This volume of the "Nicene and P-Nicene Fathers" series contains the principle works of St Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, who was an able statesman and a vigorous defender of the Catholic faith during the late 4th century. The works contained here are divided into six categories: dogmatic, exegetic, moral, sermons, letters, and hymns. Since there are so many works, both minor and major, it is only necessary that Ambrose's most significant ones should be listed. His "On the Duties of the Clergy" represents, in a way, that of Cicero's work four and a half centuries earlier. Also, "On the Holy Spirit" and "The Catholic Faith" are preserved here, and they were apparently written, at the behest of the emperor Gratian, to the general public in order to define, defend, and justify the Divinity of Christ in the face of the swelling Arian party in Northern Italy. Of his moral works, "Concerning Virgins and Widows" and "On Repentance," will be found here as well. In a word, St Ambrose's letters reveal some of his famous conflicts with the pagan Prefect of Rome, Symmachus, who wished to install the Altar of Victory back into the senate-house of Rome, after it had been taken out under the command of Gratian. And again, his letters reveal the conflict between the bishop of Milan and the emperor Theodosius over the massacre at Thessalonica, which, after the Emperor was excommunicated for this deed, ended up prostrate at the Bishop's feet, ultimately depicting the first triumph of Church over State. All in all this volume is great for the study of the Early Church both historically and dogmatically.

This volume of the NPNF 2nd series contains the works of three Christian writers from 5th-century Gaul. It features the first English translation of John Cassian, and the first English translation of the complete works of Sulpitius Severus.

Sulpitius Severus is best known for his charming biography of St. Martin of Tours. His "Dialogues" also highlight Martin's virtues. His "Sacred History" is, frankly, longwinded and rather dull.

Vincent of Lerins is renowned for formulating the principle that the rule of Christian doctrine is what has been believed everywhere, always, by everyone.

John Cassian is an important bridge between Eastern and Western Christianity, and very influential in Western monasticism. He was a protege of St. John Chrysostom, lived for several years with the desert fathers, and strove to convey the Eastern Christian monastic ideal to the West. St. Benedict highly recommends Cassian's "Institutes" and "Conferences".

The Victorian translators and editors of this volume were of a low-church persuasion, which is sometimes evident in their notes. Edgar C.S. Gibson, who translated Cassian, omitted one book of the "Institutes" and two of the "Conferences" which pertain to sexual temptations.

Anyone familiar with Henry Kissinger's fabled rise to preeminence as a Harvard professor to National Security maven to Secretary of State to international security mogul will find this overblown and egocentric effort at reconstructive twentieth century history amusing, frustrating, and absolutely self-serving. While Kissinger's personal biography is in fact a real-life Horatio Alger tale, ripped from the conditions, circumstances, and contradictions of this uproarious span of time, his own attempts herein to steer the reader toward a selective understanding of what happened and why profoundly misuses and abuses his insider's status in an all-too apparent attempt to reconstruct the historically verifiable facts of the situation pertaining to the sixties, the war in Vietnam, and his own efforts at establishing (along with his unindicted cohort in crime, Richard M. Nixon) a contemporary American realpolitick in world affairs.

Yet Kissinger is hardly what he purports to be. Far from flying with the angels, Kissinger attempted to simultaneously court the liberal press and the academics into believing he was a solitary voice of reason and moderation within the Nixon White House, while at the same time pandering to the President's worst impulses, insecurities, and vulnerabilities by exploiting Nixon's paranoia about his public image and his need for pseudo-macho persona with his colleagues. As Daniel Ellsberg described so well in his recent book, Kissinger adroitly attempts to consistently play all sides against the middle in an attempt to elevate his own position and allow himself the latitude to swagger into public prominence and the political stratosphere at the same time. Thus, while the book is well written and quite entertaining to read, it suffers from the meglo-maniacal effort Kissinger has made to consistently portray himself in a positive light, and so slants the nature of the interchanges, anecdotes, and occurrences I personally found quite frustrating.

In so doing he ultimately squanders any opportunity he had to help illuminate the nature of the many events he actively participated in and contributed toward, such that what other's refer to as a cogently written insider's take on the process of shutting down America's involvement in the long Southeast Asia conflict I find to be a cleverly attempted effort to marshal the facts in a way that dissembles more than it illuminates. The truth is that Kissinger, like Robert McNamara and others, was a superb politician, tactician, and game player, and one who enjoyed playing multiple political games on multiple levels with contradictory simultaneous outcomes all at the same time. Thus in the morning he could whine to his liberal staffers how the Neanderthals in the White House were misbehaving, and then engage in pseudo-macho asides with the same White House staffers he had just bad-mouthed to his associates. Kissinger played everyone, from the President to the Congress to Academia to the public. In this fundamentally dishonest and dissembling reinterpretation of the public record of what happened during those years and why, he continues to play us all. My advice is not to buy books like this, unless you want to see how cleverly and brilliantly someone as intellectually gifted as Kissinger is can engage in a campaign of boldface lies. Boycott this book!

I have been meaning to read some of Kissinger's work for quite a while. From the critic reviews of this book, I thought this would be a logical place to start because it encapsulates a large swath the Vietnam War writing Kissinger has produced over the years.

Personally, I found this book is an incredibly involving recount and analysis of the Vietnam War. I thought I had a fairly in-depth understanding of the Vietnam War beforehand, but quickly discovered that there was so much I was never aware of. Because Kissinger was part of the inner circle of powers that shaped the Vietnam conflict, he writes from a vantage point only an insider can lay claim to. The competing egos, opposing political agendas, infighting, confusion, hope and desperation-all these factors played a part in the conflict and Kissinger does a wonderful job of presenting how each influenced the Vietnam War.

I picked up this book one weekend and could not put it down. If you're looking for an engaging reading on the Vietnam War, you cannot go wrong with this selection.

Only a few pages of the 4th edition are new so if you have the 3rd don't bother with the 4th. The publisher should be ashamed.

Chafe does a good job on selected topics;i.e., politics, civil rights and foreign policy. Weak on economics, technology, farm policy. Heavily dependent on some secondary sources like Doris Kearns Goodwin. Needs updating badly. 4th edition has been delayed for months.