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Book reviews for "Taylor,_Alan" sorted by average review score:

Pierced Hearts and True Love: A Century of Drawings for Tattoos
Published in Paperback by Hardy Marks Pubns (January, 1996)
Authors: Margo Demello, Alan B. Govenar, Don Ed Hardy, Michael McCabe, Mark C. Taylor, and Hardy Marks
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An excellent book for anyone interested in tattoos
After visiting the Pierced Hearts and True Love exibit at our local art gallery I bought and fell in love with this book. Very tasteful and well thought out. An inspiration for a person considering a tattoo. Very thought provoking.


Simple Games
Published in Hardcover by Princeton Univ Pr (22 September, 1999)
Authors: Alan D. Taylor and William S. Zwicker
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Good mathematics
A very well written book. The mathematical level is hard, but always such, that with a good graduate background, one can follow the proofs.
The subject matter of course is very special, a lot more special, than the editorial introduction seems to suggest.

If one either enjoys mathematics, or if one is interested in the subject matter, it is a recommendable book.


The Strangest Town in Alaska : The History of Whittier, Alaska and the Portage Valley
Published in Paperback by Kokogiak Media (01 May, 2000)
Authors: Alan Taylor and Christina Taylor
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Accurate historical account of a most unusual place.
This book presents the story of a most unusual place in Alaska. It tells about the beginnings and the development of a large town with a small population. I especially enjoyed the story of the tunnel digging and the problems with the timing and the elements that hindered the construction. It will most interesting to see the results of the new access by automobile that will be available. The pictures and maps were well thought out. The book sure makes you feel like you would like to visit there to see it for youself.


Troublemaker: The Life and History of A.J.P Taylor
Published in Hardcover by Yale Univ Pr (01 February, 2001)
Author: Kathleen Burk
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The best biography of the best British historian
This is a beautifully written biography of the most famous British historian of the twentieth century. It takes its place as the best book on Taylor, far better than the earlier books by Robert Cole and Adam Sisman. Kathleen Burk, similarly a prolific and professional historian, is especially good on Taylor's methods of work, and on the importance of his contributions to historical knowledge and debate. Taylor was one of the best ever diplomatic historians, yet he was also an inspirational populariser of history. He combined excellent scholarship with an unusual ability to make history accessible, through his many books, newspaper articles, book reviews, lectures at universities, speeches at meetings, and radio and TV talks and appearances. Diplomatic history is rather unfashionable today, but, as he wrote, it "deals with the greatest of themes - with the relations of States, with peace and war, with the existence and destruction of communities and civilisations." He analysed the profound and specific causes of historical events, so we can say that imperialism ensures that there will be wars, yet that each particular war occurs at a particular time for specific reasons. All his writings explored the causes, histories and outcomes of the world wars, but he also wrote about a huge variety of other themes. Unfortunately, Burk does not mention his many newspaper articles opposing the Common Market, a shared antipathy that largely explained his continuing links with Lord Beaverbrook. She concludes that his three finest books were The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918, The Origins of the Second World War, and English History 1914-1945. Other readers will have their own favourites. I would also recommend The troublemakers: dissent over British foreign policy 1792-1939, and Professor A. J. P. Taylor on Europe: the historian who predicted the future.

Burk, like Taylor, shows how the study of history is endlessly fascinating. Yet above all, Taylor was concerned to assist us all to understand how people make history.


Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760-1820
Published in Paperback by Univ of North Carolina Pr (May, 1990)
Author: Alan Taylor
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An eye-opening look at the settlement of Maine
I will not go into detail about the book, but will let you know that it is awesome. I earned a BA in History at UC Davis and Dr. Taylor was my instructor. The book he has written will shed new light on your understanding of life in colonial America, and the struggles the settlers went through.

Fantastic
Although I read this for Prof. Taylor's class at UCD (in other words I had to read it), it was FANTASTIC and I couldn't put it down. The same is true for his second effort - William Cooper's Town...

Liberty Men and Great Historian!
This is not only a fascinating book on a well-kept historical secret (even from those of us who hail from mid-Maine), it is well written and lively.


William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic
Published in Paperback by Vintage Books (September, 1996)
Authors: Alan Taylor and Peter Dimock
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Interesting, but interminable.
Fascinating, though too long. I recommend starting with Taylor's _Liberty Men and Great Proprietors_, which seems to have been less of a "labor of love."

FATHER WAS THE PIONEER
The tale of James Fenimore Cooper's father on the New York frontier in the 1790s is an Horatio Alger story run amuck. Born to a poor Quaker farm family, William Cooper learned the craft of making and repairing wheels before reinventing himself as a land speculator, founder of Cooperstown, judge, congressman, patrician farmer and Federalist party powerhouse.

Alan Taylor's WILLIAM COOPER'S TOWN: POWER AND PERSUASION ON THE FRONTIER OF THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC is an outstanding biography of an archetypical American character, an extraordinary social history of life and politics on the late eighteenth-century frontier and a brilliant exercise in literary analysis.

This is a wonderful read. Taylor's lively prose, compelling narrative and original, fresh story sustained my interest from cover to cover. I never would have imagined such a dull title could cover such a marvelous book. WILLIAM COOPER'S TOWN certainly deserves the Pulitzer Prize it was awarded.

Taylor not only describes William Cooper's rise from rags to riches and even more meteoric fall but analyzes Cooper's political odyssey in America's frontier democratic workshop.

"As an ambitious man of great wealth but flawed gentility, Cooper became caught up in the great contest of postrevolutionary politics: whether power should belong to traditional gentlemen who styled themselves 'Fathers of the People' or to cruder democrats who acted out the new role of 'Friends of the People.'"

Taylor argues "Cooper faced a fundamental decision as he ventured into New York's contentious politics. Would he affiliate with the governor and the revolutionary politics of democratic assertion? Or would he endorse the traditional elitism championed by...Hamilton." "Brawny, ill educated, blunt spoken, and newly enriched," writes Taylor, "Cooper had more in common with George Clinton than with his aristocratic rivals." "For a rough-hewn, new man like Cooper, the democratic politics practiced by Clinton certainly offered an easier path to power. Yet, like Hamilton, Cooper wanted to escape his origins by winning acceptance into the genteel social circles where Clinton was anathema." Taylor concludes "Cooper's origins pulled him in one political direction, his longing in another."

James Fenimore Cooper's third novel, THE PIONEERS, is an ambivalent, fictionalized examination of his father's failure to measure up to the genteel stardards William Cooper set for himself and that his son James internalized. The father's longing became the son's demand.

Taylor analyzes the father-son relationship, strained by Williams decline before ever fully measuring up to the stardards he had set, and the son's fictionalized account of this relationship.

James Fenimore Cooper spent most of his adult life seeking the "natural aristocrat" his father wanted to be and compensating for his father's shortcomings. It is ironic that the person James Fenimore Cooper found to be the embodiment of the "natural aristocrat" his father had longed to be and that he had created in THE CRATER and his most famous character, Natty Bumppo, was the quintessential "Friend of the People"--Andrew Jackson.

I enjoyed this book immensely and give it my strongest recommendation!

Fascinating account of early America
This is the story of William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown, New York, and of how his son, James Fenimore Cooper, used his father's life and experiences in his novels. Described in this way, this sounds like a narrow book, of interest mainly to specialists. But anyone interested in early America should read this book: it reveals truths not only about these two men but about the whole period. One of the key themes of the book is that the Revolution, which in a sense made William Cooper by pushing aside the old aristocracy of New York, also unmade him by creating an anti-aristocratic politics that ousted him and other Federalists in 1800. A fascinating minor detail: the city fathers, in their effort to maintain a proper tone in Cooperstown in the early 1800s, outlawed stick ball, the precursor of baseball.


Goodman and Gilman's the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics
Published in Hardcover by McGraw Hill Text (December, 1992)
Authors: Alfred Goodman Gilman, Theodore W. Rall, Alan S. Nies, Palmer Taylor, and Goodman Gilman
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VERY CLOSE TO BEING PERFECT
"Goldman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics" is one brain toasting book. It reminds me of the "Principles of Pharmacology: Basic Concepts & Clinical Applications" (edited by Paul Munson). Of course, either of these two books can serve as a reference tool; and although the latter maintains a price advantage, 'Goldman & Gilman's' is more ubiquitous.
It is rich, versatile, and presents well laid-out voluminous chapters. Anyone who reads this book will appreciate how it tackled General Therapeutics, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology.

Essential for the Pharmacology Part of the Boards!
~ ~
This pharmacology book is solely responsible for my honors grades in pharmacology and on the national boards.

All topics are covered comprehensively, with far greater clinical application than most pharmacology texts.

The chapter organization makes sense, and it is well indexed. This was one of the few med school books I kept and used for years after leaving clinical medicine to go into research.

I used the book for researching medications for family and myself - information on side effects and interactions was very good.

There are almost no illustrations, and few charts, so it's not easy reading, but it is definitely worthwhile.

-An MD- class of '84

great for the right audience
This book is great for the right audience, and for the right job. This book is not for the following people/jobs: 1. Medical students. If you are a medic, and you need a text for your pharmacology class, try the simpler and less detailed books like Katzung's. The level of detail in G&G may be overwhelming. 2. As an intern/resident, you really don't have the time for such details either. A pocket guide comes in handy for your day-to-day work. This book is excellent for research purposes, especially for presentation at a conference, for pharmacists and pharmacologists, and for others directly involved in drug dispensing or manufacture.


The Singing Sands (50 Classics of Crime Fiction, 1950-1975)
Published in Hardcover by Garland Pub (June, 1982)
Authors: Josephine Tey, J. Barzun, and W.H. Taylor
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It may take some time to appreciate
The concept behind Tey's *The Singing Sands* immediately drew me in. A bit of poetry written on a newspaper leads the inspector to solve a crime that only he believes is indeed actually a crime. Yes, very interesting. However, once I started reading I found the pacing a little slow. Grant was far more introspective, more concerned with his own fears, than most mystery protagonists. Which was not, by any means, a bad thing. I just had to adjust my mindset a bit. Once I realized that this was not to be a typical solve it and feel good mystery, I found myself sinking in, slowly. Admittedly, it took me a couple of days after finishing the novel to appreciate it, to find it a satisfying read. But one thing has definitely come from reading *The Singing Sands*--I'm now looking forward to reading more Josephine Tey novels.

Mind travels in the Scottish isles
Because I have always adored The Daughter of Time, I recently spent a weekend with The Singing Sands, The Franchise Affair, and The Man in the Queue. Singing Sands I found compelling and satisfying in an old-fashioned way -- we get a deep, poetic examination of the hero's psychological journey and his Scottish surroundings. Fine irony and good jokes at the reader's expense made me enjoy this book even more.
DO read this Josephine Tey -- but, if you are wise, do not expect a similar treat from her first mystery, The Man in the Queue: the world of that book is too far away from ours.

Oh What a Wonderful Tey!
This book is definitely my favourite of the Ins. Grant series. It is truly unfortunate that Ms. Tey was taken from us so young. Just think what she would have written! This book was published posthumously after her untimely death. It is as perfect a mystery as you will ever come across. In the book Grant is going on a holiday. On the train that he has taken to go to Scotland to visit friends, a young man is found dead in his room. It truly looked like misadventure, but something about it disturbed Grant and got him searching a trail that took him to the Hebrides, back to London, and to Marseilles. And what actually got him going on this impossible search were a few lines of poetry scrawled on a newspaper that the young victim had had with him before he died. Wonderful story!


The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary
Published in Paperback by University of Chicago Press (December, 1983)
Author: Alan John Percivale Taylor
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Cold-blooded Anatomy of Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy was in an awkward geopolitical situation in 19th and early 20th century. And she was a multi-national political entity. In such a situation, true independence is impossible. A. J. P. Taylor analyzed the situation excellently and his analysis helped me understand not only Austria(-Hungary), but also Germany(Prussia) and Russia.

After the revolution of 1848, Hungarian nationalism grew more and more. And after the Austro-Prussian War, Dualism of Austria-Hungary was established. While Habsburg Monarchy was European necessity, Hungary became Bismarck's necessity to check German liberalism. 'Empire of seventy million(ie, unified German-Austria)' was a threat not only to Bismarck but also to Francis Joseph. Francis Joseph hated liberalism and called in nationalism against liberalism. (It is interesting that the same liberalism can have different political meanings according to places.) And the nationlism encroached his empire.

Taylor simply omitted many important issues and concentrated on what he wanted to write. So this book is not recommendable to casual readers. But if you have some background knowledge of 19th century European history and are interested in nationalism of European countries, I believe you will never regret after reading this book.

Still Very Good
Published in 1948, this concise book is a good overview of the Habsburg monarchy over the last century of its existence. It is written with the wit and sometimes sarcastic judgements for which Taylor was known well. Taylor's theme is the attempt of the Empire to cope simultaneously with the internal pressures exerted by the awakening of nationalism among the subject peoples of the regime and the external pressures of dealing with the rising powers of Germany and Russia. This is primarily a political history but draws astutely on relevant social and intellectual history. This book can only be read by individuals with a good basic knowledge of 19th century European history. Taylor shows that the survival of the Habsburg state was a paradoxical function of internal and external conflicts that embroiled it. The aggressive Hungarians, for example, wished to preserve it because it provided a vehicle for their domination of other ethnic groups within the historic borders of Hungary. Bismarck wanted to preserve the Habsburg state to avoid the diplomatic and internal political complications that would follow its dissolution. For decades, external and internal conflicts existed in uncomfortable equipoise punctuated by recurrent conflicts that never resolved any of the basic issues. Taylor provides a sophisticated analysis of this problem and interesting characterizations of the major interest groups and political figures involved. A particularly interesting aspect of this book is the concise analysis of developing nationalism. While this is not the main theme, Taylor provides some interesting insights into the development of nationalism in the various parts of the Habsburg state. He shows, in particular, the dynamic quality of nationalism, its origin in most cases as Romantic intellectual movements, and its development as being tied up in many cases with the organs of the Habsburg bureaucracy. There has been much written in recent years about the social construction of nationalism and recent events in the Balkans have given this topic a great deal of relevance. Taylor's analysis antedates by decades the writing of scholars like Benedict Anderson, whose book Imagined Communities has been very influential, but these recent scholars would have taught Taylor nothing. An interesting example of rediscovering the wheel.

Basic on Habsburg History
This was the first book I read on the topic that later became the basis for my dissertation. Taylor captured the big picture best, wrote the best, brought in enough detail to tell the story vividly, stated his biases and viewpoint clearly, and did it in far fewer pages than most others. Absolutelyl necessary, but not for beginners. This should be your second book. All the more important today as the Soviet Empire breakup and discussion of the American "empire" bear close comparison with a REAL dynastic empire.


Batman: Legacy
Published in Paperback by DC Comics (February, 1997)
Authors: Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, Doug Moench, Bob Kane, and Dave Taylor
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Wrong book.
The advertised book is "Batman: Legacy." However, the synopsis, and both customer reviews, are for an earlier graphic novel, entitled "Batman: Contagion." The aforementioned plague is released, confronted and eventually cured in "Contagion" and in "Legacy" the source is traced.

The Dark Virus RETURNS
Ras Al Guhl plans to unless a deadly virus upon the world...and only Batman, Robin, Catwoman, and Nightwing can stop him! Awesome artwork and plot line.


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