This book does an excellent job in pointing out some of the real stuggles of Thomas Merton. It is very helpful in seeking to understand the person Thomas Merton. If one reads Merton, it is evident that Merton loved God and was committed to his vocation. However, it is very clear in this work that love for God and commitment to vocation does not eliminate personal struggles with right and wrong. Griffin does a good job showing a side of Merton that so many seek to ignore. Also, the book has many good pictures. This is a good book to read.

I purchased this book after reading the review from the reader in New Orleans. This is a loving look at the final years of Thomas Merton's life. (1965 - 1968) I have only recently delved into the writings and life of this incredible man. John Howard Griffin was a close friend of Merton's and writes about his friend from within Merton's hermitage and Merton's personal journals. It is a shame that Grifffin's health prevented him from completing what was to be an authorized biography of this fascinating mystical monk. The photographs taken by Griffin are a terrific addition to a very readable book on a man and a spititual figure that I greatly admire. If you have any interest in Thomas Merton the man, then you will cherish this book. One of Griffin's lines is a nice summary of Merton, if Merton can be summarized - "What mattered was to love and to be in one piece in silence and not to try to be anybody outwardly".

This book is a must-read for those seeking to understand the final years of Merton, whose importance for contemporary spirituality cannot be underestimated. Based on Merton's own journals (to which Griffin had full access during extended stays in Merton's hermitage after the latter's untimely death in 1968), the material in this book was originally intended to be part of the officially authorized Merton biography, which ill health prevented Griffin from completing. This book is not for those whose love of Merton is confined to such early works as The Seven Storey Mountain and The Sign of Jonas. However, those who seek insights into the struggles underlying the writings he produced from 1965-68, encompassing subjects such as the Vietnam war, the evils of racism, and the practice of Zen, are likely to find this book very rewarding. John Howard Griffin (author of Black Like Me) was an excellent writer in his own right, a skilled photographer, and a friend of Merton. All three of these characteristics contribute to Follow the Ecstasy, which includes a number of intimate photographs of Merton and his hermitage. Griffin's own contemplative bent shows itself in empathic descriptions of Merton's hermit existence, with well-chosen quotations from the monk's journals. Of particular interest to some will be the very detailed account of Merton's extended involvement with a young nurse he encountered while hospitalized following back surgery. This relationship, which is referred to in very vague and sometimes sinister-sounding terms in other works on Merton, is laid bare here in all its emotional splendor. Those who love Merton may be astonished at both his vulnerability and his capacity for self-deception. For most of us, to fall deeply in love with a young woman whose feelings are reciprocal, and to arrange trysts that do not include sexual consummation of such love, would not constitute a major moral dilemma. But most of us are not world-renowned spiritual writers vowed to lives of celibate chastity. To top it all off, Merton had only recently (the year was 1966) been granted long-sought permission to live as a hermit on an isolated piece of monastery property, in order to deepen his experience of solitude. Anyone who has ever fallen in love can identify with much of what Merton went through, but few can ever have known the exquisite anguish engendered by his circumstances at the time. It is almost comical at times how he struggles both to rationalize his behavior and to see through his own rationalizations. He is a man deeply and painfully torn. On the one side, he is beset by a tide of emotions he has never before experienced and is ill-prepared to handle, while on the other, he is solemnly vowed to a life he not only loves, but believes is his divinely given vocation. Although some would be scandalized by such revelations, others will see in them yet another poignant example of the divine mystery played out in the arena of human affairs. What Griffin makes clear is that Merton fully expected this episode to become public knowledge after his death, and that he wanted those who might have idolized him to see him, warts and all, in all his human frailty. It is plain that Merton was less interested in adulation than in honesty, even regarding events in his life that show him in a less than flattering light. If there was some degree of duplicity in the machinations he undertook for the sake of spending time with his beloved, I believe it is offset by his ultimate fidelity to his Beloved. Griffin handles all of this with consummate sensitivity and grace, explicitly noting that he obtained full permission from the woman in question prior to publishing details of her relationship with this celebrated monk. Although this chapter alone, with its touching descriptions of Merton's internal spiritual combat, would've made the book worthwhile for me, there are gems scattered throughout, and an informative introduction by Robert Bonazzi. A must for real fans and/or scholars of Thomas Merton.

As historian Robert Dallek explains in his forward, this is Thomas Whalen's debut and this work reflects that fact. The writing is sometimes wooden and some quotes are added more to impress the reader, or other historians, that Mr. Whalen went to the effort to interview some of the remaining survivors from that election half a century ago. However, Mr. Whalen's analysis is thoughtful. JFK's 51.5 %-48.5 % victory over Henry Cabot Lodge was historic in many ways. If he had lost, Jack Kennedy's presidential ambitions would most likely been crushed and he may have decided on another line of work. A Lodge victory may well have propelled him to a showdown with Richard Nixon for the 1960 Republican presidential nomination (and this would be dependent on Lodge being re-elected for Senate in 1958, one of the greatest Democratic years in election history). A Lodge Republican presidential nomination in 1960 would certainly have delayed the GOP's rightward turn that was to follow and may have altered the GOP for a generation or more. Ironically, by losing to Kennedy, Lodge would become Vice-President Nixon's running mate in 1960. The author is pretty clear about the reasons for JFK's narrow victory. Joseph Kennedy's money was of great use in this era of comparatively cheaply run elections. The Kennedy campaign charmed women voters with tea parties held by the Kennedy women and door-to-door campaigning. Eunice and Ethel were especially energetic. Lodge did not begin his own campaign until September, spending most of the summer working for the nomination of Dwight Eisenhower as the Republican presidential standard-bearer. Interestingly, Lodge's efforts for Ike angered the conservative Republican Massachusetts newspaperman Basil Brewer, who supported Robert Taft for the GOP presidential nomination. Brewer owned the New Bedford Evening Standard and the Cape Cod Standard Times and he threw his support to JFK rather than Lodge in an act of political revenge. Kennedy mauled Lodge in Irish-Catholic areas where Lodge had performed well in the past. Lodge had won 40 % + in most Irish wards in his election victory in 1946 over David Walsh. JFK reduced Lodge's totals to around 20 % in those same Irish-American neighborhoods. Kennedy cut into Lodge's advantages in traditionally Yankee/Brahmin neighborhoods like Beacon Hill, Back Bay and Cape Cod due to his non-ethnic outlook. As JFK advisor and future Democratic National Committee chairman Lawrence O'Brien explained, "Kennedy represented a new generation, a new kind of Irish politician, one who was rich and respectable and could do battle with the Lodges and other Yankee politicians on their own terms." Kennedy also improved upon the Democratic vote amongst other ethnic groups and in economically stressed manufacturing towns like Lynn. Interestingly, neither JFK nor Ted Kennedy was able to save Massachusetts manufacturing from decline in the years to come. One weak point of the book is a lack of understanding of Massachusetts's changing demographics in the 20th Century. By the time of JFK's victory over Lodge, the Massachusetts Irish were growing in numbers and power and were confident that the future was theirs politically. On the other hand, with much smaller families than the Irish, the Yankees could see the handwriting on the wall by 1952 that they were doomed to lose their control over a land they had dominated since 1620. Emphasizing this point was the landslide defeat of George Cabot Lodge, Henry's son, to the lightly regarded (at least then) Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy in the 1962 Senate race. After the defeat of the last political Lodge in 1962, Yankees largely surrendered the political arena to the Irish and other Massachusetts ethnic groups. Many, and probably most, Yankees would change their political allegience to Democratic within a generation or two as the modern day Republican party moved to the right. Fifty years after the Kennedy-Lodge Senate race, the Massachusetts Yankees are a small bulwark in the Democratic predominance of the essentially one-party state of Massachusetts.

While there have been many books written about presidential campaigns, relatively few books have been written about important congressional campaigns. Thomas Whalen's "Kennedy versus Lodge" attempts to correct this bias by offering the reader a well-written, well-researched account of a truly historic US Senate race in Massachusetts between two of the most important political families in American history. Until 1952 the dominant political family in Massachusetts and New England was the Republican Lodge family, and they were far better-known and more distinguished than the Kennedys. The Lodges were descended from the original English, Puritan colonists who had settled Massachusetts in the 1600's, and they had made their millions in the nineteenth century while the Kennedys and other Irish Catholic immigrants to Boston were fighting just to survive. From the 1880's to the 1920's the family's most famous figure was Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. A close friend of Theodore Roosevelt and one of the most powerful men in Congress, Lodge led the fight to keep the USA out of the League of Nations and became President Woodrow Wilson's most hated enemy. Lodge also looked down his nose at the "grubby" Irish Catholic immigrants who were beginning to outnumber the older Protestant English families (called "Yankees" or "Brahmins") who had dominated Massachusetts politics since the United States became an independent nation. In 1916 Lodge faced a stiff challenge for his Senate seat by John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the popular Irish Catholic Mayor of Boston, and who was John F. Kennedy's grandfather. Lodge narrowly defeated Fitzgerald, thus beginning a great rivalry between the two families. Fitzgerald's daughter, Rose, desperately wanted to avenge her father's defeat by the Lodges, and in 1952 she got her chance when her handsome and charming son, Congressman John F. Kennedy, ran against Lodge's grandson and namesake, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., for a Senate seat. Lodge was the dominant politician in New England and a national leader of Liberal Republicans (and there used to be lots of Liberal Republicans). Kennedy was originally seen as the underdog in the race, and Lodge had beaten some tough Irish Catholic politicians before. Lodge even advised JFK's tough father, Joe, to "save his money" and avoid the race. Of course, that only made the Kennedys even more determined to "get even" and defeat the Lodges once and for all. They poured a huge amount of money into the race, ran a slick advertising campaign, and John F. Kennedy himself repeatedly visited every town and village in Massachusetts. Lodge, however, was so confident of victory that he ignored his own race and spent most of 1952 helping to lead the fight to get the Republican presidential nomination for Dwight Eisenhower and defeat the conservative Republican candidate, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Eisenhower won the nomination, but Taft's angry supporters in Massachusetts vowed revenge against Lodge and defected to Kennedy's campaign. Lodge didn't get his own Senate campaign started until August 1952, and by then the Kennedy's campaign "machine" was running at full steam. In the end John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Lodge and "evened the score" for the Kennedys. As Whalen points out, this Senate campaign truly made history. If Kennedy hadn't beaten Lodge, he almost certainly would never have become President. And if Lodge had won, then he would have become one of the most powerful Republicans in America, and could have been the Republican presidential nominee in 1960 instead of Richard Nixon. And, of course, Kennedy's victory allowed his family to replace the Lodges as New England's most powerful and famous political dynasty. After their 1952 defeat, the Lodges never again elected a member of their family to political office, and today the family has "retired" from political life. Overall, this is a fine book about an important Senate race between two wealthy and prominent politicians whose careers would change American history, for better and for worse.

Here is an engaging account of a seminal election campaign, the results of which would reverberate through Massachusetts and national politics for decades to come.

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was the grandson of an early 20th Century political titan and Teddy Roosevelt confidant, and in 1952, an accomplished, three-term Senate incumbent in his own right. John F. Kennedy was the upstart Congressman with star power: the charismatic war hero with a natural electoral base in the Bay State's sizable Irish Catholic community and plenty of Daddy's money to bolster his campaign.

Thomas Whalen tells the story of the election that would catapult Kennedy into national prominence and put him on the road to the White House eight short years later. Whalen explores many reasons for Kennedy's victory, including his assiduous courting of the women's vote, adroit use of the new television medium, and the electorate's strong affinity for an "Irish Brahmin."

Another major factor, according to Whalen, was Lodge's role in helping to engineer the Republican nomination for Dwight Eisenhower at the Republican convention. Lodge, who served as Ike's campaign chairman, earned the eternal enmity of the Taft loyalists, who meted out their retribution by openly siding with his Democratic opponent in the 1952 Senate campaign. Kennedy's position as an avowed Cold Warrior helped to facilitate the flight of Republican conservatives such as the influential newspaper publisher Basil Brewster into the Kennedy camp. Even Ike's superb showing at the top of the ticket -- he won Massachusetts handily -- could not carry the day for Lodge, who would never again hold elective office.

Lodge's defeat would signal the beginning of the end of Yankee Republican primacy, and cement Democratic hegemony in the Bay State. After Ike, no Republican Presidential candidate would carry the state again until Reagan in 1984.

For the Kennedy clan, the victory was sweet revenge. JFK's maternal grandfather, the irrepressible "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, had failed in a bid for the elder Lodge's Senate seat in 1916.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in U.S. politics.

This book was given to me when I was a 13 year old living outside of Houston TX. It was the book that launched my fascination with true crime books of high quality (i.e. Darcy O'Brien,Vincent Bugliosi). I am still fascinated by the case and have heard many rumors in the last 20 years about the actual cause of death. Amazing - that this story still haunts me all these years later. It is out of print and I own a copy I have never lent out for fear of never seeing it again! Also interesting was Ann Kurth's Prescription:Murder which is her side of the case. Not even close to the same caliber as Blood & Money but still interesting. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - find it at the library or a used book store immediately!

Thomas Thompson does a fantastic job of re-telling the events surrounding the mysterious death of a Houston socialite, the investigation into the death, the trial of her prominent surgeon husband, and the circumstances surrounding his murder a few years after hers. This is without a doubt the most gripping story I have ever read. Thompson's research on this project was extensive, and I would imagine exhaustive. It is written as if he were a witness to all the events which took place in this story. It is a story so bizarre, it would have to be fiction, but sadly was a very true story of adultery, greed, and vengeance. If you can find the book I highly recommend you buy it. You will have a hard time putting it down.

'Blood and Money' is just about the best book I have ever read regarding true crime. I am an avid Ann Rule fan but Tommy Thompson's tale of murder(s)in Texas was spellbinding. I have read this book probably 20 times and will read it again and again. This book was the best purchase I have ever made at a used book store.

Self-help is big business. According to Gerald Rosen (1993) as many as 2000 self-help books are published each year. However, only a very few have been evaluated empirically. This sad state of affairs is a poor response to the appeal made by Rosen (1987) that self-help books should first be evaluated empirically before being sold to the general public. Additionally, the little research that has been done on do-it-yourself treatment books sometimes demonstrates major limitations in their usefulness. Yet psychologists continue to develop and market new programs with increasingly exaggerated claims. This is potentially a problem. Especially as psychologists often use self-help books as adjuncts to their clinical practice (Starker, 1988). The good news from research (e.g. Gould & Clum, 1993) is that certain self-help programs can be quite effective. Fairburn’s Binge Eating Disorder treatment (Carter & Fairburn, 1998) and the Albany protocol for Panic Disorder (Barlow & Craske, 1994) are two good examples. In Gould and Clum’s (1993) meta-analysis, fears, depression, headaches, and sleep disturbances were especially amenable to self-help approaches. Sometimes with effect sizes as large as for therapist assisted treatments.

How can busy clinicians keep up with the flood of new self-help books, and know which to recommend? Guilford Press offers a solution. In an attempt to help the clinicians a guide to self-help resources in mental health has been published. It includes ratings and reviews of more than 600 self-help books, autobiographies and popular films. It also includes hundreds of Internet sites, and listings of online support groups. The book addresses 28 prevalent clinical disorders and life challenges – from Schizophrenia, Anxiety and Mood Disorders to Career Development, Stress Management and Relaxation.

To determine the usefulness of the self-help resources a series of national studies have been conducted over the past 7 years. The methodology consisted of a lengthy survey mailed to clinical and counselling psychologists residing throughout the USA. A total of 2,500 psychologists contributed with their expertise and judgement in evaluating the books, movies, and Internet sites. The self-help resources were rated on a 5-point scale (-2 to +2). These data were converted into a one to five star rating (negative ratings were given a dagger). On this basis, 19% of the self-help books were rated as “very helpful” and fortunately only 1% as “very harmful” [e.g. the assertiveness training book Winning Through Intimidation by Ringer (1973) and the weight management book the Beverly Hills Diet by Mazel (1981). Interestingly, many of the books by Scientologist guru L Ron Hubbard are categorized as extremely bad].

When looking more closely at a specific disorder, let us say for example panic disorder, there are some good books that I feel are missing. This is probably because of the rating criteria. In order for a book to be included in this self-help guide the psychologists used as referees had to know about the book beforehand. It was their rating of previously read books that mattered. Hence, if there were good books out there that had not been read by many referees [like the Australian panic disorder workbook by Franklin (1996)], they would automatically receive a lower rating. Thus, a low rating does not necessarily mean that a book is less helpful than a higher rated book – only that it has not reached a wide audience. For example, an excellent book, An End to Panic (Zuercher-White, 1998), previously recommended in a review article (Carlbring, Westling, & Andersson, 2000) was described as “highly regarded by the psychologists in our national studies but not well known, leading to a 3-star rating.” (p. 79). Another thing that disturbed me was that this particular author’s name was misspelled. Instead of Zuercher the surname appeared as Luerchen. No wonder the book was “not well known”! One wonders how many other errors this survey included.

In a perfect world all self-help books would be scrutinized in the same manner as other treatments. However, as a majority of the published books still have not been evaluated, this new guide to self-help is a step in the right direction. Despite questionable inclusion criteria and a few errors I thoroughly recommend this excellent guide to self-help

From books and movies to the Internet, Authoritative Guide to Self-Help Resources in Mental Health provides a strong survey of self-help resources in mental health which reveals the good ones, bad ones, and how general consumers can tell the difference. Five national studies involving over 2,500 mental health professionals lends to a rating of over six hundred titles and films, along with Internet sites evaluated by a clinical psychologist.

This book contains reviews / lists of the best (and worst) of self-help books / movies and internet resources. It has been compiled using surveys of 1000's of mental health professionals and gives essential guidance on which resources are helpful, and which are best left alone.

The book is clearly-written and well laid out - each chapter relates to a specific problem area eg mood disorders, men's issues, abuse, anxiety etc.

I found the recommendations on books particularly helpful - one can immediately determine which are the best books to read on their own specific problem. Clearly, the input of mental health professionals gives a "scientific" basis on recommendations which in turn leads to a systematic process of choosing which resources should be given credence.

Essential reading if you want to build up a collection of serious (i.e. most useful) self-help resources.

After four years of college, I could no longer run from chemistry. After numerous drops from the class, I finally found a chemistry book which is easy to understand. This book has every example problem you could think of. Every chapter gives you a good introduction, then cuts strait to the points every novice chemistry student should know to pass a general college level class. I do suggest a run through of chemistry in high school before stepping up to this book. I would have liked to have seen a book accompany the text which shows the drawn out ways to answer the review questions at the end of every chapter. Other than that this book is very down to earth and easy to follow.

This book is very well written, with helpful diagrams and detailed examples. It is easy to understand and text and with this book it is truly not hard to understand chemistry and do well. I easily got an A in Chemistry I and I believe that everyone who failed the class simply didn't look over the book or their notes after class. It certainly wasn't the fault of the professor or the text- both explained chemistry very well.

This is a very good text book. It has many colorful pictures to keep my interest when I was reading it along my course. Generally, it is well written and easy to understand.

My stereotype of accounting texts before taking an accounting class and using this book was they were all focused on the mechanics of accounting, which are dull to most students. This textbook, on the other hand, emphasizes the usefulness of accounting in the real world before delving into all the rules and regimentation. Therefore, some subjects, like debts and credits, receive less attention than they might deserve, especially for serious accounting students. The textbook's diagrams are quite colorful and useful, and its language is simple enough for your average student to understand. Hence, I recommend the book to any introductory-level business student, but I think that more serious accounting students might prefer a more advanced or in-depth textbook.

This collection of essays on John Dewey's Logic is, on the whole, outstanding. The essays situate Dewey's work, make clear the negative consequences for philosophy that have flowed from the discipline's failure to follow Dewey, demonstrate the contemporary relevance of his work, and probe some problems and areas for further work. The technical essays by Thomas Burke are astonishing, if over-specialized, and the essays by Vincent Colapietro and John Stuhr are remarkably rich and thought-provoking high points--easily among the very best recent essays on pragmatism.

This text provides a quick, concise review of the pimary topics covered on emergency medicine exams. I found it to be a good way to prepare for inservice exams and the written boards.

The return of this beautiful book is as inspiring as the book itself. Never having seen the original however makes it hard to compare editions but as I am a BIG Adams fan the work is stunnning, the neat catergories help the beginner to understand Mr Adams and where he is coming from.

Two things struck me while reading this book, the first is that I doubt there is a book out there that is truly balanced and not somewhat biased. The second thing was that Gore really got the shaft, not so much by the recount wars, but by the election official that came up with the Butterfly Ballot. In the history of the USA this decision ranks up there with new Coke and the XFL, what a mistake. As far as the reporting in the book it was not bad for a review of all the articles they had in the paper, but it did not really dig into the particular issues very deeply. I wanted more detail and behind the scenes with both the candidates. I also wanted more details on the court cases; I felt like the sky-high overview of the issues of the cases did not do such an important issue justice.

In reading the book I think a little bit of a democratic bias comes out, just a little, but enough to notice. I also thought it interesting that they had far more details of the Gore group then the Bush camp, it follows the perception that the Post is somewhat liberal in its views. The book is an overview that came out almost 10 minutes after Gore hung up the phone on the second concession call so there are a few more details out now that they did not get in the book. Overall it is a good effort and a readable book, but not the end all be all on the subject.

This book, by the editors of the Washington Post, does a good job of describing the events which led to the deadlocked 2000 Presidential election. In addition to detailing the paths which led to the deadlock, the book discusses all the post-election issues in a very readable format. Surprisingly, the books editors seem only slightly tilted towards Gore (especially considering it is the Washington Post, which is noted for its liberal bias), so no matter who you voted for, there is much to be found here for anyone with an interest in contemporary politics.

I personally think the Washington Post and NY Times are liberal rags that are generally not worth the paper they are printed on. However, in fairness, when they do well I think they should be commended. I read the NY Times "36 Days" and still think that book was not worth the paper it was printed on. It was nothing more than a reprint of their articles.

Conversely, though, Deadlock was a well-written book. Two passages are worth noting. The first is about the book itself. About one-third of the way into the first chapter the book says: "These are the ... decisions, alliances, power plays, snap judgments and personality flaws revealed when a flukishly close election is played out for staggering high stakes. Both sides were nimble and brilliant and occasionally shady; both sides were also capable of miscalculations, divisions and blame. The best and worst of politics were on displayed in those 36 days, and both sides trafficked in each. This is how it happened." Although the Post endorsed Al Gore (no surprise) they tried to be equal in their appraisal of how the two campaigns sought resolution in their favor.

As for the two sides' strategy one only has to look within the first three pages of Chapter 2 where the Post records that the Democrats enlisted the services of three authors who wrote "The Recount Primer". The book reads: "Anyone who read and heeded the booklet could predict how the two sides would play America's closest president election -- at least in the broad outlines. Gore would gamble; Bush would stall. Gore would preach a doctrine of uncounted ballots; Bush would extol the dependability of machines. Gore needed more: more counting, more examination, more weighing and pondering of more ballots. Bush needed it over while he was still ahead." The only trouble for the Gore forces with this gospel was that the Republicans knew the same gospel. The book attempted to show how the two sides played out the roles assigned them.

For a behind the scenes objective look at the two sides, I think the Post did a very decent job. This could have been a... job on the Republicans and conservatives, but generally it was not (though I expected it). It could have been a... job on the Democrats and liberals, but it was not (nor did I expect it). I am not accustomed to this degree of fairness from the liberal Washington Post nor do I expect to see it very often in the future.