An extremely informative, accurate and unbiased account of one of Hitler's closest ranks. Peter Padfield does an excellent job of capturing, and often analyzing, the life of Himmler from his Catholic childhood, through his initial failures of military life, through his rise to become one of Hitler's inner circle and the most powerful person in the Third Reich. Padfield is consistent with his documentation of what is fact, his conclusions based on historical documentation, to what cannot be known with any level of certainty. It is particularly interesting to delve into Himmler's rationalizations for his actions. Padfield also gives insight into many of the additional cast of characters within the Nazi regime, including Hitler, Donitz, and Goebbels as well as the thoughts and strategies of those both inside and outside Germany during this particular period in history.

"House of the Turquoise Roof" is a fascinating look into Old Tibet. Customs and religious rituals are described and explained in a detail that provides a clear picture of life as it was for the Tibetan upper class families. The author is a keen observer, and in spite of the difficulties that were encountered in the book's creation, has still given a story well worth reading.

Even the author's perspective, clearly influenced by the customs and manners she describes, serves to reinforce the picture that she paints. While the casual reader may find the lengthy and often similar Tibetan names to be confusing, the story in itself somehow transcends this minor difficulty.

The reviewer only regrets that Mrs. Yuthok's associations were primarily limited to the Tibetan upper class and family servants; there is relatively little exploration of Tibetan peasant life, and in spite of Mrs. Yuthok's high family connections in government, little discussion of the political developments of the day.

Still, for overall interest, this book is more than just "good," and the reviewer recommends that you sit down with a bag of popcorn and enjoy yourself.

This book is a compilation of Gerhard Heinrich Dieke's term values and emission wavenumbers for molecular Hydrogen, compiled after Dieke's death by H. M. Crosswhite. This is an essential reference source for anyone working on the excited states of H2. It incorporates over 600 pages of transitions (60 transitions/page) with intensity information and assignments for those lines which are assigned. The term values derived from these assignments are also given in tables in the first section of the book. This data is not available in any other source. Unfortunately the tables suffer from several defficiencies: 1. +/- symmetry labels are not given. 2. Hundreds of inconsistencies exist, with partial assignments, mis-assignments, and even multiple assignments for the same transition. 3. The term value tables do not reflect all the states for which transitions are reported. These problems, however, represent only a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of spectral lines given. Another work of similar detail but of more limited scope is the "Atlas of the Vacuum Ultraviolet Emission Spectrum of Molecular Hydrogen" by Jean-Yves Roncin and Francoise Launay which presents a detailed analysis of the Lyman and Werner bands of H2.

"In Search of Troy" introduces young readers to the story of Heinrich Schliemann's determined quest to find the fabled city immortalized in Homer's "Iliad". In the late 19th-century Troy was assumed to be a mythic place, but Schliemann, armed with a copy of the epic poem explored the Troas region of Turkey until he determined that the ruins at Hissarlik were indeed Homer's Troy. Of course Schliemann's discovery remains a hot topic of debate among archeologists and his reputation has taken a few blows, although even if he did not find the "real" Troy he certainly deserves credit for inspiring generations of archeologists to take to the hills.

Giovanni Caselli's book devotes the first several chapters to Schliemann's quest, but most of "In Search of Troy" is actually an attempt to reconstruct the city he found. Some of what we find in this book is based on specific discoveries by Schliemann, such as the foundation of the great tower by the "Scaean gate" of which Homer wrote, and the pedestals in front of it which suggest the presence of idols. Like Schliemann, Caselli references Homer to help recreate the Trojan society (e.g., the reference to helmets made out of rows of boar's tusks). The book is filled with colored pictures recreating the buildings and society of Troy, along with color photographs of some of the choice treasures discovered by Schliemann and labeled "Priam's treasure," which went on display at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 1996 a half-century after it disappeared from Berlin at the end of World War II.

Obviously the title of this book is something of a misnomer, since Caselli devotes considerably more time to recreating the ancient city of Troy based on what Schliemann found than on the actual discovery. This is too bad, because whether he was right or wrong, Schliemann's story is a fascinating tale, the first archeological mystery story of the modern era. However, I am sure students and teachers can find that information elsewhere.

"Bitzer was a Banker" This German businessman had great concern that clergy be proficient in the use of the original biblical languages. He himself learned Hebrew and Greek and later created this devotional with a daily reading from each of the testaments in the original Hebrew and Greek. The selections are short, usually a verse or two in length. The passages are usually familiar, so the reader has some sense of the context. The Greek passage is without notes, the Hebrew has some limited parsings and translations. The brief notes however are in German and Latin. This makes an excellent gift for the theology student who wishes to keep the languages current and useable after leaving the academic environment and getting out into the busy world of day-to-day ministry.

I didn't know much about Oppenheim before reading this book. But after exploring these pages I developed a fondness for her creative thinking. Oppenheim had a certain flare for novelty that many creative people seem to lack. You'll see exactly what I mean when you check out the various photos of some of her wild ideas (like a belt made out of arms - so it looks like someone has their arms around you). It was great to see so many artistic possibilities that I never would have considered. The book is very well written and gave enough information for me to feel as if I've learned something valuable about this artist. For any person who truly loves to explore creative possibilities I recommend this book.

UU RED IT GREAT ILOVE YOU MRE THTIH

Gutek's "Pestalozzi and Education" is a well written and interesting book.

The author writes about the political, social, economic, and intellectual settings of Pestalozzi's time. Througout the book Gutek summarizes Pestalozzi's life and work very well. Finally, he brings up some good points in "Attitudianl Dimension" (the last part of the book.) about education.

Unfortunately, the author often does not base his statements on primary sources. He normally uses English translations, which were published in the beginning until the middle of 20th century. -- There were many new and very helpful publications about Pestalozzi and his methods in 1980's and 90's in Germany and Switzerland. Moreover, Pestalozzi's writing was completely republished at the end of 20th century. -- For understanding Pestalozzi's ideas and methods, there is a real need for more information and specific quoatations of Pestalozzi's writing. Consequently, the consideration of the new publications about Pestalozzi as well as the revised editions of his writings is necessary.

For example, Liedtke`s monography about Pestalozzi is an excellent researched and written book about the educator's life and work. This publication is probably the most helpful introduction into Pestalozzi's life and work. Prof. Dr. A. Reble's editing of "Wie Gertud ihre Kinder lehrt" gives an opportunity for reading some of Pestalozzi's original publications. The unique and sometimes a little bit chaotic writing of J. H. Pestalozzi is published by "Julius Klinkhardt Verlag", Bad Heilbrunn, Germany. People, who are interested in knowing more about Pestalozzi's spiritual life, should read "Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: Der Mut des Demütigen: Worte zum Glauben" -- written by Hermann Horn (ISBN 3-290-10995-X). This publication gives some insights about the belief and worldview of the Swiss educator. All these publications have been sold by Amazon, Germany.

In summary, Gutek's book is a good introduction into Pestalozzi's life and methods of teaching that is recommanded by the writer of this book review. Gutek's publication is a stimulating approach towards the life and work of this pioneer of modern education. Nevertheless, there is a need for a completion to this publication for giving a real overview about Pestalozzi's methods of education, life work and struggles.

The great German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was also an enthusiastic amateur scientist saying that of all his work he considered his scientific work to be the most important. This is no trivial matter considering the great works of prose and poetry Goethe produced eg Faust, Erlkoenig etc etc.

Probably the most well developed of his scientific investigations is his book on colour theory which studied many aspects of the formation of colours. Proskauer in this book reviews and also extends some of Goethe's work on colour as well as allowing the reader to experience the phenomena first hand through a small prism attached to the book with special cards to serve as "light/dark" sources.

The book starts with an introduction to Goethe's work which contradicts Newton's theories such as the notion that ordinary "white" light is constructed from a combination of the colours and that the prism separates the colours already present in it. Proskauer demonstrates that the spectrum observed by the prism is in fact a construction which arises due to two distinct spectra overlapping and that a spectrum is noticed only in the presence of a light/dark boundary. Further fascinating aspects are disclosed and provide a strong argument for a scientific approach akin to Goethe's. The colour phenomenon is observed without abstraction used to construct a colour theory.

These are the good aspects of the work, however the writing is at times speculative and goes counter to Goethe's original approach to "never leaving the phenomenon". Somehow it never quite convinces but nonetheless it certainly wakes up the mind from the mechanistic slumber of ordinary science. Perhaps a deeper approach would remove some of these problems.

A good book with great potential.

This is the book to own for your acoustical reference manual. This one belongs on your shelf.