I am almost as much in awe of the erudition of the editors (James Engell and W Jackson Bates of the Bolingen edition) as that of Coleridge himself. I think it is often easier to parade one's own wide reading than to recognize someone elses's references. These editors track down the most obscure of Greek, German and Latin quotations and it's an education to read their notes.
There are really three themes in the book. One part is philosophy, one is literary criticism, and one is straight autobiography. These are dispersed throughout.
As regards the philosophy I am probably what he would have called "ignorant of his understanding." Coleridge shows a remarkable knowledge of German philosophy, read in the original language. As far as I know his philosophical ideas have not been highly regarded by pure philosophers.
The literary criticism is the most powerful and original part although the texts he uses will be unfamiliar and even anaccessible to most modern readers.
The fragments of autobiography such as chapter 10 and the first of the Satyrayane's Letters are the most readable.
While this is an unboubted work of genius I have denied it the fifth star because of a certain lack of redability. It is not, for the modern reader, a page-turning work of entertainment. It contains many gems, and much wit, but is one of those we take up today for instruction rather than diversion.

Bede Griffiths, in his book The Golden String, referred to STC as "one of the most universal minds in English literature."

I don't know of anything comparable to Biographia Literaria. At times it's the narrative of a great poet's life. He may veer off into literary criticism or even parody (see the, to me, hilarious section in which he gives "The House that Jack Built" in the rhetorical manner of a recent poet). He powerfully attacks the positivism of his age (and ours). He evokes the wonder of being human.

This scholarly edition is the one to get, if you're going to put in the time to read this rich classic at all.

Coleridge was on the romantic side of poetry, however, when reading Kubla Khan, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner, you can't help but think there was some what of an explorer, an adventuristic style in his words that, save opium, had no way to bud a grow with all around hearts-a-bursting. I liken Pablo Neruda to Coleridge, their visions, love, and spirit's ferosity seem to have been forged from the same mettle. Grecian Urn, Nightingale and others should all be required reading for the young. I guarantee there would be a lot more wonder, and a little more love in this world.

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This is a valuable text for the economical traveller who wishes to enjoy the people,customs and natural beauties of this country.

It has all the usual features many have come to expect from the 'Lonely Planet' guides.Good area/city maps,travel details, pointers for the culinary delicacies of particular areas,good information on inexpensive places to stay,as well as fascinating sights,places and people to visit,a brief introduction to the(amazingly simple and easy to learn)language,and interesting cultural,religious and other useful notes.

This edition and it`s excellent predecessors have played a major part in assisting me in all of my travels to Indonesia,in both the planning and research stages,and during the travel itself.I am certain that I would not have travelled to some of the unique and rarely visited places that I was privileged to see without the aid of this weighty and at times indispensible tome.

However,the most important thing to take with you is an open mind and heart,a friendly nature,and a desire to get to know the people and their customs.(Language is a great help too.)These ingredients(and the book !)tend to make for a most memorable and enjoyable stay. Bon Voyage !

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This is the most detailed book for a big place like indonesia. Indonesia (outside of Jakarta/Bali) is a perfect match of lonely planet's specialty in off the beaten track and/or budget traveling. Every part of Indonesia is covered, except for the small islands between Sumatra and Kalimantan that might be cool to check out. Its not the Riau - that's covered in detail. It has minimal coverage of the Natuna islands. I'm interested in the islands further south - Tambeian Islands, Dadas Isalands, and Pulau Pejantan. Once they add coverage to these islands then this book will be perfection. This book also a lot of information on Indonesian culture, about a 40% overlap with the culture shock indonesia book.

So far I plan a 2 month trip to indonesia. Fly to hong kong, spend 1-2 nights there. Then fly to malaysia or jakarta (whichever is cheaper). Then take a boat to Pontianak, spend some time there and sinkawang (probably a week). Check out the islands between kalimantan and sumatra (1-2 weeks). Then go to the todgean islands, getting their via ujung padang to ambon and then spend the rest of the time (probably a month) chillin and snorkeling / scuba diving. Then go back trhough jakarta or malaysia, spend another 1-2 nights in hong kong, and then come home.

On planning a trip to indonesia I found this guide book from the Lonely Planet Series. I was attracted by the clear concept of the book that makes it easy to find the information, that you need. It provides all the necessary information for a traveller who wants to get of the beaten trak, but also includes the "must see" sights. Specially the Places to Stay and Places to Eat sections are clear and give good and reliable information. It made my trip to indonesia easy and worth a while. I strongly recomend a Lonely Planet book if you like to travel and you want to see as much as possible.

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."

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!

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.

Although this is the official movie guide for children to the Two Towers, I found that it was helpful for adults who are not Lord of the Rings fans and/or have not read any of the books by Tolkien. It is lushly illustrated with gorgeous photos of all of the people/creatures in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. There are also a few photos of how they developed CGI characters such as the cave troll and Sauron. Underneath each photograph is a sentence or two explaining who the person/creature is and how they fit into the story. The wording and the brevity of the descriptions make it perfect for younger readers or those looking for a quick and dirty introduction to the characters of Middle Earth including Hobbits, Ents, Easterlings, Haradrim, Uruk-Hai, Gollum, the Watcher in the Water, Dwarves, Elves, Wizards/Istari, Balrog, Gwaihir, and many more. The book also comes with a free fold out enlarged picture of Gandalf confronting the Balrog in Moria. I would recommend this book for those who are not very familiar with The Lord of the Rings trilogy and for children ages 8 and up. It is very short at app. 60 pages (most of which is taken up by pictures) and so is a great introduction. However, if you are a Tolkien fan and familiar with the stories or saw the first movie, there is nothing new for you here.

I do not know if there was a "The Fellowship of the Ring Movie Tie-In" version of "The Lord of the Rings: Creatures," but there really does not need to be because this book covers all of the creatures encountered in the first two films based on J. R. R. Tolkien's trilogy (although there is a special little section on the "lost" Tom Bombadil). The emphasis is decidedly more on the film than the original novels, with quotations from both the actors and the technicians who brought Tolkien's creatures to life. Within these pages young fans of "The Lord of the Rings" will find everything from hobbits and their hairy feet to the tree-like Ents. In between there are the forces of men, elves and dwarves allied in the West to face the dark servants of both Saruman in Isengard and Sauron in Mordor. Attention is paid to not only all the species but all of the major characters that appear in "The Two Towers." There are lush photographs from the films (I especially like the shot of Treebeard) but also production drawings and computer graphics, almost always accompanied by insights from the likes of director Peter Jackson, head of special effects Richard Taylor, and others. Older readers will find this book just whets the appetite for more information about these creatures and how they were developed from Tolkien's original descriptions into what we have seen in the films. But younger readers should find this official movie guide to the creatures and cultures of Middle-Earth to be suited to their interests. A fold-out chart is included (cannot know the creatures without a program), but hopefully young readers will put off pouring over this slim volume until after they have actually seen the film. Your first look at Treebeard, Gollum, and Shelob should be in the film, not the photographs of this book.

The epic movie trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" was the first exposure to Tolkien's work for a lot of the people who watched it. And the fans who haven't yet read the books should check out this book, to get the tips on who and what and where and why.

Basically, this "Creatures" book lets the readers know: What's a hobbit? What's an Elf? What's an Ent? Readers of the original fantasy trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien will know all of this. On the other hand, newbies will like being able to look these things up -- especially since "Two Towers" has a lot of new material, with the Ents, Haradrim, Rohirrim, and others. The book is pretty short, and seems even shorter because it is composed mostly of photographs. These are clear, brightly colored, and great shots -- not just of stuff in the movies, but also from stuff behind the scenes.

What's especially nice are the quotes. Accompanying many of the smaller photographs are quotes from director Peter Jackson, special-effects wizard Richard Taylor, actors Elijah Wood, Ian Holm, Sean Astin, and pretty much everyone else. These quotes add insights into both the characters ("In their world, it's who you are on the inside that matters") and behind the scenes (complaints about the hobbit feet, from several actors). One of the best quotes is Peter Jackson revealing how the much-maligned Tom Bombadil almost made a cameo -- fans of the books will want to check that out.

Even if you've read the other books, this brief book will offer a few new insights and plenty of good movie and behind-the-scenes pictures.

There are amongst the hundreds of styles of short story, those that hug the side of pure narrative and those that offer a snippit of the complexities of human life. Of the latter, there is none greater than Anton Chekov, but modern masters also abound... Tobias Wolfe comes to mind. In my reading of Peter Taylor's "The Old Forest and Other Stories", I couldn't help but feel that his audience has passed. I enjoyed many of the stories, some quite alot, but they did not speak to me. They did not resonate. Personal favorites like 'Promise of Rain','The Scoutmaster', and 'The Gift of the Prodigal' contain more of an element of a narrative style, sprinkled with those ominous gaps that lie behind a person's mind. The titular story is perhaps my favorite except for its being bogged down with expository literacy. I have a distinct feeling that I have read a book that added to my knowledge of writing and reading as a whole, but I have not read a book in which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

With full acknowledgments for the differences in taste, I must express a total dislike of many of the other stories: the final play, 'The Death of a Kinsman' in particular. The underhandedness disguised as cleverness on the writer's part is obfuscating and patronizing. In fact, I think patronizing is a good word to sum up the collection. However, good writing intentionally raises opinions. If you've come so far as to read the reviews on this page, it might just be worth investigating these stories yourself.

I have a confession to make. I don't like these stories. I recognize the strengths of Taylor's story telling - the elegant language, the depiction of emotional tension in simple things, the clear progression of 'story' or theme from setup to inevitable conclusion, but I can't get past a deep dislike for his characters. This is a personal failing. Taylor's fiction depicts a world that is inhabited almost exclusively by a certain class of affluent, white, middle class city dwellers whose lives are bounded on the upside by manners, fashion and ritual (in imitation of an upper class to which, presumably, they aspire)and on the downside by a stiff reticence and correctness of behavior to insulate them from their inferiors (not only their black servants but also whites of a lesser social and economic standing). I grew up in Nashville, TN at a time when this world was rapidly passing away, but I have met people, more than a few, who could have stepped from the pages of these stories, and almost without exception developed a deep antipathy for them. Their overt arrogance which seemed to mask a great fear of the world 'outside' always made social intercourse with such people strained and unsatisfying. There is nothing like being politely condescended to to make the recipient want to deliberately break convention and strike through the mask. So it's personal.

I have read, and reread, these stories enough to see that Taylor's characters are frequently as frightened of change and the possible corruption of contact outside their little world as I had sensed in the real Taylor-type folk I have met. There is great skill in his presentation of this tension, but it doesn't lead me to empathize, much less sympathize, with his characters.

Any given person's response to a piece of fiction is going to be colored by a host of factors over which the author has no control, and no writer ever had universal success at generating the response he desires the reader to have. In the case of my response to Taylor's stories, I fear that my dislike of the specific milieu (and its inhabitants) that is his chosen subject will forever keep me from a full appreciation of his work.

I have trouble with assessments of great writing that tend to subordinate every concept to setting. We know that Chekhov wrote about the Russian provinces, Cheever wrote about WASPs in New England, William Trevor writes about lower middle-class Ireland, and Faulkner wrote about Mississippi. We also know that Taylor writes about the upper South (not the so-called "Deep South" that some others have mentioned). So what? What many of us realize, but often fail to mention, is that Taylor is writing about the human condition, as all of these great writers have. I'm a firm believer in the notion that the setting is incidental--a product of the world Taylor understood. So, as we can say with Chekhov, Cheever, and Trevor, Taylor writes about people. We appreciate these stories because they are about us, whether we're from Maine, Mississippi, or Maryland. If you have any belief in a universal human condition (whatever that may be), in the truth inherent to archetypal stories about people, you'll find that the setting only serves as the metaphorical framework in which the author works. It's our own problem if we have trouble shedding our regionalism, not Taylor's. Also, this book is not an obituary to the death of any particular culture, but a celebration of life and universal human relationships. How can "The Gift of the Prodigal" be about anything but that? Who would say that "The Gift of the Prodigal" is about Charlottesville, VA? So, by all means read this book. Don't be turned off by its Southern setting or its WASPy characters anymore than you would be turned off by Chekhov's rural Russia.

This is a collection of essays which compare [homosexuals] in the US with those in Latin America. It looks at male homosexuality from a historical, pre-colombian, and tribal perspective as well. Murray is an erudite anthropologist and therefore does not fall into the loopholes in scholarship that many white men who "study" homosexuality in Latin America have. The author is a bit of an essentialist and that may rub constructionists the wrong way. Of his books on international male homosexuality, this is the best one buy far. I think every [homosexual] Latino who wants to know their own [homosexual] Latino history should own a copy.

There are some excellent books on male homosexuality in particular sites (Hector Carrillo and Joseph Carrier on Guadalajara, Mexico; Richard Parker on (Rio) Brazil; Manuel Fernandez on (San Pedro, Honduras)) but this collection ranges much more widely, including material on indigenous cultures as well as the dominant machista one that varies only slightly from Texas to Tierra del Fuego, and incipient "modern gay" homosexuality.

About half the chapters are by Stephen Murray, who has considered reports from many societies and done fieldwork in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. He is very critical of the romantic view of "tolerance" ("anything goes"/ "there's no sin south of the border") but includes chapters by the two main purveyors of that view (Paul Kutsche and Richard Parker). The book contains a multiplicity of scholarly views and data ranging from the usual literary texts to ethnography and survey research on sexual behavior of males who have sex with males in Latin America.

This ambitious book covers the insignia of the Commandos, SAS, OSS, Rangers, Allied airborne units, various private armies and other 'special forces' of the WWII era. This is accomplished through many illustrations of rare insignia and of personnel wearing them, and through text sketching the history of the units and their insignia. As tends to be the case when one addresses a broad topic, the quality and depth of coverage is uneven. I noted several errors and the inclusion of a few insignia of questionable authenticity in sections where I have expertise. Whether this trend continues throughout the book, I cannot say. (I would expect that it does not, as those sections I do not feel qualified to judge are ones where I would expect the author, who is British, and his sources to be on firmer ground.) My overall sense is that with a little more research and greater care editing for accuracy, the text of this book could have been raised to the level of the illustrations, producing a truly outstanding reference. Even then, this book would fall short of being all-inclusive, leaving to other authors the opportunity to expand the coverage and address missing topics. Nevertheless, this is a reference that collectors with an interest in the topic that is the title of the book will wish to add to their libraries. (As an aside, those who find the subject of this book to be of interest are encouraged to seek a copy of Len Whittaker's now out-of-print "Some Talk of Private Armies," a book of substantially narrower focus than the one reviewed here, but one that speaks, in the opinion of this reviewer, with greater authority.)

"The American Century," a collection of essays edited by Peter Taylor and David Slater, is a formidable and challenging work. Not so much for its intellectual complexity, (although it has that) but for the formidable answers the scholars herein set forth to the cries of all-powerful American hegemony that have been heard in the academy of late. While by no means locating America within the myth of the benevolent, neutral harbinger of prosperity and progress, the authors in the text have a nuanced account of issues in the projection and effectiveness of United States power in the larger global context that remains largely in the neoliberal tradition.

Essays in the book reflect a variety of perspectives, but all of them involve around some similar themes--- the rise of U.S. hegemony as a world-system in a historical context, beginning in the last 19th century and culminating during the Cold War period. The essays within also focus on institutions created or maintained with the imprimatur, if not the actual effort, of the United States, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and to a lesser extent, the United Nations.

An advantage to the discussion of American hegemony is the focus the text gives to economic analysis; a topic often overgeneralized in political discussions of American influence. Michael Taylor chronicles the shift from horizontal and vertical stratification to outsourcing R+D, and characterizes this as a shift to the dividing the managerial aspects of material production and strategizing functions related to global market dynamics. Also well-treated are issues of idealism, isolationism, and Cold War containment, as well as military policy, brilliantly expounded on by David Campbell. Perhaps debatable is the minimization of the many of the scholars of "American imperialism" outside the late 1800's.

Less successfully covered in the study are the results and effects of American influence/hegemony. Essentially, this volume is about the projection of American power. There isn't anything wrong with that, but for a volume written more by those whose work in American Studies is from an internationalist perspective (and international location (as none of the contributors works in the United States) it would have been more helpful to see more scholarship on reception and transformation of American culture within national and sub-national cultures in other countries. This makes the few essays that cover topics in this realm, such as those by Tim Cresswell, Brian Hoskin, and Claudia de Lima Costa, especially important.

Hopefully, future editions will cover more topics in this area. As a politically neoliberal leaning reader, it is perhaps read best in conjunction and dialogue with a more radical reader, such as "Cultures of United States Imperialism" edited by Amy Kaplan and Donald Pease, published in 1993 on Duke University Press.

I felt more comfortable in the course knowing that I had an edge. This study guide really clarified ideas brought up in the text and gave me practice in areas where I needed more clarification. Thanks to you, I passed with flying colors!

Likes it's predeccessors eyewitness has come up with another miracle. Bird. This book shows feathers, skulls, eggs, birdhouses, nests, beaks in detailed explanations. Very good book.