Some funny and well-taken points on MCO's. But when I read it, I couldn't help but wonder if the author might be just as abusive to his patients as the MCO's he takes hits at. Is the author using this forum to serve the people or himself?

The author is brilliant and witty in his illustrations of the insanity that exists in health care today. A must read!

The author focuses our attention on the inherent problems of business-oriented people making decisions on our medical care. With humor and insight into patient concerns, Bransfield takes us through the various pitfalls that managed care can present to the consumer - also popularly known as the patient! The problems of confidentiality, right of consumers to make informed decisions, and the place of the profit motive in medicine are addressed. I consider this a MUST READ for anyone who relies on health insurance to pay their bills.

This biography succeeds in its evenhanded portrayal of John Wayne. No doubt some will criticize it because Davis doesn't spend his time eschewing Wayne's politically incorrect opinions, but neither does the author lionize Wayne the man. What you have left is a concise and readable 400 page biography that covers all the movies and all the wives. Davis gives his opinions as to why the Wayne legend still survives, and what his fellow actors thought of him way back when.

Interesting is the story behind the making of the ALAMO, a film he produced, directed and starred in, the subsequent Oscar campaign, and the aftermath. Also interesting is Wayne's relationship with director John Ford, whom he loved, and their disagreements.

Though very in-depth in explaining each movie John Wayne appeared, the book lacks somewhat in explaining who John Wayne was. In comparison, Donald Dewey's recent biography of Jimmy Stewart gives the reader a more detailed examination of Stewart than Ronald Davis does of Wayne. Ronald Davis also relies too much on the self-centered Pilar Wayne, the third Mrs. John Wayne, for anectdotal information. Davis's use of interviews with Harry Carey, Jr. are quite valuable and illuminating. It's a shame that Davis didn't thoroughly interview other actors who shared the screen with Duke, including Ron Howard, about whom Duke thought highly or Kim Darby (Mattie in True Grit), who didn't like the Duke (remember, True Grit was filmed in 1968). Mr. Davis does an excellent job explaining Duke Wayne's desert years in the thirties doing one-reel westerns. One has to admire Wayne's persistance. One note Pilar Wayne reveals through Ronald Davis that puts Wayne in a very bad light and has changed my personal views toward him to the strongly negative, was Duke Wayne's insistance that a pregnant Pilar get an abortion. The baby was inconvenient as Duke was in the divorce court with number two wife Chata in a highly charged divorce battle. The baby was killed but Duke Wayne received a fairly good divorce settlement. A conservative icon, when the chips were down, was capable of a selfish, dishonest, sordid, dirty act. The Duke was a great actor and icon but was not a good person. He was not a great American.

--Derek Leaberry

I read this book many years ago for an American Literature class and am now rereading it for an American History class. I enjoyed it the first time and am enjoying it now. The writing is fluid, entertaining; the points made are profound. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Winthrop and the early Puritan immigrants--a quick, pleasurable read.

The impact of the Puritans on America is fascinating. The world has thrown millions of immigrants onto American shores over the centuries, but those millions have never quite diluted out the foundational impact of those 20,000 that came during the great migration. Regrettably, most Americans are not born again, but because the founders of New England were biblically minded people, the United States has inherited the ideals of family values, education, care for the less fortunate, accountability in governnment, liberty of conscience, reward for hard work and honest business dealings. Among the nations, we still stand as a beacon of hope because of these ideals. God used a few people fully devoted to His Word to do marvelous works and a wonder.
How exciting it is to watch the mind of Winthrop wrestle with the same issues that modern Christians wrestle with-how to best be salt and light TO the world without being OF the world. His response was to build a city on a hill, a New Jerusalem, a holy priesthood--and the world has never been the same.

Edmund Morgan was an excellent writer, and it shows through in this book.

The book shown above is the hardcover edition. It's also published, without illustrations, in five paperback volumes. I read only THE TUDORS AND STUARTS, which had no illustrations other than two or three maps and graphs. The first half of the book, about the Tudors, was written by one man, and the second half, about the Stuarts, by another. The volume was short, only 142 pages.

This is my favorite period of British history and the one with which I am most familiar, but still, I found the text confusing. I think there were several misplaced lines of type in the second half. Maybe a writer can't do much in 70 pages to elucidate a period, and probably the illustrations would have distracted from the sketchy text. The writing was not lively.

The very last section is called "Intellectual and Religious Life," but it was mostly about religious life. Literature is almost totally ignored throughout the volume. Pepys is never mentioned.

There is no index. Perhaps the complete, one-volume version has an index, and the publisher didn't want to go to the trouble of compiling indexes for the individual volumes. Still, a history book without an index is unthinkable.

On the whole, the book was disappointing.

I'm a half-educated American, with the vaguest notions of British history. I bought this book hoping to be able to understand the story of the British Isles, in a more or less clear outline. That didn't happen: after 200 pages, I tossed the book, wondering just who it was written for. Here's why I tossed it:

(1) It doesn't have an author. Instead, it has a bunch of authors, each apparently assigned a certain portion of British history to cover. The problem is that none of the authors seem to have consulted each other, nor did the editor seem to edit. On every other page, you see a fact or definition repeated (by a previous author), or a topic referenced (but uncovered by a previous author). History is a messy thing, but it has to be organized to be learned, and any hope of presenting material in terms of themes or movements is lost, because styles and approaches switch radically from author to author, from clear and sparse, to confusing and overly-detailed.

(2) It should have an author. This sounds like point (1), but hear me out: the editor, Mr. Morgan, claims that writing grand history, spanning the length of the British past, just can't be written anymore. It is better, rather, to have specialists write about their specialities. Sounds good in theory, but is just abominable when placed next to comprehensive histories written by single authors. Toynbee and Trevleyan wrote such history earlier. And J. Roberts writes such history now, particularly his History of Europe, and History of the World, two models of lucid historical writing that make this disjointed compilation look like an ill-considered mishmash.

(3) It should have an audience. Or at least a different audience: the average intelligent reader wants a clean, interesting exposition of the important events and currents of the past. While some chapters achieve that, the most seem to be written not to the Average Reader, but to the Rival Colleague. And so we see a few facts casually presented, and then a sudden digression into some piece of scholarly minutae that leaves the reader (me, that is) pexplexed.

(4) It should teach historical knowledge, not assume it. This is one of those histories that assumes from the onset that you know all the relevant history. That might be OK for a narrow scholarly article, but it's an awful presumption for a comprehensive history. I read dozens of pages discussing the 'Domesday Book,' its importance, and its effects. The authors never thought to enlighten the ignorant, and explain what this Domesday Book was (an very old tax survey). Things like this litter every page.

From previous reading, I've learned that good history can be written. From reading this, I've learned that very bad history can be written, too.

This is a good book for a reader who is little like me. I have no training in British history and little in Western. I read quite a bit of history and don't mind a challenging work, though, which lets me get through most histories without too much frustration. This book often lacked the context with which self-teaching historians can teach themselves, even with frequent map- and index-checking.

The chapters of this book are all written by different authors, each one clearly an expert on the subject of his individual chapter. The authors do not agree on their audience. For instance, Gillingham's chapter on the early middle ages was clearly written, had several maps and followed a timeline before ending with a thematic look at the economy and political structure of the period. The very next chapter, Griffiths' chapter on the late middle ages, skips around by dozens of years within a single paragraph, mentions towns in France without maps and assumes foreknowledge of the battles of the Hundred Year war. Unfortunately, this book contains more chapters like the latter than the former.

I suspect that a European or an American with a basic familiarity of British history would find this a very useful intermediate level book with which to learn or re-discover an overview of Britain. The handiness of one volume written by many experts providing an overview of such a long history is what is right with this book. To those with some background in the subject, this book will be extremely convenient and useful. For someone without European geographic knowledge or a recognition of the figures in British history, even a patient and attentive reading will lead to frustrating hunts for the background of many important figures mentioned once within the narrative and to pointless searches through inadequate maps.

This book was used as the text for my junior year AP history class, and it is absolutely awful. The book is extremely difficult to read because there is so much unnecessary information crammed into each section and the authors seemed more interested in simply recording facts than making a coherent assessment of history. My teachers agreed that this book is difficult, uninteresting, and poorly edited and are looking for a new text.

I love history and was excited to take the AP History course but I could not focus on this book for more than five minutes without becoming sleepy and losing focus. The book does present accurate and extensive facts covering the history of the US from pre-colonization to the mid-1990's, but there has got to be a better way to learn them.

I am now a junior in high school and this is the book I use as the main textual reference for my AP US History Class. I agree with Amanda, this book is boring (but there are times when the author of a particular section shows a sense of humor). It is crammed with names of people, places and pieces of legislation that are never explained and, at times, appear to be irrelevant. I read a lot of supplementary material, but still do not have the time to familiarize myself with everything mentioned in the book. It is my opinion that some of the space in this book could have been used for better explanations of specific events rather than a place where the author could list everything (s)he knew about the time period in that BAM, BAM, BAM way (sorry, I have no other way of explaining how that book reads, sometimes it's like an index of events, except not alphabetized).

This text provides the necessary background and factual information to successfully instruct the 11th grade Advanced Placement United States History course throughout the world. Included in the text are appreciated charts, maps, and illustrations.

The text includes all that is necessary for the student and teacher dedicting themselves in combination to fulfill what is needed to score well enough on the national Advanced Placement examination to earn college credit.

The 8th edition includes American History well into the last decade of the 20th Century.

This book is an absolute waste of good money.
I know now, how to address the eldest son of a Scottish peer at the Henley Regatta, but not an ambassador or a Consul at a much more frequent dinner party!

That the bottle of Port should never be handed clockwise may be a nice tradition we should hold on to, but where do the hands belong at a table when they are not busy eating? Where does the left one remain when drinking? etc. etc. etc.

I would have expected a Guide for the 21st Century.

Any offers for a second hand issue..... just kidding I wouldn't want it on my concience.

The book Etiquette and Modern Manners by John Morgan, who died much too young in a tragic accident in 2000, is published by the British publishing house Debrett's, publisher of many authoritative social reference guide books. Some advice you might find overdone. However, if you follow the suggestions when in doubt you can hardly go wrong. This guide covers many things, such as entertaining, dressing or writing letters in correct style. For example, this book informs you about the correct way to address people with titles and what to do if you are invited to a shooting party. We like John Morgan?s style as he always tries to explain why an etiquette would make sense. For some it might be an old fashioned thing of the past, but if you would like to be prepared for that social occasion, this book will give you some reliable advice.

While this book contains some good information on the roles of the different vitamins and minerals in our bodies and their history of discovery it fails by recommending the traditional thinking of that time regarding therapeutic use.
The cover states " A complete Guide to a Lifetime of Safe and Effective Use"
The RDA is a safe use but Effective use is missing in this book.
For instance the author states in the Vitamin C chapter quote "If daily intakes exceed 250 to 300 milligrams, the body will become saturated, not absorb the extra amount and excrete them."
He also states that "at excessively high levels toxic symptoms can develop." And then calls "megadoses" ten times the amount recommended which would be 60mg x 10 ie 600mg.
The author then goes on to state "that the scientific evidence is virtually negative.
Obviously the author never read any of the hundreds of papers by the likes Dr Fred Klenner, Linus Pauling etc.
Vitamin C would have to be the least toxic substance around.
Dr Klenner successfully treated thousands of patients with all types of diseases with levels as high as 100,000 mg/day without any toxic effects.Vitamin C should be taken to bowel tolerance which is somewhere between 2000mg and 6ooomg for a normal middle aged person.
The chapter on Vitamin E was equally lacking in depth ignoring the years of published work done by the Shute brothers.
Overall this book is outdated and I would recommend other titles.
IE. Natural Prescriptions by Robert M. Giller
Nutrition Almanac by Kirschmann
...

I am finding I am starting to really enjoy reviewing the health books that I have been reading of late. Not only am I learning many things to help myself, but also to pass on to others.

Good Health with Vitamins and Minerals is packed chock full of valuable information about every imaginable vitamin and mineral you could think of. Not only does the author tell you what food source these vitamins/minerals can be found in, but he also gives you information on food preparation so you do not 'cook out' the nutrient. Great advice.

I liked this book, felt it was easy to read and understand and I could use the information in it. I recommend it to those seeking more
knowledge on their vitamins and minerals.

To your health!

On the whole, Mr. Jackson has written a balanced account of the enigmatic financier of the Gilded Age, but several glaring errors jump out at the reader and leaves one wondering just how reliable the author's research. He mentions in his discussion of the sinking of the Titanic for example, that Captain Edward Smith escaped drowning by paddling away in the same lifeboat as Bruce Ismay, chief executive officer of the White Star Line. Captain Smith, as the most casual observer of history now knows, went down with the great liner. This kind of slip-shod reporting completely destroys an author's credibility, especially when discussing a well-documented and important historical event such as the Titanic sinking. There are other errors of ommission and commission that riddle the text. To his credit, Mr. Jackson presents an evenly balanced account of Morgan, based (I would guess) on previously published books, though some of the personal insights into Morgan's private life are missing. This is not a definitive biography - far from it. It seems that Mr. Jackson put the volume together in great haste, when in fact a definitive study of the life of Morgan, and the House of Morgan, would require years, if not decades to complete.

This is a nice small book about how to use stories in the classroom of foreign language teaching. There is a brief introduction about the how and the why of using stories in the classroom and the rest of the book presents many stories in a concise form and suggestions on how to use them with students. There are many different stories drawn form many different fields and traditions: African myths, Indian legends, European stories, Jewish stories, fairy tales, Christian stories and more. I found very useful the introduction as well as the stories but the suggestions on how to use them either seem very complicated to follow or very simple for a class of teenagers of this decade. Anyway the collection of stories is excellent.

According to the fly-leaf, the Chicago Tribune considers Mr. West "possibly our finest living stylist in English." Well, that may be but buddy he was way out of his genre with this book. The only reason I struggled through the entire book is that I finish what I start. Verbose, convuluted, complex and dry are some of the words I can muster up to describe this book. Reading one of the Greek tragedies that West continually refered to would be easier than getting through this horrid work of historical fiction.

West is a second-rate Faukner. At least Faukner lived in Mississippi. I got money that says West has never even BEEN to Arizona. I will say that this book had a LOT in common with Doc Holliday. Reading it was about as much fun as going to a dentist -- and did you about as much good as a dentist with a consumptive cough and a shaky hand.

Bottom Line: Don't waste your time.

I enjoyed this novel, as I have all of West's historical fictions. As a reader, you have to have a sense of humor, an inkling when someone is pulling your leg for dramatic effect. When reading West, this is doubly important. He's a master at this sort of thing. In other novels, he's made mention of Shakespeare during Milton's time, of Tourette's syndrome in WW2 China, and the conceit of having Lord Byron's doctor narrate his autobiography from the grave. Take it with a grain of salt, enjoy it. I suspect most readers prefer his spin on the fate of Big Nose Kate. It's fiction. It's wondeful.

Besides, West has moved on to bigger and better things. Can you imagine someone staking their whole lives, their entire imagination, their reputation and everything that consumes the soul on Doc Holliday? Life's too short, live a little.

The fact that Paul West, "with so little research" (?), could put together such a fascinating look into the life of Doc Holliday is extraordinary. With typical Westian flair he reconstructs Holliday as Holliday himself wishes he had been. This "fictional" account has permanently altered my idea of who Doc Holliday was. Bravo Mr. West. As for genre, I believe this is a literary book, rather than a pulpy one. It reminds me of Robert Kroetsch's The Studhorse Man and Coover's Ghost Town. For any generous reader, this book is sure to be a pleasure.