Mr. Lavender recently died (April '03)and his obituary in the Los Angeles Times prompted me to go out and buy this book. I could not put it down...just as the Times stated, Lavender is a wonderful writer who knows how to describe the west. This book has it all, mountains, mining, cowboys and history with a nice personal touch. I would recommend it highly. It is an "easy" read and one that will leave you feeling satisfied once you complete the book. I am going to search out more of Mr. Lavender's works.

An excellent book! Ranching and mining, rich history, not to be missed.

David Lavender is a historian whose personal account of growing up in Telluride and Ouray, Colorado is captivating. Mr Lavender documents the arrival of the 1950's "modern age" to western Colorado and Utah. During his youth, the open desert and mountain lands evolve from a setting for silver mines, lone cowboys, and vast cattle ranches into the garden of the atomic age. He documents the arrival of uranium prospectors, the departure of independent cowboy spirits, and finally, the eventual return of the nuclear boom towns to dust. It is fascinating to read him today and to see what the southern Utah desert was like 50 years ago. If you visit these areas, I recommend that you read "One Man's West" as you pass through them. It will give significance to the sight of decaying farm or mining equipment by the roadside, and fill you with appreciation for those who make an effort to preserve the wilderness. I buy this book in multiple copies and give them to my friends. It has no particular bent for environmentalism or even "wise use" in the wilderness, but gives you some historical insight. I have never met Mr. Lavender, but I admire him as an author and historian. He has authored several other books incouding and account of the Lewis and Clark expedition which, I have heard, is quite good."One Man's West" was written in the 1940's then updated in the 1950's. The New York Times published a glowing review of the book in the mid 1940's or 1950's. Its age has only helped to enhance its significance to a contemporary reader of western history.

It should be obvious that Shakespeare wrote great literature. That fact is assumed by the authors of this book. However, Allan Bloom and Harry Jaffa demonstrate a deeper awareness of Shakespeare than one will find in literature departments. Shakespeare combined poetry with an acute knowledge of politics, and these excellent scholars have written a clear and convincing account of some of those facets of political wisdom. Read this fine book and help rescue Shakespeare from political irrelevance.

I am admittedly not too familiar with much of Shakespeare scholarship out there, but I would venture to suggest that (considering the elgance of Bloom's prose as well as the depth of his insights) this work should rank among the finest in Shakespeare scholarship. Such a statement would surely offend the academic snobbery of the Shakespeare scholarship cabal who would reflexively question the authority of one who is not a Shakepeare specialist, in particular, the authority of one who has specialized in expounding the thoughts of Plato and Rosseau. However, I would argue that this is precisely the very reason that elevates Bloom the political philosopher in a privileged position in understanding Shakespeare. The rationale is supplied in the beginning of Bloom's study itself: the great classical dramatists or poets were not proponents of the art for art's sake or creating art for purely aesthetic reasons. Instead, through their art, the great dramatists and poets sought to convey certain timeless truths about human existence, in particular, about political existence, for man is a zoon politikon according to Aristotle. Hence, Bloom's account is a necessary corrective to those language nabobs who would rather prattle about the meters and stanzas and in so doing lose sight of Shakespeares account of the Whole.

It is difficult to convey how wonderful I found this thin little book to be. It is no larger than a slice of rye bread, but the food for thought contained therein could feed a soul for a thousand days. It took me two mesermizing hours to get through the Introduction and Bloom's essay on 'The Merchant of Venice'. At first, I mistrusted my recollection- was there really so much there? Had the dry old play decayed so completely in my estimation, or had Bloom inserted his own opinions? No, after more blissful consternation, I relived what I had long taken for dead. Allan Bloom really sees things. His deft insight makes Shakespeare seem real and urgent again, despite how unfashionable and out of vogue the debate may seem to contemporary minds. The Jewish and the Christian come to light, the entire legacy of each Faith revealed keenly, sharply, and decisively in favour of one higher power. The authority of thought, the power of unaided reason brought to bear nakedly on an eternal, ever-so tender, sore. Bloom's essay on 'Othello' and 'Julius Cesear' prove out this reviewer's intial wonder at the work. To readers familiar with Bloom's other works, I include myself, this book was additionally worthy because it showed that the issue Allan Bloom later became famous for, the decay of education, was already at the forefront of his mind in the early 1960's. He states in the book's introduction and claims it as his motivation for publishing the essay. This was 1964, several years before the signifigant events of the 1960s took full shape and bore full weight on American society. The introduction includes Bloom's stark assessment of Poetry and Philosophy. He quotes Napolean (one of very few direct quotes, the footnotes are rich, but few) to argue for the superiority of poetry over politics and then slyly demostrates the superiority of philosophy, or the philosopher, true and proper, over poetry. This is a book you could own and keep and reread often, even secrete it undercover and carry it across hostile borders, real and imagined.

I'll make this short...For anyone interested in Chinese history, literature, or culture, this volume is an absolutely essential collection of primary sources, and includes prefaces and explanations by China scholars. There is no one better than de Bary, and this new edition includes everything from the 1960 edition up through the Jiang Zemin era.

I've read a little of this and that about Chinese history and religion, and I needed a book to fill in the basics and the details. This was perfect.

First, the selections included excerpts of almost everything I'd ever heard of: Shang Oracle Bones, the Analects of Confucius and the Confucian classics including the I Ching; Mozi; the Tao Te Ching; Zhuangzi (who famously dreamed that he was a butterfly); Mencius; Xunzi; the Zuozhuan; Sun Tzu's art of war; all kinds of stuff about Chinese schools of Buddhism including the Lotus Sutra and the Flower Garden Sutra and the history of Guanyin and Wutai Shan; Li Po (Li Bo) and Tu Fu (Du Fu); and neo-Confucianism (which was so influential in Korea). In short, this is really, practically the "Eatern Canon" and the selections are deserving of such a label. I was in turns morally and intellectually challenged, uplifted, informed and surprised; but rarely bored and never disappointed.

Second, the introductory essays were exactly what I wanted to know: who might have written it, and when, and who read, and what it meant to them. For all that information, they were still brief and the bibliography was sufficient to help me chase the points that left me curious. An important thing these essays did was to cover the political, historical and social backgrounds (and foregrounds) of the texts, so I learned about Chinese history as well as literature and religion. If that is what you want to do, this book will serve you well.

The binding is excellent, and while the price might look steep I have to say it's a bargain considering what you get.

I didn't read Volume Two, and so I don't know if it is as good. It is certainly a lot smaller!

This second edition of a classic provides an update on a reference recommended for college-level collections specializing in Chinese literature. Sources of Chinese Tradition has been recognized already as a scholarly staple: in its new form Sources of Chinese Tradition has been extended to include the Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin eras of China and includes invaluable source readings on history and literature of the times, from the 18th-century Qing civilization onward.

I am a former Russian journalist and a documentary filmmaker who has also worked at NASA in the US.

"The Anatomy of Russian Defense Conversion" touches on many more subjects then just Russian Defense Industry. This is a very thorough, informative and important work that analyses the history of US and Russian Defense Industries, weapons exports and conversion, and possibilities of transformation from a militarized to a civilian economy in the new millenium.

The book also reflects on the current state of defense industries in the US and Russia, and "brain drain", or loss of intellectual capital in Russia and other countries after the Cold War.

I found reflections in Arkady Yarovsky's chapter "From the Culture of War to the Culture of Peace" very contemporary, especially in the light of recent events in the Middle East:

"Our time is unfortunately still characterized as "the culture of war." The culture of war is evident first and foremost in the hostilities between people and states, between nations and faiths, and in the inability to solve conflicts by peaceful means... Humanity has made it into the third millenium because the lust for power has been restrained by fear of nuclear war, but this restraint is not to be counted on permanently... The danger hidden in the separateness of people of different countries, unfortunately, remains a legacy for the next century... If humanity renounces the legacy of the culture of war, it can start down the road of cooperation, peaceful creation, and enlightenment. This is the only road leading to the culture of peace."

One can imagine that I, as a small child living in San Antonio, Texas, next to three Air Force bases and an Army base, living through the Cuban missile crisis, thought about the threat of the Russian military. I also met my parents' wonderful emigre' friends, and to this day have had warm relations with Russian people.

This book tells of the enormous cost to the Russian people of building and maintaining their war industry for so many years, a militarized economy where people got second best. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, defense industry just about shut down, but civilian industry has not grown great enough to support the population. There are horrendous unemployment, and terrible health and social problems. There is some danger that the path of least resistance for Russia, if we neglect the situation, could be to re-start weapons production, for export at first.

In my opinion, the United States also, to a lesser degree, has neglected the manufacture of quality consumer goods, importing them instead, and has let its physical economy deteriorate, despite much activity in the financial sector. We, too, have been insufficiently careful of the environment. This book provides some idea of what these trends could lead to, if carried to extremes.

Perhaps the involvement of United States companies in Russia, could lead to more of a recognition here, of the importance of the physical economy. Hopefully, both countries could also work to put industry on a healthy environmental footing as well.

There is awareness of the problem of Russian defense conversion, at high levels of our government. I hope this book helps educate people and sustain that interest.

Ted Sturgeon was a nudist, a wild man, a tortured soul who reinvented himself and turned around to help the rest of us reinvent ourselves. It's a pleasure to watch his mind work, and a pleasure to see his stories still running wild and free without him. But his stories may upset you and make you wonder about things you've always taken for granted. His were the real dangerous visions, and his tears are mixed into his work. Reading Sturgeon is like grabbing a live wire, except being shocked never made me bellow with laughter.

Baby Is Three is the wonderful sixth volume in the Sturgeon collection. The collection is organized chronologically by story creation date. Having read and enjoyed the first five volumes, it was hard for me to imagine that I could possibly like Baby Is Three even better. But I did! Sturgeon's writing shows an impressive maturity of idea and flow in this volume, and Paul Williams' story notes kept me flipping to the back of the book to read about what was happening in Sturgeon's life at the time he penned each story. As a psychologist who is also a science-fiction fan, I enjoyed the intra- and interpersonal dynamics within each story, as well as the opportunity to understand and deconstruct the context in which Sturgeon wrote the stories, as offered by Williams' story notes. A bonus: two of Sturgeon's own short, autobiographical pieces are included at the end. For those who love science fiction that is thoughtful, playful, and psychologically based, Baby Is Three is a must-read. And for those who have read Sturgeon's well-known More Than Human, Baby Is Three will add to your understanding and appreciation of that tale, as well.

Wohoo! Great book! Read it cover to cover in 2 days! Makes law easy! I love it! My kids love it! Kids everywhere will love it! Read it to your children at bedtime!

A first year law school case book. Covers all relevant Tort Law in historical and modern contexts.

This is the best book I've read on the subject. It is complete and gives the views of various scholars both Rasta and non-Rasta. I keep it as a resource and have read it 3 times.

Chanting Down Babylon is a welcomed addition to the growing literature on Rastafari. This reader sucessfully brings together most of the scholars studying Rastafari, as well as Rastafarians themselves, providing an important insight into Rastafari. The inclusion of articles addressing biblical hermeneutics as well as Rastafari theology begins to fill an important gap in Rastafari scholarship. A real treasure for those interested in learning about Rastafari for the first time, and for those who wish to expand their knowledge of this important religious movement.

Blake's work must be read in reproduction. An engraver by trade, Blake revolutionized book production with his "infernal method" of engraved illumination, hand-crafting each book. In the Continental Prophesies, Blake revolutionizes historiography; _America_'s retelling of the American Revolution, for instance, juxtaposes Washington and Paine with Orc and Urizen, fact with myth, to produce something that powerfully transcends the dull round of history. The accompanying illuminations cannot be omitted-- they do not simply illustrate the text, but ILLUMINATE it, supplementing and counter-pointing. And Blake's art is awesome. The Blake Trust's series is superb, conveniently transcribing the handwritten text of the engraved text on the adjacent page, offering important visual variations between versions of the book, and amply providing comprehensive glosses (in seperate sections, both interpretative and contextual) on each plate/page visually and textually. It is expensive to buy the entire series, but one MUST have Blake's illuminations, and Blake is an author for whom one needs all the notes one can get (Blake's allusions are extremely complex, so one must at least recognize them on the most basic level). One cannot say enough about the the visions of Blake presented in these books, but this is too much; you must SEE.

I recommend that any fan of William Blake buy this volume and the other 5 in the series. The books are beautiful, large, and handsomely bound. Each book is reproduced in full color, using a six-color printing process rather than the standard four. The pages are heavy, opaque and have a gorgous lustre indicating very high quality paper. The text of each book accompanies the color reproductions in standard typeface with very competent commentary to boot.

A must have!

this is an excellent compilation of stories about hippies and their adventures. i highly recommend it.

What was it like in the sixties? Have you ever wondered this? Even if you lived through the sixties. A collection of stories, some sad, some weird, some gross, and some crazy. This book will take you back. The stories are anywhere from a few lines long to a few pages. A truly amazing book, that not only will you enjoy, but will force on your friends to enjoy