"Must-have" if you're interested in law or law school bound...Superb reference and learning book (there is also a Study Guide -- harder to find); you'll keep this book for years of use! If you take a Criminal Justice course, this is the text you should hope the prof demands. It is truly the best out there. Yes, it's pricy - but worth every dollar.

What struck me is that this book analyzes natural law within a legal context: many of the contributing authors are attorneys as well as philosopher. This is particularly helpful to our nation today, as I think more citizens will have to reassess the role of the judiciary these days.

For the latter half of the 20th century, worries over "judicial acitivism" and judges' making decisions that should be made by legislatures have been the domain of conservatives, with Roe v. Wade probably being the chief example. But now liberals have said similar things about the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore decision. It is high time for intelligent discussion, and this book is a solid foundation for a dialogue.

By looking at natural law historically, legally, and philosophically, the authors of this book examine how natural law works and various challenges to it. This book is a very good introduction, and I have come away with a greater respect for natural law and its vital role in our nation, and also new questions to pursue (and more books to buy...).

The contributing authors are an impressive team of formidable thinkers, and while most of the writers clearly come from a religious background, the are pretty good about keeping what they say applicable to a secular society (the last two essays tend to be more theological than philosophical, and I thought that hurt their impact).

I think MacIntyre's essay on the role of the ordinary person in natural law is particularly valuable: if the American citizenry cannot execute sound moral judgment, our nation as a constitutional republic is in grave danger. Fuller's essay on Locke's struggles with natural law is an honest and challenging look at natural law's theoretical chinks. Riley's essay on tort law gave excellent lessons on liability, but with lawsuits being as common as they are nowadays, I would have hoped for more practical insights on today's situation, and possible remedies.

On the whole, this book is a good read and a good challenge. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in ethics or concerned about the present condition of the United States.

Common Truths: New Perspectives On Natural Law is a collection consisting of cogent remarks and prescient essays: Are There Moral Truths That Everyone Knows? (Ralph McInerny); Natural Law: The Legacy of Greece and Rome (J. Rufus Fears); Aquinas, Natural Law, and the Challenges of Diversity (John Jenkins); John Locke's Reflections on Natural Law and the Character of the Modern World (Timothy Fuller); Theories of Natural Law in the Culture of Advanced Modernity (Alasdair MacIntyre); What Dignity Means (Virginia Black); Natural Law and Positive Law (Robert P. George); Natural Rights and the Limited of Constitutional Law (Russell Hittinger); Natural Law and Sexual Ethics (Janet E. Smith); Contract Law and Natural Law (Edward J. Murphy); Tort Law and Natural Law (William N. Riley); Criminal Law and Natural Law (Ian A.T. McLean); and Natural Law in the Twenty-First Century (Charles E. Rice). Common Truths is scholarly, intellectually stimulating reading for anyone wanting to better understand and appreciate the permanent norms of human action and their relationships to a moral and political life.

The only reason, and it is indeed a sad reason, that this long forgotten novel has come back into print is because it has a (slight) connection with Tolkien, one of this century's most popular writers. I say sad because it aptly displays how a fine writer of children stories can write a really good tale but remain obscure. Had Tolkien not read him, although it would have quite possibly change the course of modern literature because he would not think of the hobbits as halfings (well, he might, but he said this was their source) and create them as a viable race in Middle-earth.

As for the book itself? It is a fun, light read appropriate for children about ten or so. There is some violence in the end which may be rather frightening to young children, but nowadays they see worst on the television, and the violence is not real explicity. E. A. Wyke-Smith incorporates the Arthurian myth of the land across the river, which Tolkien did not like. Shame-facedly, my aquaintance with the Arthurian cycle lies much closer to dimly knowing as opposed to being an expert thereon.

One thing that marks this book is Wyke-Smith's assimilation of various children's traditions into a cohesiave whole. The Flying Dutchman, that mythical ghost ship, is here, and witches and an ogre are present as well. One interesting little facet are the children that are kept there (in a sort of schooling organization) are taken because they are superfluous children. I think it is for the regulation of superfluous children. I do not have my book with me, so I cannot say for sure. The most memorable character for was Golithos, an ogre who lived off poorly grown cabbage and was a 'reformed' ogre. His struggle with his reformation proves quite humourous and, for me, is one of the best moments that children's literature has to offer.

As for it's relation to Tolkien, this publication will only be of interested to Tolkien scholars and fans, and probably only they will search this book out because of it's influence on THE HOBBIT. It's principle influence were the Snergs themselves, who were quite like Hobbits in height and social customs, although they do have a king. It's a real shame that the only reason this book will be read is because of Tolkien, for it is a quite good children's book in and of itself.

The question remains, however: how other many worthwhile pieces of literature have escaped the popular canon and sank into the dusty obscurities of time? Who knows how long this will survive. It may interest you to know that Homer wrote a third book which was a comedy and Aristotle wrote a book about comedy and both are now lost. Very tragic. Don't let it happen to this book, because it's a charmer.

I received "The Marvellous Land of Snergs" as a gift and reluctantly read it. I postponed getting to the 'meat' of the story by reading the introduction, secretly hoping to be bored and providing an excuse to put it down. I was captured within minutes and couldn't wait to begin the adventure. The chapters are short and decoratively written providing the reader a minds view of the landscape and many personalities the main characters, Joe and Sylvia, encounter on their travels. Joe and Sylvia provided a link with traditional fiction that boosted my enthusiasm for devouring this book. A book I will read to my children!

If you want to get a good laugh at scientific studies on almost anything, read this book! Anyoone with a little intelligence will appreciate the thought that went into this book. I only wish there was a followup! Imagine scientific proof that you can lose weight by eating frozen food! The calories burned by the body just to heat up the food can offset the caloric content of the food itself! Guranteed weight loss. See how to plunge a room into darkness with a 'dark bulb', removing all light and enabling a person to sleep at any time of the day. Lots more!

Not bad.Not one of the best Family d'Alembert novels but not bad.

Let's face it, most people won't be buying this volume by choice--they'll buy it for a class. Still, it's good to know what you're getting into. This is a pretty good anthology of American literature, starting all the way back with Native American myths and Columbus's journals and continuing through Puritan, Enlightenment, Transcendentalist, Romantic, and modern periods of literature in America.

The introductions to the pieces are good--as good or better than Norton's--and the selections themselves are generally good. Still, though, there are a few notable things missing, but that is to be expected in any compendium, I suppose.

One of the highlights of this volume is the full reprints of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. If you have to buy this book, it should be useful and may even be worth keeping around after the class is over. I know I'm going to keep mine.

If you plan on reading any of the Family D'Alembert series, then I strongly reccomend that you read this first. It sets the plot and introduces the main characters. Frankly, without reading this book, you will probably get lost in the others!

This book contains excellent choices from the writings of Jonathan Edwards, the first great philosopher in the American colonies, including some of his earliest writings, mostly just philosophical or biological musings. It reflects some interesting developments in the maturation of his thinking. It also has letters to friends, colleagues, and family members. Some of his most well-known sermons are alongside some representative samples of his sermons. Unfortunately, there is room for only excerpts from his longer works, such as The Religious Affections, but that can't be helped in an affordable popular anthology. If you want all of his works, but the complete works from the same publisher. If you just want a representative sample of some of the best works of this great theologian and philosopher, get this.

Few literary textbooks equal "An Anthology of American Literature" in length and dryness. While the book is a collection of mediocre stories who are now only seeing the light of day due to the baneful effects of political correctness, the editor of this work delves deeper to not include a single illustration that may have shed some light of this terrible experience of reading this collection of pointless stories,

I, on the other hand, think its a great collection of American literature, but maybe just a bit too pricey for what it offers. I would suggest it more as something to use as a reference than as something that should be read cover to cover, I mean, geeze, its 2060 pages long.

This huge textbook is a steal: hundreds of major works from the last century and a half, printed on quality paper, bound with a strong but flexible gum binding. If this were a hardcover, you'd pay twice the price for what it includes. It's thorough and scholarly, a tome that defines the Big League of anthologies. It's not for the shallow reader, though, who's accustomed to the sensuous audio-visuals of TV and the Internet. This is TEXT. Time to resuscitate the thinking mind, the patient intellect, the autonomous imagination.

The footnotes are numbered strangely and they don't elaborate on the footnoted item very well.

This was the textbook used in my American Literature I class last semester. Volume Two is being used in the second half that I am taking this semester. The book offers a good collection of American Literature from the earliest European Explorers to the late 1800's. The additional information offered in the introductions to each author and literary time period adds to the student's understanding of the works.