I was a thumb sucker and I was given this book to read as a wartime evacuee aged 6 in 1942. It scared me stiff then, and has been haunting me ever since. I never thought to see the day that it would come back to haunt me afresh...See it through the eyes of a child. Ban it now say's he; while still sucking a thumb! I only awarded it one star because from the instructions I wasn't allowed to give less.

This childrens book is history,The art work is amazing and the lessons that this book gives are hard by todays standards,but any intelligent parent would take this book read it to their children in context. I was read this book as a child( german version)and still remember it as one of my favs , only because my parents always read it tongue-in-cheek...have fun

People who judge this book by modern standards are ridiculous. What are they expecting from a book written in the 1840's in Germany? Instead of getting this book for your kids, it's better used as a historical record of the mentality back then. (Though if you want your kid to stop sucking his thumb, I guess you could try threatening him with cutting his thumbs off using this book)

This book uses photogaphs to show how a foal is born, witch I think is very interesting. Then it shows you how a foal learns to walk and play with his mother.

This book is wonderful. It gives a reader a look into Japanese culture in all its splendor. All in all a lovely book.

The book is entirely a sourcebook of illustrations with no text. The illustrations are wonderful however, and highly detailed. Also, a good, well rounded collection of different types, formats and designs. I gave it three stars because I felt that I would have enjoyed knowing where the ironwork pieces illustrated are, their dates and what the use was. All in all, a good visual reference.

Originally published in two volumes, this is a translation of Volume I, which contains all the text. All of the musical examples and graphical analyses (without which, Volume I is of little use) are in Volume II. Volume II is in print and available from the publisher, but does not seem to be listed here.

I have been fortunate to know a Wiensz. If this is indeed one of his ancestors, this should be a good read. But alas, the old saying: IF you know the son, you know the father.

Heinrich Vossler, a young Wurttemberg cavalry officer, has left a gripping tale of Napoleon's campaigns of 1812 and 1813 as well as an account of life as an allied POW. His description of the Russian catastrophe is particularly noteworthy - a true reminder of the horrors of war. Vossler also took time to observe the countryside through which he traveled and their inhabitants (good & bad), leaving behind some wry comments. Recommended for students of the Russian campaign and for those researching Napoleon's German contingents. My copy is from the Folio Society, grimly adorned with lithographs by Faber du Faur.

Mansson's "Heinrich Himmler: A Photographic Chronicle of Hitler's Reichsfuehrer" is a very disappointing volume, preferably receiving no stars from me because the book is plagued by horrible photographic reproductions (multiple-generations-removed from original). Morover, most of the pictures were blatantly scanned directly from previously printed works, manipulated and crudely reproduced in this ... book. There are better quality reproductions of these same pictures in other publications, only a few of which receive mention in a very brief list of "published material." Sometimes the author claims credit to his own "archives," but since the pictures were lifted from books, perhaps he means his "library?"

The book is not an organized "chronicle" as stated in its title; it's a hodgepodge throughout. Furthermore, the author doesn't know the details of his topic, which is made obvious by many factual errors in the attempted, descriptive captions (sometimes almost laughable). The book offers no resource references for its statements, nor does it provide any original research. It doesn't even contain an index. Further evidences of the author's dereliction are the numerous typographical errors and misspellings of names.

The author has attempted a photographic album of Himmler's life from his youth to his death. There are several hundred photos, the majority taken during the war and emphasizing the Reichsfuhrer's frequent military inspections on the home, eastern and western fronts. Whatever you think of Himmler he certainly kept himself busy. Some of the photos show Himmler with other personalities of the period, including second raters such as Anton Mussert, the Dutch collaborator, as well as senior SS personnel including Karl Wolff and Sepp Dietrich. It is fair to say the contents are not completely comprehensive, although some prints have not been available publicly before. But there is little record here of Himmler's domestic life, for example, which was visually quite well represented in Peter Padfield's biography.
The interest of the book is that nobody before has compiled a visual history of Himmler. He was obviously very conscious of the presence of photographers and usually maintained that official inane grin under all circumstances. Here and there he is caught off guard, for example trying to dodge the camera when too close to Hitler who is handing out awards. If you always thought that the shortsighted Himmler was not overtly photogenic, this book will confirm that belief.
Unfortunately, the book shows signs of being rushed into print without thorough editing. The text accompanying the photos is sometimes quaint, such as the ambiguous suggestion on page 233 that Himmler's adjutants were released several years after the war "due to their membership in the SS." A number of the photos are undated and the later sections are a bit of a chronological jumble. All in all, this is a book for the collector who wants lots of photos of Himmler between two covers.

Martin Mansson's book on Himmler, the desk clerk and chicken farmer, was no doubt-unique- and its hard to believe that there are not many photos of him that are clearer in nature. This book by Mansson is respectable, but not really put together as well as it should be. Earlier photos of Himmler are combined with late war types; they should have been put together in a better fashion. However, Mansson did take the time to do this book-and on a subject that will likely be a poor seller due to the activities and mass murder that Himmler and the Third Reich committed. I did see photos I had never seen before; but some appeared to be reproductions of originals.

The first edition of this book (MIPS RISC Architecture, by Gerry Kane, ISBN 0135847494) was an excellent book: it described well and completely the R2000/R3000 processors, their instructions, and how to program them.

This, the second edition, tries to expand on that, but does a stunningly poor job. While is has been expanded slightly to cover some R6000 and R4000 topics (e.g. some changes to the CP0 architecture), it fails horribly at describing at crucial elements of the R4000. For instance: the fact that the R4000 is a 64-bit CPU. Very few of the instructions that first appeared in the R4000 are described, and in particular the 64-bit CPU instructions seem to be omitted entirely. Worse, some of the text, e.g., relating to CP1 (FPU) data types and registers, which was perfectly clear in the first edition has been muddied by generalizing it for R6000/R4000. The result is that this edition fails to present a clear picture of *either* the R2000/R3000 or later MIPS processors.

If you're interested in learning about MIPS architecture, even historical (R2000/R3000) MIPS architecture, I'd suggest looking elsewhere: See MIPS Run is quite good (but not excellent in my opinion) and covers a wide range of topics. The first edition of this book is an excellent reference about R2000/R3000, but is limited to them. The MIPS architecture documentation manuals from MIPS themselves tend to be clear and complete references, but lacking in background information. I'd bet that many other MIPS-related books are great. But this one isn't.

The book has a good amount of solid information. What I mean by solid, is it has the "real" information you need to understand the MIPS architecture. It is well written and very understandable. It is more understandable than many other architecture books I have used before.

Rarely have I had the misfortune of coming across such an unmitagated biased piece of "scholarly" writing. The book is no doubt scholarly in Traill's coverage of Schliemann's letters and diaries, unfortunately the author seeks only those passages which he can twist to suit his own often stupifying arguments. My advice is to only read this book if you want the view of an anti-Schliemann extremist, but to instead read Heinrich Schliemann's own publications and an assessment of his contribution from a trained archaeologist instead of a historian who cannot suitably comprehend (or in this instance decides to ignore) his contribution to the development of excavation and post-excavation analysis such as the pathological study of skeletal remains. Schliemann was far from perfect but neither were his contemporaries, nor did he ever claim to be a "scholar" although he aspired to reach scholarly status. It appears that certain sections of the academic community continue to attack this upstart amateur in the same way as some historians of the time did. But those in the archaeology community are aware of Schliemann's contribution and would rightfully produce a much more balanced assessment than given by Traill, which lets face it would not be difficult.

According to Traill, Schliemann was not only a generally unpleasant character, but a liar and a cheat as well. Traill wants to dislike Schliemann, and he succeeds. Is the author biased, as a previous reviewer believes, or was Schliemann really such a rat? It's hard to trust this writer.

It was a struggle to get through this book. I wanted a life of Schliemann without so much about the technicalities of archaeology, which I found confusing and uninteresting. Only brief glimpses of Schliemann the human being appear.

This biography proposes an alternate characterization for one of history's most prominent scholars. Heinrich Schliemann, the father of modern archaeology, excavated the ancient lost city of Troy, unearthed Priam's Treasure and at Mycenae, the legendary mask of Agamemnon. He definitely has vecome a legend of sorts. However, his recent leap into the public eye deals with his demythification. Apparently, though intelligent, he was also a cheat, a fraud, reckless, had a disregard for laws, was manipulative, a social climber and pathological liar--no small accusation! David A. Trail convinces the reader with this new book that Schliemann was not exactly on the high end of the morality scale. In lieu of confining the book to, for the most part, "just the facts", rather than reading like a novel or story Schliemann of Troy appears as a really long essay, primarily comparing and contrasting the evidence condemning the archaeologist. This is not to say, however, that this book is boring. It is far from that actually. There is however, way too much information for anyone who does not have at least a slight inclination towards the study of classics or archaeology. It contains the unique features of an in-depth essay complete with a lengthy bibliography, index and source reference. It also contains illustrations of maps, sketches of artifacts and photographs of important people places and things. I found that parts of the book, particularly the descriptions of the sites, were bogged down by too much detail and kind of lost me. Even though there were occaisional humourous anecdotes interspearsed throughout, and as amusing as it is to see an unfortunate getting his reputation torn to shreds, I don't think I would ever recommend this book as one for entertainment purposes. As a reference source I would definitely give this book 5 stars. It teaches the reader and represents years of extremely dedicated work by David A. Trail. It is comforting, in a way, to know that not everything is written based solely on entertainment value, but that there is some material out there that can enrich the mind and enlighten towards insightfulness. Honest biographies are always a welcome change from the typical fictitious ones.