In detailing the largest and most significant research study of its type (i.e. The MacArthur Study of Mental Disorder and Violence), Rethinking Risk Assessment describes what is surely to become the seminal work in the area violence and mental illness. The authors point to the methodological flaws in many earlier studies that failed to establish clear links between mental illness and violence. It moves beyond previous studies to point to a clear link between serious mental illness and an increased risk of violence.

Although based upon a North American population (i.e. with its higher societal rates of violence generally) the size of the study, and the relationships it demonstrates suggest that this work has significant implications for other jurisdictions. The book illustrates tools clinicians can use to assist with identification of those with higher for risk of violence.

Although actuarial methods do not offer a panacea for problems associated with risk prediction, they nevertheless provide pointers for increasing the precision with which such assessments can be made. Monahan et. al. acknowledge the limitations of such methods, and point to the complexity of clinical risk assessment for violence potential. The authors also point to the broader contextual, and problematic issues associated with false positives and negatives, in terms of prediction.

Armed with the information contained within this text, clinical staff will have a thorough grounding in the most up to date evidence in the field. This should provide a solid foundation from which staff can approach the complex issue of considering risk assessment generally.

Among historians in Kentucky the name Thomas D. Clark is almost as important as Simon Kenton. Clark has had a remarkably long and fruitful career as a historian in Kentucky. Too many historians after a long career of teaching and writing history will retire into anonymity, but not Thomas Clark. Many years after the age when most people retire, Clark wrote a book about a frontiersman who first came into Kentucky when it was known as the Hostile West. This story of Kenton will not only come alive for adults, but could also be enjoyed by younger readers due to the audience that Clark had in mind when putting this history together. When first learning about the history of our nation, Kentucky students learn about the great military leaders of Virginia, and the men of the North East who dared to dream of being great political leaders, etc; It is hard to find a book that a young reader can sit down with and read about a person who will forever be known as a great Kentuckian. The life of Simon Kenton was not polished up by Clark and made into a politically correct story that will fit perfectly into our historical revisionistic modern textbooks. Clark doesn't cover up the fact that Kenton killed Indians, stole horses and guns, and took land away from people who certainly had rights to this beautiful hunting ground; this is REAL history, and it is written for an audience that may not otherwise hear this story. All young people, not only those who live in Kentucky, should learn about the life of Simon Kenton. Like Simon Kenton, Thomas D. Clark will forever be known as a great Kentuckian.

Peter Gay Style in History (1974, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., paperback edn., 1988)

Peter Gay is one of our preeminent authorities about cultural history, and professionals historians in all fields can learn much from both the substance and style of his oeuvre. In particular, this thin book, principally essays about the style of four renowned historians of earlier times - Edward Gibbon (1737-94), Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886), Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59), and Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97) - is a treasury of observations about the historian's craft. According to Gay, "style" means both the literary devices employed by the historian, as well as his or her "tone of voice." Gay addresses both, and more, while cautioning that the historian is "under pressure to become a stylist while remaining a scientist."

The back cover states that this book is a "guide to the proper reading of Gibbon, Ranke, Macaulay, and Burckhardt," but I found it more descriptive than prescriptive. Indeed, Gay expressly intended these essays to stimulate "debate over the definition of history." According to Gay, style is a function of both nature and nurture. It is "in part a gift of talent," but it also can be learned. For the aspiring historian who looks to Gay's four masters for guidance, many of his observations are profound. For instance, in discussing the belief of both Gibbon and Tacitus, the Roman historian who was one of Gibbon's principal sources, that "the supreme task of the historian [is] to probe historical actors to their depth," Gay concludes: "The chief use of the historian's penetration...[is] to dig beneath appearance to reality." Gay reports that Gibbon imagined himself, like Tacitus, to be a philosophical historian. (Gibbon believed that "the philosopher is a man who has conquered prejudices and given the critical spirit free play.") With regard to style, Gibbon employed a large arsenal of literary device, and Gay praises him for using irony, observing that, in Gibbon's writing, "gravity and levity coexisted without strain." Gay describes as "stunning" the economy with which Ranke wrote and praises his gifts of "speed, color, variety, freshness of diction, and superb control." According to Gay, Ranke believed that "self-imposed discipline alone brings excellence to all art." For instance, the one-sentence paragraph was one of Ranke's trademarks. Ranke is often credited with being the father of "scientific history," but, as Gay notes, Ranke approached his craft "as a branch of the storytelling art." In championing scientific history, Ranke extolled "the systematizing of research, the withdrawal of ego from presentation, the unremitting effort of objectivity, the submission of results to critical public scrutiny." Indeed, according to Gay: "Ranke's contribution to historical science...lay in his exalted view of documents." Furthermore, Gay offers the insight that Ranke "recognized that history is a progressive discipline." Ranke claimed "his own work was superior to that of his predecessors," but he also recognized that his greatest achievements eventually would be superseded by more modern scholarship. In contrast to Ranke's economic style, Gay subtitles his chapter on Macaulay "Intellectual Voluptuary" (borrowing the phrase from Macaulay, himself). Gay reports that Macaulay has been criticized as "verbose, artificial, and overemphatic," and Gay acknowledges other faults including "rhetorical self-indulgence," and "a failure of restraint and of taste." But these criticisms did not prevent Macaulay from becoming a member of "England's intellectual aristocracy." According to Gay, expansiveness and anxiety were the "essential qualities that make up Macaulay's temper and inform Macaulay's style." In discussing Burckhardt, Gay notes that the "historian's choice of subject...is a deeply emotional affair." According to Gay, in Burckhardt's masterpiece, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, his "personal voice is...highly audible and wholly apologetic," and his judgments are "cool." Gay notes that The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy is a "work of diligent research and meticulous construction." Burckhardt's used irony sparingly in comparison with Gbbon, but Burckhardt's the section entitled "The State as a Work of Art," is, as Gay observes correctly, in fact "an animated chamber of horrors." For Burckhardt, Gay concludes: "Style...is the bridge to substance." To Burckhardt, according to Gay, poetry and history - as art and science - are "allies, almost inseparable twins."

This book is not, strictly speaking, comparative intellectual biography, but are there any similarities in the subjects of Gay's essays? Gay defines "modern times" as beginning in the 1890s, and, of the four historians whose style he studies, three - Gibbon, Ranke, and Macaulay - died in the pre-modern era, and Burckhardt survived only into its first decade. In addition, I must raise one additional issue: Gibbon, Macaulay, and Burckhardt were lifelong bachelors, and Ranke did not marry until he was 48. Are we to view this as mere coincidence? I don't think so. As the author of a superb biography of Sigmund Freud, I am surprised that Gay did not devote at least a few lines of insight, in addition to his remark that Gibbon sought to hide a "professional bachelor's conflicts," to the tantalizing fact that three of the four great historian-stylists he studies never married and the other was well into middle age when he did so. Gay clearly believes that style matters in the writing of history, but I believe at least one succinct rule is clear: When in doubt, leave the stylistic flourish out. This leads me to this point: I cannot recommend Gay more enthusiastically because he is both a great historian and a wonderful stylist, which is remarkable for the fact that German, not English, was his native language. As an introduction to his writings, I suggest Gay's My German Question : Growing Up in Nazi Berlin, in which moments of humor leaven penetrating personal recollections of coming of age early in the era of Hitler's tyranny. After Gay's memoirs, the general reader may want to tackle some of his scholarly books, such as the biographies of Mozart and Freud, his superb studies of the Enlightenment, or this wonderful book, Style in History. And a few may even be motivated to read (or re-read) Gibbon, Ranke, Macaulay, and Burckhardt.

My pastor gave me this book for my 40th birthday, and he could hardly have chosen better. While Charles's old-fashioned writing style makes for some tough reading (you really have to FOCUS on every sentence!), it's worth the effort. This is a book of enormous truth and wisdom, its pages simply dripping with sweet words of grace and spiritual nourishment. Charles's opening chapter on pride, his reflections on grace and conscience, and on the worthiness of Christ's sacrifice, are foundational, without parallel, simply life-changing. At times I felt like I was only now beginning to understand the true Christian life. Outside of the Bible, this is one of the few books I've read that really made me LOVE GOD MORE. And what higher compliment could be paid to a work of Christian literature? Highly recommended.

WOULD YOU SEND ME SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK

Aptly edited by the collective efforts of T.M. Charles-Edwards, Morfydd M. Owen, and Paul Russell, The Welsh King And His Court is a massive compendium of essays filled with meticulous discourse of the Welsh royal household and the governmental roles of those officers charged with upkeep of horses, sleeping quarters, meals, etc. Primary source texts are presented in English translation, and the essays are written at a college reading level. The Welsh King And His Court is a scholarly text that combines deep thought with multi-level analysis of historical politics. An intriguing and recommended historical study, with a very helpful glossary, abbreviation list and index.

Includes new Afterward explaining how Lawrence was abducted by desert-savvy aliens!

It is a commonplace to refer to T.E. Lawrence as one of the most enigmatic figures of twentieth century history. One sometimes wonders if it is his enigmatic character that continues to make him interesting, rather than what he achieved in his lifetime.

This is, as far as I know, the first attempt by a psychiatric professional to write a life of Lawrence. So much about Lawrence's personality - his illegitimacy, his craving for anonymity after the war even as he contrarily managed to worm his way into the spotlight so many times, his name change ostensibly in honor of G.B. Shaw, and probably most of all his experience at Deraa, made him an object of general interest, not to say lurid speculation. Lawrence, with his usual flair, manages to give us enough about his interior life in "Seven Pillars" to pique our interest without actually telling us anything.

While I must admit that I enjoyed the book, I must also say that I walked away from it feeling that I did not know any more about Lawrence after finishing it than I did before. The author covers a great deal of terrain, but I think that we're all not any closer to understanding Lawrence. Maybe the definitive biography is still waiting to be written. Maybe it never will be.

John E Mack has written a definitive and masterful biography of T. E. Lawrence, a man of fascinating complexity. The movie, Lawrence of Arabia, portrays a "mighty hero." Lawrence's role in the Arab Revolt are put into the context of his childhood, the Paris Conference, and the RAF years. Mack does not diminish Lawrence's achievements nor does he glorify them. Lawrence's post-war years were spent escaping his fame and what he endured. His psychical scars from the war deaden him to emotion and pleasure and his idealistic romanticism turned to nihilism. Lawrence's post-war penitence and alienation lead me to believe that he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of his brushes with death and his loss of physical and emotional integrity. He sought to break through his numbness by riding high performance motorcycles at breakneck speeds through the countryside and subjecting himself to scourgings.

If you saw the movie, read this book.

Inherit the Wind is good entertainment... but it's entertainment, and only loosely based on facts. Read this book, if you're interested in the true story of the Scopes trial.

This book is roughly divided into 3 sections. 1., the time before the trial, political and social context, and the people involved. 2. The trial itself, and 3. after the trial, the appeals, and some comments on modern-day Dayton, TN.

The background information is the largest section of this book, and is the most valuable. It's interesting to hear who William Jennings Bryan was as a person, how the ACLU became involved, the personalities of Scopes, Darrow, Bryan, as well as the other lawyers involved, the citizens of Dayton, and the judge. You will understand that contrary to the popular view that Scopes was harassed by the religious folk in town, he volunteered to take part, for the sole purpose of testing the anti-evolution law that had just hit the books. You will read how Darrow and Bryan both expanded the issues in the trial, so that religion and evolution became the focus of the trial, instead of simpler questions about what can be taught in school, and educational freedoms. The latter is what the ACLU was testing, although the former became the scope of the trial, much to their chagrin.

The trial and wrap-ups were also interesting. I was a bit disappointed that the trial description was so short, relatively. I would have liked to read more transcripts of it, hence the 4 stars instead of 5.

Overall, a fascinating and educational book, that is still relevant today. The issues discussed in the Scopes trial are prevalent in modern society, and played out daily in our classrooms.

Like many of my generation, I learned of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial through the Lawrence and Lee play, "Inherit the Wind." Edward J. Larson's Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion is a fine and lively historical account of the trial and its aftermath. Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize, Larson's book sets the battle between fundamentalist religion and the "modern" science of Darwinism in both an historical and cultural context. In the 1920s, several states attempted to pass anti-evolution laws, and Tennessee finally succeeded in 1925. Thereafter, the ACLU found a test plaintiff in teacher John Scopes, and a test venue in the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, which hoped to use the trial to "get on the map" and increase tourism. Using newspaper accounts, memoirs, and other contemporaneous sources, Larson displays in vivid detail both the seriousness and naivete of the battle between religion and science, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. He also argues, convincingly for me, that the trial did not -- contrary to the Lawrence and Lee depiction -- leave Bryan a broken man (although he died within a week of the verdict). Going beyond the trial and its immediate aftermath, the final section of this book examines how later historians and writers -- including Lawrence and Lee -- have interpreted and often mis-interpreted the trial for later generations. In particular, Larson argues that "Inherit the Wind", like the Arthur Miller classic "The Crucible", must be viewed as both a product of and attack upon the McCarthy era of the 1950's. This is an insightful and enjoyable account.

It is incredibly ironic that the Scopes trial, promised by both the prosecution and the defense to be a battle for the truth, is represented in popular & religious culture and, most unfortunately, taught in classrooms in a largely false manner. This book won the Pulitzer Prize in History for good reason; it is the first (and best) attempt to accurately reflect not only the Scopes trial but also the events before it and the three-quarters worth of a century that followed.

As one who fell asleep while trying to watch "Inherit the Wind," I find the truth far more rivetting. The bredth of the defense team.. and the strong convictions and performances of Arthur Garfield Hays and Dudley Field Moore are entirely bypassed in popular history.

The only fault with the work is Larson's apparent effort to be so objective that no one is offended. This causes him to refrain from defending Darrow from years of attacks for his "cross-examination" (outside the presence of the jury and ultimately stricken from the record) of Bryan. The prosecution-- and Bryan in particular-- had promised/threatened/guaranteed a showdown.. to prove that evolution was false, especially if one accepts a literal reading of the bible. The reason Bryan was called to the stand and Darrow was able to question him as he did without the jury present is because the PROSECUTION changed strategies. Unable to find a single competent scientist to support its view, the prosecution was forced to argue against Malone's efforts to show that christianity and evolution were compatable. By keeping out the evidence of the defense's religious and scientific experts, the only defense left was to demostrate the absurdity of Bryan particular views. Though Darrow no doubt enjoyed it, his treatment of Bryan was the third line of defense, not the first.

The manipulation of the facts surrounding Scopes and a rise in the number of so-called scientists pushing creationism demonstrates that, in spite of our supposed rapid intellectual growth as a nation, there are more individuals than ever willing to say, do, or believe whatever will give them control, power, or money. It is a shame that after more than 75 years, Bryan would today have no trouble finding an "expert" witness.

The translator, Edward Conze, in attempting to include what is common to most Buddhists rather than concentrating on what separates them, has made some difficult choices and has made them well. Though readability is not too highly stressed at the expense of accuracy, the resulting work is accessible to readers of varying education and interest levels. (Given the difficulty of the ideas expressed in many of the selections included, this is no small accomplishment.) I would recommend this book as an introduction to Buddhist thought and as an aid to further study (though I would not necessarily recommend it as an end to the matter for one whose interests tend toward the academic). The glossary and the list of sources included at the end are both quite helpful.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book as a primer for beginners, it is an excellent introduction to basic Buddhist texts and sources. I have found this text to be quite useful as a reference work and can recommend it as such.

This book works better as an introduction to Buddhism than many popularly available introductions.

A personal selection of well translated material from a real scholar.

It is hard to avoid going back to particular sections for pleasure and reference again and again.

I highly recommend this book to any true crime fan who wants a well-written, highly detailed work. While the book is almost too exhaustively researched, the reader ends up richly rewarded by getting to know the characters so well. Gore fans will be disappointed, but this is a top-notch effort for the genre.

I read true crime occasionally out of a need to know what makes these people tick, though I'm not sure that anyone will ever have the answer to that question. This book details the ghastly crimes of suspected serial killer Thomas Luther. Although convicted of only one murder, Luther left a bloody trail of rapes and assaults, as well as compelling circumstantial evidence linking him to numerous unsolved murders. The one victim he was convicted of killing, Cher Elder, is brought to life in these pages by the author. One shudders to think of her last moments in the hands of evil incarnate. The woman who loved and stood by Luther, a "psychiatric nurse" named Debrah Snider, is a complete cypher. Even after she was confronted with the chilling and unmistakable evidence of what he was and what he did, she remained true to her man. This book, which I made the mistake of reading while home alone at night, spares few details of the hideous carnage committed by Luther. Although I would have liked to see a chapter on Luther's childhood and the abuse he alleges he suffered, this book nonetheless gives the reader a fairly comprehensive insight into the psyche of a monster.

This is one of the best true crime books I've ever read, and I've read hundreds. It is very well-written and gives detailed insight into what went on in Tom Luther's mind. The reader gets to know the 'two Toms' -- the Good Tom and the Bad Tom, and we see him as a human being, not just his criminal side that the media reports. Additionally, the reader gets to know Deb Snider, the woman who loves Good Tom enough to put up with Bad Tom year after year; it's very easy to say she was stupid to tolerate his treatment of her, but the author does a great job of helping you understand why she did so. Highly recommended reading for true crime fans!