How has a tiny island had such a great impact on world culture? With it's evocative and poetic photo essays and personal almost intimate written essays about Cuba, Cuba On the Verge goes a long way to making you feel in your bones the potent Cuban 'ajiaco' the mixture of cultures and the vibrancy of the life and art it produces. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Chucho Valdes and Cuban popstar 'el Tosco' which helps us move beyond the limiting view of Buena Vista Social Club as the only Cuban music that most people in the world are aware of. Cuba is not caught in a fifties timewarp as most articles and books you read these days would have you believe, and Cuba On the Verge shows that.

A huge & quietly engrossing collection of essays & pictures by leading Cuban & American writers & photographers, offering unique insights into life in this fabled island nation.

Each essay & photo series delights--thinking men & observant women--about rituals & revolution; of struggling for love & beauty; the music of Cuba, focusing on Chucho Valdés; sugar mills & tobacco farms; the faces of change; life among the ruins; the emerging middle class; of being born too late for the revolution; of landscapes & mythology; how a Cuban comes home; letters from exile.

From the pens of Jon Lee Anderson; Russell Banks; Avilio Estévez; Abelarde Estorino; Cristina Garcia; Pablo Medina; Ana Menéndez; Mayra Montero; Nancy Morejón; Achy Obejas; Susan Orlean; Hugo Perez; Antonio José Ponte; Eduardo Luis Rodriguez & Reina Maria Rodriguez.

From the cameras of Niurka Barroso; Ernesto Bazan; Virginia Beahan; Carlos Garaicoa; Kastia Garcia Fayat; Abigail Gonzáles; Andrew Moore; Inge Morath; Abelardo Morell; René Peña; Manuel Piña; Silvia Plachy; Adalberto Roque; Fazal Sheikh & Carrie Mae Weems.

William Kennedy's Introduction is written in the style of a Miami newsman, who has written about Cuba for decades & now at last he's going to the "incipient phoenix, an exotic ambiguity...one of the major social experiments of the twentieth century..." & his excitement is palpable.

Playwright Arthur Miller's Epilogue is rich in impressions & American points of view of an encounter with The Leader, President Fidel Castro.

We were drawn to the title of this book simply because of our interest in Cuba and its history and hardships. Hoping to someday visit, we were intrigued by the visual and literary representation of the story. The photography is provocative with components of sadness and pride evident in the faces that are looking back at the camera. What is remarkable is the tragedy of a once beautiful country. The destruction of Cuba and the hopelessness of its people are vividly depicted. Yet the pride and strength that is intrinsic to Cuba's culture fosters growth and change.

As a lawyer who has had experience in courtrooms throughout the United States and in many other countries, I was delighted to read William Miller's very funny exploration of our legal and political systems. He has a very deft way of examining the inadequacies of our system by holding up somewhat exagerated examples in a way that demands laughter. And, he does this in good taste and good fun. Political correctness has met its match in Mr. Miller.

William C. Miller, author of "Long Pig," is the kind of man you'd like to have sitting across from you at dinner. He can tell a story with humor. His ear for dialogue is near-perfect. He has experience enough to skewer the party blow-hard's pet political and cultural theories and smile as he does it. He also has expertise enough to lend credence to any skewering he chooses to do.

Those qualities that might make him excellent dinner companion also give this, his first novel, a leg up the ladder of literature-possibly to a rung on a best-seller list. It's fresh and fun and implausible and irreverent. A Berkeley graduate, this man can write. So pull up a chair for the feast. When was the last time you heard San Franciscans mentioned in the same breath as cannibals?

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"

This is a charming and exceptionally creative work. It evokes images ranging from Waugh to 1930's "screwball comedy" movies. Despite the fact that the author exposes a range of human weaknesses, the story is never malicious. To the contrary, it is warm and understanding. It's as though God is observing His/Her children with a mixture of amusement and sadness.

People in the Bay Area in particular should enjoy this work, which is set in San Francisco and uses the city's colorful political scene as its backdrop.

Arguing About Slavery has a very difficult subject to make live, what William Lee Miller calls the "tedium and sublimity" of republican debate. The historian's duty to be evenhanded even when faced with the moral pit of slavery doesn't make the job any easier. Yet, Miller handles these problems with aplomb and, more, handily succeeds.

At about 500 pages, Arguing About Slavery is concerned with the parliamentary debate and tactics used by pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in the Congress in the 1830's and 40's. It shows how, nearly single handedly, John Quincy Adams insistence on the right to petition exposed the South's determination to controvert the Constitution in its quest to shelter the practice of slavery from congressional criticism. By the time the Congress puts the "gag rule" to rest, Adam's exposé had made abolitionism a powerful and accepted political force in the North.

Miller storytelling skills has the reader discovering the extent of sophistry the pro-slavery forces were willing to go to as they were forced to resort to deeper and deeper hypocrisy. He does this, however, without denigrating the men of the South. Indeed, much of the enjoyment you'll derive from reading Arguing About Slavery will come from the rhetorical skills the Southern Congressmen liberally display throughout.

Although Miller's protagonist is clearly J.Q. Adams, he spends considerable effort on a broad cast of characters, from the original abolitionists and their puritan backgrounds -- the Grimké sisters, Theodore Weld, Elizur Wright, Elijah Lovejoy -- to Adam's allies in the House -- Joshua Giddings, William Slade -- to the pro-slavery giants -- John C. Calhoun, Caleb Cushing, Francis Pinkens -- and moderates like Henry Pinkney (whose gag rule ironically was intended as a compromise) and President Martin Van Buren. If these biographies are not familiar to you, these and others in Arguing About Slavery should be. Miller describes the history and premises of all parties involved, but doesn't interrupt the flow of the tale to do so.

Miller does an incredible job of making the tedium and sublimity of republican debate come alive and at the end of the book you better understand the place of liberty in America's national consciousness, the intellectual forces that led to the Civil War, and the nature of the founders' relationship to the practice of slavery itself. The only criticism I have is that sometimes Miller's rhetoric is a bit too partisan, which reduces the value of the book as ammunition against slavery's apologists, which do still exist. But that has nothing to do with merits of the book as a work of the historical art, which are excellent.

This is an excellent book, one that surpassed any expectation I might have had for it. And my expectations were high, because the critics spoke so highly of it when it was released. Still, I doubted whether a decade-long legislative battle could carry my interest for 300+ pages. I was wrong. Every page and character was interesting, and the consistent imagery of John Quincy Adams, in the sunset of his political career, battling the southern foes in Congress on a daily basis is an enduring one. Books like this one should be substituted for the dry history curriculum that I had in high school.

Miller has taken a little-known set of antebellum incidents and made them live. The book is both a scholarly work and highly readable for the layman. Miller provides a modicum of "modern parallels" and editorial asides that would, if they weren't so intelligent, be inappropriate. As it is, his observations along these lines as the book progresses makes the work more interesting rather than less. This book is more interesting that last year's biography of John Quincy Adams, which I also enjoyed.

Usually most history books are as dry as the dust with which they deal. But with THE HISTORY OF EARTH, Hartmann & Miller tackle with vast success a topic that is only marginally understood,at best, by the layman. And make no mistake; this history is for the layman, but one who has a desire to know where we come from and where we may be going. Part of the learning process involves digesting a flood of data and making sense of it. Hartman & Miller use dozens of drawings, pictures, and mattes to bring to life a series of threads that they weave into a coherent whole.

What the authors reveal is a planet that may well stand unique in the universe. The precious element called life arose on earth in such a fortuitous manner that the odds of life having spontaneously arisen in any form were so staggeringly improbable that I marvel that I am here right now to pen these words. Yet, life did arise here, and Miller & Hartmann trace the long sequence of twists and convolutions stretching from the Precambrian right up to the present day. Most readers who go to the trouble of buying this book probably took a course or two in Earth History in school. What this book provides is a much longer and more comprehensible version of the geological timeline that readers have seen but failed to grasp. After finishing this work (I read it as if it were a novel), I concluded that if we here on earth are truly alone in the cosmos, then we had better take full advantage of our having won the Cosmic Lottery. We are not likely to win twice.

This book was wonderful in that it gave me a valuable and easily understandable introduction to earth science, evolution, plate tectonics and planetary science, to name a few subjects. The only glaring mistake in the book, which I recognised because I am a biologist, is that the author refers to DNA as being made up of amino acids. This is incorrect. Proteins are made of amino acids; DNA and RNA are composed of nucleotides, entities completely different from amino acids. Despite this problem, the book is still excellent reading. I am buying several copies to give as gifts to family.

As a trained engineer and educator, I've scanned, read and studied many books on science. This is far and away the best I've ever seen. As magnificent as the painted illustrations are, they simply match and support the superb quality of the text itself.

Covering the full range of natural history, "The History of Earth" not only explains how the earth and life evolved, but explains how we gained this knowledge, or why we believe it to be so. Where multiple theories exist to explain something, they are each given fair coverage, with the evidence for and against each theory explained.

But most important, the book is accessible to all adults as well as to children. I began reading it (with some side explanation) to our kids when they were 7 and 10, and they loved it.

The book begins with an explanation of the formation of the Earth and Moon, describes the likely origins of life on our planet, and explains the changing environment and how that led to the origin of life. This is followed by in-depth treatment of the evolution of the diverse lifeforms leading to today's species, and excellent coverage of recent and current geological phenomena. The book concludes with a projection of the likely future of the earth over the next billion years or so.

I cannot praise this work highly enough. If you only buy one science book for you or your kids, this is the one you want.

Miller presents a detailed history of a remarkable period in U.S. Congressional history leading up to the Civil War. Miller describes the battle waged in the U.S. House of Representatives, led by John Quincy Adams, to preserve the right of citizens to petition their government, and his efforts to keep the issue of slavery before the House. I finally saw one of the important effects of the infamous 3/5's rule, which was to create a power imbalance in Congress in which slave holding states dominated the House due to the additional Congressional Reps. they gained by virtue of their large slave populations. It was this imbalance that hindered Congress from a full debate regarding the abolition of slavery. Extremely informative, very well researched and documented, and Miller weaves a witty commentary throughout that is most enjoyable. This is a book that should be read in every high school American History class. It is at times dry (big surprise as Miller details Congressional proceedings) but nonetheless fascinating. I have a new appreciation of the contribution of Adams to the battle against slavery.

This book deals with events from 1835 to 1845 and is principally concerned with John Quincy Adams' fight over the House rule which forbad the reception of petitions about slavery. This may seem like a narrow issue to be the subject of a 556 page book, but this book is flawlessly written, and has great humor--exposing the idiocy of the slavery upholders--and at times brought tears to my eyes. A dropback to the stirring events of 1775 and 1776, found on pages 155 to 157, is as good a writing as I have ever seen evoking the sheer drama of those days. This is a nigh flawless book for one as interested as I am in congressional history and the years before the Civil War.

Try discussing the relative role of slavery in the American Civil War, and the discussion will likely turn on its ear quickly, with little generated other than heated words. So often, it seems, we cannot discuss this subject except with anesthetic prose, or highly spirited points of view. Not so with William Lee Miller's Arguing About Slavery. The author, Thomas C. Sorensen Professor Political and Social Thought at the University of Virginia, has crafted a wonderfully expressed story of the battle over slavery in the 1830s and 1840s on the floor of Congress.

To those of us in the late twentieth century, the idea of petitioning to consider a prayer for action, the Constitutional sanctity of the act, and the relative abuse of the privilege by Congressmen both North and South seems the actions of an almost foreign government. The nearly maniacal desire of Congress to avoid any discussion of slavery in toto also seems incredible in light of government today. Using Congressional records to retell the story in the words of the participants, Miller weaves a fascinating tale as forces in the North try to ensure the rights of their petitioners, as well as deal with continued efforts to stop them dead in their tracks.

There are three major areas to the book: the opening of the slavery issues in Congress, with the presentation and fights by Southern radicals to keep any admittance of them from even appearing in Congress, the development and passage of the "gag rule," in which any attempt to place a petition in front of Congress regarding slavery was "gagged," and finally, the story of former President John Quincy Adams in these fights, and his efforts to support the rights of American constituents in these battles.

The story of Adams is the centerpiece of the book. In laying out the man who would not back down to both Southern and Northern Democratic interests, Miller brings back to life an American figure who is likely lost to many of our generation. Adams, already in his sixties as the slavery battles began, was an unlikely hero. Having served in nearly every capacity he could prior to agreeing to run for Congress after his presidential term, he brought a dogged determination to duty that is hardly recognizable in today's terms. Adams was not an abolitionist, but he was determined that the voices of his constituents, should they be of an abolition ideal, should be heard in the halls of Congress. To that end, he battled for a decade to make those voices heard.

Making use of Adams's massive personal diary, historical context, as well as the Congressional Globe coverage of the proceedings of Congress, Miller delivers the story of these battles in the words of those who were there. Thus, we can see the fanatical words of South Carolinian planter James Henry Hammond: "And I warn the abolitionists, ignorant, infatuated, barbarians that they are, that if chance shall throw any of them into our hands he may expect a felon's death," and Waddy Thompson, Jr.: "In my opinion nothing will satisfy the excited, the almost frenzied South, but an indignant rejection of these petitions [calling for the end of slavery in the District of Columbia]; such a rejection as will at the same time that it respects the right of petitioning, express the predetermination, the foregone conclusion of the House on the subject -- a rejection, sir, that will satisfy the South, and serve as an indignant rebuke to the fanatics of the North." And finally, we see and hear in our minds eye the torture of Adams as he struggles to balance his personal devotion to his country (he was a strong Unionist) with his obligations and duties to his office. Looking at war as a possibility between the two sides of the Union, he concludes in his diary: "It seems to me that its result [that of war] might be the extirpation of slavery from this whole continent; and, calamitous and desolating as this course of events in its progress must be, so glorious would be its final issue, that, as God shall judge me, I dare not say that it is not to be desired."

Much more than just a chronological narration of events, Miller weaves in background of the events and personalities in order to make his subject come alive. Arguing About Slavery is a book outside the mainstream of standard Civil War book fare, but a must if you have any desire to understand the people, events, and stories that led to the great conflict beginning in 1861.

The unique genius of Professor Miller's work lies not in his ability to give new information to the reader. Indeed, most of his observations are instantly recognized by any perceptive reader as being things he or she already knew about the world. The genius of The Anatomy of Disgust, as with his other works, is his ability to recognize fundamental truths that most people never think about at all, or would prefer not to, and to organize these truths into a coherent system by which human behavior can be analyze and understood.
I strongly recommend this book!

One more "I loved it!" review? Yes, and here's goes. Mr. Miller does a marvelous job, writing in laid back but eminently readable prose that is also judiciously scholarly, describing, explaining, or just tossing up speculations about a culturally modified body of reaction that provokes the "Ee~oo,gross!". The subject has been handled before, obviously, judging by all the references he makes to the various studies, some recondite, some classic, including Mary Douglas' and Freud's. The book reads like an intimate seminar, with the author citing immediate examples from his own life, and casually but appropriately pointing out things done by his own children. Miller makes it clear from the get go that his study is necessarily restricted to the study of the phenomenon as shaped and defined by the culture and class to which he belongs: WASP with a roundedly informed grasp of his own tradition and values. In that sense, the book makes no claim to be universal, a disclaimer that stands out as an act of virtue in contrast to much of disgustingly pompous academic sweepers out there. Nonetheless, the author does manage to bowl pretty well, getting a strike here and there in terms of observation concerning the qualities that, for all practical purposes, are universally recognized to be those of the disgusting. I use the term 'universal' as it applies today, what with globalization and all. Yes, coprophagy (eating of feces) is indulged in by some for thrills, but I doubt anyone practices drooling saliva into a cup and then drinking it back up. The author suggests that it may not be too much to credit the invisible structure of human social evolution to the distancing of two points, YUCK and YUM. The culturo-environmental determination of the length between those two points may very well contain much of what it takes to delimit a culture's potential for art, science, and language as well. The book contains what everyone already knows (too well!) but never bothered to articulate for him/herself. There is much here to delight the inner pre-pubescent in us all, but it is a serious book, nevertheless. After all, in the grown-up world, it is not the gooey, slimy stuff so much as the ethical defect in the form of gooey, slimy character and corresponding actions that make us think,"EE~oo! Gross!" A nice companion to Sloterdijk's The Critique of Cynical Reason.

I can think of no greater praise to confer upon such a wonderfully erudite, wryly penetrating, and rigorously eloquent book than that Nietzsche's approval of it as a genuine contribution to the genealogy of morality can be readily imagined. Indeed, like his previous, and comparably trenchant, work, "Humiliation," his "Anatomy" deploys etymology, anthropology, social- and individual psychology, history, and inspired scrutiny of 'heroic' literature in order to, as Nietzsche characterized the task in 1887, "decipher" from "what has been documented, what is really ascertainable, what has really existed... the whole long hieroglyphic text... of humanity's moral past."

I'm 55 and too old to learn anything, but understanding the basic principle of which Miller and Hendricks write has been really helpful and I've thought about it many times in the past year or so since I read the book. I've been able to much better understand myself and those around me and to give better advice. I even bought copies for both of my sons. Unfortunately, the explanation of the principle was much more interesting than the authors' application, which for me became rather pedantic. Regardless, it's a valuable read -- just do the first half (5 stars), then rip off the last half (2 stars) and toss it! Seriously, READ THE BOOK!

At last, a book on vocation and job placement that celebrates the giftedness of the individual rather than attempting to pigeonhole people into personality types.

Debunks the myth of 'becoming'... the idea (so popular in modern culture) that people are basically 'self-made' rather than gifted by God.

A worthwhile read for anyone looking to surface their unique gifts and gain insight into how to put them at the service of the human family.

This book should be a must for all high school and college students. The author has practical exercises and information on finding out about ourselves,our choice of careers, and our relationships. In addition the information in this book will break down the barriers as to what makes us really happy and why.

Folly's father is Ploutos (wealth) who regulates all public and private affairs of mankind (war, peace, military power, justice, assemblies, marriages, treaties, laws, art and science, humour and earnestness...).
This book is full of humour, occasionally pessimistic and sometimes a cynical diatribe against mankind. His principal targets: the Roman Catholic Church, his fellow countrymen, the Dutch, and women. Erasmus was a misogynist.
This book is still not old-fashioned and didn't loose his vitriolic style. By reading it, I still learned a lot about human foolish behaviour.
I recommend the short but impressive work by Stefan Zweig on Erasmus for an appraisal of his public and private life.

You cannot beat this edition, prepared in the early darkness of WW II, for depth, humor, and readability. An outstanding look at the most courageous Renaissance man imaginable.

This is a funny and inteligent choice. Praise of Folly may make us think much more than we might -- if that is possible -- imagine.

William Lee Miller's book underscores Lincoln's general goodness and honesty. This book is less so a traditional biography and more an examination of Lincoln's moral beliefs and principles. The author traces Lincoln's ethical development from a young man in New Salem, Illinois to the mature Lincoln at the height of his intellectual powers in the 1850's and 1860's. Mr. Miller indicates that yes Lincoln was a politician and could be quite good at wheeling and dealing. However, he never engaged in back room negotiations without first taking into account all angles and ramifications, and would never attempt to promote anything totally dishonest. We would describe Lincoln today as a man who was tough but fair. He sought compromise and took into account the possible "fruits" of whatever he was proposing. He was not an absolutist. He realized that the real world was a prism with shades of gray. He was never capricious, as he researched and pondered deeply all his beliefs and subsequent actions. Like any human being he was not perfect and because of his legend it is easy to fall into thinking that he was saint like. He was a truly good-hearted man, who was keenly intelligent and insightful. When our country was at war with itself his steadfastness at the helm and magnaminity he showed towards the Confederates ("with malice toward none") serve as an example of true leadership. His being an American icon is well deserved. Thank you, Mr. President.

William Lee Miller's book Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography proves Abraham Lincoln was a most unique individual an
ethical politician. Miller introduces the Lincoln as he lived and breathe and Lincoln lived and breathe politics. Lincoln's practice of politics is familiar to us because it was partisan, compromising as well as searching for consenus and individual distinction.
Lincoln the politician seems commmon, it is his ethical quality on the rub of a matter which is outstanding. For Lincoln there was more to poltics than winning elections. There were larger issues of life to be effected by law and politics. Miller points out Lincoln achieved his moral basis from no individual but from the reading of books such as the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, biographies of Washington and Shakespeare.
Miller indicates that in Lincoln's early political career the larger issue was the rise of the common man which Lincoln believed was best achieved by Henry Clay's Whig policies. Post-1854 Lincoln's moral issue was slavery. Lincoln recognized slavery was a moral issue and to present it politcally as a moral issue and not allow it to be presented as an economic issue clouded by the prejudice of the day as Lincoln's great political rival Douglas presented the slavery issue.
Miller presents Lincoln's strength of mind and in particular its ability to study and think an issue. His clear judgment balanced by a sincere sensitivity. This was best explained by Leonard Swett in the footnotes on p490 of Miller's book.
The best part of the book was the Stanton-Lincoln relationship on pp 410-426. Stanton began with disdain of Linclon but in working with Lincoln in the Civil War Stanton grew to respect Lincoln and be astonished by Lincoln's work. Miller points out the lack of vindictiveness in Lincoln and contrasts that with 20th century American Presidents. The ethical biography of Lincoln shows the gift to the Amercian people the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln was at our most crucial time.
This excellent and fresh biography of Lincoln shows he transcended his times and was a product of his times. He was a great man whose example gives us hope that an ethical politician is not and should not be an oxymoron.

This is a very scholarly work on the development of Lincoln's ethics as a man and a politician. The book is a deep study of Lincoln's writings and influences, the books he read, the candidates (Henry Clay) that he favored and the influences in his life such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I would recommend for those unfamiliar with the detail of Lincoln's life to read a primer as Miller brings forth information in such detail that the reader has to have more than a baseline of familiarity with Lincoln. As a scholar, Miller uses some phrases and language that reflect my limited education and caused me to occasionally keep a dictionary near by. I found that midway through the book that this need was less so.

In summary, the author notates the severe disadvantages that Lincoln had with a large and poor family, little schooling and s little opportunity for higher education and without the finer things in life such as well fitted clothing that must have caused more attention to Lincolns height and ungainly lean look. In spite of any set backs caused by losing future elections, even in cases where Lincoln had the inside track such as the Senate vote of 1855, Lincoln maintains a humility along with a sincere interest in staying on the high ground ethically. As Miller points out through extensive study of Lincoln's history, writings and course of study, Miller does well to describe the development of Lincoln's virtues. Miller notes that Lincoln is not politically naïve, he starts out an as industrious politician dealing with matters of economy but also graduates as a leading member of the Whig Party in his State and eventually a leader of the Republican Party. Lincoln is astute in that he disagrees with the Know Nothings but instead of criticizing them waits for their collapse so that their better followers may enjoin the new Republican Party. Miller frames Lincoln's successfully arguments about the evils of slavery and the intent of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Miller points out that Douglas and the growing State of Illinois gave Lincoln a National platform to espouse his views. After reading the passages from the debates (Lincoln initially engineers), I see Lincoln's argument more clearly that the Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty was absolutely wrong in that the Act allowed a small population to determine a national issue about the expansion of slavery into the territories. Miller also notes that Lincoln in his time stressed that slavery was wrong in clear, logical arguments with a point that anyone at anytime could be enslaved but his best argument was simply, that it was wrong and in violation of the Declaration of Independence. I am most impressed with not only Lincoln's stand against slavery, irregardless of his occasional carefulness about equality of the races for those times, but his strident ability to defend his position and impress those that heard him speak. His Humility is incredulous that he does not make those that defeated him or snubbed him his enemies but enlists them for the betterment of his party and the installation of his national Government. My favorite passage in the book deals with Stanton's initial meeting with Lincoln, where Lincoln is virtually used as a local boy for a case in his State but never taken serious as a true partner in the case. Lincoln later has no deliberation in later making Stanton his Secretary of War. Lincoln was not condescending to those that disagreed with him, he recognized that differences in geography and environment made men think differently but not necessarily evil. I agree with Miller, that the second Inaugural was his greatest speech, only Lincoln after four years of war could say "with malice toward none".

I am not a Linguist, but this book helped me to appreciate all of the differing theories and various fields within what is known as linguistics. If you are seeking a book that is simple to read, yet very comprehensive, I recommend this volume. If you enjoy languages, speech development, regional dialects, language acquisition, theory of language, language trends, and more - this book is for you.

Major disciplines coverd include: phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also included in this new addition are new chapters on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.

One of the best features of this text is how well it is laid out. It is a pleasure to peruse and even study because of it's logical and user friendly format.

If you love anything about language- whether knowing it's origins, or what part of the mouth is used to create certain sounds, or how language changes over time and for what reasons, or a host of other curiosities, you will certainly enjoy the wealth of information within Contemporary Linguistics!

"Contemporary Linguistics" (CL) is a wonderfully clear and accessible introduction to the field of linguistics. The authors begin by introducing the methodological assumptions that underlie present day Chomskyan linguistics and then reserve a chapter each for almost all major research directions within linguistics.

One thing in particular that I liked about the format of CL was the treatment of more advanced material (marked "Advanced") in each chapter. The "Advanced" sections augment the material in the rest of the chapter and are placed in logical sequence with the rest of the material instead of appearing in an appendix at the end of the chapter. For example, a section marked "advanced" on X' (read X-bar) Theory appears fairly early in the syntax chapter. Having some knowledge of X' Theory allows the reader to proceed to examine the rest of the material with the knowledge that there exists an intermediate level of structure between lexical categories (N, V, ...) and phrasal categories (NP, VP, ...).

Most chapters in CL are pretty well written and technical tools to treat linguistic phenomena are almost always introduced at the correct juncture. However, CL does not treat Innateness properly (why Innateness and arguments for and against Innateness), and has a weak chapter on semantics. The reader would do well to augment the material in CL by reading Pinker's "The Language Instinct" or Jackendoff's "Patterns in the Mind" for a non-technical introduction to some ideas in linguistics, as well as sections of De Swart's "Intro to Natural Language Semantics" to get an idea of how semantics is done. If the reader is interested in looking at language from a cognitive science perspective, she would also do well to read most of Gleitman et al's "An Invitation to Cognitive Science: Language".

All in all, CL provides a relatively painless initiation into linguistics and I highly recommend it.

Speaking as a newcomer to the subject, I found this book to be an excellent intro. Very useful.