moving the project in new directions, Molly begins to fear that the project will end in disaster. Molly believes that doing things in a different way is always bad, but perhaps different can be better!

My eleven-year-old daughter and I love these American Girls books, and this one is just as good as the others. The author succeeds in driving home her point with a gentleness that makes the story a joy to read, even while you are learning something. The final chapter has directions for making Cherry-Nut Cupcakes, which have little to do with the story, but my daughter enjoyed making them, and I enjoyed eating them. (Actually, as a father, I do hope that they keep up with putting recipes in their new books!)

The answers to all the problems are printed RIGHT NEXT to the questions themselves so that it is impossible to try something yourself without already seeing what the answer is. Many of the problems (actually, most of the problems) use concepts not introduced at or prior to the position where they appear in the book. The language used is very formal and means diddly-squat to real people who do something in life other than conceptualize stuff involving number tricks. For a field in which structured thought is bread and butter the very lack of any thought by whoever planned it is curious. If you are already very well grounded in mathematics and want a handy reference this would be okay, but for the intended market of people like myself trying to plug the gaps in math background, this is a useless book. Mastering Technical Mathematics by Stan Gibilisco and Norman Crowhurst is vastly superior even if it is a book that over-corrects the flaws of this one (some of its material is oversimplified to the extreme).

Being a college student,I do not agree with the first review at all. This is a great book. It covers the FUNDAMENTALS of college algebra, discrete mathematics, trigonometry, analytic geomety, and calculus. This study guide is the best tutor you could ask for. It really produces results without overwhelming you with unnecessary details. You get a complete overview of the subject. Plus you get plenty of practice exercises to test your skills!! It's perfect for preparing you for any exam. You'll see it when you get your test results. I highly recommend it. Try it for yourself before believing negative reviews.

Not bad, but if you were really looking for some real knowledge of Lewis' teaching style this isn't it...it's pleasant reading, but not terribly informative. Also, it does not show the complete Lewis character. Based on sources at Oxford, the real C.S. Lewis was impersonal (even by British academic standards) with some of his students, and could be withering to those whom he felt were not terribly bright or motivated.

I've always been a bit surprised and suspicious of the C. S. Lewis industry: the fact that I like reading Lewis, doesn't mean I like reading about him. (Though, if push comes to shove, I have to admit I do. Just no slobbering, please.) Fortunately this is a collection of essays by colleagues, students, and friends of Lewis who, even while writing about Lewis, have other things on their minds -- the purpose of English teaching, Oxford, redemption, even (in the gardener's case) his own bad jokes. There are even a few critical stories. Most of the essays are well written and insightful, and gave plenty of Boswell-like anecdotes not only of Lewis, but of other peculiar denizens of Oxford as well. Graham could have saved himself the occasional bone thrown to evangelicals, though, as far as I'm concerned. I really don't care how Bob Jones reconciles the work of the Holy Spirit and beer. Billy Graham and J. I. Packer didn't seem to have much to say. Also, the editor protested a bit too much about "hero worship." There's no need to apologize for this book, otherwise.

The book arrived in the mail on Friday afternoon. By Saturday afternoon I was chewing on crumbs.

To me, one of the most interest comments was the suggestion by one writer that Lewis had been influenced by the marvellous chapter "The Ethics of Elfland" in G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. I am beginning to suspect that Wilhelm Grimm was a very clever, and also successful, evangelist, and that there might be a secret link between the Seven Dwarves and Trumpkin.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

There is certainly a need for a book that covers the subject of Italian religion while excluding Greek mythology to the greatest extent possible. Unfortunately, the English version of Georges Dumézil's work has drawbacks that cause it to deserve a 'pass.' A good editor could trim Dumézil's two volumes down to one, and greatly improve the text by correcting the bad English and translating the Latin quotes. Until that is done, it would be better to buy a different book.

A great deal of the text, especially the 134 pages of the "Preliminary Remarks" is consumed by Dumézil's denigration of other scholars' work. Some of his put-downs may have been deserved. But the book was published in 1966 and there is no point today reading slams of books published early in the last century. The only entertainment in this tedium is to make a game of discovering how many of the same sins which Dumézil decries that Dumézil commits.

The text is very long: two volumes totaling almost 700 pages. The text is sparse on substance, with a fair amount of repetition. No author has much material to go on in the subject of Roman religion once the Greek influence is weeded out, granted. That suggests that a shorter text is in order.

About three-quarters of the quotes of the Roman texts are given in Latin without translation. This may have been excusable for readers of the original French edition, who may have been able to guess their way through the text, but it certainly not tolerable for English readers. To add insult to injury, much of the untranslated Latin is an archaic form, not to be found in modest sized Latin-English dictionaries. Sometimes the quality of the English is poor. Either the translator Philip Krapp, or the author Dumézil (who revised Krapp's translation), seems to have naïvely tried to use English words which more closely resemble the original French, but are plainly wrong.

Dumézil's great contribution to the study of mythology appears to have been to compare early European religions to the Indian Vedas. In the more than 30 years since this book was published, most mythographers have learned to do the same. Dumézil unfortunately has also focused on the "Three Functions" theory, and tries to shoe-horn Roman religion into that mold; the theory works very well for the first two functions (magic+government, and defense+conquest) but seems to fail in the third function (nourishment+fertility+prosperity). The idea that ancient peoples recognized only three distinct functions in their society and religion was overused when it was first proposed. A writer today would do better to use the idea sparingly, or to conform the idea to the beliefs and practices of the Romans instead of conforming Roman beliefs to this modern notion.

There is certainly a need, still, for a book that covers Italian religion while excluding Greek mythology to the greatest extent possible. Unfortunately, the English version of Georges Dumézil's work has drawbacks that cause it to deserve a 'pass.' A good editor could trim Dumézil's two (paperback) volumes down to one by removing his comments on the merits of other authors, and greatly improve the text by correcting the bad English and translating the Latin quotes. Until that is done, it would be more rewarding to read a different book.

A great deal of "Archaic Roman Religion," especially the 134 pages of the "Preliminary Remarks" section, is wasted by Dumézil's tedious denigrations of other scholars' works. Some of his put-downs may have been deserved, but Dumézil published in 1966. There is no point spending time today reading slams of books published early in the 1900s, or late 1800s. The only relief is to make a game of counting how many of the same sins which Dumézil decries that Dumézil commits, and how often.

The text is very long: almost 700 pages, but it is sparse on substance, with a fair amount of repetition. There is not much material to go on in the subject of Roman religion once the Greek influence is weeded out. Dumézil brings that point home well and often. But that suggests that a shorter book is in order.

About three-quarters of the quotes of the Roman writers are given in Latin without translation. This may have been excusable for readers of the original French edition, who may have been better able to guess their way through the Latin. It certainly not good enough for English readers; Latin is rarely taught in schools in English-speaking countries. Aggravating the difficulty, some of the untranslated Latin words are archaic forms which will not be found in small Latin-English dictionaries.

The quality of the English translation is poor sometimes, unlike most of the book which is written clearly, if pedantically. It seems as if either the translator Philip Krapp, or the author Dumézil (who revised Krapp's translation), naïvely tried to use English words which more closely resemble the original French. The choice of words in these few cases is startlingly awkward.

One of Dumézil's lasting contribution to the study of mythology is a detailed comparison of many early European religions to the Indian Vedas; greatly to his credit this is nolonger rare. In the more than 30 years since Dumézil published, most other authors have learned to do the same.

In "Archaic Roman Religion" Dumézil unfortunately has focused rather too much on "Three Functions" theory, and tries to shoe-horn Roman religion into that mold. He applies the theory convincingly to the first two functions (magic + government, and protection + conquest) but seems to fail with the third function (nourishment + fertility + prosperity). This idea that ancient peoples recognized exactly and only three distinct parts in their society and religion was probably overused by Dumézil, who wrote when it was newly gaining fashion. An equally astute mythographer would use the Three Functions theory more sparingly today. Or would conform the number of social divisions or functions to the beliefs and practices of the Romans' religion instead of conforming Roman beliefs to this modern notion.

... The beauty of the style, the fascinating glimpses of worlds beyond - the Vedic, Teutonic, Celtic and other data deployed casually and yet much to the point, the intellectual penetration and the ability to see common threads in different things and differences in similar things - riveted my interest for ever on the history of culture.

It is true that the English version does the style of the original no favours - one must remember that the anthropologist Levy-Strauss, a man well able to judge, compared Dumezil's style to that of Voltaire: probably the highest compliment a French writer can pay to another. However, the whole is still eminently readable.

It demands, however, a certain kind of reader: one who does not mind being challenged, who does not mind being introduced to unknown and obscure facts, who has no need to be cradled in his or her own convinctions, and who does not mind a certain kind of pugnacity. For there is no doubt that Dumezil, this courtly old French gentleman with exquisite olde-worlde manners, who charmed almost everyone who came into contact with him - including myself - was a fighter. His presence in the academic world was a solitary and battling one; he once wrote to me that he utterly refused to become a "chef d'ecole" and form his own academic party (this is perhaps the reason why latter-day Dumezilians are numerically rather scarce and academically not too impressive). Certainly the bites he takes out of scholars with opposing views are merciless; but one has to say that he always fought fair and face to face, that he rarely attacked anyone who had not attacked him first (comparative Indo-European studies are still today a rather contentious field) and that he never would have considered sinking to the level of the famous historian who once organized a congress "about" Dumezil's own work, or rather against it, without so much as letting Dumezil or any of his friends know about it. Now that is indeed base.

Be that as it may, this book is a classic that will last as long as the work of Mommsen, or Tocqueville, or Gibbon. As an introduction to archaic Roman religion, as a systematic textbook, it may perhaps disappoint, since it neither covers all the main points systematically nor leaves out matters that interest the author but that are not, of themselves, equally important. But as an inspiration to further research, as an introduction to the idea that history is not a collection of data but an intellectual adventure, as an intellectual adventure in itself, it is magnificent. Twenty years after reading it for the first time, I went back to it, having, in the meantime, read, written and published myself about archaic Roman religion; and, guess what? Not only was the book as fresh as new, but I immediately found a whole series of new ideas and areas to develop, waiting for me to be ready to recognize them.

While good in intentions and accurate in information presented, the book lacks clear and concise order and becomes very confusing for the begining pathology student. It also focuses too much on obscure conditions while ignoring more common ones. Very disappointing.

Compare with other oral pathology book, this one give a comprehensive information of different kind of pathology such as etiology, definition of each disease, clinical and radiographic findings and treatment. Excallent pictures make you easily got the ideal of that book.