In a series of essays, the late French historian Charles Diehl analyzed the contradictions inherent in Byzantine civilization throughout its 1000-year existence. The imperial government, the military, foreign/domestic policy, religion, art, and literature (to name a few topics) are discussed, along with a very brief, cursory history of the Byzantine Empire as a backdrop to this great analysis. Diehl candidly assessed political corruption and intrigue, serious foreign/domestic policy blunders, and overall rebelliousness which plagued the Byzantine state even in its glory days, yet he reminds us at the same time of the priceless legacy the Romans of the Byzantine era left not only within the former boundaries of their empire, but also throughout Western Europe and Russia. Professor Peter Charanis of Rutgers University (whose publishing arm released this fine English-language edition) contributed an introduction which presents a background of Diehl's work and rectifies some of the author's original views on Byzantine history. Professor Charanis also compiled a massive bibliography of English and non-English language books published up to the mid 1950s, when the English translation of "Byzantium" was published. After reading this book, it becomes evident to us that the contributions of the Byzantines to the present cultures of both East and West are nothing short of impressive.

This Little Golden Book is based on the Children's Television Workshop series Big Bag. Chelli is a cute little creature with socks for ears and a big heart. Chelli's best friend is Bag, which is a wise shopping bag! In this adventure, Chelli finds a kitten in a tree. Chelli wants to keep the kitten, and even hides him from the grown-up Molly, against the wishes of Bag. In the end, Chelli does what's right, and finds the kitten's owner. Preschool and kindergarten children will find this cute book enjoyable.

This is a great book if you have young children. It has simple, classic, kid friendly stories. It is fun to read aloud to younger kids, and Lewis' approximate reading times are a big help- if you dont have alot of time to read before bedtime you can easily pick a shorter story. Older kids will enjoy the fairly simple vocabulary. It does not stray far from well known stories or bring in anything you havent heard a million times already- sort of a fairy tales greatest hits collection- so if you are looking for unusual, look elsewhere. If you are simply looking for a collection that has all of your favorite well worn stories, this is perfect.

If youre a casual reader of cultural science, this book might come across as very dense and slow-reading. But if you are already familiar with basic cultural and evolutionary psychology theory, you could find this an interesting read. The book begins by outlining connectivist (spreading activation) models of neurology, and tries to apply them to cultural schemas. The chapters are divided between "case-study" chapters that use a particular event or set of interviews to examine one particular schema style in detail, and more theory minded chapters. The case-study chapters were more interesting and illuminating in my opinion. This book would do well if paired with the "Selfways" research paper by Kitayama and Markus, or paired with a book like 'The Moral Animal' which offers a totally different biological basis for cultural drives in psychology.

I just discovered Acadian ancestry and am searching for my roots. I found Griffiths book to be informative on the contexts of Acadian history as advertised. The text is written for historians and well done, but it assumes too much knowledge of Acadian history for a novice. It would also have helped to have the French translated into English.

This source is a good reference for those who hate to cook when it's too hot to do anything. The recipes can be adapted to whatever region you are living in, northwest versus southwest, east coast versus west coast. The book is a good reference for those familiar with cooking when it's hot and need an occasional inspiration.

This book focuses on Le Corbu most known projects such as Ville Saboye, Ronchamps and a few others. There is very few text, and the pictures are very good pictures from a photographer point of view, but a little small due to the book size. But the price is good, so if you need an approach to Le Corbu's work, this book might be the beggining of it.

Very few books can be useful to more than one time period or region of historical costuming research. This volume is one that is. The book starts out with a short discussion of skin garments, works through early peplos or bog-style dresses, and continues through the various centuries to modern clothing. It touches upon fabric weaving styles, various types of material, stitches and alternative fastenings, pattern layout and cutting methods, differences between male and female clothing, ect. There is no in-depth coverage of any one particular topic, but the information is useful to many different re-enactors based in general European or Early American cultures. I would suggest this book as an invaluable starting place for new costume makers. In particular, it collects information from many singularly useful sources into one place (an early Anglo-Saxon garment, the Greenland gown, when machine-sewn garments became widespread, examples of stitch types, short discussions on natural dyes, fiber and weave types, etc).

I bought this book because I heard about it on one of the re-enacting mailing lists, and was curious about it. I fell in love with in after a few minutes of reading it. I want to stress again that it's greatest strength is the range of topics it covers - it would be of equal use to a Medieval or a Regency or a Victorian re-enactor/costumer. If you are very new to costuming, or have friends who are, I highly recommend this book to start out a personal library.

In this book it did such a good job of making you feel what pre-civil war plantation mentality was like and how much of a culture shock it would be to go up to the slave-free north. I enjoyed this book immesly. Alex Haley is one of the best authors of our time. He didn't really spend much time on details in the book. But that is good for younger readers.

Dr. Tilley has again provided a helpful reference for Small Animal Cardiology that can also fit into a lab coat pocket. Not only is this a valuable source of information for students in clinics and for exam review, but also a quick reference for busy clinicians. Obviously EKG is only a part of a thorough cardiac evaluation, but it is often an important and underrated diagnostic tool. And for those of us who cannot always find a bic pen (vets will understand) when we need one, including a EKG ruler was a great touch! I strongly recommend this to any veterinarian interested in improving his/her EKG reading skills.