This book has such a wealth of material about the plants of the Colorado mountains. It's not just pictures, though the photos are excellent, and botannical basics but also explanations of where the plants' common names originated and how they have been used medicinally. Its only failing is that it doesn't cover more.

This book would be a joke if it were not so sadly typical of what passes for historic analysis on the part of academia today. The reader has to go no further than the name Benning to appreicate the complete disregard the author has for an unbiased analysis of history and how committed he is to promulgating the generally Marxist world view harbored by so many in his profession.

The casual readear would assume that Henry Lewis Benning was precisely the schemeing politician/lawyer hypocritically playing the race card to advance his own interests while happily seeing "poor" men marching off to the killing fields which Williams portrays him to be (this being the author's central thesis). Nowhere in the text is it pointed out, in what purports to be a Civil War history of this region, that Benning served for four years in the Army of Northern Virginia,leading a brigade in some of the most violent battles of that war. He was wounded at Knoxville yet returned to serve in the trenches at Petersburg and ended his career in the CSA at Appomatox. An even handed analysis of why men such as Benning sacrificed so much would have been very enlightening. But Williams, of course, has no time for such trivialities. He has a mission to accomplish, a career to establish. He has no time for truth.

David tells a story of real people; with real problems; desparately trying to survive in a world turned upside down. This work is full of truth. Outlining the fact that merely 1/3 of the South's population really supported the War. And hinting at what the outcome might have been; had the local gentry fostered a policy of inclusion, rather than that of slavery, segregation, and the culture of the elite. This is a MUST read for anyone interested in the cultural evolution of the New South. And an eye opening journey into our own past; redefining what it truely means to be "Southern".

This book contradicts the widely held belief that the South's lack of industry and men were the root of Confederate defeat during the American Civil War. Williams constructs a vivid and compelling theory of socio-economic conflicts within the South that ultimately led to its downfall. The author uses a variety of primary sources, including personal correspondence that humanizes the Civil War. The book is the product of extensive research and is entertaining and well-written. I recommend it to anyone interested in the Civil War or Southern history in general. It is thought-provoking.

This rather short coffee-table book is most notable for its collection of photos of Eleanor Roosevelt and her family. The photos are extensive, and a few have not been seen before by non-historians like myself. Otherwise, there was almost nothing new to be learned about this very remarkable and intelligent woman, much to my disappointment! Most amazing was that her grandson actually admitted that he was ignorant of her role on the public stage until her death when he was 20 years old!

I love everything and every pictures too. Thank you.

Interesting reading, a bit superficial in the presentatio

I've not seen many Liz Taylor's movies before, but since I read the book, I became highly interested to see her films, just to be able to check what I read in this book with how she performs/appears in a particular movie as mentioned in the book. In the beginning of my reading, the book gives me a mix feeling towards Liz Taylor, more negative than positive. But after I finished reading I really felt for her. In short, the story reveals her complicated life in the most open manner. It tells everything you want to know about Liz Taylor, from birth up to the latest marriage (and divorce). It also exposes her severe addiction to drugs and alcohol which is very shocking. What a life story! I enjoy reading the book because it flows smoothly, it is insightful and it gives detail information for every occassion in the story. It is a great book to read.

I am an economics major at the University of Chicago. I started this book on a reccomendation from an economist friend of mine, and while I was not impressed by his language in the first chapter, I can honestly say that I still seriously expected to find some penetrating economic analysis. What I found was a really bad case of somebody trying to do something he obviously wasn't trained to do. His main point is that culture, or more precisely, values, matter to economic development. This has long been of interest to anthropologists and sociologists and they have done a lot of good, sophisticated writing on the subject, which David Landes obviously hasn't read. The really sad thing about this is that, in addition to being much more subtle and clever, they make a lot of the same points (but without the vulgarity and racism). See, for example, Benedict Anderson's Imagined_Communities, which discusses the rise and role of nationalism.

He supports his arguments with a crude analysis of European and Japanese cultural and industrial developments. But as he says, the questions of why the West industrialized and why the rest of the world didn't are really one and the same. And he singularly fails to give an effective analysis of the other cultures. Here's an example: he says that the armies "Oriental despots" fought poorly because they had no reason to be loyal to a despotic government. He cites as evidence (if it can even be called that) just one case where British troops fought against an Indian ruler, whose troops mostly ran away. He never asks whether they did this in battles against other Indian rulers who didn't have the prestige or technical sophistication of the British. He even goes so far as to say that these "Oriental despotisms," which he does not differentiate, appointed officials by fiat and not by merit. I shouldn't need to mention the Chinese examination system. Even he does't think knowledge of Confucian classics counts as merit, he should have known that during the Tang dynasty the officials were selected by a practical exam rather than Confucian classics. But that's exactly the problem--he's trying to write a history of the world that compares European and non-European cultures starting from the assumption that since Europe invented almost everything, only Europe needs to be seriously researched (if you don't believe me, check the bibliography). And he finds (surprise) that only Europe has made significant contributions to the industrial revolution and that this was contributed to by its culture (was anything any society ever did not influenced by the culture?). The reasoning is highly circular. Anybody that disagrees with him is, he says, just writing feel-good history with no regard to the facts (the irony here is just unbearable). I would say that he should leave history to the historians and sociology to the sociologists, but most of these don't know economics well enough to write an economic history. What we really need is for more economists to throw away their ridiculous pretension that economics is the only "scientific" social science and start taking the other social sciences seriously. This one in particular clearly has a lot to learn from them.

The central theme of the book boils down to the above. Although the book is great history - and I enjoy reading history - I found the author's conclusions to be unconvincing and somewhat anti- climactic after overwhelming the reader with some 500 pages of facts and anecdotes.

The author is also unapologetically Euro-centric. His readiness to dismiss lesser civilizations may rankle some readers. Although it's hard to argue that culture does play a role in economic develop- ment, it is also pretty obvious that culture and economics form a feedback loop, that economics influences culture as much as culture influences economics. I found it incredible that the author was so ready to dismiss the impact of such factors as over-population and constraints on resources. Simply stating that a certain culture is somehow anti-entrepreneurial and anti-technological does not constitute a persuasive argument. Greed - for the lack of a better word - is stronger than habit.

For a man who tirelessly touts the importance of culture in economic development, his antagonism toward "multiculturalism" is disturbing. Does he not realize that immigrants are the great engine of American growth, and that immigrants come to America precisely because of its cultural tolerance?

Personally, I must say that many of the revisionist claims about the state of the modern world--why some civilizations have succeeded and others have not--appeal to me. However, I must also say that in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Landes gives sound reasoning for his arguments about the role of culture in creating industrial societies. I admire Landes' meticulous application of economic theory to explain what we call success and how we came to arrive at this state in human history. There is no doubt, more than just an element of truth to the theory that competition has driven development, though it leads me to wonder how far apart Landes and the revisionists truly are. Landes does not make a strong attempt to explain away the differences between cultures and their views on the value of competition. Could it possibly be that both Diamond and Landes are right? Could it be that resources and geography have created the different cultures that have led to different levels of economic success and industrialization? It is a very interesting and still relevant debate and to understand it fully, one must at least read and understand Landes' arguments, if not fully agree with his assessment. This is a well written book, at times a bit dense, but with enough anecdotal evidence to keep the reader interested. Landes does a thorough job supporting his claims and covers broad topics in this treatment of the study of economic history.

The material in this book is excellent for a DM. You can pick and choose your favourite rules and variations to make your own monstrous classes, or just flip to the appendix at the back and take information straight from the book. The magic items vary from the silly to the useful, the spells are well-written and the feats seem suitably tailored to monstrous playing.

The templates are what really make this book sing, along with a long appendix full of examples of monstrous classes that should empower any DM to turn a monster into a playable character.

This is, however, a book in serious need of one more working draft. The writers and editors took on a mighty task with this book, so I'm willing to forgive a lot, but references to incorrect pages, tables that don't exist and simple proofreading errors hamper the Savage Species experience. Also, there are numerous glaring examples of critters that bust wide open the abilities that a PC should be permitted at 1st level. This happens mostly with the advanced monsters, but many of them start with no attribute penalties, no serious drawbacks and numerous magical abilities. A little more scaling was needed for these, I think.

Still, now I can have that troll/barbarian I always dreamed of . . . and with more complete information that the "Complete" Book of Humanoids.

(edited in)

I've now read through the book cover to cover and, as a result, must downgrade my rating from 4 to 3 stars. The editing is more than just inconsistent, in parts its deeply confusing. Numerous feat and spell entries are extremely contradictory. For example, the spell "Earth Reaver" calls for no saving throw, but the last line of the spell description says that those who fail the saving throw will be made prone. I can guess what kind of saving throw is necessary, but, honestly, this is the sort of thing that should've been easy to spot in the editing process.

The excellence of the appendices, the prestige classes and the suggested rules are the saving graces of this book.

And that's something you'll never, ever have heard a PC utter before, but you might now.

Savage Species is, as the notes say, the D&D 3e sourcebook on playing monster characters. Not necessarily hideously evil psychopaths (that's where Book of Vile Darkness comes in), but non-standard races...anything from the bugbear up to a stone giant.

Monster PCs have two things to concern themselves about...hit dice (i.e. how many hit dice they naturally start with) and level adjustment (having abilities that are worth a class level or two on their own). For example, our umber hulk friend has eight hit dice and a level adjustment of +6, for an ECL of 14...so an umber hulk is theoretically equivalent to a 14th-level Player's Handbook character.

So, the authors go through and list a chart of almost every existing monster in the game that has an ECL of 20 or below, along with official level adjustments for templates (lycanthrope, celestial, half-dragon, etc.) They also discuss letting a player start as a first-level monster, which must get to its base statistics before multiclassing...there's no using a minotaur's base stats at 1 HD, because they don't get them until they reach their final hit die. There's a 52-page appendix of sample monsters' ECL broken out into class levels, which is fairly nice.

You'll also find feats suited to monsters, new prestige classes, new gear, a lot of new templates (my favorite's Gelatinous...a semi-ooze creature), and new and/or reprinted creatures, including a long list of anthropomorphic races, such as dog-men and wolverine-people, the desmodu and loxo from MM2, and the half-ogre starting race. There are also rules for transforming characters between races and adding templates.

Something like this has been needed for a long time. Not only does it follow in the footsteps of AD&D2's Complete Book of Humanoids, but it answers rules questions that have popped up ever since the first PC got infected by lycanthropy. Some creatures will be less-playable than others, simply because their level adjustment is so high that they won't have the hit points to survive combat at their ECL. And there are a few questions, too...for dragons, do they require XP to gain hit dice, since they grow by aging? After all, 10 years can go by in a game fairly quickly, and that young dragon can become a juvenile and get stat and HD bonuses...

This is a great supplement, and I highly recommend it. It's probably most useful if you're going to start a new game, but it'll be useful for everybody at some point.

I picked Savage Species up the first day it hit the shelves of my local bookstore. I've been wanting to throw monster characters into my campaign but all the PCs are under level 5 so my options for PC monsters are kind of limited. This book has provided a way for me to throw a child to that fire elemental they just killed without a thought---a mere innocent---into the game as an NPC that they somehow have to deal with. (Hopefully not by killing it) More importantly, if they so choose, they can adventure alongside a fire elemental as it grows into its powers.

The book itself is well organized and has a little of everything and a lot of some things. For DMs who don't want to go through the work of interpolating an ECL 15 Mind Flayer into fifteen separate levels, each acquired at standard experience point intervals, or even *determine* the ECL for a Mind Flayer, you don't have to. Many monster races have entire monster class levels separated for you. For those that don't, there are guidelines both for determining level adjustments and breaking up effective levels into actual levels, i.e. "W00t, I'm now a level six Drider! I get spell resistance!"

There's a lot of stuff in this book. New spells (some good for non-monster PCs, too), new equipment (Including the Gloves of Man, so your paws/tentacles can grip those pesky crossbows or lock picks), new feats (Area Attack lets your colossal Mountain Giant smack a whole bunch of PCs when he swings a stone column), new prestige classes (Illithid Savant, for...well...eating brains for self-improvement), new templates (The illustration for the example Gelatinous Bear is great) and, of course, more.

A lot of people are highly interested in the artwork in Dungeons & Dragons books, and if that's what they want out of the book, they'll be disappointed. I personally don't need illustrations to accompany descriptions for how an Ogre Mage advances to ECL 12 because I already know what they look like. This book is almost devoid of reprinted material, but much of it is being presented in ways far and beyond what Monster Manual I (or II) ever planned. This small paradox makes a great number of illustrations unnecessary relative to most books with so much new material. Drawings of all the weird weapons and equipment are comparable to those in the Player's Guide and other books. It's really pretty irrelevant, though, because if you took the pictures out of the second half of the book it would still be wonderful, if rather drab.

One of the more reassuring touches is a tiny list at the beginning of the book that mentions a few changes from Monster Manual I that are/will also be in the revised Monster Manual I. No one wants a book that will be obsolete in just a few months.

Savage Species is a great book, and has almost everything you could possibly want in it. What it doesn't have, it offers guidelines for working out on your own. Dungeon Masters who spend fifteen hours planning sessions will be able to do anything they want, but if you just want to create an poor little orphaned fire elemental, you can do it as quickly as any other NPC. As a player's book, the pre-made monster classes will help provide some variety, even if the game is starting from level one. Pre-made=easier DM approval, too. Of course, *buying* your DM the book would help your case, but I would *never* condone such bribery...

Just...keep the fire elemental outta my bar, will ya?

This book has three problems. The first is the premise that rich investors should be changing investments all the time in response to shifts in economic conditions. That is probably the way that fewer people get rich than any other. The second is that you can rely on economic information as it comes out to tell you how the economy is shifting. With revisions and changes in measurements, you usually can only confirm a shift when it is long over. The third weakness is a virtually unlimited faith in Internet related stocks that would have had you buying and holding leaders at the price peak in 2000, and subsequently losing over 80 plus percent of your money. Avoid this book as a investment guide for anything but commercial real estate.

This book's purpose is to "help investors make the connection among the Internet, the economy, and investments." Where the book succeeds is in identifying the places where you can get information on the Internet about economic conditions and investments. But there are better books for this purpose, so that is not enough of a reason to buy the book.

Dr. Lereah states that successful investing is based on these rules: "Utilize your knowledge of the economy with Internet-driven investments, information, and understand historical economic relationships."

Basically, the philosophy is "buy and hold" for Internet stocks and shift in and out of all other classes of investments. That's just the opposite of what you should be doing. Very few investors should be trying to time stock and bond investments. The track record of professional investors (who do look at this sort of information) is very sorry. Over long time periods, less than 15 percent can beat the market averages. I suggest you read John Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds to see the folly of Dr. Lereah's approach.

Internet stocks are usually ridiculously overpriced, so buying and holding is a tough way to make money. These are great trading stocks on the way up, and even better stocks to sell short when the bubble bursts. Even after Internet stocks have been devastated (like now), they are still overpriced in every case I can find.

Some of the book's rules do make sense, such as the idea of having goals. But because the book covers so much ground, the subject is reviewed in such a few words that you don't get enough advice about how to do this. On the good subjects, you will feel like you are covering 123 cities in Europe in 15 days. You will see something, but your head will spin from information overload, and you will not quite understand what you are seeing as a result.

What you can use this book for is buying and selling commercial real estate. Economic conditions are very critical in that area. As a mortgage economist, obviously Dr. Lereah should know that area and his advice is sound.

My suggestion is that you use the occasion of reading this review to consider whether you have set appropriate financial goals for yourself. If you have not, certainly do that before seeking financial advice from investment books, Internet resources, or financial advisors.

Learn that the keys to wealth begin with appropriate financial goals.

This is not a book for growing rich, it only explains some basics of the US economy. The author repeats itself too much, maybe it could have been a better book if it had less than 100 pages and not 300

Even sophisticated investors will learn a great deal from this well-organized book as to how various market/economic indices, economic trends and business developments are likely to affect financial markets. While many of the rules will be "old-hat" for some investors, the rules regarding the likely market impacts of economic developments, Federal Reserve actions and releases of government statistics and reports are outstanding and will help even knowledgable investors make sense out of the myriad of complex factors that drive stock prices in today's marketplace. I recently appled Mr. Lereah's rules to my own portfolio and avoided July's downturn in technology stocks, saving me almost $75,000. Maybe just luck, but I think not.

This is an introduction into the Kennedy family, but beyond that the book is not very helpful. The author Jay David Andrews drew most of his material from other popular books (such as All Too Human by Edward Klein) and articles about the Kennedy family. Andrews does not divulge deeply into the Kennedy family, the myths, truths, or provide any new insight or information to make this book worth reading. As another reviewer stated, this book has a tabloid quality about it that detracts from the quality of the book. A reader will learn more about the Kennedy's by reading other news magazine reports and other books about the subject.

This book offers nothing I hadn't heard before and also some factual inaccuracies. I just view it as a puff piece that offers nothing concrete and adds nothing to the understanding of the lives of these 3rd generation Kennedy's.

I think that this book is worth reading. There are veryfascinating revelations, that make this book entertaining. Highly recommended...

Fundamentally, this is the dullest, least interesting collection of poetry I've ever seen. And it's deeply hypocritical of Rich as well; her own poetry reveals a woman who is aware not only of feminist and multicultural criticism, but who is also well-versed in the strengths and mysteries poetry can offer. ..................... There isn't a single piece worth reading in the entire book.

It seems like cultural and gender identities are becoming more important than literature itself when it comes to literary criticism. I am very concerned about people who sees this anthology as a victory of feminists and multiculturalists over the so called 'predominantly white male society'. A good literature should appeal to some universal experiences that we in some way understand as human beings. This is why Homer and Li-Po(or Rihaku) appeals to us even to this day, despite the fact that they lived in a different cultural settings. As T. S. Eliot says, "Poetry is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality". A good writer knows that it is what is 'behind the experience that is significant, not the specific content of the experience. To the extent one understands this, they realize the significance of writing 'impersonal poetry' that appeals to all kinds of people in any period of time, so long as they have the intelligence to understand this. It is disappointing to see that even this prestigious anthology would fall into the victim of feminism and multiculturalism, because it is one of the few anthologies out there that offers some genuine poetry.

Rich has gone soft! She cares more for causes, race and gender of the authors than she does for quality. There are about 3 and a half strong poems in the collection, which is the worst edition of Best American Poetry by far.

This book was poorly made, not worth your money. i don't know [who] wrote this but he really needs to go back to english classes. The book was not put in order. They just took the diablo II computer game and put it in a book without worrying about the rules of 3rd D&D.

Do yourself a favor...Don't buy this book!

As an avid Diablo 2 fan I have anxiously awaited this new release in the Diablo storyline modules. The description of the product as covering the entire Diablo 2 game from Act One to Act Four merely wetted my appetite for more. Imagine my dissappointment to find a product containing poor guidelines for encounter levels, recycled artwork, pages of filler (repeated monster descriptions from Diablo 2: Diablerie,) and typos so obvious you would think that this was rushed into production and not seen by a proofreader. Any adventure whose pricetag is 50% higher than the price of the core books should be stunning in content and form, presented without errors, and be clear in the descriptions of game mechanics. I have only the highest praise for all the changes made to the new edition of the rules. The sliding exp scale, rewritten character classes, and the smoother combat all add to the enjoyment I and my players experience in our weekly sessions. The first Diablo adventure had us playing 8 hour marathon sessions each night for almost 2 weeks. Perhaps my expectations were too high for this product, but it is disappointing in falling short of the standards I have seen in other books recently. I am sure that any inconsistancies in the rules contained in the product will be brought up in a forum either on the web site or in Dragon Magazine, however nothing can take away from the flow of a session as greatly as a player stating "... but I read online that ..."