Hard to believe no one has reviewed this yet. For those seriously interested in the poetry scene in this country, the Morrow Anthology is essential. Some of the poets--Rita Dove, Tess Gallagher, Jon Anderson, Stephen Dobyns, Carolyn Forche, etc--have gone on to bright careers, while others have faded in the decade or more since the anthology was first published. But what a monumental task Dave Smith and David Bottoms---excellent poets themselves---took on by putting together this book. Incredible book, hands down.

The text of this book is based on a series of lectures delivered by Smith in Jerusalem in May 1999. Although intended to be an analysis of theories of nations and nationalism in recent history and the historiography on this topic, the book also provide a good introduction as any to Smith's vast and important body of work on nations and nationalism. The chapters of this book offer an excellent summary of some of the main streams in contemporary nationalism theory and interesting critiques of them as well. Smith's own theory of the origins of nations is based on what he calls ethnosymbolism. Basically he sees modern nations as having their roots in previously existing ethnicities ("ethnies") and the associated traditions and customs, although he does not strictly adhere to the organic continuity of nations throughout history (a view generally held by nationalists themselves). Also, he emphasizes, quite correctly, the importance of myths, memories and especially symbols and their role in fomenting and maintaining a sense of common identity among the people unified in a nation. This often places him at odds with the major body of theorists who see the nation and nationalism as strictly political instruments or functions of economic change, even though Smith does not refute the validity of such arguments. Smith presents his arguments very clearly here, and this book is well worth reading.

This book is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive and authoritative guide to all the important issues involved in parking today. There is no other publication for parking structures in the markert place today that comes in a close secom If you think the design of parking structures is simple and straightforward -- think again! Only those who have never designed a parking structure (or did a mediocre, botched job of one) would think that it's easy. Don't kid yourself. The issues are numerous and difficult in all areas: architectural, structural, maintenance, restoration and functional. The book delves in depth in many of these areas. The true value of the book lies in its ability to prepare you to ask intellegent questions. You will be in position to participate in the planning process of a new parking structure and you will understand criteria that go into design decision making. Reading this book will NOT make you an expert. Only years of practical experience will do that for you. Architects, engineers and various other kinds of consultants who "dabble" in parking structures are RANK AMATURES and should be avoided by anyone considering professional services for parking structures.

Ethnicity by Anothony SMith is amazing. He is a wonderful professor, scholar and author. His other books are more detailed than this one, but overall there is no one who can compare to him when it comes to the topic of Nationalism.

This book was an amazing aide in the writing of my research paper. It was great to get the ideas and point of view of som many different anthropologists.

There seems to be an almost infinite variety of approaches to the study of nations and nationalism. The book of Anthony Smith is a good trial to summarize and review, if not all, plenty of them. Because of that, I think it is worth reading it.(Content: 5 starts; readability: 3 stars)

Other general overviews (not so good as Smith's but pretty fine): "The Sociology of Nationalism", by David McCrone; in Spain, "Enciclopedia del Nacionalismo", Andrés de Blas Guerrero (Director).

Books that are nowadays "classic" or almost: "Imagined communities", by Benedict Anderson, "Nations and nationalism", by Ernst Gellner; "Nations and Nationalism since 1780", by Eric Hobsbawn, "The Invention of Tradition", edited by Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger (all of them tend to be critic with nationalism).

Focused on a country or countries: Germany, "The nationalization of the masses", by George Mosse; France, "Peasants into Frenchmen ", by Eugen Weber; UK, "Britons. Forging the nation 1707-1837", by Linda Colley; Spain, "Mater Dolorosa. La idea de España en el siglo XIX", by José Alvarez Junco; England, France, Germany, Russia and USA, "Nationalism. Five roads to modernity", by Liah Greenfeld; Quebec, Catalonia, Scotland, "Nations against the State", Michael Keating; Basque country, "El bucle meláncolico" by Jon Juaristi.

Others: "Kindoms and communities in Western Europe 900-1300", by Susan Reynolds; "State and nation in Europe", by Hagen Schulze; "The God of modernity. The development of nationalism in Western Europe", by Josep R. Llobera; Hugh Seton-Watson, "Nations and states. An Enquiry into the origins of nations and the politics and nationalism".

And more and more...

This book by Anthony D. Smith, Professor of Ethnicity and Nationalism at the London School of Economics, is perhaps the best overview of the many theories of nationalism in one volume. As a sort of sequel to his first book, _Theories of Nationalism_, Smith summarizes each major theory and offers his critique. He spends a good amount of time on the seminal theories of Ernest Gellner and Elie Kedourie plus has significant sections on John Armstrong, Benedict Anderson, Michael Hechter, EJ Hobsbawm, Tom Nairn and many others, including himself. Each chapter is organized by theme, starting with the grand old men of sociology, Durkheim and Weber, moving through the modernists, primordalists, perennialists and ethno-symbolists before ending with the postmodernists. (If you've never heard of some of these distinctions before, Smith spells them out quite clearly and succintly in the conclusion.)

This book is thus valuable for all students of nationalism, even if you don't agree with Smith's critiques: his summaries alone make the book worthwhile.

This book was used as the text for a Construction Law case I took in law school. Overall I found the book to be very good. It was clear, concise, well written, and easy to understand. It also brought a pretty wide range of topics into the mix, and provided a fair amount of places to go for additional information (by way of case law). If I had to complain, and for the purposes of this review I will, I would make two comments: 1) There are areas where a little more depth would be nice. Frankly, I don't think the scope of this book really includes in-depth analysis on anything so this might be a non-issue for many folks. I just found that there were a few times (a very few) when I was looking for more information. 2. This book does a really nice job incorporating definitions for new terms into the text. However, there are a LOT of new terms and a glossary would have beeen a nice addition to the text.

An outstanding work -- easy to follow, yet powerful. It delivers in-depth coverage of current law on hot construction topics. As a General Contractor, I found the book very helpful. I strongly recommend it. The industry has become so litigious that you cannot afford to not know.

This book may be fine for children or adolescents, but there is not enough substance to keep an intellegent adult interested. I expected more. I will probably return the book.

I watched the show on PBS and was interested in finding out more information. The book is very informative as well as a coffee table book. I would highly recommend this book.

The book is great and the television series the same

This is a good reference guide to Cordwainer Smith's various books. Do not expect too much, though. Mostly, what you get is one-sentence definitions of many of the people, places and things in Smith's books, and, in some cases, a brief explanation of where the name comes from. A publication guide to Smith's stories is also included.

While there's an introduction, the book's greatest lack is essays and discussions concerning the works and their author (Paul Linebarger, as Smith was his nom de plume). Comparisons of Smith's stories and the myths he took some of them from would be helpful.

Good, but there's work to do in future editions.

This book was not a good read. I wasn't sure if Tony's life was not all that interesting or if the author did a poor job telling the story, but I did not get alot from this read. My main complaint is that their is no real continuity to the story. One minute he's a 17 yeart old kid scaring Mob-Hit men and doing jobs with movie stars (Yeah right). The next he is in Boston. Then it's ten years later and he's back in LA for some underdeveloped reason. The best story telling happens after he turns rat, but by that time "Fuhget about it". The book leads off saying he was did work with Tony Spilotro and many other well known mobsters, but by the accounts of the book he only met briefly with most of these guys. He seemed to be well connceted to Mike Rizzatello and essentially ran a street crew under him, but the rest seemed like one long name drop. "I knew a guy whom I knew was assocaited with Neil Delacruca or Ray Patriachia..yadda...yadda." The part towrds the end with Denise Brown was better done, but if i wanted insight to the OJ trial...I'd buy a different book. All and all...if you are a mob diehard and you want to find some info on the LA or Boston mob, then read it for that, but for a story about the life a mafia soldier..re-reading Nicholas Pillegi's Wiseguy is more enjoyabe!

pickledjoe

Anthony was on the radio, and he is facinating. his story was unbelievable, in the sense that he accomplished so much, in a town that is so easy to get caught. He is no dummy like most Mafia guys What guts he has to wear a wire on over sixty
Mafia members sworn to kill like himself

This book followed the experiences of Anthony fiato, mobster-turned-informant. Sometimes it's funny; sometimes it's incredibly violent. A good read, and all the more interesting because it includes celebrities like Denise Brown, James Caan and Robert Mitchum.

Good grief, this sort of thing sounds like TORTURE. People become accountants because they failed at something else. And they actually read stuff like this?

This book is very practical and covers all the pertinent information needed for a good foundation in Accounting. The book is easy to understand and gives practical examples and useful exercises.

I am an accounting Professor. I am also an accountant. I am so surprised that you thought people became accountants because they failed from something else. It is totally wrong. I am so pround of it. I am 27 year old. I have a good car, have a good house (no debt at all; I just repaid all my mortgage recently.) I do not think that people who are in the field from which you mentioned they failed can make money and have good reputation like I do. Do you know that an auditor money as much as a lawyer (I am a good auditor; please do not talk about other case)

For this book, I found it is very good. I used Prof Skousen's textbook in first accounting class as well as intermediate. My students like them so much. However, they give a little bit too much detail. A professor should adapt it when using in class. This book is a excellent alternative to another book published by Wiley.