I only want to say one thing here, and I say it primarily because I already love this work. This is the translation to buy. Everyone seems to adore Kaufmann, but the truth is he's much more obtuse and difficult to read (and I don't believe it's necessary, as some may say). Hollingdale gets it right. I'll defend myself with one example from a class I took, where Kaufmann's translation was the required text. I had read both translations (cover-to-cover), and sold my copy of Kaufmann's translation, keeping only my Hollingdale. So, needless to say, I wasn't about to buy Kaufmann again, and went to class with Hollingdale. Slowly, but surely, as the other students read bits of the translation I had, or heard when I spoke pieces aloud, they overwhelmingly agreed with me: Hollingdale is simply more clear, more beautiful, more powerful (less academic, shall we say, which is pure Nietzsche). Ok, over and out, enjoy.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which was distributed among the German army and read by Hitler, has been long misunderstood. Walter Kaufmann, whose translations of Nietzsche's works are the best available, has been somewhat successful in helping us interpret this great book.

Friedrich Nietzsche tried in this book and others to undermine the prevailing ethics, namely those of Christianity. Christianity, Nietzsche (and later, Martin Heidegger) believed, stemmed from the moral teachings of Socrates; even modern science is derived from them.

Nietzsche is the great critic of modern times. He worried that communism would lead to a horrible homogenization of culture and an overextension of the bourgeoisie (which he hated). Throughout Zarathustra, he praises war, the warrior's spirit, cruelty, vanity, etc.- all things denounced by Christianity. This is not so much to bring about "new" values but rather a re-evaluation of all values! Both Nietzsche and Heidegger went back obsessively to the pre-Socratic philosophers, searching for alternatives.

But Nietzsche does not scorn Socrates; on the contrary, he praises him as the "pied piper" full of "prankish wisdom," terms Nietzsche also applies to himself. And Nietzsche really is on the level Socrates: both are great, prankish, wise, critics of their times and both are philosophers. Both help us understand how to live (and, more importantly, how to die), though there are disagreements between the two. But Nietzsche brings up the great questions of our times: are OUR values the best? should we find others? should we begin anew? Read Zarathustra if you care to explore these things.

Also, for those interested, I recommend Werner Dannhauser's "Nietzsche's View of Socrates," the section from Allan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind" called "From Socrates' Apology to Heidegger's Rektoratsrede," Heidegger's "Being and Time," and of course, the rest of Nietzsche's books.

Nietzsche himself calls Zarathustra "the greatest gift" that he has given to humanity, in Ecce Homo, and yet the book still remains true to its title, "A book for All and None."

The key to the book lies in linking it with a much earlier work, On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life, and also with the work that came just before Zarathustra, The Gay Science. In the former work, Nietzsche outlines, for the first time, on how history may be employed for the purposes of life - this isn't about nihilism, and one is forced to wonder if many writers understand what "nihilism" means. In The Gay Science, Nietzsche briefly returns to this theme in the encounter with the demon in aphorism 325 )or thereabouts). In other words, Zarathustra's central theme is the teaching of eternal recurrance, and it is in Zarathustra where one can attempt to interpret what Nietzsche meant by eternal recurrance.

Look closely at "The Adder's Bite," "The Vision and the Riddle," "Of Old and New Law Tables," "The Drunken Song," and, most importantly, "Of Redemption." There are treasures in this book that hold the keys to Nietzsche's bounty - read him like Plato.

Enjoy!!!!

Strength Training Past 50 is a very good book and anyone past 50 who has an interest in fitness or has been directed by a physician to lose weight should read the book. The program in the book must be carefully followed, particularly the weight and repitition recommendations. This program was designed for a very broad age range and a broad range of physical fitness levels typically found in adults past 50. It's strength is that it is an excellent introduction to resistance training for those who have not lifted or have not lifted for a significant period of time. If you are 50 or older, male or female, and not an experienced lifter, you may expect to lose weight, gain muscle mass, energy, and a positive self image by following the program in this book.

I'm ordering a second copy of this book for my brother. I've shared my first copy with a number of friends. The introduction -- which outlines the value of weight training at any age -- is worth the modest price. I've followed the book for a year since I bought the book, and have seen steady gradual progress in weight reduction and increased strength. Not a quick-fix approach, but instead a well-written plan to incorporate weight training into daily life, for both men and women. Geared towards newcomers, but also has information that will those with prior exercise experience. It stresses safety and gradual improvement.

At 67 I had developed upper back pain associated with spinal arthritis. Upon the advice of a reviewer, I ordered the book, bought some free weights, and immediately began training to strengthen the muscles that support my spinal column. After a month of carefully following the recommended workout schedule, I found myself completely pain free. Although the results are proof of the pudding, I was particularly impressed with the authors' emphasis on safety and their guidance on how to find your point of beginning and to progress without injury.

The photos and descriptions of individual exercises were essential in making sure that the exercises were done correctly and to the greatest benefit.

In my opinion the price of the book is a gift compared to the feeling of well being derived from carefully following the given plan, which, by the way, is adaptable to each individual's capabilities and needs.

This text covers all aspects of "how to" for teaching a successful marching band program. The examples are clear and the prose is easily understood. The information is very pragmatic. The text contains three selections as examples with accompanying drill charts. It lacks an index.

None of the authors ever were Reconstructionists and have demonstrated their appalling scholarship by deliberatly misquoting their adversaries and by making things up, essentially bearing false witness. They have changed words around in quoting their sources and they have gotten names and backgrounds all wrong. This book is a disgrace to the Christian community and should never have been published.

Thomas Ice is a former Dominionist/Reconstructionist and therefore understands the theology of this heretical "Christian" belief system. Those who have experienced being inside an heretical/apostate organization or group have a superb grasp of the tenets and subtleties of the belief system. Thomas Ice does a splendid job of explaining and exposing what Dominionism really is and those who perpetrate this theology. When did Dominionism start? How has it flourished...all this and more is answered in this excellent book! It's a necessary piece for anyone seeking the truth of much of today's "political Christian" right and false doctrines.

'nuf said. If you buy this book you've wasted your money. However, if you DID buy this book, you must also buy "House Divided", and "No Other Standard". After all, you don't want to be biased now, do you?

The only thing that surprised me about a book titled "The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas" was that it was 207 pages long. Initially I just assumed that it was either a typographical error (maybe 27 pages?) or that the font size must be very, very large. Instead, it appears that the disjointed ramblings of a seriously creepy man can indeed take up that much space. Thomas' opinions and polemical approach are much better suited to the read-once-then-discarded op-ed venue. Collecting them in book form only allows the reader to discern the utter lack of perspective that might remain otherwise remain hidden. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone needing to level a table with one short leg, or who desperately needs reading material but is unable to find any comic books. Other than that, the only thing commendable about this book is that it's recyclable.

..."Why?" you ask. Simple: if a book has a three-star average rating with nothing but five-star and one-star reviews, then I *know* it has to be worth reading. I'm ordering my copy today!

Several years ago there was a not so popular TV program called J.J.Starbuck. This eccentric Texas millionaire used many short stories and one-liners that speak to the soul of folks and a nation that often left folks with a befuddled look but at the same time the hearer would contemplate the thought over what was said. The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas is such a similar presentation. Each one of the stements that I read in the book just adds to my list of those that I like to reflect on and share with others. A much needed and pleasent way to retort others with something catchy and lasting and really nonthreating. Great work Cal!

I'm writing about the book I read in Social Studies. This book was farly good. This book talked about Wayne's life. It said that when he was a little kid he moved to Toronto to get away from all the paretens who's kids were mad that he was always scoring. At a young age Wayne played hockey with his grandmother. Wayne was also great as a young boy. Wayne was 18 years old when he started to play hockey in the NHL. Wayne has 40 Reular season records. Wayne played for 4 different teams. Wayne Gretzky is the greats or one of the greats. I think that if you like sports you should read this book.

My College Calculus professor uses this book as a suppliment to provide examples for the class use. Everyone hates the problems as they are vague and lack any explanation on how to solve the problem or even where to begin. It appears to me that someone wrote a book simply to create problems that cannot be solved by the book's explanations. Calculus requires a working understanding of the ideas and concepts of the base math before an sort of obscure application should be used. I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless they already have a good understanding of calculus and wish to delve further into the application of the math to the real world. In that case, buy the book. For the other 95% that are just wanting to learn calculus; go buy a different book that teaches you something first.

In my experience with this text, students either love it or hate it. They hate it because it does not offer a brief overview of the topics, like many more popular calculus text books. Instead "Calculus: Single Variable" requires that a student throughly read many examples as it explains rules and laws along the way. Those who love the text do so because the examples offer a firmer understanding of the concepts at hand, instead of just covering enough material to answer the questions at the end of each section. Although this is a very good text book, it definitely requires patience on behalf of the reader, and may not be the book for students who just want to slide by.

This book was used for my Fall 2002 Calculus III (multivariable) class. We used the last section of the book, chapters 12-19. I was able to review old concepts when needed from the earlier chapters, which were presented nicely.

I have noticed that a lot of other reviewers here have mixed feelings about this text. It would help if they stated their background which should be taken into account. I am a junior computer science/mathematics double major who does well in both subjects and is not afraid of reading through a long proof or spending time on advanced problems. Thus, my perspective is that of an advanced student. I noticed that the other students in my class were not all mathematics majors and there were a lot of physics/chemistry majors in the group. These people are probably learning from a pragmatic perspective and could probably care less about proofs, so as long as they pass they are happy.

The chapters from the book that I read in detail (12-19) I found to be full of great illustrations and examples and were presented in a clear logical manner without superfluous material/examples. Starting with the basic tools needed for multivariable calculus (multivariable functions, vector algebra), I found myself grasping topics and ideas very quickly (I aced the course). The exercises were not too difficult and could be solved in a few minutes using the information from the section. The problems require more time and sometimes ideas from other sections/subjects, but none are too difficult. Mostly every topic was given a algebraic and geometric explaination. The book provides a great introduction for beginners while the scope of topics covered appeals to advanced students as well.

In comparison to my old calculus text (Stewart) I found this book to have a lot more material in general that wasn't in Stewart, such as trig sub and fourier series. There is also a chapter on differential equations, which I should probably read before my class starts next semester ;D .

In summary, this review is from the perspective of a young mathematician, and I felt that it was perfect for me to learn from. I liked it enough to keep it. If you are in the same category you will find this to be a wonderful text. It is hard to say whether or not it should be recommended for beginners/non-math students, since I am not one, but from the other reviews on here it seems like some people have had trouble. If that's the case you might want to find a supplement (Standard Deviant's or Cliff's Notes). Learning calculus for the non-math student is not easy, so the best way is to just work harder.

Besides the picture on the front, this book is horrible! I've learned more by personal derivation and experimenting than through this book. The explanations are overly bloated, and include so many approximations and tables that the theory behind this book's ramblings is lost completely. Instead of focusing on theoretical multivariable calculus while introducing, as a short diversion an approximating method, this book builds around a foundation of approximations, which clouds the actual mathematics in the process.

In my opinion, unless theory is ingrained in students' heads from the start, they will never even attempt to understand it. After all, the book gives the theory second priority, so why should students pay any attention to it?

Moreover, in the introduction, the book promises to have problem sets that a student "cannot just look for a similar example to solve... you will have to think." However, after working with this book's homework problems, I've found them to be the exact opposite of this! There are plenty of similar examples for any given problem, and as a result the teacher's role becomes trivial, while at the same time students don't really understand anything they're doing. Not only this, but the problems are overly MUNDANE, and there is too much practice for a single concept. If a student has taken calculus, he can do derivatives, so he should not need 31 exercises to learn how to do partial derivatives.

Capping all this off, there are no truly challenging problems at all in this book. All of them focus on mechanical methods rather than clever application of known theory. The biggest challenge in this book, in fact, is keeping your hand intact as you take 50 partial derivatives, and then hit a problem that says "repeat for the second partial derivatives."

Meanwhile, your fine motor skills deteriorate quickly as you overwork them drawing or re-drawing a graph or table every other problem.

Bravo, Debbie Hughes, you can use Mathematica's graphing capabilities to their fullest. We're all proud of you. Now can you keep them out of your textbook? No one wants to see a billion tables staring them in the face, and then have to copy and change a billion more for homework. That's not a way to learn. This whole textbook is just a way to pretend you're learning.

Waiting to really learn anything from this book is like waiting for Richard Simmons to get married. Trust me, it's not gonna happen, folks.

kubkhan

"This innovative book is the product of an NSF funded calculus consortium based at Harvard University and was developed as part of the calculus reform movement" Beware of Harvard, i.e. reform Calculus. Instead of teaching people about maxima and minima, you show them how to use a calculator to guess. What a load of junk. Nobody learns what anything means, just how to apply formulas, etc. It is a shame what books and authors like these are doing to college mathematics. This book is particularly bad, a whole bunch of fluff, not a damn ounce of substance.

I have to disagree with my fellow Californians and unfortunately agree with someone from New York. This is an excellent foundation overview without the clutter of Anton's and Stewart's books. I found it to be a conveniently carried paperback and an enjoyable read.

This book is so pathetically minimal that I award it...1/10 of a star. (It may be useful in starting a fire in your fireplace...maybe). DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS SOLUTION MANUAL! It only includes about every other odd solution, and most of the time, it shows just the (often incorrect) answer. The worst part is, that same answer is usually in the back of the textbook! It is definitely not worth even $5.00, so save your money!