This is one of a 14-volume series of writings by Leon Trotsky, who along with V.I. Lenin was a central leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution. These volumes cover the years 1929-1940, when Trotsky led the political fight world-wide to maintain the continuity of Bolshevik's revolutionary perspective and leadership against the reactionary policies imposed by the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union. Reading Trotsky carefully, one can learn a lot about history and about today's world, as well as how to apply Marxist methods to orient oneself for working-class political action.

This volume includes more than 100 articles and letters. They cover topics ranging from the economic depression and the rising inter-imperialist tensions leading to World War II, to the Stalinist frame-up trials in the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and detailed leadership questions posed in workers movements in different countries at the time. These volumes are lively, pointed and have extensive notes and chronologies to aid the reader today.

I'd also recommend some other titles written by Trotsky at this time, including The History of the Russian Revolution, The Fight Against Fascism in Germany, Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay, and The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution, all available from the same publisher, Pathfinder Press.

This volume contains lessons crucial for those committed to the goal of emancipating working people and oppressed nations.

The workers movement of that time was misled by parties - social democratic and fake communist -- which preferred imperialist "democracy" over workers revolution. This allowed fascism to triumph and, together with "democratic" imperialism, brought us the second world war which slaughtered tens of millions and included the U.S. - supposedly the most "democratic" imperialists - initiating the threat of human extinction with the nuclear bombing of Japan.

Trotsky explains how Lenin's program could have resulted in workers victories over capitalism all over Europe, as well as the overthrow of the murderous Stalin regime and the regeneration of the Soviet Union on a course of world revolution and workers democracy.

Studying Trotsky's writings today is timely as imperialism is again on the march toward fascism and war.

You can see why Trotsky was reknown as a fiery public speaker -- he writes with passion, intelligence and friendly, human humour. These pieces written while living in Mexico, staying with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Correspondence with and about them included here, too. Articles on the eve of World War II, with fascism triumphant in Germany and Italy especially thought-provoking in light of recent developments in France with LePen's electoral showing. He scathingly makes the point in polemic with "our Palestinian friends" (gives you a feel for the international scope of the debate that was raging) that it is meaningless to talk about the fascist danger without addressing the danger of ordinary democratic imperialism. How else, he points out, to join the Indian masses in their quest for independence from the Mother of parliamentary democracy? Unexpectedly fun to browse through and think about.

I am using this book with my preschool son to reinforce the letters and sounds. This book contains simple, easy to make and learn ideas for games that teach big concepts. There are plenty of ideas to accommodate different learning styles.

This is a fantastic book by 2 very dedicated professional educators. It is very worthwhile both for its 'fun' interactive activities with your children, and as an extremely valuable educational tool for 'stealth teaching'! (Your child thinks they are just playing, while they are secretly being educated!) We have also found it very useful in helping your child with any learning 'issues', (reading, math, etc.) using enjoyable, interactive activities.

We VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book

A+ Activities For First grade is a fabulous resource for both parents and teachers. Each of the activties that I am using are easy to present and cost very little. These are two components that mean a lot to a teacher with ltittle extra time and $. Parents have commented that their children love the "extras" presented in this interesting and creative handbook.It's a perfect gift for the holidays. Any teacher or parent will love it. It is adaptable to any age group. A terrific buy too!! My compliments to Naomi Singer and Matt Miller.

Emma Price is a strong, convincing character with enough vulnerablity to make you root for her. This mystery is set in the hip, dangerous world of New York City, which the author describes with great detail and authority.You'll worry about Emma, her failing marriage, and its immediate effects on her beloved son, Liam. I found myself nervously flipping through the pages wanting things to work out for her. I'll have to buy the next book just to make sure.

With sharply drawn characters and layers of complexity, The One That Got Away kept me up late reading to see what would happen next. What did a woman shot by the side of the road in New Mexico have to do with the deaths of two policemen in a seemingly open and shut case - or for that matter, the drowning death of Emma Price's babysitter? And Emma Price made a wonderful heroine, too. It's not like she knows karate and can hack into a computer with one hand tied behind her back. Instead, she puzzles it out along with the reader - and I certainly enjoyed going along for the ride.

This is a pageturner that will keep readers riveted as Emma Price tries to solve a murder that's hit close to home while trying to keep her life from falling apart. Details of family life ring true, as does the welldrawn New York setting. Terrific summer reading, and an impressive debut for author Naomi Rand.

This is an absolutely excellent book about what is truly going on in relationships! The author's will probably tell you what you don't want to hear about yourself, but if you are ready to face it, this book will take you to another life. This book makes us face how our own insecurities and inferiorities are having a destructive influence on our relationships. It forces us to change for the better. If you like this book, you will also like "Rhythm, Relationships, and Transcendence" by Toru Sato. It is a great book on a similar topic but explained from a different perspective. I recommend both of them highly!

My partner and I were stuck. After 2 years together we seemed to be at a crisis in our relationship, and we didn't know whether to get married or split up. Overall we had a GREAT relationship, but things had gotten weird lately. I'd been critical, he'd been withdrawn. What was going on? This book jumped out at me from the amazon.com web site, so I got it and read it in about a week. It was an eye-opener. So many times I recognized myself in these patterns of behavior (or, if I didn't see myself, I saw the behaviors told to me by friends who'd been in failed relationships.) I've read a lot of self-help books, and this is among the best. Clear, well-organized, concise ideas with just the right number of case studies & examples. If you're having trouble in your relationships, maybe not even "big" trouble, just nagging kinds of things.... you will be amazed by the TRUTH of these ideas & observations about relationships. (Same authors have also written "How to Make Your Second Marriage a First-Class Success" which I also recommend.)

What a timely book! It exposes the reality of human connection over the fantasy. And how long can the fantasy last? Powerful truth for those looking to last...as couples and as individuals in our rough and tumble world...

Wow. This book is amazing...This book seems to apply to life, no matter what is going on. The poetry in this book seems to span across so many issues, and so many age groups. I just keep coming back to it.

This is a collection of poems about losing things, for all age groups. From losing pencils, keys, toys, parents, siblings, spouses, trust and freindship. A very moving book of poetry. It contains excellent black and white illustrations and I recommend it for students from the 5th grade up, as well as parents and teachers.

I purchased this book on a whim for my 9 year old son. He found some of the ideas very sad. We enjoyed talking about the different types of losses. I definately got more out of it than he did. I have enjoyed sharing it with my friends. The poetry comes from many kinds of experiences and is a great all around poetry experience.

"The Best of Pif Magazine Off-Line" offers a refreshing assortment of new stories and new voices. A standout among them is Mimi Carmen's "Love Birds". Ms. Carmen's tale of an aging mother and conflicted daughter resonates with idiosyncratic vision and gritty passion. The bird imagery is breathtaking. I also very much enjoyed "23 Johnson Avenue, 1985" by Diann Blakely. If writers were race horses, and I had money, I'd bet my wad on these two.

A wonderful collection - refreshingly different, but solid. My favorite is "Love Birds" by Mimi Carmen. I'd like to read more of her work.

I am bored with many print magazines nowadays. The same things, the same things. Ho-hum. I've been following this zine for a while now, open it every month with relish. They've definitely picked a lot of their best, and Camille Renshaw's intro says a lot about WHY I don't like other magazines. Here is something worth a read, something that will make you want to get everything the magazine has put out since the beginning. There's even a rationale for professional wrestling, something that wants me to buy a tape of the event with the Undertaker/Mankind Hell in the Cell match, and I NEVER watch that stuff! You should definitely have this on your shelf--impress your friends with how in the know you are.

For those of us who bungle at the keyboard and can always use more guidance, this book offers a great start in understanding Chopin's music. Probably the most difficult piece to play in public is Chopin Ballade No. 4, and Chopin offers some incredible insight into how he wanted it played. As you know, the music notation on the sheet cannot cover every intention of the composer, much like writing cannot capture everything, but most of what we want to say. This book supplements your understanding of the music. I would not be surprised if your great piano teacher pulls material out of this book in order to advise you on how to play Chopin.

This book is wonderful for understanding Chopin's philosophies on technique and musicianship. One important thing you learn in reading this book, however, is that the piano has changed dramatically since Chopin's time. My main reason for reading this book was to gain valuable information about how to improve my technique for playing Chopin. Although I definitely learned a lot by reading this book, the issues relating to Chopin's advice about technique are unfortunately not as relevant on pianos today as I was hoping. In short, it's a great read, but will not solve all your Chopin technique problems.

This is an excellent and well documented work. Anyone who tries to play Chopin or has an amibition to do so, should read this. It goes straight to the heart of Chopins entire musical philisophy, and gives not only insight into the artist himself, but solid and sound advice on practicing, technique, and interpretation. Strongly recommended.

Wrestling With Angels: What the First Family of Genesis Teaches Us About Our Spiritual Identity, Sexuality, and Personal Relationships (Naomi Rosenblatt and Joshua Horwitz, Delacorte, 1995) is a book with a specific agenda: understanding Genesis as a series of lessons about the nature of human character. Her voice (it's largely hers; Horwitz is not much in direct evidence) is that of the therapist. The themes are as old as guilt and sibling rivalry and sexual temptation, and as "modern" as midlife crisis, blended families and surrogate parentage. We are comfortable with these psychological concepts, and Rosenblatt is generally successful at using these as tools to understand these stories --- and ourselves.
The subtitle's "Family" is a misnomer; it should be "Families". It covers people from Adam to Noah to Joseph, and they aren't considered one family in the normal sense. The chapter on the Tower of Babel doesn't involve any particular people.
There are 35 self-contained chapters. The titles set the theme: "Rachel and Leah: Competing for Love, Passion and Status", "The Brothers Reappear: Wrestling with Unresolved pain", "Abraham goes forth: Following a Personal Vision". She starts with a broad introduction to the theme, then sets the stage for the particular story. The story is presented via selected excerpts from Genesis. Interspersed are her comments and "imagined narrative details". Of these she says, "Our Embellishments to the original text of these stories are historically correct" whatever that means. It's unclear whether she's relying on traditional midrash or her own. Then she provides her summary, analysis and conclusions, sometimes including anecdotes from her own life.
The book displays both substantial weaknesses and strengths. On the minus side, the allegories and symbols are laid on rather thickly. For example, on page 267, there is entitled "The Well as the Portal of the Soul." But on 268, we are instead told that it is the stone (which covered the well) that is "the portal of her [Rachel's] ... soul." Further, we are told that "The well represents Rachel's virgin sexuality" and in the next sentence "the well is symbolic of Jacob's unconscious". In her discussion of the Covenant Between the Pieces, admittedly a very murky event, I found her symbolic explanation of the items unconvincing, and note that she omits any explanation of the smoking oven. Some things really are a stretch. One chapter is "Lot Departs the Clan: Letting Go of Children", but she presents no reasoning that Abram ever considered his nephew as a son. Putting the modern motherhood/career dilemma into Rachel/Leah story was unconvincing. None of the treatments are in any great depth, and the nuances of the Bible's language in telling these stories is entirely lost.
On the other hand, her handling of conflicts within the (extended) family is especially deft, and she turns to this, effectively, again and again. She had a particularly good feel for the character of Jacob, and her chapter on his wrestling with the "Personal Angels and Demons" was especially well done. She has an intriguing comparison between Noah and Oscar Schindler; I wish it had been more developed.
Her writing is clear and the almost conversational style easily draws the reader in, without wasting words. While many can learn from this, the book is especially good for beginners. It does not presuppose any knowledge of either the Bible or how it is approached, and makes no demands of a particular kind of faith. And it provides fresh evidence of why these stories are so enduring.

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic with biblical teachings emphasizing the New Testament and very little of the Old Testament. Wrestling w/Angels re-introduced me to the wise ancient stories of Genesis, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not only is this book a great read, it is full of insights illuminating conflicts and challenges we continue to face in contemporary life. Whether or not you believe in the historical accuracy of the Bible, the people who are chronicled in its stories are important archetypes whose influence on our collective thought patterns is vast. Wrestling w/Angels is a key guide to understanding the meaning of those archetypes because they show us how we, as individuals and as a world, have developed our "identity, sexuality and personal relationships."

this is my second reading of wresting w/angels. i recommend it to those people who are curious about the biblical text and have never actually read it themselves. or to those who are familiar and well-versed w/the biblical text but are searching for new and fresh insights to be learned and discovered.

I am the Curator of the Pfeifer Collection of Classical American Photography in Zürich, Switzerland and previously to this, the Assistant Director of the Paul Strand Archive. I have been writing about photography since 1985. Since it was published, I have used Rosenblum's book extensively. It is the first source book I go to when doing my research.

This book is used as a text for a history of photography course at Idaho State University. It is an excellent book and the pictures are reproduced beautifully. When I saw the book on the shelf, I thought I would have to pay at least $100 for it. I was happily surprised to find out how inexpensive it is.

I have owned a copy of this book for several years and it still gets used with the frequency it deserves. I confess having been quite ignorant about the history of photography: it seemed the type of record I would not be particularly interested in (old photos are too old, and new ones are in the daily paper); but my attempt to read Susan Sontag's book ON PHOTOGRAPHY demanded precisely the nearby presence of a reference such as this one, and so I came to own my copy. The book is very thorough, deeply scholarly, and broadly based. If it has to do with the record of photography as culture it is likely to be found here. I treasure it.