After the concise overview of the dynamic changes in samurai warfare over the centuries, Turnbull rewards the reader with informational case studies toward the end of the book. Although somewhat short on specific details and explanatory maps (maps at more frequent intervals during the campaign study would have been helpful), the strength of the book lies in its analysis of the specific construction of the hatamoto of certain daimyo. In addition, the analysis of the Battle of Anegawa (along with additional research by the reader) provides a good reference for scenario construction by gamers and hobbyists. Overall, Turnbull provides an inspirational resource.

With lavish illustrations and comprehensive text, "Samurai Warfare" by Dr. Stephen Turnbull gives the reader an overveiw of Japans elite soldier caste from the earliest use of the term to the advent of gun powder in Samurai warfare.
For those just delving into this ancient and mystic age in Japans history, Samurai Warfare offers the reader an easy to understand primer in the history of those responsible for enforcing the will of the Emporer and Nobles

Although very brief, and covering a lot of ground, this book takes a new look at some familiar topics (familiar to students of Japanese military history, that is!). There are some fascinating surprises here, such as the Kuniyoshi illustration of a samurai musketeer with a rather ominous-looking gun and sashimono. The color reproductions of key paintings are extremely detailed and sharp.

I've found this a useful introduction, but as I delve into the topic as covered by other authors and even by Turnbull's later publications, I discover numerous errors and important omissions.

The section on samurai personalities would be an extremely useful source if it weren't so brief. The information on each individual is often so short as to omit critically important facts.

The section on battles and sieges is also a useful section as an overview.

NOTE: The dates given for events are only accurate to the year as Turnbull has translated lunar calendar dates directly over. The 13th day of the fourth month of the year 1592 (May 24th) becomes "13 April 1592". Keep this in mind if you reference these dates against other works.

The Samurai Sourcebook is made as a reference book consisting of the following chapters: an outline samurai history, personalities and heraldry, arms and armour, strategy and tactics, battles and sieges, case studies and miscellanea. It also contains some useful maps and index. The Sourcebook is quite helpful in studying Japanese medieval history. The author, Steven Turnbull, is a well-known writer on the subject and the Sourcebook, as well as other books by him, is well researched and written and is an easy read both by itself (especially case studies and strategies section) and as a supplement to other books.
However, a word of caution: those who look for a serious in-depth research will be disappointed. This book does not state such goal, it was created for easy reference. But, to say only that would also be not a complete picture. Strategies and warcraft are given a well researched presentation. Various aspects of warcraft including castle building and their use in control of newly acquired territorial possessions, use of single combat and various types of arms, communication on battlefield and types and components of armour are described in good (for a layman, at least) detail.
Case studies are very well presented and provide useful information on Mongol invasions, Hideyoshi's campaigns against sohei (or warrior monks in lay language), Shimabara rebellion and some other important subjects. In addition, one will find such interesting and not-so-often described subjects as description of battle formations, various lucky and unlucky signs (found in faces of slain warriors!), classification of samurai exploits in battles and much more.
I would highly recommend the Sourcebook to those interested in samurai history.

Excellent source of information. This book has helped me put key people and places together with times. Superb reading and study material. Dr. Turnbull has made learning fun and interesting.

Arnhem 1944: Operation 'Market Garden' (Campaign, No 24) by Stephen Badsey is a better than adequate description of the nuts and bolts of Operation Market Garden. The maps are informative and the prose do give one a better than basic knowledge of the military movements and counter movements. If one is simply looking for a narrative of troop movements then this is an excellent book.

Where the book fails is in the discussion of the multitude of errors that went into the planning and excution of the Operation. It was a campaign that was begun as much as a result of Montgomery's desire to be the one to win the war and not be bested by the Americans and Patton, as by military necessity. Once began, the British ignored the advise of the local resistance, utilized tactics that played into the strength of the Nazi resisters, and were too ambitious. This is not to mention the intelligence failures that convinced the Allies that they would be facing second rate worn out units.

All in all, Market Garden is a case study of what should not be done. Not only did it lead to the needless deaths, but it took vital resources away from the Patton's Third Army where they could have been put to better use and resulted in ending the war sooner.

This book is a fine suppliment to the Movie version of the operation. With the excellent maps, which are included, it clarifies the entire campaign. It should be reviewed in concert with the film. Many details are included which are available to the British author and which tend to explain the action and outcome. It is enjoyab;e reading and quite informative to someone who has not delved deeply into the details of the operation.

Recommended for all who have a perepheral interest in the subject, as well as one who is already quite knowlegeble of it.

This might be "heresy" but the point of history is to learn something; this book does something that all the many other books on Arnhem fail to do; it arrives at the truth. Most other books bitterly complain about how the British 3-D Airborne forces were dropped too far from the bridge, or how if provided better transportation means like light armored fighting vehicles (my view) and folding bikes, or if the 2-D forces had been more vigorous they could have linked up, gotten to the Rhine River bridge and the battle would have been "won". But this book sets the record straight.

When a portion of the British Airborne marched towards Arnhem, they could have taken the ferry but did not (not in their orders)and went past the railroad bridge that was blown up. Had they had better "situational awareness" they could have taken and kept the ferry. But this book goes a step further---so what?

The point of penetrating into Arnhem was to get across the Rhine river and run wild in the German industrial regions and smash war machinery and deprive the enemy with the means to continue fighting. But to do a "Sherman march" like this, these areas had to be undefended. That opportunity simply was not there. The Germans had compressed their lines of supply/communication and were defending in depth. So if we had kept the bridge or the ferry across the Rhine, we would have only been stopped on the other side by the Germans. THAT----is what is not understood by most people especially after seeing the superb but not quite accurate film, "A Bridge too Far" by Cornelius Ryan. Those that label Operation Market-Garden as a "failure" fail themselves to realize that what it sought--a collapse of the enemy from the inside---was not possible against a nation on a desperate total war footing, so such negative labeling is unjustified.

I'm all in favor of Airborne units receiving light AFVs in order to effect off-set DZ insertions, if there was a "time machine" I'd go back and have Hamilcar gliders deliver Bren gun APCs and Locust M22/Tetrarch light tanks that existed at the time. I'd have some of Gavin's 82d Airborne drop directly onto the south of Arnhem bridge to support the British 1st Airborne driving across from the north in the Bren gun carriers/Locust/Tetrarch light tanks. I'd had Patton temporarily in charge of the 2-D dash up to Arnhem bridge. He'd have better, medium-sived tanks and aPCs that could swim themselves across and not need bridges in the first place. But at the end of the day, we'd be stopped on the far side of the bridge or the river bank by the Germans, a 50 mile penetration, definately worth doing, but a STRATEGIC AIM of driving unhindered into Germany to collapse their infrastructure was not possible at that time. This book explains this like no other work, and places it in a must-read category--if you don't read it you simply will not understand the battle and will be subject to the cliches' and labeling. When you understand this, you will remove your disappointment in the leaders at that time for not pursuing further. The truth is XXX Corps could have punched its way through to Arnhem bridge but the Commanders knew that there was no strategic vaccum behind it to exploit that would justify the human costs. A lot of hard fighting stood ahead of the Allies at this point.

Airborne!

Batchelor, a convert from Tibetan to Zen Buddhism (assuming he hasn't converted again since), is one of the more interesting Western authors on Buddhism. This work surveys the history of contacts between Buddhist persons and schools as they were both visited by Westerners and came themselves to visit the West. It comes in five sections. Most people seem to like the final two, as they deal with contacts made in modern times, but a lot of this is covered better in Clarke's Oriental Enlightenment. The first three segments, however, are a fascinating overview of some surprising encounters that are not widely known. Did you know there's evidence of a Greek ruler discussing philosophy with a Buddhist monk a couple hundred years before Christ? How about Buddhist traders plying their trade across the Middle East into Egypt before and during the time of the Early Church? Or Catholics and Buddhists squaring off in the court of the Khans in Medieval Central Asia? Who knew? Most of the book, however, is a tradition by tradition account of how Buddhism came largely to Europe. Another book, How The Swans Came To The Lake, compliments it by telling the story in North America. I have two main reservations. First, some modern figures are given short shift because, even though they were popular, they didn't represent the best Buddhist teachings. As a history, however, they should reflect their social importance. Second, given that this is an encounter with the West, and Christianity is the major Western religion, Batchelor could be better informed on the history and theology of that religion. A fair number of his statements in connection to it are not well considered. Either way, this work is, over-all, great arm-chair travel for the reader interested in Buddhist history.

Batchelor does a great job documenting the history of Buddhism, and how it came to the West. More specifically, Western Europe (UK, Germany, Poland) although he does give some attention to the United States, and Eastern Europe (the former USSR). It is a bit too detailed at times on the early history 100-1300AD, and less focused on more recent events. This early history does detail the fascinating ways that Greek and Christian explorers described Eastern religions (idolatry), and tried to convert them to Christianity. He includes the biographies of a diverse set of Buddhism's early advocates (Shantideva, Padmasambhava, Karmapa, Dogen, Nichiren, Tsongkhapa), and the lineages that they founded. He also describes the impact that some notable figures had on Buddhism's westward spread, including Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Marco Polo. As in his other books, Batchelor is very pragmatic, and willing to point out Buddhism's weaknesses, and describe the politics that were intertwined with the advocacy of the Dharma. A very interesting read that contains a lot of information not found in other books and publications.

Batchelor hits a home run with this text. The narrative device of contrasting Asian and Western personalities who were key to the interplay between Buddhism and European cultures makes this book easy to get hooked into. It almost reads like an adventure novel in places, and the doctrinal and historical perspectives are well written and balanced. This book starts with the ancient Greeks of Alexander's empire and traces the seemingly willy-nilly encounters through the millennia. Batchelor's best, most inspiring book, it did not get the attention it deserved when it was issued.

In a calm and essayish sort of way, unbeholden to footnotes or fellow scholars, unbound by strict organization, he takes up some of the most difficult and persistent issues of the modern Middle East - the demographic and economic base, authoritarianism, pan-Arabism, "crazy states," military dictatorship, the role of Islam in politics - and analyzes them with intelligence and insight. Musing on three decades plus of studying the Middle East, Humphreys dares to assert the truths that so many of his fellow academics neglect, though he does so in the gentlest and most constructive manner. He takes up many themes; here is one, the dominant role of military dictatorship. Autocracy, Humphreys establishes, is the region's deepest and perhaps oldest dilemma. Already the warlords who quite rapidly took over from the Prophet Muhammad's successors lacked a sense of lawfulness. In the era A.D. 850-1250, for example, the "crucial political problem" facing those warlords was legitimacy - "some convincing reason (beyond brute force) why his subjects should obey him and his rivals should respect his right to exist." Sound familiar? It should, for the Middle East, the world's least democratic region, still grapples with the same demons (and they have names like Qadhdhafi, Asad, and Saddam). Middle Eastern populations, whether centuries ago or today, respond to this unhappy reality by withdrawing their allegiance from the authorities and turning instead for solace in the realms of religion and family life. This leads to a peculiar but widespread situation in which "Arab societies seem to regard their governments as an alien entity; they endure them, and they wait for them to go away." Trouble is, that stability becomes an end itself and has a fiercesome price. The preoccupation with staying in power means other goals - economic development, civil society, cultural florescence - are sacrificed. Take economics, where warlordism turns out to be the single greatest obstacle to advancement: "Only governments that enjoy the confidence of their citizens," Humphreys rightly observes, "can really take the steps needed" to enable growth. The Arabic-speaking countries not enjoying civil society, the rule of law, or many of the basic freedoms, they are falling ever-further behind in the brutally efficient global marketplace: "not one Middle Eastern state (with the partial exception of Turkey and of course Israel) has followed the only economic growth strategy that has worked since World War II - namely the export-oriented production of high-value-added manufactures." As a result, "there is not one Middle Eastern manufactured item that can be sold competitively on world markets."

Middle East Quarterly, December 1999

Most of the books on the modern Middle East have axes to grind, and this book, say professors Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, is the notable exception. Stephen Humphreys is one the HUGE names in Islamic history, and extremely well-respected academician at the University of California. His book is extremely readable and extremely unbiased. It portrays an intelligent picture of that part of the world that is still perceived very strangely by the many people outside it....

So much of the Middle East today is the result of recent history, and it's important to understand that history for any kind of modern understanding. This is one of the best books out there for gaining understanding of that history.

Most of the books on the modern Middle East have axes to grind, and this book, say professors Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, is the notable exception. Stephen Humphreys is one the HUGE names in Islamic history, and extremely well-respected academician at the University of California. His book is extremely readable and extremely unbiased. It portrays an intelligent picture of that part of the world that is still perceived very strangely by the many people outside it. (By the way, the previous reviewer, Daniel Pipes, is part of the same organization as Martin Kramer, who advocated removal of funding for Middle East Studies Programs. Pipes himself has just set up a McCarthyan website in which he keeps "dossiers" of any professors who might be sympathetic toward Islam and the Middle East and in which he urges students to report others. He's hardly objective.)

So much of the Middle East today is the result of recent history, and it's important to understand that history for any kind of modern understanding. This is one of the best books out there for gaining understanding of that history.

Surely, we can't talk and think enough
about the state of mankind!
But these are hazardous waters! Where should we begin
and where do we want to go from there? So, Having
Gould and Eco as guides seems like a clever start!

According to the book, the hebrew language has
no exact present tense?? The infinitely brief, the
very essense of the present, is not to be found - it
can be neither fixed, nor measured. It is therefore
completely justifiable, grammaticale speaking,
to leave out the present?

Yet, obviously, it is from the present we look at the
past and towards the future.
Stephen Jay Gould is always a pleasure to listen to -
and the right one to put time into perspective.
For a palaeontologist, like Gould, 7000 years
(timespand of human culture) is really no more than
the twinkling of an eye. So all we know is really in
the present - which hardly exist!

From this position we look out into concepts like
the eternity - which we obviously really can't grasp.
And into ourselfes were e.g. DNA was discovered as recently
as 1953. Mystery upon mystery.
So, we struggle to discover instances of regularity and
to fit them together with the help of stories. We throw
in a little religion "were religions do not
ask questions, they answer them". Still we are far
removed from any real "understanding".

And that is what these conversations are about.
With Umberto Eco and Stephen Jay Gould - it is
of course an ok read. But only an appetizer.

-Simon

Conversations About the End of Time is a a discussion of questions and answers given by four thinkers. Stephen Jay Gould, Umberto Eco, Jean-Claude Carriere and Jean Delumeau all answer questions and are given a chapter in this book to espouse their respective answers.

Just think of a coffee table discussion, of a one on one discussion and you get to read the answers on questions of import. Each answering these questions with their respective insights and down-to-earth style. Each having their respective life experiences to draw from to unravel perplexing questions.

With fascination you read the thought-provoking answers. The answers will suprise some, others may be right inline with what you'd expect, but nerver boring... challenging, educational, lucid and erudite are more what you'd expect and you are not dissapointed.

This book reads fast and the questions are cogent with the general topic. Each respective thinker answers in a style of their own and the reader does not feel irrelevant. This is an interesting book in that questions asked make the reader think as well.

I found the book to be highly interesting and it has a fascination woven throughout the text captivating the reader.

---------- ----------

I'm talking about that Darwinian theory of Natural Selection you keep telling as if it were true. It is "differential reproductive success". So then that means I need at least 2 different things to call some event NS. So then I ask myself what do these 2 different things have to do with each other? So then I say well either they influence each other's reproduction some way, or they could as well be in different environments. So they must influence each other's reproduction some way. So then I ask, what ways can the one influence the reproduction of the other?

+/- increase reproduction at cost of the other +/+ mutual increase of each other's reproduction -/- mutual decrease of each other's reproduction +/0 and so on -/0 0/0

but what you do, is pretend like there are only +/- relationships. You ignore all other type of relationships with NS. Your natural selection theory is false, for being unsystematic in describing the relationships between living beings. You make teachers into liars by it.

My first impression, upon picking up this biography of Edmund White, was that the Stephen Barber's writing is terribly over-wrought -- the introduction of the book, in which Barber tries to explain White's importance to contemporary literature, is some of the purplest prose I've read in a long time.

But Barber's writing improves markedly when he begins telling the story of White's life. The most interesting aspect of the book, to me, is Barber's descriptions of White's early fictional efforts, and his writing habits; you'll read about the novel White wrote in high school; you'll learn that White was often drunk or stoned when he wrote his early novels, and that even to this day White generally limits himself to writing a few pages per day in the expensive blank books he purchases from a Paris stationer. You'll read about White's encounters with writers as diverse as Michel Foucault, Vladimir Nabokov (who named White as one of his favorite young novelists, much to White's surprise), and Michael Ondaatje (whose own writing habits are similar to White's). Your impression, gleaned from White's novels, that he is an extremely decent person who is quite fallible but gifted with an immense talent, will be confirmed by Barber's account. Also surprising is Barber's description of how sexually voracious White was from a very early age. Apparently White felt the need to tone down his self-depiction in "A Boy's Own Story," to make his character seem more representative of typical adolescents.

In summary, this is a worthy biography of White, once you get past the somewhat amateurish writing style (which is why I'm giving it only four stars). But you shouldn't order it unless you're very interested in White -- otherwise, you will learn enough about White from his own novels.

Edmund White: The Burning World, by Stephen Barber

Edmund White's iconic status within a gay ethos extends far beyond those defined boundaries to his acceptance by the literary world as one of the major writers of our times. White's elegantly stylised novels, each employing a language particular to a time and place, as well as his non-fiction preoccupations as biographer to Genet and Proust, have led to the creation of an integral body of work. White's writings are as individual as they are vital to our reading of mortality in the late 20th century.

Stephen Barber's exceptionally well-pitched critical biography of White is both a work of literary merit and the ideal companion to its subject's life and achievements. Barber has for several years been one of our best critical writers on the nature of the modern city. The Burning World is creative criticism at its best, and Barber's understanding of the city and its sensations as determining creative language is central to his thesis on White's fiction.

During his formative writing years in a 1960's New York, White wrote five unpublished novels before Forgetting Elena was accepted for publication in 1972. Barber interestingly points to Fire Island being the inspirational site to this work, and to White's obsession with islands in general as representing the precinct in which to set a novel. Two more of his books, Nocturnes For The King of Naples, and Caracole, were to be less specifically identified with place, but to occupy undisclosed insular settings.

Barber rightly sees White's first four novels, with their rich textured poetic prose, as 'a unique document of the imagination in its compulsive interaction with the human body.' It was the third of these books, A Boy's Own Story 1982, which won White not only critical acclaim but a confirmed gay readership.

Crucial to Barber in the development of White as a person and writer was his move to Paris in 1983, the city in which he continues to live and write for half of each year. White, who was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985, for a while considered his death to be imminent. Yet he found Paris sufficiently psychologically regenerative to encourage him to form new relationships, and to write new books. One of these was the elegiac The Beautiful Room Is Empty, a novel in which White first employed the medium of stripped down communicative prose which he continues to use today.

Another legacy of White's Paris years, begun in 1986 and completed seven years later was his monumental 700 page study of the French writer and criminal Jean Genet. Barber is profoundly insightful on White's grand Genet biography, and provides an illuminating commentary on the interactive chemistry triggered by one great writer overhauling the other's complex and elusive life.

Barber sensitively highlights White's most enduring relationships, including the one with Hubert Sorin, whose death from AIDS in 1993 was to leave White devastated. White's ability to keep on endlessly recreating himself, and adapting to the survival measures necessary for a gay man to outlive an AIDS generation, proves the pivot on which Barber's study rests.

This is a book to be recommended, not only to Edmund White's many readers, but to those who care for the valency of a new critical language finding its rapport with a constantly exciting subject.

Jeremy Reed

This is a great literary biography. It combines solid research into the life and work of Edmund White, one of the most imaginative and passionate gay writers of the last half century, with the kind of human touches that bring biography alive. Stephen Barber moves effortlessly from White's life to his work and back again, painting a fascinating portrait not only of White's own adventures and career, but providing the reader with profound insights into the bigger picture of gay life and culture in America and Paris, from Stonewall to AIDS and beyond. The discussion of White's writing stays fresh and relevant to his literary ideals and the context of his life - it makes you want to go back and read his books all over again. The book is also fairly balanced - it avoids taking sides in the bitter debates that have raged over what gay male culture and identity should be, and instead tries to present a range of different perspectives and possibilities. Readable, entertaining, informative and thought-provoking - I highly recommend this book.

This book is the second of five (so far) from the Osprey's Men-At-Arms Series on "German Army". The other four are:-

MAA 311 The German Army 1939-45 (1) Blitzkrieg;

MAA 326 The German Army 1939-45 (3) Eastern Front 1941-43;

MAA 330 The German Army 1939-45 (4) Eastern Front 1943-45;

MAA 336 The German Army 1939-45 (5) Western Front 1943-45.

These books basically cover the German Army uniform and rank insignia of specific time and place during WW2. Each book includes 30 to 40 b/w photographs of German soldiers in different types of uniform. There are also 8 pages of colour-plates in each book depicting the uniforms in colour. Since I own all five books, I observed that the drawing skill of Stephen Andrew improving gradually over the years.

These books are by no means a comprehensive account of the uniform of the German Army during WW2. However, the contents(text, photos and colour-plates) are excellent source of reference materials for modelling enthusiasts focusing on WW2 German Army.

This review applies to all five books.

This work is a splendid example of the new emphasis of the publisher on producing comprehensive works in a handy cheap format compared with the earlier broad brush treatments which covered too much in too little detail.
The new emphasis is on sets covering various national armed forces in as much detail as is available, consistent with the current purpose of the works in the series, which have evolved from an original emphasis on serving the military miniature maker market into works intended to enlighten the general reader in enough detail to satisfy the merely curious and to point the way to further reading.
Most of us, including myself, have little need for, or the patience to read, voluminous studies, often in foreign languages, covering many eras and nations. My main interest is in the US forces, their allies and their enemies in the twentieth century.
That said, these works should be purchased as presented, in sets within the series. Since they are produced as a set, the volumes cover only relevent parts of the general history and the clothing and individual equipment is covered as it appears in each period. The French Army, US Army, British Army, and Italian Army series all have three volumes, covering the major theatres and time periods of the war. The German set has five.
The German Army set should be read in conjunction with many other individual volumes covering their allies and opponents and the other German fighting forces such as the Waffen SS, and the Parachute units, which were part of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.
If you want an introduction to the fascinating variety of clothing and equipment of the forces covered, this set is for you.

This work is a splendid example of the new emphasis of the publisher on producing comprehensive works in a handy cheap format compared with the earlier broad brush treatments which covered too much in too little detail.
The new emphasis is on sets covering various national armed forces in as much detail as is available, consistent with the current purpose of the works in the series, which have evolved from an original emphasis on serving the military miniature maker market into works intended to enlighten the general reader in enough detail to satisfy the merely curious and to point the way to further reading.
Most of us, including myself, have little need for, or the patience to read, voluminous studies, often in foreign languages, covering many eras and nations. My main interest is in the US forces, their allies and their enemies in the twentieth century.
That said, these works should be purchased as presented, in sets within the series. Since they are produced as a set, the volumes cover only relevent parts of the general history and the clothing and individual equipment is covered as it appears in each period. The French Army, US Army, British Army, and Italian Army series all have three volumes, covering the major theatres and time periods of the war. The German set has five.
The German Army set should be read in conjunction with many other individual volumes covering their allies and opponents and the other German fighting forces such as the Waffen SS, and the Parachute units, which were part of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.
If you want an introduction to the fascinating variety of clothing and equipment of the forces covered, this set is for you.

I read Stephen Dorril's account with some dismay. Far from a balanced treatment of MI6's impact on the Cold War, Dorril drops one suggestion after another pointing at the West as instigator of the Cold War. Amazingly, Dorrill treats the presence of Philby, McClean and other Soviet spies in MI6 as normal, as if a diversity of views should take precendence over the destructive effect Philby had on MI6/CIA activity and morale.
This book portrays the Soviets as "victims" of Western treachery or buffoonery, a thesis that is itself a nice work of propaganda.
Nevertheless, Dorril presents events that are factual, albeit framed to suit his goal of painting MI6 as a prime cause of the Cold War. Dorril frequently omits relevant information about similar or related Soviet activity, and selectively quotes protagonists to place them in the worst possible light. He has little to say about Soviet concentration camp atrocities (which spanned two decades) or Russian political intimidation and murder in Eastern Europe after the Second World War -- facts that inconveniently undermine his thesis.

As others have said more eloquently than I. However, it is worth repeating (or at least speaking up about it) the fact that the conclusions reached by the author are the worst kind of historical reconstruction.

The Soviet Union is presented as more of a victim of the west rather than a primary cause of what the author would have you believe they were a victim of.

According to the author, the Cold War was the fault of the west, we were the bad guys. As most who have even barely studied history know, things are seldom that black and white. The author poses his theory without ever mentioning all the offenses and atrocities commited by the Soviet Union which gave the west good reason to be deeply concerned.

If you have read Venona or any other more balanced works, you will see this book for what it is and take the facts for what they are worth and leave the subtle attempt at indoctrination out of the picture.

Anyone interested in 20th century world history simply has to read this work. I personally have no interest in 'spycraft' but found (finally!) a truthful and complete accounting of UK/US imperialism and plain thuggery. Believe readers interested in a better understanding of the past and current situtation in the Middle East will, in particular, be fascinated (and disgusted with the decades of Western dastardly deeds and misinformation).

This kind of "realisitc" advice for the workplace has not been assembled in one location before-- because few thoughtful people wanted to wallow in the psychic cesspool of the corporate workplace. This book is filled with information on what to avoid-- if you expect to keep your sanity and stay human.

On the other hand, if you want to trade your soul for a parking space and a corner cubicle, buy it.

Viscusi knows the way of the workplace, and his advice is always insightful and to the point. There are great strategies here for how to think about your work life (and he convinces it is a work life, separate from your other life), so that you're sane both on and off the job, and so that you're positioned to make the most of job/career every day. A must-have for anyone starting a new job, whether entering work for the first time or re-entering after change of career or time off.

The best career coach $... can buy. A great read w/ captivating side bars. Never got boring. I'm buying them for everyone who is graduating from college, and graduate school. As important as "What Color Is My Parachute" was at its time.