Tvetan Todorov's The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other perpetuates a number of the myths that surround the Spanish collision with the "New World".

Todorov reinforces the myth that the Aztecs believed the Spanish were gods, an idea that springs from the accounts of Diaz and from the earliest Indian accounts, all which were written over 30 years after the described events, by people without access to the inner workings of the Mexican court. The Indian accounts, written under Catholic supervision, do not relate to the "what happened" as much as they do to the "what should have happened." These Indians would not have known what happened and would have been well-versed in the accounts of their Spanish masters. The idea that Montezuma thought they were gods seems to be a good way for the Indians to explain what they did not understand.

Mistranslations of Indian words also account for this myth. Teotl, mistranslated by the Spanish to mean "god", more closely means "weird" or "strange". Todorov relies heavily on this myth to advance his thesis of miscommunication.

Todorov also falls into the trap of believing that the Aztecs were frozen by their obsession with signs and with astrology. He believes that the Aztecs were dominated by a past-oriented tradition whereas the Spanish were the only participants able to adapt. He argues that the Spanish use of written words gave them an ability that the oral-tradition based Aztecs did not. Reality, however, suggests that the Aztecs were very good at improvisation, especially during battle. Within the first few encounters with their Spanish enemies, the Aztecs learned how to beat horseman, how to avoid being hit by cannons, and that the Spanish were not impressed with tactics designed to frighten and demoralize the enemy.

Montezuma's lack of quick action does not mean he was frozen with fear, or that he was waiting for signs from his astrologers, instead it seems to be exactly what how a man who could put tens of thousands of soldiers in the field would react to a small party of Spanish. His gifts to the Spanish were not symbolic of his wishing to buy their friendship, but were a statement of Montezuma's power and wealth.

Todorov's book is important because it raises issues about how the self discovers the other. But it's advancement of outdated myths cannot be ignored.

More than a simple history of the conquest of America, this book exposes many of the semiotic mechanisms that worked in favour of the conquistadors, and explains how the mighty Aztecs fell before a relatively small number of invaders. The narrative of the conquest of America serves as a sort of case study to illustrate Todorov's ideas concerning the Other, and ample supporting evidence is given from the writings of Columbus, Cortes, several Spanish historians of the period, and even some of the Aztecs' writings. The Conquest of America explores what happens when cultures collide, and signs loose their meaning. For example, and Aztec generals possess a special uniform that is designed to strike terror in to the hearts of the enemy, while for the Spanish, who are clearly not as supersitious as the Aztecs' former enemies, these special uniforms simply serve as a very clear sign indicating which soldiers to attack first. By targeting the commanders, Cortes quickly puts the defending army to rout. These miscues between the Spanish and the Aztecs occur at all levels: religious, linguistic, social, and in terms of general world view. Again and again both the Aztec and the invaders are unable to overcome (if that's the word) their inability to see what is happening around them through anything but their traditional frame of reference. When confronted with a new situation (i.e. a new continent, a new aggressor), each party proves unwilling to adapt, with grave consequences for the indigenous populations of Mexico. There are many lessons here for a world where globalization of trade and communication are bringing cultures into contact and, too often, conflict. A very enjoyable, eye-opening read.

In The Conquest of America Todorov delves deeply into the dark consequences (intended and unintended) of the European discovery of the Americas and represents the first important study of the influence of religious belief on the interactions beginning with Columbus with the "savage" Other. While many people attempt to dismiss the religious aspect of this relationship, but as Todorov shows it is central to understanding the dynamics of European conquest and the ultimate fate of the "New World's" indigenous inhabitants. Both in his letters and his diary Christopher Columbus repeatedly expresses his primary purpose as a religious one. Perhaps, due to the obvious problems for the Catholic Church that this represents this motive has taken a backseat to the supposed thirst for gold that has overshadowed the religious roots of this horrific tragedy ever since.

An important aspect of Todorov's thesis is his well-supported claim that it was precisely the claim to European racial superiority that the Christianity strongly reinforced[es] provided justification for the actions of the Spanish, even in its most severe manifestation. In fact, Todorov invokes the unimaginably horrible image of Catholic priests bashing Indian baby's heads against rocks, ostensibly to save them from damnation to Hell, which their "savage" culture would have otherwise consigned them to.
The logic of this deed and other like them illustrates the pernicious influence of Christianity in the Colonial project, which lies at the root of the hegemonic self-image of Western experience-first defined from the perspective of Columbus and Cortez.

If religion was a guiding principle in the lives of the conquerors, as Todorov points out, so to was it for the conquered, especially in the case of the Aztecs. Baffled by the paradox of the famous story concerning Cortez and his several hundred Conquistador's ability to defeat the entire Aztec empire, which numbered at least several million, Todorov reveals that it was primarily due to Montezuma's belief that Cortez and his party was Gods, which led to his reluctance to raise an army in opposition. In the middle section of the book Todorov gives a detailed analysis of this stunning historic event and shows that Cortez' victory was not necessarily due to any great military achievement, instead it was mostly the result of the Aztec's refusal to mount any kind of a effective defense until it was too late. Thus, it was Montezuma's indecision, born of his own religious belief that led to the sudden collapse of the Aztec empire.

In the final third of the book Todorov investigates the impact that these events have had on the subsequent writings on the subject. In particular, he focuses on the work of three writers, all Spanish, but among the first generations of Europeans native to South America. These works that are primarily only known to scholars in the field offer many surprises to the contemporary reader, showing that there was a far more open view of the non-European "Other" expressed by those who lived among them in the waning days after conquest. Perhaps, that is one of the most insidious luxuries of victory-the ability to show compassion for the defeated, but always, yet always too late.

Todorov's work is an important work, which would be of great interest to students of literature, history, cultural/indigenous studies and post-colonial theory. After reading this book Columbus Day and all that it necessarily represents will never be seen in the same way again.

A truly excellent resource! This book is full of valuable exercises for challenging the irrational thoughts and avoidance behaviors that fuel social anxiety. I particularly appreciated the creative examples of how one can confront and overcome social and performance fears in a gradual and manageable fashion. Of all of the resources that I've come across to date, this book has been the most helpful to me in terms of offering realistic and practical strategies!

i had been a social phobic for many years and i read a lot of materiaal about this subject. from the behavioral point of veiw this book is the BEST that i had ever read about social anxiety and social phobia. from cognitive point of view this book is o.k. a must-have book for every one that suffer from social anxiety or for therapist that deals with this subject-espesially for the behavioral therapists. there are wonderfull ideas on the book to what to expose yourself. the book is interesting-not just usefull. it is written using simple style. buy it ! buy it ! buy it !!!

First the book helps you get to know where your major problem areas are by conducting a self-assessment. Next it helps you to change your anxious thoughts such as: "when people look at me, they are thinking I am strange or weird" to a more rational thought like: "most people aren't thinking about me and even if they do they are not likely to think I'm strange". Then, they confront your fears head on through exposure while employing the techniques you've learned. As a person with social anxiety I can tell you exposure treatment is a frightening prospect but it does work. This book holds your hand through it but never coddles you. It's not easy but it is possible to feel better. I use this book between therapy sessions as a kind of crutch or reminder of what I'm suppose to be doing.

The activites in this book are enjoyable for children to perform, but there is very little science taught.

My daughter very much enjoys performing the activities listed, however, I need to heavily supplement the material and description given in order to provide any scientific explaination of what she is doing. Additionally, the scientific method is completely missing from the 'experiments.' The simple activites are prsented in a "do it and observe" form, with no specific idea or result which is tested by the activity.

A good book for entertaining activities, but not for teaching science.

I have got both these books (The first one being 365 Simple Science Experiments with everyday materials) for my kids (aged 8-12) and they find the experiments extremely fun and interesting because they don't need much adult intervention when trying them out , it helped them at school by providing them with a good background of practical science; the kind you encounter everyday but take for granted. It is written for kids, not for adults who then have to explain it to kids. The book covers many scientific concepts to do with physics, time, nature and space.

I loved it! The experiments are so much fun! They were interesting and fascinating! A *Must* for any scientific youngster.

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

The one sad thing about the new Yale University Press/Pelican history of art editions is that the samll format has been eschewed in favor of a large size coffee table book. The text has changed little, if at all. What has been updated is the bibliography, and many color illustrations have been added. However, even the illustrations have not changed in many instances, because Blunt, when he originally wrote the text in the 1950's worked with, wrote from, a very specific set of images, and these same images are still essential if the reader wants to comprehend his argument. With that said, this is probably still the best general accounting of French art and architecture in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, certainly the best for the beginner. Those looking for more detailed studies might turn to some of Blunt's other books (he was the leading scholar of French Baroque for over fourty years) or more recent scholarly works. One bit of gossip that makes the text more enjoyable is that Blunt was for many many years a Russian spy, involved with a circle of British men sending intelligence to the Russians, and when he was found out in the late 1970's he was stripped of his knighthood and of his post at London's restigious art historical institution, the Courtauld. Whether or not his activites in that capacity influenced his interpreation or his writing of the text is for you to find out.

There are few books you can describe as "the basic text", but this is certainly one of them. It should be required reading in every international law class in the world, but alas it is only required in a few hundred of the tens of thousands going on an any given time. Weston and his collection of authors are all looking for ways of makikng thhe international legal system a truly functional order for the governance of otherwise anarchic inter-state relations. Weston's pulled together the very best, some of which are classics, and a few of which were really undiscovered until he came along and plucked the writing and his/her writing from academic obscruity. This book need not be the sole province of the law student -- it is equally useful to the current practitoners.

This is a quite comprehensive book. The authors cover a wide variety of insightful information and research in the child welfare field. Very good for anybody who will be working in a public child welfare setting or conducting research in this area. As with most academic reading, it tends to be a little dry. And, because there is so much information, sometimes it doesn't flow very well.

To understand Anthony Burgess, you have to take in consideration the whole totalitarianism of his conceptual views upon the art of writing and its relation to reality. Matthews once again allows us to further understand what Burgess is trying to portray. The literay movement of what Burgess was trying to portray is best defined by Matthews begining on page one and neverending.

Anyone will tell you that one book alone can not prepare you for Microsoft Certification. And I have to agree 100%. With that said I found this book detailed(technically) in a way that other books that aim at being the only certification book you need. I started reading the books on the subject and while the language was warm and fuzzy and easily kept your attention, I really didn't get much in the way of technical detail. The examples in the All in One book helped me nail down the more complex topics like delegates and remoting that other books only lightly touched. The one negative to this book is you need some experience in order to understand it. If you lack experience then my advice would be to buy both the MSPress Study Guides and this All in One. Use the MS book to get a feel for the concepts and use the All in One to start coding examples.

This is a textbook designed for a one semester undergraduate course in cryptography. This makes it seem a little tamer than what it is. Crypto buffs will enjoy it, and there is little here than is not in some other advanced texts. What is of value is a section on RIJNDAEL, the new advanced encryption standard.
Useful as a starting point but not as easy to follow as some other texts. You better like this stuff already or you shouldn't dive into this book.

If you really want to learn cryptology, this is the book.
If you just want to know the superficial concept of it, then,
this is not the book for you.
Mathematics used in this book is very concise and clear.
This book also has the complete answers for many exercise
problems (not just short answer). The answers for exercise
problems are well written with the full explanations. Well done!! I really enjoy reading this book.

Only those who fear learning even some moderate math in order to learn
the crypto data will not like this book. The payoff is big time with
historical bios of people to fill in the background, symmetric-key and
public-key cryptosystems covered in full, and the facts on primality
testing and factoring to gear up for the advanced topics which are
superb. We even get to learn about quantum crypto. This book just makes me
want to learn more about the subject. I'd recommend it to all but those
who think you can learn crypto without math and who are only interested
in learning how to cryptanalyze algorithms. For them there are many
otherwise useless books out there. This is for those who really want to
learn about crypto and enjoy it in the process!