Manning's protaginist, Bourne, wanders through this grisly narrative like a ghost. Friend of the enlisted and confidante of the sub-altern and officers, he cadges, scrounges, fights and kills in the mud, towns and trenches of WW1... Bourne is as likeable as any poet or writer is in a classroom of fellow lads, for that is what most of them were.. Yet his compassion and love for the suffering of his fellow men, though understated and pressed down here, betrays the real experiences of this little known Australian writer.. Hemingway wrote " The finest and noblest book of war that I have ever read " ..

A truly remarkable story of the horrors of the trenches in WWI. Manning, an Australian who moved to Britain to pursue his writing, served in WWI as an enlisted man, upon which the book is based. Bourne, the main character, is based upon Manning's experiences in France on the Western Front during WWI.
The novel provides an interesting insight into the lives of the common man in the trench, based on the perspective of a man who is from the upper class. Despite the class difference, Bourne is able to befriend his comrades, while at the same time, engage with the NCOs and officers who are senior to him.
An important element to derive from the book is the horror of the trenches, and the commanality of the experiences of the men who served, despite their social status. Once a man went "over the top" the base instinct of kill or be killed prevailed. Manning grasps this concept and adeptly describes the mechanical routine of sending men to their death, in what today is an inconceivable amount of casualties.
If you are looking for a good read on what life is like in the trenches, this is a great book.
Manning, while not a household name, won the acclaim of writers of his era to include Hemmingway and T.E. Lawrence. It is an enjoyable read and not easy to put down.

This is an unsung classic. Frederic Manning published it anonymously during his lifetime, but he was a poet and essayist of some repute, and it shows in his first class writing style.

The book, published ten years after the end of the First World War, runs along similar lines to the movie "Saving Private Ryan". The first chapter is stunning. We first find the hero (perhaps not quite the right word), Bourne, struggling back to British lines after a battle. You could almost be there such is the writing. Manning then gives a fantastic account of the emptiness and tension of the First World War battlefield as Bourne thinks over the days events that night.

The rest of book follows Bourne and his friends out of the front lines, and through various travails as they recover from the battle, recruit new men, and prepare for an inevitable return to the trenches.

If you have any interest in war, if you wish to understand what the First World War was really like -- it was not all "mud and blood" as the historians would have you believe -- this is the book for you.

It is a novel, but highly autobiographical. It is therefore easy to read and credible.

I give it five stars, and recommend it to all.

The text and especially the illustrations in this book were just what I needed to explain to my kindergarten students what it would be like to visit the Statue of Liberty. The illustrator shows an aerial view of the statue on Liberty Island, the ferry needed to reach the island, and New York City in the far background. He continues with pictures showing the construction of the statue to the impressive fire works celebration on the Fourth of July. The author explains the building of the statue as well as the purpose. If you had only one book to explain the Statue of Liberty to school age children, I would recommend using "The Story of the Statue of Liberty" by Betsy Maestro and illustrated by Giulio Maestro.

I also use this book in my classroom and third graders love it. They are fascinated with the size and grandeur of the Statue of Liberty. This book tells the history of the Statue in simple text and large, vivid illustrations. (Did you know that he made it to look like his mother?) I recommend this book for 7-9 year olds. It will expand their horizons and leave them hoping that someday they will see the Statue in person.

My 2 year old is facinated with the Statue of Liberty. So before we visited her in person, I wanted to find a simple worded book with lots of captivating pictures and found this one. It really does an excellent job of telling the story of how America obtained Lady Liberty. We would highly recommend this book to any American Patriot!!

Shortly after the American Civil War, John Muir, a 29-year-old budding naturalist, set out on an epic journey across the eastern United States. Starting in Louisville, Kentucky on September 2, 1867, he walked southward through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia, where he was delayed in Savannah. After crossing through Florida he finally reached the Gulf, but, unfortunately, his desire to continue on toward South America was hindered by an illness. Not fully recovered, he eventually made for Cuba, but went no further. Muir returned home only to set out for California a short while later. During his journey, he kept a journal in which he recorded his experiences and observations of the flora and fauna he came across. This journal, along with an article written in 1872 and a letter that he wrote while in California, constitute A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, which was originally published in 1916, two years following Muir's death. Although there are a few instances when the author reveals himself to be a man of his times, his observations of a natural world which in many instances have long since been destroyed, are priceless.

As the human population expands the natural world around us disappears. This is a fact we mostly ignore as we go about our daily life. One day, you wake up, and discover that within your own lifetime things have been permanently altered.

When John Muir made his "Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf" the U.S. was not as heavily populated as it is today, although much had changed from the time when European settlers first moved through the area he explored -- a path that stretched from Indianapolis Indiana to the Gulf just north of what is Tampa Florida today.

Muir moved South in the aftermath of the Civil War, so he encountered much unrest, unhappiness, and destruction along the way. He describes not only the flora and fauna he found but the condition of humans as they struggled to rebuild their lives.

He says, "My plan was to simply to push on in a general southward direction by the wildest leafiest, and least trodden way I could find, promising the greatest extent of virgin forest." To a great extent, he was able to do that, however, he could not escape some of the realities of the world around him. For example, in Georgia, he encountered the graves of the dead, whom he says lay under a "common single roof, supported on four posts as the cover of a well, as if rain and sunshine were not regarded as blessings." A bit further he says, "I wandered wearily from dune to dune sinking ankle deep in the sand, searching for a place to sleep beneath the tall flowers, free from the insects and snakes, and above all my fellow man."

Muir wonders at the teachings of those who call themselves God's emissaries, who fail to ask about God's intentions for nature. He says, "It never seems to occur to these far-seeing teachers that Natures's object in making animals and plants might possibly be first of all the happiness of each one of them, not the creation of all for the happiness of one. Why should man value himself as more that a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of the unit--the cosmos?"

Partly as a result of his writing, and the writing of other Naturalists, the National Park System came into being, and today, more trees grow on the East coast than grew in the late 1700s (American Revolution). The fight is not over, however, it has only begun. Many of those trees are "harvested" every year. Sometimes, even within National Forests they are all felled at the same time through a process called clear cutting. The lovely large oaks that Muir beheld are mostly long gone and have been replaced by Pine.

This is one of John Muir's best books (the other being _First Summer in the Sierra_). It's Muir's slightly-edited diary of his 1000-mile trip through the Southern U.S. to Florida, then Cuba. He traveled on foot observing nature and the people. The book holds your interest as it's written on the spot through the enthusistic eyes of a young man. It reminds me a little of Mark Twain's book _Roughin' It_, another story through the eye's of a young man latter to become famous (about working on antebellum riverboats).

Written late in Skinner's life, this broadly-scoped statement of Skinner's philosophy is not only an outstanding, clear, and relatively nontechnical primer to Skinner's philosophy, but it is also one of the few places where Skinner undertook to defend his positions against critics, on exactly the same points that are still widely assumed to neatly dismiss not only Skinner, but all of his ideas - and sometimes the entire notion of behavioral science - in one specious swoop.

In mid-century, Skinner became strongly associated with the word 'behaviorism' (so much so that it is now common to see famous, well-published academics confusing him with Watson, the originator of the word 'behaviorism,' whose views and approach were fundamentally different.) Skinner's views are actually called "radical behaviorism" to distinguish them from others like Watsonian S-R behaviorism, Hull's neo-behaviorism, Tolman's purposive behaviorism, and so on. Radical behaviorism, as many prior behaviorisms, held that behavior was caused in ordinary natural ways, and hence that it could be studied just as scientifically as, say, biology was, with just as little unnecessary mystery. What made it 'radical,' however, was not really that it was more behaviorist than other behaviorism, but that it embraced the existence of only-privately-observed events, like one's thoughts and feelings, in such a way that they were also considered behavior. (cf. Skinner's quote, 'The skin is not so important as a boundary.')

Skinner's philosophy had other notable and idiosyncratic properties: Skinner held that behavior was profoundly controlled by the environment (read: that what we do is done with relation to the world - compare this to Pylyshyn's absurdly contrary claim that "human behavior is stimulus free," in other words that we are so stupid that we act without regard, e.g., to what time it is, what the judge just said, or how this restaurant was awful last time.) Skinner emphasized direct application of behavioral study to political problems, was a humanist who hated coercion and punishment, and - perhaps most famously - he was excessively picky about what words were used to describe behavior (going so far as to reject, on principle, virtually any use terminology smacking of 'mentalism,' - e.g., 'thought,' even though he took pains to point out his acceptance of private life). It is the persistent emphasis of environmental influence and the persistent suspicion of anything that smelled like 'mentalism' - appeal to spirits, res cogitae, homunculi, a vis viva, or a virtus dormitiva - that are now the most noted characteristics of Skinner's philosophy.

Skinner's own words will naturally be the most reliable representation of what he thought, and this is the best place to read those words. Whether or not you have any understanding of behavioral science or of Skinner's particular take on it, this book will give you the essential and relatively authoritative philosophical views contained in radical behaviorism - unpolluted by politically motivated revisionism. With an honest reading of an accurate source, one can evaluate each idea on its own merit, without needing to take sides pro or con in order to evaluate the basic plausibility of the many and strident competing claims about radical behaviorism.

(One point is left off because Skinner's philosophy is still somewhat confusingly explained and incomplete, albeit expansive, even at its best).

THEORIES ABOUT ANIMAL BEHAVIOR (INCLUDING HUMAN ANIMALS) COME IN AND OUT OF FASHION IN CYCLES. BFS IS NOT IN FASHION THESE DAYS - MORE'S THE PITY!

IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO BE AN EDUCATED PERSON IN THE 21ST CENTURY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A FIRM GRASP OF BFS' BODY OF WORK. IT IS FUNDAMENTAL.

IN THIS VOLUME BFS MAKES A BRAVE STAB AT 'POPULARISING' HIS THEORIES. HE IS NOT ALTOGETHER SUCCESSFUL. FOR ONE THING, HE DOESN'T WRITE NEARLY AS WELL AS, SAY, FREUD; ALTHOUGH HE IS ON A PAR WITH, SAY, JUNG, OR EVEN JAMES.

THE 'HUMANISTS' WHO ARE ON THE RISE THESE HIGH-TECH DAYS - THEY USUALLY PARALLEL THE RELIGIONIST CYCLE - GET PRETTY SHORT SHRIFT FROM BFS, ALTHOUGH IN THIS BOOK HE GOES OUT OF HIS WAY TO BE CONCILIATORY. I WONDER IF HE DOESN'T BORDER ON CONDESCENDING?

IF YOU BELIEVE THAT "MAN IS MADE IN THE IMAGE & LIKENESS OF A SANE & LOVING GOD" YOU WON'T ENJOY THIS INFINITELY POLITE BUT UNCOMPROMISING BOOK. IT IS ALL FOR TRAINING MAN OUT OF HIS 'KILLER APS' SO TO SPEAK : YOU KNOW, SLAVERY IN THE SOUTHERN USA (THE READING LIST IS GROWING AT LAST), VIETNAM (A GROWING LIST OF FINE, DEVASTATINGLY REVEALING BOOKS), 1930/40 NAZISM ( A READING LIST AS LONG AS YOUR ARM AND GROWING RAPIDLY), STALINISM (NOT SUCH A GOOD LIST OF READINGS), MAOISM (ALSO A BIT SPARSE), ON AND ON ACROSS A PLANET AWASH IN BLOOD & CARNAGE - RIGHT UP TO THIS VERY HOUR, EVEN AS I WRITE.

BFS DOES NOT ROMANTICISE HUMANKIND, ANY MORE THAN DARWIN DID. IF HE ERRS, LIKE DARWIN, IT IS THROUGH A REALISTIC FEAR OF AROUSING THE HATRED OF A DANGEROUS SPECIES; THIS LEADS TO A TENDENCY TO SKIRT THE REAL ISSUES, HOPING THE READER CAN READ BETWEEN THE LINES.

THIS IS NOT 'LIGHT' READING FOR ALL BFS' EFFORTS TO DUMB DOWN HIS CONCLUSIONS; BUT NEITHER IS IT ESPECIALLY 'HEAVY' GOING. IT IS WELL WORTH THE EFFORT REQUIRED.

WARNING: DON'T EVEN BOTHER, IF YOUR IDEA OF SERIOUS PSYCHOLOGY (MANAGERIAL OR OTHERWISE) IS 'THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER' WHICH, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, DERIVES FROM BFS' RESEARCH.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!

...I gave this book a five for its clarity in laying out some Skinnerian basics. It's a very well-written book and clearly presents the often-misunderstood but important distinction between behavioral psychology and behaviorism (its philosophy).

Surely, we can't talk and think enough
about the state of mankind!
But these are hazardous waters! Where should we begin
and where do we want to go from there? So, Having
Gould and Eco as guides seems like a clever start!

According to the book, the hebrew language has
no exact present tense?? The infinitely brief, the
very essense of the present, is not to be found - it
can be neither fixed, nor measured. It is therefore
completely justifiable, grammaticale speaking,
to leave out the present?

Yet, obviously, it is from the present we look at the
past and towards the future.
Stephen Jay Gould is always a pleasure to listen to -
and the right one to put time into perspective.
For a palaeontologist, like Gould, 7000 years
(timespand of human culture) is really no more than
the twinkling of an eye. So all we know is really in
the present - which hardly exist!

From this position we look out into concepts like
the eternity - which we obviously really can't grasp.
And into ourselfes were e.g. DNA was discovered as recently
as 1953. Mystery upon mystery.
So, we struggle to discover instances of regularity and
to fit them together with the help of stories. We throw
in a little religion "were religions do not
ask questions, they answer them". Still we are far
removed from any real "understanding".

And that is what these conversations are about.
With Umberto Eco and Stephen Jay Gould - it is
of course an ok read. But only an appetizer.

-Simon

Conversations About the End of Time is a a discussion of questions and answers given by four thinkers. Stephen Jay Gould, Umberto Eco, Jean-Claude Carriere and Jean Delumeau all answer questions and are given a chapter in this book to espouse their respective answers.

Just think of a coffee table discussion, of a one on one discussion and you get to read the answers on questions of import. Each answering these questions with their respective insights and down-to-earth style. Each having their respective life experiences to draw from to unravel perplexing questions.

With fascination you read the thought-provoking answers. The answers will suprise some, others may be right inline with what you'd expect, but nerver boring... challenging, educational, lucid and erudite are more what you'd expect and you are not dissapointed.

This book reads fast and the questions are cogent with the general topic. Each respective thinker answers in a style of their own and the reader does not feel irrelevant. This is an interesting book in that questions asked make the reader think as well.

I found the book to be highly interesting and it has a fascination woven throughout the text captivating the reader.

---------- ----------

I'm talking about that Darwinian theory of Natural Selection you keep telling as if it were true. It is "differential reproductive success". So then that means I need at least 2 different things to call some event NS. So then I ask myself what do these 2 different things have to do with each other? So then I say well either they influence each other's reproduction some way, or they could as well be in different environments. So they must influence each other's reproduction some way. So then I ask, what ways can the one influence the reproduction of the other?

+/- increase reproduction at cost of the other +/+ mutual increase of each other's reproduction -/- mutual decrease of each other's reproduction +/0 and so on -/0 0/0

but what you do, is pretend like there are only +/- relationships. You ignore all other type of relationships with NS. Your natural selection theory is false, for being unsystematic in describing the relationships between living beings. You make teachers into liars by it.

I feels like i am reading both "The Stranger" and "All Quiet on the Western Front." I was hoping to get something from it but i was disappointed from what i considered the best combination of both novels.

For almost seventy years, this book was only readily found in an 'expurgated' version--that is, an abridged edition published first in 1929. Manning originally published his novel privately, but when it was introduced to the public (anonymously in the first editions), his editors felt that the language was too crude and for the genteel reading public and cut the book down to fit the day's standards. It is only now that we can appreciate the true power and honesty of a book that has been overlooked for too long.
Her Privates We is not a story of war so much as it is the story of men involved in that war--it is only in the final chapters that any real battle scenes take place. For the majority of the book, we are treated to an account of the life of Private Bourne (Manning himself in a literary disguise) during the five months of the Battle of the Somme (July-November, 1916), one of the most tragic and deadliest battles of World War One. To really explain the plot would be to give away the true experience of reading the book, but I guarantee, there is no account of World War One that can be compared to this work. It is unique and as relevant today as it was in 1929.
There is no attempt at hero-worship or empty patriotism in Manning's work. He telling the story of a group of men trapped in a world for which they were never prepared, and their humanity shines through it all. Their language is coarse, their opinions of the war, women, their fellow soldiers differ, but ultimately, they are all in the same Hell and are bonded together in a desperate hope of survival. Manning's is one of the few War works that does not follow the Victorian pattern for novels (hence why it is seldom mentioned in reviews of war literature). He is not trying to help his readers escape, but rather forcing them to face the reality they had created.
It is clear, even in his prose, that Manning was a skilled poet. Throughout the novel, there are flashes of beauty in the writing itself:

"She knew nothing of their subterranean, furtive, twilight life, the limbo through which, with their obliterated humanity, they moved as so many unhoused ghosts, or the aching hunger in those hands that reached, groping tentatively out of their emptiness, to seek some hope or stay."

As well as humor. After a paticularily confused conversation with a French woman with whom they have been billeted, Bourne's superior complains to him:

"I wish to God I knew a bit o' French" said the corporal earnestly.
"I wish to God you wouldn't mix the little you do know with Hindustanti," said Bourne.

The incredible humanity in this book has seldom been paralleled, even in modern literature. Manning's genuis has been overlooked for too long and it is time that his masterpiece was rediscovered to teach a new generation what war is really like.

The most moving book on warfare that I've ever read. Manning takes the reader into the trenches of WWI and through a masterful use of the language shows the struggles of one young, educated Private as he endures the hardships of war. This book was formerly titled The Middle Parts of Fortune. Outstanding from cover to cover.

Although this book seems to have some good information in it, the multitude of grammar- and spelling-related errors made it difficult for me to trust the other information disseminated by it. A stronger editorial effort would have helped quite a bit.

I feel like the book is extremely vague with regard to the provenance of each species - an increasingly important issue in the state of Florida. The book would also be so much more useful to most Florida gardeners, horticulturists, and landscape architects if the author would have made more of an effort to more clearly delineate those species that are native to the state and those that are exotic (and invasive, if applicable).

With that said, the book remains a fairly good reference, especially for beginners. Nice color photographs and a seasoned landscape architect's opinions/observations about how to use each plant in Florida landscapes.

Great book for the southern parts of Florida. It was hightly recommended by our Plant Nursery. Fairly good pictures but great discriptions of plants, trees, shurbs etc.

Great book covering a broad range of palms, trees, shrubs, flowers, vines, etc. Includes photographs on each plant covered, along with cultural info. like how much cold they can handle, where they come from, ultimate size, best way to use in the landscape, and leaf, fruit, & flower descriptions. I use this regularly when trying to decide what to put where, in the landscape.

Don't be fooled by the title of this book. Yes, the book presents most of the important formulas, like Euler's eternal formula e to the power of i x pi plus one equal to zero. But that is it. There is no mathematical deduction or any related calculations . All that contained are cartoon pictures. So I would have two ratings for that book, for children, 5 stars, as this book can stimulate them to pursue mathematics further. One star for adult ( no zero ), so I give this book 3 stars on average!!!!

Great book. It combines the simplicity of "where to find this formula in daily life", with comics, and a mathematical explanation. Like a gardener story to explain logarithms; or a history of 18th century to explain fractional numbers. It is an excellent gift to make that a kid love the simplicity of mathematics.
-
Un gran libro. Combina la simplicidad de "donde encontrar la f-rmula en la vida diaria", con comics y explicaciones matem‡ticas. Como la historia de un jardinero para explicar logaritmos; o una historia del siglo 18 para explicar numeros fraccionales. Es un regalo excelente para hacer que un ni-o ame la simplicidad de las matem‡ticas.

This is a wonderful book detailing some of the most important, and beautiful, discoveries in the history of mathematics. Each little story explains briefly, clearly, and simply everything from complex numbers to the Pythagorean Theorem. Brought to life through a light-hearted writing style the equations are made fun and interesting. Comical characters and perfectly eccentric illustrations accompany and enliven the text and give birth to humor in mathematics. Lionel Salem's writing, his daughter Coralie's illustrations, and the wonderful premise of the book combine to make for an entertaining piece of literature for everyone from those with no background in math to a PhD mathematician.

This is an excellent book, especially for the layperson averse to or ambivalent toward mathematics. Give it to a friend, a member of the family, or maybe a struggling math student. This is a book which anyone and everyone can enjoy.

Notes are printed clearly. Binding is durable. Pages won't come out easily. This is not a complete edition of Nocturnes and Polonaises. This book has only 11 Polonaises and does not include 5 more Polonaises. Despite being criticized spurious by some music scholars, the omitted Polonaises are great for playing. It does not include the other postumous C minor Nocturne. If you want a book that is different from G.Shirmer's edition, this book will NOT do.

I trust to Dover editions of Chopin piano works but I would like to see Chopin's last nocturne (20th)C# minor.

I have to say that the Dover edition is my favorite for most any piano music, regardless of composer. The copy I have of this book is quite beat up, mostly because it has been used for many years but the pages and cover are still in considerably good shape. Besides containing some of the most beautiful piano music of the romantic period, the markings and notation are easy to read and understand, making the composer's intentions for the music perfectly clear to the pianist. I highly recommend this book, along with any other piano music editions by Dover Publishers.

BF's Skinner's early work in operant conditioning through laboratory research on animals is generally regarded as a lasting and significant contribution to science and psychology. However, Skinner's works on human behavior, including this one, attempt to generalize to all human behavior the model he developed and used to predict and control animal behavior under highly controlled conditions.

In Science and Human Behavior, Skinner repeatedly offers, as the reason for a given behavior's occurrence, the explanation that it is "reinforced," and advocates that we abandon the traditional discourse used to explain human behavior through reference to intention, desire, will, thoughts, and feelings. Instead, Skinner argues that a science of behavior can improve upon such explanations by using the jargon of operant conditioning theory.

In operant conditioning theory, "reinforcement" is the process whereby a behavior is strengthened by the process of associating it with a consequence, and Skinner shows little regard for the precise technical meaning of this word when he makes many uses of this term and its derivations (reinforce, reinforcer, reinforcing). For example, he writes the following: "Education is a profession, the members of which engage in education primarily because of economic reinforcement." It is hard to see what this assertion means, as the behavioral antecedents to "economic reinforcement" that constitute the "profession" of "education" remain undefined. Furthermore, such an assertion is comically out of touch with the reality that many teachers, who could make much more money in other professions, might object to having their primary motive for teaching characterized this way. Perhaps what is meant here is that "economic reinforcement" (money) strengthens the "behavior" of teaching more efficiently than any other reinforcer, in which case it seems that Skinner is applying a truism-that people work when they get paid for it, and stop working when they don't. Whatever the case, such statements as this one, which litter this book, seem remarkably short of any scientific authority or interest.

One might argue that since virtually all of the haphazardly placed illustrative applications of his jargon to actual human behavior are as brief and platitudinous as the one mentioned, they shouldn't be taken literally, but seen as rhetorical devices in service of explaining his conceptual model. But some might wish that Skinner took seriously the burden of demonstrating that what he asserts is both verified by the scientific method, and a non-trivial improvement on what is already known. In absence of either, this book is mostly an amusing glimpse at an outdated approach to psychology that simply has not delivered on its promise to find mechanisms for the effective control of human behavior, unless you count its contribution to the management of prisons, mental hospitals, and other highly controlled environments that approximate the inhumane conditions under which Skinner's lab rats lived.

Therefore, if you are interested, like me, in understanding the roots of Skinner's influence and an introduction to how he applies his basic concepts to human behavior, this book is a very profitable read. If you are looking for a work of actual scientific merit, this book has little to recommend.

Harsh criticism of Skinner has typically come from arm chair philosophers more concerned with sounding progressive than with helping or understanding people. Science and Human Behavior has contributed and continues to contribute to valuable application and research in Psychology. A standing challenge to any critic would be to find a book that can match Science and Human Behavior's contributions to the application of science for the welfare of humanity.

This is agreat book for anyone who has a good understanding of behavioral psychology. If you do, this book will help explain the concepts employed by psychologists today. It also gives the reader a good feel for the attitudes that prevailed in psychology in the 1950's. If you do not have a strong background in this area, I would suggest reading one of Skinner's later books first.