Here is a book that I have been looking for for some time, a book that incorporates the magnificent artwork of the Napoleonic period along with a detailed profile of Napoleon. The result is magic and a pure delight to the eye. Proctor Jones has done a splendid job at merging the two memoirs of Menval (Napoleon's secretary) and Constant (Napoleon's valet) to provide a detailed and intimate account account of Napoleon. This is not a book that details Napoleon's battles or strategic genius but is a book that provides a wonderful insight into his character and personality instead. What comes across is that Napoleon was indeed human with many strengths and weaknesses and is not the ogre or monster as often portrayed by British propaganda. One can see the the unboundless energy, emotion, magnetism and even quirky habits of the man as seen through Menval and Constant. The artwork is plentiful and compliments the events as described in the narrative. This is a superb book, printed on high quality paper and an essential addition to any buff of the Napoleonic period. You will not be disappointed, only delighted.

I will begin this review by saying that I knew Proctor Jones and liked him very much. I had the privlege to travel with him and visit many of his friends while I was living and working France. He was a wonderful man and an enjoyable companion and I will fondly cherish my memories of him.

Even today his memory is still strong for those of us who knew him and his name is a talisman which opens doors which otherwise would be sealed.

Many people claim to have access to special or unknown collections. Proctor was the real deal.

This book was a labor of love for Proctor. He set out to publish pictures that had not been seen in other books...he spent an unbelievable amount of money, time and effort tracking down unpublished art and securing the right to publish it in this book.

He then published this book himself because no publisher would print it at the level of quality he wanted. He was particular about the paper, the binding and the detail of the reproductions...

Proctor then was able to get Jean Tulard to do the preface...virtually impossible for an American author...and even launched the French version of the book at a reception at Malmaison (I was there).

Proctor never intended to make money on the book...It was his intention to bring these works to an audience who would otherwise find them inaccessable. I know for a fact that at the print run he authorized he lost tens of thousands of dollars just on the royalties and fees he paid for the permission to reproduce these paintings.

This book is in a limited print run in English and in French and when they are gone they will be gone. Just like Proctor.

Proctor I will miss you and I thank you for producing this book.

This is a fantastic book as it includes within its cover a feast of great Napoleonic paintings and memorabilia which is worth the price alone. The text is finely edited by Proctor-Jones, comprising of an interwoven thread based on two memoirs of two men who were closely linked to Napoleon. One was his secretary, C Meneval and the other is his personal valet W Constant.
Every dedicated Napoleonophile should own a copy.

I am one of the authors, and wanted to update my comments from 1997. I am now a full time attorney - my email is mlm@laislaw.com

I have gotten many faxes, calls, letters, emails etc. from survivors and family members who tell me that the book really gave them the tools they needed to stay safe and recover.

It's not a book to buy and give to a victim - it is one to buy and READ, so that you can help a victim when she asks for help. Read it, then share it.

Merritt

I saw myself in the pages. "Learned helplessness" is a phenomenon that is very difficult to understand if you are not a victim. Additionally, our court system (for lack of a better term) is well represented. This well written book validated my decisions as I hope it will for others. Thank you.

If you do not know anything on feudalism,I highly recommend you this book. And if you are a student in medieval hisory this book is really worth reading. The subject is fully treated and it is quite easy to read. This is a book you can allways consult if you work on feudalism.

Wow! This is one marvelous work by a Pulitzer Prize winner and famed French translator. Simpson has translated Francois Villon's epis masterpiece. Villon is generally considered to be one of France's greatest poets and this work has been described as "one of the most enduring epics ever." This bilingual edition means, of course, that you get the benefit of both the French and English translation side by side. This belongs on the book shelf of any discerning reader, regardless of whether you like poetry or not. This is quality work both by the translator and the Story Line Press.

Voltaire revolutionized the art of writing history books. This book is one of the showpieces of his work in this area. It sparkles with Voltairian wit, humor and wisdom. Some excerpts:

"The war had produced on each side nothing but losses and regrets. . . . Nations rarely have any interest in the wars waged by their sovereigns. . . . The victorious people never profit by the dismemberment of the vanquished; they pay for everything. They suffer in their armies' prosperity as in their adversity. And peace is as necessary to them following the greatest victory, as it is when the enemy has taken their frontiers."

This work remains one of the original sourcebooks on Louis XIV's era for scholars to this day. Voltaire was in his teens when the Sun King died. He lived close to the court at Paris, where his father was attorney to many important figures. Voltaire personally interviewed many inside players of the period in exhaustive detail. A period which was a turning point in the birth pangs of the "Modern Age" as we know it today.

Many English-readers are familiar with Voltaire only as a political satirist, and remain unaware of his enormous output of scholarly works, particularly in history. This is the ideal book to acquaint oneself with the infinite wealth of Voltaire there is out there to read.

I think that ¡°Machiavelli & Us¡± displays three kinds of virtues (not virtu in the book). The first, it¡¯s an answer about arguments and complaints that existing works of Louis Althusser¡¯s have not sufficiently reflected the emphasis Althusser himself put in his lectures. The second, this book suggests that transition of Marxism is not in search of alternative philosophical materialism, but in political practice with and in the working masses, refuting the Bolshevik implicitness of Gopal Balakrishnan, Greogory Elliot. The three, though we've not have close analysis and study of this book yet, it is certain that except early works as like ¡°For Marx¡±; ¡°Reading Capital¡± he had not given a full page of his work to like this coherent matter, putting this book in an interesting position. And most of all we can see this book reflecting political, philosophical change or transition of him is passing through familiar or unfamiliar words, themes, and thesis. All of these kinds of virtues invite a dead warrior to make us practice, and struggle.

Jean-Francois Manzoni is Assistant Professor of Accounting and Control at French business school INSEAD; Jean-Louis Barsoux is a Research Fellow at INSEAD. Barsoux is also co-author of 'Managing Across Cultures' (1997). This Harvard Business Review article was published in March-April 1998.

This article is based on two studies designed to better understand the causal relationship between leadership style and subordinate performance - or in other words, how bosses and subordinates mutually influence each other's behavior. Those studies suggest that bosses - albeit accidentally and usually with the best intentions - are often complicit in an employee's lack of success. Manzoni and Barsoux use the term 'set-up-to-fail syndrome' to describe a dynamic "in which employees perceived to be mediocre or weak performers live down to the low expectations their managers have for them." The set-up-to-fail syndrome usually begins surreptitiously and underlying the syndrome are several assumptions/generalizations about weaker performers that bosses appear to accept uniformly. The authors describe these assumptions/generalizations and the impact they have on organizations and relationships. The two costs of the syndrome are the emotional cost paid by the associate and the organizational cost associated with the company's failure to get the best out of an employee. Other costs to consider, often indirect and long term, are: Sapping of the boss' emotional and physical energy, the impact on the boss' reputation, and the impact on the team (team spirit, time management, etc.). So how can we break out of this syndrome? The authors provide a five components framework for effective interventions but they warn that these interventions do not take place very often. In line with the recent emphasis on emotional intelligence, they conclude that higher emotional involvement and investment from bosses is the key to getting the subordinates to work to their full potential.

Good article into a very familiar problem, not just to organizations but also to people. The 'set-up-to-fail syndrome' is mostly based on generalizations by managers and bosses, but is difficult to reverse. The authors provide a solution which is primarily based on emotional intelligence, which is still difficult to learn. I recommend this article as an complement to Daniel Goleman's articles and books into emotional intelligent leadership and management. The authors use simple business US-English.

This book is based on more than fifteen years of extended and combined research whose primary objective was to reveal the reasons why so many in positions of authority, especially bosses, are so ineffective when managing their subordinates, especially their perceived weaker performers. That is to say, supervisors are often unaware of the fact that they are "complicit in an employee's lack of success. How? By creating and reinforcing a dynamic that essentially sets up perceived weaker performers to fail." Hence the title of Manzoni and Barsoux's book. The authors explain the causes and effects of that "dynamic" (see "Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome," Chapter 3) and also explain how to avoid it ("Preventing the Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome: Lessons from the Syndrome Busters," Chapter 9). One of this book's most valuable contributions is comprised of a series of "Tables" which organize and summarize key points. For example:

Table 2-1: "How Bosses See Their Behavior toward Subordinates" which contrasts tendencies of bosses in relationships with weaker and stronger performers.

Table 5-1: "Taking Sides" which presents two views of the same supervisor's observed behavior either as a "great boss" or as an "impossible boss."

Table 7-2: "Taking Responsibility Away from an Employee" which juxtaposes a supervisor's thoughts and feelings about a subordinate with their interaction in dialogue.

Manzoni and Barsoux assert that the set-up-to-fail syndrome is "both self-fulfilling and self-reinforcing, which obscures the boss's responsibility in the process as well as some of the key psychological and social mechanisms involved." My own experience suggests an often great discrepancy exists between modes of behavior determined by conscious and unconscious mindsets. That is to say, many supervisors would vehemently deny that they are "complicit in an employee's lack of success....[by] creating and reinforcing a dynamic that essentially sets up perceived weaker performers to fail." Nonetheless they are. Were they to read this book, they would probably agree that there is such a syndrome and then lament how unfair it is to subordinates who are victimized by it.

One final point. Countless research studies of face-to-face communication have arrived at essentially the same conclusion: Body language creates 60-75% of the impact, tone of voice 15-20%, and content (i.e. what is actually said) only 10-15%. (Percentages vary among research studies but only slightly.) With the publication of this book, Manzoni and Barsoux have made a substantial contribution to our understanding of a widespread but, until now, neglected cause of human dysfunction in the workplace. Whether intentionally or not, a supervisor can sometimes create irreparable damage, especially to those who already feel insecure, by a negative and demeaning "message" which need not be expressed in words but comes through loud and clear nonetheless.

A lovely look into the private world of the French queen, but I was disappointed to find so little attention paid to the interiors of the Petit Trianon. The author claims that since Marie Antoinette made so few changes to these rooms, the reader would experience her touch more readily via the Hamlet, heavily featured within the book's pages. I disagree...the Petit Trianon does indeed bear the Queen's stamp, particularly her bedchamber, which is simple yet exquisite. The "moving mirrors" which can obscure the windows of the bedchamber were, to her contemporaries, and in truth all of Paris , absolutely representative of the Queen's taste. It may be that these mirrors, like the mechanism in the dining room which allows the table to be raised up from the kitchen below so servants are never seen (condusive to clandestine trists), date from the time of Louis XV. Regardless, the "room of the moving mirrors", to this reader, exclaims "Marie Antoinette!". I urge any reader of this review, when in France, to tour the jewel box that is the Petit Trianon. In conjunction with the Hamlet, one can get a true feel for the informal lifestyle Marie Antoinette so strived for when staying there. However, overall, the book is such a nice addition to any collection dealing with the Queen's life, or 18th century French architecture and decor that I highly recommend it. I did find an error as the author claims Marie Antoinette called her eldest son her "chou d'amour".

Indeed, Marie Antoinette gave her son this charming pet name, but it was to her youngest boy, Louis-Charles, the Duc de Normandie and future Louis XVII (who would never rule)not Louis-Joseph, who died around the time the Estates-General convened, right before the revolution. The book's argument as to how influential and innovative Marie Antoinette actually was to the decorative arts at the end of that century is not to my mind adequately summed up. Personally, I don't think an answer to that question much matters. Marie Antoinette, through pure force of personality, and the influence of her high position, defined a lifestyle, very much in tune with the American "pursuit of happiness". In this she succeeded admirably.

A combination of book and little jewel box! A visually stunning book, it captures in its photos and drawings the magnificence of French court life during the reign of King Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette had such exquisite taste and the author conveys this admirably. A definite keeper!

As the author of a novel and an award-winning website dedicated to the tragic and dazzling queen, I am a bonafide Marie Antoinette fanatic. For years now, I have read every scrap of paper ever written about Marie Antoinette. I am thrilled to learn new things (like that she drank hot chocolate made with orange water to soothe her sore throat or that she once flicked bread crumbs across the table at Louis XVI). Too, I have been to Petite Trianon and Le Hameau. I have wandered the paths and rolling hills, I have fingered the woodwork in her private rooms.

This beautiful and interesting book is like taking a trip to Versailles (but far less expensive and minus the crowds). The photographs are breath taking, the writing is entertaining.

This book is eye-candy for anyone who appreciates 18th century France, architecture or gardening. It is a MUST OWN book for anyone even remotely interested in My Queen....

I recommend this book primarily for those wanting a good overview of a very long period of time and for the beautiful pictures, many of which are in colour. However, especially for the periods before 1500, there often are simply not enough illustrations to accurately portray the changes in fashion during these years, and the text tends to focus on French fashion almost exclusively. I've also discovered errors in descriptions of styles by as much as a century and a half--best to ignore the text and make your own analysis based on the illustrations themselves, which are all contemporary sources, not modern interpretations or redrawing. A very good resource book for any costume library.

This thick reference book will look great on your coffee table... I've referenced it more times than I can count- if you are interested in historical costuming, this is a must have for a jumping point to do more research. It shows an overview of history through fashion, though I must admit the reading didn't draw me in, despite several attempts to drudge through it. More than anything, this book is full of copies of primary and secondary sources- both photographs of museum artifacts and details of paintings and sculptures. It has some nice information on Egyptian and Roman fashion in the beginning, but other than that its primary focus is on Anglo-Saxon oriented fashion. It must be stressed that this book is not an end all and be all when it comes to the word on fashion- though it provides a useful and generalized overview, and it may happen to have what you are looking for, it does completely ignore some very important years/fashions (example: Tudor, late 1400-mid 1500s! ). Caveat emptor, more for art fans and theatre costumers than die hard history buffs, but overall a good buy.

This book is full of excellent 1st degree research. I have used it on multiple occassions to set me on the right track for doing intensive research on a variety of periods. It does lack a bit in non-Western costume, but the periods it does cover are done very well. Its a great reference book to have around.