Having worked in the heavy industrial electrical/mechanical field for the past 26 years, I have worked at many facilities similiar to those illustrated in this book. I love them! You can say what you'd like regarding their environmental impact, but I can tell you, these are great places to work. The process is usually very interesting, and the customer most always demands a quality job. So...there's some polution, but not one of you reading this review can say that your purchasing habits, and style of life has not contributed to the very images that you would now turn your nose up at. Sure, the EPA would love to have you believe that they are cleaning up the world, when the fact is, they are only driving real industry out of the USA, only to produce the same if not more 'polution' over the borders. And with our governments blessing. 'Still buying the same products, are you not? Look and see where they were made next time! It makes me sad to see these big industrial sites closed down. I love the book, because I can show my kids, and my grandkids the types of places that used to exist in this country_The type of places that has enabled us to go around as the police department of the world, and enforce what WE deem as right on every continent of the earth. It would have made a nice closing statement though, if you would have included an arial shot of the Pulp & Paper Mill that produced the pages of this book. I am assuming that is, that they were made in the USA.

This is such a wonderful book on him. It gives a lot of info on him and a better perspective on who he is. It makes you realize that he is just a normal person like everyone else. A lot of books have tried to do this. Some do a great job...but not like this book. If u are an avid Prince William fan or if you just wanna know more about him....this is definitely the book for you.

We are much different physiologically than we know! This book's author (the discoverer of folic acid and pantothenic acid)specialized in the ways that humans differ biochemically and physically. He writes in plain, easy-to-understand English and talks about what his findings mean. This book made a profound difference in the way I looked at health and diet.

When I first read the book Woof! by Alan Ahlberg, I loved it. I was eight years old at the time, living in England, and the book was a Book Club special at school. It was a very popular book at that time and it was later followed by a TV show which I also enjoyed. I think the main reason I enjoyed the book so much is because of the simple idea that you can become a dog, have an adventure in your own town, do whatever you wanted for anyone, and still be able to get away with it while saving the day in the end. I get it out every now and again to read it just to bring back the days of childhood innocence and dreams. This book is certainly a dream maker. I get excited even now at the age of 17 to think about being able to be a dog and do all the things Eric does in the book. The end of the story provides a catch too which should appeal more to an older reader. Woof! is an extraordinary book, even 13 years after its release. I can't wait for my children to read it.

This book was very interesting. It is about an orphan girl who is sent away to live with her Grandfather in the alms. She is very happy there making lots of friends. Then she is taken away by her mean aunt to be a playmate with a rich girl; who she later makes bossum friends with. But she returns after being incrediaby homesick. The ending is very happy and uplifting, also my favorite part. Everyone should read this book because it is a VERY VERY good book.

Heidi is very exciting. She is very outgoing and adventurous. She gets sent to the Alm Mts. with her grumpy old grandfather. She shows him how to be nice and friendly. She meets a boy named Peter and they become good friends. He then shows her his family. Heidi meets his grandmother and falls in love with her and everything that she does. She then gets sent to a weird house.She soon came home.
This book is recommended for all ages to be read to or read by you!
Why am I telling you this go read it for your self!!!

Heidi is ranked up there with, "Where the Red Fern Grows" with it's genuine love and care of the hearts of children and adults. I read this book to my children when they were in 1st and K...several times I had to stop to choke back the tears.. or laugh in exhuberance. It's a heart-warming tale of a little girl who didn't understand the "status quo" and sought to make sense of not only her own world, but those around her. Her innocense, genuine love and acceptance is so moving and so inspiring.

I found "The Story of Spain" to be a highly readable, informative book about a very complex subject. So I was puzzled by another, quite mean-spirited review attacking the book. Spanish history lite? Well, telling the entire exciting story in under 300 pages must have been a challenge, but Williams was up to the task as all other reviewers agree. The John Crow book, "Spain: The Root and the Flower," is also excellent, if a bit more academic in approach, and would make a good follow up for those wanting another perspective. In fact, Williams himself cites it as a source for further reading. Regarding the use of an identical quotation, that must be common in history books. I doubt if Mr. Crow was there to hear the words direct from the saint! (He too copied it from somewhere.) And in fact Williams acknowledges using Crow and many other traditional sources (the usual boring history) to tell "the story" with breathtaking clarity. The scholarship must be sound as well, if so many professors have endorsed it. Indeed, Williams' book has been highly praised by Dr.Paul Smith, who used it for several years in a course he taught for the Spanish department at U.C.L.A. That's the same place where Mr. Crow once taught, I believe. Yet it's "The Story of Spain" that was selected. To me, that says a lot.

The Story of Spain by Mark Williams is an excellent history summary of Spain. In less than 300 (although large) pages, he can portray the history of Spain ("Europe's Most Fascinating Country") interestingly and in-depth. All points of Spanish history are touched on. Williams fully details the stories of the Iberians, the Romans in Iberia, Moorish Spain and Al-Andalus, the Reconquest, the Inquisition, the French Century, and 20th Century Spain. If you are looking to get a good handle on the history of Spain, I would recommend this book.

I got this book to prepare for a tourist trip to Spain. It gives a very good overview of the history of Spain starting from prehistoric times up to about the mid-1990's. The more modern history is understandably rather cursory. The Spanish Civil War was a bit confusing with the multiple political parties and really requires it's own book to understand. The author gives a small biography on each time period for futher reading. The best feature of this book is that after each chapter the author gives tourist sites related to each historic period. For example after the Roman history chapter, he lists sites with Roman ruins and how it relates to what you just read. This makes the book a good reference to bring along on the trip. It you plan a tourist trip to Spain and only have time for one book, this would be the one to pick up.

"Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once." - Caesar

Just one of the many brilliant quotes from this powerful and enduring tragedy, which happens to be amongst my very favorite Shakespeare. How could anyone not enjoy Marc Antony swaying the weak-minded and feeble-minded plebians with his vibrant and rousing speech? Julius Caesar is unquestionably quintessential Shakespeare, a monumental work that perhaps is surpassed only by Hamlet and rivaled by Othello, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, & King Lear.

Julius Caesar teaches us about the dangers and pitfalls of ambition, jealousy, power, as well as the sacrifice for the greater good - even if it is another's life. Amongst the bood-thirsty traiotors, only Brutus genuinely believes in the assassination of Caesar for the greater good of the Republic. Julius Caesar galvanizes the brain and awakens the spirit from within with scenes such as when Marc Antony proclaims, "Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war."
Countless amounts of quotes and passages throughout the play rank among my favorite Shakespeare. Needless to say, this book should be on the bookshelf of any and all with any semblance of intellect and enough cultivation to appreciate such superb literature.

The modern perspective following the text enlightens and should be read by anyone seeking more knowledge about this amazing tragedy and time in history. An irrepressible 5 stars.

Julius Caesar is probably one of the better plays written by Shakespeare. This play if full of intrigue, action, betrayal, and emotion. This play is not very long (5 acts), which makes it a quick and exciting read. The characters are built nicely, and what is nice about this version of the book, is that it is easy to read, and any words that may be unfamiliar are defined on the opposite page, making it easy to look them up, and understand Shakespeare's difficult writing style. This is definately a play worth checking out. It's a fun read, and with plenty of helpful tools built in to help along the way.

Shakespeare gives a whole new face to history, transforming Caesar's assassination into a conspiracy, in which the conspirators have some reluctancy to join in. Brutus, for example, is deeply tormented, as Caesar is his friend and trusts him, but he is manipulated by Cassius, who makes Brutus believe that his duty to the people of Rome should be greater than friendship, and that the Romans want Caesar dead. The book is an exploration into the human psyche, and changing characters. I find it interesting that, though the play is called "Julius Caesar", its central character is Brutus, who has to deal with the guilt of betrayal versus what he feels is a duty to the people versus his love of Caesar. Intense, breathtaking, dramatic.

One cannot gain an understanding of the American Civil War, (as well as the periods preceding it and following it), unless one eventually learns to see it through the eyes of the people who lived it. This book is presents the reader with just such an opportunity.

The author follows the lives of two men from two completely different societies, through their youth, their adolescence and young adulthood, through the War and to the time where their paths cross in the battle on Little Round Top in July 1863, through the remainder of the war and its aftermath, right into old age. Each is affected by the society which surrounds him, each man embodies the best and the worst of those societies and each is motivated to fight in their defense. There's no hero worship here; each man is presented as being quite human. Yet, each man remains quite likeable in his own way.

There's some surprises as well. Chamberlain was played by Jeff Daniels in the movie "Gettysburg". In that movie Chamberlain gives an impassioned speech to his troops about being "...an army out to set other men free..." The real Chamberlain wasn't a friend of slavery but he was no abolitionist either. Oates, for his part, (and much to my surpise), was one of the first officers to officially lobby the Confederate Congress for the enlistment of slaves early in 1863. (He was unsuccessful in his attempt).

If I haven't given the book 5 stars it's because the author's writing style is a bit on the ponderous side. Nonetheless, this is the kind of book that you'll need to have in your library if your interest in the period is a serious one. Go experience it for yourself!

So many books have been written about the Civil War that Conceived In Liberty might seem to be more of the same. But the book clears new ground on Joshua Chamberlain, by noting that this "marble man" of the North had blemishes of his own -- as did his counterpart, Col. William Oates of Alabama (the other subject of this first-rate dual biography.

I have read a number of books on Joshua Chamberlain and have always thought that there was another side to the man: that he was not simply a great hero, but also a soldier who was thoughtful, and deeply disturbed by the conflict. Perry adds the balance that is so desperately needed to our knowledge of Joshua Chamberlain, then completes the portrait by counterposing his life with that of William Oates.

These two men not only met at Gettysburg, but they are symbols of the larger issues that consumed our nation in the nineteenth century. Filled with information and anecdotal accounts of the lives of both men (incidents that appear in no other work on either Chamberlain or Oates) Conceived In Liberty is not only well-researched it is a fantastic read. This book is long overdue.

Yes, Conceived In Liberty is controversial, but that is its value. Perry is a courageous writer and a first-rate historian.

The Civil War was, in some ways, our own clash of cultures that ended up with us having a stronger, and more philisophically harmonic country than we had then. After the war we no longer were "Those United States" but "These United States".

While it took longer (and still has not taken root) for some Southern areas to accept that they have changed because of the war, this book outlines in a fascinating fashion why the American Dream was won in 1865.

Joshua Chamberlain and William Oates are both opposing personalities. Chamberlain was a professor, Oates a laborer. Chamberlain was a respected fellow before the war. Oates was much less.. even going into hiding at one point from the law.

What they had in common was a belief that they had gone as far as they could in their lives before the war. Chamberlain was forever going to be a professor. Oates forever a laborer.

Both faced each other in Gettysburg. While Chamberlain was the hero of Little Top in that battle, Oates eventually had a longer and more productive politcal life than Chamberlain.

Neither of these men won their positions by birth, wealth, or by the inner workings of a political machine. They won their positions by hard work, and the admiration of their men in battle and the people they fought for.

While it may have been possible prior to the Civil War for these men to have done so (Abraham Lincoln is a prime example) the fact is that the Southern philosophy was beaten in 1865, and the Northern philosophy of hard work, and position by trust and admiration rather than birth, and wealth won out and both sides reaped benefits and still are from that day.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's more gloomy plays. It is downright grim. It starts grim and only gets blacker... ...It is one of Shakespeare's better plays

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's more ambiguous main characters. Motivation is always a big question with him. Sure, he is hungry for power. Yet he also needs prodding from several quarters to take most of his actions.

Lady Macbeth is really no different. She comes off as eager for evil early on, but is utterly shocked by its repercussions. Her attempt to go against nature leaves her absolutely unhinged and thirsting after guidance--only to find despair. In this regard, Shakespeare anticipates the psychology of Dostoevsky.

Macbeth is also one of Shakespeare's most supernatural plays. Regardless of whether one wants to debate the reality of Banquo's ghost, there are forces at work in Macbeth that are often unseen, but which drive the plot. The witches and all the unnaturalness come up against the forces of nature (the trees) and the divinely appointed King.

The most remarkable thing about this play is, for me at least, that it becomes a true tragedy only in its last moments. Only when all the stuff has hit the fan, and he has realized his doom is eminent, does Macbeth show the courage and nobility of a true tragic hero.

Macbeth is a great place to start if you are new to Shakespeare. It is a fun place to return if you're not.

While I was basically familiar with Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth, I have only recently actually read the bard's brilliant play. The drama is quite dark and moody, but this atmosphere serves Shakespeare's purposes well. In Macbeth, we delve deeply into the heart of a true fiend, a man who would betray the king, who showers honors upon him, in a vainglorious snatch at power. Yet Macbeth is not 100% evil, nor is he a truly brave soul. He waxes and wanes over the execution of his nefarious plans, and he thereafter finds himself haunted by the blood on his own hands and by the ethereal spirits of the innocent men he has had murdered. On his own, Macbeth is much too cowardly to act so traitorously to his kind and his country. The source of true evil in these pages is the cold and calculating Lady Macbeth; it is she who plots the ultimate betrayal, forcefully pushes her husband to perform the dreadful acts, and cleans up after him when he loses his nerve. This extraordinary woman is the lynchpin of man's eternal fascination with this drama. I find her behavior a little hard to account for in the closing act, but she looms over every single male character we meet here, be he king, loyalist, nobleman, courtier, or soldier. Lady Macbeth is one of the most complicated, fascinating, unforgettable female characters in all of literature.

The plot does not seem to move along as well as Shakespeare's other most popular dramas, but I believe this is a result of the writer's intense focus on the human heart rather than the secondary activity that surrounds the related royal events. It is fascinating if sometimes rather disjointed reading. One problem I had with this play in particular was one of keeping up with each of the many characters that appear in the tale; the English of Shakespeare's time makes it difficult for me to form lasting impressions of the secondary characters, of whom there are many. Overall, though, Macbeth has just about everything a great drama needs: evil deeds, betrayal, murder, fighting, ghosts, omens, cowardice, heroism, love, and, as a delightful bonus, mysterious witches. Very many of Shakespeare's more famous quotes are also to be found in these pages, making it an important cultural resource for literary types. The play doesn't grab your attention and absorb you into its world the way Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet does, but this voyage deep into the heart of evil, jealousy, selfishness, and pride forces you to consider the state of your own deep-seated wishes and dreams, and for that reason there are as many interpretations of the essence of the tragedy as there are readers of this Shakespearean masterpiece. No man's fall can rival that of Macbeth's, and there is a great object lesson to be found in this drama. You cannot analyze Macbeth without analyzing yourself to some degree, and that goes a long way toward accounting for the Tragedy of Macbeth's literary importance and longevity.

Noble Macbeth and the story of his decay due to the seduction of the forces of darkness - I liked it. The play sets off with an impressing scene, the chant of the three witches, a perfect use of language, I dare say. It takes only about a page and I knew it by memory after two times reading. We used to quote it during the breaks, and actually still do so sometimes. "When shall we three meet again...and so forth. After this promising start the language gets quite hard (I'm not any native form Enland, the US or any other english speaking part of this planet). One can follow the action though and every five or six pages there's a reward for your patience, at least for anybody who likes the power Shakespeare's language is able to display in their good or best moments: "Have we eaten on the insane root?" and the likes. Of course there's also the famous "It is a tale, told by an idiot...". It's for these moments, where Williams knew how to transfere a feeling of one of his caracteres into the realm of a universal significance, that I enjoyed the play...

I am an IT manager requiring both theoretic and practical guidance on the deployment and management of Windows 2000. Prior to purchasing this book, I bought other "administration guides" from Microsoft Press and several other publishers. While they were reasonably helpful, they lacked real depth and an understanding of what I face. They generally spend hundreds of pages on basic issues like print and file server functions, and ignored more advanced topics By contrast, this book digs-in. For example, it provides an exceptional theory chapter on Active Directory. This is followed by a comphrensive implementation chapter. Another strength is the various chapters on security, Kerberos, PKI, and virtual private networks.This is truly the only book I have seen that handles both basic level and advanced topics in a comprehensive and an easy to read fashion.

Windows 2000 is the latest operating system form Microsoft and the complexity with which it was developed has made the understanding of the application more difficult for administrators. You have planning and migration issues, active directory and directory services issues, new file formats that weren't part of the NT OS. You have distributed file system concepts, public key encryption and security, VPN and IP Security as well as IIS issues. All of this must is similar, yet different that NT and yet you are responsible for making sure the transition is easy and quick. The Ultimate System Administrator's Guide is definite help in this task.

The 894-page text is load with figures, table, diagrams, pictures, notes and most importantly step-by-step procedures for the support and administration of Windows 2000. The author break down the subject matter into sections with detailed descriptions of what you need to do and then allows you to try it with the hands-on exercises. I was most impressed by the amount of information presented, I was a little taken back by the somewhat complex technical explanations in certain areas. Overall the author did an impressive job making sure that the information was for the most part easy to understand.

I liked the fact the book starts with an overview of 2000 administration and the 2000 architecture, this way you have some idea of the way the operating interacts with your computers. Then there is an excellent section on the planning and migration from NT to 2000. The author makes every effort to give you the most up to data and accurate information so that transition is as smooth as possible. Then after all this you begin to discuss the Active Directory and Directory services which is over 100 pages of information.

Chapters 7,8 & 9 are the user administration chapters dealing with accounts, groups, policies, permissions, and security, sharing and distributed file sharing. Follow that up with over 350 pages of information on networking, security, encryption, naming services, VPN and IP security data management and disaster recovery, terminal services, IIS issues, clustering, indexing and message routing. This is simply one of the best books for 2000 administration on the market today.

There is also an appendix with over 100 pages of 2000 commands and utilities, by far the most complete collection I have ever seen. Finally the book makes working with and supporting 2000 a whole lot easier. The layout of the topics and information itself is what makes this book a must have for all those studying for the certification or the longtime administrator

OK, I have never found a technical book that answers all my questions but this one comes as close as any I have seen. My concern is Windows 2000 security and managing that beast know as Active Directory. Both of these issues have dominated the press as the downside of Windows 2000. Fortunately, this work positively addresses the issues heads-on. The book reviews the major issues in an easy to understand format and then provides proactive actions for effective implementation. While I have several specialized books that address Active Directory and security issues, this book frankly does a better job than these specialized texts. This also is the only book that integrates the concepts. I only wish I had bought this heavy duty book earlier. Hopefully the authors have a Windows .NET book in the works.