I have owned this CD for several months now and have completely enjoyed it. I find this CD to be a useful tool - not only in answering questions I might have but in helping my children do assignments in school. It is very easy to navigate and the pictures are top quality. A very smart addition to any library.

Outstanding! At first I thought a CDRom would lack the warmth of a book. This CDRom is on fire. What an achievement and what a treasure.

Whether for the newcomer, enthusiast or student, David Brooks's CD-ROM cannot be bettered as an accessible and stimulating resource. Many images - such as the Van Gogh Museum's version of 'Vincent's Bedroom in Arles' - are supported by informative commentary. Where possible, Brooks adds full details of ownership, display and the specific letters in which Van Gogh mentions the painting, drawing or sketch. It is a delight to witness rarely-seen works from private collections and others that previously one had only read about. Added bonuses are the very clear chronology and biography that David Brooks provides. This CD-ROM both broadens and deepens one's knowledge of The Master and is excellent value for money.

I read this book several years ago and it taught me so much about art, life, love and passion that Sweetman's biography resonates in me still. Vincent is the most famous artist on the planet today and so much has been written about him. But David Sweetman really took the time to update so much information - just as he did in Gauguin's biography - that you learn so much more by reading this book. I recommend it to everyone who wants to understand about mental illness and all the stigma that goes with it. Vincent was very brave to rise above his pain and blessed the world with so much beauty and colour. This text refers to the hardcover book.

If you want to know Vincent... this is the best book out there. Sweetman is thorough and empathetic and like the Don McLean song, lovingly writes through Vincent's eyes.

The review above is absolutely right. This is one of the best biographies of Van Gogh out there. Sweetman's approach is thoughtful and well researched. This biography has proven to be an invaluable reference for my own Van Gogh research. I hope that the publisher of this book will consider reprinting it. It's a real shame that Sweetman's excellent book isn't easily available to anyone interested in Vincent van Gogh's life and art.

This is a fine reference! It asks the hard questions, and the workbook exercises are designed to help everyone over the tough answers. Readable, practical, most helpful.

"Don't merge without it!"

This book is invaluable when your nonprofit is going through any form of strategic restructuing, up to and including mergers. As someone who has participated in nonprofit merger negotiations--both as a consultant and a board member representing a nonprofit--I believe this book can make the difference between success and failure.

Not only does David La Piana talk the talk in this book, he has also walked the walk. As an Executive Director of a nonprofit for many years--and having successfully led that organization through several mergers--La Piana understands the realities facing nonprofit managers and board members. His approach to strategic restructuring is pragmatic, and has enabled his consulting firm to become THE experts on nonprofit mergers in the country.

Even if you're just thinking about restructuring your nonprofit, buy this book!! You will save your nonprofit time, money, and energy, as well as protect your own sanity during the process.

Shawn Reifsteck (Masters in Nonprofit Administration)
CEO, Philanthropy Associates

I wrote this book because there was no other resource available to nonprofit leaders that provided a thorough, easily understandable road map to negotiating and executing a merger. As both an executive and a consultant I have been involved with more than 60 nonprofit mergers and have learned what works and what does not in these difficult, emotional undertakings. This workbook provides all the tools you need: decision trees, worksheets, and special tips, to make your merger work. Check it out!

I wasn't sure what to expect with this anthology, but I found myself enthralled from beginning to end. Nnedi Okorafor's "Crossroads", Seth Lindberg's "Atropos", and James Dorr's "Madness" were special delights.

A great mix of chilling, horrifying, and otherwise entertaining stories.

This is a great compilation of magic, madness, culture and creativity. All of the stories were pretty satisfying, some of them terrifying! There are some writers here that are going to go places. Watch for the authors of the two longest pieces, Nnedi Okorafor (her story is called Crossroads) and James S. Dorr (he wrote a story called Madness).

Using DSM-IV criteria throughout, the authors manage to provide a succinct analysis of psychopathology, as seen from a transtheoretical perspective.

The research alone quoted throughout makes this book a valuable resource, but combined with an engaging writing style and top-notch structure, it promises to secure Barlow and Durand's position as authors-to-beat when it comes to the field of Abnormal Psychology.

Very thorough treatment of the subject from well rounded, expert authors. Text assumes no previous knowledge, and is quite lengthy because of its comprehensive nature. I have used it many times as a reference text after taking a course in which it was required.

Also this text is an example of a beautiful job of "book making". The text has many color plates -- and a high quality printing job.

This book sits rather oddly with others in the Institute of Economic Affairs Choice in Welfare Series. Whilst the sub-title 'Welfare before the Welfare State' suggests that this is an account of self-help swept away by the state the content is more contested arguing that the self-help which was available was confined to the skilled and semi-skilled working class rather than to all of the working classes at the time. This point of view is not particularly challenged, a fact which, given the genesis of the project, is surprising to say the least.

Before Beveridge is a welcome addition to the literature about welfare before the state intervened in Britain. Contrary to the establishment history books which used to argue that the benevolent state stepped into a welfare vacuum, a number of studies have challenged this claim with books and scholarly articles demonstrating that the working classes were more than capable of providing education and welfare for their families by themselves as individuals and in groups long before the administrative machine moved in.

In this slim volume it seems that the editor and the staff at the IEA Health and Welfare Unit have rather abdicated the case for individual enterprise in welfare provision to those authors who put forward the view that in reality this provision was available to a select number of the working classes and the unorganised and the poor were not able to avail themselves of the opportunity. The so-called liberals appear to stand aside in the face of the attack and do not attempt to join battle with those propositions. I find the papers of Whiteside, Harris, Vincent and Thane to be particularly well researched and argued as well as persuasive given the paucity of David Green's paper especially.

The weakness of the writers who suggest that there was indeed a need for the intervention of the state in bringing welfare provision to the neediest in British society is the determination to overlook the evidence that many of the disenfranchised working classes who did not belong to either friendly societies or trades unions were determined to provide education for their children regardless of their personal circumstances. The fact that individuals of limited means were capable of identifying, by themselves, often without any education of their own, options for the betterment of their children over the longer term and were prepared to forego current onsumption to pay for it speaks volumes which significantly undermines the position supporting the need for state involvement.

This is a very thought provoking book which adds substantially to the lierature and which colours the debate about welfare provision more vividly than before. I would heartily recommend the book to sixth form and college students of history and social policy as well as practitioners of the black arts of social policy and policy-makers in general.

This book sits rather oddly with others in the Institute of Economic Affairs Choice in Welfare Series. Whilst the sub-title 'Welfare before the Welfare State' suggests that this is an account of self-help swept away by the state the content is more contested arguing that the self-help which was available was confined to the skilled and semi-skilled working class rather than to all of the working classes at the time. This point of view is not particularly challenged, a fact which, given the genesis of the project, is surprising to say the least.

Before beveridge is a welcome addition to the literature about welfare before the state intervened in Britain. Contrary to the establishment history books which used to argue that the benevolent state stepped into a welfare vacuum, a number of studies have challenged this claim with books and scholarly articles demonstrating that the working classes were more than capable of providing education and welfare for their families by themselves as individuals and in groups long before the administrative machine moved in.

In this slim volume it seems that the editor and the staff at the IEA Health and Welfare Unit have rather abdicated the case for individual enterprise in welfare provision to those authors who put forward the view that in reality this provision was available to a select number of the working classes and the unorganised and the poor were not able to avail themselves of the opportunity. The so-called liberals appear to stand aside in the face of the attack and do not attempt to join battle with those propositions. I find the papers of Whiteside, Harris, Vincent and Thane to be particularly well researched and argued as well as persuasive given the paucity of David Green's paper especially.

The weakness of the writers who suggest that there was indeed a need for the intervention of the state in bringing welfare provision to the neediest in British society is the determination to overlook the evidence that many of the disenfranchised working classes who did not belong to either friendly societies or trades unions were determined to provide education for their children regardless of their personal circumstances. The fact that individuals of limited means were capable of identifying, by themselves, often without any education of their own, options for the betterment of their children over the longer term and were prepared to forego current onsumption to pay for it speaks volumes which significantly undermines the position supporting the need for state involvement.

This is a very thought provoking book which adds substantially to the lierature and which colours the debate about welfare provision more vividly than before. I would heartily recommend the book to sixth form and college students of history and social policy as well as practitioners of the black arts of social policy and policy-makers in general.

Though the Jewish population of Westmoreland County is spread more thinly than it would be in Brooklyn or Miami Beach, anthropologist Mark Gruber sees the same themes repeated here he would associate with large Jewish settlements in urban areas -- themes that include "skills on how to live as a minority and how to do so with a dignified and decent kind of life. How to cope with the pressures of people who are anti-Semitic or who are ignorant. I just see such a marvelous ethnic heritage being passed on," he said. "I am strangely proud to be a son of the soil from which these storytelles have come," writes Gruber, a Benedictine monk, in his introductory notes to the book. "My people also figure in this narrative: we are `bit players' in their drama."

The subjects of the book range in age from their 50s to their 90s, representing the collective experience of several generations who arrived in Westmoreland County in three distinct waves: during the Civil War, at the turn of the 20th century and as mid-century refugees. Mostly of Russian and Lithuanian descent, they built several communities clustered around synagogues in Greensburg, Jeannette, Latrobe and Mount Pleasant. Many of the original settlers were Pittsburgh based peddlers who sought customers among the county's coal miners and farmers. They went on to develop a number of well-known mercantile fortunes. They took active roles in the civic organizations of the wider community. Most individual accounts reflect a common lifestyle built around Judaic law and tradition: the temple as central institution; the family name as sacrosanct; the male as leader and provider. Education, often not far below having food on the table and clothes to wear, was a paramount goal.----Diane McMullin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh East, Wednesday, November 12, 1997

This text has received rave reviews from my students. It is reader-friendly, well-organized and up-to-date. The authors have integrated biological, cultural and social, psychological and other aspects in their explanantions. The case studies are well done and on target, simple yet precise. This text works well for a semester course (ours in twelve weeks and I have found that I can adapt it to that period of time). There is enough theory to interest advanced students, and enough basic "criteria/DSM lists" to satisfy the more [cognitively] concrete members of the class.

In this fine volume, David Boucher and Andrew Vincent introduce the reader to the thought of seven major British idealists: Thomas Hill Green, Francis Herbert Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet, David Ritchie, Henry Jones, Robin George Collingwood, and Michael Oakeshott. And they do it by approaching these seminal philosophers through their political theories.

It's a good book on a subject on which there aren't too many good books. Another one in its class is William Sweet's _Idealism and Rights_, which is also excellent but specifically devoted to Bosanquet.

The two of them more or less take turns -- Vincent writing on Green, Bradley, and Bosanquet, and Boucher writing on Ritchie, Collingwood, and Oakeshott, and the two working together on Jones (on whom they've cowritten an earlier book). Each is a respected scholar in this field; each is a reliable guide and expositor.

This focus on political theory strikes me as a good idea. For one thing, it gives the reader new to idealism a way to get a handle on these philosophers. For another, it makes clear that the British idealists really _did_ have social issues in mind and _weren't_ just philosophizing in a vacuum. For a third thing, the range of political opinions represented here makes clear that metaphysical idealism doesn't, in and of itself, commit anyone to any particular political theory or outlook (a lesson that needs to be learned by some present-day libertarians who think Hegelian metaphysics is a recipe for totalitarianism).

These two gentlemen write clearly and well. Oh, they misspell the last name of my favorite philosopher Brand Blanshard -- as "Blanchard" -- but that's not as unusual as it probably should be, and I forgive them. At any rate, the exposition is sound and thorough, and each of their subjects is placed in his proper historical and philosophical context; Bradley, for example, is discussed largely in relation to Henry Sidgwick. And they are not, let's say, subjected to any undue reverence; we meet them warts and all.

It's well done. I recommend it to any reader who wants to learn more about idealist philosophy in general and British idealism in particular.

Ever since the British government proposed radically changing British law towards secrecy, many unscrupulous people have tried to cash in on it. Journalists either slagged off or praised the government in an attempt to increase their own prestege and their newspaper's circulation. For a time it was the talked about issue in the media and around the office water cooler. It was, however, short lived and other items came into prominance within a couple of weeks. In the end, practically no-one had made any significant money or fame with the story. David Vincent, however, had written his book long before the story ever came about and has written one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. It details, in addictively well written English, the course of secrecy from Victorian times to the present day. It gives an amazing insight into the workings of the British government and the extraordinary methods, devices and motives that were employed to keep 'the stiff upper lip' towards a variety of foes (and friends) throughout the modern era. I admit that I had never before picked up a history book (and can't honestly say why I started reading this) but it is more than a history or political book. It makes you wonder about the world we live in and why so many things are kept from our knowledge. If you never read another popular history book in your life, read this as history has never been so fascinating.