This book has been the BANE of my existence since I started A.P. History. I'll let some typically horrendous qoutes speak for me. "The Russian bear, having lumbered across Asia, was seeking to bathe its frostbitten paws in the ice-free ports of China's Manchuria..."; "...looted and polluted...w/ speed and greed.."; "fearing that a new generation of Germans would follow in their father's goose steps..." and so on. There's an entire chapter with section names such as "Unhorsing Knights of Labor" and "Gvt. Bridles the Iron Horse" and shameful use of alliteration such as "Wrongdoing in Railroading" and "Miracles in Mechanization". Bailey even throws in one that rhymes. It may seem funny to an outsider, but it's not--the entire book is written exactly like that. Bailey amazes me anew w/ every chapter. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does, big time. My theory is that his 1st ambition was to be a grocery-store romance novelist, but his writing was too bad, even for that--so he turned to textbooks to pay the bills. It's not even close to being objective, as a text should be; he constantly passes judgement on events, policies, even people. My hatred is impossible to fully express. I used to LOVE history, but this thing makes reading a chore. I plan to complain to the proper authorities in my school, to try to improve the lot of future generations of students.

Bailey made clear distinguishing characteristics between the roots of the early democratic and republican parties and carried their philosophies throughout the book.

I guess that the history of American politics and how it REALLY became what it is today bothers many who feel that capitalism is nothing but evil, that there were ever countries that threatened our nation once upon a time, and that REAGAN whooped communism by OUT-SPENDING them on arms...these truths are spelled out in this book whether you want to face them or not.

This book is the finest work of American history that I have ever read. It is high informative while tracing the historical currents in American politics, economics, and society. It provides superp preparation for the AP US History exam. It is a truly enjoyable book to read: a pleasant mix of wit and scholarship.

The shorter tales are good but are really like imperfect sketches made in study for the grand finale piece Death in Venice. Most of the tales deal with sensual longing which is never satisfied or consummated and that gets a bit tiring unless you see the sensual longing representing some higher longing as well, the sensual longing perhaps being one in the same with spiritual and artistic longing. That way you are more in the frame of mind to see that Death in Venice is not just about an older mans lust for a younger man but a prolonged meditation about time and art and all those highly valued goods. I have to confess I get tired of Mann pretty quick because he dwells on the same themes over and over again but if you are a student of fiction he really is one of those writers who has much to teach. Still it sometimes seems to me that Mann's characters would be better off if they occasionally just went ahead and did it. That may sound to be an awful oversimplification but I think they would feel better and their already instable identities and worlds would not constantly be shaken to the ground by those too long suppressed desires. As for the spirit and artistic sense, they too would be happier, much more contented, with the occasional release and renewal of energies, a bit of fleshen contact would connect them to something more real than their "thoughts" about things. Anyway if you haven't already read Death in Venice you are lucky because it is a great read, though a strange and sometimes disturbed one. If you like your main characters made of more earthy substance than Mann's suffering spirits read D.H. Lawrence who also loved Italy by the way and who contemplated time and art in a much more relaxed manner.

This collection of Thomas Mann's early short works presents one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century in an expert and fluent translation, unbowdlerized.The title story, Death in Venice, is an example of lush late Romanticism in its most extravagent and vivid form. Mann, as always, dramatizes the tension between the bourgeois life of strict propriety, symbolized by the renowned Gustav Aschenbach, the protagonist, a literary titan specializing in learned tomes, and the seductions of art and beauty as symbolized by Venice and Tadzio, the focus of Aschenbach's fatal obsession. Some might find the description of the dissolution and its content as repugnant. But if you allow yourself to visualize the words as written and at least allow yourself to feel something of what Aschenbach is feeling, you will be transported outside of yourself strangely and hauntingly .The other stories, including Tonio Kroger, an earlier work that brought Mann great renown after the publication of Buddenbrooks, his first novel, are also wonderful examples of how the tensions of art and life, growing up and thinking affect their main characters. Not to be ignored is the sexual tension that pervades all of Mann's work and is deeply embedded in his consciousness. (I highly recommend Anthony Heilbut's critical biography of Mann for an understanding of the man, his work and the context of German life, literature and history in which it was written.)

Like many German writers, Thomas Mann contained the cancerous seed of anti-semitism, which rears its ugly head in these stories, now and then, and he has a tendency toward pedantry, going on and on in an abstract vein about the strengths and weaknesses of the outsider, the artist, the sensualist, ho-hum. When I was younger, I worshiped his writing, and Buddenbrooks was one of my favorite novels of all time (still is).

Despite my recent and more mature awareness of his weaknesses, he remains a surprising, brilliant writer. His prose style is dynamic and I continue to emulate that. I was amused to find, however, that I liked the lesser known stories. I found "Death In Venice" ponderous. I liked the stories about the incestuous twins, the tragic man who was dwarfed from a childhood fall, the cuckolded buffoon who is talked into wearing a tutu at a community recital and the eccentric who is compelled to continually mutiliate his dog and heal him. Now these are what I would call real "case histories." I'm sure Mann would scorn me for being partial to these, scornfulness being one of his main attitudes in life. His very disdain of pretension, however, seems like a pretension in itself. Still - his command of language is like no other's.

I have not seen some much garbage and simple stupidity in one book in a long time. This book is full of half "truths", misleading statements,and dubious and shady quotes. It is hard for me to understand (which I don not) how can anyone even bother to waste his/her time writing this stuff. Doesn't the author has anything better to do? I guess not!!!!!!

The editor feels that by associating these 100+ excerpts with the word "racist" he can instantly refute them. On the contrary there is much here for reasoned minds to agree with--especially in the selections by Murray/Herrnstein, Shockley, Jensen. George and D'Souza. Certainly some of the older racial tracts are just silly but much of the modern writings hold true. Even some of the predictions made many years ago, like in Ross' "The Old World and the New" (1914) about the future of America have proven quite accurate. Joshi also peppers the book with some egalitarian essays meant to counter the rest, but despite the pleasant platitudes, these sections do little for the book and basically attempt to refute the "racists" with not much more than a few doses of "shame on you" scorn and a few shots of saccharine sweet sentimentality. No positive proof for equality is presented, but then again, egalitarianism has never required proof for their beliefs.

This book is very inspiring for those who love humanity. It contains a lot of inspirational material. It is a nice historical completement to books such as: Why Race matters (by Michael Levin); Race, Evolution and Behavior : A Life History Perspective (by J. P. Rushton); The Real American Dilemma: Race, Immigration and the Future of America (by Jared Taylor.); Duke's My awakening. I especially recommend Joshi's book to anyone who cares about America.

Lately, I've come to really like the writings of Thoreau. It has taken me several years to return to this author...after being forced to read excerpts from Thoreau at a ridiculously fast pace during high school. Little time to read and less time for reflection left a bad impression of Thoreau in my mind that has, as I said, only recently been overcome.

But now, upon my return, I have found "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" by Henry David Thoreau to be a very invigorating book...one to be savored and not read too quickly. Taken at a good pace, it has been a joy.

While transcendentalism still strikes me as a rather facile and egotistical philosophy, I have really come to see and appreciate the mystical quality in Thoreau's works. Like most mystical authors, Thoreau is not always engrossing--he is actually rather tedious in points, but his work is punctuated by passages of sheer brilliance.

Seeing nature through Henry's eyes has been a wake up call to me personally. This book breathes excitement and lust for life upon the reader. Even his long winded discussions of different kinds of fish serve to alert me to my own lack of wonder. This world, even in its current subjection to futility , is still a wonderful creation. Nature (and Thoreau's picture of these rivers especially) echo the declaration of the Psalmist: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1).

I highly recommend this wonderful book.

Thoreau sought the seclusion of the pond to write *this* book, not _Walden_. In 19th-century terms, this treatise is a modified travelogue based on a 13-day boat trip that Henry and his brother John took in 1839. By today's standards, contemporary editors and many an English teacher would decorate this manuscript with red ink and admonish the author that he strays too often and too far from the main subject. Bill Bryson's essays wander too, but he doesn't usually reach back and quote the Bhagavad-Gita, Homer, Chaucer, or Shakespeare. But whenever Henry takes in his surroundings, he is reminded of something else, and before you know it a serious discourse is off and running, and it has nothing to do with floating upstream or down. He expresses his opinions or offers his knowledge about fish, mythology, religion, poetry, reading, writing, history, government, traveling, waterfalls, friendship, love, life, nature, art, dreams, and science. He reminisces about a previous trip to the Berkshires and a sail down the Connecticut River. He breaks into poetry at whim -- sometimes his own words, more often someone else's. Along the way, the brothers paddle from Concord, Massachusetts, to the area around Concord, New Hampshire, and then turn around and go home. We meet some of the people they encounter along the way and get a glimpse of New England life during that time period. In some respects, the people and the land haven't changed much at all. We can see Thoreau's environmentalism when he talks about dams and their effects on the habits and habitats of fish -- concerns that are still with us today. We can laugh at his puns and enjoy his wordplay (i.e., "The shallowest still water is unfathomable" and Man needs "not only to be spiritualized, but *naturalized*, on the soil of earth.") Above all, we can explore these rivers and shorelines during a time period that we will never see personally, with the aid of a native naturalist who's in the habit of sharing his observations and thoughts.

Read _Walden_ first. And if you find you enjoy Henry's take on nature and civilization and life and living, pick up _A Week_. There are a few gems lurking in here that you might connect with.

[From Boating on the Catawba...in the
"Musketaquid"]

I will take the definite role of the
Nay-Sayer in the long line of aficianados
and idolators who insist that *Walden* is
Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece...
I will simply state that this work and
"Life Without Principle" are his great
contributions to literature, thought, and
value...

Take this quote from "Life Without Principle"
(before I get to 'A Week...'):
"To speak impartially, the best men that
I know are not serene, a world in themselves.
For the most part, they dwell in forms, and
flatter and study effect only more finely
than the rest. We select granite for the
underpinning of our houses and barns; we
build fences of stone; but we do not ourselves
rest on an underpinning of granite.
we do not teach one another the lessons of
honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or
of steadiness and solidity that the rocks
do. The fault is commonly mutual, however;
for we do not habitually demand any more of
each other."

If that is not "preaching," but in the
sense of a prophet, not a mere sermonizer,
then there hasn't been any in a long time.
But Father Mapple's sermon in 'Moby-Dick' is
right up there with it.

If I had only known of Thoreau [and I had
not read much of him (and little then)except
at the University] and had to believe that
Thoreau was just what he seems to be in
'Walden,' then I would have given the man
short shrift...because there is not enough
of any sort of heart or soul in that work
to believe that he is even human. But
fortunately, a Thoreau worshipper (or rather,
*Walden* worshipper) forced me, by his own
imperious egotism, to try to understand this
man Thoreau and his views. It is fortunate
that I did, for I discovered 'A Week....'

This Penguin Classics edition is excellent
in a number of ways -- the two most important
being the notes in the back which explain the
allusions, and ancient Latin and Greek sources
and excerpts(for those who might not know them)
which Thoreau quotes and sometimes translates;
and the incredible "Introduction" by the editor,
H. Daniel Peck.
He can say his wondrous words himself:

"There is good reason for 'A Week's open
acknowledgment of the attritions of time
and loss. Conceived initially as a travel
book, 'A Week' was immeasurably deepened into
an elegiac account of experience by a tragic
event that occurrred in Thoreau's life in
the period following the 1839 voyage. In
1842, Thoreau's companion on that voyage,
his brother John, died suddenly, and in
agonizing pain, from lockjaw.
Without question this was the greatest loss
that Thoreau ever was to suffer. (He seems
to have undergone, in the aftermath of his
brother's death, a sympathetic case of the
illness that caused John's death, and the few
entries that appear in his journal in this
period are desperately mournful.) Interestingly,
though the pronoun 'we' characterizes the
narrator often in the book, the brother's
name is never mentioned -- an indication perhaps
of Thoreau's enduring need to distance himself
from this loss. there is nothing in 'A Week'
that directly refers to the death of John Thoreau.
Instead, his memory is evoked through various
symbolic strategies. For example, the long
digression on friendship in the chaper
'Wednesday' surely is intended to reflect the
intimacy Thoreau shared with his brother. Even
the ubiquitious 'we' of the narrator's voice
speaks to this intimacy. So intertwined are
the two brothers' identities in this pronoun
that it is often difficult to tell whether a
given action has been taken by Henry or John,
or both at once."

"To emphasize the elegiac aspects of 'A Week'
is to remind ourselves that throughout Western
history, rivers -- and voyages upon them --
have served as metaphors of transience and
mortality. Yet, as I indicated earlier,
'A Week' is not solely a mournful book. Its
rivers also support a spiritual buoyancy, and
provide the setting for exploration and adventure.
Most important, however, the book's larger
structure enables it to 'transcend and redeem'
the individual losses that it recounts."

[wonderful writing here!]
"In general, the outward-bound voyage of 'A Week'
dramatizes the writer's encounter with time and
its losses; on that voyage, he pays close
attention to the shore -- which, in its discreet
scenes of spoliation and historical change,
symbolizes the passage of time. The homeward
voyage, on the other hand, suggests assimilation,
resolution, and renewal. If the primary mode of
perception on the outward voyage had been
observation (of the shore), then the primary
mode of the return voyage is contemplation.
Now we are involved in an inward exploration,
and, symbolically, our vision leaves the shore
and returns to the river and the flow of
consciousness that it represents."
-- H. Daniel Peck; "Introduction."

If you have no idea what happened to the world economy in the two decades following WW1, then this little book is a great primer. It contains a lovely chronology of events, discusses in a simplistic way how the gold standard actually worked, how the real bills doctrine impeded effective monetary loosening and how Roosevelt prolonged the depression. It's a (mostly) monetarist view and easy to understand at that.

On a second read though, 'The Great Depression' becomes very irritating; for three reasons....

The first is its changing view of the causes of decline and recovery. It starts out monetarist but ends up closer to the Austrian view that government intervention and socialism prolonged the recovery. You can't be both, although the authors try very hard.

The second problem is the use of history. Many historically minded authors have made a big issue of the vicious Versailles Peace Treaty and its role in destabilising the international payments system. Hall and Ferguson hardly mention international issues. Instead, they waffle on about Hitler's evil labour policies, but forget to mention their effect. Huge capital flows left Europe for the New World in the mid-1930s and these played a very significant role in boosting US money supply and spurring recovery.

The third problem is the book's very simplistic economics. At the heart of the problem was the issue of real exchange rate adjustment amongst Gold Standard members. The authors make no attempt to explain the extent of the adjustment problems when members faced either hyperinflation or balance of payments deficits after 1918.

Countries facing BOP deficits with newly enfranchised labour forces were in no position to use traditional means of real exchange rate adjustment - i.e. deflation - to bring their currencies and payments accounts back into line. Social unrest was everywhere. Impossible strain was placed on domestic economies as interest rates went up. And when Austrian bank, Bank Kredit-Anstalt, failed, the international payments system fell apart and asset prices collapsed. No one had the guts to raise rates to hold currencies within their trading ranges.

Hall and Ferguson gloss over the international angle as if it was irrelevant. They could at least have tried to explain why they thought it wasn't important or didn't play a central role.

All told, I'd recommend this book to anyone coming across this fascinating period for the first time. But there are much better books out there. Also, parochial books with constant references to us and ours when referring to the US and its institutions are really tiresome to non-US readers.

Two stars for the technical bits, the chronology and the details of Roosevelt's New Deal.

This book is not perfect but it will foster
a more correct assessment of the Great Depression
by professional economists. The Great Depression was a government failure, not a market failure...

I have never submitted a "reader's review" to Amazon, but have to add mine here after noting the one negative review below. All the other positive reviewers have it right. This book hits the mark and does exactly what it appears to be designed to do. It is accessible for a broad spectrum of readers, while maintaining a rigorous scholarly standard. And, amazingly, it is an enjoyable read, for both scholars AND graduate and undergraduate students (and maybe the intellectually curious non-fiction reader?). I hope the one rambling (and somewhat odd?) negative review will be dismissed by Amazon visitors. In my opinion, this is a book which should be read by anyone who wants to understand the complex forces and historical context which resulted in the Great Depression.

I bought "The Force" expecting a great, firsthand look at high-stress corporate selling. I also expected the book to be readable! I have tried several times to finish this book, but the repetitive prose is frustrating: How many times can I be told that Frank Pacetta is caustic, or that Fred and Kathy are at odds over whether she should return to work? How many times can I be apprised of the other characters' anxieties, and in how many different ways? Dorsey duplicates his efforts by over-explaining everything that happens, instead of letting the dialogue or actions tell the story. The narrative paraphrases the characters' inner thoughts, repeating the same old harangues. The description of Kathy's reflections on a sermon about the Parsifal myth makes a simple point again and again, yet Dorsey's rambling prose is impossible to winnow down. The prose is tightest when Dorsey explains the history of Xerox. The complex whys and wherefores behind Xerox's adoption of TQM and their deal structure resemble the characters' inner thoughts in the narrative. What this book needed to give it pacing throughout was detachment, so the reader could keep track of everyone's situations throughout the story. This book needed the linearity of facts, rather than the circularity of anxiety and rationalization.

I will admit that the book is slow at times, but it has many good points. I am a marketing major, and I think it is a must. It honestly taught me a lot.

This book really captures the essence of being in sales and and what it takes to be in sales management. I'm in sales management myself and I can really relate to Fred Thomas' worrying about performning well, and I recognize some of the different characters in his department. Sales being glamorous to many people (those not involved in selling), but the negative impact it has on your personal life is very well described in the book. It's tough!

The book is a must for everyone in sales management!

This compilation of interviews with the monks of New Clairvaux, California is a fascinating contribution to that part of Catholic literature that might be called, risking impertinence, "contemplative chic." The books of Thomas Merton remain a great influence, and there exists a considerable interest in Cistercian spirituality and the cloistered life. These ten monks, as diverse in ethnicity, personality, age, background, temperament, patterns of speech, as any ten persons you can find, share their views, their experiences, their recollections as to what prompted them to undertake the monastic adventure ... We have here a fairly down-to-earth lot, prayerful but not "head in the clouds" types, each of them conveying the necessity of perseverance and charity in a life that is anything but escapism!

There are three introductory chapters, explaining a little about Cistercian/Trappist history and detailing the schedule and the activities of your average monk (if there is such a thing!); these introductory chapters can probably be skimmed by those readers who have delved extensively into Merton or Pennington or who have made retreats at Trappist monasteries themselves. Some of the books in the Bibliography proffered as Suggested Reading can be avoided (Finley's book "Merton's Place of Nowhere" being not terribly magnetizing) ... and there are times when we read the interviews that we find Mr Perata's attempts to reproduce the speech of the monks to be a bit labored, but there is humor to be found (an octogenarian Irish monk: "readin', workin', & just meditatin' ... you've gotta start usin' your mantra"). Some of the personalities & histories in the interviews will be more attractive than others, but if the reader is interested in the Trappist life, "The Orchards of Perseverance" will be a welcome addition to the personal library. Essential? Perhaps not, but the words of these monks impart considerable charm & a fair amount of wisdom.

David Perata practiced much perseverance in compiling these interviews with nine Trappist monks and one postulant of Our Lady of New Clairvaux Abbey in Vina, California. His approach in letting the monks speak freely in virtually stream of consciousness style allows for unfiltered frankness and a good deal of humor. Their testimonies to their vocation certainly dispel the myth that monastic life is perennially harmonious and blissful. In the end, sticking with it is what it is all about.
As Perata asserts, "God is going to look at that perseverance and the positive qualities of these men, and judge them within those parameters... All the rest is merely dirty laundry!"
I found the unedited proliferation of "gonnas" and "wannas"
tedious after a while. Also, it is unfortunate that the interviews do not include a single monk of that monastery who entered after 1980. The postulant interviewed in 1991 left
after becoming a novice. One gets the impression that the monks interviewed are the last of their breed. Perhaps this is what motivated the author to undertake this chronicle of lives lived in fidelity to a call. If so, he has done an admirable job
with both text and photographs.

So many questions I had about Trappist Monks were answered in this book. This is a must read book if you are at all interested mans relationship with God from men who spend there whole life working on this relationship. The author allows you to me them personally for he has a personal relationship with them from an early age. This is the book you wish someone would write and has. I highly recommend this book.

This interesting collection of interviews, reviews and articles takes a look at Bowie's career as it was in the early 90s. It includes pieces from the US and UK pess and considers Bowie from all angles, including his stage and screen work. In the main, it avoids showbiz gossip and concentrates on his artistic contribution, although this can get a bit academic at times. Lindsay Kemp talks about his years as Bowie's mime teacher, while Ann Rice and Jon Savage discuss the gender issue. Craig Copetas' observations on Bowie and William Burroughs are fascinating, while the best quotes come from Lester Bangs (on Bowie's fear of flying), journalist Adam Sweeting and the man himself: "I usually don't agree with what I say very much, I'm an awful liar" confesses Bowie. The Bowie Companion is a valuable and interesting contribution to the literature on Bowie as multimedia artist.

This book is great since it doesn't just talk about Bowie, but also about the world around him and what other people were doing. Some of the essays are a little too academic, but they do give some insight into his albums and individual songs. This book is best read after you have listened to his early albums carefully, so that you have your own opinions and can understand what the authors are talking about.

As the other reviewer simply put it, this book is "Interesting, but not essential". That basically sums it up, but if you can find it, I would definately buy it. There's tons of interesting facts on the music and David himself. It's all very interesting material, but I would much rather own an actual biography, such as Loving the Alien.

In Doing Time- Notes from the undergrad, Rob Thomas who is the author tells 10 differant stories by using various student narrators. The students all have in common the fact that they have to do 200 hours of community service for their requirement for their school in order to graduate. In one story "Shacks from Mansions", a football player named Preston plays for the Dallas Cowboys. He is tutoring a boy named Randall. Preston was Randall's big brother. Randall learned a great amount from him. In another story there was a boy and a girl who worked for the library near them. The lirary held meetings every Wednesday. The meetings were about people discussing their emotions about their passed-away pets. One Wednesday when the boy was working he went into the backroom to get something. He accidentally overheard them talking. He looked through the shelves and saw a picture up on the wall of a dead pet. He learned that he did not want to go back to that library. This book was not recommended for children under the age of 12. Some of the language was explicit. I learned that it would be very difficult to do 200 hours of community service.

As usual, Rob Thomas is dead-on with the voice of his YA characters. The stories are funny and focused around a common theme that is familiar to most high school students. My only complaint is that the book feels unfinished since Thomas doesn't use the end of the book to return to the character of Randall, the college freshman he uses in the beginning of the collection to frame the stories.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I think that Thomas is fantastic at using perspective as a key, without making anything too unclear. I'd like to start an e-mail kids book club, so spread the news and e-mail me (Lucy) at the above adress, with your thoughts about this book.

I bought this book to improve my crawl stroke and to learn butterfly. This book does not help me.

The book, 8.5x11, 159 pages, has 18 chapters ("steps"). Just to give an example, the butterfly stroke occupies 4 chapters (the dolphin kick, the arm pull, the coordination, and the turn). In all these chapters there isn't a single series of complete illustration. All the figures only show this or that segment of the whole process.

What's more, the drawings in the butterfly section don't even match the cover photo. The same poor quality illustration is all over the book.

If you need a book to tell you how to swim like a professional, I would recommend one with actual photos (instead of drawings) of both frontal and side view. "Competitive Swimming" (from Sports Illustrated) is a better book in this sense. If you are already a pro, the final chaptor "whatermanship" may interest you. It shows how do do a few fun water games, like, forming a multiperson centipede...

A good book if this is you are looking for a simple to understand basic book. Frankly like many other sports, you cannot just swim by looking at the pictures. I wish the book has more step-by-step pictures.

It showed you the understanting of swimming.It motivated me to be an excellent swimmer.